On the joy of taxes

Taxes is a sensitive issue. In the US many people see taxes as something that belongs inside the axes of evil. And in Sweden few people seem to enjoy paying tax. But I´m an exeption. Having received excellent care all three times I´ve given birth, seeing my children get great daycare and having enjoyed free university education simply makes me l i k e to pay income tax. I know that business taxes can be very hard for an entrepreneur. I also know the Swedish model is far from perfect, but at least very few people live on the streets. Therefore I smiled when I read super-rich philanthropist Warren Buffets op-ed in New York Times the other day. In the article Buffet argues for higher taxes and asks Washington to stop coddling the super-rich as if "we were spotted owls or some other endangered species". Go Warren!

Wise words

While traveling in Sweden - on my way to Dalarna and and lovely, ancient Gotland - I see them everywhere. Wise words, like a whisper from old ancestors. And new notes, at home in the heart of the family.



It is human do do wrong but it is divine to forgive.



All is perishable, changes and gives life to something new.





Love note from little sister to big sister.

Page One - Soon on a Screen Near You

My dear collegue Amanda just pointed me to this - the trailer for Page One: Inside The New York Times. The filmmakers have followed reporters and editors at the Newspaper for a full year and the documentary is indeed very haussed, in Huffington Posts words hotly-anticipated-by-media-junkies-and-other-journalists... So when are the filmmakers coming to us at TT?

Dreaming

Enjoying spring, thinking of summer, sort of dreaming of Paris and New York.

Borrowed from beautiful All the mountains...


Near our house...

With a Sukha Mukha-smile

As I keep running through life - from schools and daycare to the news agency, where the turmoil in Libya and tragic events in Japan keep us more than buzy - I think of something my dear yoga teacher keeps preaching. It´s kalled sukha mukha and it could be translated into "happy face yoga". Sukha means joyous, happy or blissed and Mukha is face. My techer want´s me to put on a happy face even when the poses are more than challenging. As with everything on the yoga mat, this can be translated into everyday life. The attitude and level of stress we bring into an assignment has a big impact on what we make out of it. Worth thinking about while running to our loved ones.





Our house-Buddha never leaves his calm.

Inspiring words from JFK still live

This week I spent some exciting time writing a story on the 50th anniversary of US president John F Kennedy's inaugural address (and his life). It´s the one with the famous line "ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.". While studying the speech I found it full of beautiful and inspiring passages. How about "With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own"?
JFK had some very dark sides, but the ability to inspire people - to make somebody feel that he/or she can rise and become a better self - is actually divine. In a time of cold war, the difficult struggle for civil rights and a bad recession (not to different from today) he made America and large parts of the world believe again. Large parts of that speech is very relevant today. Plus he had a style icon family - some of the pictures of Jackie Kennedy makes me wanna awake her stylist from the dead...

Fabulous Good Running

I first heard about this idea from our dear friend and world citizen Min Li. It´s simple, smart and rather fabulous. It´s called The Good Gym and it goes like this: Everybody want´s to exercise - it makes us balanced, healthy, beautiful and full of harmony. When you´re at it why not do something good for a co-human? While jogging you could pick up a newspaper for someone less mobile in the neighborhood, run an errand for someone who needs the help or simply provide some kindness and contact for a person who lives alone.
Runners with The Good Gym in Great Britain commit to at least one run per week and according to all the stories on the gym's home page it really keeps them motivated.
The Good Gym has won some prizes and recently BBC did a story on them. Now one of my favorite publications Good Magazine wrote about the phenomenon.
I just think there should be a branch in every city...