Don’t let the moment pass you by without asking a few important questions. At 10:45 a.m. that Monday morning, we all stood up from our desks and walked quietly out of the classroom and down the hall to the playground. …
Alaska! Photos from the land of awe
I was blessed to take part with my girls, my fiancé and a number of family members in a week-long cruise to Alaska. We sailed out of Vancouver, British Columbia, and headed up Alaska’s Inside Passage, with stops in Juneau, …
Peak experiences and the life-changing power of awe
Toward the end of his life, American psychologist Abraham Maslow (you’ve probably heard of his hierarchy of needs) recognized something interesting. As he studied the things that allow people to become “self-actualized,” or to reach their fullest potential in life, …
I’m declaring 2017 the year of empathy
Other people suck. I haven’t posted much on the blog lately, but it’s not because I haven’t been writing. I’ve actually been writing a lot, but mostly for an online writing course, which has taken up my creative bandwidth for …
Ask a grackle what time it is
Grackles are my favorite birds. You can keep your peacocks and parrots, robins and roadrunners. I’ll take grackles any day. Sure, they’re kind of ugly. They have an abrasive call. They’re annoying and invasive, and they frighten other birds away. …
I’ve stopped trying to be happy. Now I’m doing this.
True confession time: For a period of about three years, I paid a stranger to listen to my deepest, most embarrassing secrets. Part of the arrangement was that he was supposed to give me useful advice without judging me (though …
What you focus on matters…so focus on the BIG things
Happy Doomsday (aka, Election Day)! Now that this day’s finally here, I hereby officially add my name to list of millions worldwide who are excited to see this cosmic joke of an election cycle come to an end (or at …
The most important emotion you never feel anymore
“We have scrubbed the world of magic.” — Alan Watts “Never lose a holy curiosity.” — Albert Einstein “Awesome” is a word I hear nearly every day. I say it myself when one of my daughters shows me her schoolwork or …
How to find the meaning in your suffering
Let me tell you about Annie. Annie (not her real name) was the girlfriend of someone in my extended family. A few months after the two of them moved in together, her partner (my family member) was killed in a …
On dying early
On March 28, 1942, an elite but untested force of British Commandos conducted one of the most daring raids ever attempted behind enemy lines during World War II. It happened at a critical moment of the war, as France had …