Jan’s Blog Posts

Malala Yousafzai is a queen without pearls on her neck. She does not represent any monarchy or have any subjects; instead, she has the entire planet’s girl population as her subject. She did not inherit her position but is a stick-your-neck-out person. Malala is like a queen chess piece. Her influence spans far corners of the global chessboard, as she is capable of moving on the diagonal.     

Malala suffered a bullet to her head when she was 15 years old and on a bus riding to school. Her injuries were extensive, including the lacerating of facial nerves, shattering of her eardrum, and breaking her jaw joints. Physicians in London inserted a titanium plate where a skull bone had existed. Initially Malala could not speak, but she could write. She wrote the word, “mirror” on paper and her nurses understood her. As she gazed at herself, Malala reflected, “I only recognized half of my face. The other half was unfamiliar. But I believed in my strength. I believed I would get out of the hospital and run like a wolf, fly like an eagle.” Most would have retreated.

However, passion-and-positivity actions led to Malala’s shared 2014 Nobel Peace Prize at the tender age of 17. Her co-recipient was 60-year-old Kailash Satyarthi; along with his team, he was responsible for more than 86,000 children’s liberation from child labor, slavery and trafficking in India.

Not only has Malala brought attention to girls’ education in her homeland of Pakistan, but her diagonal travels have stretched out to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, and Tanzania. Her non-profit Malala Fund has a mission of providing 12 years of safe, quality education for girls. After graduating from Oxford University with honors (in philosophy, politics and economics), Malala is documenting her legacy. She became a producer of documentaries to teach us about women’s and children’s issues world-wide.

A legacy requires learning from the past while living in the present moment. At age 25Malala already has a blossoming legacy that is far-reaching–from speaking to ambassadors to the United Nations to young girls in almost-forgotten villages. Her take-a-stand compassion for the plight of girls and women is an inspiration. When compassion is shared, we experience what Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho describes as “…a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.”

Unfortunately, everyone does not understand and/or embrace the importance of education for every child in every part of the planet. U.S. culture is highly individualistic; we need to raise consciousness for the interdependent nature of meeting every person’s basic rights. Receiving a minimum of 12 years of education must be considered a basic right.

We might consider that every child is a pearl waiting to evolve.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz:

119. Where might you move on the diagonal to take action for women and child rights?

120. In what ways can you share your compassion for some take-a-stand cause?

Would YOU like to be Queen or King for a day? Do you remember there was a radio (1945-1957) and TV (1956-1964) game show, Queen for a Day? Dramatic stories of women spilling their guts about financial hardship and stressed-out lives riveted audiences. With an applause meter, a TV “winner” was selected by audiences. Pomp and Circumstance accompanied the often-crying “queen” to her velvet throne where she donned a red velvet robe and bejeweled crown. She was gifted with whatever she had asked for, along with extra perks from sponsoring businesses. The “losers” received token prizes. Ending each TV production, Jack Bailey crooned, “…wishing we could make every woman a queen, for every single day!”

I wonder if Queen Elizabeth II relished being a queen every single day. She was a queen for 70 x 365 days or 25,550 days + an additional 214 days. She was royalty for the monarchy of the United Kingdom, which turns out to be not so united. Her royal position was much tougher than it looked. We only had glimpses of her smiling gracefully at special events with her many pastel hats and matching ensembles. Queen Elizabeth was a pearl girl. Many of her pictures show her wearing pearls. Even her crown has pearls.   

Queen Elizabeth seemed to relish days without pomp and circumstance 24-7. Escaping to her mother’s homeland of Scotland for summer vacation may have helped her cope with less-than-united relationships within her own family—marriages set asunder and various other snafus. Like many mothers and grandmothers, the Queen was a matriarch surrounded by trauma and troubles. 

We honor her steadfastness, her enduring positive attitude (at least as far as we could tell) and how she loved driving her own car in Scotland as a regular kind of gal. We don’t know if pearls accompanied her on Range Rover get-aways, but she deserved privacy out of London’s limelight. Perhaps Balmoral Castle felt homier than Buckingham Palace.

