My sister was going through some old pictures recently and found one I had apparently sent her years ago. She texted me the photo and I laughed when I saw it. It was me in 1976, on stage with a boy band…er…male quartet …I travelled the country with. The longer I looked at the pic the more reflective I became. I had my mopped hair head down, arms folded and was clearly in deep thought....Continue reading...
“Some of us wander from place to place, and many others of us don’t. We have the Somewhere people, who are very much of a place and rooted there, and we have the Anywhere people, who have a faint sense of belonging wherever they are and if they ever had a place, they left it behind long ago.” Neil King Jr., American Ramble: a walk of memory and renewal. Are you a Somewhere person or...Continue reading...
I was so scared of him that when I recognized his footfall coming down the stairs toward my office, I would lock the door, pull the shade, turn out the lights and hide. Did I mention I was a grown, 25-year-old man? It was my first full-time employment which, in many ways, I enjoyed. I dearly loved the young men and women I was tasked to care for. But with my boss I had a...Continue reading...
“My life looks way better than it feels.” Darren Waller, 31, NFL player New York Giants In his recent public announcement of his retirement, Waller noted that in walking away from a 9-year football career he was leaving more than $30 million dollars on the table and would even owe back almost $1 million in bonus money. Why? His reasons are worth paying attention to… “I feel like I spent most of my life doing...Continue reading...
“I’ve come to believe that the quality of our lives, and the health of our society depends, to a large degree, on how well we treat each other in the minute interactions of daily life.” David Brooks, How to Really Know a Person That might explain some things. We are not treating each other very well, are we? Brooks’ book helped me take stock of just how well (or poorly) I have been treating the...Continue reading...
This past weekend I had the joy of watching our oldest granddaughter, Isabella, graduate from high school. How could she be that old????…sigh… During the ceremony, a graduate of her school gave a brief but excellent commencement address. Here is some background on him from his website: Former MLB player turned artist, Micah Johnson, is the creator of Aku. After hearing a young boy ask his mom if astronauts could be black, Johnson was inspired...Continue reading...
Humility is “the mother and mistress of all the virtues”, according to the early church father John Cassian. Makes me wonder…if humility is all that important, just how much of it do I possess? Humility is in short supply. “Hubris and babble permeate the very air we breathe today”, suggests Richard Foster in his new book Learning Humility: a Year of Searching for a Vanishing Virtue. He goes on to observe that we are “witnessing...Continue reading...
Like so many Americans, this past month, I got caught up in the phenomenon of women’s collegiate basketball. The energy, passion and drive of great players like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso drew me in. I was a fan! Actually, I am a fan of anyone who lives from a sense of calling or deep purpose, like those women do. It has been my great joy these past 5 years of Destinyworks to...Continue reading...
What is your number one “ick” about people? I’m not a big fan of slang, but I like “ick”. Ick is that feeling of dislike you get about a person because of something they said or did that turned you off. While you think of your “ick”, I’ll tell you mine. You’re having coffee with someone, and you kick off the conversation with, “How have you been?” Your friend begins to unload their life. You...Continue reading...
