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
The people that you love, they know you love them.
But for some reason, no matter how well you know them or how long you’ve lived with them, saying those words out loud is like a lightning bolt to the heart.
I’m not talking about the “I love you” at the end … Read more...
To me, from a car window:
Hey, is that a poodle?
I had just got back from the lake. It was 6pm, dark, I had on my mask and my headphones, listening to a podcast of my favorite French marriage counselor.
Like most people on walks during a pandemic, I was deep into my internal world. … Read more...
It was our mom’s idea:
to lug the sofa-bed mattress out of the living room, through the kitchen, and out onto the back porch.
The porch was small (before the renovation), so the edges of the mattress curled up against the railing and house, rolling me and my brother to the c… Read more...
I struggle with the new language of gender.
How can one person be a “They.” It don’t square.
I’m an English major. Grammar is God.
But as I make my glued-together argument to preserve the language of my grandfather…
Half the world’s population is g… Read more...
Be careful when you hear someone say “I’m just telling it like it is.”
This is a shrouded sentence, a hedge to hind behind.
They’re incorrectly inferring there is a singular truth and that they are the brave one who is willing to utter that truth, even if it… Read more...
Not accomplishing enough in your day?
Upon examination, you will likely see sabotage in your list-making.
As you check off your to-do’s throughout the day, if you’re like the rest of us, you’re probably adding more things to the bottom of that same list. Cross off… Read more...
My daughter doesn’t have to think very long when she goes into an ice cream shop.
“Pink” she shouts out, pointing to whatever is pink.
Doesn’t matter if it’s strawberry or raspberry or cotton candy. She digs in and eats it, gleefully.
Meanwhile, my adul… Read more...
Boat trips, hotel suites, and private beaches are nice but it’s moments like these that make my heart full and put me at ease.
ACT 1:
[Husband and wife in kitchen, standing around table.]
I guess we could make the salmon.
Yeah, it’s gonna go bad.
[Man pulls out salmon. Put… Read more...
There are remnants of Halloween around the house.
White crumbly dust on the floor from sawing styrofoam balls in half with a hacksaw.
Orphaned swatches of tape hanging off the edge of the sill
Dresses laid over chairs in the corner
Hardening paintbrushes on the back of the sink
At lea… Read more...
Sometimes I wonder how I can possibly be well-equipped enough to guide people in finding meaning in their lives and careers when I can’t even remember which one of my laundry baskets is socks&underwear and which one is pants&shirts. I still can’t remember whic… Read more...