Before things went sideways, I honestly thought that the week was off to a great start. On Monday, I had my teeth cleaned and had no cavities. (This is an ongoing personal triumph of sorts, but more about that later.) And on Thursday, Malibu’s parents, after encountering a travel snag, asked if Vl...

I hate to be gender-normative (or even breed-ist) and yet… At the end of the day, my chocolate lab Belle was always the perfect lady. She was the straight-A student (and class president) who was kind to all her friends and still found time to read to the blind. Vlad is…well… A lovable bad boy m...

New Meditation of the Month is HERE I admit that I was working from a very short list of suspects. Even so, since I didn’t know exactly when the thieving began, I was truly at a loss…and in more ways than one. It might have been relatively recent. Or it could have dated back to June 2011 when t...

Lawrence Kasdan, co-writer of Raiders of the Lost Arc and a bunch of the Star Wars movies summarized my fate best: “Being a writer is like having homeworkevery night for the rest of your life.” This began as a rare week where I thought I knew early on what I was going to write this newsletter about, ...

Life is full of important rites of passage. Weddings and funerals. Baptisms and Confirmations; Bar Mitzvahs and Bat Mitzvahs. Military service and college degrees. This week, young Vlad experienced a major one, onethat not everyone else enjoys. Namely, seeing his name for the first time in p...

June Meditation of the Month is HERE I admit I am profoundly prejudiced on this topic, but I do sincerely believe my puppy Vlad is a genius. He is, however, making one major miscalculation these days, one tactical error that’s utterly self-defeating for his goals. Namely, he thinks that if he hide...

Meditation is the ultimate mobile device; You can use it anytime, anywhere unobtrusively.” –Sharon Salzberg Almost everyone now believes they “should” be meditating. There are endless studies proving how just good it is for us. (And God knows we need it.) And yet something so...

I wish I could tell you what I’m launching in a month. (I can’t…not just yet.) But I can tell you that it involves the power of groups, of tribes, of like-minded people gathered together. And part of me hates that because … Like 2/3 of the people in a recent Wharton study, I̵...

Over 1.4 Million people get the DailyOM email blast every morning. And honestly a short nugget of spiritual inspiration isn’t the worst way to start your day. They also offer a ton of online classes where you can pay either a suggested $25 (or $10 or $40) and then either “Find True Love in 2...