Self-esteem is really the accumulation of beliefs that we have collected about ourselves.  We arrange these many beliefs in some sort of composite much like a tile mosaic.  Each piece is some shard taken from some experience or encounter or event or circumstance that has come our way at some time in our lives.  These many pieces are … [Read more...]

We find ourselves captivated by a whole lot of things.  There’s a whole bunch of stuff that we become absolutely fascinated with, sometimes to the point that we’re held in some sort of riveted hypnotic trance.   A lot of times we’re kind of like mesmerized moths who find ourselves irresistibly drawn to some sort of light, erratically fluttering … [Read more...]

We like to ‘fool around’ in ways that are sometimes rather humorous, quite innocent and very healthy.  At other times we ‘fool around’ in ways that are rather devious and quite destructive.  Sometimes we want to set the seriousness of life aside for a moment and be a bit playful.  We need to remind ourselves that life is a serious venture where … [Read more...]

The pen is in our hands and the paper sits spread before us.  The words are waiting to be penned.  All of that’s there.  But in the writing what’s often missing is not the pen or the paper.  What’s missing is thought. We’re not thoughtful.  Rather, we’re reactive.  It’s the negative that drives our reactive responses.  When something negative … [Read more...]

We all have our proverbial soapboxes.  Sometimes we find ourselves hauling them out on a regular basis, standing high atop them and vigorously pontificating on whatever we’re pontificating about.  Other times they’re rarely used except in those most exceptional moments when circumstances are of such magnitude that not pulling them out feels as … [Read more...]

We’re a terribly independent sort.  There’s a bedeviling, yet fundamentally inherent need to be free of anything that we might have to be subservient to, or pass any degree of credit off to.  We want to pen the lines as the single and sole author of the text. Yet, despite our convictions to the contrary we all worship something.  We all have our … [Read more...]

The issue in life is not how many times we get knocked down.  The issue in life is how many times we get back up.  And it’s not all that difficult to figure out that if the amount of times we get up is just one less than the amount of times that we’ve been knocked down, then we’re spending our lives lying down.  Life will knock us down; … [Read more...]

It seems that we have some vague and rather ethereal sense of where we’re going in this thing called life.  For the more contemplative soul, that sense might be quite refined.  For the casual traveler, it might be a bit more nebulous and scattered.  In many cases where we’re going is far more rigorously defined by all the places where we don’t want … [Read more...]

We’re a terribly independent sort.  There’s a bedeviling, yet fundamentally inherent need to be free of anything that we might have to be subservient to, or pass any degree of credit off to.  We want to pen the lines as the single and sole author of the text. Yet, despite our convictions to the contrary we all worship something.  We all have our … [Read more...]

History has pivoted on ordinary people who when faced with extraordinary circumstances drew on some deeply submerged essence of their humanity and were, in those most harrowing of moments, transformed into extraordinary people.  There are those who held themselves of no accord who stood in harm’s way or entered the dangers of the fray and turned … [Read more...]