A look at how dysfunctional behavior within Black families is often normalized, contributing towards the isolation of a particular family member, the black sheep. If you believe you’re a black sheep in a Black family, there is hope, it’s possible to get…
You might assume that a minimalist lives a miserable life. Not owning things in our culture, for…
There are hundreds of games in my backlog and yet, there are two games that I’ll…
I had my kids over the weekend. Well actually a bit longer. Thursday through to Sunday. Three nights instead of the…
First, and foremost, I think that the two most misunderstood and difficult concepts in strength training are…
This is my story. I have been stammering for a big deal of my life. In all this roller coaster journey, i have experienced many incidents which took my emotions to extreme. Some got the better of me and some I was able to master. Anyway, this has not gone…
What OpenMinds™ taught me about work, culture & people.
7 steps to have an effective voice that others, especially your kids & partner would love to hear and follow…
You’re slowly killing yourself.
A job at 18 often leads…
To be honest, I don’t often struggle with comparison. I’ve done a lot of the hard work of accepting myself and accepting…
To YOU, with LOVE
“Don’t cross oceans for people who wouldn’t cross a puddle for you.”
Four keys to success from her four-letter-filled platinum-seller
I believe the natural state of all humans is freedom. Anything less than freedom is on the spectrum of tyranny…
Honesty is such a lonely word, and to add insult to injury, exaggeration is the name of the game, and that is a lie.
So what happened? She finally told me that she had feelings for me and she was concerned about what could…
How does some people manage to weave the most desired possibility and construct the outcome that everyone dreams of while the rest could only have that wistful yearn? The intelligentsia guarded their knowledge as secrets. For example, Pythagoras…
Hoy quise venir a un café y simplemente escribir. A veces la mejor catarsis puede ser poner en palabras lo que el…
What I Really Thought When That Truck Hit Me
How to talk to someone depressed…
Don’t tell them how to fix their life.
DO listen and listen without judgement.
Don’t ask them if they’re “better” every time you contact them.
It’s a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and I thought a little inspiration from William Wordsworth was in order. There’s so much…
Her wily seduction happened when we met in a glass booth at a hot crowded cabaret club. Taking the…
The tagline to my personal Instagram account is “Savoring and reflecting on my life through little snapshots.” Lots of flowers and knitting live there, as do moments of gratitude and personal triumph.
There is a lesson to be learned in every decade (20s, 30s, 40s, etc.) of your life. It’s…
Open-minded people are neither opinionated nor self-righteous. They hold their judging instincts in a tight leash.
Peripheral awareness reflects a keen sense of perception, one that ‘sees’ and ‘hears’ things that are not apparently evident or palpable. It denotes an ability and willingness to suspend judgment before all…
1, Celebrate small things2, Celebrate big things3, Don’t compare4, Make time for exercise5, Eat well6, Look for the…
I can’t answer this question as some people may, with ‘the type of love that my parents shared- they have…
The energy is starting to feel magical as we wane to the first Eclipse in four days. If you didn’t…
By my estimate, I would guess there are about 100 runners lined up underneath the inflatable…
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most…
They say, we are an average of 5 people we spend most time with. One of my recent…
“To define is to limit.”- Oscar Wilde
Aku benci menjadi dewasa. Benci harus pulang ke rumahku sendiri, membayar tagihanku sendiri, berjuang untuk memastikan gajiku bulan ini cukup sampai waktu gajian bulan depan. Aku benci harus merasa seperti tamu di rumah orang tuaku. Rumah masa kecil yang dulu terasa seperti milikku, meski kini tidak lagi. Aku benci merasa cemas beberapa jam sebelum…
Will you just, for once, say what you exactly have on your mind?
