Entering the uncomfort zone

What is your level of tolerance for discomfort?  Do you know? Or do you ignore the signs and live with it everyday without recognizing it?  Is it out of habit?  Many people live in pain when they can step outside of it, while some think that suffering is the only way to live because it makes others happy.  Or does it?  We become comfortable in situations that do not deliver full potential or daily joy.  Sometimes we stay in these circumstances for a lifetime.  Sometimes we think it is the only way to survive because we refuse to live outside of our comfort zone.

Giving Back

Ordinary moments are extraordinary opportunities for random acts of kindness.

The art of giving back is a natural reflex for me.  My first photographic memory of the act took place at Logan International Airport in Boston back in the seventies.  My father was involved in many organizations at the time and, as a small business owner himself, was quite involved in various civic engagements.  The fit was inevitably soothing to him and truly a calling, for he was loved and well received by an abundant populace.  And so, on that spring day in Boston, my father drove me into the airport with hundreds of Hershey bars.  We were welcoming Vietnamese immigrants, and I had the privilege of handing each child a chocolate bar.  I remember the honor, feeling that this was a job I could take on that made me feel great, welcoming others to a new space.  At the time, my eight-year young self was so happy to be a part of my father’s magnificence in taking on such a task.  Little did I know the unfolding that would take place as decades rolled on.

The Centerpiece

Thanksgiving is a lovely holiday created symbolically around a gathering of traditions, uniting cultures amongst significant differences.  The concept that food would create an ambience of exploration and friendship has carried many into inviting this tradition into their heart and physically into their homes.  When you arrive to the United States, you are drenched in a variety of holidays and traditions that are typically not a part of what you were accustomed to in your homeland.  However, you embrace what is being offered and meld what you might bring to the table.