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“The most effective communicators aren’t the people who talk the most. They are the people who are best at understanding what kind of conversation is happening.”— Charles Duhigg, from Supercommunicators One evening, Charles Duhigg came home from work frustrated. Duhigg, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who has written for The New York Times  and authored several books about human behavior, had spent the day struggling with a difficult boss. When he walked through the door

“Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of creative alternatives for responding to conflict.” — Dorothy Thompson, journalist and amazing woman (check her out) There are moments in history when the air feels electrically charged. We sense fracture lines widening — in politics, in our own communities, sometimes even around our own dinner tables. And in such moments, even people of faith are tempted toward two extremes: retreat (into private piety), or lunge into

“The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.”—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn One of the most dangerous myths we carry is the belief that evil lives somewhere else—in other people, other nations, other eras of history. It is comforting, but it is not true. What social psychology, history, and lived experience tell us—again and again—is that the capacity for cruelty and the capacity for courage live side by side in all of us. Which one emerges often dep

We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.  Anaïs Nin I wrote most of this blog in the past, but wanted to re-visit it because first, John and I have just celebrated an anniversary, fifty two years of marriage. It’s a big marker for us.  We lived through several renditions of ourselves along side of each other. Second, because relationships, both struggles and successes are the basis of most all our human problems as well as the primary route to flourishing.  Ver

You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” Do not resist an evildoer.  But if anyone strikes on on the...

Between stimulus and response there's a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and...

"You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the...

The line of good and evil is down the middle of every person's heart. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, imprisoned Russian writer John and I plan...

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and...

"There's more here, sir, than meets the eye." John Galsworthy's book, The Man of Property, when the inspector looks over the dead body...

“In this treacherous world/Nothing is the truth nor a lie./Everything depends on the color/Of the crystal through which one sees it.” ―...

It is discouraging to try and penetrate a mind like yours. You ought to get it out and dance on it. Mark Twain. The interaction starts...

It is in the shelter of each other that the people live. Irish proverb “Don’t smile until Christmas!” That was the ridiculous chorus...