Plus: 10 of my favorite Medium writers right now — It would be a lie to say I read for a living, but it’s fair to say I make a living because I love to read and am good at it. Why do you read? When you ask people this, a lot of them say they read to consume information…

A gentle reminder that your teachers wear weird clothes — Once upon a time, I had a teacher who gave a talk about the opportunities for insight that hide in our daily observations. He focused his talk on our observation of others, and the stories we tell ourselves about what comes up. He said that when you pay attention, a…

Profound lessons about freedom and boundaries from bumps, hugs, and beyond — Boundaries established, boundaries pushed, a chat, questions, shouting, more questions, negotiating, more shouting, another chat, hugs, more negotiating, touching each others’ noses, more hugs, verbal expressions of love, rest. Can I touch your nose? If you have ever known a toddler, you know the dance. My son is that joyful…

I started doing this when I needed it, and now I use it all the time — My friend Anna once joked that before we both got married (not to each other), we dated each other for years (open relationship, technically speaking). We would do lovely dinners at spots we’d added to our mental lists, saving them for each other. We’d day-drink Sancerre on weekends and then…

On learning how to read — Before she got her Master’s in children’s literature, my mother was a reference librarian at a public library in Montreal where her job was to be the internet before the internet. People would call the desk and ask her a question, and she would walk the aisles to find the…

Now is not the time for silence. — We at Medium want to acknowledge the pain and trauma that people across the United States are feeling right now due to acts of racist violence that have unfolded recently in Georgia, in Minneapolis, in Louisville, in New York City, and beyond. …

My brother died eight years ago. Here is an audit of his digital footprint. — Every so often, I log into an old email account. It’s a Yahoo, and I created it in 2001. I became a late-adopter Gmail person in 2009, but kept the other one because when the grief washes over you, it can be nice to read old emails. Over the course…

An utterly cheesy, totally true essay about wireless earphones — The first time I saw a pair of AirPods in a pair of ears, I thought they were a joke. They were so absurd looking as to be hilarious, and my best guess was that my friend, a tech journalist who’d gotten his hands on a loaner set well before…

A new Medium publication is here to serve you, our reader — Today we are introducing Elemental, Medium’s new health and wellness publication. We’re launching it because, like so many of you, we want to know the truth about the best way to live and feel better. We looked around, and we all agreed it’s hard to find good, scientifically rigorous reporting…