Diamond-Cut Life

Do you prefer cereal for breakfast, toast, or both? I love whole wheat toast from Portland Bakery, while my husband is crazy for oatmeal from Bob’s Red Mill. (Oatmeal is too gloopy for me. Mornings call for a crunching motion, I feel.)
Our dinners often include pasta with delicious things on or around it, or couscous, [...]

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Yesterday the ten of us took my mother in law Joan’s ashes to Cannon Beach here in Oregon. She had loved the beach, felt deeply alive there, and had requested her ashes be scattered there.
The day was bright but cold, way down in the 30’s with the wind-chill factor, and we huddled close like a [...]

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I’m back after a break spent with family, helping my mother-in-law Joan pass away peacefully at Providence Hospital here in Portland. Joan was a passionate  soul who believed in making the world a better place. For that reason and because she cultivated thrift during the Great Depression like most of her generation, I think she [...]

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Tomorrow I’ll write about living successfully with others — skills that can enable us to save tens of thousands of dollars over our lifetimes while also slashing the emissions that drive global warming. (It will be a follow-up to my guest post appearing today at Get Rich Slowly).
Today, tips on reducing our heating bills. The [...]

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We’re in the full grip of winter, not just here in Portland Oregon but in much of the country. Given the impact of our heating bills on both our wallets and carbon emissions, tomorrow’s post will be “How To Slash Your Heating Bill”. And given that many roads are impassable to vehicles right now, today [...]

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Today is winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. In the days before fossil fuels routinely lit our nights, winter solstice was celebrated as the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun.
Imagine how vulnerable our long-ago human ancestors were as the days grew colder, darker and shorter. They struggled to protect themselves from the bitter elements; [...]

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I was born in the Southern California desert:
Joshua trees praying to the dry sky ,
rain so rare that kids stayed home from school when it fell,
eucalyptus trees tangy in my nostrils.
Avocados six for a dollar at children’s sidewalk tables,
teenage girls working on their tans as seriously as their [...]

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During a startling heat wave last May I advised slowing down as the best way to respond to it, both for happiness and to contain our carbon emissions. And now that my town (Portland, Oregon) is gripped with unusual amounts of snow and ice, I advise we slow down, snuggle in, and telework, walk or [...]

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It’s about time that I write about Christmas, given that my blog is about happiness and consumption. I suggest we can decouple Christmas from spending, especially overspending, i.e. we can celebrate Christmas happily while living within our means, and the earth’s means.
What we all need is a rich quality of life: loving relationships; health; meaningful [...]

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One of the old-fashioned customs that I’m a fan of, right up there with playing games at parties and going to church, is newsy Christmas letters. I love reading the stories of people’s lives, which is to say, the story of how people are living out their values.
We just received a good Christmas letter from [...]

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