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Technically, summer hasn’t started in the Northern Hemisphere since the solstice isn’t for another two weeks. However, here in the southwestern part of the United States, we haven’t waited for the official start date. Current forecasts call for 100º temps for several days including 106º on Saturday! And since we’re not actually in the desert…

Several years ago at a conference, a colleague introduced me to a simple gratitude practice. It’s so simple, I’ve kept it up for at least five years. I keep a calendar/journal and at the end of the day, I list three things I’m grateful for at that moment or from my day. Big, small, new,…

May is usually a lovely month in most of the continental United States. This year it’s been a bit unusual. Here in central Texas, it was nearly 100 degrees most of last week though this week it’s only in the upper 80s thanks to a front that also brought snow to Colorado. But that variability…

The idea for today’s essay began with Seth Godin’s blog post on Tuesday. Then as I explored the idea he presented, I wandered through the arts and business and education and sociology perspectives. You’ll see those explorations in the resources section. I was intrigued by Godin’s idea of sharing, but ended up in a different place…

I’ve counted them up and I’ve attended more than one hundred graduation ceremonies. These include both my brother’s and my graduations from kindergarten, both daughters’ graduations from middle school where the same speaker was in the running for worst graduation speech ever (she was replaced), multiple high school graduations and so many graduations for the universities…

Over the next few weeks and into the month of June many of you will have the opportunity to attend one, or more, perhaps many more, graduation ceremonies. And toward the end, after the speeches are done, after the names have been read or in really big universities, each college has been recognized, the degrees will…

One of the questions I’ve been asked multiple time is how to handle politics. Not Politics as in what happens in the legislature, but politics as in what happens in the university. The question is often asked with a hint of dismay. Politics is a word that we often associate with being somewhat smarmy. And yet, we…

When I worked at UTSA, I wrote weekly for the Student Affairs Newsletter. It was much like my essay in each of these newsletters though it was often specifically focused on items relevant to that campus or that group of staff. According to one of the directors in our division, a staff member asked him how…

Oklahoma City is the farthest north I’ve ever lived and while Lubbock and Dallas have their share of cold days and snow storms, I’ve spent most of my life in places that are warm more than they are cool. On rare occasions I’ve thought about moving north. Once when I was interviewing at a campus in…

I wonder if there’s any better opening to a discussion than this phrase. I wonder. It signifies an openness to possibilities. It implies a willingness to be surprised, to learn, to hear a different viewpoint or see a different perspective. It’s a link to the experience of awe, the feeling of joy, the innocence of childhood. I…