Musings
Finding Joy
I am reminded every day by my own responses and emotions that I am far too reliant on my circumstances for my serenity and joy. I let trivial things derail my day. I allow thieves of expectation and entitlement to break in and take what is truly valuable. I exist when I should be living.…
Read MoreManaging
As we get ready to start a new year, I thought I would remind myself of my job. What is it that I am supposed to do? We often use terms like “leader” and “manager,” and we all have fancy titles like “Chief This” and “Chief That” or “Vice President of This and That.” We…
Read MoreBees
Over dinner one night this week, one of my sons told me he was interested in keeping bees. Funny that we say we “keep” bees. More on that later. The reason he brought this up, he said, was because he knew I kept bees when I was younger. I did. I love bees. However, they…
Read MoreEquals
In the movie Equals, we find ourselves in a dystopian future devoid of human emotion. Everyone is the same. Everyone is equal. Except there is a problem. Some people are experiencing emotions. They are “diagnosed” with SOS (Switched On Syndrome) and quarantined until they kill themselves from despair. In this future, equality is actualized as…
Read MoreIt Matters
Bedlam: a place, scene, or state of uproar and confusion. First, congratulations to those of you who earned a degree from the University of Oklahoma. Your alma mater played well and deserves to be the Big 12 Champion. Perine taking a knee on the one-yard line was a classy move. The word bedlam originated around…
Read MoreListening
Several times in the past couple of weeks, the subject of listening has come up. One instance was during a meeting where someone shared how listening to the concerns of other stakeholders in a process is vital to them being willing to join the effort and has an equal benefit of bringing a lot of…
Read MoreMindfulness
I will not attempt to address the issues, methods, theories, or oddities of this year’s presidential election. I thought maybe I would, but the more I read and the more I think, the more certain I am that I am wrong. While I don’t mind being wrong, I would rather not write it down. What…
Read MoreChange
Let’s talk about change. More specifically, the changing of things that were “built around systems designed to respond to the social structures and technologies of the industrial age” and “ought to be fundamentally rethought for the one we live in now,” according to Tim Brown, president and chief executive of IDEO. In The New York…
Read MoreA Compassionate Society
I encourage you to vote in tomorrow’s election. I hope you will encourage those around you to vote. Our system of governance is based on the fundamental right of the people to advocate for what’s important to us. The government we have and the policies they enact are a reflection of our cultural choices (whether…
Read MoreChristmas Basket Letter
I am writing this before Thanksgiving. That’s important because I have a strict “no Christmas before Thanksgiving” policy. So rigid is this rule in my home that in retaliation my family requires that I participate in getting out and putting up every single Christmas decoration on Friday the day after Thanksgiving. Call us dysfunctional, but…
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