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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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Guardians
Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. — Max Ehrmann, The Desiderata How often do we consider protecting our spirit? We use sunscreen on our bodies; limit what our minds encounter through ratings and reviews. But our spirits, delicate and resilient, require a different type of care. In this verse, Ehrmann instructs us to guard against loud and aggressive people. Yesterday at Target, a woman was having words with her child. She was several rows away, but her tone was notable. I observed myself becoming more attentive to my surroundings and beckoning my daughter closer. It was a primal response to danger. Involuntarily, we avoid loud,…
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Leave Pride On The Side
Now and then, I’m afforded the opportunity to share in a vehicle donation community project. It is the cooperative endeavor of several hands to make refurbished transportation possible to a person or family in need. It is absolute goodness. It happened again this past week. As the recipient was passed the keys, he commented about times in life when we need to leave pride on the side and ask for help. I was struck by the visual of an item being left behind, cast aside its value exhausted. How often does pride, or its equally debilitating sibling fear, get in the way of our asking for help? Or admitting to…
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Noblesse Oblige
Surely, you can’t mean me. There must be some mistake. In every tale of triumph, there is a moment when the protagonist doubts himself certain that he lacks the necessary talent, knowledge, or courage to meet the challenges that lie in his path. In a culture of pivoting thumbs, it is easy to slip into the habit of self-doubt. Whether externally messaged in a 1,000 different ways or simply as the verdict passed down through the court of our own perceptions, the certainty that there must be some mistake is the rally cry of all would-be heroes. It is also the prelude to greatness. Through the years, I have had…
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Shiny Nickels
“I am never gonna think my way into being a shiny new nickel. I have to go out and do something about it.” –Anonymous New ways of thinking and paradigm shifts are hardly ever birthed out of our new thinking alone. Self-reflection is powerful, but it is rarely enough. Real change is experiential, and it starts with discomfort. Like a few grains of sand in our shoe. Something doesn’t quite work the way it used to. It doesn’t feel right. Maybe we’ve changed. Maybe the situation has changed. Maybe we’ve gotten new information. Maybe…all of the above. Whatever the reason, what once was okay is no longer. Our period of discontent may last moments or…
