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My list of seven relatively simple things a person can do to lighten or offset some of his or her earthly burdens.

While we’re asking questions about how we can make our economy more stable, it’s important that we also ask equally challenging questions about how we can make better, more responsible use of the natural resources and systems on which our entire economy relies.

If Oprah has trouble carving out a self-sustaining life balance, then is it really any surprise that, from time to time, the rest of us do, too?

It’s often tempting to assume that if a little of something is good, then a lot will be better. And nowhere does this assumption tend to work against us more reliably than in the areas of work and money.

There is no better way to expand willingness, I find, than by constantly expanding your knowledge and perspectives.

Even during the best of times, the turn of a year is a natural time to reflect on what we’d like to see changed, and what we’d like to do differently. I think this particular New Year presents especially rich opportunities in that department.

Joni Mitchell always did have the poet’s gift of summing up great truths in simple phrases.

If we’re willing to lift our heads enough to see beyond the daily global-recession headlines, then I would argue that the future is bright indeed.

I step outside into the cold night air and look up at the stars, thinking about the countless generations of ancestors who’ve done the same — some of them sleepless with worry, perhaps, but more of them called by the mystery and beauty of the night sky to look up, to notice, to feel lucky to be in this particular place and time, and to feel the wonder of being alive.

Once you understand the stages of power, it becomes quite easy to recognize the type of power that you and those around you are currently wielding, and what type of power you might focus on developing next.

Looking back 10 years from now, I believe we’ll all be struck not so much by how forward thinking and revolutionary these contemporary medical approaches were, but that any of us were ever remotely satisfied with a medical system that did not embrace these self-evident values.

Look up the word “policy” in the dictionary and you’ll find that the definition involves making plans, following guiding principles and pursuing a determined course of action – all for the sake of getting things done in an expedient, prudent manner.

OK, I realize I’m dating myself here, but I’m hoping that at least some of you will join me in remembering that cult classic kids’ album Free to Be…You and Me . Masterminded by Marlo Thomas and Friends, and accompanied by a singalong book, it was played endlessly (to some parents’ chagrin) by a whole generation of kids in the ’70s, and as a result, it permeated our collective memory.