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...
If you want to change the world, like really want to do something, I have the answer:
Don’t build that fence.
—
You don’t need to pool all your resources together and start a foundation, either.
We don’t need your big ideas. We have enough of those.
Just go sta… Read more...
I sometimes read Quora to find out where job seekers’ heads are at and to read stories of human kindness, particularly among strangers.
One such story involved a woman’s victory over road rage.
Something happened out there on the road, and a man pulled in next to her in… Read more...
You can learn a lot about humanity when picking out images for your blog.
Plug in the word “kind” and you’ll see a bunch of people with animals.
(Hey! What about people with people?)
Put in “listen” and you get a bunch of people with headphones
(the exac… Read more...
Another shooting, this time at a university.
The killer is still at large. My daughter, 16, usually the pragmatic one, surprised me with her response to the news coverage.
“How sad your life must be to kill a buncha people.”
This made me think about something I learned i… 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...
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...
Whatever happened, or didn’t happen…
You are always one conversation away from making it right.
And the more difficult the conversation, the more important it is to have and the more beautiful the landscape on the other side.
Wisdom comes from failure; love from loneline… Read more...
Are we innately driven to be kind? Or do we have to work at it?
Is kindness linked to some greater purpose or is it just another goal.
Why am I so obsessed with it?
Where did it come from?
My parents are certainly kind. My mom was a nurse, not just in profession but in her heart. She… Read more...