The news of the Cambridge Analytica scandal has led a number of my friends, no longer comfortable with the amount of data amassed about them, to declare that they are leaving Facebook. People exiting certain social media platforms or abstaining for extended periods of time isn’t new. For years now, I’ve seen posts from acquaintances stating that they are dissatisfied with what Facebook has become or how it’s affecting their lives. It seems most of them usually return eventually. It’s hard to free oneself of social media these days. Everyone uses it. It’s how we stay apprised of happenings in each others’ lives, spread information about events, and even learn about breaking news.
Category: Creative Living
The Satisfaction of Spring Gardening
Though the temperatures have dipped again, we had a few warm spring days this week. After many months of neglecting my yard, I took advantage of the nice weather and child care assistance (thanks, Yia-Yia!) and set out to do some weeding and garden clean-up.
I tend to treat gardening much like house cleaning: I aim for good enough rather than perfect. My goal in terms of my yard is generally to keep it from getting so overgrown that my neighbors look at it with disdain. When we bought our house, I knew the lawn maintenance would cause me stress. The previous owner was an avid gardener who had done all kinds of lovely landscaping. I’ve tried to maintain it, but in fewer than three years, it looks much less attractive than it did when he left. The funny thing, though, is that while I look at my overgrown garden and feel burdened by it, I actually enjoy gardening when I’m in the process of doing it. As with many things, the procrastination and anticipation are worse than the deed itself.
Big Picture Goals vs. Checking Off Boxes
I’ve written a lot of posts about steps I’ve taken to improve my day-to-day life and overall wellness, like reading books, meditating, language-learning, and exercising. I’ve even described myself as a bit of a self-improvement junkie. I am constantly consuming media about the latest health-related studies and how to become more efficient and effective in my professional and personal life.
I believe this continual learning and experimenting adds value to my life, but it’s easy to let these habit-related, day-to-day pursuits distract me from long-term planning. Setting big goals and grand-scale intentions is something that I haven’t done very often in my life, though I know it’s important. I’m talking about envisioning my life decades from now and asking myself what I want it to look like. What contributions will I have made to the world? What kind of lifestyle will I be living? If I could call myself an expert at something, what would it be? Read more
Discovering New Rooms Within Ourselves
A few nights ago, I dreamt that I found more space in my house. I knew these two unfinished attic-type rooms were there, but I had forgotten about them. I wanted to do some renovations, make additional space, and suddenly I stumbled upon these existing areas of my home that had been unused.
On Bored and Brilliant and Fostering Creativity
For a while now, I’ve been meaning to write a post about ways to jump-start creative thinking and generate new ideas. I just finished reading Manoush Zomorodi’s book Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self, and it got me thinking about this topic again.
