Dan and Em's Blog

My life is good. It always has been. I’ve been surprised about the way it’s gone a number of times, and I’ve lived through plenty of difficult times, but it’s good.

I’ve always felt lucky. My upbringing has taught me to be rational, but my one major exception has been a nagging belief in luck. I remember, as a teenager, saying that I wouldn’t believe in luck except that I always seemed to be so lucky. Maybe it’s just optimism and a positive outlook…if you have a good attitude about whatever happens to you then you will tend to feel that positive things happen to you.

Regardless, life has been good. I went to good schools, I have known some really exceptional and wonderful people, I have had great jobs, and I’m married to an angel.

I mention all of that so you will understand my full meaning when I say that I feel as if the path I have been walking has led to a place where my feet leave the ground, where each step takes me farther and farther until I skip from peak to ridge to jungle in as many steps, the landscape changing around me almost faster than I can believe. And yet I feel unhurried and more peaceful than I have ever been, as if I am still and the landscape streaks past.

My relationship with my wife Em has become so deep and close that I almost feel like it’s the fault of my eyes that I can’t see the bright light that must be shining around us and between us.

I made a leap to change careers and have found myself in my dream job with a bright future.

I’m becoming more involved in my family.

I’ve become acquainted with the concept of spirituality.

Life has become so easy…there are no problems, only bends and twists in the path that I can’t see past. But just because I can’t see around the next bend doesn’t mean it’s hard to walk around it.

And, of course, as all of this happens, I keep encountering influences that accelerate it.

Luck? I don’t believe in luck.

I’ll be writing about some of those influences in the coming weeks. If any of this resonates with you, then perhaps you might benefit from them as well.

I have come to the conclusion that many Americans don’t know how to buy things. Ok, that may be a stretch for those who look around and see the Land of Consumerism, so perhaps it would be more accurate to say that many Americans aren’t very good at buying things.

(more…)

So I found out about microlending and have signed up with prosper.com to lend money to people in increments of $50. So far I’ve just gotten as far as registering with the site (a somewhat complex process) and transferring $100 that I’ll lend out to two people once I pick two worthy loans.

I pointed Em to Prosper.com and she then pointed me to an article entitled Microlending: An Anti-Poverty Success Story and then to www.kiva.org where you can loan money (no interest…this isn’t a money-maker) to someone in the developing world via credit card or PayPal. (more…)

I’ve been working my way to this for a long time, and, in many ways, I’m already doing this. Nonetheless I hereby formally announce my intention to live consciously.