New Year’s Day is a time when many people make resolutions. If you’ve read my book or my blog posts, you know that I’m a positive person. So, it’s with a bit of difficulty that I put in writing this negative point: If you’re like most people who make New…
When I started to write this post I was going to talk about what I read this year. Then I found myself thinking that I might have read more if I hadn’t watched much more TV than I have in many, many years. That led me to start thinking about…
Before I get to this week's post, I want to say that my prayers and thoughts are with the families of the Newtown tragedy. The following post is about conflict resolution and while not related whatsoever to the Newtown tragedy, any good ideas to help us get along with one…
The father of one of my favorite people passed away this year. I almost always cry at funerals and this one was no exception. It's generally not the deceased I cry for, but the living—my friends who are dealing with the pain of loss. I also often laugh at funerals…
Earlier this year, I was introduced to Victor Schueller. Before I knew anything else about him, I wanted to get to know him when I heard that he goes by the title, “the Professor of Positivity and Possibility.” I love that! Today, I’m sharing an interview I did with Victor.…
As Thanksgiving approached, my thoughts were on gratitude—how grateful I am for all the ways that I’m blessed. Mostly I thought about family and friends, but following Storm Sandy, I also thought about things as mundane as modern conveniences—things I realized I take for granted when I had to do…
This Thursday is Thanksgiving in the U.S. It’s nice to pause and count our blessings every year on that day. And it’s easy if you are fortunate enough to spend the day with dear family and friends—special relationships that we count among our greatest blessings. In the area where I…
I've reached out to many people in the aftermath of Storm Sandy, the incredible storm that hit the area where I live. Almost to a person, those who did not suffer a devastating loss replied to my e-mails, text messages, or calls with some variation of "It could have been worse."…
Early this past summer, I began a weekly blog post called, "What Made Me Smile This Week” (if you are a regular reader of my blog, that part of today’s post is not news to you.) A bunch of people sent me notes, over the course of the summer, saying…
This week, a post I wrote was published on the terrific web site, The Bridge Maker. Here’s the first part of the piece, with a link to the rest… As a blogger, it occurred to me as I approached the day when my youngest would be going off to college…
In May of this year, I wrote a post about a story from the early part of my father’s career. In Everybody Has a Story—What’s Yours?, I explained that we all have stories to tell; learning that can help others. Soon after that post was published, while speaking with a…
Two weeks ago, I was the keynote speaker for a wonderful conference for educators run by AdvanceED Illinois. You can read about it here. The conference was in Champaign, Illinois. The day before the speech, I had a super easy, smooth, on-time flight into Chicago’s O’Hare airport from Newark (New…