Family events form a smooth, seamless weekend
The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on October 14, 2010. I drove down to Chicago with my sister last Friday, so we could drive up to Milwaukee on Saturday for a family wedding. After the wedding and luncheon, we drove back to Chicago so my sister could attend her high school reunion and I could spend some time with my dad. On Sunday, we had a birthday party for our nephew – who turned 13 this week – and for three other relatives whose birthdays have already passed, but recently enough that we could still get away with having a party for them as long as we were in the area. Then on Monday we drove back home to Minneapolis...
Focused fundraising highlights many needs
The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on October 7, 2010. I read an article in the StarTribune last week about foundations and corporations that have started to redirect more of their resources to one specific issue, rather than giving lesser amounts to a greater number of causes. This is good news, certainly, for the issues and conditions that are receiving greater attention and more resources. But it’s disastrous for those that will now be losing out on the funding they would otherwise have received...
Peace and power come from silence and solitude
The column “Find Your Buried Treasure” appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on September 30, 2010. A friend of ours is an avid outdoorsman. He hunts, hikes, and takes several trips each year in which he goes off – way off – into the woods, the wilderness, or to a secluded island. Sometimes others go with him, and sometimes he goes alone, occasionally spending a few weeks at a time in total solitude with no other human contact. He is always in awe of how powerful and rejuvenating it is to be alone and silent for long periods of time. He recently told me about a time when he once took a chair down to the water’s edge, brought a cooler with drinks and snacks, and spent the day there. Literally, the entire day...
A funny smell brings out some serious thoughts
The column “Find Your Buried Treasure” appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on September 23, 2010. Insights, observations, and life lessons sometimes come from the strangest places. Like my refrigerator. Not long ago, I noticed a funny smell coming from the fridge. Although it doesn’t happen very often anymore – not since the days when both of my kids were living at home and the refrigerator regularly held way more food than it does now – every once in a while some little bit of fruit or leftovers will get pushed to the back and hidden behind a larger container. There it will sit, quiet and forgotten, until it turns into a “science experiment” and makes itself known...
Book project offers new challenges and opportunities
The column “Find Your Buried Treasure” appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on September 16, 2010. I got a phone call recently from someone asking if I would be interested in contributing a chapter to a book about networking. My first reaction was the temptation to ask, “What mailing list did you get my name from, and what are you trying to sell me?” But as she explained the project to me, I started getting more and more interested in it...
A soft voice carries a powerful message
The column “Find Your Buried Treasure” appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on September 9, 2010. She’s quiet, low-key, and soft-spoken. That didn’t surprise me. Quite often, the ones who speak the most eloquently and powerfully are also the ones with the softest voices. Her name is Tabitha, and she was a guest at our Toastmasters club about a month ago. I was giving a speech that day, and she told me after the meeting how inspired she was by what I had said. As she told me a little more about herself and about the dreams she had, I was the one who was becoming more and more inspired by her...