This is the first newsletter I’ve written in midair. I’m flying back from a long weekend trip to Sedona with Anne and some close friends, watching the little plane on my screen tick slowly east under the glare of an overhead light. Airplanes are a great place for uninterrupted writing. I had hoped that an [...]

Recap of Jake and my “race” from 11/8

I have a confession to make: I wrote my newsletter for the week, about the election, before the race had been called for Biden. It just felt like the slow trickle of votes couldn’t possibly dry up before the scales tipped in his favor, and luckily I was right. I’ve been writing about the election [...]

Last week I asked all of you to send me the 5-10 things that made you happiest in the past week, and a good number of you did so. Here are some of the themes that emerged: Friends & Family: Talking to, watching with, cooking for, walking and running next to – everybody felt happy [...]

“We have no use for these.” So you took them home

There’s multiple kinds of “block” out there

On Thursday night I asked my English conversation class these two questions: What do you think is the key to living a happy life? When are you at your happiest? There were eight of us this week – Luiz, Kize, Jarvis, Funda, Carolina, Carlos, Payal and myself. Six nationalities – Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Turkey, India [...]

A lesson in consistency, eliminating decisions… and throwing in the towel

The Competition I’ll start with some bad news first: I did not win The Write Practice’s Fall Writing Contest. If you’re new to the newsletter since August, you can read my submission, Eternally Happy, here. The winning story was a good one, and so I’ll link to it as well. Gotta give credit where credit [...]