I have to win this war. It’s gone on too long, and I’m outnumbered and confused. My freshly sodded yard is the battlefield. I am an old, weary soldier armed with chemical weaponry. The enemies are voles, moles and pocket gophers. I’ve studied the films done by scientists …
A few of you may remember the old Patti Page hit “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore.” Well, that’s me. Yet, I look on the floor of my closet, and all types of dusty shoes cover the hardwood floor. It’s as if I’m the old man’s version of Imelda Marcos. I line them up. Including …
Sometimes a picture explodes in my mind that’s too wondrous to let pass. This was one of them. I’m driving in Carson City on Arrowhead Road to the office. I just returned from a stressful two-day meeting in Salt Lake City. I’m not exactly depressed – well, maybe just a …
If you have tracked me for some time, you know I believe stories are powerful – particularly those of self-disclosure and self-discovery. For me, I see my stories as magic windows to my being, my very essence. If I don’t continue writing my own story, I’m unable to …
As the rules pertaining to COVID-19 continue, my skill set isn’t improving much. Specifically, I’m not good at guessing whose face is behind a mask. At the grocery store, some lady will pass by and eye-smile at me, saying, “Hey, Don. How’s it going?” I immediately …
Several years ago, I agreed to keep my blog posts away from political topics. I have good friends on both ends of the political spectrum, which seems to widen by the hour. My guess is, my family is split right down the middle. I can talk about changes in the weather or how …
I’m sure people told me I needed hearing aids long before now. I just couldn’t hear them. And I wasn’t thrilled about sticking little wires in my ears. Last week, I sneaked into a hearing aid specialty store just to look around. An hour later, I wore fancy hearing aids. For …
My guess is, most people over 70 have times when they are struggling a bit. I’ve hit a few weeks of this. Nothing big, mind you. Just little, nagging medical issues and personal decisions I need to make. I keep pushing them off for another day. Then another week or …
One thing I’ve learned over my 30 years of work at The Change Companies®: The most brilliant researchers and scholars have a way of making complex issues easy for a guy like me to understand. Last week, I had the opportunity to speak with Martin Seligman, PhD, the Zellerbach …
When I can’t go to sleep, I think of one of my faithful dogs of the past. Last night, it was Zackery Adams’ turn to send me to dreamland. Zackery was our “DSM-IV Dog” from a decade ago. As a puppy, he could have kept a psychiatrist busy for an entire career. He was …