Essays
#2 New York Times Modern Love essay in the history of the column!
LET’S say you have what you believe to be a healthy marriage. You’re still friends and lovers after spending more than half of your lives together. The dreams you set out to achieve in your 20s — gazing into each other’s eyes in candlelit city bistros when you were single and skinny — have for the most part come true.
O’s Little Book of Happiness
With a sprightly dose of insightful inspiration, a sprinkling of practical advice, and a bounty of exuberant stories by great writers, O’s Little Book of Happiness features some of the best work ever to have appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine. Inside you’ll find Elizabeth Gilbert’s ode to the triumph of asking for what you want, Jane Smiley’s tribute to the animal who taught her about lasting fulfillment, Roxane Gay’s sure-fire cure for complaining, Brené Brown’s celebration of the powers of play, Neil deGrasse Tyson’s take on the joyful participation in the universe, and much more. Revisiting fifteen years of the magazine’s rich archives, O‘s editors have assembled a collection as stunning as it is spirit-lifting.
Well…it’s over. I took off my apron today and the house is quiet again. Just a 50+ year old and two white dogs staring into each others’ confused eyes. Goodbye to our “Long Spring Break,” as my 21 and 25 year old like to call it. My young adult children have been home, for the most part, since March 13th 2020— the day I prematurely ended my book tour, came home to Montana, and bought beans, rice, and toilet paper like everyone else. The day I realized I didn’t have a job until some blurry time in the future when people can come on writing retreats in Montana again. The day my son realized that he didn’t have a baseball season or a college life. The day my daughter realized that she didn’t have to pay a Queen’s wage for rent in San Francisco, and could work remotely from her childhood bedroom, replete with PB Teen décor and plastic Breyer horses.
All the joys and challenges of having kids are addressed in this TimesFile collection, which features many of the most popular personal stories about parenthood from the Lives page of The New York Times Magazine. These thoughtful, entertaining pieces range in subject from pregnancy, adoption, and surrogacy to coping, helicopter-parenting and college. The moms and dads who share their experiences here include acclaimed writers such as Matt Bai, Firoozeh Dumas, Ben Greenman, Samantha Hunt, John Moe, Laura Munson, Anna Solomon and Danielle Trussoni.
In recent years scientists have discovered that mindfulness can reduce stress, improve mood, and enhance our sense of well-being. In this book, readers learn how mindfulness can be brought to bear in our relationships to increase intimacy, strengthen communication, and help us to find greater fulfillment.
Topics in this collection include how to open your heart and develop lovingkindness for yourself and others, how to improve communication through mindful speech and deep listening, noticing and counteracting destructive patterns, and discovering how intimate relationships can become a rich form of spiritual practice.