We might think of Queen Elizabeth as a heroine. She was not first in line for the monarchy job, but her uncle, King Edward VIII, threw away pomp with plenty of circumstance. His abdication of duty was tied to marrying an American divorced woman, allowing the royal crown to tumble into the hands of his younger brother, Elizabeth Alexandra’s father, King George VI. Then, as oldest child, Elizabeth was crowned with a daunting yoke of duty for 7 independent Commonwealth countries at the tender age of 25.

Joseph Campbell popularized the archetypal Hero journey. His student, family therapist Maureen Murdock, moved beyond Campbell to define the heroine journey and incorporate an inclusive “we”  voice. Murdock asked what happens when women have followed male success rules. Did Queen Elizabeth have regrets? What other career path might she have chosen? I feel incredibly fortunate to have chosen my psychology career with fewer obligatory demands.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz:

117. Did you follow your bliss in your work?

118. If you could choose again, what might you choose?   

I come from two giving grandmothers. One gave constant prayers for her family and families around the world. She gave away part of the family dinners to a family less fortunate down the block. My other grandmother gave away food, flowers for her church’s Sunday services each week, and her handmade crocheted doilies or afghans to nearly everyone she encountered. There was no end to my grandmothers’ giving natures.

Today, people are more likely to give others COVID. Why are we not masking and thinking about giving others their healthiest chance to be COVID-free when we enter crowded public transportation? What are we missing in this millennium?

I wrote these lines and then re-read them. These thoughts emerged from opposite parts of my personality! Sometimes a mind feels like a seesaw with up-then-down thinking. I return now to thoughts of a giving legacy.

At Printer’s Row Lit Festival this weekend I witnessed a giving man at the book-selling space next to mine. The man looked through a lovely children’s picture book, Seeking Best Friend, written by Angela Marcotte and illustrated by British Diane Ewen. A woman stood next to him, also flipping pages of the promising pictures. She said she wanted to purchase a copy for her school’s library to support friendships among students. The man turned to her and announced that he wanted to pay the $20.00 cost for her copy! She was stunned. The author was stunned. I was captivated.

I am reminded of the giving nature of a Canadian Haida man, Bill Reid (1920-1998). A prodigious artist, Reid was a gifted jeweler, painter, sculptor, and wood carver. He wished to seek the best relationships among Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in fostering an accurate history of Canadian culture. Mentoring Indigenous youth with an interest in the arts through internships was a giving goal. 

Due to discriminatory edicts of the Canadian “Indian Act,” where women marrying a non-Indian were expected to give up their native heritage, Reid was not told about his First Nation ancestry. While his mother had Raven matrilineage of the Haida Nation, his father had Scottish-German heritage. However, in his teen years Reid noticed Haida symbols on the gold and silver jewelry worn by his aunts, sisters of his mother. He discovered his silversmithing ancestors. He later became involved with totem pole salvage and restoration.

Reid’s yellow cedar carving from one wooden block, The Raven and the First Men, tells the creation story of his mother’s people, the Haida. After flooding, a raven detects a clamshell, partially buried in sand. Inside the protective shell are cowering people. Raven coaxes them out to explore new possibilities. This magnificent work of art was unveiled by Prince Charles, now King Charles, at the Museum of Anthropology, in Vancouver in 1980.

Our planet needs our giving possibilities.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz:

115. What giving examples have you experienced in your life?

116. How might you engage in some giving legacy?               

Honoring workers on Labor Day became a national holiday in the U.S. on June 29, 1894, but an initial celebration occurred in New York City in 1882. Municipal ordinances followed to create local observances. Oregon became the first state to pass a law for the extra holiday, followed by Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania. Twenty-four states installed Labor Day as a holiday before President Grover Cleveland made the day official for the country.

The labor-pain backstory is what is compelling. It includes President Cleveland instructing federal troops to intervene in Chicago to quell strikes by workers. Low wages and 16-hour workdays at the Pullman Palace Car Company was the impetus for striking workers. American Railway Union members joined the strike, shutting down railroads and the supply chain crisscrossing the Midwest.

Besides divisions between employers and workers, I did not realize that there was a contested winner (founder) of the Labor Day holiday. Two workers laid claim that the holiday was their legacy–Peter McGuire, a secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, and Matthew Maguire, who later became a secretary of the International Association of Machinists. Both men attended the first parade in New York City, but in creating the federal law, President Cleveland declared that “…the souvenir pen should go to Alderman Matthew Maguire…the undisputed author of Labor Day as a holiday.”

