A caring volunteer could be Nobel Peace Prize winner
The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on April 7, 2011. I had breakfast last week with a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. And if someone hadn’t told me she was a nominee, I never would have known it. She doesn’t look like Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, or the Dalai Lama, who are some of the people I think of when I hear the words, “Nobel Peace Prize.” Instead, Stephanie Smith looks like a suburban mom – which, in fact, she is...
“Impossible” songs inspire impossible achievements
The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on March 31, 2011. “Impossible” songs inspire impossible achievements “To dream the impossible dream, To fight the unbeatable foe, To bear with unbearable sorrow, To run where the brave dare not go...” Many of you immediately recognized – and may already be humming – the opening lines of “The Impossible Dream,” from Man of La Mancha. It’s one of my favorite songs, from one of my favorite musicals....
Night and day, you can overcome your fears and achieve your dreams
The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on March 24, 2011. At a workshop I attended recently, I met a woman who’s a Dream Coach. Not the kind of Dream Coach I am, who helps people work toward achieving their dreams, but the kind who helps people understand and learn from the dreams they have while they’re sleeping....
Snow complaints melt in the face of global tragedy
The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on March 17, 2011. One of the more popular pastimes this winter has been complaining about the cold weather and the amount of snow we received. Understandably, too, since we were hit with several record-breaking snowstorms that dumped more and more snow on top of snow that was already more than we could handle....
A zebra teaches lessons about attitudes and beliefs
The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on March 10, 2011. Fasten your seatbelt, because I’m getting ready to obliterate one of your longest-held, most comfortable beliefs about life on this planet. And I’m going to do it with one word: zebra....
Ten-year mark sparks new observations
The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on March 3, 2011. Ever since I was in college, it was a dream of mine to be a newspaper columnist. Over the next 25 years or so, I had a number of writing submissions published in newspapers and other publications. I won several newspaper writing contests. And, when my kids were young and playing AYSO Soccer, I was the person responsible for getting game reports into the local paper – although the only journalistic requirements for that were to say who won, list the game scores, and make sure every kid on the team was mentioned at least once in each article....