Tales of the Ordinary Days

Day 11 | 30 Days of Writing Same spot at Lake Zorinsky. 18 years apart. In August of 2000, I loaded up my car and drove to Lake Zorinsky Park. Lugging the boys (then 7, 4, and 5 months old) we trekked about a quarter of a mile on the trail to a spot I had eyeballed earlier on my run. Note that in the year 2000, our idea of having a professional picture taken of the kids entailed a trip to the Target Photo Studio. We didn't hire a photography to meet in a field of sunflowers. That option wasn't available. At least, not to my knowledge. And there was no such thing as a newborn photo shot with snuggly babies in unbelievable sleeping poses with adorning parents. Our newborn picture was taken at the hospital with wrinkled baby in bassinet. We had one choice, would purchase and then cut out of a sheet and mail to our closest relatives and friends. Oh, and this was typically included with a handwritten birth announcement. Those were the days. Without knowing it, I was a...

Larry, my town tour guide Day two of our Thanksgiving road trip lacked roads and travel. This was our 'packing and preparing' day. We stayed stationary, enjoying the ambiance of small town living. The setting was Monterey, Indiana. I am told the current population is 125. But in it's heyday, the count topped 250. Much has changed in these thirty years from it's peak, I've been told. The grocery store and butcher are gone, but the corner bar and post office remain. My day started with a 6 am wake up call from my father-in-law, Larry. I had promised to join him for his morning coffee at the local tavern. This was his daily routine and I gladly tagged along. The promise of freshly brewed coffee at a bar was both alluring and inviting. Corner Tavern at far right, end corner As we walked through the streets of Monterey, Larry updated me on the buildings still in use and those long gone. The latest casualty, following the migration out of Monterey to neighbo...

A couple of days ago we had a team meeting at work. The main topic centered around serving our patients and what good service really meant. My heart tugged at the core theme of our conversation, kindness. Real, authentic, daily acts of kindness. Stories were told on both the receiving and giving of good service. All included a genuine act of goodwill to serve another. With purity of motive in simply wanting to care for another, an act of kindness cannot be measured in the size of the deed. The smallest actions can produce the largest rewards to the recipient. I shared a story of kindness given to a client in my prior life that later blossomed into a big business opportunity for me. My original act had no motive, but resulted in an unexpected gift back many years later. As others shared stories of good service and the importance of authenticity in our actions, my head swirled with my own receipt of small acts of kindness over my lifetime. These acts resonated with me and my own...