Category Archives: assumptions

(#420) Trust As A Core Value


Everyone has a story and our job is to listen. A few decades years after the Civil War, Clara White, a former slave, saw a need and took action in her Jacksonville, Florida neighborhood.  Some of her neighbors did not … Continue reading

Posted in acceptance, accountability, amplifying, Appreciation, assumptions, Being REMARKABLE, change, Community, community development, courage, dignity, Discipline, fortitude, Goals, habits, health, hope, Integrity, Motivation, resilience, Social responsibility, social ties, transactional leadership, wisdom | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

(#418) Helping A Village Find Its Voice


Listen and respect one another. Find your voice. Use your voice. Pursue your rainbows.  We have heard that the village raises up a child.  What do we do, however, if the village has inadequate infrastructure, health disparities, high crime and poverty, … Continue reading

Posted in acceptance, accountability, action, Appropriate Behavior, assumptions, authenticity, awareness, Balance, change, Choice, Civility, collaboration, conversation, core values, creating your future, Dreams, empathy, information literacy, Integrity, leadership, Relationship, relevance, resilience, vulnerability, wellbeing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

(#416) A Safe Place to Land


I kept hearing about the connections between congregants and neighborhood, congregants and congregants, as well as congregants and their own souls. Consider this. It’s 1993. You are an exuberant minister with a young and growing family.  You walk into a … Continue reading

Posted in acceptance, assumptions, authenticity, Being REMARKABLE, Choice, Civility, collaboration, Communication, core values, vulnerability, wisdom | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

(#415) Does the Disturbance Disturb You?


We limit our own growth and spiritual development. “I’ll be really happy if Negative Neil doesn’t come to the party.”  I go to the party. Sure enough, Negative Neil attends. I grouse, complain, and shuffle off to a corner to … Continue reading

Posted in accountability, Anxiety, Appropriate Behavior, assumptions, awareness, blame, change, emotional intelligence, Excuses, Life lessons, meditation | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

(#413) Don’t Figure It Out


Leave room…develop the concept…be free…listen. My current improv instructor reminded the class last week to “get out our heads” and embrace the present. No script. Enhance your partner’s offer. Sense what exists in front of yourself in any given scene. … Continue reading

Posted in Appreciation, assumptions, awareness, collaboration, curiosity, listening, Mindfulness, Reflection, self-awareness | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

(#412) Choices: Where Do You Choose To Be?


Once we choose who we want to be, people grow “to the way in which they have been exercised.” – William James – One of my yoga practices this past week, inspired this blog.  As the instructor coached us into … Continue reading

Posted in assumptions, awareness, Choice, collaboration, collegiality, decision making, empathy, Excuses, Gratitude, Haters, Life lessons, Mindfulness, resilience | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

(#409) More with Less or Less with More?


If the “more-with-less crisis” is followed by another “more-with-less crisis” and yet another, simple arithmetic indicates with each “more” there is a lot “less.” And then that becomes the norm.   Toward the end of my high school teaching career the … Continue reading

Posted in accountability, assumptions, authenticity, awareness, boundaries and limits, Critical Thinking, curiosity, leadership, Personal Wellbeing, resilience, Success, vulnerability, wisdom | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

(#408) Self-Evaluation


Narrow the focus and help yourself understand what does or does not serve and nourish your soul. I have a quick four question survey I ask audiences to complete for me.  It asks them to consider what we did during … Continue reading

Posted in Appropriate Behavior, assumptions, authenticity, Being REMARKABLE, change, change management, consideration, creating your future, curiosity, Life lessons, Mindfulness, self-awareness | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

(#405) Communication or Statement?


Are we listening to others—and to ourselves? One activist described communication as understanding someone else’s experience and presenting a point within that experience. “Even the most elementary grasp of the fundamental idea that one communicates within the experience of his … Continue reading

Posted in assumptions, awareness, blame, change, Communication, Community, growth, Haters, ideologies, intentionality, Mindfulness, resilience, self-awareness, self-efficacy | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

(#404) Risk, Empty Spaces, and Self: Lessons from the Stage


“There is no failure in result; there is only failure in process.” Sam Wasson’s Improv Nation: How We Made A Great American Art provides more than an improv history lesson. He deftly lays out a philosophy of life.  For all … Continue reading

Posted in acceptance, amplifying, assumptions, authenticity, awareness, Being REMARKABLE, childlike, confidence, Mindfulness, risk-taking, Teaching, teaching and learning, vulnerability, wisdom, Words, Words and Action | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment