I use a daily planner to guide me. However, the last couple of weeks felt like a hurricane. I didn’t keep up with my planner. When I returned to the planner yesterday I thought it might feel like I missed months and months of time… When you get used to a habit, the absence of that habit feels heavy. I was relieved to find that I only missed 5 days. Who knew that 5 days could feel like an eternity?How many other things do we out and over perceive? P.S. Go to bed, Martin.

You get to choose to play or not play. If you’re playing all the time, you get to choose to stop and regroup.If you’ve not been playing for a while, you get to choose to start.Time is short, energy is precious, and all you have is now. Sometimes it’s okay to decide not to play. It’s okay to say - this time is for me, to sit, rest, and be a friend to myself.

On Saturdays I drive to the grocery store. On my way, I always see people walking their dogs. Or, is there dog walking them?Picture a dog. Happy, panting, checking out fire hydrants, excited about a new smell. Oh look! The dog discovered something, it’s tail wagging furiously, it looks up at the owner with that huge dog smile as if to say, “hey hey hey! look at what I found!!!” And there’s the attentive owner. Standing tall, leash in hand, looking down towards the ground, and focused.Many people have become so addicted to their phones that they miss out on what’s happening around them. Missing out on things like the excitement their dogs have discovering new smells. I often wonder if the dogs realize that we’re getting lazy. I wonder if they are walking us. Woof, woof.

To be laid off is shocking. One moment you were living your best life, and then suddenly it was all over. I try to put myself in the shoes of someone that’s been laid off, and I feel a tremendous amount of depression. Similar to how the author of “Everything Happens for a Reason” felt when she discovered she had cancer. A shock. I grew up Catholic. In the Catholic church we celebrate a day called “Ash Wednesday".” During this holiday Catholics attend church so that a priest can mark their forehead with the sign of the cross. That mark is not invisible though.The priest will dip their thumb into a container of ashes made from burnt palm fronds. It signifies death; ashes to ashes. What does this have to do with layoffs?Every day ought to be like Ash Wednesday. We should wake up every day and remind ourselves that this life in could end at any moment. Our job, our loved ones, our health - it all could change. We must allow that mark to act as a kind of lens that brings the present more into focus so that we not only appreciate what’s right in front of us, but so we can prepare ourselves for what might come. Layoffs are shocking, and painful, and my heart hurts for those who have gone through them. I am not naive to think that can’t happen to me. I am trying to live each day as if there was a mark on my forehead. Perhaps there’s something in your life that serve as a mark? A coin, a symbol, a post-it? I don’t take these words for granted, and I don’t take you for granted.Right here right now, you are what matters to me.

Sometimes C+ work is A+ work. The value is truly in the eye of the beholder. If you struggle with shipping less than your absolute best work and the person you’re shipping work to says C+ work is just fine… then C+ work meets the need. Ship it. If you are struggling because the work is not A+, then you’re not serving the person who wants your work; you’re serving yourself. Work to serve others.

Don’t give into it.Even if it feels like the world is ending, the family is coming apart, there’ isn’t enough time to get the email out, that work is creeping up on you like a bad joke, or that you are feeling the worst kind of depression… don’t give into it. For many this is a wonderful time. And for many still, it’s a time when energy is at a low. Take care of you!

This week and next week I’ll have attended 2 memorial services. I didn’t lose anybody in my family, but friends lost people. How appropriate that I should have just completed the book that I’ve been gushing over the last two days.

I reflected on both experiences and I realized that I feel a deep sense of “loss.” Loss of what? Time.

Every moment needs to count.

There isn’t enough time for things that don’t add value. And adding value doesn’t mean “there’s something in it for me.” What’s been a value add in the last 24-48 hours?

“Plans are made. Plans come apart. New delights or tragedies pop up in their place. And nothing human or divine will map out this life, this life has been more pain than I could have imagined. More beautiful than I could have imagined. My well-laid plans are no longer my foundation. I can only hope that my dreams, my actions, my hopes are leaving a trail for Zach and Toban so whichever way the path turns, all they find is Love.” - “Everything Happens for a Reason” , Kate Bowler.If you read the book, you’ll read the story of a woman who planned her plans. She needed to feel a tremendous sense of security, of control. You get to experience her wrestle with that addiction; and you get to see capitulate to the overwhelming force of fate. The end of the book brought it all together for me - it’s not about plans, life never goes according to plan. It’s about what you do in this moment for the benefit of others.

Iatrogenesis: brought forth by a healer.When this term was used, back in Greek antiquity, the term could have meant a good or bad effect brought forth by a healer. In our time, the term refers to negative consequences (illness or death) brought forth by a medical treatment. Why does this matter?We humans create innovations to heal our problems. The fermenting of grains into a beverage was originally an innovation to preserve grains and extract their minerals at a time when people risked malnutrition. Social media was meant for students across college campuses to interact with each other.Phones were a way to communicate in relative real time across long distances.The news communicated happenings and not (as much) opinion.Some believe even organized religion was a cultural innovation to increase cooperation.The list goes on.Our species’ effects at bringing forth cultural innovations to solve important problems, in some cases, has had the second and third order effect of creating vices and addictions. I’m sure you know people who need to watch the 24/7 cable news cycle - it’s like a compulsion. The one external force that can control us ends up being the thing that we create. … until the aliens come.