Tag: Family ties

  • Crucial conversations

    My ears perked up at a recent seminar when a leader began to speak about crucial conversations. He defined such conversations as ones whose stakes are high, opinions vary and emotions run strong. I was even more eager to hear how he successfully led his extended family in a process related to his aging father.…

  • Fifty shades of . . .

    I mostly managed to ignore it the first time it came around. But now when I go to the movies, there are huge, impossible-to-miss posters blaring the news that a film has been made based on the book I tried to ignore. My entertainment dollars usually go toward activities that inspire and elevate humanity. Stories…

  • September sanity

    September sanity

    On a deliciously warm summer afternoon in the middle of August, I greeted my neighbour who is a teacher. We exchanged a few pleasantries and then I began to ask him about the coming school year. “Don’t even start down that direction,” he warned, holding up his hand palm-out, like a nonverbal stop sign. We…

  • Our mothers’ wombs

    Our mothers’ wombs

    Recently, I watched a young mother and her family seated nearby in an airport restaurant. The mother was calmly multi-tasking: feeding her son small bites of food, wiping her daughter’s face and carrying on a conversation with her husband. Just before the kids ran off to play at the toy structure, they raised their faces…

  • As you wish

    As you wish

    In The Princess Bride, a 1987 comedy film, the haughty princess takes great pleasure in giving orders to her farmhand. He readily complies, often with the slightest of smiles on his face—perhaps even a smirk—and the words, “As you wish.” The princess eventually realizes that her servant’s accommodation is a declaration of his love for…