Make it yourself, author recommends

Published 5:44 pm Tuesday, May 11, 2010

In the months that Mark Frauenfelder lived on an island in the South Pacific with his family, he found that the most memorable and rewarding experiences involved collecting, extracting and cooking coconut with his young daughter.

When he returned to Los Angeles, he promised himself he would find an equivalent to “coconut day.”

Slowing down your busy life to make your own food or work on a special project is the stuff life is made of, says Frauenfelder, author of the recently published “Made by Hand: Searching for Meaning in a Throwaway World.”

“For too long, my family had been outsourcing and paying for convenience, losing the connection and the fun that comes with making something yourself,” said Frauenfelder. “If you can make these small but meaningful projects a daily ritual, it can improve the quality of your life.”

Associated Press