Might and Main Monday: Joseph Campbell
The idiom “with might and main,” is an old literary phrase that’s gradually dropped out of modern use. It translates to “with as much strength and effort as possible.” I kind of love it. It’s dramatic, it’s antique. I thought it was apt for how I could approach Mondays, similar to “seize the day.” Monday rings in a new week,…
Gretchen Rubin on How to Be a Better Person
Gretchen Rubin’s Better Than Before fits right in with The Cultivated Life principle: how to grow for the better. This warm, down-to-earth book tackles the subject of personal habits and how to master them. Habits are the architecture of our lives, Rubin says, and changing habits involves knowing your personality. This forces us to examine exactly who we are and how we…
4 Reasons Why I Love My Journal
I’ve always thought keeping a journal meant writing long passages of insight about your life and its meaning, a diary a la Anais Nin or The Artist’s Way that someday after you die would reveal who you secretly were. I’ve tried to do this in the past but it never stuck. But after reading Show Your Work, I’ve realized that…
Share What You Create From a Favorite Place
If you are a creator, chances are you want folks to see your work. Creative people know what I’m talking about. (Of course, we’re all creative in some way.) Yes, we paint, we write, we knit, we make stuff because it pleases us, because it sends us into a zone where we lose track of time, but we ultimately want…
Saturday Morning, the Most Hopeful Time of the Week
For many of us, Saturday morning is the first morning of the week where we wake up and have nowhere to go. We may go to the gym, but that’s our choice. We may drive a kid to an activity, but that’s our choice. If we tackle the weeds waiting in our yard, that’s also our choice. Saturday morning is…
Don’t Think Twice Is the Writer’s Journey Too
Last Saturday, I saw a movie about comedy that inspired me as a writer. It was Mike Birbiglia’s Don’t Think Twice, a sharply realistic yet sweet portrait of a New York improv group. They’re unknown comedians who make people laugh by night but work by day to stay afloat. And they’re friends, and smart, and loving, and sometimes selfish. They’ve performed in…