Originally answered on Quora here. I wrote this after I turned 30, obviously. It was…
Learn that not everything can be as you want, learn to let strange things of the past to do more harm, learn to keep walking after a stumble, learn to love more when before he did not, learn to enjoy much more of the new moments and breathe much deeper than before, learn to say I love you when you feel it…
From a lose-lose situation
Two people could be great at the exact same thing, but if one lacks passion and the other…
I realize the Star Wars reference in the title may automatically suggest certain stereotypes and judgments on your part…about me…
December 10th 1914, there was a massive explosion in West Orange New Jersey United States of America. Ten buildings in a factory owned by the legendary inventor Thomas Edison were engulfed by…
Why most people don’t do what they love, and do what they don’t ???
Have you been terrified of doing something that you know you should, but are scared of doing it anyway?
Have you been terrified when it was your turn to present the book report ?
Or
“So this is the spot?”
The laughably closed ended question fell to the floor, I expected it to shatter the…
It was the pop-culture group , Westlife, that sang the song “Seasons of Sun” years ago. I went through the lyrics of…
Oh no. So you’re reading this now. Here’s a virtual hug to begin. HUG!
How mine went: I was focused on my career, and when I least expected it, someone shows up, we develop feelings, I moved my schedules around to…
As I turn 27 tomorrow (July 9th), I would like to share 27 things that I know to be true…
A case for you to talk more
A few years ago, in an age where I had no access to smart phones and the internet, I let myself succumb to my childlike curiosity and let my mind loose on a journey of exploration while travelling. I had recently learnt how human eyes work and how it’s the brain that interprets the signals from…
“I messed up!”
WHAT WILL MAKE YOU COMMIT SUICIDE?
THIS ALMOST DID
HSBC AND DEPARTMENT FOR WORK & PENSIONS
I wrote a response to someone who made a similar comment, but I can’t easily track it down, so I’ll paraphrase it.
Obviously, I had “luck” back in the previous century of finding people without the Internet. But fast forward to 2014 on…
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the power of video games. A silly way to…
Thanks for your kind words Geoffrey Watson.
My goal in life is to help others be happy and successful and I hope that my writing accomplishes that.
Steve
The process from friend to close friend and stop by the lover is super long but…
If you put people into power that have too much to lose, then they will do everything they can so they don’t lose. Even if it hurts everybody else instead of helping everybody else…
Originally published at yanngirard.typepad.com.
What is ideal company for our personal growth depends to some extent on the values which we espouse and the goals we have set for ourselves.
Unless we raise our own standards we may end up with mediocre company.
Engineering or re-engineering our social context is not an easy task given the…
This is how you lose yourself. Slowly. In a manner that sucks out the life in you and what remains after…
I took a day off to cry. Sounds depressing, I know. But crying can be cleansing for the soul. Life has been throwing tomatoes at me non-stop as of late, and I’ve been trying hard to walk a tightrope and hold it all together.
Ants are hardworking creatures that are super strong and perseverant. However, in the eyes of many humans, ants are tiny and…
Some women treat themselves to expensive…
I wasn’t told this, I thought…I knew life would be hard but i never anticipated it to be such a sh*t…
Two months after I decided to leave the country again for another new chapter of my life, I start moving 4 years of life back to my childhood home. Bit by bit every week, I try to ease the process by moving by suitcases and try to spend more time with the family whenever…
I’ve been reading a book about creativity and innovation. It talks about making lists of things that you…
Whilst it is important to acknowledge our achievements, we can fall foul of having…
There are some common myths about purpose that are very unhelpful. One is that once you know your…
By Kurt E. Van Stuyvesant
Sometimes it’s an “Everything will be alright” text when it seems like everything’s falling apart.
2018: Journey to Powerful
In October my therapist told me I needed to be more demanding.
