Are students cheating? This inquiry is only one of many conundrums being discussed between two educators on morning walks. Sometimes the conversation steers itself to deeper issues: How do we handle our own aging selves much less the dynamics of aging parents? But at the beginning of an academic year, as we listen to presentations …
Author: Julie Powell, Ed.D.
With over 30 years in higher education, I have a passion for seeing people, not only succeed at life, but to flourish in their God-given space personally, professionally, and spiritually.
The Great Rewiring
Take a morning walk with me along the out-and-back paved trail near my home and, on a typical day, you will witness a demonstration of what social psychologist Jonathan Haidt names The Great Rewiring. You are aware of this phenomenon, as you see it playing out every day, when you encounter the different generations represented …
Die of Curiosity
Although it happens to everyone, without exception, most people avoid the subject of death. Our culture, as Louise Aronson shares in her book Elderhood, prefers to remove itself from the uncomfortable topic that all life does come to an end. “It’s a rare family in which at least one person doesn’t know how to care …
How You Doin?
For viewers of the 1990s sitcom Friends, Joey Tribbiani altered lives forever with his phrase, “How You Doin?” According to Adrienne Tyler, “Joey shared his ‘foolproof’ technique, in which he would look a woman up and down and say ‘how you doin?’ Rachel and Phoebe were skeptical, but when he tried it on Pheobe, she …
Cows Don’t Give Milk
Two years ago, while browsing social media, the phrase Cows Don’t Give Milk seized my attention, and I wish I knew who to credit for the original posting; however, the note in my phone listed the author as unknown. Fast forward to the present-day rumination on this story and I discover there is an actual …
Let It Go
Long before Queen Elsa belted the song in Disney’s Frozen, the phrase Let It Go was used to encourage people to stop worrying about things that were outside of their control. Perhaps it also implies that a person should consider Movin’ On from something that happened in their past. What’s funny is that I can’t …
Build a Boat
When was the last time hearing the lyrics of a song led you to conduct an internet search to answer the following question: How long does it take to Build a Boat? I’m flabbergasted if that was not an item on your week’s to-do list! (Insert sarcasm here). If you don’t track with the connections …
Looks Easy
Looks Easy! Have you ever made this statement out loud, or at least allowed it to run through your mind as you watched someone perform a task? Perhaps you logged onto the internet to search for a how-to video to make a simple household repair. There are entire networks on cable television and oodles of …
Junk Drawer
What is the state of your Junk Drawer? You know you have one! You may call it something else, but you have that space somewhere. Heather Creekmore asks, “Where do you put that random screw that must go to something but needs a home until you identify where? Random lids, twist ties, and pens, lots …
New Kentucky Home
Weep no more, my lady! It’s now been one month since the second moving truck (the first one broke down and they had to reload a new one—don’t even get me started on the phrase If it can go wrong, it will) pulled into the long white driveway of my rental house in Campbellsville. After …
Flourishing @ Life 