Gratefulness: Demonstrating appreciation to others for what I have and how they have helped me. November is the month of Thanksgiving. If we take a moment to think about the origins of the Thanksgiving holiday, we are reminded of the power of gratefulness. On November 24, we will pause and spend...
Gratefulness refers to our ability to show thanks for the things we have and a readiness to show appreciation and to return kindness. It helps us recognize all the blessings in our lives, which makes it easier to focus on the positive. I want to emphasize here…Being positive is not pretending that...
According to dictionary.Cambridge.org, it is “the ability to use your judgment to make decisions and do things without needing to be told what to do.” Initiative is a close relative of initiate, which means to start something. Whether initiative is your strength or something you need to work on,...
Those who know me well would say I’m a minimalist who regularly enjoys a good decluttering session. There’s just something about sorting through old files or unused items to eventually throw away that gives me an extra skip in my step when making my way toward the garbage bin. You could say I’ve...
The typical “handle your duties, do what is expected of you” as an employee, a son, a daughter, a wife, a husband, or a parent is an important aspect of responsibility, but there is another aspect of responsibility that I would like to focus on. I want to talk about what I believe to be our #1...
Webster’s Dictionary defines endurance as “the ability to withstand hardship or adversity, especially the ability to sustain prolonged stressful effort or activity” and “the act or an instance of enduring or suffering.” Synonyms of endurance are permanence or duration. When I moved to Tennessee to...
In March 2022, we saw the first pictures of the ship, Endurance. She sank in January 1915. Her 28-member crew, led by Sir Ernest Shackleton, was making an expedition to Antarctica when the Endurance became stuck in sea ice. The crew lived for 9 months stranded on the sea ice, fighting to free the...
Definitions of sincerity: Having or showing honesty, emphasis on showing Being genuine Really meaning the things say or do Not being hypocritical or deceitful, but being open and genuine Talking and acting in a way that shows you mean what you say and do Having a confident humility After writing...
If you take a glance at any weekend news show on TV or spend more than 5 minutes on the internet, you can quickly see that forgiveness appears to be in short supply nowadays. It seems like we’ve shifted from a society that embraces (or at least tolerates) vigorous debate of opposing ideas to a...
My dad was a big man. He was overweight and he knew it. I’ll never forget one holiday when we were both standing at the dessert table. He was scooping up his second helping. He looks up from the plate with a mischievous grin and says, “Yeah, I’m working on getting skinny and beautiful. I’ve got...
Patience is one of those character traits that benefits from the combined effort of multiple character traits. Patience benefits from endurance, discernment, diligence, flexibility, wisdom and more. The advancement of technology has given ours and younger generations an expectation of instant...
I think we all, at some time or another, have had moments when we were less than attentive. For me, my kryptonite is sports. My wife, Sennola, has learned not to even try to talk to me when I’m engrossed in a game. Sometimes though, she’ll give it a shot, and she’ll start telling me about...
