On The Fly

In this episode, Is Your Attitude Worth Catching? In the quiet of the house, where stillness runs deep, With no cars on the street, not a honk or a peep. A soft breeze was drifting, just outside my door, While the wind chimes were singing their song as before. I picked up a book, Ryan Holiday's Key, And sitting right there, it occurred to me: In this pocket of calm, as I started to read, This stillness was something I desperately need. If I’m completely honest, I’ve been wrestling with the noise lately. Some of that, I’ll admit, is self-inflicted—too much exposure to the 24-hour churn of headlines. But some of it has been closer to home. A few weeks ago, I fell off my bike. Nothing major for the news, but it slowed me down, caused pain, and reminded me that recovery reduces your defenses. When your body’s off, patience follows. And that’s when the noise gets louder. We are surrounded by extreme polarization and a kind of cultural exhaustion that seems to hum in the background of ev...

In this episode, 2024 Holiday’s Rumination's . . .   Merry Christmas, and Happy Hanukkah! Did you know that Christmas Day this year is also the first day of Hanukkah? While watching Sunday Morning, our go-to news program, they did a segment on the fact that these two holidays will occur this year, 2024, on the same day. This is due to the different calendars used to determine the dates for each holiday: the Gregorian calendar for Christmas and the Hebrew calendar for Hanukkah. According to AI, In recent history, This has happened only four times in the last 100 years. The next time Christmas and Hanukkah overlap is in 2035 and then again in 2054. I hear you asking, so what? Over the past two years, I’ve met with Dr. Don Hanley—a former priest who left the ministry to marry. We meet biweekly for lunch, discussing topics from religion and philosophy to science, history, politics, and human nature. He was raised in the strict Catholic tradition in the 1940s, while I was raised ...

In this episode, The Power of a Thank-You Note . . . Halloween night is a time for spooky fun and neighborhood camaraderie. As the sun dipped below the horizon, casting long shadows across the streets, neighbors emerged from their homes, transforming their driveways into festive candy stations. A familiar face caught my eye as I strolled around the neighborhood, taking in the sights and chitchatting with the neighbors. It was a neighbor I hadn't spoken to in years, a young mother whose daughter had interviewed me for a school project on gemstones and the GIA in 2014. As I approached her, a spark of nostalgia ignited. "So, how old is your daughter now?" I asked, curious about her journey. "She's 23," she replied, a smile spreading across her face. "She's studying architecture now." I was taken aback. "That can't be possible," I exclaimed. "It feels like she interviewed me for her school project just yesterday." Time had s...