Category: Attitude

Story Telling

On By jeff ludlumIn Attitude, culture, family, Happy, Insight, leadership, lifestyle, marriage, mental health, parenting, politics, social change, social justice, workLeave a comment

Do you like to tell stories? Like to listen to them? Both?

Listening to my daughter tell a story recently, it occurred to me…

If you’re a parent, listening to stories is a key skill for the vocation. The more you listen to your kids, the more stories they tell, the more you learn about them.

What else? The more confident and creative they become, too. The closer you’ll become.

In fact, you’ll also realize listening is good for you too. And not just with your kids.

Imagine the positive effect of listening more actively at work? With your friends? In your club? In our politics?

So listen up, listen to the stories, listen actively and learn. The effect? GOOD.

Go Fish

On By jeff ludlumIn art, Attitude, family, Happy, mental health, parenting, scienceLeave a comment

A game from the past. Brought to present. These two love it.

“The dining table light shines down like even Heaven approves of this timeless card game”

Simple. Fun. Interaction. No screens. Bonus.

Matching cards. Counting. Friendly banter.

Over and over. Go Fish.

Thankful for this holiday weekend and some extra time to be a dad, and more time at home with the family. Maybe a walk, maybe some LEGO play – they’ve been into this a lot lately – and a few hands of Go Fish with the kids.

“Do you have any 8?

Nope. GO FISH.”

Every Day Start This Way: Gratitude

On By jeff ludlumIn Attitude, examples, faith, Happy, Insight, leadership, lifestyle, mental health, social changeLeave a comment

Every day start this way:

What are you thankful for?

List it all. ALL of it. Rattle it off in your mind, or make a quick list on scratch paper if you prefer.

What might you be thankful for?

Hmm…

Like shoes on your feet,

Clothes on your back,

Food to eat, quality and quantity and variety,

A roof over your head,

People in your life that love you, that you love,

Your history and your path, however grand or humble.

That warm blanket, that news app, the cool car or bicycle you have, the rocking chair in the corner next to the window…

We all have things to be thankful for. Count them. Every day. And fill yourself with GRATITUDE.

Feed The People

On By jeff ludlumIn Attitude, culture, examples, faith, Happy, Insight, leadership, lifestyle, mental health, organizations, parenting, social change, social justiceLeave a comment

It’s Thanksgiving time here in the US, time to feed the people again. Perhaps the most American of holidays, at least we try to make it that way. Everyone has things to be thankful for, everyone should have the opportunity to feast a little for the holiday.Everyone has things to be thankful for, everyone should have the opportunity to feast a little for the holiday.

Food drives to provide Thanksgiving meals, these happen all over the country. Generous people helping others, it’s one of the most heartwarming, and hands-on way to connect with others, if only through a little charity.

And so right here at home, here’s how it goes, Thanksgiving food boxes for 150 families. Via the Cupertino DeAnza Lions Club. GOOD.

Local donation location this year, COVID-Friendly, rather than store front
Garage Become Sort Center
Delivery Rig

“Man of the Cloth…

On By jeff ludlumIn art, Attitude, faith, Happy, Insight, leadership, lifestyle, mental health, scienceLeave a comment

…without the cloth. “ This idea, this image, from the sci-fi film “Contact”, Matthew McConaughey’s character explains himself this way…

…and it resonated with me then, and it resonates with me now.

Most of my life I’ve felt a sense of personal relationship with God, the Devine, somehow, someway. But I’m no priest, no minister, no mystic…I’m just a guy. I’m just a guy going though life. I’m a dad trying to do right by my kids.

I’m just a guy trying to do right I’m the world, with those around me. I’m just a guy feeling God is right here with us, right now.

I read scripture and sometimes it just resonates, it seems to transcend the hundreds, maybe thousands of years since it was written. Like this, “… and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

I don’t need a special cloth to understand some of it, maybe a lot of it. Let it speak to you. You might be the same.

Easy Does It

On By jeff ludlumIn Attitude, business, Happy, Insight, leadership, mental health, organizations, sportsLeave a comment

Got some work to do this weekend. Easy does it.

None too happy about going into work on a Saturday, but that’s just how things are right now: short-handed; several challenges across the business. Easy does it.

Once I decided and accepted I was going to work for a few hours over the weekend, well, everything felt a little lighter.

Do what you can. Keep going forward. Easy does it.

Nighttime? Nope, Early Morning

A Blessing

On By jeff ludlumIn art, Attitude, faith, Happy, Insight, leadership, mental healthLeave a comment

Writing is a blessing.

This blog is a blessing. It’s a channel to the world, to all of you, and I couldn’t be more grateful:

For the voice;

For the opportunity;

For the feedback;

For the community.

1,000 posts earlier this week. Fitting it would be with the title “Why Worry.”

Writing is a primary tool for coping, at least for me. Has been for a long time. Writing creates hope. It turns coping into insight, and even a little light for others sometimes.

Grateful for this blog as a way to share that coping and hope and light with the world.

What a blessing.

Lyrics Post: “Running To Stand Still”

On By jeff ludlumIn art, Attitude, Happy, Insight, marriage, mental healthLeave a comment

I’ve been feeling this way a lot lately. Thought I would share.

“Running To Stand Still”

“And so she woke up

Woke up from where she was

Lying still

Said I gotta do something

About where we’re going

Step on a steam train

Step out of the driving rain, maybe

Run from the darkness in the night

Singing ha, ah la la la de day

Ah la la la de day

Ah la la de day

Sweet the sin

Bitter taste in my mouth

I see seven towers

But I only see one way out

You got to cry without weeping

Talk without speaking

Scream without raising your voice

You know I took the poison

From the poison stream

Then I floated out of here

Singing…ha la la la de day

Ha la la la de day

Ha la la de day

She runs through the streets

With her eyes painted red

Under black belly of cloud in the rain

In through a doorway she brings me

White gold and pearls stolen from the sea

She is raging

She is raging

And the storm blows up in her eyes

She will…”

By the boys of U2

Why Worry

On By jeff ludlumIn Attitude, Happy, Insight, leadership, mental health, parenting, voices, workLeave a comment

Why worry? Don’t give it much time, the worry itself. Those things on your mind? The worry tells you they matter to you, it’s a sign.

Beyond that though, don’t give it much time. Worry likes to hang out, as much time as you’ll give it.

But don’t give it that time. Don’t stay in the worry. For worry’s sake, and your own, take note, be grateful, and then move to the action, the doing.

It’s the doing that worry needs; don’t let it be an end, let it be a sign to spur you along.

Why worry? It’s time to move. It’s time to do. Thanks for reminder. Let’s go~