Sen. Elizabeth Warren sits at her desk, coffee cup and phone nearby, holding a 500-page chunk of paper — the Republican tax bill — she was given an hour to read before the vote. “So,” she begins, “here it is Friday night, and I just want to give you an idea of how the Republican […]
Read moreThe twentysomething brain (and beyond.)
(from my manuscript-in-progress) Significantly, Buddhists call looking at an object or emotion steadily for some time and processing the emotions that arise “sustaining the gaze.” The ability to “sustain the gaze” without distraction from within or without is the ability to rest in the relative stability of a mature understanding of reality, to pay attention […]
Read moreCleaning out, again; or, my first yard sale.
As I have written here, getting rid of stuff you aren’t using anymore feels pretty damn good, for so many reasons. There’s the knowledge you’ve freed up space (and money) for more mindful choices about what comes into the house in the first place from now on, and you have reminded yourself to make that […]
Read moreThe Lenten closet.
Yesterday I went to Minneapolis to buy some sorely needed new clothes. Just a few good pieces that I was lucky enough to find on sale. This afternoon — energized by what Marilynne Robinson in Housekeeping called the “swift, watery wind” blowing all around my neighborhood, and feeling it disarranging me in a good way, […]
Read moreThe emotional surge of the charity splurge.
Back in September, as I was experiencing my first tentative steps into relative debt-free-ness, I received an email from a friend about a concert her husband was co-producing in Manhattan to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, called “Music After.” Anything you can send, she said, would help. I gave a small amount […]
Read moreLearning to submit?: Economies of womanhood, personhood, and love.
I believe that what rules us is less the material world of goods and services than the immaterial one of whims, assumptions, delusions, and lies; that only by studying this world can we hope to shape how it shapes us; that only by attempting to understand what used to be called, in a less embarrassed […]
Read moreIt’s official: I’M DEBT-FREE!!!
Official information from the credit counseling firm, as of today: Original Balance: $22,885.01 Approx Current Balance: Debt Free Total Debt Paid Off: $22,885.01 Last Payment Received: 7/7/2011 Last Payment Amount: $195.18 Next Payment Due: Debt Free Next Payment Amount: N/A
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