Making Room for More

Over ten years ago, I was at a women’s conference when a thought popped up in my head, “Do not let your tiredness be your ‘bowl of lentils’.” I was newly widowed. I was taking care of young children while handling a significant workload in my job, with functional responsibilities over a number of countries in […]

Like New Year’s Day

It was like New Year’s Day when I brought her home, my gorgeous first-born. When that child, now a woman, came out of surgery with a spirit and a smile unscathed by the scalpel. When ten days later I brought her home, my gorgeous first-born. I could have lit fireworks. It was like New Year’s Day! It […]

Beautiful, Beautiful Philippines (May Peace Be Yours in Abundance)

The slaughter of the Philippines National Police – Special Action Force personnel #fallen44 in #Mamasapano have troubled me deeply. Where is peace? What is the price of freedom from the clutches of terror, greed and corruption, ineptitude and disunity? Where is justice and righteousness? Where is the dream that my country of birth will soar again? Though […]

Making New Memories

“All these pieces Broken and scattered In mercy gathered Mended and whole … Amazing grace!” It was the end of winter, but the house and yard still looked bleak from the street.It was empty, of course. Which made it look more lonely, dejected.The shrubs were overgrown. The garden looked tired. I turned off the key in […]

What Is Simple?

Guest Post by Miriam Harkness It has been three weeks since my first (and hopefully last) major operation. Those twenty-one days have been some of the best and the worst of my entire life. It was remarkable how a situation can completely flip around in just a little over three hours. I am now only […]

What Is Your ‘Bowl Of Lentils’?

When her time to give birth came, sure enough, there were twins in her womb. The first came out reddish, as if snugly wrapped in a hairy blanket; they named him Esau (Hairy). His brother followed, his fist clutched tight to Esau’s heel; they named him Jacob (Heel). Isaac was sixty years old when they […]

Crucible Moment

“Tell me of the time you experienced a crisis and how did you handle it?” Phil, the interviewer, asked me. “Do I tell you of the worst personal crisis I ever faced or do I just mention one of many I have handled well at work?” I thought. “The worst crisis I ever faced was not at work, Phil. Would you like […]

40,000 Professionals = Spectrum Of Business Transformations

More than 40,000 professionals in my extended network specialize in or have been part of business transformations. And what a bewildering array of initiatives you find! From removing process and systems duplications and inefficiencies to ERP replacements and consolidations. From company-wide strategy change and enablement to wholesale and radical process, systems and culture change. There are large and complex […]

50 Rejection Letters (My First Winter In Australia)

Brrrr. I looked outside the ground floor window of my bedroom. It is c o l d. Bitingly c o l d. I have three layers on! And I am inside the house. In winter, there is no snow in this part of the country. The snow is on the mountains, just beyond where my eyes […]

Two Months, Thirty-Four Countries. Thank You!

I am blessed to have a small and growing number of readers across thirty-four countries after only two months since starting this blog. Thank you to those who visit this site regularly. Jeannette says she reads my posts with a mug of coffee on hand! Why not try that with a friend? Thank you for getting […]

It’s Called Stealing

These past few days, we read about the hacking of the iCloud accounts of certain celebrities, that resulted in private items being egregiously passed around in the world of the internet. Along with the outcry, there are some occasional outbursts of “they should have known better” about putting these items in iCloud or about the […]

Do You Need Permission to be Free?

I am mission-oriented. Those who work (and live) with me attest to this. One wrote: “the ultimate can-do attitude”. Another said: “delivering the highest results under the most challenging circumstances”. And many agree: “never gives up”, “super-resilient”. But there is a downside to this. Once, someone had to tap me on the shoulder because I did not want to […]