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
Scummy scammers scammed my mom.
A modern-day tongue twister, which certainly has me twisted up inside.
It’s an empty feeling watching a bank account balance dwindle and getting nothing in return.
It was easy for me to hate the guy hidden away in a sweaty room with dirty keyboa… 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...
We live in a world where people tell you they didn’t say something they said, even if you have a video of them saying it. And people make videos of you saying things you didn’t say.
Sadly, there are plenty of people — people with great power — who are awful… 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...
I’m reading a book in bed with my 8-year-old. It’s meant for 9-year-olds, but that’s not why I’m reading it to her. I’m reading it because it’s one of the only books my 18-year-old (the older one) liked. And I never read it with her. It was her… Read more...
Although I was hoping for it to happen all week, it sort of happened organically.
“Ow!” I heard Evaline say through the wall, which made me stop typing.
She came into my office.
“I stepped on a tack. Do you still have that cup of thumbtacks?”
I pointed to my c… Read more...
It’s hard to live.
Our brains are well-developed. We’re a thinking species; not always a good thing. We’re a long way from being content just sitting on a mossy rock. After 5 minutes of one thing, we feel an urge to move on, to find a reason to make us grow. And … Read more...
When I was in 5th grade, I wore my mom’s clip-on earrings to school.
Actually, they were my gramma’s earrings, that kind of old, decorative jewelry with the plastic jewels where the metal doesn’t really shine.
It wasn’t meant to be a statement. I just kinda … Read more...
Unilateral layoffs
Getting fired without a reason
Watching your colleagues get fired
Doing the firing
Dealing with a VP that yells, abuses, and harasses you daily
Getting a new supervisor that changes your daily life without your input
Watching your beloved company get acquired and slo… 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...