Have you ever been part of the periphery of a gathering, club, sport, job, culture, etc.? If you have, you know the feeling that starts to creep through your body as you fully understand that you aren’t within the circle of influence.  That you are on the edge looking in by choice, because of fear, due to finances, ethnicity, or because you are new to the circle.  There is some reason you are not part of the influential group. I have lived most of my life on the periphery.  Much of that is by choice.  But some of it…

It is difficult to keep out of the world of comparison.  Around every corner, there’s another opportunity to explore what others are doing.  It doesn’t matter how those opportunities arise, the view many of us see is the snapshot on social media.  No matter how great or terrible the opportunity, it is the photo that people see. Viewing all the opportunities for comparison from the perspective of love helps us be happy for everyone’s moments of joy.  In between the snapshots, there is a whole story that is not told.  The story doesn’t need to…

A few days after dropping my daughter off at college, on the first day of classes, the students were notified that they needed to evacuate the campus for the hurricane.  I started to read the social media comments from parents trying to figure out how to help their students evacuate with no cars or relatives in the area. My daughter was very fortunate that one of her local roommates offered to house 6 students.  She managed the evacuation as a normal part of Florida life and had a plan. What was interesting was seeing how much more effective people were…

Every so often I need a wake-up call regarding assumptions.  Similarly to judgments, I try to avoid assuming anything, but it happens. Most of the time I know I am making an assumption before I even finish my comment or thought.    Why do I assume that I know what’s happening or how someone is feeling?  When one sees an unfortunate situation the mind often goes to the negative.  But what if the person was not looking at the situation as a negative?  What if the event was considered a stepping stone to the next adventure?  Or maybe a…