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 appreciate you.”
I hear it all the time now, a new closing statement, presumably evolved from the more impersonal “I appreciate it,” or “Much appreciated.”
Hooray! We’ve replaced the “it” and the understood “you” … Read more...
My daughter caught me gazing lovingly at my dry-erase board, which was covered with multi-colored to-do lists.
“I can erase the stuff that’s crossed out, if you want,” she offered in a way children often do when they’re trying to be involved in that stuff d… Read more...
Is a writer who doesn’t write still a writer?
Is a musician who doesn’t play still a musician?
What about a filmmaker? If they’re not making films, are they still a filmmaker?
In other words, does being an artist run deeper than the deliverables?
Are artists walking… Read more...
Christmas Day.
I pulled away from all the excitement — Hazy building little robotic things, Evaline, trying on pants, Molly donning new chicken earrings — to find a quiet part of the house and call my mom, who, likely, was having a very different Christmas. A lonely on… Read more...
I normally go right onto the freeway after I drop off Hazy, but I decided to go left today, which is the direction I used to go to drop Evs off at high school; the same road I took to drop Ziggy off at the groomers.
Maybe it was because I was digging the radio guy’s Irish ac… Read more...
It’s not an appointment anyone wants to make.
1 pm: Put Ziggy to sleep.
We’d been delaying it for weeks.
It’s so easy to want one more day, one more week.
But Ziggy was falling apart. Approaching 15 in dog years. His back legs stopped working. He used to be able t… Read more...
The radio people love to ask provocative questions.
This time, they asked if people could go back to college, would they? And what would they do differently?
The answers generally fell into 2 categories:
1) Party more.
2) Party less.
So, what about me? Would I go back?
My immediate th… Read more...
It’d be easier if my kid came with strings attached.
Like a marionette.
Or better yet, if she had a robotic skeleton with a remote control. Yeah, and a speaker inside her cheek so I could talk for her, make sure she always says the right thing.
With the enthusiasm of a 9-year-… Read more...
I’m a good man.
I try to be the best that I can be in all situations. I also seek to be as authentic as possible in all situations.
So when I smile at the news of someone getting shot, it confuses me.
I’m really struggling with this.
How does a nice guy who wants to sprea… Read more...
Molly and I were going through old photos — and I mean OLD photos, like great-greats in ornate dresses and handlebar moustaches. And then Molly handed me an 8×11.
“Who are these people?” she asked, without looking up from the pile of pictures in her lap.
That… Read more...