I was infuriated. MORE demanding. MORE? DEMANDING? She had no clue who she was talking to. I’ve been called stubborn my entire life. Every time a character with an opinion popped up on a screen everyone in the…
Our muscles tense up. Our pulses speed up. We start to experience a shortness of breath with our face flushing and our vocal cords tightening. Then, we do the unthinkable. We shout. We cry. We may even land a punch or two. We’ve all reacted impulsively and…
Hope and recovery
Today I was feeling a bit anxious and needed to just get out the house and go somewhere, anywhere. I decided that I would go to the one place that has always brought me a bit of happiness, the mall. I am an 80s kid and as such, the mall has always been kind of my mother ship, the place I can go to…
Being retired on Disability is NOT what I envisioned retirement to be. Acceptance of the label “DISABLED” or “HANDICAPPED” is difficult for almost everyone. I am no exception. In my mind, all my life I have proudly carried my own weight. Maybe I was a bit of a slacker with chores as a kid, (we’ll let my older brother argue about that one…) but once I…
I picture the precipice of human understanding as a wall of mist, concealing just…
It’s really hard to narrow down my goals for grad school to 3 big things…but I know that if I do this and choose great ones that are maybe a little more broad in topic, I will do better than if I wrote down 300 little things and tried to hit all of…
Do questions have the power to change our lives? Yes, they do. Think about great scientists. How did they reach their potential? Do you think they were from some different planet? Hell, no. You know that. So, how did they do that? The answer is simple. They did so by…
People ask me what my hobbies are. Most don’t know what to say when I answer my “hobby” is witnessing acts of love and compassion, and offering acts of love and compassion as well.
I’m not just talking about love expressed between human beings. I’m talking about love expressed across species lines. (YouTube features endless…
Yes, listen to the greats before you, but question them too.
Disregard how many followers they have or degrees they carry. Ignore what the critics say about them. Be not persuaded by their presentation.
Ah…I have access to a proper computer. I’m not THAT much younger than you in the grand scheme of things. And I’m a Luddite!
Anyhoo, I wanted to circle back around and thank you again for reading and the thoughtful response, Juli!
We have to be careful not to get distracted. Sometimes you can have people around you that aren’t as committed to…
It is said that if you want to know who someone is, you should watch how he acts, not what he says. Well, if we…
Namaste!
I always think, I will get a lot accomplished today. After a while, the burning success desire is forgotten and I get distracted. My though pattern goes, “I’m just going to listen to music for a while.” Then I’m stuck in a negative loop…
Exactly. Thanks for sharing this. I believe most of us will have such thoughts: i feel like i am not living life to the fullest…i feel restless, so i wanted to be a nomad, living and working from one place to another. But wow, you tried it for 18months, which is great and inspiring!
Thanks as always for reading and responding, Ed! What a great point about your aunt: Is it empowering to wait firmly for the right person or is one actually avoiding making a commitment? Who’s to say?
If I’m into someone, I let him know. I don’t know any other way. I’ve met a few who were into me, too, but let me go for a variety of reasons. C’est la vie.
Oh God, you’re getting into the late 30s now and starting the maybe baby debate. Should I or shouldn’t I? Do I want a baby for the right reasons? Like one client said “no-one regrets having a baby but there are lots of people that regret not having a baby”…
Searching for trampolines for sale? More and more families are buying trampolines for…
It’s been a while since I last wrote. A long while. It isn’t that I don’t want to, quite the opposite, it’s just that I’ve been so preoccupied with studying and trying to adjust to the ever-changing tides of life.
Don’t start because you don’t know how…
Friends My Greetings for Everyone. From my Leader i learn one thing; what good thing you know you share with others. To follow my leader today i start my shearing:
I have to agree with whoever it was who said, “Old age ain’t for sissies!” I’ve experienced devastating loss and unwanted physical changes, but on the benefits side my faith is growing, my conscious is expanding, and my ability to allow life to be as it is, is at an all-time high. Celebrating these gifts! Many Blessings…hoping you find a dream job despite the nightmare of the job hunt.
In order to continuously improve ourselves and get better results, we must be willing to consider new ideas that can influence our attitude or behaviour in a positive way.
