I’ve definitely found that to be true at certain points in my life. And it doesn’t always have to be far-flung destinations that inspire: I remember one time my husband and I were driving up to Ottawa on Highway 416 when there was the most incredible double rainbow. We had Queen on and it was such a road trip moment, full of light and colour and motion and possibility. We ended up having one of the best conversations we’d had in a long time.

What have been some of your travel moments?

The New York Times‘ Motherlode blog which closed comments after receiving 790.
The tongue-in-cheek “What is it About Eightysomethings” over at Vanity Fair.
The New Yorker came out with a list of novels for emerging adults.
And Tabatha Southey’s defense of the not-so-empty-nest over at the Globe and Mail.

[Edited to add: Linda thoughtfully adds in the comments that <em>The Walrus has a piece by Marni Jackson on the same theme. I’m sorry I missed that one!]

I will freely admit that as a soon-to-be-40 Generation X slacker (who married at 24 and bought a house at 26, the down payment for which was from the bank of Mom and Dad) some of the arguments about “kids today” seem awfully familiar. The recession of the early 90s into which I graduated was not as deep as the current one, but there is a reason many of us ended up working in new(er) technologies - it was pretty hard to break into the older ones.

I do have to point out that More’s own article on emerging adults was in subscribers’ hands the week of August 10th. Please read and let us know what YOU think of this generational analysis in the comments!

But true confession: I didn’t like the book. I wanted to like it. I even liked the idea that here was a woman going off to find herself rather than the man being the one to go sit on a mountain top for midlife enlightenment. And I did like the truth in it. But in the end - I found I couldn’t really relate, and reading it felt like a bit of a slog. So much for literary analysis.

Thinking about divorce films though, I might re-rent Waiting to Exhale. Less enlightenment; more setting of clothing on fire. (War of the Roses is also a favourite - hmmm, not sure what this says about me.) Both made it to our list of 10 movies about divorce.

Let me know what you thought of Eat Pray Love, book or movie!

On that theme I’d like to invite you to comment with one tip about either wine (buying, storing, serving) or friendship (making, nurturing, evaluating), and I’ll select 3 lucky winners at random from the comments to receive a bottle of Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio, valued at $16.95 (and sweetened with victory as well). You must comment before noon on Wednesday August 18.

As with all our blog giveaways: One entry per person please, and sadly we cannot offer this to our Quebec or non-Canadian readers. By entering you agree to accept the prize as awarded and we reserve the right to substitute a prize of equal value. You must be of legal drinking age in your province and of the age of majority. We accept no liability about what happens when you drink the wine.

And if you don’t win, or if you can’t wait to find out and are heading out to buy the wine - here’s extra incentive to try the Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio: From July 18th to August 14th, 50 cents from the sale of each bottle of this popular wine will be donated to the Scotiabank AIDS Walk for Life.

This giveaway is now closed and winners will be contacted shortly!

I’ve been looking for an excuse to link to this blog post by Jennifer Lawlor for a couple of weeks and I’m going to have to put it here. Bring Kleenex for this one, as she looks back over 13 years of parenting a child with Tuberous Sclerosis. And at joy.

For a different sort of resilience, I wanted to point out this article from last week’s New York Times: The Un-Divorced. I have occasionally half-joked that my marriage would go better if we each lived in separate condos on the same floor. But this might be going a little far.

If you’re inclined to share, I’d love your thoughts or links to do with resilience - in large or small ways.

One thing I love about Mad Men is that it brings out a bit of nostalgia in everyone. Slate’s look at Reno divorce ranches rates highly on my “wow, that’s neat” meter.

Speaking of Mad Men, here are the best-dressed fans, as selected by New York Magazine.

And still speaking about Mad Men (I’m almost done): I will blame the show for this new apron trend. (Globe and Mail) I think I was indoctrinated in the 70s to believe that aprons were basically prison uniforms because even though those are cute - really, really cute - I just don’t think I can buy one.

The Bata Shoe Museum’s “Heights of Fashion” online exhibition is fun.

If you like grand old houses with a bit of decay: Inside Rokeby House (New York Times). It’s got nothing to do with Mad Men.

Love between a 40-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man - and there are motorcycles involved, to boot. From the New York Times’s Modern Love column.

