27Jan 2014 by CJ

Failure is not a sign of weakness – it’s a sign of courage

Life & Living, Youth
When you’re faced with a life-changing decision and you’re standing at the crossroads, do you find yourself asking… What if I make the wrong choice? What if I ultimately wind up failing? These questions are not unique however. They’re a shared human behavior that causes us all to want to succeed and be accepted favorably in everything we set out to do. I confess that in my own life my successes seem to equal my failures. But I don’t walk away from either without learning something – extracting a better understanding of myself, my desires and the environments I need in order to thrive both personally and professionally. Author Sarah Dessen writes in her book “Along for the Ride”, “Life is full of screw-ups. You're supposed to fail sometimes. It's…
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26Jan 2014 by CJ

Sometimes we need to prolong the excitement to just be

Life & Living
Today was one of those lazy Sundays – admittedly it was a fairly lazy weekend. While I accomplished a few tasks around the house, finished a book I was reading and visited with family, I found myself spending more time sitting on the couch gazing at the snowflakes falling outside my window then doing anything truly constructive with my time. We spend so much of our work-week overwhelmed with 9-5 activities and chores at home, that when the weekend does finally arrive all we can do is lay comatose in an effort to recuperate. Whenever that happens I get so angry with myself – disappointed that I didn’t use what little time I have away from work more wisely. But then I sit back and remember something my favorite neighbor…
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20Jan 2014 by CJ

Our jobs should be filled with the joy of achievement

Life & Living
The American worker. We all fall into this category when the realities of life require a steady income to pay for the necessities and luxuries our existence demands. My grandfather was a skilled machinist – highly regarded at his place of employment for his personal character, his unending abilities and unwavering commitment. He found true fulfillment in his occupation, which is what kept him with the same company for almost four decades – an unfathomable duration for many of us to comprehend today. I remember asking him once how he could work at the same place for so long. His answer was simple: “When it doesn’t feel like you’re going to work it’s easy. When people respect you and treat you fairly that makes all the difference.” My grandfather, and…
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13Jan 2014 by CJ

Governor Christie’s pride and arrogance costs him the most

Life & Living
The world of politics is complicated and therefore I rarely discuss them at great length. The subject often leaves me bewildered as its members seem like little more than children, divided into two teams, for a game of kick ball on the school playground. And so you won’t often find me editorializing over the subject. After all it’s a subject without heart and inspiration – something I long for in a good post. But it can be hard to ignore the headlines and admittedly the recent scandals surrounding New Jersey’s Governor Chris Christie. American’s do love their scandals don’t they? While I’m not a fan of Governor Christie, I’m not here to rehash the implications being thrown at him. We all make our choices in life and it’s up to…
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10Jan 2014 by CJ

We all fall down sometimes – but how we cope is what makes the difference

Life & Living
There’s a song lyric I’ve been listening to lately and I can’t seem to get it out of my head. It goes something like this… “That we all fall down sometimes…” The tides of life are always unexpectedly changing, and often a difficult blow can defeat one’s spirit – causing us to fully abandon any and all hope that things will get better. But good and bad, life is rarely constant. It changes like the seasons and continually forces us to adapt – questioning who we are and where we want to go as the pendulum of uncertainty swings back and forth. Life, it would seem, is an endless stream of challenges and discoveries. And while they’re never ceasing, we must remember that while we all fall down sometimes it’s…
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