Intimacy is being seen and known as the person you truly are. Amy Bloom In my February blog entitle “On Being Fully Human,” I wrote about three leaders, each of whom allowed inhumanity to slip into the “edges” of their lives. When I penned those words, I had not yet read Isaacson’s …
Books to Know & Love…”I’m Still Standing”
I’m Still Standing: How One Woman’s Brushes with Death Taught Her How To Live by Kelly Standing. In the spirit of full disclosure, I know Kelly Standing…at least in small measure. She and I were cohorts at Speaker University, a wonderful series produced by the Illinois Chapter of the National Speakers Association. For that, the …
On Being Fully Human
Note: The following is being published this week in the March issue of Batavia Business, the monthly publication of the Batavia Chamber of Commerce. When I began these words, I would have thought that being human and being inhuman were opposites and mutually exclusive. But now I wonder. The spectrum of words that define “inhuman” range …
Something in Me Would Die
At the end of a very successful, and completely redesigned, Chamber event, I turned to a member of the Board and told him I felt much of the success emanated from having turned many of the evening’s details over the young man who was emcee. “You should do that more often!” he suggested. The lightness …
Expectation Unfulfilled
Every once in a while I am arrogant enough to think that life has left me in charge. When I believe I am, life is quick to remind me of my arrogance. Just before Christmas, the Operation Snowball family lost another teen to suicide. This past Thursday, the teen directors decided to use the …
Beauty So Very Difficult To See
He sat alone, with his head buried in his hands. One of the other adults on the Snowball weekend turned to me and suggested he didn’t look good. I offered to speak with him. As I approached, he looked up and I asked if he was okay. With sad, averted eyes he told me he was. …
The Fear of Who We Fear We Are
Note: I wrote the following for the January, 2012 Batavia Chamber of Commerce Newsletter. “People hate change” is perhaps the most incorrect aphorism ever uttered. People LOVE change. In fact we crave it. On a CT scan, the human brain lights up in the face of it. If you put a human into an …
The Selfishness of Generosity
Note: The following will be published in the January/February issue of Neighbors of Batavia magazine. As 2012 begins, I am aware it is a time during which many reflect on their lives and consider promises to themselves and the world for renewal. We call them New Year’s resolutions. But as I imagine the New …
How Much Is Too Much?
Note: I wrote the following for the December issue of the Batavia Chamber newsletter. And while it speaks directly to issues related to entrepreneurs, I think the message of how we prioritize the moments of our lives has broader meaning. In the context of our lives, even five minutes is perhaps too much. Two …
Patiently Waiting For Me
“Finally I see…life has been patiently waiting for me” From the song “I’m Movin’ On” by Rascal Flatts. The song I’m Movin’ On and I had simultaneously visited the same space many times, but being in the same place with an idea, or a person, does not mean you are friends…or even acknowledge …