Family, Health, Mindfulness, News, Relationships

If you’re tired of being stressed and anxious….

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I decided I’d rather love than divide. Loving keeps my stress way down and dividing makes my stress go way up. But sometimes choosing to love rather than divide is not so easy, such as right now during our country’s current political state of affairs. People feel very, very strongly one way or the other, and I’m no different. But in the midst of a heated argument with someone I care about – each one of us taking a different political side – I stopped and took a breath. I hated the way I was feeling by being all heated up in an argument. Hated that I was getting angry with someone who means a lot to me. I really hated the way I could see this argument dividing us from each other. So I took a big breath and stopped. I said to him, “I’m sorry for not listening […]

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Family, Finances, Home, Time, Travel

How Martha and John Miller quit their jobs, gave away their stuff, and moved to Rome

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Martha Miller and her husband John had a big dream to move to Italy from their home in Houston, Texas. They quit their jobs, gave away their stuff, and moved into a little apartment in Rome’s Trastevere neighborhood. Here’s their story: Friends wanted to know how we did it, and the truth is that my husband and I became really good at saving money in order to make it happen. We aren’t trust-fund babies or self-made millionaires. We started with a dream to move overseas for 21 months while John went to school, and thirteen months after we got married, we were on the plane to Rome. It was surreal and exciting. When we visited Rome the previous spring to evaluate the school, we were unexpectedly shown four apartments to choose from. We had no problem agreeing on the one we chose. It was a small apartment up three flights […]

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Family, Health, Home, Mindfulness, News, Relationships, Style

Why perfection can’t make you happy – but this will

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Our culture of perfection is bringing up more insights for me. You know, we’re supposed to have perfect hair, perfect bodies, perfect kitchens, perfect homes, perfect relationships, be fabulous foodies and cooks, and we’re even supposed to have perfect thoughts. You’re probably like me in that you hardly notice what’s going on because we’re swimming in this culture. For me, once I started paying attention, I realized I was telling myself stuff like this: “If I just exercise more, I’ll have a perfect body. If I take some cooking classes I’ll be able to be a foodie, too. If I get more spiritual, I’ll have more perfect thoughts,” and so on. Our consumer culture feeds this stuff to us constantly and it’s hard to ignore. We’re being told all of the time that we can do more and be more. We’re inspired by blog posts about the latest exercise routine, […]

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Family, Health, News, Recipes

Why you should eat a hearty vegan breakfast – and how to do it

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I’ve been conflicted about what to eat for breakfast. Are you, too? Is it healthier to eat a vegan breakfast, even though I’m hungry shortly after eating something like oatmeal and fruit? Or is it better to eat high protein with eggs or eggs and bacon? At least that way I feel full. But is it healthy? Let’s talk about it, and then I’ll give you recipes and a plan. I just watched a great health video – Forks over Knives, and I’m also reading a book on preventing heart disease through lifestyle and diet changes, not pills. It’s called 30 Days to Natural Blood Pressure Control, by David DeRose, MD.  Both the video and the book lay out a very convincing argument that a vegan diet is healthiest. What Harvard Medical School says about diet I can’t go into details here, but I encourage you to watch the video and read […]

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