I believe we learn a great deal from reading stories, fiction, literature and personal autobiographies. That’s currently about 90% of my reading and I wouldn’t say I only do it for enjoyment. Empathy is perhaps an offshoot — but not a reason to read. I want to understand. I want the perspective. It’s like visiting different times and places and…
I have some existential questions at 3 o’clock in the morning when I cannot sleep, because we do not dare to say and do what we feel? So much is the fear that we have to fail or is it true that pride cuts us off? We lose minutes and hours of happiness to let so many things pass, we are afraid of…
We are told:
What is your Judgement?
Every day in our lives we are put to a test.
Though I am not a marriage expert, my opinion about what keeps a marriage alive is a growing intimacy. Intimacy occurs in the space of communication so that no matter the external changes, the “heart” of the marriage continues to expand and include all that each of the partners is becoming as individuals. It is such a challenge to allow the…
Yes, little things like who does the dishes become bigger things when they are constant. You’ve written about a common issue people are so used to that they forget how it impacts their daily lives.
A lot of people struggle with social skills. Whether you suffer from social anxiety or don’t know how to…
While many of us are thriving in urban cities, yet we will always seek to be closer to nature. We find respite and rejuvenation in nature. This is our human inclination to connect with the natural world; a love of life and all forms of living things. This is known as Biophilia. We experience…
Here are five ways to work…
NEVER give up — believe in your ability to figure it out
@By VanStuyvesant Consulting
Thanks as always for reading and responding, xerxes aga ! I have a proper response but only have access to my phone currently and do not trust my autocorrect nor patience level to type on this small screen. So I am sending an IOU!
Parafraseamos a Bill Buford en Calor: en las preparaciones más preciadas y de arraigo familiar, no hay una sola receta original, única sino la que te han confiado.
Y es la que hay que honrar, agregamos nosotros y en la sobremesa hay espacio para celebrar el…
I’m too old to be a “thing” any more, though I accept I mostly was in my younger days. Sadly, many people run their lives on autopilot and never wake up to this wonder-filled life.
I always love the anagram of turning “reacting” into “creating”.
Thanks for your interesting take on life!
Thanks so much for reading and responding, Nicolas! Yes, definitely still working on finding the balance, but I’m getting closer to figuring what I need on my end. I’m learning every day!
Birthed with tasteful imperfections,
Yet held to be dried of emotion,
Milled to expectations.
Export the goods.
Leave the truth behind.
For one that does not perfectly reflect the others,
It’s hard, BFoundAPen. The act of prying your eyes open and seeing is much harder than letting them close so you can be comfortable. It takes a toll.
Am I my brother’s keeper?
That’s an important question.
A mans rationale dives only as deep as his knowledge allows him to sink.
Rationale at its rawness is boring for the masses.
Most of what constitutes the invisible human is merely the business of a beast and worm.
how do you fight?how do you fight your fight?
Love Shining —
So bright…
I’ve been sick, so I went to the washroom and missed the mark on the toilet, and hit the outer boundary, and I thought,
how gross, and now I should clean the bowl,
Have you ever felt like you couldn’t do it all?
Tal vez siempre fue así; tal vez nunca me percaté.
Tuvo que pasar muchas veces y de forma irreverente, para que pudiese bajar del firmamento de palabras al papel, la frase exacta que podía ayudar a definirlo. A definirme.
A blank page:
Craving pen & ink,
(This is what happened some days ago. I enter the room all sad)
You experience a range of emotions in a day. If you sit and watch a little new born baby sleeping, you will notice, that the baby’s expressions change a lot while sleeping. Sometimes babies smile, sometimes, they look worried and sometimes they get startled.
Major Ikenga scooped some water from the stream as he tried to clear dirt scattered on the surface of the stream. He had been walking in…
🌱 Dr. Cynthia Johnson,
Welcome to Live Your Life On Purpose. I have added you as a writer and I am looking forward to reading your stories! :)’
I love this, as sometimes we don’t realise that we wake up in the same bed each day, but we leave and enter that very personal space as different personas of the same person.
