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Extend Grace
“I cannot cure my own blindness.” Anonymous If you were a child of the 70s, or perhaps were raised by one, you are likely familiar with “Schoolhouse Rock!”, the short, educational cartoons that punctuated Saturday morning television. To this day, I think I learned more about grammar from those segments than I did in school (nod to the virtue of a catchy tune and relatable narratives to convey a concept). Fast forward forty-ish years, unpacking our adjectives remains central to how we relate to the world around us. We have good days or bad days. We like foods that are salty and/or sweet. The tricky thing is how relative our…
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Odd Gratitudes
A friend and I took a walk last week. Dutifully, we maintained a six-foot distance. Neither of us have COVID…that we know of. But that’s the thing, right? Nobody really knows from one day to the next. With or without shelter in place orders, our limbic cortexes (lizard brains) stay on high alert through endless rounds of hand scrubbing. It seems counter-intuitive to suggest that we might be grateful in the time of a prolonged, global crisis. And yet it is there. Hidden in our optimistic choices that reflect and promote joy. For example, how many people do you know who have adopted a pet in the last five months?…
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“It”
“The more serious we are about being true to a vision, the more we realize it is our life work.” – Peter Block Hello again, it has been a minute since I wrote my last blog. I started graduate school in August 2018, and homework has sapped my extra time as well as much of my free range creativity. Even so, the scholarly effort I extend toward that goal does not work quite the same muscles as this blog. I have missed it. This quote from Block, it caught my attention. It is from his well-known Flawless Consulting, an assigned text for class. Honestly, my first thought in reading the…
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Gimme a C…or Two
“So I turned myself to face meBut I’ve never caught a glimpse”–David Bowie, Changes In the last month, I completed the final exam in a multi-part certification, a new school year started for the kids, and graduate school began for me. Add to that, the first week of the month I was on the road, and this week I learned of an unexpected job change. Changes. While some of these events were a surprise, most of them were planned, and I was challenged by a gauntlet of activity. Nothing unique here. Everyone is busy. The question is how to stay true to ourselves in the face of wearisome circumstances? There…
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Unchanging Fortunes
Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. — Max Ehrmann, The Desiderata When I first read this, I thought it was a little strange that we needed reminding to keep interested in our careers. I mean for most people, myself included, it takes a bit of reminding to prevent us from thinking about ourselves. As my friend Dan once joked, “I’m not much but I’m all I think about!” But looking more carefully at what Max wrote, perhaps it was intended as a warning. Perhaps he recognized that comparison is the instigator of discontent. Instead of worrying about…
