Thursday, February 28, 2019

Start Saying YES! to Experiences

“Find a way to say yes to things. Say yes to invitations to a new country. Say yes to meeting new friends. Say yes to learning a new language, picking up a new sport. Yes is how you get your first job, and your next job. Yes is how you find your spouse, and even your kids.

Even if it’s a bit edgy, a bit out of your comfort zone, saying yes means you will do something new, meet someone new and make a difference in your life, and likely in others’ lives as well … Yes is a tiny word that can do big things. Say it often.

Saying “Yes” requires work, commitment and accountability, and sometimes that scares people away, especially if they feel unprepared or unmotivated.

But here’s the reality: a yes will always give you more than a no. A no is guaranteed failure. Nothing is ever stagnant, so a no is usually backward progress. Sure, there is no risk in a no… but there’s no fun in it either. Saying yes can be very fun. In the fun is where you find success”

Eric Schmidt

Thursday, November 8, 2018

Meaning in Life


I suppose I should wish you success, but that is too easy.  I would like to wish you something that is harder to come by.  So I am going to wish you meaning in life.  And meaning is not something you stumble across like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt.

Meaning is something you build into your life.  You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you; out of your own talent and understanding, out of things and people you love, out of the values of which you are willing to sacrifice something, the ingredients are there.

You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life.  Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you.  If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account.
Robert Gardner

Don't so busy

Don't get so busy

Tuesday, August 14, 2018


Travel, whether that be to the park or across the ocean, will always represent an extraordinary opportunity to overcome, fear, hate, and intolerance, and awaken stewardship, compassion, empathy, and global understanding.

Transformation requires we explore ourselves even as we explore the world. And when traveling like a HERO, in #HeroMode, the possibility of transformation is illuminated. A HERO travels with Heart, is fully Engaged, practices Resolve, and is wide Open to the unknown within every journey. And when travelers do that, they can transform themselves and transform the world.

Source: https://www.adventuretravelnews.com/travel-like-a-hero

*HeroMode is the mindset travellers embrace when they set forth on a journey to create change in their lives and in the world around them
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Thursday, July 12, 2018

Potatoes, Eggs, and Coffee Beans

Potatoes, Eggs, and Coffee Beans

Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn’t know how she was going to make it. She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot, and ground coffee beans in the third pot.

He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter who moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing.

After twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the boiled eggs out and placed them in a bowl. He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup.

Turning to her he asked. “Daughter, what do you see?”

“Potatoes, eggs, and coffee,” she hastily replied.

“Look closer,” he said, “and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.

“Father, what does this mean?” she asked.

He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity– the boiling water…However, each one reacted differently.

The potato went in strong, hard, and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak.

The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.

“Which are you,” he asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean? “

Sunday, December 3, 2017


Vagabonding is like a pilgrimage without a specific destination or goal - not a quest for answers so much as a celebration of the questions, an embrace of the ambiguous, and an openness to anything that comes your way.
Rolf Potts

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Solitude

Clamdigger by Edward Hopper

If we lose our capacity for solitude, our ability to be alone with ourselves, then we lose our very ability to think. We risk getting caught up in the crowd. We risk being swept away by what everybody else does and believes in – no longer able, in the cage of thoughtless conformity, to distinguish ‘right from wrong, beautiful from ugly’. 

Solitude is not only a state of mind essential to the development of an individual’s consciousness – and conscience – but also a practice that prepares one for participation in social and political life. Before we can keep company with others, we must first learn to keep company with ourselves.
Hannah Arendt
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