cheapzen.com

Sitting here in Napoli Italy I can feel the ache in my left knee.  That is something different about traveling at 53 as compared to 23.  Some of the differences are in me and some in the world around me.  Some things do not change (at least not much).   I can’t say whether I […]

So far I have listened to the 58 greatest albums of all time according to Rolling Stone.  I learned a lot.  I enjoyed nearly all of it, even the ones that I was unfamiliar with.  Even the ones that I thought I would not like.  I understand all music a little better now.  We’re all

I love splitting firewood.  It is one of my favorite activities while at our cabin.  I love waking up in a cold room and going over to the wood stove to light  the (prebuilt) fire inside  it.  I always try to build a fire after the previous one has burned out and everything has cooled

Remember the name of this long-running experiment, this practice, this dangerous monolog blasting into the ether, CheapZen.  Be Careful of what you wish for! Caveat Emptor!  Ok, the legal department is now satisfied.   Yet another cool idea learned recently from hanging out with cool friends.  I learned about Stoic Calendars,one is shown in the

This is my word for 2024.  Courage will be my North Star.  I will risk, I will believe in myself, I will own my faults, I will sleep so much more deeply!  I will fail, I will get back up and try again, I will succeed, and then fail three more times!  I will treat

Today there will be no new knowledge or revelations or sharing of recently found pitfalls.  Is there usually? Today will be about returning, renewing, remembering.  Remembering that we have had the answers all along.  They are all in all of us all the time.   There is no best path.  How comforting.  I don’t need

12/7   I am grateful for:   The ability to write these gratitudes everyday (that I remember) and not judging myself too harshly usually if I fail to do so The quiet cold mornings at the cabin Learning again and again to forgive myself Lifelong friends This is how I began today…..shortly after building a

I have recently decided to challenge myself in a very concrete way. I am on a mission to make it until lunch without judging. I am determined to wake up one day and get all the way to my midday meal without having judged anything or anyone up until that point in the day. I

Yet another useful lesson we can learn from the world of finance. And like any good lesson, it has numerous ways we can apply it to our life. First, let’s look at how we can use this to improve our overall mental well being.   Rather than focusing on the half dozen things that we

Sitting there staring at a blank sheet of paper. And just sitting. I learned a long time ago how to overcome this foe. Just write. Simply write….write anything. Write I am so bored and politics suck and the Mariners are finally in first place. (I wrote this a month ago, the Mariners did not make