Does this stormy tale bring to your mind the multiple divisions we are experiencing in the U.S. currently? How are we to understand such contentious dissension in the land?  

Writer and playwright James Baldwin had an explanation involving responsibility: “History is not the past, it is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history.”  Baldwin shouldered his legacy of an unequal history while working tirelessly to break through painful chains of racism. World-class tennis player Serena Williams has hauled history with her as she worked through breakpoints in racism within her courts of influence. The operative word here is work. 

It takes work to create positive changes. The 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act initiated a course correction to limit child labor, set a minimum wage, specify a shorter workweek, and institute overtime pay for beleaguered workers. However, labor pains are still with us. Let’s STOP taking advantage of workers. We depend on workers. Let’s raise today’s minimum-wage standard–last increased in 2009 to $7.25 per hour. Families deserve opportunities to pass on a better legacy to their children.

Consider, once again, how the pearl forms amidst an irritant in the parent oyster or mussel shell (see Pearls and Trauma, 7-21-21). Strikes are irritating, but they may be what works to deliver to workers the remuneration to provide a decent lifestyle. Hold onto to the notion that we are creating history every day. What legacy will we leave?

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz:

113. What inequity draws your attention these days?

114. Can you think of one action to take on this Labor Day to honor workers?               

Is the Universe a fractal? No, but hundreds of billions of stars group together to form galaxies and are considered “fractal-like.” Do you understand this? I did not, so of course, I read a bit. Polish-French-American mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot is credited with putting forth Fractal Geometry where a mathematical formula frames “self-similar” repetitions in “…the geometry of deterministic chaos.” In other words, there is an order behind the scenes! Patterns repeat themselves at smaller and smaller scales in meandering river tributaries, mountain ranges and galaxies.  

A closer-to-the-backyard (and more understandable) description of fractals is to look at irregularly-shaped tree branches where any small twig resembles the whole tree. This notion that the basic form of the whole repeats itself over and over was initially offered by German mathematician Felix Hausdorff in 1918, but Mandelbrot coined the term “fractal” (from Latin fract, meaning “broken”). Stay with me, even if you find fractal geometry obtuse. This story, like all stories, has roots.  

Stay with the tree example. Trees are fractal from their roots to their leaves. Investigate the veins of tree leaves. Leaf midline veins look like a tree trunk with its many branches. Tree branches (from Latin branca, meaning “paw”) have connections. In shaking one branch, a cascading of shaking in other branches follows. Are you thinking about human connections now? The orchestration in your brain-branching of a neuron’s axons and dendrites is a connection-maker.

Here is what you really need to know: research studies (using fMRI) show that a person just looking at fractal patterns in nature can reduce their stress levels up to 60%. Architects discovered that patients recovered more quickly from surgery when their hospital rooms had windows that looked out upon nature. Nature-watching can produce a physiological resonance that occurs within the eye–which in turn, increases alpha brain waves in the brain–resulting in relaxation and a sense of wellbeing. Observing fractals may combat mental fatigue and even help with anger management.

Fractal self-similar patterns in nature are everywhere–in lightning, hurricanes, snowflakes, pinecones, flowers, and your own connection-maker tubular branches (bronchioles) in your lungs. Additionally, without being conscious of the self-similarity idea, we overlook how much art and music have fractal patterns. Some individuals relax by drawing or coloring mandalas with intricate, repeating fractal patterns. Georgia O’Keefe’s nature paintings feature fractals. Composers have repeating themes in their symphonies. Create fractal art! Hum fractal music!

Our personalities are a kaleidoscope of fractal patterns. All of us have changing melodies and rhythms that interact with other people’s fractal organizations. We stress out with some individuals and de-stress with others. Hmm…do trees have such strong preferences for certain other trees and want to turn their leafy backs to other trees?                                                      

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz:

111. What determines your stress level when you encounter another person?

112. How do you spend time in nature?

(If you physically cannot be face-to-face with trees and other nature buddies, there are apps that can replicate naturally-occurring fractals). 

