Category: Beauty

  • Invite Delight: Creating space for conversations that matter

    Is the space around you beautiful? I didn’t ask if it was fancy or expensive or lavish, I asked if it was beautiful. For example, Ugandans tend to keep their yards swept clean.  Even if the space around the home is mostly dirt, they use the dried fronds of the mukonzkonz (“moo-CONES-cones”) Read more […]

  • Synonyms, Sensations & Symbols (My monthly gratitude list)

    Again, I share my monthly gratitude list. Twenty-six things that make me happy on this, the 26th day of December, should they be of interest. (If you’d like to make your own list, I’d love for you to share it in a comment below.) Awaking Christmas morning to emails and WhatsApp messages (with Read more […]

  • The Queen of the Night (and my monthly gratitude list)

    My monthly gratitude list. Today is the 21st day of the month, and here is a list of 21 things that make me happy and grateful, should they be of interest. How most of my kids, when we’re conversing, tag the word “Dad” or “Daddy” onto the end of every sentence, i.e. “Yes, Daddy,” or…

  • Just Outside the Gates

    Yesterday, a colleague shared with me the story of a friend of hers who had a surprise in-store for her young girl.  I don’t know the age of the child, but I think she might have been somewhere between three and five years old—and she desperately wanted to go to Disneyland. As the result Read…

  • Are you being served?

    “Oh no, no.  I can get it.  I don’t need to be waited on!” Have you ever said these words? If so, I invite you to ask yourself why. Your answer might purport to have something to do with humility, or not placing yourself above another. May I challenge you on that? The experience of…

  • 10 Things I’m Grateful for on 10/10

    That my kids are loving their new space in Nkumba. That Mom has been in Uganda for more than three months, making sure everything is just right for my kids. The night sky.  When I look into it, I sense something that cannot be described by the characters on this computer screen, no matter how…

  • “25 Things I’m Grateful for!” (My monthly gratitude list.)

    Emails from my kids. After the long journey from Uganda, I walked into my American office on Monday and found a delightful gift and card from a colleague whose last day of work had been whilst I was away. That spiritual connections remain even when our human experiences take different routes. Electricity!  Read more […]

  • “Music in the Dark” (A 2-minute read.)

    From my African journal:  Every evening, I hear music coming from an obscure location in the middle of my village town, Masaka, Uganda.  It is joyful music with heavy rhythms and multiple voices in song.  Between choruses, there are great shouts, and bursts of speech in Luganda.  I have trouble making Read more […]

  • I answer the Q: What does “compassion without borders” mean to me?

    Below is an essay that won a competition in celebration of a visit to my university by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.  It was printed in a booklet, and gifted to His Holiness.  We had been challenged to answer (in 500 words or less) this question: “What does ‘compassion-without-borders’ mean to you?” Read more […]

  • “Thought-Snapshots” (A 2-minute post from London–on contemplating delight.)

    Two nights ago I was in a meeting with colleagues, discussing cultural implications for resilience among young people, and then off to a dinner with friends at a favorite eatery in downtown San Diego.  Last night I was crammed into an uncomfortable airplane seat for 11 hours, flying across seas and Read more […]