I have convinced my children that I grew up in an unusually kind place with an ideal school system. They believe I came of age in a charmed atmosphere of friendship and supportive learning. In my opinion, I did. My hometown, Alma, is a small community of 9000 people in central Michigan. We had one high school with about 1000 [...]
A friend of mine recently noted how irritable people are while they wait for coffee at Starbucks. Coffee is now a necessary source of fuel used to power us through our busy days. It's lost its reputation as an excuse to connect with friends. These days it's a means to an end and no one better delay the goal of [...]
Summer is here. School is out. Relationships fill my heart and time. I can't promise new and densely enriching posts every week. I'll be busy chasing kids and frogs and sprinkler haze. Living wide-eyed and spontaneously. I doubt I'll be able to stay away from writing entirely but if the week slips away from me in [...]
Will we get to the point where we are so desperate for human warmth and loving kindness that we get rid of the packaged Lunchable of progress and dig into the fertile soil of caring and community? Is the vigilant embracing of all things organic the first step in realizing a natural way of living? For now we [...]
Out of necessity I have trained myself to keep the blues and energy draining feelings in check. I am in no way saying that I do not get the blues or feel down and gloomy occasionally. I’ve experienced debilitating stress and profound sadness but I’ve also worked my way through such funks to see the light [...]
No dilly-dallying. No meandering. Wasting time is a sin. We don't allow ourselves to transition slowly from one event to the next anymore. We move swiftly and efficiently from point A to point B. Do Introverts and Extroverts Transition Differently? We learn to keep pace with the fastest movers in our community but I don't believe [...]
