Vivian Laurence

Before my mother’s mother died last month, she said to her daughter, “Always make people laugh.” The last words she spoke before incoherence overtook her were that simple. Keep ‘em laughing. Cultivate lightness in your heart and share it with others. Coming from a woman who lived life so thoroughly with heart, the purity of […]

Art Piece of the Week: Textures on Water by Shigeru Uchida for Studio 80. Forgive me if this column is disjointed. Alas, time is but a sphere. Or, as Kian would say, a flat circle. Don’t get it twisted – this sh*t is not linear. In 1931, Amelia Earhart sat and typed this letter to

Art piece of the week: The Weather Project by Olafur Eliasson This column, by title, is inherently focused on the shiny and bright side of life. I do find it sort of funny because happiness can be the most illusive, impermanent feeling in the world and it seems to be misunderstood. Or perhaps, over-emphasized, maybe

film photograph of the week by Nathalie Basoski. Sometimes life down here feels like tripping over your own feet and smacking your face on the pavement. Usually that abrupt and all-too-familiar sensation comes on the heels of a stupendous flight, soaring beyond what my imagination thought possible. But I’m learning how to be at peace

Art piece of the Week by ARTC Piece of Mind Morocco. Listen. Put a pause on everything for a moment. Just for a moment, breathe deeply. In and out, in and out. Get quiet so that you can hear your heart. There is a rhythm inside of you that is keeping you alive. Listen and

Art piece of the Week by Fiona Hsieh Mercury Retrograde made me abandon this column for an entire month. I am so sorry. Responsibilities are like, hella overwhelming sometimes. It’s fine, let’s move on. There’s a quote from Bruce Lee that I have written on a yellow post-it note and stuck to my bathroom wall. It

Art piece of the week: Artist and title unknown. People often talk about the “secret ingredient” or “key” to many things in life — success, achievement, wealth, relationship — the list goes on and on. But when it comes to happiness, I think it’s very simple. In fact, if there has ever been a “secret”

You know how we get closer to what we want? By being thankful for what we already have. No, really. There’s plenty of quantum science behind this, but you can study on your own time. Today I’m here to talk about Play. Just for fun. Play is the quickest way to tap into that extra

Artist of the Week: Jahra “Rager” Wasasala, world-builder, contemporary dancer and poet. A force of nature. Photographed by Sam MacDonald. This week began with a vivid dream of someone I used to know. I woke up in my feelings and they didn’t leave my body for two days. It was a familiar heaviness that I

ARTWORK: Fireflies by Keith Carter, 1992. I have a theory that happiness is an exuberant relief. If I really consider what happiness feels like, I’d call it light-hearted. Happiness is a break from force and a breakthrough to flow. In the absence of tension or pressure, there is space for lightness to be centerstage. That