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
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...
Burnout is real.
And he can sneak up on you quick, disheveled and in a bandit’s mask.
At first, you won’t notice him; you’ve been too busy, that’s how he slips in.
And once he sat down at your workspace, he wouldn’t leave, not of his own accord anyway. … 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’ve had a cold for the better part of the month. I’m operating at 60%, which sucks.
Everything seems impossible, or, at the most, slightly doable.
Deep down I know it’s the sickness that’s clouding my vision.
Yes that’s it. The real me must be curled … 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...
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...
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...
In talking with people about their aspirations day-in and day-out, I’ve come to understand that we ALL experience imposter syndrome at some point. (Those of us that don’t, have much bigger problems.)
Here’s the truth: It doesn’t matter how smart you are, wh… Read more...