Posts Tagged ‘Gratitude’
Memorial Days
Today is Memorial Day in the United States—a day set aside to remember those who have died in the service of our country. Originally called Decoration Day, the tradition of visiting the graves of fallen soldiers likely began before the Civil War was even over. In 1971, Congress standardized the holiday as “Memorial Day” and…
Read MoreTiny Perfect Things
“Most of life is just junk. It’s filler, and then there’s these moments when all the randomness turns into something perfect. It’s like life’s dropping all the bullshit just for a second to show us how amazing it could be all the time, if it wanted to.” Mark (The Map of Tiny Perfect Things) In The…
Read MoreEnough
I was part of a CEO panel recently and was asked to answer the question, “What is the most important trait for a leader to possess?” My answer was humility, but if I could go back, I would change my answer to gratefulness. As we prepare for Thanksgiving this week, I find myself revisiting the…
Read MoreNothing In The End
He that is hard to please may get nothing in the end. Aesop I like dogs. We have two, Roscoe, a mutt we found on the street, and Dixie, a pit bull mix we adopted from a shelter. Both have their oddities but also have a trait common to most dogs; they are easy to…
Read MoreGrateful Vigilance
A great friend of mine recently left a lucrative job because the person they were working for was “ungrateful, unreasonable, and unfair.” That first word, “ungrateful”, caught my attention. What is so important about gratitude, and why do we find the lack of it so distasteful? We just observed the Fourth of July, Independence Day…
Read MoreLead Like A Mother
My mother is an amazing person, as I am sure yours is. I am certain I have no idea what she thinks about herself deep down in the secret place of her being that only she can visit. I can imagine many of the ways she views herself, because they coincide with roles she fills…
Read MorePebbles In Our Shoes
I used to run. A lot. At one point my running partners and I were doing 200-mile relays with four people and competing in 100-mile individual races. I learned something very important during this time of my life. It’s the little things that matter. Often it isn’t the mountains ahead that wear you out, it’s…
Read MoreYou Don’t Get To Pick
I had the amazing opportunity to visit with a class of business students at Oklahoma Baptist University last Friday. I love talking with college students. They are intense, brave, curious, and not easy to impress. They will listen to what you have to say, but they will question you too and make up their own…
Read MoreGratefully Thankful
This week will contain the fourth Thursday in November. Since 1942, by an act of Congress, this date has been Thanksgiving. Before that, it was observed intermittently and on various dates. Abraham Lincoln, in 1863, had proclaimed the last Thursday in November a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth…
Read MoreLook to the Light
“I have good news, and I have bad news. Which do you want first?” How many times has someone said this to you? And which do you choose to hear first? We almost all have a default choice that we have rationalized in our mind. We think, “It’s not just one or the other; I’m…
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