The Best Definition of Friendship

The Best Definition of Friendship

“I learned that a friend may be waitingbehind a stranger’s face.”  Maya Angelou It is a good morning when your day starts with a phone call from someone with whom you share the same values, interests, and intentions. Many of my friendships start with one kind of...
The Risk and Impact of Isolation

The Risk and Impact of Isolation

“All things are subject to interpretation.Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche   Researchers report: Civility isn’t just in decline, it is disappearing. Because we are losing...
Who Am I?

Who Am I?

“Who am I really? What have I done? What is important and meaningful to me? What difference does it make that I have lived? What does it mean to be truly human, and where am I on that scale?” — Morrie Schwartz     The Wisdom of Morrie:Living and Aging Creatively and...
What Simple Fun Teaches

What Simple Fun Teaches

Fun itself hasn’t changed — the nature of work has changed and will continue to change.But fun is fun, as much fun now as it was then.Forever.” — Bernard DeKoven, “The Playful Path” A Playful Path is the shortest road to happiness. — the Oaqui   I love stories...
Team Chaos!!!

Team Chaos!!!

“Chaos was the law of nature;Order was the dream of man.Chaos often breeds life,when order breeds habit.” — Henry Adams   More than one dog is a pack. I have five smaller dogs, 4 French Bulldogs and an English Bulldog. They have been given a nickname...
More Fun with a Partner

More Fun with a Partner

“It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too)those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” — Charles Darwin I believe that everyday experiences and formative life experiences are good fodder for building...
Discovering More Gears

Discovering More Gears

“More coal, more smoke, more heat,more steam, more pressure, more speed. ― Martin R. Jackson I have operated with several gears for most of my life. Gears is my metaphor for my work/lifestyles that I move in with ease. Life and work require us to have a full range of...
The Caregiver Syndrome

The Caregiver Syndrome

“Kindness can transform someone’s dark moment with a blaze of light. You’ll never know how much your caring matters.” — Amy Leigh Mercree   My recent health challenges have caused me to be even more reflective than I am normally. In sharing my experience with a...
Gratitude and Breath

Gratitude and Breath

 “They’re funny things, Accidents. You never have them till you’re having them.” — Eeyore, “The House at Pooh Corner”   When I tested myself today, COVID still registered positive. I will have to relearn how to mask — and take things more...
Late to the Game

Late to the Game

Drawing by Kei Acedera © Disney Productions “I’m late, I’m lateFor a very important date.No time to say hello, good-bye,I’m late, I’m late, I’m late” ― The White Rabbit March 27 had been circled on my calendar for months....
Two sides of the same coin: Love and Grief

Two sides of the same coin: Love and Grief

“A dog is the only thing on Earth that loves you more than it loves itself.” ― Josh Billings My Facebook page shares with me the posts from previous years. Each day I visit the label called ‘Memories’ to view what was happening in my life on this day from...
Unraveling the secrets to love, relationships, and marriage

Unraveling the secrets to love, relationships, and marriage

Many of us seek community solely to escape the fear of being alone. Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.” ― Bell Hooks   No — I am not building a dating...
For better, for worse

For better, for worse

  “I used to think that the worst thing in lifewas to end up all alone. It’s not.The worst thing in life is ending upwith people who make you feel all alone.” — Robin Williams I have no experience being a married person. I have not yet fulfilled that commitment....
Food, Mood, and Learning

Food, Mood, and Learning

“Lunch should consist of at least1/3 relationship-building talk.If you don’t have time for business talk,it was a very successful lunch.” — Jeffrey Gitomer One of my favorite things to do is to connect with someone over a shared meal. Yesterday...
What’s in a (Nick)Name?

What’s in a (Nick)Name?

“Titles are but nicknames, and every nickname is a title.” — Thomas Paine   What do you think about nicknames? Have you ever given someone a nickname? Did they know? Did that nickname carry a positive, negative, or neutral theme? What was your...
Rememeber When?

Rememeber When?

“The bad news is time flies.The good news is you’re the pilot.” — Michael Altshuler Do you find yourself having conversations that reflect on things in the past? Remember when we used the fax machine? Remember landline phones with cords? Can you remember your...
Time is the Equalizer

Time is the Equalizer

Time is the most undefinableyet paradoxical of things;the past is gone,the future is not come,and the present becomes the past,even while we attempt to define it.” — Charles Caleb Colton For years I have maintained this reflective habit. When given the gift of time...
Embracing the Ache

Embracing the Ache

“I like the pace of my world. It’s busy, but for me, the less I do the lazier I get.” ― Hoda Kotb   This morning I found myself smiling as I bustled through the morning routines that have been made complicated by the acquisition of two new little French...
Fraying at the Edges

Fraying at the Edges

“Big stress or little stress—your body reacts the same way. The human body doesn’t differentiate between major or minor stress. Regardless of the catalyst, a typical stress reaction floods the body with a wave of 1,400 biochemical events. If this happens too...
Predictable Habits and Rituals

Predictable Habits and Rituals

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” — Aristotle   My Myers-Briggs-Type-Inventory personality style assessment is spot on. I am an ENFP. Let me explain for those who are not as enthusiastic about style assessments as I am....
No Brief Candle

No Brief Candle

“My father would tell me that there is a plan for me. My mother still tells me that all of my dreams will come true someday. Their hair is now as white as flames on candles. Wonder if they got everything that they wanted in life? Theirs is the greatest achievement of...
What Happens After Hello?

What Happens After Hello?

Mostly, it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things. — Arthur Schopenhauer   Recently, I complicated my life again, but in a good way. My most senior dog and working companion, Buddha Bear the Brindle Boxer, developed a brain tumor. When his seizures...
Trends Part Two

Trends Part Two

“The ability for a group of people to do remarkable things hinges on how well those people can pull together as a team.” — Simon Sinek   So, yesterday, I left you with a bunch of questions about what trends you’ve noticed recently. And asked how they...
Trends Part One

Trends Part One

“Unless commitment is made,there are only promises and hopes;but no plans.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson   I meet with a group of colleagues each month. Recently we were discussing the trends we were personally experiencing as well as those we see developing...