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A couple of times in my career I’ve had a business partner tell me something, well, actually give me really straight feedback, that I simply could not hear at the time. And, truth be told, it really ticked me off! About 15 years ago, a business partner took me aside to remind me he was counting on me to provide our team with new and creative business ideas. Now that might sound like a simple thing, and actually I knew I was pretty good at creating new opportunities. But, at the time, I was leading a team and was working so hard I was practically killing myself by spending all day in meetings managing the team, and then trying to do my work in the evening. Oh, and, I also had a two small kids waiting for me at home. I was working so hard that hearing that feedback felt [...]

During my college years I worked with at-risk high school students in rural Missouri. Part of my job was driving a large state van on winding roads from school to school, providing tutoring. I worked closely with Vidya, a fellow student who found his way to the Midwest from Sri Lanka. One wintry morning complete with winds, ice, and snow, we were listening for school closings and trying to determine if we would travel our typical route, when Vidya commented, “I see.” “See what?” “The importance of the weather.” He went on to share with me that in Sri Lanka it is 70 degrees (Fahrenheit) practically every day. Yet in English class, some of the first phrases young children learn include: “How is the weather?” “It is cold.” “It is hot.” “It is raining.” They used to laugh at Americans, thinking how silly it was to learn so many words [...]

I love spring when the earth wakes up from winter and I can see my garden come alive.  As spring turns into summer there’s so much to look forward to.  The longer days and warm temperatures lure me outside to enjoy all the pleasures of the season. One of my fondest summer memories is taking my daughter to the beach when she was 3 or 4 years old.  She loved to splash in the water and chase the waves.  Her absolutely favorite thing was to swing on the big swing set at the beach.  She would run to the swings, hop up onto the seat and urge me to push her higher and higher.  It reminds me of the poem, The Swing, by Robert Louis Stevenson: How do you like to go up in a swing, Up in the air so blue? Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing [...]

For the last Tiara newsletter, I wrote an article about “how to be on vacation every day.” Fundamentally this article was about waking up out of the trance of thought that compels into believing that we must be doing something at all times convincing us that we don’t have time to pause or take a break. This trance is a bit like being asleep in life only we happen to be awake. We move thought life entranced by our own thoughts unaware of how they are blinding us to the beauty, joy, and wonder of life all around us and the reality that we need a break and that it is far easier to take one than we think! You can read the full article here. Since I wrote the article, I have been experimenting a great deal with taking mini-vacations throughout the day even when I am very busy [...]