It’s the last day of the year 2021 and I’m taking time to tackle the last letter in the BALANCE exercise. Day 7’s prompt, the final letter—employment—is a word I don’t relate to much either if its most common interpretation is used: a job, working for a boss for pay. I haven’t been employed by anyone (person or organization) for quite some years (and even when I did, I was the boss, or at least...
If you read my earlier posts in this series on Belonging and Abode, it would be reasonable for you to conclude that I don’t feel a strong sense of community anywhere. I thought so at first, too. But on further reflection, I’m quite wrong. Community, as Joan defines it for this exercise I am partaking in—The Eight Days of New Year BALANCE—doesn’t necessarily involve a strong sense of belonging...
This is both an interesting and a challenging prompt from Joan for The Eight Days of New Year BALANCE exercise: net worth. Conventionally, we think of net worth as our financial position when our liabilities are subtracted from our assets. However, I agree with Joan that money is not the only thing that determines our net worth. To me, money is a tool, one that allows us to live in a world of...
Attitude is about our state of mind. There are a million meaningful quotes to be found, because attitude permeates everything in our lives—our thoughts, our beliefs, and hence our actions. Still participating in Joan’s The Eight Days of New Year BALANCE experience, the prompt for Day 4 is Attitude. (Past posts are about Belonging, Abode, and Learning.) Ability is what you’re capable...
Throughout my life, I’ve invoked for myself the figure of speech, Jill of all trades, master of none. And although I lay no claim to expertise in any narrow trade, I had thought that expression fit me better than Renaissance Woman, who likely never existed. Besides, the man of the times not only had a wide range of intellectual interests in the arts and sciences but was also adept in one...
If belonging is about my emotional connections to people, then abode is about my emotional connections to places. With the way I’ve moved around since the day I was conceived in Tangiers, Morocco, born in Brussels, Belgium, lived significant chunks of time throughout three continents, and dual- citizen of the Netherlands and Canada, it would be easy for me (or you) to conclude that I’m not...
My friend Joan initiated an “experience” in her Facebook group Conflict Navigator Network yesterday (Christmas Eve) and I’m inspired to play along. At least the first day’s prompt resonates with me, so let’s see where this goes. She calls it The Eight Days of New Year’s BALANCE Experience. As I understood her intro video, she will provide prompts, which when reflected on will...
Suffering is a lonely affair. No amount of sympathy, empathy, or compassion can make another feel what you, I, or anyone suffers. Even when they’ve been through something similar. We’re in it alone. But that is likely true not only when we feel pain—physical, emotional, mental—but also when we experience positive emotions like joy, peace, or contentment. We’re in it alone. Yesterday ranks as my...