A Beacon of Light

I’m sitting in a café at O’Hare Airport in Chicago right now. I have a few minutes before my next flight, so I thought I’d use this opportunity to share some wisdom from the Global Digital Citizen Foundation. The chart below speaks for itself and has much to offer all of us.

“The opposite of love is indifference to the genuine needs of others.”  Max Anders Most of us have, at one time or another, completed some form of assessment tool. These instruments are used to determine compatibility, to assess personality strengths and weaknesses, for employment purposes, or simply for personal growth. I’ve taken a number of…

“The world is waiting for your words.”  Arvee Robinson On Wednesday, August 28, 1963, when I was nine years old and preparing to begin fourth grade at St. Gabriel School in San Francisco, an estimated 250,000 people arrived in Washington, D.C. to attend the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, perhaps the most noteworthy…

“In the realm of education, storytelling stands as a timeless and transformative tool that bridges the gap between information and understanding.”  Hannah Young I learned many things in my teaching career. One important lesson is this: “Some kids get it, and some don’t… and never will.” As pessimistic as these words might sound, I am…

“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning how to dance in the rain.”  Vivian Greene Would it be an exaggeration for me to claim that yesterday was one of the best days of my life? I don’t think so. I had the opportunity to join my friend, Rob Gibbs, and…

“We didn’t realize we were making memories. We just knew that we were having fun.”  Winnie the Pooh Fifty years ago, in the spring of 1975, my high school classmate Dan Pasini and I spent the academic year teaching in the Bahamas. It hardly seems possible that so much time has passed since that life-changing…

“Be the reason someone feels loved and believes in the goodness in people.”  Roy T. Bennett With joy, enthusiasm, and gratitude, on August 1, 1984 I began a new job in Santa Clara, one to which I would devote the next 31 years of my life. A job, like any relationship, I suppose, has its…

“I can get away before the storm hits.”  Neil Gaiman Neil Gaiman had the right idea. This past weekend, the local news channels were predicting that a series of significant storms would hit the San Francisco Bay Area beginning on Wednesday, so I took advantage of the opportunity to get away for a walking day…

“Wisdom is knowing what to overlook.” William James I’ve experienced a good amount of self-induced stress in my lifetime. When I say the stress was “self-induced,” I mean that I made a decision to allow myself to become stressed. Maybe it’s a personality trait or quirk, but it’s easy for me to let things get…

“What we see depends mainly on what we look for.”  John Lubbock Look for the good… A pleasant phrase, for sure, but what exactly does it mean? Let’s begin with looking for the good in the people we know: family members, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and others we may encounter on a consistent basis. It seems…