Yeah, it sounds like clickbait. But it isn’t. There’s nothing like starting an article with a chip on your shoulder (Yah, yah, here it comes, another perfect health sales pitch about detox teas…) and realizing you’re dead wrong. I can’t speak for you but that kind of realization effing makes my day. Why? Because realizing I’m dead wrong…

The pursuit of unhappiness, especially your own. Please kindly don’t show up at my house. But wait, there’s more. During some research for another article, I came across a bit of intriguing information about a rather little-known psychiatric disorder that might explain some of what I’m seeing on Medium and elsewhere. The disorder is called Cherophobia, which is when a person has an irrational aversion to being happy.

Some notes on the journey. Kindly, let’s make count, shall we? Melissa and I traded phone calls about eight times yesterday. I was on my way to and back from a day at the Oregon Coast, a much-needed vacay from returning to Oregon and a slew of responsibilities. Those drag at me like hooks bringing down the great bear Iorek Byrnison…

Some things I learned about becoming an expat that I didn’t expect The flight to Eugene is delayed. Of course it is. My day began in Bogota in one of those downtown, city street-facing hotels which are so damned loud that you can’t possibly sleep. At least you can’t if you’re like me, when if a gnat sneezes I leap out of…

A few months ago I said I was leaving Medium. Plans fall through or change, which isn’t all bad. Here’s that story with lessons for us all Back around spring I trumpeted to my readers that, after four years and a shattered income, I was leaving Medium. At least, the majority of my material would be moving to my website, and my presence here would be much diminished. Eating crow, for those not familiar with the phrase…

Have you arrived yet? In this sense, does “having arrived” mean at the gates of hell? The shower water here doesn’t get very hot. Hot enough, though, so that when I poured a little dishwashing liquid onto the pile of pants, socks and workout gear, I got plenty of suds. I danced around on top of them the old fashioned way that folks once tossed their…

No matter what the anti-aging package promises, you and I WILL expire Here are some excellent preparations for the next adventure, with my blessings. First, this: The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying: The Spiritual Classic & International Bestseller: Revised and… Amazon.com: The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying: The Spiritual Classic & International Bestseller: Revised and Updated…www.amazon.com My dear friend Melissa, who has long been my Thai masseuse, is a dedicated reader of such texts. She and I both study and stumble through Buddhism, collecting Buddhas the same way others collect stamps. Because…

My Spanish may be awful, but beauty is the same in any language Getting on my horse was the hard part. With my left hand bound up like a boxing glove, I couldn’t use it to grasp a bit of mane for leverage. Still, I got my leg over, settled in and in moments we were off up the winding, rocky road: Erin…

I am a few hours away from doing what I said I might do two years ago. Now it’s very real Six weeks were all it took for me to completely strip and prep my house for sale. Yesterday the handyman and my realtor walked the place, and her housekeeper comes this weekend while I head to Colombia to start looking for a place to rent part of the year. GAH…