Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness,and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were notbalanced by sadness. Carl Jung It is all about balance. Balancing our gifts against the fears, the hurts and sorrows, the wounds of life. Balancing who we are against who we believe we can be when we get off the tightrope of proving our deepest fears true.This is a Choices week -- a week of long days, short sleeps. I am off to serve. To be a part of, to take part in the wonder of... Read Full Story

In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future. Alex HaleySometime ago, I visited a native museum east of the city, Blackfoot Crossing. I was alone. I was in awe. I stood in the large, airy lobby looking through the floor to ceiling windows that provided a panoramic view of the valley laid out in fall glory before me.A tall native man walked towards me. "Is this your first time at the Crossing?", he asked."Yes," I replied. "It's stunning."He smiled. Nodded h... Read Full Story

From wonder into wonder existence opens. Lao Tzu I am off for five days of wonder. Five days spent serving people in the discovery of the wonder of their lives. I'm off to Coach at Choices, the personal development program my daughters and I took three years ago -- the program we have each gone back to coach at as often as we can.It is a wonder that I still keep going back. Given that my mindset when I first stepped into the training room was one of 'knowing'. I already knew whatever I neede... Read Full Story

There can be no vulnerability without risk; there can be no community without vulnerability; there can be no peace, and ultimately no life, without community. Scott PeckIt was a simple, heartfelt email of thanks. I had given her company a tour of the homeless shelter where I work. She wrote to tell me of her personal connection to the shelter through her brother who had once been part of the organization several years ago. "I could never understand why he gave up his high profile, high paying... Read Full Story

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. Dwight D. Eisenhower [1953] He was nine when he remembers the war coming for the first time. It was how he said it, "I was nine the first time I remember when the wa... Read Full Story

Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars. Henry Van DykeWhen was the last time you played hard? Laughed heartily? Looked silly? Danced in the rain? Ran barefoot through mud puddles? When was the last time you gave yourself permission to take off the mantle of 'being adult' to leap for joy at the sheer exhilaration of being alive, of having a place that is uniquely yours on this great big ball of energy spinning through space. ... Read Full Story

More men fail through lack of purpose than through lack of talent. Billy Sunday I am taking my professional coaches certification. It's an online certification program -- and I am loving online learning!One of the exercises is to create a Vision Statement for your client. As we are all trainees on the call, each trainee takes a turn being 'the client', while another interviews them and then writes a Vision Statement for them. And then we switch -- but work with a different trainee as the coac... Read Full Story

I wrote this piece a few years ago in memory of my father. I share it again today in honour of those who have lost their lives in the name of freedom.When the poet boy was sixteen, he lied about his age and ran off to war. It was a war he was too young to understand. Or know why he was fighting. When the guns were silenced and the victors and the vanquished carried off their dead and wounded, the poet boy was gone. In his stead, there stood a man. An angry man. A wounded man. The man who woul... Read Full Story

The major block to compassion is the judgment in our minds. Judgment is the mind's primary tool of separation. Diane Berke I have been called headstrong, stubborn, willful and arrogant. I have been called, kind, caring, loving and considerate. I like the second set of attributes. The first set annoy me -- but then, my ego doesn't like it when someone sees it at play.When I have been considered headstrong, or stubborn or arrogant, it is because I am coming from an ego-driven place that holds ... Read Full Story

The love that you withhold is the pain that you carry. Vissaeus In a world of wonder, there is war. In a world of beauty, there is pain. In a world of laughter, there are tears. Perhaps it is as the sages suggest, the one cannot exist without the other. We cannot experience laughter without having known pain. We cannot know joy without having met sorrow.Buddha said, "Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it." How do I give myself to the world when ... Read Full Story