Mindful Digital Life
I try as many days of the week as possible to begin my day outside. Having a dog in my life really helps me make this happen. That and knowing that I’ll be spending long hours at my desk, writing and responding to emails, working on various projects, meeting with team members, doing research, surfing the tsunami of daily news, all mediated through my laptop and various computer monitors, large and small. [Read more…] about Sometimes, we need to bring the outdoors inside…
In my June 8 post, I wrote about the REI report, The Path Ahead, and led in to the post with this quote from the report: “Without realizing it, we are becoming the world’s first indoor species. I’m revisiting The Path Ahead today and encouraging you to revisit it as well. I ended that post with a suggestion to consider how we might make some small, conscious tweaks in how we’re living this summer that will bump us more towards outdoor species than indoor species. Emphasis on small, conscious tweaks. [Read more…] about Emphasis on small, conscious tweaks
Summer. I still can’t quite believe sunrise here in the San Francisco Bay Area happens at around 5:45 am and sunset at 8:30 pm. The long days have arrived, and with them, an opportunity to consider just how we want to live with this summer of 2018. I keep coming back to the REI Report, The Path Ahead. It’s a document “…designed to provoke discussion by exploring nine ‘brutal truths’ juxtaposed with nine ‘beautiful possibilities.’”
One of the brutal truths presented is All Work/No Play. [Read more…] about Brutal truths & beautiful possibilities…
Nature is not a place to visit, it is home—and within that home territory there are more familiar and less familiar places.
Gary Snyder, The Practice of the Wild
When I was 20, I heard Gary Snyder read his poetry. I am not exaggerating when I say that hearing Gary Snyder read his poems aloud changed my life. He was the poet in residence at the University of Cincinnati. I was working as a young, idealistic educator in an experimental program for middle school students, and I was writing a fair amount of poetry. I hadn’t yet realized in my bones that poetry was an oral tradition. There on the stage before a crowd of hundreds of students, Gary sang his poetry and brought his stories of home alive. He has been a strong presence in my life ever since. I keep his newest book of poems, This Present Moment, with cover art by California artist Tom Killion and signed by Gary, right beside my bed. [Read more…] about Earth Day 2018: Nature is not a place to visit—it is Home
Trial and Error. For many parents, that’s our default, especially when it comes to conversations about technology, media, and devices. The problem with Trial and Error is that we’re often left with “Alas—that didn’t work!” at best, and at worst, blown trust levels and alienated kids which can take some time to repair. I prefer Experiment, Reflect, and Iterate when it comes to creating family technology conversations that lead to genuine insight and transformation. [Read more…] about How do you replace Trial and Error with Experiment, Reflect, and Iterate?
