character

After the Storm…

In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful. ~Alice Walker As we walk through the neighborhood, my husband asks “Which kind is this?”  Elm? I reply with some hesitation, as I look at the leaves and the bark.  “If you had had Mrs. Ross, you’d […]

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Stop Assuming the Worst. Invite the Best of Life into Your View!

“Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won’t come in.” ― Alan Alda Growing up in a tiny Tennessee town with a mother who was a sweet Sooner from Oklahoma and a father who was a brilliant Boilermaker from Indiana, I was exposed […]

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You Never Know Who’s in Your Rear View Mirror

“Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.” — Thomas Jefferson Do you remember the John Grisham novel, The Firm, where the husband and wife were having to write notes to each other rather than speak out loud in their house?  Their home had been bugged, and everything they said could be overheard […]

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Collaboration vs Competition

“Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes  You sit in your office and the younger gentleman or woman comes to you for advice on a project.  Will you help them?  You cook a wonderful dish and your friend wants to know how to […]

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Just looking for my place in the world

“He could not return to living full-time with the Dursleys, not now that he knew the other world, the one to which he really belonged.” ― J.K. Rowling   If we can utter the words I’m a member, we are also saying that we are not outsiders, not visitors, and that we belong.  It would […]

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Every Member of the Cast

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else – Charles Dickens As I went through the photos of a play I attended recently, I was reminded of something I’ve known for a long time:  every member of the cast, the team, and the community matters.  In the […]

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Allowing for (gasp) Imperfection

“Don’t pointless things have a place, too, in this far-from-perfect world? Remove everything pointless from an imperfect life, and it’d lose even its imperfection.” ― Haruki Murakami, Sputnik Sweetheart Picture an ad for the latest life-changing medication, with a few key changes: Is a mismatched life getting you down?  Does living with pet hair on […]

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Don’t be Mean

“She said, ‘I walked out of Auschwitz into life…I will never say anything that couldn’t stand as the last thing I ever say.” ~Benjamin Zander, Lessons from Auschwitz   Today, I will speak good words.  It’s that simple, after all, isn’t it?  I just decide I want to speak kindness into others’ lives, and it […]

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Leadership and Accountability for Us All

“Laws control the lesser man. Right conduct controls the greater.”― Mark Twain There is no law that says you must be an honest person, but there are laws that will punish you when you are dishonest in certain situations. The question I come away with after seeing Twain’s quote, though, is Why do people need […]

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Following the Stepping Stones

“Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you.  You must travel it by yourself.” ~Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass Our neighbors laid a beautiful stone path in their back yard not long ago, and I love to look at it when I am standing in my own yard, which is scattered with […]

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Thoughts to Encourage

Joy is the will which labors, which overcomes obstacles, which knows triumph.~ William Butler Yeats

Whether you think you can or think you can’t you’re right. - Henry Ford

The best way out is always through. ~ Robert Frost

Real difficulties can be overcome, it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable. ~ Theodore N. Vail

Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall. ~ Oliver Goldsmith

You must be the change you want to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandhi

Nothing helps like a good nap…

Birds are Beautiful

A Dog is Faithful…