On a particular day, the very hungry caterpillar stops eating. Do Monarch caterpillars grieve when they lose milkweed picnics and curl their many toes into chrysalis-stage? According to research, moths can remember what they learned when they were caterpillars! Could this suggest that these critters have hours of grief for the past?

When it is time to evolve, mature Monarch caterpillars immigrate for protection from predators like birds and spiders. They relocate as far as 30 feet away from milkweed homes.

Hanging upside down on a twig, the caterpillar releases enzymes to digest itself inside its chrysalis (insect pupa). Organized sets of cells (or imaginal discs) somehow survive digestive processing to take the shape of adult body parts as wings, antennae, eyes and genitals.

Becoming any kind of adult is challenging. Anything that touches a soft chrysalis may damage the interior butterfly. Less than 10% of Monarchs survive in the wild because of predation and natural causes of death. For the land of the free and home out-of-doors brave ones, meditating in cocooning lasts 8-15 days before a Monarch chrysalis becomes transparent, disconnects from its gossamer raincoat, and has its spectacular Reveal Party.

Have you noticed that time pauses for both exquisite beauty as well as for intense grieving? We might say about butterfly transformations, borrowing from writer John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, “It is the hour of pearl—the interval between day and night when time stops and examines itself.”

In grieving, one examines their life that suddenly feels upside-down and precarious. Grieving hours are not “over” in 6 months or even a few years after a loved one has died. In fact, grief hours are not possible to record in regular timeframes. Moments of normal sadness involve emotional weight-lifting. Germanic origins for “sad” (satt) include “weighty or dense” meanings. The Old English origins (sæd or sated) suggest being “overfilled.” Actually, we hold onto brain connections in grieving.    

One of the best descriptions I’ve read about grieving is by psychologist/grief researcher Mary-Frances O’Connor (The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss). “Grieving people often describe having lost a part of themselves, as if they have a phantom limb…once believed to be an entirely psychological phenomenon, studies have proven that…[phantom] sensations are actually nerve activity…the brain map has not yet rewired itself…so the sensations persist and are often painful…we might think it is simply a metaphor to say that we have lost a part of ourselves when a loved one dies, but…representations of our loved ones are coded in our neurons.”

Whether missing a particular time in your life and/or a loved one, grieving is both a disconnection from regular time and a brain connection. Grief hours will change in intensity, but poignant memories remain. Perhaps Monarch butterflies still have a taste for milkweed.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz:

109. How do you honor special memories from a particular time?

110. What evolving might you consider in your current life stage? (See “Grief Pearls,” 6-6-22.)  

Spanish philosopher and poet Moses ibn Ezra (1060-1139) captures the essence of ageless wisdom: “Dive into the sea of thought and find there pearls beyond price.”  Our thoughts may be gems or junk. What are your thoughts about aging? What if re-feathering your nest could change how you think about aging?

Designer Ingrid Fetell Lee (Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness) delivered a TED talk where the most discussed aspect of her performance later was her overnight stay in a candy-colored and stacked-architectural-form apartment with cube-sphere-and-tube spaces which led to her feeling energetic and well, a bit ageless. An apartment complex in a Tokyo suburb, Reversible Destiny Loft, surprises the senses. A circular room with a kitchen at the center–poles, ladders and electrical outlets dangling from above–delights people.  

There are directions for your stay in this curiosity paradise, such as: 

1. “As you step into this unit fully believe you are walking into your own immune system.” 5. “Go into this unit as someone who is at the same time both 2 or 3 years old and 100 years old.”                            

Designed by artist Arakawa and poet Madeleline Gins, the team took inspiration for their radical design from Helen Keller! They viewed Keller as an individual who exuded “reversible destiny.” They dedicated their innovated-living spaces to Keller’s memory. They believed that creative design could reverse aging!

Initially this may sound like junk thinking, but I believe it is gem thinking! Muscles atrophy without exercise and cognition takes a nosedive without stimulation. The intrepid artist/poet duo took a long look at the multiple beiges in our interiors, declaring such spaces contribute to a withering mind!  

