We may think we know ourselves, but what others’ see is often invisible to our eyes. Remember the first time you heard your recorded voice? It didn’t sound like the voice in your head did it? A similar thing happens every time I look in the mirror! Prior to retirement, I managed a large staff. …
Grace
What does it mean to live with grace? For many, grace has spiritual meaning. However, my context here is secular, relating to developing and maintaining inner peace amidst the turbulent flow of life. I believe such grace has two elements, one referring to actions, the other to perspective. When I was young, I felt life …
The Anatomy of Peace, Part 1:
Mindfulness, The Doorway To Presence ( 7-minute read) (This series presents a retrospective understanding of the role awareness plays in the pursuit of joy and happiness during times of personal difficulties. The introduction to the series can be found here: https://tim-coats.com/digging-deeper/) ———————————————————— Recently I was looking after our nine-month-old granddaughter Adalyn. She is fascinated by …
The Pull To Union
This is a bit wonky, but I’ve been thinking about it a long time. It concerns energy. What energy does is obvious, but what energy fundamentally is, isn’t clear to me. Take the gasoline that powers our cars. Gasoline isn’t energy when it’s just sitting in the tank. It requires a spark that triggers a …
The Anatomy of Peace: Introduction
Introduction: "You can't wait until life isn't hard anymore to decide to be happy." Those are the words of thirty-year-old Jane Marczewski, a 2021 contestant in the "America's Got Talent" competition. She has terminal cancer. When things are going well, life (in the words of Robert Frost) flows on its own melt. But, the sun …
Self Improvement
The older I get, the clearer it becomes that self-improvement is a complete waste of time! That sounds harsh, but please hear me out. Walk into any major bookstore. Odds are, the largest section is self-improvement, and the largest section within that area is diet plans. So let's test my theory out. Have you ever …
Into The Great Wide Open*
Have you ever peered into a cloudless night sky and not been amazed? We are a part of something impossible to comprehend. The Earth is 26,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way. That’s an enormous distance! The Voyager-1 spacecraft, launched in 1977, travels at 11 miles/sec. It took thirty-five years for it to …
The Shape Of Time
I grew up in the 1960s in suburban America. Like the rest of our neighbors, we had a 19" black and white TV, a phone attached to the wall, one family car, and no air conditioning. Let me put that last part into context. Daily summertime temperatures exceed 90 degrees in St. Louis. My childhood …
Dog-Sitting
Allow me to begin with a confession. I am not the biggest fan of dogs! I understand this shines a bad light on me, but it sets the stage for a story about our two-month dog-sitting experience. For those unfamiliar with having a new dog in the house, they're pretty much the same thing as …
Being Present
Remember back in school when the teacher droned on about some boring subject? The only way to survive was to escape. I remember a day in grade school when I did just that. Staring out the window, I “checked out.” When the teacher called on me, I didn’t hear her the first, second, or …
Towards A Life Well-Lived 