Making a gift shift

What a pleasure to interview brothers Blair and Kirk Souder, founders of ShiftMyGift.com. If you feel like you have enough ‘stuff’ and want to divert your holiday (or birthday) gifts to causes that speak to you, this site streamlines the process....

Young creatives

Every year for the last six summers or so while vacationing at the beach, I’ve bought a painted seashell from the young girls who set up a little stand on the promenade in Lavallette. I love to encourage their creativity and their entrepreneurial spirit....

Think and Grow ‘Rich’

About five or six years ago I read author Napoleon Hill’s classic Think and Grow Rich. I remember wondering why it was being offered as part of the library at a spiritual center. And then I began reading it and realized that the word ‘rich’ covered a...

Georgia (really) on my mind

Recently while shopping with a friend, I picked up a welcome mat for my home that has big red poppies on it and makes me feel — as I wrote in a Facebook status update and Tweet — like I am being greeted each day in Georgia O’Keeffe fashion....

Friends, books, lists

One of my most well-read friends, Erin, told me once that the “Books I Heartily Recommend” list featured on this site has a tone that’s all about our need to be fixed. It was coming from a place  of telling people how to be better or heal their...