Hence the wisdom of not carrying a mortgage beyond two years’ income, even if banks or other lenders will provide it to you. Mortgages have become such an accepted part of our economic lives that most of us consider ourselves fortunate if we are able to qualify for one. If we do qualify, and if we are able to make the necessary down payment, we the

It’s a game, really. The object of the game is to see how much you can lower your spending while raising your quality of life. I will

However much money you have or don’t have, your relationship to the money in your life can be transformational. It can be a doorway into greater consciousness, into greater integrity, and into greater freedom.

The cost of such thinking has been staggering. But we are now truly at a turning point in history. Our task and our adventure is to learn how to live within our means and within the means of nature. Our calling is to learn how to walk—and ride—lightly on the earth.

According to Barbara Kingsolver, “A survey of National Merit scholars1—exceptionally successful eighteen-year-olds crossing all lines of ethnicity, gender, geography, and class—turned up a common thread in their lives: the habit of sitting down to a family dinner table.”

I have friends who, when they became pregnant, created a room for their baby-to-be. Wanting only the best for the new arrival, they installed new vinyl flooring and bought new furniture for the room. Unfortunately, they made an all-too-common mistake. They didn’t know that new furniture made with particleboard and MDF is high in formaldehyde,

It’s about the joy of living with a purpose larger than consumption. It’s about living less from image and more from the creative spark of your own spirit. It’s about expanding the love and laughter in your home rather than increasing the square footage of your home.

More than forty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., described one of the foremost problems with the old good life. “We are prone,” he said, “to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobile rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to mankind.”

with as much love as it takes. BEAUTY THAT IS SOUL DEEP I have a dear friend and colleague, Victoria Moran,