Blog Archive
The Blog Archive is intended to provide a repository for the blogs that are prepared for the Safe Harbor Pathways website. Blogs will continue to be posted so that new visitors can read what has previously been presented.
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A Different Time and Place- “Decoration Day”
My daughter, Katie, called me this morning and we talked about our memories of holidays. She rembered that I had written some thoughts several years ago about my childhood and the very different way that holidays and Sundays were spent in mid-century Oklahoma. She asked me to add a couple of these stories to Safe…
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The Way of Visitors
I began living alone about 28 years ago. Just divorced and having moved to Dallas, I had to adjust to life within the landscapes of what I had previously experienced in life. I realized that I had to truly become friends with myself. It was during the first few years of living alone that, as…
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The Six “P’s”
Jeff, a close friend, and I are building a website for online resale. We have never done this before. In keeping with the mission of Safe Harbor Pathways, we are experiencing a transition to a new part of our life with which we have had no previous experience. Jeff has a lot of experience with…
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Retirement Boredom
When I fully retired from my 45+ year career with Micropac, I realized that I had to use the sudden “gift” of time in order to add challenge to my retired life. During the course of examining what interests I have that I actively pursue, I realized that I did not necessarily want to devote…
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The Thing About Loss…
When I started thinking about creating “Safe Harbor Pathways”, I felt compelled to write about life transitions. I have recently strayed away from the direct association with life transitions within my content with discussions regarding how families might use the Kitchen Table to talk about core values. While I have enjoyed my reveries about the…
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Kitchen Table Discussion… Servant Leadership
As parents and grandparents, we strive to impart to our kids and grands ways in which they can grow as strong responsible citizens. I have, in a previous post, touched on the topic of “trust”. I will, in future posts, discuss discuss “trust” in its many forms including the role trust plays in treaching our…
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The Kitchen Table Discussions
In my last essay, I posited that our kids and grandkids will inherit a chaotic world. As parents and grandparents, we have a responsibility to prepare them for not only surviving and living in a world that is very different from the world in which we were raised, but helping them to become leaders in…
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Kitchen Table Discussions for our Kids and Grandkids- Trust and Servant Leadership
In my previous essay, “Kids and Core Values” (Feb. 23) I presented the challenge facing our children as they grow into adulthood in the coming decades in a chaotic world. I discussed two key core values that they need to understand and implement as guideposts in order to provide sustainable leadership in the world that…
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Kids and Core Values
I am a member of the “Boomer” generation. We were raised in an era when America was changing from an agrarian based culture to an industrial culture where innovation drove the life-styles for most Amercans. The shifting of agrarian and industrial gears during and after WWII brought the United States into a leadership position in…
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Interesting Morning…so far…
This morning, I awakened after a restless night. As I settled into my living room morning routine, I checked my email and saw a piece that steered me to YouTube to watch a couple of in-depth videos from our country’ s history… the Siege and Battle of the Bastogne. You might be wondering how that…
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The Blue Whale
I have been fascinated by the blue whale for most of my life. They are magnificent creatures with an average length that ranges from 80 to 90 ft., with some reaching 110 ft. Their life-span is between 89-90 years with the oldest topping approximately 110 years. There are estimated to be between 15,000 to 25,000…
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We Each Need to Have a Desert
As we cycle through life with its transitions, the chaos that surrounds us in today’s world can become overwhelming. In order to mitigate the intense emotional reaction to the hurricane of fast-moving continuous news cycles, political divisiveness, and personal life challenges (money, job, family, lack of time, health), we need to find a resting place.…
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Transition to a New Year
As we approach the holiday season, we each view the holidays from our perspective of past experiences. For many, the holidays are a joyous and eagerly anticipated time. For others who have experienced loss or trauma, the holidays can be an endurance obstacle course. We generally meet after the holidays with the attitude that the…
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Living Alone During the Holiday Season
As the decades have passed and life transitions have occurred, the late 70’s have proven to be a time of reflection and, in many ways, the attainment of clarity about the effects brought about by life’s adventures. Living alone for most of us is a series of peaks and valleys. The Christmas season is a…
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Memories that Create Auras
As I age, some memories throughout my life create a feeling within me that elevates my spirit. These memories not only permit me to recall the events that created the memory, but also the context of the events. Where was I? What was I experiencing for which the events registered in a different way than…
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Scribbling about the Thread of our Lives
The trees outside my window are an amazing spectacle of color, ranging from dark green to burnt orange, gold, red and amber. Another season is upon us as we approach the excitement of the holidays. As we age, we look forward to another chapter in the parade of seasons. What will it bring? In my…
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Retirement…Thinking about my strategy
When I retired, I rrealized that my life had changed dramatically from the work-a-day world that I had experienced for the years since I left the cockpit and joined the world of high reliability electronics for the aerospace industry. Retirement was a life transition with which I had no experience. I was fortunate because I…
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Boxes in the Attic
I have learned that having a “safe harbor” sounding board person within your trusted circle is a resource that provides safety and aids in developing clarity for almost every life transition, issue resolution and important decision that we make in our life trip. My daughter-in-law, Sarah Masat, is a valuable safe harbor resource for me.…
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“Bill, write about the life transition of loss”
What can I say about loss that has not been said by others in a thousand books? Healing from loss? Is that even possible? Doesn’t healing from loss just mean, in some way, to start over? How do we replace the pieces of our heart that is a void left by the missing part? Every…
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Navigating Risk in Life Transitions
Risk is inherent in almost every life transition. Our fears and self-doubt contribute to the chaos that is roiling within us as we enter a new branch of our life pathway. I experienced the specters of doubt as I entered college. Was I smart enough? Disciplined enough? Persistent enough? When I entered pilot training, was…
