My father died on January 20, 1996. I was 26 years old. It was my birthday. It was the longest shortest day of my life. That morning, when I woke up, I had a father. My life was okay enough. I was optimistic about the future. It was my birthday. …

How to nurture a writing habit by writing something every day. — At some point, likely after another disappointing day of not writing anything, I decided that part of my writing practice was to write something every day. By “something” I do not mean a paragraph, a poem, an interesting article, or epic piece of prose, nay! I mean just write the…

Today we have a playful suggestion to help limit unwanted screen time on your phone. Why The Screen Monkey? Like many, I have read dozens of books and articles on the problems and perils of seemingly endless screen time. …

This week, not limited by geography, proximity or even earthly existence, we consider unlikely advisors. As part of the process of creating the ethical commitments for the Human Imagination Project, I was looking for examples from other organizations. While doing this, it struck me that, as part of that process…

This week a short reflection on doing “something” and transforming intentions to ethical commitments. But first a short story… In the early days of the pandemic I noticed that there were more people out walking in my neighborhood than I had ever seen before, or so it seemed. …

How to Cope with Being Perpetually Busy — I write ideas for writing on index cards. This, after decades of writing them in my journals and then having them disappear, not my journals, but the writing prompts. I’d finish the journal, start on the next and usually those prompts would live in a dark closet with all the…

Last time I checked (about five seconds ago), the internet told me that there were over 8 trillion hits for the search term “to-do list”. In our hyper-quantified, uber-productive, checklist driven era, this is not surprising, apparently, there are a lot of us searching for, creating, using and otherwise thinking…

The Time Machine is open! Okay, it is just a Zoom call, but I would love to talk to you about your experience of time. Eleven Minutes to Mars is (in part) about creating activities and experiences that help people shape and reshape their experience of time. The experience of…

✨ Happy Lunar New Year! ✨ Today a short reflection on the new year. I was lucky enough to live in Hong Kong for several years and while there, for so many reasons, the lunar new year became my favorite holiday. It still is. Living back in the US, the experience…