1 Minute Antidote to the Holiday Rush

Longtime reader and friend Sybille Palmer sent us this poem found in Writer’s Almanac, along with a photo of the newly fallen snow in Taos, New Mexico where she lives. It’s a fine example of Arthur C. Brooks principles for antidoting the holiday rush: embrace experience rather than things…stop for a minute and take in something…

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Looking for Holiday Gift Ideas? We’ve Got ‘Em

Lately, readers have been giving subscriptions to Improvised Life as gifts for friends and family. Just go to our subscribe page and select a year’s subscription to give 650 or so illuminating reads per year. We also recommend checking out Improvised Life’s Shop for a personally curated selection of compelling books, tools, housewares, and toys that…

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An Intro to ‘Bird by Bird”s Brilliant Instructions on Life

A while ago, Brain Pickings posted on Anne LaMott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, for our money one of all time BEST books about the creative process. Although we’ve written about the book ourselves — including our crazy-favorite quote about being “flanged” — Brain Pickings offers a trove of excerpts that make a fine introduction if you’re…

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Sally on Splendid Table: Gifts, Table Decorations + Recipes

Check out Public Radio’s The Splendid Table interview with Sally about her favorite gift ideas for cooks and eaters. Most are inexpensive but give a big bang for the buck. To find more about the gifts on Improvised Life, click here for a roundup. You can also hear her favorite holiday tabletop decorations (some of which made great…

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Song for Any Day: Hallelujah (K.D. Lang + Leonard Cohen)

(Video link Here.) Suzanne Shaker sent us this wondrous video of K.D. Lang singing Hallelujah. We love many things about it: beyond the astonishing rich and forthright voice, and a song of pure joy is Lang singing barefoot before thousands. And when they regale her with praise, she bows long, deeply-moved, expressing the Hallelujah she just sang. According to…

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Mesmerizing Guerilla Action: Balls on Escalator

(Video link HERE.) We have a soft spot in our heart for slightly subversive guerilla actions that shifts people’s views in public spaces, or provide a bit of art or science to illuminate. Colored balls set loose on an escalator make for a wonderful, anonymous “static loop of kinetic energy, redefining location“. No other info given.…

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Your History of Distruptive Ideas

One of the best end-of-the-year “lists” we’ve come across is Businessweek’s The 85 Most Disruptive Ideas in Our History. We’ve loaded it onto our phone to read in spare moments about the influence of the Polaroid, whiteboards, contact lenses, smartphones, the sharing economy, bottled water, Power Point, Parkinson’s Law, Open Source, and Motown, to name a few.…

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