jrdreistadtJun 20, 20152 min40 for 4040 for 40 #3: Beautiful BathroomWhen I first moved into my 150 year old house almost eight years ago, I immediately began the process of cleaning up and updating the...
jrdreistadtJun 18, 20152 minWellnessI’ll Sleep On It (Or At Least I’ll Try)I have always had a precarious relationship with sleep. The bliss of restful sleep has eluded me since I broke a dependency on a life...
jrdreistadtJun 16, 20153 minEmotional HealthBrilliant, Beautiful, and BipolarThis post originally appeared at Huffington Post on 5/26/15. I feel most comfortable in a classroom. Whether I am the instructor or...
jrdreistadtJun 12, 20151 min40 for 4040 for 40 #2: An Evening with AndreOK, so it wasn’t the first time I had ever seen Andre Watts. Nor was it the first time I ever saw him at New Jersey Performing Arts...
jrdreistadtJun 11, 20152 minStreams of ConsciousnessInterconnected Self-SufficiencyThe concepts of interconnectedness and self-sufficiency may, at first, seem incompatible. Interconnectedness implies that all living...
jrdreistadtJun 9, 20151 minMindfulnessSelf-DeceptionInauthenticity is a faint, futile fugue that robs life of its mystery and meaning. Yet, social survival compels us to hide, to shift, and...
jrdreistadtJun 7, 20151 minThe Very Best of the Activist’s MuseAs I started submitting fewer and fewer posts to The Activist’s Muse, a blog I published through The Fruition Coalition for about year,...
jrdreistadtJun 6, 20151 minLetters to a Young ActivistLetters to a Young Activist: AngerWe live in a world full of injustice and despair. I suspect that, at least in part, your anger has led you to conceptualize and co-create...
jrdreistadtJun 5, 20151 min40 for 4040 for 40 #1: Joan OsborneLast summer, when listening to various tracks on my MP3 player while on a road trip, my mother mentioned that she loved Joan Osborne’s...
jrdreistadtJun 4, 20152 minEmotional HealthI Was Happier When I Was DepressedI sometimes think that I was happier when I was depressed. I recently found a journal from 2006 and 2008, with an almost two-year gap...
jrdreistadtJun 2, 20152 minWritingThe Lonely Life of a WriterWriting is a solitary enterprise and that, overall, suits me just fine. After a day at work surrounded by other people, love them though...
jrdreistadtMay 30, 20152 minCreativityHungry Muse, Naughty MuseI yearn to create writing that is imaginative, playful, honest, and luscious — and to do so on a consistent basis. Writing is not only an...
jrdreistadtMay 29, 20151 min40 for 4040 for 40A few months ago, a friend and I decided that we would do 40 extraordinary things to celebrate our 40th birthdays. Mine is coming up in a...
jrdreistadtMay 28, 20152 minStreams of ConsciousnessBibliophiliaI love to read. An early precocious reader, I worked my way through chapter books in kindergarten and by the end of elementary school,...
jrdreistadtMay 26, 20152 minFoodA Rainbow a DayDiets suck…the life out of our days, the days out of our years. Anything that is restrictive in such a way can only have short-lived,...
jrdreistadtMay 23, 20152 minCreativityArt for the MassesA few years ago, when visiting a major museum in the Mid-Atlantic area which shall remain unnamed, I was absolutely mortified when an...
jrdreistadtMay 20, 20152 minPlanet Earth70 GenerationsThere is an Iroquois doctrine which states that people ought to take into consideration the potential impact that their actions could...
jrdreistadtMay 18, 20152 minEmotional HealthHidden RainbowsWhen driving home from work one evening, I saw a beautiful rainbow stretch across the sky. As I approached the stop light which granted...
jrdreistadtMay 15, 20152 minEmotional HealthCarpe DiemPeople have been seizing the day since Horace offered this delicious phrase to the world in 23 BCE. Yet over time, we intuitively fall...
jrdreistadtMay 13, 20151 minStreams of ConsciousnessExcuse My VulgarityI recently met someone whose perception of the proper intersection of authenticity and propriety was skewed slightly differently than...