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What is an expected surprise for you?
When I was in college, and I was trying to “figure out my path” (as the kids might say) I had this conversation with my grandfather. I was in a bad mood, and feeling bad about myself and he asked me if I had given anybody an expected surprise. He actually challenged me and said “what’s the last expected surprise you gave?”
Read MoreA couple years ago when going through old letters from our attic, I found a letter my dad had written to his mom in the early 1980s. He shared with her his deep deep sense of complete failure, financially and in his career. He pondered what he felt like was his inability to keep a job.
Read MoreI was feeling frustrated and upset with someone the other day. Actually, after I did “my practice” I realized I was upset with the situation, not the person.
It’s a person I deeply care about and love and respect, so I wanted to make sure I could come to a place of compassionate communication with him before I reacted on my feelings. I’ve been trying to make this more and more of a habit...because looking back as a kid, and a very sensitive one, I realize I would hide, bury and suppress a lot of my feelings until they would swell up and then I’d burst -usually into tears.
Read MoreIt seemed like he loved commuting.
He could read books both ways. He read crazy fast like our son, Eamon, does today. It seemed to be his time to do something he loved. When he got off the train, he always slowly walked to the car - so unlike the other Long Islanders, as I realized today, who would zip by him.
He didn’t rush much.
He didn’t hurry much.
Read MoreYou may have heard that the other week in California, a virtual doctor (think iPad live streaming a doctor one of those Double Robotics bodies) was the one to deliver the news to a patient and her daughter that there was nothing they could do to further her treatment and she would most likely not live until the end of the week (he was correct).
Understandably, the family was quite upset about this.
Aren’t we always looking for new ideas? Do you believe you should think outside the box more often?
I’ve always had this weird aversion to that idea – outside the box. It seems like just useless advice. So, I looked up the origin of it.
Read MoreI was talking to my investment banker friend the other day exchanging note-worthy industry trends. He enthusiastically noted artificial intelligence being a fascinating vertical with great potential. I rolled my eyes and launched into my diatribe of how technology is far from achieving “intelligence”. I explained the Chinese word for intelligence is the combined mastery of language, music and martial arts. Machines are far from achieving that.
Read MoreI was at my boyfriend Chad's gym a couple weekends ago back in his hometown located in a small town in Florida. I had finished my workout before he was done and went straight away to the coffee machine as per usual. I sat down on a couch in the lounge near the entrance way with my steaming cup. As I took my first sip, I noticed an old man and a middle-aged staff member conversing across from me. The first remark I heard from the smiling staff member was, "98 years-old... so what's your secret? Coffee?"
Read MoreThe bright red spot in your left eye
Mirrors the one in my right.
Matching subconjunctival hemorrhages,
Markings of our journeys
Our arrivals
Our births.
Read MoreIn 1999, I took a job at UBS in a high profile position Global Tech Strategist.
It was a sensational sensational job and I was very lucky to have that opportunity. Without that job, I wouldn't know about 95% of the people reading this very note.
I think I was excited about the job because I knew it would force me to grow. As just one example: I would be on TV routinely.
Read MoreOne of the exercises that I conduct when I am going to a funeral is asking myself the following question:
If there was one person that you would want forgiveness from before you died, who would that be?
Bear in mind that since I age and go to more funerals; this question now happens a couple of times a year as opposed to when I was younger.
Read MoreI have two eight year old boys in my practicum setting at an elementary school here in Gainesville. Cameron and Brayden each have a learning disability. They both struggle at times to complete their classwork. Cameron and Brayden also push each other, steal each other's pencils, make hurtful comments, name-call... I could go on. Though they do not sit near one another in the classroom, I have never seen them share a single positive interaction.
Read MoreSometimes I still stop, and I think about all the problems and mistakes of 2018, trying to see them, to learn from them, and to give them their proper magnitude – the size correction is needed in my case because I’m Brazilian, and hyperboles (large, exaggerated statements) are a way of living!
Read MoreIn an exercise of intentionally placing myself in uncomfortable situations, I am completing a “Faith and Leadership” certificate at my school here in London. There are many different faith systems and personal histories represented in our group of 20 students, including people who don’t prescribe to any faith system at all. I envisioned a group of people who would be mutually vulnerable in their beliefs and doubts – in theory, I thought, this is what it should look like if people are opting into an initiative like this.
Read MoreOne of the topics I journal about often is “bridges” that are between us humans… bridges that can eliminate "us/them" in its infinite human varieties…I aim to see what helps me create bridges between me and others, as well as ways in which I might get in the way.
Read MoreI was just gonna write a few, but once I started I didn't want to stop! What a good exercise.
Anti-pet peeves:
· my dog when he starts wagging his tail and sprinting around the kitchen table when he gets excited in the morning
· squirrels when they manage to safely dodge traffic
Read MoreWhile I’m not a big believer in New Year’s resolutions, I like the idea of resolving, this year, to change the story we tell ourselves about ourselves.
One of the most relaxing parts of my winter break were the hours I spent curled up with The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss, the most-recommended fantasy fiction book by all of you.
At the end of the book, I found a pearl of wisdom spoken by a minor character named Bast:
Everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.
Read MoreEating, a basic biological need and desire we share with animals has been a site for meaning making in every religious and cultural system. Only human beings cook their food, set their tables, eat out, consciously restrict their desires, and frame their pre and post act of eating with stories and value judgments. While sometimes a cigar is just a cigar eating is never just about eating. The experience surrounding food/eating has been fraught with rituals, taboos, rules, customs, norms, symbolization, messages, and stories, -- the what, how, where, with whom, why, and when we eat.
Read MoreI watched a Ted Talk this week titled, "The Power of Vulnerability." The speaker, Brene Brown, emphasized the importance of “letting ourselves be deeply and vulnerably seen… to love with our whole hearts even though there’s no guarantee.”
She said, “To feel vulnerable means I’m alive. And I must stop controlling and predicting because it is not possible to selectively numb difficult feelings.”
Her words gave me chills and made me think about so many different circumstances in my existence. But they especially made me think about one particular really difficult part of my life.
Read MoreI've been wanting to write a CFC blog post for weeks now, but I have struggled to know what to write about. I try to write a good amount outside of CFC too - and outside of my school papers - but have had a bad bout of writer's block recently. It's not that I don't have thoughts, I just don't have...ideas.
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