Getting Thoughtful

For the new year, I challenged myself with a new habit – to stop using Facebook during work hours. I’m certainly not the first person to find the platform entertaining enough to suck me in, but useless enough to add little value to my life. As I shared on Facebook […]

Thoughtful app

Creation is the Heart of Happiness

A couple weeks ago, I made the world’s crappiest knife. It all started when my wife learned about a metalsmithing class offered at a local Maker Space. Two of my kids were interested in taking the class, so I signed up with them. In that class, we used railroad spikes […]

anonymous gardener with tulips in sack

Are you the sniper or the sniped?

We are motivated, intelligent, and have a strong desire to succeed, but too often we find our goals to be moving targets, and we shoot at a goal where it was 5 seconds ago instead of where it will be in 5 seconds, so we miss by 10 seconds.  Why […]


Make Something of Lasting Beauty

Everyone should have a place of beauty. A place they decorate for themselves. A place that makes them feel happy, warm, and comfortable. I decided my place would be my backyard. It started in late August with a germ of an idea. I wasn’t happy with this corner of the […]

Pergola party

How the Age of Reason Dies

It dies with a whimper, not with a bang. Building on the Renaissance and the Scientific revolution, the Enlightenment, often called the “Age of Reason” rocked the world by challenging traditional means of truth. Starting in the late 1600s, philosophers such as Locke and scientists such as Newton, began to […]

Age of Reason

Six kinds of focus

Six Kinds of Focus

I just finished listening to Alex Epstein’s podcast, The Human Flourishing Project: 6 kinds of focus. In it, he outlines a framework for focusing on various areas of your life to improve your overall productivity and life enjoyment.  The six areas are 1) focusing on a high-value and meaningful market, […]


Emotional, psychological, and social well being

According to mental health experts, flourishing “…is a state where people experience positive emotions, positive psychological functioning and positive social functioning, most of the time. In more philosophical terms this means access to the pleasant life, the engaged or good life and the meaningful life.” This idea of flourishing pervades […]

Emotional psychological social well being

Fasting for fun and profit

Scientist Ray Cronise fasted for 22 days. No food, just water. Yet, when you watch this interview below with him, he doesn’t look starved. He seems cognoscente, capable, and according to the interview, feeling great. How is this possible? Why should you care? The feeling of hunger Up until recently, […]