I have a confession to make. This is only the second post I’ve written here on SMART Living 365 in six months.
For someone who almost religiously wrote a post every single week for over a decade—who has written seven books and hundreds of articles across the last 35 years—that silence has felt strange. A little unsettling, if I’m honest. And while I’ve been busy and enjoying my life, somewhere in the middle of these silent months, a question floated up that I haven’t been able to shake: When does a writer stop being a writer? [Read more…]
A couple of weeks ago Thom and I drove to our house in Southern California that we had called “home” for sixteen years. Even though we called that property home, we actually lived in Tucson, AZ for the last three winters while renting that “former home” temporarily. Then after that we only ended up staying there for a few days on and off the rest of the year. However, after straddling both homes for three years, we decided it was time to make the decision to pick one over the other. And in spite of the fact that the one in So Cal was over twice as big (plus a two-car garage) as the one in Tucson, we chose to permanently make our tiny home in Tucson our residence for the foreseeable future.
About fifteen years ago my husband Thom and I began using the word “rightsize” to describe the lifestyle that we started practicing. At the time, we felt a strong motivation to create a more simple and minimal existence. So that led us to taking the popular step that many people refer to as “downsizing.” We didn’t need such a big house and certainly didn’t need all the stuff that we had accumulated over the years. But rather than calling it downsizing (which implies sacrifice) we decided to call it “rightsizing”. Rather than a focus on giving up things, we took steps to eliminate everything that wasn’t adding joy and contentment to our lives. And naturally, it wasn’t just about getting rid of stuff we owned, it was mostly choosing to focus on the things that truly mattered to us. 
For my entire life I have avoided the very idea of suffering. It’s not that I don’t feel sympathy for others when I witness others going through challenging times, but as for me—nope! With the arrogance of youth, I remained convinced that even when things looked disastrous in my life, I could always work them out. Like Pollyanna, I didn’t deny bad things happen to good people, I just felt certain that with the right approach anything could be overcome. Then when I came upon the New Thought philosophy, it gave me the tools (or at least the narrative) about how to do just that. But you know what? I’m much older now and I can’t help but look around and notice that people are suffering through no apparent fault of their own. Sometimes, no matter what you do, stuff happens. And yes, if I’m honest, there have been times when I have suffered physically and mentally. Maybe that’s why when I came across Richard Rohr’s new book, The Tears of Things—Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage I knew there was something there for me to consider.
One of the advantages of being a writer for many years is that you have decades of writing to look back on as your age creeps upwards. I have been writing for over 40 years now and putting out articles on this blog for nearly 15. Through the years I have shared hundreds of ideas and curiosities with anyone who wanted to read along. Some of those thoughts I even put into books. At the same time I have been journalling for at least 30 years now so if anyone wanted to blackmail me, there is all the evidence they would need to judge me for my thoughts and actions. Fortunately, what’s most interesting at least to me, is that I can see how I have gradually grown and evolved through the years. So here are the top ten bits of wisdom I think I’ve gained the most. 
A few days ago as I was beginning my morning walk, my mind began churning through all the things I needed and wanted to get done that day. At the same time, I also remembered what I had neglected getting around to doing the day before—not to mention the week before. Then I knew it my thoughts began spiraling down that rabbit hole that many of us know too well. So, to distract myself, I grabbed my iPhone and started searching for a podcast to listen to as I walked One popped up on my screen titled something like, “Slow down and go with the flow in troubling times.” Just a few words into the podcast the author being interviewed said exactly what I needed to hear. He said, “We need to choose bliss over busy.”
