Category: Relationships

Creativity, Critical Thinking, Health and Wellbeing, Language, Life Hacks, People and Places, Personal Development, Politics, Purpose, Relationships, Self-awareness, Spirituality, Work and Life

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

Troy Headrick2 Comments
Creativity, Critical Thinking, Gratitude, Health and Wellbeing, Life Hacks, Personal Development, Relationships, Self-awareness, Spirituality, Work and Life

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

Troy Headrick16 Comments
Creativity, Relationships

Identity: What’s in a name?

Context The catalyst for this post was my most recent Introductions Over Coffee #10 post. There I discuss why new bloggers should use a name. That got me thinking about the nature of identity. In particular, why we feel its necessary for others to have names, why it might be difficult to pick a name and the likelihood of exclusion as a result. These are … Continue reading Identity: What’s in a name?

Brenda24 Comments
Creativity, Critical Thinking, Gratitude, Health and Wellbeing, Inspiration, Life Hacks, Personal Development, Politics, Purpose, Relationships, Self-awareness, Spirituality, Work and Life

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

Troy Headrick41 Comments
Creativity, Critical Thinking, Health and Wellbeing, Inspiration, Language, Life Hacks, Personal Development, Purpose, Relationships, Self-awareness, Spirituality, Work and Life

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

Troy Headrick15 Comments
Creativity, Critical Thinking, Health and Wellbeing, Humor, Life Hacks, People and Places, Personal Development, Politics, Relationships, Self-awareness, Spirituality

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

Troy Headrick25 Comments
Creativity, Critical Thinking, Health and Wellbeing, Inspiration, Life Hacks, People and Places, Personal Development, Politics, Purpose, Relationships, Self-awareness, Spirituality

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

Troy Headrick14 Comments
Creativity, Gratitude, Health and Wellbeing, Inspiration, Life Hacks, People and Places, Personal Development, Purpose, Relationships, Self-awareness, Spirituality

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

Troy Headrick38 Comments
Creativity, Critical Thinking, Gratitude, Health and Wellbeing, Inspiration, Language, Life Hacks, People and Places, Personal Development, Purpose, Random Thoughts, Relationships, Self-awareness, Spirituality, Work and Life

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

Troy Headrick5 Comments
unrecognizable friends gossiping together on street
Relationships, Self-awareness

The Three Areas of Self-Awareness: What On Earth Are You Thinking?

What On Earth Are You Thinking? What is External Self-Awareness? Most people think about self-awareness the same way they do sex. They believe they’re great at it when, in reality, no-one knows where on God’s green earth the G spot is (or that there even is one). One of the major components for building self-awareness is understanding what other people honestly think about us (including our ability … Continue reading The Three Areas of Self-Awareness: What On Earth Are You Thinking?

AP213 Comments
Personal Development, Relationships

Single and ready to mingle at 50

Single and ready to mingle An interrupted delay on my journey to the city center has turned it from a simple journey, into an expedition to the center of the Earth.  “How about instead using the extra time to write a blog post instead of stressing?” I take out my mobile phone and start typing.  I let the words flow, inspired by “Hypnotic Writing” by … Continue reading Single and ready to mingle at 50

People Life Politics And Bullshit23 Comments
man and woman standing on brown field near green tree under white clouds
Gratitude, Relationships

Nurturing Our Roots

There’s a type of tree that’s planted all over Singapore. It’s known as the rain tree because of its iconic umbrella shape. Not only is it incredibly striking to look at, the sprawling canopy provides the perfect respite from the oppressive heat we experience here year-round. It’s planted extensively throughout Singapore for this reason. It has fast become one of my favourite trees. Not just … Continue reading Nurturing Our Roots

AP224 Comments
Creativity, Gratitude, Health and Wellbeing, Inspiration, People and Places, Personal Development, Purpose, Relationships, Self-awareness, Spirituality, Work and Life

I Wish You Well, Omar

A few days ago, I had a Zoom meeting with Omar, my nephew by marriage.  It’s been a while since I last mentioned that I married an Egyptian woman—a truly beautiful person named Azza—a little more than twelve years ago, back when I was living in Cairo, Egypt, and teaching at the American University in Cairo. Omar is Azza’s sister’s son.  He’s in his early … Continue reading I Wish You Well, Omar

Troy Headrick29 Comments
Creativity, Critical Thinking, Gratitude, Health and Wellbeing, Humor, Inspiration, Life Hacks, Literature, Nature, People and Places, Personal Development, Purpose, Random Thoughts, Relationships, Self-awareness, Spirituality, Work and Life

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

Troy Headrick95 Comments
boy standing beside seashore waves
Health and Wellbeing, Relationships

The Joy of Running Around Naked

So my kids have started doing this thing. Every evening before bath time – after we take their clothes off before they get into the tub – they run around the apartment like crazed feral wild cats. Screaming and laughing. Pure unadulterated joy. It got me thinking about the clothes we wear, metaphorically speaking. A kid doesn’t question why we walk around with clothes on … Continue reading The Joy of Running Around Naked

AP239 Comments