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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Fear…Finding a Way Forward
Having lived through a significant number of decades, I have realized that many decisions that we make are based on some level of fear. In my family, education was viewed as a mitigation for a potential life of menial labor. My father told me repeatedly that his career goal was to create a long career…
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When Alone is not Necessarily Alone
Living alone can, as I understand it, be joyful for some, while disconcerting and unpleasant for others. As I have aged, I find myself alone more often than I am with others or in contact with others on a frequent basis. What is the mindset that most often occurs while I am alone? I have…
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When the Tide of Grief Surges
Loss resides within the landscape of life. Loss is that part of the lifecycle through which we each recognize our mortality while simultaneously acknowledging that a person who was in the center of our lives is no longer present in our day-to-day world. One of the most difficult things that I have experienced is having…
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Living a little more Dolly
My son, Ross, posted a comment on Facebook: “There have been many expressions of gratitude and gratefulness since Dolly Parton passed. For all of her remarkable successes, victories, and musical achievements, those have been few in mentioning. Her soul, her spirit of life has been the light we’ve all been thinking and reflecting on. What…
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Pushing Back the Twilight
It is 8:29 PM on Monday evening. Twilight setting in, the day turning to the darkening sky and eliciting thoughts about this day’s lessons. I am watching, for the second time, the Netflix series, “The Crown”. In Season 3, episode 7, Philip Windsor Mountbatten, His Royal Highness, The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of…
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Unintended Transitions
Safe Harbor Pathways was created to explore life transitions. Having experienced many obvious life transitions, including career, family, disability and aging transitions, I am now realizing that transitions occur when they are unintended or when they are unexpected. I am referring to the transitions that we experience within our families as parents become grandparents and…
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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…
