Category: Decision making
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The Gift of Echoes
I have always recognized the parts of me that clearly reflect my father, his personality and his traits. Like him, I am a perfectionist. Like him, I can perseverate over any and all things and let worry surround me like a cloud. I know that he had good qualities as well but it is the…
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Transitions
If there is any constant in life, it is change. So often I have lulled myself into thinking that tomorrow will be just a continuation of the day before, that people and situations and circumstances will all be the same. Yet, the truth is that no day is the same as the one that preceded…
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Leading with Gratitude
There’s a question that has been rattling around in my brain for the last few days. Maybe you want to try it as well. Here goes: what if you woke up tomorrow and all that you had is that for which you are grateful today? On the surface, it sounds like a simple question but…
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Where is Stillness?
Label it however you choose, but I have come to accept that I am a person who is never fully at rest, never fully at peace. My entire childhood was spent with my mother asking me to please be still, to sit down, to stop flitting around. My father used to say “Take a breath”…
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A State of Grace
There are moments when I see reflections of my parents in me as there are moments when I see reflections of their father and me in my own children. It’s interesting that the characteristics I see in myself, and identify as coming from one of my parents, are usually the ones I would label as…
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One Speed
Since childhood, in truth I suspect since birth, I have been one of those people who only has one speed. Acceleration happens fast and deceleration doesn’t happen. It never has. I am happiest in motion, mentally and physically, and find it hard—if not impossible—to settle down in any respect. My mother’s most oft-repeated expression to…
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Achieving Grace
Everything in life is a choice. That’s a pretty definitive statement, isn’t it? And you might contend that things, often, seem to just happen. An illness, an accident, an unexpected turn of events in your personal or professional life. That’s true. Things do happen that we don’t plan or expect or want to have happen.…
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Do No Harm
I would imagine that we all know the phrase “First, do no harm.” It’s often attributed to the Hippocratic oath that medical students take. The phrase is actually not part of that oath but it stands on its own, still offering a watchword worth holding. The concept seems a simple one and, I would suspect,…
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Stealing Your Peace
Unsettling experiences—we all have them. Sometimes things just don’t go our way or, worse yet, surprise us in ways that might leave us saying “didn’t see that one coming.” You know those times, the ones we replay over and over in our heads, the ones that wake us up in the middle of the night,…
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New Year, Renewed Light
The changing of the year on the calendar is always one of those lines of demarcation—a chance to decide what we want to be different going forward. It is easy to cite the obvious targets. I will exercise more or eat better or get more sleep . . . That’s all great, especially if you…
With a Full Heart 