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Quest For Balance
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Whether we find happiness through grand adventures, or seek it in every-day places, we all want less pain and more joy. Quest for Balance is a place where people can be reminded that finding lasting happiness and inner peace is not only achievable, b
Recent Posts Tagged With 'choices'
All I Want For Christmas Is…
Is that really so much to ask? Aren’t we “there” yet? Haven’t we figured out by now that there are no winners in war? Because we love our countries, our people, our children, and our future, we need to find ways to come tog...
How I Stay Thin Despite my Neurotic Aversion to Intentional Exercise, and Obsessive Love of Desserts
I get asked this fairly regularly, because I make no secret of my likes (sweets ), and dislikes (cardio, resistance, and endurance training,) and yet I weigh less now than I did before pregnancy. It is tempting to chock it up to genetics, but that&...
Why Do You Fear Being Great, You Yellow-Bellied Coward?
Please Note: This is a guest post by, Jonny, from The Life Thing. I just met this young man, and I love him already because of his soulful heart, and his passionate zeal for this thing called Life. Be Modest, And Be Boring. If You ARE Great…...
Ten Useful Tips for Snow Noobs, Like Me
“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.” (John Ruskin) Well, it is now officially snowing in Vermont. I believe the ...
Net Worth vs Self Worth: The Passion Paradox
There is a current trend in society (at least in the States) that I find misleading and dangerous. You have probably seen more than a few people preaching The “Freedom” Gospel, encouraging others to leave their “boring” jobs ...
The Tripod of Balance: Health, Wealth, and Relationships
Please Note: This is a guest post by Srinivas Rao, from The Skool of Life. Be sure to check out his blog, and don’t forget to subscribe for free updates via email or RSS. When it comes to living life to your fullest potential, I am a strong b...
Why Losing Some of the Time is Necessary to Winning All of the Time
Please Note: This is a guest post by my wonderful friend, John Anyasor, from HiLife2B. Be sure and visit his awesome blog, and subscribe for free updates by Email or RSS. We all want to be thought of as the winner. The one that everyone can depend o...
15 Brilliant Thoughts About Unschooling (and my own)
(Thank you, Miche, for sharing this video with me… I couldn’t get it out of my head.) I’ve been thinking an awful lot about making the transition from homeschooling to unschooling Hunter, for many reasons. Maybe it all started with...
Costa Rica is Paradise (And Why I Don’t Live There)
In July of this year, Costa Rica was named the Happiest Place in the World. It has often been considered a tropical paradise, described as “100% Natural, No Artificial Ingredients” for its commitment to eco-preservation. Costa Rica has un...
The Full Vermonty: First Impressions
Vermont is the Green Mountain State. We live across the street from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (and the park pictured above). The state’s “universal” health care program is Green Mountain care. EVERYTHING here has something to ...
When Life Knocks You Down
Please Note: This is a guest post by my dear friend, Diggy, from Upgrade Reality. Enjoy!!! Photo Credit “Life will knock you to your knees and keep you there…if you let it.” – Rocky Balboa Sometimes life can’t get bette...
Adventure: How to Get From Fear to Faith
Typically, the decisions we make are fear-driven. We usually make safe, conservative, predictable choices, rather than take a chance and rely on Faith. But what if we tried a different approach? For instance, when we were deciding where to move to ne...
I Naively Believe… What about You?
I dream. I feel. I sense. I love… I believe! There are so many things I believe that I’m sure are naive: I naively believe we all deserve to be happy. I naively believe we should care about one another. I naively believe life should be ab...
Road to Freedom Update #3: Facing Uncertainty
It’s been a couple of weeks since my last Road to Freedom Update, so I figure we’re due for another one. I can’t say that too much has changed as a result of Jeff (my husband) quitting his job (our only income), because we’ve ...
Frugal Tips: How to Make Your Money Go Further
This is the post about frugality I promised you, by my friend Sherri of Serene Journey. I am in awe of what Lisis, Jeff, and Hunter are doing. I am really very happy and excited for them, and a little scared, but I truly believe this will be an am...
Road to Freedom Update # 2
Last Wednesday I started this series of Road to Freedom Updates, in order to keep you involved in the more practical side of our big decision to leave the rat race with no Plan B. In case you missed it, you may want to check out RTF Update #1 first. ...
Are You a Quitter or a Fighter?
I would hate to be a plant in my garden. The plants I adopt and bring home get a place to stay, and some water from time to time; but the rest is up to them. In THIS garden, only the strong can even come close to surviving. I love gardening, and appr...
Adventure: Is Your Comfort Zone Holding You Back?
Most little girls simply adore horses and ponies… I wasn’t one of them. I saw Black Beauty, and I “get” that horses are helpful and majestic creatures. I realize most decent people in the world love horses. But I don’t. ...
Letters From Readers: Best Decision or Careless Risk?
Dear Lisis, I have to admit that reading your blog post today, about the start of your adventure, was very emotional for me. On one hand, I admire the fact that you and your family are leaving the rat race and making the commitment to live simply and...
Road To Freedom Update # 1
When I announced that we were leaving the rat race with no Plan B, I got basically two reactions from readers. Most are completely excited and happy for us because we’ve escaped the golden handcuffs. But a significant number are worried about t...
Fellowship Fridays: LEOpalooza – The Essential Motivation Handbook
Most of you are probably quite familiar with Leo Babauta. His blog, Zen Habits, has about 68 billion subscribers (I rounded up), and he just launched his latest project, an ebook called The Essential Motivation Handbook (a partnership with Eric Ham...
A Living Example of Balance and Passion
Earlier this week I headed down to the town square for lunch with Jeff at a groovy little place, called The Corner Cafe. On my way there I ran into this artist, Alan Kuykendall, who was working on a mural to cover up the graffitti some kids had scrib...
2012: The End of the World as We Know It?
You have three and a half years left to live… at the most, maybe less. December 21, 2012, is 1,248 days away. Some say that will be the end of time. What if they are right? This sort of information is kind of like a cancer diagnosis, when the d...
Adventure: Taking a Giant Leap of Faith
When I was in college I did something my father had expressly forbidden: I jumped out of an airplane. Since it was forbidden, I couldn’t very well go to skydiving classes and learn the process a little at a time. So, instead, I did a tandem jum...
The Danger of Jumping to Conclusions
Jeff and I have been married for almost ten years, and I guess you could say we’re “happily married”. I really don’t have any point of comparison because Jeff is my first husband. But I don’t even remotely want a divorce...
Letters From Readers: Healing “Toxic” Family Relationships
Recently I received this letter from a reader: I moved away from home when I was in my late teens. I don’t visit much now–at most maybe once a year, sometimes every other year–but I know I will fall apart when my parents die. My mom...
Our Grandmas Weren’t Whiners
This was my grandmother, my dad’s mom. She was a character and a half (in case you can’t tell). This is the same woman who led me to believe I was the Goddess of the Universe… until I found out she was schizophrenic, and also though...
Zen and the Art of Eating Ben & Jerry’s
As many of you are already aware, I am completely in love with Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. You may think this is because I have a sweet tooth, or because I am a shameless glutton. Although there’s some truth to both of these statements, ...
Growing Up on the Road Less Traveled
This is me, on my first day of school in Costa Rica. It was 1980 and I was being driven to school in a 1947 Chevy… because my dad lived on the road less traveled. You may recall from his South American Duck Adventures, he didn’t settle ...
Adventure: Remixing Your Perspective
Last week I read a post on Alex’s blog, Unleash Reality, called Buddhist Butchers and Adventures of Change. I was so intrigued and inspired by the idea that I asked him if he would write a guest post for our Spirit of Adventure series, and he ...
