“I offer here three mini-Lessons that work together powerfully and have helped me to craft a pleasing life.

For the first, I am indebted to Henry David Thoreau. His book Walden came out of an experiment Thoreau created to answer the question: On how little money, labor, and community can a person reasonably live? He under-took to find out by living with as much simplicity and solitude as possible for “two years and two months,” and then went back to village life.

What a difference it makes if the cause of change is curiosity! It’s so much better than “should” or “ought to” or worse, “have to.” It doesn’t matter whether these voices come from within or from outside, they still seem to deaden our joy. Instead, ask a question.”