What Goes Down, Sometimes Comes Up Higher In the grip of the pandemic, many of us looked to the heavens and cast a wish to do things differently if we should make it through this dark hour. We’d say “yes” more to people, to challenges, to artistic expression, to going for our dreams. Now, starting in America, as vaccines squelch the […]
But Beware: the Cat May Not Leave You Alone Growing up, my family had rambunctious cats who were free to roam and fully clawed, ready to fight other cats, a raccoon, or bring back a prized, dead mouse. As a young child, I didn’t question it. That’s just how things were. Yet, they’d come home after a wild night doing crazy […]
4 Tricks I Use to Stay Glowed Up We all probably heard the phrase that you can be your best friend or worst enemy. Well, here’s some tricks for the inner friend. Blue Delight First, imagine whatever it is bothering or scaring you… Then, imagine it transforming to a blue puff of smoke and blowing away in the wind. Blue […]
Know This Or Risk Being “Cheugy” While procrastinating by reading an article about how not to procrastinate, I wondered if Gen Z would find that “meta,” which means self-reflective, like the definition of the word definition. That got me thinking about how language evolves like fashion. Remember when people started saying “sick” to mean cool, and before that “dope,” and before […]
It’s Pretty Hard, But Very Rewarding Are you often in a hurry? Do you feel in a frenzy when there’s a lot going on? Then maybe it’s time to try what I call, “The Pause Challenge.” “What’s that?” you might ask. Before answering, I take a conscious breath and pause … (That’s it!) That’s right, this challenge simply involves taking a […]
Something Did, But Who or What? Imagine your job is to guide airplanes up and down the runway at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. Pretty exciting, considering around 2500 planes use the airport daily. But not as exciting as what you witnessed one afternoon. You look up and spot a large, gray disc hovering above one of the gates. You glance at your […]
A Metaphor For The Curious For many, Lent makes no sense. The 40 days of fasting, the self-denial, the giving up of stuff we love. “How could anyone give up chocolate? or beer? or (fill in the blank)… That’s crazy!” are words some of my heathen friends say (just kidding about the heathen part, haha.) Aside from the self-discipline that fasting […]
You May Never Watch TV The Same Again… What if you could read a screenplay while watching the actual movie? What if I told you every TV out there can do something like this, for free? I discovered the full power of this vastly underused feature after years of playing the drums began to affect my hearing. Yeah, I probably should […]
The Real Deal Behind this misunderstood “Writing Rule” Here’s a rule pounded into the sponge-like brains of writers: never end a sentence with a preposition! (they’re yelling because they’re a know-it-all). Don’t you love it when know-it-alls are wrong? I do, ‘cause it gives hope to those of us who know we know little. Examples of preposition-ending sentences (from the Apple […]
I Don’t Hit Publish Without It Everyone reads the headline, which usually determines if they read the article. With so much power, headline-writing skills are essential for your writing success. Turns out there’s an app for that, or a website actually. The Sharethrough Headline Analyzer uses Behavior Model theory, neuroscience, and ad research to rate headlines on a scale of […]