It all started with an encounter. After a morning of ‘religious enthusiasm’, Martin Buber was visited by a young man. Buber was friendly and attentive, but says he was not there fully in spirit. Later, the philosopher and theologian discovered that the young man had been wrestling with something. He…
Are you ever stressed at work? Regardless of whether you see your work as a calling, a career or a job, you probably do experience stress from time-to-time. It could be due to unreasonable demands or expectations: the client’s, your boss’s or your own. It might be a lack resources…
It is the holiday season. A time for celebration and old friends, mistletoe and the oh, so patient stockings. Gather all your hopes and expectations and sit beside the fire. Hang your glittering memories like tinsel from the tree. Tis the season of anticipation, excitement and joy. But often, there…
Resilience. Grit. Sisu. Post traumatic growth. Different researchers emphasize the subtle distinctions within the larger truth that more often than not, we are better than we think we are. We are stronger, more adaptive. When things go wrong, most people, most of the time, do not dry up, crumble and…
When we first moved to the place I would come to call home, a boy, five years my senior, knocked on the door to meet his new playmate. He introduced himself, spelled his last name, and every weekend and summer we played: Sometimes in the woods pretending we were soldiers…
Something curious happens when we track satisfaction over the course of our lives. Couples meet, fall in love, get married and life could not be more wonderful. Then they have children and satisfaction falls. It plummets. Happiness only begins its rise once again after the little ones are hatched and…
In many ways this is the greatest period of history. Yet ours is a culture of longing. The world is of course the world, and it is filled with tragedy, hardship, pain, loss and indiscretion. Yet life expectancy and literacy rates have been steadily rising for decades. We are richer…
Thoughts of peer pressure bring a parent’s worst fears to mind: sex; drugs; uncategorized acts of stupidity; the fact that our kids cannot be who they are when they are the most themselves. When they get home at night, there is no escape from the peacocking of peers on Instagram…
The costumes have all been put away and the trick-or-treaters are gone leaving only a few feathers or streaks of glitter on the walkway next to the sagging pumpkin with its memories of smiles. All we have is candy. Candy collected by our own children, or the leftover treats reserved for…