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Vade Mecum
vade mecum —noun something a person carries about for frequent or regular use. a book for ready reference; manual; handbook. Luggage sets come with some large bags and at least one small one to be used as a carry-on. We naturally divide things for a journey. Which items will we need handy? Which are relegated to checked luggage? Understanding our vade mecum can provide insight into what is most important to us. And, what we’re most dependent on. Things we think we can’t live without. Sure, it includes the obvious…wallet, phone, house keys. What else? When you’re packing for a trip, what makes it under the seat in front of you? Is there a…
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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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Data to Wisdom
Lately there has been a great deal of emphasis placed on data. We are inundated with up to the minute statistics. Percentage points gained and lost on political campaigns, standardized test scores, and municipal crime rates fill our news feeds. The media has embraced a philosophy that maintains adding a data point legitimizes any story. The implication being that res ipsa loquitur…the “data” speaks for itself. While data in the form of facts and figures is important, it is only part of a story. Adding context to data give us information…more illuminating that simple data. Add the passage of time, and information becomes knowledge. In this way, we moved from data as singular facts,…
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What If?
What if everything in this life has happened exactly as it was supposed to? What if all the injustices (perceived or real), the missed opportunities, the almosts, the not quites, the coulda woulda shouldas disappeared? And all that remained was life…exactly as it is in the present moment. No regrets. No remorse. No worry about the future. What if the yardstick by which we measured life never came up short? What if our lives were laid before us like a hand of cards? Not to be judged as winning or losing but rather to be played…joyfully…thoughtfully…with great gusto! How would your day be different if it were free from regret, worry, and doubt?…
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Fast. Slow. Colorful.
Time is an abstraction of eternity. A glimpse, for mortals, of what could be if we spend ours wisely in life. — Dean Cavanaugh The more desperately we want something to occur, the longer it seems to take. Time expands with our desire. We count the minutes waiting for the phone to ring, the storm to pass, or the plane to land. As though by clock watching, we can accelerate ourselves through uncomfortableness. Ironically, we often experience the opposite sensation. The more we focus on that we wish to avoid, the more present we are to it. Like the proverbial rough tooth that draws the tongue, the obsessive thought grows and eclipses the…
