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Hypotenuse (or As the Crow Flies)
Hypotenuse – The side of a right triangle opposite the right angle. There is something in me that craves efficiency. Perhaps it’s a flavor of impatience. It says that if I am here and what I want is there, getting what I want should be as easy as traversing the distance from here to there–traveling the hypotenuse like the proverbial crow. The problem is…life isn’t straight lines and short cuts. Life is filled with crab walking, roundabouts, and waiting and seeing. When we think we know where we’re going, our circuitous routes feel like detours. When the destination is less certain, the path can feel like a perpetual aimlessness. We don’t fly like crows.…
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It Still Takes a Village
I am on the road this week and thought I would share some of the first blogs I published before I began posting them on social media outlets. The need for human connection in all we do is real, intrinsic, and urgent. Here are thoughts on making those connections. It Takes a Village originally published August 4, 2015. Thanks.
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Upsiders
There is a story told of an old farmer and the series of events that come to pass in his life. His horse runs away. His horse returns…bringing with it a dozen wild horses. His son is thrown while breaking the wild horses injuring his arm. A war breaks out, and his son is exempt from duty because of his broken limb. Back and forth it goes. At each point in the story, the villagers congratulate or console the farmer based on his revised circumstances saying, “oh, how wonderful” or “oh, such terrible news” in turn. And each time, the farmer sagely responds “perhaps”. Like March weather in the Midwest, our life circumstances are often…
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10,000 Hours
In 2008, Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers suggested that anyone can develop world-class expertise at any skill by dedicating 10,000 hours to practicing it. While not all experts agreed with his theory, it does support the age-old adage that practice makes perfect. So, now that we’re considering committing the 10,000 hours, the bigger question is how do we decide that we will practice? You may think, what a minute, I didn’t commit to practicing anything! But consider the idea a little more broadly, where we spend our time is where we are practicing already. To that way of thinking, we are all practicing something. What is it we are choosing to perfect? There…
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Economy of the Heart
“If it doesn’t help, it hurts.” — from a discussion on photographic composition This fundamental economy of expression is true in other mediums as well. More words do not necessarily bring more value to written work. We appreciate Matisse and Picasso for their depth of communication through the use of a single line. This economy has a translation for action, too. How we spend our time matters. Economy of action suggests that right action is exactly enough. Each day we are faced with people and circumstances that demand our attention. We can avoid them temporarily, but they will not be ignored forever. Whether we are faced with an individual or an emotion, if…
