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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...

By |September 10th, 2010|Columns, Toastmasters, Values|Comments Off on A soft voice carries a powerful message

Piecing together a world of understanding

The column “Find Your Buried Treasure” appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on August 19, 2010. I was dozing on the plane as I returned home from California last week. When I woke up, I glanced out the window. I’m not sure where we were, exactly, but the land far below looked like a patchwork quilt, with squares and rectangles of different colors and shades, separated by lines that could have been roads or rivers. All the pieces fit together perfectly in the tapestry that makes up this planet earth. Or as much of it as I could see. “That sounds about right,” I thought as I dozed off again, reflecting on where I had just been...

By |August 20th, 2010|Columns, Toastmasters, Values|Comments Off on Piecing together a world of understanding

Really good advice helps solve a real problem

The column “Find Your Buried Treasure” appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on July 29, 2010. “It’s like hearing a priest swear.” That’s the way a friend described the sound of an expression I say regularly that I wasn’t even aware I was using. It does not involve swear words, and it was nothing rude or offensive. It was something grammatical, and her description of it in relation to priests swearing was to emphasize how unexpected and uncharacteristic it was to hear me say this – which, apparently, I do a lot. I appreciated her calling my attention to it, first of all because she did it in such a kind and gentle way that it was totally helpful and supportive, and not the least bit critical. And second of all because I’m acutely aware that the words we use speak volumes about us in addition to whatever message we’re using them to convey...

By |July 30th, 2010|Columns, Toastmasters|Comments Off on Really good advice helps solve a real problem