Five lessons I wish I’d mastered back in high school that would’ve made life a whole lot easier and happier.

When you accept things as they are rather than as you would have them be, you flow with Life rather than resisting it. It’s a whole lot easier.

I recently went through some old letters and belongings of my parents saved over many years. In them, I found an airmail letter, typed on thin, onion skin paper and dated March 20, 1973, from one Rafael Icaza.

When you are anxious, scared, or confused, it is a sign that you need to shift out of your ego and into your soul. That’s where the power of Now comes in.

The following is an excellent and most helpful list, perfect for cutting out and sending to your children or taping to the fridge. It’s the eight best pieces of advice, ever.

True success is defined by who you are, not what you have. It’s not based on bank accounts or Instagram followers, but on values essential to the human spirit:

Winter in general, and the holiday season in particular, can be particularly dark and difficult if you are grieving. “The most wonderful time of the year” can feel anything but.

Before we zoom over Thanksgiving on our way to Christmas/New Years/Spring Break/Next Summer, I would like to pause to consider the most basic and greatest of gratitudes: the privilege of being here at all.

There's a country song with the catchy little phrase: "When was the last time you did something for the first time?" Those words have (annoyingly) stuck with me because, well, I haven't done very much at all for the first time in a long time. This is not good.

The same fire that destroys life and darkens the landscape is also what stimulates the opening and growth of new life.

The good thing about getting sick of yourself, of hitting a wall, is that it prevents further movement in that dead-end direction. It stops you. It also hurts, just to make the point very plain.

It seems everyone I talk to is dealing with something serious and vexing. How do we create peace and some level of wellbeing even in the midst of suffering?

Life is curly. It takes unexpected twists and turns. It just does. It always does. And the thing is, you don’t know when the turn is coming, or what the turn will bring.

In the dark times of nothingness the ego begins to dissolve and the soul stirs and deepens. In the dark times we refine who we really are: what we value and what we truly want.

I am in the midst of writing my second book, a guide to grief. To this point, I have been referencing my past experiences with grieving as I share thoughts on how to grieve and why it’s so vitally important. It’s been from the vantage point of “I’ve been there and now I can look back and give you the lay of the land” perspective.

I recently read a thought provoking essay about success. The writer — a psychologist, author, and well-known speaker — enumerated his personal definitions of success, a list that, remarkably, had absolutely nothing to do with work, status, or wealth.

Is this a midlife crisis? Or is it just me?

Why is it that the things we want most, the things that will make us happier, healthier, better people, are so darned hard to do? Have you ever kept a resolution? Do you know anyone who has?

Christmas has come and gone and the ceaseless conveyor belt of time carries us on into a brave new year, a year that one can only pray will include an impeachment hearing.

We all have so much, so many gifts that we open and then casually toss aside in our overabundance of good fortune.