Has there been an occurrence when you are actively listening to another person in a conversation, and your intent is not to interrupt, but truly Listen With Your Eyes; however, your mouth just blurts out, “You, too?” Often, this simple expression opens the door to a new Friendship Conversation that validates your experiences or feelings …
Month: May 2021
Flourishing Organizations
Today, I was deeply saddened to read a comment from a student in a graduate-level course who offered that my request for a book review was the first time they had been asked to complete one since seventh grade. My sincere hope is that this statement did not mean that during their educational formation they …
Decision Fatigue
In the process of developing healthy habits which might lead to a flourishing life, the topic of willpower often arises, but it seems to be most frequently associated with exercise and eating choices. We have the knowledge that wise decisions in this area of our life will have compounding interest on our health, but because …
Friendship Conversations
In researching the characteristics typical of people who are considered to be flourishing at life, it should be no surprise how often someone’s ability to thrive is connected to the individuals with whom they have created Relational Equity, or as Shawn Anchor terms it in his book, The Happiness Advantage, social capital. As I continue …
Welcome to the Table
Daylight shines brightly from the reflected February snow over the black dining table in my home, highlighting the fact that it hasn’t been dusted in a while; however, there is a valid reason the dust bunnies are flourishing on my table, since no one has pulled up a chair in at least a month. This …
Gift of Winter by Beth Madison
Many times, God uses a time of mourning, even periods of Silent Grief, to activate joy which sprouts and blooms along with tears of weeping to bring the harvest of dancing, as seen in Psalm 30:11. As well as I know these truths in my head, my heart still yearns to refuse these realities since …
Waiting Room
My hope is that you never have to experience the lack of control that comes with sitting in a Waiting Room; however, few people will ever be exempt from this experience, whether it arrives as a painless encounter such as awaiting a tire rotation at a local service station or the agonizing hours that slowly …
Be Still
Blaming the issue on sensitive hearing, I have been known to physically remove the batteries from the back of clocks in friends’ homes when the irritating ticking prevented me from falling asleep. For this reason, the story shared by Leslie Koh describing a young boy’s discovery of a lost watch when others failed to locate …
I Surrender
by John Byl, CSKLS Colleague and Friend (May 3, 2021) I surrender: To an Unknown Future, and an Uneasy Present & Surgical Oncologist Report The CT scan showed that I have two masses on my liver and a lesion on a vertebrae. The Surgical Oncologist is especially concerned with a lesion on the vertebrae …
Drowning in Doubt
Recently, when debating a wise answer to a professional invitation, a seasoned-at-life family member posed the question to me, “Will it be a burden or a joy?” My initial response was, “Both!” However, as I ponder both the opportunity and the question, a part of me feels as if I am Drowning in Doubt. These …
Flourishing @ Life 