Category: Being present

  • “So, should she NOT have done that?” Balancing the setting of intentions and being present.

      I was on a walk earlier today when a woman, smoking on her 6th Ave penthouse terrace, leaned over her wall, and offered a friendly, “Hey.” When I looked up, I realized that she was greeting the homeless person nearby. She dropped a fresh cigarette down to him. He picked it up off the…

  • Be Patient with Your Life

    It’s all a bit overwhelming, I would think. I pick Dorah up at her dorm at the University of San Diego, a place she has called “home” for only three weeks.  (She’s here as a Hansen Fellow for a Leadership Institute.) It’s a typically bright, sunny day.  We drive to a location not far away,…

  • Ignore the giant, step towards the beauty

    I just finished my daily wog (half walk, half jog) through the park.  On the homestretch, as I jogged past a garden springing fresh with colorful blossoms, a little girl, maybe three-years-old, stepped directly in front of me.  She was drawn to the beauty of the flowers, totally oblivious to this giant—nearly Read more […]

  • Saddle-up. Wear a hard hat. And bring the bear.

    The other day, as I emerged from my apartment building—my home-away-from-home here in San Diego—I sighed at the sight and sounds of the ongoing road construction.  The major street in front of my building has been torn up for months as subterranean waterlines are repaired and rerouted. The dust, Read more […]

  • 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…

  • “The Other Side of the Veil” (One of 25 things that make me happy)

    Last night, in the middle of a very stressful phone call, I was given a word-image.  The caller told me about how, earlier in the day, “Jjaja Jack” (Grandpa Jack, my dad) had taken little, individual ice cream packets to the kids at our home in Nkumba (pronounced “in-KOOM-bah”).  Somehow, the Read more […]

  • Springing Forward

    It’s one of my favorite times of the day.  It’s nearly 2am.  The streets and surroundings are still.  Lights twinkle from the neighboring buildings.  There’s a slight chill in the air. And there is silence. So much hype surrounds me virtually as social media reminds me that a change in Read more […]

  • Yet another way to use the Light

    The room was just another fancy DC hotel ballroom, but the Academy of Achievement’s team had transformed it by mastering the use of light.  The space was mostly dark except for the candles on the tables, swirling lights cast onto the wallpapered walls, and the spotlight on the dais.  There were only Read more […]

  • 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…

  • The Noise of Poverty; Understanding Its Power over Self & Other

    As I transition from the “West” to Uganda—yet again—I am anticipating the different sounds in the lifescape.  Some will welcome me, emoting joy and pleasure. Others will attack me in offensive ways, stirring negativity and frustration.  Others will be processed subconsciously—and yet will Read more […]