Lessons from Mom
With Mother’s Day upon us I was thinking about some of the lessons my mom taught me. She’s been gone a few years now, but the reminders of her presence are never far. Some are physical, like the plates we use daily,…
Survival of the Friendliest
In their book The Genius of Dogs, Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods explore the cognitive abilities of dogs, arguing that they have unique intelligence, based on their social skills. I haven’t finished the book yet, as we are listening to it on…
A Life That Matters
I turned 66 this week. Birthdays don’t normally cause any particular reflection… I’ve had a lot of them at this point, and I’ve got reflection built into my life, so birthdays aren’t a trigger for that. But this year, there was…
Attending Your Own Funeral
I imagine we’ve all attended funerals, or memorials, or celebrations of life. It’s a chance to say goodbye to someone, to be with others that you shared that person’s life with. And if you’re in the Midwest, a chance to get some…
Secret Club: PDX Carpet
I’ve written before about what I call Secret Clubs. As we become interested in a particular topic or skill, we naturally learn more about it and/or get better at it through practice and experimentation. We get excited about the interest, and share it with…
An Outward Focus
A friend (two different friends, actually) forwarded an article from the September issue of the Atlantic titled “How America got Mean.” The author, David Brooks says he’s been obsessed with two questions for the last 8 years: Why have Americans become so…
Small World: 2
We have ‘small world’ experiences all the time, to a degree that seems statistically improbable to our friends, especially for a couple of introverts. Even for us, one weekend in Portland a few years ago was a very concentrated slug of…
Your Unique Abilities
25 years ago I started a backpack gear company, Gossamer Gear. While it literally started in my garage, we now manufacture some of our products overseas. I get emails periodically from manufacturers in China wanted to sew backpacks or tents…
The List
Years ago, inspired by my friend John Mackey, I created what I call The List. When I would meet someone, and find myself thinking, “it would be fun to go backpacking with this person…”, I would add their name to The…
Secret Club: Coffee Roasting
Our lives are enriched by our passions. As we become interested in something, we learn more about it. If it’s a practice, as we do it, we become more skilled. It’s fun to share these with others, and sometimes they also become intrigued. I…