The Bloom

When I was a kid, more than one teacher said I was a daydreamer. They didn’t mean it as a compliment. It was their way of accusing me of lacking focus and having a wandering mind. And I did—it’s always been a little too easy for my thoughts to take off on a little meandering head trip of their own no matter what’s going on around me. I spent years worrying about it, convinced that I was a little too spacey for my own good and that I needed to really focus on focusing or there’d be trouble. After all,...

A few days ago, I was thinking out loud about setting a vision for my life and how the endpoint it starts with is the ultimate dream we have for ourselves. That dream is where I want to land. My vision is how I get there and what it looks like when I finally arrive. Simple enough, I guess. Except I’ve got dozens of dreams and not a single clue as to which one is the one. Is it my dream to be a writer? Or my dream to be a travel guru? My dream to open a vintage clothing...

The hunt for the healthiest possible me continues. And so far that quest is taking place at the salad bar. Because it’s farmer's market season, and salads are fresh. Salads are cheap. Salads are quick. But I gotta say… eat enough of them and salads are boring. The usual lettuce-tomato-onion-carrot-cucumber routine wilts quick. And while I know it’s about the best thing I can feed my body, my other less helpful self is screaming for something—anything—to break up the monotony. Forget dressings—that’s caloric fluff wrapped in a fat bomb. Croutons are carb cubes. And though I love those crispy little-fried...

It’s hard to be creative. I don’t mean that some of us aren’t because absolutely all of us are. I mean it’s hard to find the time to really open up to that side of ourselves and see where imagination can take us. For that, I need room to stretch out in a place without clocks and phones and all their demands. And most days, I just don’t have it, which is not okay with me.  I believe we should shoot for personal creativity in little ways throughout the day as a way to build a creative life when that life...