The center circle of a Reversible Destiny Loft sports a floor of “an uneven compacted material with vertical poles to assist moving within the space.” It serves as a foot massage. Hmm…I just twisted my foot when I slipped sideways on a twig on uneven ground. But this is unusual behavior for me, so I’m still game on to try an overnight stay like Lee. Are you with me?    

Guests and residents of these stimulating spaces discover serendipity. It just sounds like fun! Fun makes you feel young at any age. OK, maybe we do not have to stay overnight in Reversible Destiny Lofts. What about adding more color, art, plants, and additional sensory stimulation to your home? Wear colorful clothes!

Arakawa admonishes, “People, particularly old people, shouldn’t relax and sit back to help them decline. They should be in an environment that stimulates their senses and invigorates their lives.” Afterall, when lab mice live in enriched environments with lots of physical movement, there are positive neurological changes in their brains that can relate to dementia.

It is National Wellness Month! Age is a number. Put on some pearl thoughts.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz:

107. What does your home offer that stimulates your senses?

108. Is your “feeling” age different from your biological age?  

Joe Pye was a First Nations medicine man who used “wild” weeds (i.e., native plants) to cure typhoid fever. His tonic is reputed to have stopped an epidemic in Colonial Massachusetts. In his honor, a local plant was endowed with his name.

Joe Pye Weed is a beautiful wildflower that produces clumps of blooms and reaches 7+feet tall. Joe’s mauve flowers have a vanilla scent that attracts butterflies and other pollinators. Adaptable to many soil conditions, Joe Pye Weed thrives in full sun or partial shade. From my experience with Joe, it also is a native plant that thrives through-thick-or-thin rain/no rain weather. I planted one Joe and now have a forest of Joe’s progenies, even after giving away many baby Joe’s to foster homes each summer. 

Some children are given away to foster homes — not usually because there are too many of them — but because of trauma in their biological homes. Twice placed in foster homes, 8-year-old Chris Gardner did not know that his mother was convicted of trying to kill his father by burning down the house. And yet, young Gardner first met his three maternal uncles at this time and found positive male role models. Through-thick-and-thin trial/error jobs, Gardener became a successful stockbroker and philanthropist.   

Gardner coined this gem: “The world is your oyster. It’s up to you to find the pearls.” Also an author and motivational speaker, Gardner turned his autobiography covering his rags-to-riches story into a movie, “The Pursuit of Happyness” (yes, his own happyness brand)! Gardener’s wild childhood was beset with alcoholism, domestic abuse, child abuse and other family trauma. The story of his resilience through-thick-and-thin persistence to become a caring philanthropist is a model of true grit. 

Passion plus persistence (the definition of grit) relates to having meaning in life. Gardner had a knack for finding meaning through the many mentors he gathered in his life. Consider what makes one difference between a child falling into unhealthy territory versus thriving: the difference between illness and wellness is that illness begins with “I” and wellness starts with “we.” Healthy self-territory includes other people!   

Sonja Lyubomirsky, researcher of post-traumatic growth, explains how people can bounce back after experiencing trauma. Along with colleagues she offered a pie chart of happiness: 50% biology/genetics, 10% life circumstances, and 40% intentional activity. Today she admits that this was a gross oversimplification. You already were skeptical, I’m guessing. I know that I was skeptical. Percentages regarding people are tricky estimates.

There is a takeaway though — early life circumstances do not define you 100% and your intentional activities matter a lot! Individuals with passion and persistence traipse through weedy territory and find “cures.” People often become more mature post-trauma. There are pearls among the weeds.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz:

105. What post-traumatic growth have you experienced in your life?

106. How can you set an intention today to create your brand of happyness?

“The itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the waterspout. Down came the rain and washed the spider out. Out came the sun and dried up all the rain and the itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the spout AGAIN.”

How many times do spiders have to begin over (and over AGAIN) when some trespasser or storm disrupts their carefully constructed home? We have this in common with spiders – transitioning!

Transitions are everywhere these days: from job changes to retirement, from belated weddings post-pandemic to divorces, from bodily repairs to death of loved ones. The pandemic stopped many in their web-building. It may be time to address some transition in your life. The pandemic is a transitioning coach.

Instead of focusing on isolation, some individuals savor working from home. Extra time and expense saved from a non-commute worklife seem too good to be true. Zoom created job flexibility. Many retirees learned how to zoom and find much to like about safe possibilities. Zoom weddings and divorces are not so desirable, while zooming doctor appointments and memorial services have both pluses and minuses.