I’ve been enjoying Emily Bazelton’s series on the Phoebe Prince case over at Slate. Teen bullying issues can be very complex, regardless of where one comes down on this one.

Judith Timson looks at the Blacks’ marriage over at the Globe and Mail: Passion and loyalty?

And while you’re there, erase your ex from the Internet. Hmmm.

I’m going to have to agree with her.

It might not seem like a natural pairing - the 2002 winner of the Gandhi-King Award for Non-Violence and famous hugger (more on this in a moment), and the reality-TV-show star and now straight-talking author-mentor of young women interns everywhere. But in just a few minutes speaking with Cutrone, I get it. Amma has changed the world for the better and helped women achieve - in other words, she’s a powerful feminine force. And so is Cutrone in her own way.

And maybe the amazing thing about showing up for my hug at the Sheraton Parkway in Toronto is that I feel that sense of possibility afterwards too. I said yes to the media invite as a part of my “year of turning 40″ project - there’s something I’ve never done; hugged a guru. I wanted to share that here!

But boy, it’s not just about hugs.

So, let’s talk about Amma because that’s why we’re all here. Amma is 53, and for the last 35 years she has been hugging people. But it’s not an ordinary hug: it’s darshan or an imparting of of divine energy and affection between spiritual leader and spiritual follower. Amma’s mission is to hug people with love, helping them to overcome poverty of spirit. She believes that one people are in touch with their own compassionate natures, they will naturally come to address core humanitarian issues like poverty.

But hugging is not the whole story. Amma’s collective charities, now named Embracing the World, have raised over 48 million dollars for food programmes, hospitals, orphanages, shelters for battered women, skills development and employment support and other organizations around the world, including Haiti and right here in Canada. She is playing a key role in giving voice to women’s issues around the world.

Reading one of her lectures after the event, I’m struck by some of the language. It reads like pretty old-school radical feminism: “The male community that stands unwilling to compromise is the emblem of the past….For the sake of a promising future, the minds and intellects of women and men need to become one. We cannot wait any longer.”

And still, Amma hugs. Everyone - men, women, old, young. Sometimes for 20 hours a day. She even hugs members of the media like me who show up in a black and pink dress (white seems to be the colour of the day), with skeptical minds and who have hang-ups about taking their shoes off. (That’s me in the picture.)

Entering the conference room (barefoot, despite the hang-up), I look around the room with its dozens of people patiently waiting for their hug, experiencing the moment and her presence, meditating and smiling and chatting. I see people of all different ages and nationalities (by which I mean everyone - not just people of colour) - not unusual for Toronto. The one thing I don’t see is anyone rushing around, which is very unusual for Toronto- at least, for my Toronto.

I watch Amma hug the people ahead of me - a mother and her daughters. I’m surprised at how long the hug lasts. The girls are bubbly, bouncing. The mother’s back straightens as Amma whispers to her.

Then it’s my turn. I kneel down and she pulls me in and says (in the language of my choice, from which I understand she knows these words in many languages): daughter daughter daughter daughter. She was soft, but strong — I’m guessing those hugging muscles are well toned — and smelled overwhelmingly of roses.

It struck me that it has actually been a long time since I hugged my mother. Or spent a while thinking about compassion, or poverty. Or slowed down to hang out with people who are thinking about love and its place in the world.

Amma, I’m told by Kelly Cutrone, doesn’t care if you’re a believer and isn’t out to convert anyone. She just believes that her hug will change something, all on its own. And it might.

The importance of paying bills on time.
How to use a hammer & measuring tape.
How to wash a toilet.
How to pump gas.
How to do laundry.
How to make a meal.
How to create a household budget.
How to read a cellphone contract.
Effective time management skills.
How to take responsibility for one’s actions.
Mindfulness
Compassion for others
How to dress appropriately for a job interview
How to drive a stick shift

Still, for your summer reading here’s a roundup of some writing on the web about cottages/summer homes:

A Summer Rental of One’s Own (New York Times)
Restored Cottage Relocation (Southern Living)
9 ways to be a good cottage guest (Cottage Life)
Bob Dylan Goes Tubing (The Walrus, fiction)
A Beachcomber’s delight (East Coast Living)