Phyllis Brinkerhoff, fondly known as Mrs. B in her Prairie Village, Kansas, neighborhood, loves one thing more than anything else in the world. And that one thing is the song “Hokey Pokey.”Wanting to share her love for the song, she gave a CD with her...
I just came across a masterpiece of a video. Filmed by Bianca Giaever, a young filmmaker and soon-to-be college graduate, the video captures the wisdom of 6-year-old Asa. Bianca begins by asking Asa to tell her a story. His flow of ideas begins with a story...
There’s a heartwarming children’s book by Ruth Krauss titled “I’ll Be You and You Be Me.” It has delightful verses and simple drawings by Maurice Sendak. On one of the pages, there is a sequence of small sketches showing a little boy surrounded by other...
When an 80-year-old patient was establishing primary care with my husband a few years ago, she ended the visit by saying, “I’m a hugger. May I give you a hug?” Though there is strong evidence in clinical medicine that touch is helpful for healing, my...
A few years ago, Google decided to investigate what skills, traits and backgrounds could be combined to engineer the perfect team. It turned out that it wasn’t about picking the best and smartest people. Rather, the results depended on the ways teams worked together and...
“We cannot change, we cannot move away from what we are, until we thoroughly accept what we are. Then change seems to come about almost unnoticed.” - Carl Rogers The idea of approaching people with acceptance has roots in the work of humanistic psychologist Carl...
Our local schools started several weeks ago. Almost every day on the drive home, I have been hearing stories from Ella about a boy in her class who is struggling with his behavior and schoolwork. Ella will toss her backpack in the car, jump into...
Habits are behaviors that play out without us needing to think much about them – things like brushing our teeth or putting on our seatbelt in the car. It’s surprising to think that nearly half of the things we do every day represent choices that...
When I was in fifth grade, my class read a book about magical castles. Our homework assignment was a group project: to make our own three-dimensional castles. My team of four talked excitedly in the school hallway about our initial ideas. We decided we would...
I was standing in line at Starbucks, waiting for people to order their half-caf, skinny, three pump, upside down, long shot, extra hot, tall (which really means small) customized drinks. An older man was waiting in front of me. His hair was white. His face...