Worrying can feel awful. I know; I’ve been there. But what if being worried isn’t just something that happens? What if you were the one creating this experience?

As my family and I prepared to move from our tiny house, I found myself pondering memories from the beautiful years we spent in our little 120 square foot home. The lessons to be gleaned from our time there are still unfolding and too numerous to pack into one letter. Instead, I’ll share one small musing at a time.

Over some cigars by a bonfire, a friend of mine recently shared his 100-year vision for the property he is living on. Much of what he hoped for had to do with creating a place for his children and grandchildren to enjoy and grow in love together.

Marc Barnes raises the following three questions toward the end of a fascinating episode of the New Polity Podcast.

Three times. That’s how many times I’ve broken my commitment to send out the Good Leaven Letter by Monday during the last 80 weeks or so.

“And then I realized that no matter how long I researched and thought about shoes, I wasn’t going to find a good fit. What I actually needed to do was to try on a bunch of different pairs.”

All people, even the ones we find most challenging, are our teachers.

According to the school of therapy called Internal Family Systems, the core self that is beneath all of our sub-personalities or parts has several qualities: curiosity, compassion, clarity, connectedness, creativity, courage, confidence, and calm. These are known as the eight Cs.

There are two ways to transformation: either you change your world or you change how you relate to it. One path focuses on changing things on the outside, the other path works on changing things within.

Imagine an upset parent speaking to a child who hasn’t finished an assignment for school. Contrast these two possible statements:

“I am angry that you didn’t finish your homework.”
“Part of me is angry that you didn’t finish your homework.”

You place your bets on the table. As the wheel spins, you hope that the ball lands on the numbers you’ve chosen. This is how things work in the game of roulette, but it seems to me that there is a similar dynamic present in life as well.

An interesting study found that people who placed an artificially aged self-portrait on their desks were more likely to contribute to their retirement accounts and to live healthier lifestyles than a control group without the portrait.

Have you ever said something like, “I’ll take action when I’m ready. It’s not my time”? I haven’t yet read Seth Godin’s book What to Do When It’s Your Turn (And It’s Always Your Turn), but I find even the title itself worthy of reflection.

Aquinas On Gender Construction? is the provoking title of one of the episodes of New Polity’s fascinating series on gender. Spoiler alert—they argue that gender is more than just our biology and that in some ways, though not all, it is constructed.