Author and host of two prime-time series on PBS, Bruce Feiler has a new book: Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age. Feilercollected 225 life stories from people of all ages and backgrounds from all 50 states. He copied Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard in engaging strangers in what the loner philosopher once referred to as “people baths.” Here are a few tidbits Feiler discovered in his 3-year-long “people bathing:”

• We go through transitions more frequently today.
• Today we face an epidemic of disruptions or lifequakes.
• Our ability to handle lifequakes has not increased to keep up with so many changes.
• 87% of lifequakes were personal; 13% were collective.
• 43% of people’s transitions were voluntary (originated by the individuals), while 57% were involuntary (as in being fired at work or divorced).
• 75% admitted that their biggest lifequake necessitated a re-write of their life story.
• People enter a transition before their mind even realizes it.
• Even if you do not mark a transition in some way, your body may remember.
• Rituals or ceremonies can add meaning in transitions as they restore belonging and purpose.

Although we seldom think about it this way, minister Robert Fulghum points out that our lives are “endless ritual” (From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives). While graduations, weddings, and memorial services are common rituals, commemoration rituals are incredibly diverse. They may be public or private, spontaneous or arranged.

Are you re-writing your life story after any lifequake you may have in your life? People have a need to name their many transitions and find rituals to commemorate them.

Are there spider considerations of where to recreate the next web? Is it time to downsize? Does the spider take time for any ritual before beginning the new web?

 Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz:

103. What transitions have you experienced in pandemic times?

104. How might you create unique rituals for your transitions?  

What does flourishing mean to you? Is there an age span for flourishing? I do not put age limits on an individual’s thriving, but aspects of our culture have a bias against an individual’s abilities as they age.

Actor Cary Grant was sent a telegraph from Encyclopedia Britan­nica (oldie, but goodie territory). The telegram read, “How old Cary Grant?”  Whether he kept a straight face or not, Grant telegraphed back, “Old Cary Grant fine. How you?” It is a commentary on our culture’s views of aging that in his final movie-making years, Grant said that he was reviewed for how old he looked instead of how great or second-rate his movie was for public consumption.

All of us want to “rate” or flourish in some fashion. I feel privileged to have “rated” in this year’s Illinois Woman’s Press Association Professional Communications Contest for a blog entry. “Pearls of Strength” (12-13-21) won First Place in Web & Social Media: Blog, Nonprofit (government or educational category). Thankfully, no one asked me, “How old?”  

Flourishing is in the eye of the beholder and aging qualities, to a certain extent, also are variable. Consider the attitude of author Sarah Delany (On My Own at 107): “…friends that are 20, 30 years younger come in here and tell me they’re worried about me, but to tell you the truth, I think I look better than they do. They come huffing and puffing up the steps and I’m thinking, ‘I hope you don’t die in my parlor!’ Isn’t that naughty?”  

Another cultural misstep has been to look at flourishing predominantly within the limited lens of the mainstream population. Sociologist Deborah Carr intends to enlarge research findings to include looking into people who flourish in adversity. Through an ambitious grant application to the Templeton World Charity Foundation, Boston University’s Carr nabbed one of 11 grants to study flourishing. An interdisciplinary team currently is studying flourishing among school drop-outs embroiled in the juvenile justice system, inmates serving long-term sentences, and newly-arrived refugees from Somalia and Afghanistan.

Carr urges that we develop an “overarching theory of flourishing in adversity.” The goal is too good to be true: create a future that promotes possibilities for people living in categories of adversity! Every person deserves to feel a sense of belonging and safety; everyone needs opportunities for flourishing.                                                                                                                                                 

Reread my “Pearls of Strength: “We are missing out if we do not care about the personal best from each person. We need each person’s flow in the flock…Is your flow tank full? It is a possibility that we could be a people of murmuration, flowing together to resolve the weighty issues of life.

What is one of your stories of flourishing in your life this year? If you cannot think of one, start something new today! Flow and flourish!

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz:

101. How might you find more ways to flourish in the coming months?

102. What might you do to support flourishing in other individuals?