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Opening a treasure chest, the author finds a valuable lost art.

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In explaining a situation to a friend , she said simply, “I don’t see a problem here, Ed. Embrace the Love”.

One of my oft recounted stories is a time I was aboard a sailboat in Southern California. I was in town for a tradeshow and the middleaged gentleman who owned the boat invited a few of us aboard for a sunset harbor cruise and hors d'oeuvres. He was in the process of restoring the boat, so the mast was off and in storage somewhere. Anyway, since I was very familiar with the harbor, I volunteered to steer his boat around enabling him to focus on his hosting duties. To my delight, he readily accepted. Later, approaching me and offering to fill my wine glass, I asked him if he grew up out here. “Not yet”, he replied. I chuckled. I love that response and have not forgotten it.

Recent events are heralded as a generational shift. It’s about time. With it comes an optimism for a saner future. Phrases such as “passing the torch”, “the power of hope” and “exhilaration of being on the cusp of a brighter day” are making headlines. The vocabulary surrounding this is interesting, too. Words such as dignity, decorum, decency, respect, kindness, honesty, caring, empathy, grace, freedom, gratitude, and integrity are used to describe what we regard to be innately human characteristics and what we most want from others. This should not be newsworthy. Alas, it is.

Four adult siblings relearn the values of home when visiting for their father's Celebration of Life.

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We don’t have a packaged remedy for this pandemic. In the early days of the one we just experienced, we sold quite a lot of products that boosted the immune system. Everyone, it seemed, was interested in whatever defensive support they could get, even as the world we knew changed and we volunteered to isolate.

There are a couple restoration “projects” in my shop awaiting my attention and energy. At the time of committing to one of them, a friend of mine said “just leave it in position and patch it there”. His opinion, not misguided, highlights the difference between repairing something and restoring something. Repairing is simply to make it functional again – to fix what you see as the problem. But to restore something is much more involved, more ambitious - an attempt to bring it back to its original state - what it once was, or perhaps something even better. [TO CONTINUE READING, CLICK ON THE TITLE ABOVE]

I sat comfortably at the Hollow Square conference table in my usual back left-hand corner position, focused and ready to take notes. The presenter, an older gentleman in a suit with a bow tie, queued up music and began a slide show. The track was Nat King Cole’s version of Mona Lisa, a song written in 1949 by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston and covered by many wonderful artists over the years. The slide show was a plethora of then current magazine ads for all sorts of products featuring that famous face and smile. He didn’t say anything during the next 2 ½ minutes, just let the audio/visual play. I don’t remember his presentation topic or what any of this had to do with it, but I’ve never forgotten the introduction. And, Cole’s version of this song is still my favorite.

Over the past few months, life circumstances have been such that I have had some significant “shared experiences’ with the time afterwards for observation and reflection. [Please click on the title above to continue reading]

She entered the room in grace – positive, compassionate and confident. It was in her eyes, her smile, her touch. I observed her interactions with her patient and I could see that what she does and who she is are intricately woven. When she later explained that she came out of retirement for more of well, just this, I could see clearly that this is a calling for her and I could imagine no one better suited for the role, nor her being in any other role. She is a nurse with a hospice organization. [PLEASE CLICK ON THE TITLE ABOVE TO CONTINUE READING]