Our legacy is something that seems to get a lot of attention in our later lives.  What is left behind when we’re no longer around.  And there are so many ways to leave a legacy – children, businesses, movements, buildings, stories…

But what about the actual “stuff” we leave behind?

What happens to all our things, all our belongings, all the things we’ve gathered, curated, loved, and cared for in our lives?  And what do those who are left behind do with those things?…

When I let go of social media, the one hesitation I had was losing connection with friends.  My friendships and connections are arguably the most important thing in my life and I wondered if I was about to voluntarily sever my line to people I cared about.

Well here we are, three years later, with no Facebook or Instagram.  And each year, I think I’m even more relieved and pleased than I was the year before to have cut that albatross from around my neck…

Being away from my blog for almost two months has made for a steep climb back into my writing routine.  It wasn’t a normal hiatus – being away was very purposeful, to focus on my family and manage my energy.  Getting back to writing has felt like moving your creaking limbs around after a long slumber, crackling and groaning with each inch of movement.

Some of that is about the act of writing itself.  I’m a little out of practice and some of this is just shaking the cobwebs off.

But the other part is more about the mindset I’ve often been in when writing.  I’ve been in such a different mental space the last couple months that I feel like a different person coming back to the proverbial pen and paper now…

I was reading an email newsletter the other day and the writer posed a great question – what is your “rich” life?

What an interesting question, I thought; I wonder what that is for me beyond the knee-jerk responses that would probably come up first.

I contemplated the question for a few minutes and wrote the question in my notes app to save for journaling later.

That was probably a month ago.  I still have yet to sit down and define it thoughtfully...

Being in the dating pool has been a constant study of social psychology at my fingertips at all times.

Dating is inundated with stories.  And the underlying message of most of those stories boils down to “They don’t like me!”

Which is a seriously disempowering story.  Imagine if that were true?!  If every person you connected with didn’t call or text or suggest a date because they didn’t like you?  That would be a tough pill to swallow.

And yet so many do.  They willingly choke down that horse pill of an assumption and treat it as truth.

Instead of what it actually is, which is one possibility...

Remember being a kid and venturing into all kinds of tunnels and hideyholes and nooks and crannies?  I used to love jungle gyms as a kid.  Climbing up those ropey webs, stepping across the wood poles of differing heights as I crossed the play area, running across the hanging bridge…

Everything was fascinating and interesting as a kid.  Every new vantage point and view had so much to offer.  Up high, down low, through the slats of the fort.  Each place offered the promise of something I’d never seen before...

I’ve always been fascinated by my dreams.  They are often vivid in wildly unrealistic ways.  Not only for obvious reasons like when I’m flying, but for the inexplicable inversions of people who appear in the bodies or faces of someone else or for when I jump from one moment in space and time to the next like I’ve been transported, with no discernible transition, and yet it all makes total sense in the dreamworld.

The ones that hit me hardest are the ones where people from my past, or ones who have long since passed from this earth, are so present and engaged that it seems so deeply real.

I’ve heard it said that a realistic encounter or experience with a dead loved one in your dream is a visit from their spirit...

I was reading a post recently about decluttering (which you know I am a big fan of) in its variations. Physical, mental, digital…

And there was an aspect of digital decluttering that struck a chord with me.

If you’re like me, you get some number of daily or weekly digital deliveries in the form of substack posts, newsletters, promotional emails…and your inbox fills up fast.  Just when you achieve that elusive Inbox Zero…DING!  A new delivery!

I was recently reading one of these deliveries and about halfway through was a plug: Be a subscriber (aka pay!) and get additional content, wheee!

I thought for a moment and said to myself, “Mmmm no, I don’t think I want to pay for this content.” And then I kept reading.

Wait…