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 sensed the clerk at the grocery store wasn’t much up for talking, so I grabbed some bags and started bagging.
Beep beep.
Bag bag.
We got into a rhythm like two strangers picking up instruments on the corner.
No words.
Beep Beep.
Bag bag.
His coworker came by, and I was given the… 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...
Being laid back can affect your vision.
I learned this in my doctor’s office.
I had been having trouble with my new progressives – the snazzy moswen name for bifocals. I was getting completely dizzy and it wasn’t wearing off. I had trouble seeing clearly.
She asked… Read more...
I was being hard on myself for not finishing a course I’m building.
Then, today after meditating, I remembered myself in high school, in art class, and how long it took me to finish a drawing.
Mr. Cook would usually be the one to say it.
“Cliff, I think you’re just… Read more...
My friend found old news footage of a fire in our 7th-grade classroom. The teacher, one of my favorites, was trying to take chlorophyll out of a leaf. Alcohol got on the hot plate and, BOOM, big explosion.
In the newscast, after some panning shots of the charred classroom, the re… Read more...
What else can you call it?
Hazel’s been lucky enough to have after-school care by Temescal Lake, a modest lake with a beach and trees all around. Her child care program meets in a raised meadow that overlooks the lake.
It’s right next to a freeway, but you can’t s… Read more...
I wish it were a grander dream.
I wish it had taken up the whole night.
But it was only a moment, a quick flash of a scene.
—
We were all in the Airstream trailer. He was sitting across from me in a fleece vest on a bench seat.
(That should have been my first clue. He couldnR… Read more...
I tend to wake up with a song in my head. Usually a pop song. Not a slow one, a fast one usually. I bop my head to it while I go to the bathroom.
I wonder what it’d be like to sing it out loud. I’m thinking it would perfect, like filling a glass of fruit punch all the … Read more...
Scarcity, such a beloved virtue, creates the need for Community.
When we look to our neighbors for the things we don’t have, we step outside of our walled worlds and open our hands. So much is possible between two people with open hands! It’s through these small gestur… Read more...
An ex-girlfriend once said to me that my voice makes her want to lie down.
(I guess that can be taken several ways.)
From what I can tell, she meant my voice relaxes her.
Total compliment.
But there are drawbacks to eliciting relaxation. I notice sometimes when I talk to people, they… Read more...