Visiting Big Bend National Park during National Park Week

Posted by On Filed under Hiking, Travel
Visiting Big Bend National Park during National Park Week

How do I even begin to describe my recent visit to Big Bend National Park? The experience was a story of contrasts and expansion.

To start, let me say that I’m a Midwesterner (born and raised in Detroit, Michigan) who went to college and lived in western Kentucky and Tennessee (Murray, Kentucky and Paris, Tennessee). And I’ve lived in Vermont since 2003. I’m used to a few environments: cement, sprawling farmland, and mountainous greenery. Big Bend was really my first experience with a desert landscape.

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Slow Travel in Asheville, North Carolina

Posted by On Filed under Art, Hiking, Travel
Slow Travel in Asheville, North Carolina

I recently spent 16 days in Asheville, North Carolina. I housesat for a couple and their dogs, which gave me a really affordable way to explore the city slowly and from a location just a few miles from downtown.

I’ve heard great things about Asheville. One coworker just returned from the area and another was heading there. It also popped up on my radar screen a few times as a burgeoning beer and food mecca while I was learning about the hiking opportunities in the area.

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Digital Detox: A Modern-Day Sabbath

Posted by On Filed under Health, Pause for Reflection, Voluntary Simplicity / Minimalism
Digital Detox: A Modern-Day Sabbath

A Sabbath is a day of rest, observed by some Jewish people from Friday evening to Saturday evening and by some Christian people on Sundays. Within these religious traditions there’s also a ritual of worship on these days. For the past few years, I’ve created my own Sabbath rituals and I thought it was about time I wrote about them.

Since 2014, I’ve blocked off “Sabbath weekends” every few months. On these weekends, I don’t work, I unplug from the internet and all digital devices, I don’t schedule too many projects for myself, and I focus on restful activities, like reading, meditating, going for walks, and journaling. On a few Sabbath weekends, I’ve even tried not to spend money.

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How I decluttered 1,000 things in 3 years

Posted by On Filed under Money, Voluntary Simplicity / Minimalism
How I decluttered 1,000 things in 3 years

I moved to Vermont in 2003 with too many things, into a too tiny apartment. I had wall-to-wall stuff and when you constantly have to dust, step over, move or ignore things you don’t even like, it’s time to declutter.

Even when I moved to a huge apartment three years later, I still noticed the sporting goods piled up in the corner and the spare bedroom full of boxes of more stuff.

A bit like Goldilocks, that first apartment was too small, the second was too big, and my current apartment is just right. Nonetheless, I continue to develop an ethos and aesthetic that revolves around simplicity, utility and beauty in all areas of my life.

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The Staycation Bucket List

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The Staycation Bucket List

This post was previously published on the BucketList.org blog in December 2014.

Did you know that every US state and Canadian province and territory are represented on BucketList.org? Not just by BucketList.org users living all over the continent, but every state, province and territory appear on someone’s bucket list. That means that someone actually wants to come to where you live no matter how boring you think the place might be.

So here’s a quick guide on how to build a local, staycation, even, budget bucket list for your very own home state.

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Failure as Part of the Bucket List Experience

Posted by On Filed under Bucket List, Pause for Reflection
Failure as Part of the Bucket List Experience

This post was previously published on the BucketList.org blog in November 2014.

Are some of your bucket list goals pretty wild? Way outside your comfort zone, not to mention your budget, skill or ability zones? And are you afraid you may try and fail at some of these goals? Then you and I have some things in common.

My bucket list is the To Do list of an adventurous, athletic, wealthy genius. I love who I see when I look at that list: Michelle on top of mountains, Michelle racing cars, learning languages and living like an expat, owning a radio station and fighting with nunchucks.

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Prioritize Your Bucket List (Or, How to Die Happy Any Time)

Posted by On Filed under Bucket List, Pause for Reflection
Prioritize Your Bucket List (Or, How to Die Happy Any Time)

This post was previously published on the BucketList.org blog in August 2014.

If you’re like me, you have a lengthy bucket list and all of it sounds fun.  We want to skydive while traveling across Europe on our way to a meditation retreat at which we find the love of our life, right?

How do you prioritize your bucket list and make sure you actually start living your deepest dreams and goals?

Well, I took six steps toward my bucket list and the last two years of my life have been drastically different from the ones before. Give these a try and let us know how the steps work for you:

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