A Mindful Life

I’ve never participated in this meme before, but Gerry does so I thought I’d do a quick brain dump. Reader beware: the quality of what comes next might be less than intelligent. I should also mention that the meme focuses on 10 things one is thankful for; I wrote it more generally, though it could [...]

Yesterday, the garage spring broke, leaving us stuck in our home because we couldn’t get it open. The property manager couldn’t get a repairman out until (we hope) this morning. We didn’t even have access to the stroller, which is in back of the CRV. No clearance to get to it.
With a busy [...]

The next step up from “the bucket” we had her in. This is another sign of change, of Claire growing up.

We call it a throne because she sits so high up, so now she can see the world roll by, and because it cost a pretty penny (although we think she’ll be able to use [...]

After a couple of months doing the “all done” sign with Claire, she recently started making the sign when I initiated — for example, after a meal, when I’d ask “All done?” and make the sign, she’d confirm it. But yesterday, she initiated the sign! When she was full, she raised her small hands and [...]

Stop for five minutes and let Phil Plait refresh your perspective about what awesome feats humans are capable of. Let him infect you with his enthusiasm for scientific discovery. His energy is inspiring. If the video doesn’t embed, you can see it here.

Thanks to Dale for sharing this.

This was a work weekend. Husband did most of the outdoor work, cleaning and raking the back yard, replacing rotted wood posts, and generally making the space habitable for Claire and me to play. I raked and swept, but much of the credit belongs to him.
I noticed today that plain unleaded gas is $4.39 a [...]

Price of plain unleaded gas when I filled up the tank yesterday:
$4.19 per gallon
Diesel is over $5.00 a gallon. Thank goodness we don’t use that!

A couple of readers tell me they are having trouble viewing my blog. These folks seem to be using PCs and Internet Explorer. I’m not sure why it’s not showing up correctly anymore, but I’ve made no changes to the format or code.
If you’re experiencing problems, let me know. I don’t know that there’s [...]

Flickr is offering Pro users the option to upload short videos. I tried it, and it worked!
For people who friends and family contacts of mine on Flickr, you can go to my photo stream and view the video. In order to see the video you need to log in to your Flickr account first.
If [...]

Compassion can be learned in much the same way as playing a musical instrument or being proficient in a sport, U.S. researchers said.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that brain circuits used to detect emotions and feelings were dramatically changed in subjects who had extensive experience practicing compassion [...]