Note: The following appeared in the January-February, 2013 issue of Neighbors of Batavia magazine. I have read many books in my life, and always viewed the time spent dwelling in the pages as no more than a conversation between me and the author. I have been wondering recently, however, how those moments are made …
No matter what tragedy people are experiencing, their suffering is alleviated when they learn that others are standing with them. Some of my best teachers of this truth have been younger leaders. One in her twenties said, “How we are going is important, not where. I want to go together and with faith.”* Many …
The World is Better for Our Being Rather than Our Doing Read More »
A recent, innocent-sounding Facebook message from a friend brought back a childhood memory…one I was not eager to relive. But the experience is teaching me a great deal about what it means to be alive. The message pointed me to two TED.com talks by Brené Brown. If you have not spent time with TED …
If it was that easy, we would all do it, and put an end to much of human misery. The world can be frightening for any of us, but for teens who are struggling to awaken to who they are in the world, it’s especially difficult. Recently, a courageous young man led a conversation with …
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 …
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 …
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. …
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 …
At Operation Snowball, the teens call the exercise “Sex in a Fishbowl,” but it’s not some weird, erotic game. They divide the room sending males to one side with females facing them from the other. Everyone scribbles questions they would like their counterparts of the opposite sex to answer, and places them into a …
Note: Perhaps a bit of an ironic message for my blog, but this piece appeared recently in Neighbors of Batavia magazine I received an email from a friend I’ll refer to as Jim. I struggle to respond with empathy, kindness and wisdom. I have, for a number of years, taken voice lessons. I have …