Are you getting everything you can out of this life?
A self-less, feel-good blog about love, life, and work by career coach and existential adventurer, Cliff Flamer
I’m not claiming to have all the secrets to raising kids right but if I were to give one piece of advice to parents it would be to build a karaoke stage in your house.
I’m not talking about just going out and buying a karaoke machine; I mean creating a permanent space … Read more...
Yesterday we found out Evaline got into a bunch of good schools.
I danced a jig and ran upstairs to call my brother. Molly went into her Facebook groups and forums to share the news and do more research. Hazel went back to her iPad, and Evaline put in her AirPods and scrolled TikT… Read more...
My first smile came from an unexpected source: the image of 5 Latino guys, covered in mud and rain, laughing hysterically outside my basement door.
Here’s the unfunny part. Our drainage system broke down, and we needed to install a sump pump and a whole new line of undergrou… Read more...
I’ve been talking to teens and young adults about the state of our country and the world in general.
“Where do you find hope?” I ask them.
They’re always silent. No quick responses.
WTF. Aren’t the kids supposed to hold hope for the rest of us? Isn̵… Read more...
We’re often one question away from peace.
No matter how serious or stressful the situation may feel, if we can figure out the right question to ask (and answer), our suffering will begin to lessen
I ask questions all day long. In some ways I feel like a safe cracker with his … Read more...
I was hard at work prepping for a school fundraiser at my house.
I had just finished calibrating the stereo and microphones. I still needed to set up the auxiliary A/V system (just in case), make blackberry rosemary syrup for the cocktails, trim back the ivy on the stoop, vacuum t… Read more...
When someone breaks something of ours – a thief cracking our window, a boss changing our schedule, a loved one not showing up — we blame them for disrupting our way of being. We villify them.
And perhaps we are right. Maybe they are the evil in our hero’s quest.
B… Read more...
Even as a child,
I’d leave behind the chaos of the monkey bars at recess
and go lay down in the shaded dark green grass by an abandoned remnant of playground equipment: a lone pole with a chain attached at the top.
And I’d listen to the sound of the chain clanging into t… Read more...
I had a dream where I was back in college, with all the knowledge and memories of a middle-aged man but surrounded by people trying to discover themselves.
I saw a friend and walked alongside her, trying not to stare. We didn’t actually spend much time together in college; i… Read more...
I am pain.
I cannot survive in the light
so I scurry into the corners, into the depths of souls,
swimming in guts
where it’s blacker than the darkest night.
And there, I molt and grow, whether I want to or not.
See, that’s the thing about me:
I’m not trying to hurt any… Read more...