This is a season of transitions. As schools close for the summer, college students return home after exams, and families embark on summer vacations, there’s an inevitable adjustment – sometimes uncomfortable – as each family member is thrown from the school year routine of individual trajectories into a sudden sense of enforced togetherness. This time can be particularly frustrating for the children in the family who’ve spent the year growing increasingly independent, but now feel they’re taking a step backward as they follow the dictates of the family unit. It can be equally jarring to the parents who find themselves refereeing a sudden spike in sibling squabbles and feeling guilty because they miss the quiet time they enjoyed on school days.
physician, author, photographer
A Meaningful Career Choice: Understanding Strengths and Limitations
Most of us know someone who’s at a career crossroad, whether it’s the freshly minted graduate, the neighbor who’s struggling to reinvent himself after being “downsized,” or the former retiree whose post-recession nest egg seems to have shrunk from ostrich size to that of a hummingbird.
At any age, it can be challenging to discover our individual aptitudes and abilities, much less find a career to match them. This process certainly has been difficult for me. Every job entails an element of drudgery and frustration; the challenge is to make it as enjoyable and meaningful as possible.
Impromptu Visits with Friends: A Lost Art
During my childhood years, in the afternoon after school, I would go from house to house, rouse friends, and we would play our own variations of baseball, football, and cowboys and Indians. This typically took place in our front yards and in the street. In retrospect, I am not certain how much our neighbors appreciated their favorite bushes being designated as second base or a touchdown. However, in the process, we exercised our abilities to create our own fun. We would play all afternoon, and would spontaneously be invited to dinner at which ever homes we randomly would arrive at when it became dark.
Everybody Can Be Great: Service to Others and the Himalayan Cataract Project
An early chapter in my book Seeing More Colors: A Guide to a Richer Life deals with the theme of focusing beyond oneself, a theme familiar to today’s students who aspire to build a strong high school or college resume and are told to build a list of community service activities to impress admissions committees. While many students might view this “requirement” in the same vein as SAT preparation or essay writing, there are a number who are surprised and delighted by the connection they forge with the people they serve, and they come away with a lifelong intention to help others, whether through occupational choice or charitable work. In this sense, admissions expectations are a gift. Here’s why.
A More Rewarding Life
A more rewarding life.
It’s a goal that many of us set for ourselves. Yet we all experience difficulties and emotional traumas in our lives—health or financial issues, challenges with family and friends, uncertain futures—that can distract us from that goal.
How to increase the likelihood of a more satisfying life?
That’s why I created Seeing More Colors.
My personal inspiration comes from the teachings of Abraham Maslow, often called the father of modern psychology. I met him in the 1960s while attending Brandeis University, and he became a mentor to me. Maslow’s approach to psychology was simple, yet revolutionary, and it is still relevant today, 40 years after his death.
