I think it’s appropriate to help Haiti

Written by Shelley Plett Tuesday, 09 February 2010 20:04

“A spiritually healthy love for the world desires to give something. A spiritually sick love for the world desires to get something from it.” —E.G.”Jay” Link, minister and CEO of Kardia Inc.

 

It’s been one of those weeks online. Haiti’s earthquake, almost a month later, is still at the top of nearly every news cast. The stories get more tragic. So do the online posts like the two below, from blogs, networking and random news sites.

“Shame on you America: the only country where we have homeless without shelter, child­ren going to bed without eating, elderly going without needed meds, and mentally ill without treatment—yet we have a benefit for the people of Haiti on 12 TV stations; 99 percent of people won’t have...

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Changes are jostling our priorities

Written by Shelley Plett Tuesday, 26 January 2010 19:47

“...Then one day, when he was out for a walk by the lake, he forgot what his mother had told him. He forgot that he was not a dinosaur. He stood blinking his dinosaur eyes in the bright sunlight, feeling its familiar warmth on his dinosaur skin, watching dragonflies flitting among the horsetails at the water’s edge.”

—from “Dinosaur,” by Bruce Holland Rogers

 

My daughter’s a pilot. It took three days for her airplane to get here after she placed her order. The steering wheel was delayed even longer because we couldn’t find the right fit. She’s almost too big to stretch out inside a standard copy paper box, but we made it work.

Now I’m happy to report that her plane is in the hangar with a custom-fitted wooden...

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Women searching for ‘more happy’

Written by Shelley Plett Tuesday, 12 January 2010 19:45

“As women get older, they get sadder.” —Marcus Buckingham from his article, “What’s Happening to Women’s Happiness?” in The Huffington Post, Sept. 17, 2009

 

There is a reason we’re always out of toilet paper at my house. It’s a condition and there’s a name for it.

Whew!

I am an “under-buyer.” This means I put off buying necessary things until the very moment I need them. I wonder if there’s a support group.

Even though I can now label it, it makes me unhappy. I don’t like going shopping because I have to.

My self-diagnosis tool is called “The Happiness Project.” It’s basically one woman’s year-long journey to be happier. Once I started checking into it, I see it’s become some kind of...

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We need a holiday from willpower

Written by Shelley Plett Tuesday, 22 December 2009 19:41

“Americans started eating on Thanksgiving and we haven't stopped. We will continue binge eating through Christmas, past New Year’s, and eventually coast to a slobbering stop when we’ve gnawed the last of the weather stripping out of our windows.” —Robert Kirby, Salt Lake Tribune

 

Ironically, as I write this, I’m still recovering from this weekend’s early-Christmas dinner. Or could be the handful of sour cream Pringles minis. Or maybe the chocolate chip ice cream 10 minutes ago.

There’s more, but I’ll keep the details to myself. The truth is scary enough in my head.

Depending on the source you consult, the average weight gain during the holidays is somewhere between one and 10 pounds. In my research, I hit on 12.8...

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