Clik here to view.
Our Best Hope(s) in a Summer of Violence
Photo Credit: Bigstock (enterlinedesign) An hour before gunshots rang out in Dallas, I was playing a game of basketball with my kids in the driveway—a game called Around the World, in which it’s every...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What We’ve All Been Searching for Since Childhood (A Post About Belonging)
At first, it sounded like nonsense. A few weeks ago we picked up my son, Aidan, from two weeks of residential wilderness camp. He’d attended the camp with a friend from our town, and we were taking...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How to Dream a Better Dream Than This Nightmare We’re Living In
Have you been feeling a little more afraid than usual? You know, just a little more…uneasy? I have. So have many people I know. I couldn’t make any sense of it, though, until I started having a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Father’s Letter to His Little Ones (In the Wee Hours of the Election)
Dear Little Ones, You are already asleep in your beds. It’s late, and I’m going to bed. It’s been a long election day. When this day began began, I woke up, and I walked to the corner coffee shop in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How to Talk with Family About Politics This Holiday Season
What do you get when you mix family, the holidays, and politics? Gratitude and goodwill toward all, right? Well, actually… Photo Credit: Bigstock (avemario) A number of years ago—when marijuana was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How to Choose Your Friends in the Aftermath of the Election
The Presidential election has tested friendships and relationships of all kinds. In the wake of such a divisive contest, there may be only one truly healing way to choose your people… Photo Credit:...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What Is Christmas? (It’s When We Defiantly Choose the Light)
Photo Credit: Bigstock (mainagashev) Last weekend, I hosted my first Christmas party as an employer. Okay, the truth is, I didn’t host it. My business partner has the gift of hospitality, so he was in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why Siblings Fight (and Why We All Fight Like Siblings)
Siblings fight because they assume love is a limited resource. They assume they have to compete for caring. In other words, siblings are just like the rest of us… Photo Credit: flintman45 via Compfight...
View ArticleClik here to view.
I’ve Got Bad News and I’ve Got Good News (Which Will You Choose?)
Photo Credit: Richard Ricciardi via Compfight cc “Daddy, I’ve got bad news!” I’m getting into the car after making the mistake of sending my youngest two children out to the garage on their own. I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Home Is Where the Grace Is
Photo Credit: Mitya Ku via Compfight cc It’s a Saturday evening and my oldest son and I are working the dinner shift at a homeless shelter. We’re staffing the beverage table with friends, enjoying the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Karma Envelopes
Last week, I got ambushed by hope in a pub in Boulder, Colorado. My wife and I had just gotten into town for a conference. Our flight out of O’Hare had been delayed for hours by thunderstorms, so by...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why Kindness Multiplies, Joy Rebounds, and Generosity Goes Viral
Last week, I wrote about a pub in Colorado, where you don’t have to pay your tab when you eat. If you don’t have cash, they send you home with a Karma Envelope, and they trust you’ll send your payment...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Power of Friendship (When Friendship is a Verb)
The word “friend” is a derivative of the verb “freon,” which means, “To love.” A friend is a person. And a friend is a verb… Photo Credit: tico_24 via Compfight cc Two years ago, as my daughter was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Reflections on Beauty (From Main Street U.S.A.)
Beauty. There’s an entire industry dedicated to it. But what if beauty isn’t something you can buy or paint on or put on? What if beauty isn’t even something you can create? What if beauty is a reality...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dear ISIS (A Letter Between Human Beings)
Photo Credit: le calmar via Compfight cc Dear ISIS, I know I’m supposed to hate you. I know I’m supposed to be angry. I know I’m supposed to want revenge. I know I’m supposed to demand justice at any...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Kindness Challenge
Let’s admit it: we’re obsessed with winning. Just look around. Everything has become a competition. Our will-to-win is everywhere, and it’s not going anywhere. But what if we gave it something better...
View ArticleClik here to view.
It’s All the Rage: How Outrage Has Become a Virtue
This post is a bad idea—an invitation for indignation. Because I’m about to suggest we all act a little less controversial and, these days, suggesting less controversy has become the most controversial...
View ArticleClik here to view.
BREAKING NEWS: This Just Happened and the World May Never Be the Same
Photo Credit: Maria Eklind via Compfight cc (UnTangled News)—The global community was rocked yesterday by a divorce that may alter the course of humanity and the future of the planet. UnTangled News...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Antidote to All the Crap in Your Facebook Feed
When I’m procrastinating on writing—due to fear, fatigue, fear, lack of inspiration, did I mention fear?—Facebook is like a magnet. One day recently, I could feel its pull, so I decided to trick myself...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Parable of the Mass Shooting That Didn’t Happen
The gun sits on the car seat beside him. He watches the people lined up outside the club. People? More like swine. Robotic pigs, programmed to get into lines, to work and to sweat all day and then, at...
View Article