a daily blog on well-being and how to feel better by Mark Barger Elliott…

I wonder, do you like to be surprised? Most nights I walk the two-mile perimeter around Tod’s Point, a peninsula on the Connecticut coast. I notice the sea grass change from gold to green, the migrations of the egret, and the slow progress on “Sweet Betty” as a boat-owner restores her to one day be…

Ralph Waldo Emerson observed how the ultimate goal of a reader is to become a “Golconda” – someone “who runs everything through a sieve and keeps the nuggets.” Emerson was referring to the famous Golconda mines in India where miners would dig until hitting ground water and then sieve out the dirt until identifying the…

I was once asked by my office manager when my deadline was for a project. It had been a difficult week so I smiled and said off the top of my head, “Sanity is my deadline.” The word “sanity” comes from an Old French word sanité that means “health” and the Latin word sanitatem which means “soundness of mind…

When we entered a Shinola store yesterday the person greeted us with, “what brings you in today?” Of course we said, “just browsing.” But it’s an interesting question. Why did we enter that store and not the next one? Were we hoping to see something well-designed? Find a watch or leather bag on sale? Was…

Professor and economist Herminia Ibarra observes that, “The in-between period is the crucible in which people and organizations forge new possibilities.” There are times in our lives when we all feel we are in an “in-between” place. Between relationships, jobs, sickness and health, and places to call home. Another word for those kinds of situations…

We were sitting on the roof deck of a friend’s house last night when he said “look up.” In the sky about us was a string of peals flying through space. Before we could conclude we were witnessing an alien invasion he added, “those are starlink satellites.” (If you are an email subscriber you’ll find…