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
When I was 5, my mom made me wear corrective shoes.
It was a special brand: Markell Workboots. They had a thick white (glowing?) sole and bright yellow showelaces. They looked like something an old-time cobbler made. No one else had them. I tried to cover them with my pant legs as… Read more...
I’ve had to limit my dog walks to the nearest block. Ziggy’s getting older, and the three hills we used to do together are too much for him now.
So I’m treading a path that I’m getting to know quite well.
There’s one corner where the intersection is o… Read more...
I was moping around the house, half-sick and taking stock of all of the things I should have been doing but wasn’t.
Clean off the bookshelf
Leaky showerhead
Touch-up paint for the door trim
Laundry
“Can we read tonight, Daddy?”
Hazel’s to-do list is a mile long … Read more...
Southwest. Seat 22A.
That’s the one I pick. I wanted a window seat. I was feeling reflective and drowsy — it was late evening — and I was hoping for a window, so as to not be disturbed by bathroom requests and the rustling of snack bags at snack giveaway.
I pick a… Read more...
AI has made cheating almost irresistible for students: to be able to get a 10-page paper done in 30 seconds is certainly tempting. There are some subjects students just don’t care to learn; they just want to get that grade (B is fine), check the box, and move along. I had c… Read more...
I really hate this term.
I prefer a different phrase for something so inevitable that happens to all of us at the same point in our timelines.
Doesn’t it make sense that halfway through our lives we’re going to self-evaluate?
Just because we take the time to recognize th… Read more...
I’m a visual person, but I’ve come to realize that the appearance of something is much less important than the story behind it.
My house is evidence of this.
It’s… eclectic.
We tiled our backsplash with something that looks more like a butter dish. Our couche… Read more...
Neighbors are great for impromptu chats, standing in the street with dogs, with trash bags, with full bottles of wine (I had a French neighbor once).
Dave noticed the pipes that had just shown up running along my fence, down the garden, and letting out onto the sidewalk.
“Ar … Read more...
Her church was the first to call.
“She’s forgetting things.”
It was sort of blamey, at least that’s how I took it — me, one of two sons, 22 hours away. Or two flights and a long shuttle ride, which has to be coordinated ahead of time.
The last time I we… Read more...
Everyone loves Molly.
If you’ve met her, then you agree.
We can’t walk a block without some serendipitous meeting. Yesterday, we were in a HomeGoods parking lot 3 cities away, and we ran into someone cutting across the credit union drive-thru. She gets along with everyo… Read more...