Fifty years ago today Karen and I “tied the knot”. It was a double wedding – Karen’s parents couldn’t handle two weddings in one year, and Karen’s older sister Linda and her fiance Malcolm graciously allowed us to share their special day. That we’re still all best friends says something for their grace. I won’t…
Most of us struggle with work-life balance, but the two groups who seem to have the most difficulty are those who hate their work too much and those who love their work too much. In the case of those who hate their work, life seems like spending half your time chained on a galley ship…
You hate them too, don’t you? You know what I mean – you Google a site you want to read or research, and when you’re down to about the eighth paragraph, a great big, obnoxious pop-up takes over the screen.”Hi!,” it says, “I’m Amanda! How can I help you?” Not needing Amanda’s help right now,…
Some people, when they’re about seven years old, know what they want to do with their lives. They’re the lucky ones, I suppose. That’s not most of us. And there are those who grow old and die, never having figured out what they were meant to be. They are the subject of another piece. Most…
With the first days of September each year, a certain nostalgia washes over me. Here in Canada, early September means the Labour Day Holiday long weekend, then the beginning of a new school year. Having spent an inordinate amount of time in my younger years in school, I still experience a special feeling as summer…
Traps, by their nature, are unnoticed and unnoticeable until it’s too late. Computational and linguistic traps are no exception. One of the most dangerous linguistic traps is that of ambiguity – a word or expression which, without further clarification can have multiple meanings. “You can’t have too much of that” might mean that it’s impossible…
“That’s easy for you to say, Norm, because you’re retired!” Perhaps, but all my bad habits of trying to cram too much into a day have followed me here, too. They’re hard-wired and difficult to shake. But what I can say for certain is that there is nothing more precious, more restorative, and more beneficial…
Almost all of us get distracted and go chasing down rabbit trails from time to time. Some of us spend our entire lives exploring rabbit trails and never seem to accomplish much. As a general rule, rabbit trails are counterproductive. They distract us from focusing on the job at hand, and they lead to yet…
On the question of when to find and live out your Giftings, some wonder, “But, is it too late for me?” And that is a delicate question. Just to recap, your Giftings are your innate aptitudes which have been shaped by experience and honed by training. When you get to spend your time in the…
In his classic song Summer Wages (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o43TMGS9MU4) , Ian Tyson tells of working the logs on the West Coast in his “slippery city shoes”, something he vowed he would never do again. That is, until he spent his summer wages on beer and hookers, and then had to do it again. I love Tyson’s song,…