Hey Reader! Traveling around this summer? Sticking close to home to visit with family? Or a combination of both? One of the things I love about travel as it underlines how similar we all are, no matter the outward trappings or varied locales, there are some basic ways in which we're all just human beings, doing our best. But ... things here are tense, and our shared humanity is something people seem hard-pressed to remember. Consequently, you may need a communication strategy for when things...
9 days ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader! It's super easy to get overwhelmed . . . . . . by news, family, work, anxiety . . . You name it! When we get overwhelmed, enjoying ourselves becomes tough. When we're not enjoying ourselves, we forget that the point of living isn't just working ourselves to the bone. We're meant to have fun and enjoy life. Productivity obsession sucks the fun out of work. Part of the problem is that Americans live in a productivity-obsessed culture that can make work hard to enjoy. Publicly held...
16 days ago • 3 min read
Hey Reader! I've spent much of my adult life working with associations and nonprofits, often as the youngest in the room. When I was twenty, that didn't surprise me. Thirty years later, it's concerning. Associations and nonprofits everywhere need a surge of new talent. Without that, their future is uncertain. After all, if I'm the youngest at 51, who will take over when I retire? How do you engage people? That's why I was invited to speak at a local gathering last night. Initially, I was...
23 days ago • 3 min read
Hey Reader! Every spring, my friends have a ritual. They pilgrimage to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (JazzFest). They travel without flags and poles to signal their position in the crowd. No coolers or blankets lay claim to a patch they camp out on all day. Foldable chairs remain in the car. For a weekend, all that matters is music, and they follow the sound of horns from stage to stage, knowing that wherever they end up, it will be good. After more than two decades of pilgrimage,...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Hey Reader! There’s a lot we absorb as kids that we drag with us into adulthood. We may not even remember the lesson, but it shows up in our inner voice as that critical voice acting like it’s the fun police. It makes you feel guilty for laughing too loud, or having that extra cookie, or whatever you got yelled at when you were little. We’ve been conditioned to be silent If you went through school, chances are you got yelled at to sit down and shut up. Or, if you were a quiet kid, you watched...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader! Spring is such a hopeful season. Meadows fill with baby deer, bunnies, and animals of all kinds. Long-dormant trees sprout fresh, green leaves, while flowers vie for attention with their vibrant colors and abundant blooms. Everything springs to life, all at once, in a joyful riot. It's enough to make your heart sing. Celebrations abound Religious holidays echo the world's glorious rebirth. The repentant season of Ramadan has ended, allowing our Muslim friends to walk into spring...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader! In times of uncertainty, it's so easy to get stuck. We get overloaded. We get speedy. Our thoughts get cloudy. It's hard to organize our thoughts. We don't know where to begin. We freeze. We retreat. We cocoon. We give up. The mounting frustration bubbles up and explodes. We self-medicate. We lash out. We harm ourselves and others. Your emotions are a river. Don't dam them up. Let them flow. And once you've given them full vent, sit in that emptiness. Focus on nothing but the...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader! Last night, I found myself in a little fishing village in Iceland. Walking along the waterfront, I stumbled upon this driftwood sculpture of Klemus Bjarnason, a man sentenced to death in 1690. The Klemus Bjarnason sculpture overlooking Hólmavik harbor. His crime? Not getting along with his neighbors. Yep, you read that right. People didn’t like him. The plaque mentioned that he’d been creeping people out since he was a kid. A feud between Klemus and the family on Hrófberg farm...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Hey Reader! Friday morning, I awoke to bad news via a text message. “Last night, D__ passed away.” How do you react to news of a friend passing? I climbed back into bed and hugged my dog. I’m not the kind of person to rail against God, or insist death is an injustice. It always seems sudden, shattering, and somewhat pointless. It always catches me off guard. Forces me to examine what I’m doing and if I’d be satisfied if my life ended in the next moment. After all, we can’t see around corners....
2 months ago • 1 min read