Monthly Archives: December 2007

Tomorrow is New Year’s Day, the most popular day for making resolutions, so I planned to write a long post about new year’s resolutions – how to make them, how to keep them, and why bother. About how to eat better, to exercise more, to nag less, to have more fun, to have closer friendships, to sing in the morning … →

Not long ago, I had an epiphany – happiness projects for everyone! Join in! No need to catch up, just jump in now. Each Friday’s post will help you think about your own happiness project. January 1, the most inspiring opportunity for resolution-making, is just a few days away. You can start a happiness project with just one resolution – … →

One of the great pleasures of vacation is getting to do some serious reading. I often develop a weird, irrational aversion to books that are very popular. I understand that it doesn’t make sense that I think I’m LESS likely to like a book that millions of people like, but somehow that sometimes happens. So it was with Ann Patchett’s … →

In honor of Christmas, and inspired by my love of making New Year’s resolutions (well, I love making resolutions anytime, actually), I resolve not to say anything critical of the Big Man to anyone — other than to the Big Man himself, and I’m going to try to resist doing that, too. But no behind-the-back complaining, barbs masked as jokes, … →

Not long ago, I had an epiphany – happiness projects for everyone! Join in! No need to catch up, just jump in now. Each Friday’s post will help you think about your own happiness project. One thing is absolutely clear: a key to happiness is having close relationships with other people. Everyone, even introverts, are happier when they interact with … →

The other day, on the subject of “YOUR Happiness Project,” I posted about trying to cultivate an “area of refuge” for your mind – that is, when you feel yourself beginning to brood, wrench your thoughts away to think about happier subjects. Along those lines, I’ve been making a list of scenes from movies where I felt a big jolt … →

Every Wednesday is Tip Day. This Wednesday: Twelve tips to avoid seeming like an arrogant, know-it-all jerk. I’ve been doing thinking a lot about the qualities of pride and humility. A lot of people go through the motions of being humble, but you really have to mean it. A few months ago, I sat next to a guy I didn’t … →

As a special surprise for me, the Big Man rented Junebug last night; he knows it’s one of my favorite movies. We watched it for the first time last July, and I was struck by Happiness-Project-y it was. It’s all about the nature of happiness, and love, and many other things as well. Seeing it for the second time was … →

According to the Second Splendid Truth, One of the best ways to make myself happy was to make other people happy. One of the best ways to make other people happy was to be happy myself. It follows, then, that one way we can make other people happy is to share our own occasions for happiness. I was struck by … →

“To attain something desired is to discover how vain it is; and…though we live all our lives in expectation of better things, we often at the same time long regretfully for what is past. The present, on the other hand, is regarded as something quite temporary and serving only as the road to our goal. That is why most men … →

Not long ago, I had an epiphany – happiness projects for everyone! Join in! No need to catch up, just jump in now. Each Friday’s post will help you think about your own happiness project. One thing I’ve noticed with my own Happiness Project is the power of making all sorts of lists. I’ve become zealous about keeping a to-do … →

Just testing to see if this link works. Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill I’d welcome any feedback on whether this link works properly or not. Thanks!

As part of the Happiness Project, I’ve done a lot of thinking about the nature of generosity and gifts. I’ve always been fascinated by gift exchange – in particular, potlatch. It was my preoccupation with potlatch that eventually led me to write Profane Waste. But although I’m intellectually interested in the impulse toward gift-giving, I don’t like gift-giving much, myself. … →

Every Wednesday is Tip Day, or Quiz Day. This Wednesday: A quiz–Are you an over-buyer or an under-buyer? I love a good self-diagnosis quiz. What kind of clutterer are you? Are you organized or disorganized? Are you at risk for dropping out of your exercise program? Here’s a new quiz that you can take to determine whether you belong in … →

One of my resolutions is “Make a joke of it.” This is an incredibly difficult resolution to keep, but it really works when I can pull it off. (Which is rare, I have to admit, but I’m trying.) I was reminded of this resolution when I came across the “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks. From now on, instead of getting … →

Years ago, the Big Man and I fixed up a very close friend with another friend. They fell in love, it was great. But within a few years, he got sick. She stood by him through it all. Then he died. It was awful. And it was very, very hard on our friend. It was a sad situation for many … →

“One of the great differences between childhood and manhood is that we come to like our work more than our play. It becomes to us if not the chief pleasure at least the chief interest of our lives, and even when it is not this, an essential condition of our happiness. Few lives produce so little happiness as those that … →

Not long ago, I had an epiphany – happiness projects for everyone! Join in! No need to catch up, just jump in now. Each Friday’s post will help you think about your own happiness project. Here’s this Friday’s assignment: Show up. Just as Woody Allen said that “Eighty percent of success is showing up,” about eighty percent of relationships is … →

A thoughtful reader emailed me a link to a post on Kate Harding’s blog, Shapely Prose, called The Fantasy of Being Thin. It’s a fascinating, thought-provoking post. Everyone should go read it, so I’m not going to write much here. Kate Harding makes several interesting arguments, but her key point is the tendency for people to think, “When I’m thin, … →

Every Wednesday is Tip Day. This Wednesday: Nine tips for lifting yourself out of the holiday blues. ’Tis the season to celebrate – and also the season to feel overwhelmed, lonely, angry, irritated, and rushed. Here are nine tips for keeping yourself feeling happy during the holiday period. 1. Get enough sleep. Turns out that, although it seems like a … →