Have I had déjà vu in that particular space when I’ve opened my eyes and wondered what that day would bring? Hell yes. But I like how you recognise…
Yet again my family is living out of suitcases. Once I’ve packed them, they become like delicate…
decisions that take you forward,decisions that halt your pace.what makes us do what we do?do we truly chose our place?
Today I took my yell-less master plan, dropped it down the toilet, pooped on it, and flushed it away to the sewer alligator who then ate it and will also eventually poop it out. In case you haven’t guessed it has been a rotten day which has…
July 8, 2018 Garey Simmons
Daily Lessons Blog HomeDaily Lessons sorted from Day 1
Today’s Lesson: Defining Beauty — What is it that makes you beautiful?Here’s the lyrics…
Audacious post, Frank McKinley! I’m throwing off the cloak of invisibility as fast as I can! Standing with you and for you to give our gifts with a reckless abandon that is born of LOVE’s eternal presence.
Are you at that point of life where you feel like downing your tools? Maybe you want to quit because…
As I’ve grown older, I’ve realized that at every stage of life, there will always be a problem. I hope that doesn’t sound negative…
Angelo,
These all are one actually. There is no difference. But the different is the one that has the power to change is the present moment. Every decision that will change the course of our life is now.
In the hours past midnight
I love going for a walk
Well, my goodness — what a lovely, inspiring read!
Well said. The dehumanizing of people is a slippery slope. It allows crimes against humanity under the guise of bureaucracy.
I can tell you what you think about most of the time just by looking at you. Are your thoughts focused on creating powerful outcomes for yourself or are you just hoping to survive? Do you believe in yourself and connect well with others? It will show. Do you think you are…
Don’t Stress , Do your Best and Forget the Rest.....
Stress can easily be seen in a lot of peoples these days . Most of the people can control their anxiety at such situations but some always feel so down before going to…
The love you have for him lives on, I’m sure, in many ways and in many places. One place is surely here in this article. The rainbow photo is incredible. May his eternal presence continue to touch and comfort your heart. I, too, have had a devastating loss, and I discovered that the LOVE we shared is still available, just beyond the waves of grief. The gift of that experience just keeps on giving. Many Blessings…
The paradox of a surfeit of choice- “more is less”.
The tyranny of choice has overwhelmed our limited repertoire of our reasoning faculties.
With our dented ability to make optimal choices, the marketeers have been laughing all the way to the bank.
I decided to take the first step of my life today.
It is a testament to God’s unconditional LOVE that there is something for everyone in terms of faith communities. The fullness of God’s LOVE is available breath by breath for those who in need, and for those who find joy in that eternal connection. Beautiful article!
Thanks for sharing insights about coping with adversity. It is true that action rather than a paralyzed state of inaction helps to lift the mood.
One more strategy for transcending our suffering is to reach out to those who may be in situations worse than we are facing.
God will bring the moment that they snubbed you back to their remembrance once God takes you so so much higher!
Job 28:12 (KJV)But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?
A number of years ago my family took our vacation to a wonderful area in Washington State known as the Methow Valley. The…
Can I start a conversation? I’m interested to hear what people have to say about my thoughts here. Share your stories, opinions, arguments.
On relationships;
I’m not talking about some cosmic, life changing, Prince Charming type of relationship. No, I’m talking about a slightly messy, somewhat self…
It’s difficult. We all get it.
Standing at the junction of life. Either, you are blessed with no options or you are blessed with many. Either way the indecision brings you to this same position.
Life’s funny in this way. A constant dichotomy.
When I work on quarterly or yearly goals with my team at work, we always talk about having a “North Star,” something to guide our efforts and make sure that everything we do eventually adds up to something, rather than us spinning our wheels or…
That’s awesome! This is pretty much what I do. I need permission from the Wife to get rid of stuff, but, I am constantly convincing her of things we don’t need. And sometimes I just throw stuff out and she doesn’t miss it!
It is easier to ask for forgiveness than get permission, Ha!
