On this day when more than 100 million of us will make our voices heard, what are you looking for on the horizon?
It’s election day here in the United States.
There’s something in the air this morning. A potent cocktail filled with the anticipation of years of waiting, a secret blend of optimism, and more than a dash of dread. This mixture has been everywhere for months now, seeping into every conversation, news feed, and inner monologue across the nation, and it’s all coming to a head today.
I don’t know if that air will be sucked out of the room by the night’s end or if it will linger with us for a little while longer, but I know it keeps…
Make today better. Let tomorrow take care of itself.
There’s a driving engine. A big part of why we do so many of the day-to-day activities we end up choosing. We go to work, spend time with family, invest, exercise, etc., in part because we want our lives to be better today than they were yesterday. We want tomorrow to be better than whatever we are experiencing right now.
Often this comes out of a place of suffering discomfort or malcontent. We are hurting, lacking the comfort we desire, or there is a part of us that for whatever reason can’t stand a part of life being the way…
Murder hornets. Betty White. Lizard brains. Letting love win.
If you are anything like me, 2020 has left you with some extra time you didn’t have before.
Right now I don’t have to commute to work, which is a huge relief in itself, and I don’t have a tenth of the social commitments I did this time last year. Excuse me while I mourn the loss of Fall house parties and the death of my Halloween couple’s costume. It was supposed to be a taco and hot sauce; I’ll let you guess which one I was going as.
While the chaos of the year has certainly brought more of…
There are no rules, you get to decide what you want life to be like.
One of the surprising things about getting older has been noticing how many people abide by a more strict set of rules than when they were young.
Have you noticed this as well? Maybe in your own story?
I think this surprises me a little because growing up, for most of us, was full of moments where we did whatever we deemed best. There really weren’t that many rules, and when there were those rules often could be bent or broken in favor of desires of the heart.
When I was ten years old my parents let me adventure anywhere…
Don’t like the music being played? Jump in and make a change.
One of the startling aspects of jazz music is how much it can change your view of the world if you let it.
I didn’t enjoy jazz when I was younger, mainly because the sounds of brass didn’t have the same pleasant ring to my ears as the strings or the woodwind instruments. Also because a lot of jazz music compels you to get up and move your feet to the groove, and if there’s one thing I’ll always be bad at it’s dancing.
But after a few years of listening to it with more regularity, it grew on me…
2020 has been a hell of a ride. Here’s how you can move from merely surviving to thrive through the rest of the COVID-19 era.
We are almost six months into this pandemic.
I think for a lot of people the defining theme since this all began has been survival; figuring out how to navigate the new challenges and realities COVID-19 has brought into our lives.
Job loss. Learning to work from home. Figuring out how to pay the bills. Dreams for the year dashed on the rocks. Kids going stir crazy away from school. Only seeing loved ones through a tiny screen. Isolation. Loneliness. Depression. All the madness with politics, society, and the economy.
Sometimes you just have to put your head down and…
If it doesn’t work for ALL of us, it’s time to throw it away and replace it with a new way which does.
Perhaps you’ve heard this before:
If it doesn’t work for everyone, it doesn’t work for anyone.
It’s this idea that if a system, design, or a way of life doesn’t work for some individuals of a group then it doesn’t work for all the people involved. That if it doesn’t serve each person equitably then it is broken, at least in part, and there is room for improvement.
Now, think about your life and our collective shared experiences together. What ways of life work well for you? What designs of society and culture are functioning as intended and serve all…
No donuts, go skydiving, more Terry Crews. Unique ways to help you thrive during a crisis.
2020 is doing a great job of reminding us of all the things we have zero control over. How the economy is doing. What our work situation will be like. How safe (or not) it is to interact with the people around us. And thanks to COVID-19 even our own physical health is at risk in new ways just from stopping into the grocer or visiting a friend.
It’s a season which speaks volumes to how fragile human life is and shoves in our faces the horrors of a world we often try to forget or avoid. When life can…
What needs to be reframed in your life to make tomorrow even better?
Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you hear a story from a friend about their life they tell it in a way that leaves you confused as to how they arrived at the conclusions they did?
When they tell you over a cup of coffee about their job, the last week, a breakup, a new opportunity, whatever it might be…sometimes the narrative they pass along doesn’t add up. It isn’t that they are misleading, it’s just people aren’t easily able to see a thing for what it really is when they are too close to it. …
Use this overlooked experience to make your life better through the rest of the year.
Life is settling into a new normal for a lot of people as we move further into the summer.
Don’t get me wrong, life is more out of whack perhaps than ever before. But society is starting to get comfortable with the idea that this pandemic lifestyle is going to be around for a while longer. In March we were all hoping this would blow over and life would return to normal by September. …
David Hewlett
Storyteller, adventurer, and trampoline enthusiast who loves to ask and discover answers to the question: How can I craft the best story possible with my life?
