Chris's Conversations

The characters in today's performance... Yesterday my six year old was upset but refused to tell us why. Given emotional stability isn't something she is exactly known for... This wasn't much of a disruption in our day. Honestly, as much as I teach that conflict is a real or perceived incompatibility, and truth is in the eye of the beholder or mind of the receiver, and thoughts and feelings are real to the individual... My middle daughter still spends lots of time in imagined realities and figuring out what disturbed the great unicorn librarian/giraffe diplomat/ballerina mermaid/mother of twelve LOL dolls in one of her many universes was not a high priority for a Sunday afternoon. I digress. So anyhow, my child was upset and being the *cough-cough* exceptional parents we are we didn't really dive into it when she didn't want to talk about it. However, she decided she was ready to converse today concerning her mood yesterday. The great offense to he...

"Confidence comes from not always being right but from not fearing to be wrong." The above quote popped up on my social media.  It is unattributed, but I don't mind.  The origination doesn't always add to the value and my social media isn't known for its factual content anyhow.   There is a large part of me that responds to the idea of no longer fearing "wrong".  Spend any amount of time with me and you will hear a version of the following concept " There is no big green check mark or red X that appears over you when you make a decision.  You will never know if you made the right decision or the wrong decision.  So make the decision and work from that. "  Of course, some things are wrong .  There is no argument for getting inebriated and driving a vehicle or hurting another intentionally.  My remarks aren't meant to be an all encompassing holy book, I'll leave that to others who are much more all-knowing than myself, so...

Last year I was asked to asked to pick up an orphaned session at a conference for student leaders.  The topic, leading an effective and engaging meeting, was missing a lot of excitement but it seemed like an easy enough session to offer and was needed professional development for the target audience. So I said sure. The session went well, the evaluations were positive, and I was asked to repeat the session topic at this year's conference.  I brainstormed with the committee for a moment or two on some different topics, topics I thought would be more interesting to present, but nothing was really decided upon and I was fine with repeating my drab fifty minutes on improving meetings.  Again, I can acknowledge the necessity but I was lacking excitement over the material. In typical presenter fashion, I scanned some resources on the topic and reviewed my previous presentation prior to the conference.  The presentation design got updated to one that was a little more...