I Wish It Were All Black and White!

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Several years ago during a friendly game of billiards my friend Craig exclaimed, “You can’t make everything in life black or white; it just doesn’t work that way!”

For years I had tried to make life fit into the “black or white” box. I thought doing so would help me sort life out more easily and better deal with matters. But all it did was create frustration. As years passed I grew to understand that, with the exception of morality, nothing else about life was black or white. Many a time, issues, events, decisions, judgements and directions were placed before me, but the answers to so many questions were not that simple.

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Give This World Some Light, and Its People Will Find Their Way

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The sun was about to set, allowing darkness to take control. One member of our hunting group had fallen out of formation. If we didn’t locate him soon, then finding him in the darkened forest would be difficult. We were not equipped to embark on a nighttime search and rescue, and to do so would risk the lives of the remaining four members. 

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“Fear is only as deep as the mind allows” (Japanese Proverb)

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As a 10-year-old, I was awestruck by the new “skyscraper” that had been built in our small town of Corner Brook. Not having travelled outside of Newfoundland, I had nothing to compare it against. I was convinced it must have been one of the tallest buildings ever built. So, it was with great excitement that my friends and I decided to go across town and secretly climb its 12 stories to catch a glimpse of the world below. But as I reached the top and looked out the stairway window, something very strange happened.

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Best Practices

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I have become intrigued with the constant use of the expression “best practice.” For me, the term conjures up the sense that “Since everyone else is doing it, so should we!” But such an approach to life and business is simply a copycat strategy, void of integrative thinking, creativity and innovation. How many management fads can you list that became the considered norm for conducting business because everyone else was doing it? How many of these “best practice” management fads have disappeared only to be replaced by something new that guarantees success?

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Wherever You Are, Be There!

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I was startled by the noise. "What was that? It's the alarm clock. It's time to get up. It's 5:30 am." Hearing those words from my wife, Linda, made me groan. With darkness covering the house, I slowly and reluctantly began my journey. The warmth of the bed's comforter was replaced by the morning's cold air. The ritual of cleansing and dressing occurred without any thought. I kept my eyes closed for most of it. I watched the news while chewing cold cereal. Not even a hot coffee, though welcomed, was able to provide the stimulus to ignite the senses.

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Room 418

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My friend Jim was suddenly admitted to the hospital last week to have an emergency operation on his lung to determine if a discovered tumour was malignant.

I met Jim in college. We shared residency together with three other guys in our first year and then became dual roommates for the rest of our school years. He was a groomsman in my wedding and I in his. We attended the same church, went camping, socialized at each other’s homes, ate, drank and laughed together.

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Max and Me

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The youngest member of our family was laid to rest approximately 9:00am, Friday, August 16th, 2012.

Maxwell (“Max”) was not born into our family. He was adopted.  His first family decided to find a new home for him due to their limited financial resources and scarcity of time. They were simply unable to provide the appropriate care necessary for healthy mental, emotional and physical growth.  After some discussion with Max’s parents, in December 2011, my wife Linda and daughter Joanna made the journey to Brampton and there they found Max and adopted him.

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Creation's Cry!

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As I write my article this month, I do so dockside at our cottage while on two weeks’ vacation. It is unusually quiet, for it is Sunday evening and most of the cottagers on the lake have left to travel home. There are no motor boats cruising the water ways or with those on water-skis, tubes or wakeboards loudly making their presence known to all. And thankfully the jet skis and wave runners have been parked in the boathouses or by the docks. There isn’t a breeze so the leaves cannot rustle in the wind.

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Conflict

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There’s no doubt about it, this world is filled with conflict. Whether on the international scene, domestically, provincially, regionally, corporately and individually it appears that we just can’t seem to agree and get along.  However, if there is one lesson I have learned in my life it is this:To have a successful journey through life demands one has the ability to manage conflict productively. That doesn’t mean avoiding it, depressing it or aggressively fighting it. It does mean turning conflict into positive outcomes.

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