“I, too, am America.”

I, Too {Langston Hughes} I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table When company comes. Nobody’ll dare Say to me, “Eat in the kitchen,” Then. Besides, They’ll see

50 Ideas Worth Fighting For

I am happy to share the complete list of my “50 Ideas Fighting For,” that concluded today. I trust that these perspectives will be a valuable resource for you – a spark to inquiry and to conversation – and that you will pass them along to others who might benefit. I am thankful for your

#42 – Common Sense

Common sense leadership practices in times of crisis: Take care of yourself. Take care of your team. Trust your values. Trust your strengths. Ask for help. Learn. Share your learning. Today is a good day to turn each of these into a question and to assess how you’re doing: How have I taken care of

#41 – Change Ready

I believe that both leadership failures and leadership successes can be traced to a common question: has the leader done his or her internal work? That work – the decision to diminish the influence of one’s past experience on one’s present behaviors – always precedes external awareness. It always precedes one’s ability to remain rooted

#8 – Take a break

This is #8 in the series, “50 Ideas Worth Fighting For.” “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” – Anne Lamott If you are reading this on Sunday afternoon, I hope it’s from an easy chair or the sofa. I hope you’ve just returned from a hike,

Standing in the Tragic Gap

“By the tragic gap I mean the gap between the hard realities around us and what we know is possible — not because we wish it were so, but because we’ve seen it with our own eyes.” —Parker J. Palmer This week, more destruction, loss and pain. More reminders of the frailty of the human condition, of

Back to Basics

I spent about four hours today applying a fresh coat of stain to our fence. I completed about 25% of the job. We have a lot of fencing and I’ll spend a good part of Sunday knocking out another big section. But today, what I felt with each pass of the brush, and as each

Freedom to Choose

– William Stafford, from The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems I have to choose my freedom. It is not given to me by role or position. It is not taken from me by oppression or circumstance. My freedom is exercised in the present moment when I choose how to respond to what’s happening

Freedom from Fear

If not now, when? To speak up? To stand up? To take a chance? To risk? To love? To discover? To explore? To learn? To lead? To follow? To be known? To know others? To investigate? To stretch? To get dirty, messy, uncomfortable? To live with hopeful realism? We are living in an age of

Eat Your Vegetables

I learned recently that a particular sequence of stretching and strengthening exercises would alleviate the pain in my hip. The entire sequence of exercises, done well, takes about seven minutes. When I do them  the pain subsides. When I don’t do them the pain remains. Some days I choose not to do them. What a