InSpiritry

“I love that simple story that ends on a grace note,

and you go, ‘Wow, I’m just happy to be alive right now.’”

Cameron Crowe

We all love a story; here’s a chance to hear one! 

As much as the economy needs a boost, the Friday after Thanksgiving can be more than a shopping frenzy (who thought up the frightening title Black Friday for a day people are buying gifts anyway!?). Friday, November 27, 2009, is the second annual National Day of Listening, a day to spend time in conversation with someone you care about! Sponsor National Public Radio and the event’s founder suggest we use the day to each become autobiographers, interviewing people in our lives to document their stories. (more…)

       “Value your relationships.”  Barbara Bush

Lately, I have been thinking about relationships and the strength they bring to our lives.

With that on my mind, this week I read an insightful article  about “the power of many” in an investment newsletter. As evidence of how personal relationships empower us in the midst of these unsettled economic times, the article noted an interesting custom I read about several years ago in Dan Buettner’s eye-opening book, The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest .

The custom comes from the island of Okinawa, where for years people have formed social cooperatives called moai. Essentially, moai are informal groups formed by people who want to count on and cooperate with each other. (more…)

“The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.”
                                                       Japanese proverb 

“While the hammer drives the nail,

it is the nail that finds its way into the wood.”

As we work together to solve dilemmas in our families, our places of work and even our world, things go best when we each have a role to play. What an interesting metaphor develops if we think of ourselves as items in a woodshed. Hammer, anvil, nail –each type of tool and person serves a purpose. Though our social roles change in different circumstances with a little more flexibility than an iron tool, because of our natural abilities, we frequently tend to choose (or be given) one kind of responsibility or another!  (more…)