I viewed an interesting show on television a while ago that involved individuals buying old, rundown homes, tearing them down almost completely to the studs, and then rebuilding them. While the process of tearing down and rebuilding is certainly an interesting one, what caught my attention was the attitude of one of the main presenters. Each episode would usually begin by showing two presenters entering a home they had purchased. The inside of the home would be shown, and the

The world needs more kindness. The live-action Cinderella movie had the inspiring theme, “Have Courage and Be Kind”. That message struck me as profoundly important, and I pondered for a long while about what it meant to be kind. The first question I asked myself was if there was a difference between being nice and being kind. I believe that there is absolutely a difference between the two. An easy way to understand what it means to be kind is to think of the kindest person yo

Does the media and big tech intentionally push negative content? I know that I believed so, as getting on Facebook or watching the news always left me feeling negative or down. At some point though, I began to wonder if it was them or if I had something to do with it. I decided to try an experiment where I would only interact with positive content on Facebook. I decided to like only posts that were positive or uplifting, comment on positive statuses, or click on or read posit

Jenny made another mistake on the piano as I watched with a bit of confusion. Teaching her to play the piano has been a unique experience. During some piano lessons, she displays an almost prodigy-like knowledge of piano theory and ability. Other times, she just stares at the sheet music in confusion. Those who have taken piano lessons before might guess that the lessons in which she excels directly follow the weeks she practiced daily. That’s what confuses me. Why does she n

News flash! Humans are fallible! We make all kinds of mistakes every day. We say the wrong thing at the wrong time, think we know the answer when we’re dead wrong, lose control of our emotions, disrespect or misuse authority, lack humility and charity, demean others through word and deed, care too little, care too much, and a host of other failings. We even make mistakes in our own self-evaluations. Some people aren’t critical enough, glossing over their own faults or justify

Anger. Bad Drivers. The World Ending. What do these things have in common? They are things that many people feel, see, or experience on almost a daily basis. Some people believe that almost all drivers are bad, that the world is full of angry people, and that the world could very well devolve into war or suffer cataclysmic weather changes soon.   I work as an attorney. I often have conversations with clients who feel certain of something. Some feel that the government is secr

Have you ever heard the adage, “It takes more muscles to frown than to smile”? I’ve learned recently that claim depends a lot on definitions and perspectives, but let’s just take it at face value for now (pun intended). The adage is generally used to try to encourage people to smile, as – according to the adage – it’s so much easier than frowning. Doing things merely because of their simpleness or ease never gained much traction with me as being a desired activity, so perhaps

Did you know there are 273,000 headwords in the Oxford Dictionary; 171,476 of them being in current use, 47,156 being obsolete words, and around 9,500 derivative words included as subentries? This brings to question, what words are we using? Is there power in words? Let’s explore this thought. As a child, I remember hearing, “If you can’t say something nice then don’t say anything at all.” The other one I grew up with was, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will