Feel Good Guru

I have a friend who does his Christmas shopping in July. He’s a flight attendant, so when he’s in India and finds a gorgeous Pashmina he can’t pass up, he picks several up, brings them home, perhaps gifts one to his mother-in-law in July and tucks the others away until December. Come Christmas day, each of his girlfriends is blown away by his thoughtfulness. I mean who does this, right? Not I, and probably not you.

I actually opted out of Christmas shopping years ago and I can confirm that it’s extremely liberating… (more…)

Shivering in your knickers? Cavilling the chill? Pleading for heat? When the weather outside is frightful, I can think of nothing more delightful than being wrapped like a burrito in blankets, kneaded like a soft loaf of cinnamon bread dough and warmed to the bone with hot stones strategically placed on chakras to move my chi and fill me with glee.

So when I met my mom in Ottawa to celebrate her 7 decades on planet Earth, we escaped the first flurries of winter in the womb of wellness upstairs at Holtz Spa, across the street from the Chateau Laurier. (more…)

I’ve taken up painting in the last couple of years. Mostly just to doodle personalized “thank you” cards, but also to use a different part of my creative brain and for the sheer joy of playing with fun colors. It occurred to me the other day as I was slopping paint all over a piece of cardboard, making a mess beyond rescue with too much color, that less is so often more in art.

I’m very attracted to zen-like works with a single color or stroke on a white canvas, yet it’s so difficult to put the brush down after just one stroke, isn’t it? I got to comparing art to life and made the simple connection that in life, as in art, restraint is a powerful tool. As we charge full steam ahead into the holidays, restraint can be invoked often in the supreme interest of keeping Santa belly at bay. (more…)