We spend a lot of energy and time thinking about leadership. We try to understand it, to put it to work for ourselves. We wonder how people become leaders, whether they are born leaders or are made along the way. We identify and evaluate leadership styles, assessing which are the most effective. We analyze the components of leadership, trying to decide whether communication or vision or planning is most helpful. We study the cultural aspects of leadership. We speculate on... Read more
We spend a lot of energy and time thinking about leadership. We try to understand it, to put it to work for ourselves. We wonder how people become leaders, whether they are born leaders or are made along the way. We identify and evaluate leadership styles, assessing which are the most effective. We analyze the components of leadership, trying to decide whether communication or vision or planning is most helpful. We study the cultural aspects of leadership. We speculate on... Read more
Spiritual life is not a pill we take to make us happy. Spiritual life does not always make me feel happy or satisfied. Some of the greatest lessons spiritual life has taught me are lessons of lamentation and grief. Some of the best gifts I have been given come from my own dissatisfactions. For some, spiritual life sounds formal and repressed, filled with rules, as far from joy as they can imagine. For others, the joy of spiritual life is something they... Read more
I have been working toward justice for as long as I can remember. I was raised with a clear, strong understanding that justice was about right and wrong. One side was right, the other was wrong. The argument was about proving which was which. I believed in criminal justice, that people who did bad things should pay for what they had done. I believed in social justice, that those of us who could should help those who needed help. I believed... Read more
Leaders want to believe they are making a difference. People who see themselves as leaders believe they are creating good results by doing what leaders do. They plan, they budget, they encourage, they focus their resources. They see themselves as pushing the winds of change, sweeping across the land. As we concentrate on the specific steps we need to take to move toward success, we can easily become discouraged. Even when we make wise decisions, our progress seems to be too slow. We may feel we... Read more
Jo Piazza is not a nun. She states clearly in If Nuns Ruled the World that she does not see herself as a religious person. She asks good questions and writes insightfully about the ten women she meets on the journey of her book. If Nuns Ruled the World explores the lives of ten nuns and the differences they make in the people round them. Their experiences share similarities while being diverse. Each brings passion and faith to the world in unique ways. Some of... Read more
Spiritual life is not designed for speed. We tend to evaluate our lives based on a desire to accumulate as much as we can in the shortest possible time. Whether we focus on resources or relationships, experiences or education, we want to live quickly. We collect adventures, friends, meals; squeezing them into our already overcommitted schedules. We believe that not living this way means we are wasting time. We are afraid we will miss something crucial if we do not do whatever we can... Read more
Why do we enjoy playing more than working? Working is about deferred gratification. Work pays us dividends for investing effort over time. We put in the work, we practice, we develop skills. We become better and stronger at working. We meet our goals. We learn how to work well. We build good working habits. Working gives us experiences of accomplishment and achievement. Playing is an explosion of instant gratification. Playing has a sense of humor, a sense of fun. Playing exists in this present moment,... Read more
Building with bricks is not something we do lightly. The strength and integrity of a brick wall depends on working well, not necessarily quickly. Each brick relies on the other bricks around it, especially those that went before it. Each brick must be placed exactly where it belongs and joined to the others around it. While each one is important, but no single brick can be a complete wall on its own. Choosing bricks, mixing mortar, and fitting each one into place are each... Read more
It is easy to forget how dark darkness can be. Many of us live in places where real darkness is rare. Our dark times are diluted with night lights, lights over the door, street lights, lighted signs, and other things that glow in the dark. We turn our eyes toward lighted screens, hiding our faces from the power of darkness. I remember living far from here, where darkness really was dark. Driving home after dark with only the headlights to cut through... Read more
Strategic Monk
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