We can’t know young people or assess their potential by looking at their grades or by sizing up their music or clothing or what they do on Friday nights. We can’t predict their futures by looking at their pasts. We can’t tell their motives by looking at their friends. We can’t pick out who will…
Stories of incredible suffering can be beautiful in hindsight, not because of the suffering but because of the beautiful response.
It isn’t unusual for “well-behaved” toddlers to grow up arrogant, narcissistic, and convinced that the world revolves around them. They’re hard to teach. As adults, they fail to see their negative, self-centered tendencies because they behave so well. They make us look like good parents. Their deeper issues are overlooked or conveniently ignored, and they’re…
Think people hear what you’re saying? I played a TED talk for my business communication students this past week and asked each person to identify the main point of the speech. They identified at least 20 somewhat related but fundamentally different assertions. Speaking is an art. So is listening. What’s heard is as important as…
Some things in life are like a midnight plane crash that happens when you didn’t even know your plane was going down. Someone slaps you back to consciousness and says, “You’re alive. You’re badly hurt, but you made it.” You crawl around in the dark trying to make sure all your family members made it,…
We love what we know. There’s so much we don’t know.
The words we say and sing out loud matter. They carve our paths before us. Speak well. Sing with purpose. Listen with care.
Love someone and watch them grow beautiful.
To some, you’re too old to understand how things are. Too young to remember how things were. Too experienced to be innocent. Too innocent to have half a clue. Too educated to be in touch with reality. Too uneducated to comprehend the complexity. Too left to be right. Too right to care. Here’s to those…
Failure is always an option. It’s just not the preferred one.
The things we see and experience produce feelings that form mental associations that connect with hints of reality, changing how we negotiate our way through life for better or worse. What we expose ourselves to creates short-term moods that turn into deep-seated attitudes that influence our perceptions and life choices for the long term. They…
One of the strongest indicators of improving mental health is losing the need to escape life and instead looking for new ways to live it well.
Fragmentary Life 