“Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes”  ―    Thích Nhất Hạnh

In the 2:00 hour of Wednesday morning, July 10, a thunderstorm of considerable note rumbled through our zip code, dumping torrents of rain and treating us to a sound and light show sufficient to gain and hold one’s attention.  Again in the 4:00 hour another storm crashed it’s way into my slumber, and yet another in the 5:00 hour.  Unbeknownst to me, at some point during the night the volume of rain became too much for our 20 year old cast iron sump pump, and it dutifully gave it’s last full measure in defense of our basement. [Read more…]

“Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep…Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.”    -Mt 8:24-26

In order to get His point across, Jesus often spoke in parables.  His stories would occasionally shoot an unequivocal arrow directly to the heart of the issue. But more often, they only hinted obliquely at the lesson, leaving us to ponder and puzzle for the substance of the message.  But in the story of the stormy sea we hear an actual story (not a parable) about how The Leader handled a specific situation. If we treat this retelling of an actual event as allegory for conveying a leadership message, what lesson do we find in the telling? [Read more…]