Repost: A Meditation on Something I Heard the Other Day

On Friday, October 11th, I attended a professional development workshop at the college where I’m employed.  The title of the session was “Communication Skills for Collaboration.”  Looking back, I don’t think the title gave an apt preview of what the talk would cover.  Plus, the title was boring; whereas, the actually workshop was quite interesting. During the early moments of the presentation, the presenter began … Continue reading Repost: A Meditation on Something I Heard the Other Day

Repost: On Dealing with Emotional Extremes

I’m getting older.  We all are.  Of course, as we age, we lose things.  For example, because I’m older and injured my knee playing competitive sports when I was a young guy, I can no longer jog without having significant pain afterwards.  That sucks, but I’m fine with that limitation and loss. It’s not all bad news though.  I’m gaining things too.  For example, I … Continue reading Repost: On Dealing with Emotional Extremes

Repost: Napping as an Act of Defiance

I’ve been thinking a lot about defiance lately.  Actually, because I’m very much a contrarian at heart, I’m always thinking about ways to defy.  That’s what contrarians do; they defy conventional wisdom (among other things).  (By the way, it seems pretty clear that we need a lot more contrarians in the world.) I guess you could also say that I’m part of the resistance against … Continue reading Repost: Napping as an Act of Defiance

Repost: On Work and Money: Part Two

If you haven’t already done so, you might want to have a look at part one.  That one was mostly about work.  This second piece will be more focused on money; although, work and money really go hand in hand because without the former, the latter is hard to come by. In part one, I mentioned (and linked to) “The Shame that Keeps Us in Our … Continue reading Repost: On Work and Money: Part Two

Repost: On Work and Money: Part One

Earlier this week I read “The Shame that Keeps Us in Our Jobs,” an article by Paul Millerd, one of my LinkedIn contacts.  Millerd’s piece, about work, work culture, and money, got me thinking about a whole bunch of topics.  This blog is the result of that rumination. I want to begin with something I’ve wondered about throughout my career as a college and university … Continue reading Repost: On Work and Money: Part One

Repost: Experimenting with Self-Discovery in Real Time

I don’t think this is going to be anything like any of my other blogs.  Actually, I’m not for sure what this is going to look like or how it might turn out.  That’s why I’m calling it an “experiment.” I will conduct my experiment by asking a series of personal, self-discovery questions and then answering them.  Each response will be used to generate another … Continue reading Repost: Experimenting with Self-Discovery in Real Time

Let’s Talk and Think about Skin Color

Note:  A version of this post was published earlier.   As America gears up for the 2024 presidential campaign, a variety of Republican contenders, chief among them Ron DeSantis, are doing their absolute best to dethrone the Grand Poohbah, otherwise known as “The Donald,” the man who gives lie to the statement “It can’t happen here.” To achieve this difficult task, these campaigners are going … Continue reading Let’s Talk and Think about Skin Color

Repost:  What Vladimir Putin’s War Has Taught Me

Before I get into the body of this piece, I’d like to say that the conflict in Ukraine is especially interesting and tragic because I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Poland during the mid-nineties, not long after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall.  I was sent to Rzeczpospolita Polska—I still remember quite a lot of Polish—to … Continue reading Repost:  What Vladimir Putin’s War Has Taught Me

A Sad Day, a Happy Day

Exactly one week ago, on Saturday morning, my wife and I got into the backseat of my father and stepmother’s car, in Georgetown, Texas, pulled out of their garage, and headed eastward, to make the hour-long trip to the small town of Rockdale, Texas, population 5,323. Our goal was to attend a memorial service to commemorate the life of my uncle, a man I’d always … Continue reading A Sad Day, a Happy Day

red crab

Why To Be Successful You Should Stay Away From Crabs

Do you know that if you put a crab in a bucket, it can run away, but if you put together a group of crabs in a bucket, none of them can escape, because as soon as one will start climbing, another will reach it, grab it and pull it down? Some people are like those crabs. They push you down, while others pull you … Continue reading Why To Be Successful You Should Stay Away From Crabs

Repost: Others

Life is like a great meandering stroll through a vast wilderness of ever-changing scenery.  Such a long tramp is bound to change us, so it’s highly likely we’ll undergo one transformation after another as we travel. I was an only child during the earliest stages of my “journey.”  I spent the first few years of my life living in a quiet, rural setting where neighbors … Continue reading Repost: Others

Repost:  Can Happiness Be Cultivated?

I’ve been writing about happiness recently.  This is the third (and final) installment in a series of pieces on this subject.  The first installment can be found here and second one, here. While prepping myself to write this, I began to think of analogies.  Can happiness be cultivated in the same way a farmer prepares for a good harvest?  Think about it; a bumper crop doesn’t just happen … Continue reading Repost:  Can Happiness Be Cultivated?

Sharing is Caring

Dear, Readers, I’m speaking for all Wise & Shine writers when I say that we so appreciate your continued support of this blog.  To show how thankful we are, we want to ask you to share a link to your blog or site in the “thoughts” or comments section at the bottom of this page.  Please feel free to include a statement about what inspires … Continue reading Sharing is Caring

It’s Been Pouring

Most of us are familiar with the old saying, “When it rains, it pours.”  I’ve been thinking a lot about that adage recently because there’s been quite a lot of pouring rain in my life over the past few months. A few weeks ago, I wrote about needing to take a leave of absence from writing for this blog after being diagnosed with a degenerative … Continue reading It’s Been Pouring

BELOVED, REST

Ping! Email notifications. Ping! Calendar reminders. Ping! Family duty calls. Ping! Alarm rings! Work beckons! Repeat. We live in a world where information moves faster than it ever has before. Your niece with a lisp just got married. Nigeria held its elections and the brodas (Nigerian pidgin for brother) were treated to a Nollywood blockbuster. Peter Drury added to his poetic commentary by saying: Jesùs … Continue reading BELOVED, REST

group of people standing inside room

How to Relate Successfully – The Art of Cultivating Human Relationships

The art of cultivating human relationships is so important that it is not surprising that the book of Dale Carnegie, How to win friends and influence people, published a long ago (1936) but still very current, has sold the most copies worldwide. Carnagie’s book needs to be interpreted under the current circumstances, where technology has changed dramatically the way we communicate and we relate to one another. … Continue reading How to Relate Successfully – The Art of Cultivating Human Relationships