"Grumpy Old Men" stars the classic comedy duo of Jack Lemon ("John") and Walter Matthau ("Max"). The subtitle of this picture is "A fifty year fight." Max and John live next door to each other in the small frozen town of Waubeshaw, Minnesota. These two grumpy old men frequently engage in a battle of insults, […]

You know the cringe-worthy old married people who openly bicker about each other in front of other people? Perhaps one of them is telling a story "for the millionth time” or the other remembers it differently and jumps in to correct the details. The first one takes offense and says something snarky. Meanwhile, everyone else […]

In 1979, the Irish Republican Army ("IRA") placed explosives on a fishing boat owned by Louis the Earl of Mountbatten, and detonated them for the purpose of assassinating him. Mountbatten was killed in the violent explosion along with a number of his grandchildren. By way of background, Mountbatten was a towering figure in Great Britain. […]

For more than a year, I have been trying to find the right word to describe the mental state where a person is centered, at peace, and not disrupted. I was at an event with a mental health counselor and asked him the question and he said, "the word is homeostasis." Not bad, but not […]

Many of us went through marriages where there was a lot of conflict--whether outwardly expressed or subtle hostility lurking below the surface. Conflict can be very traumatic, and that part of our histories makes many reluctant to date or move toward new relationships. So, why does it happen? How does a relationship that starts out […]

I wrote this re-shared post (below) 9 years ago when I was struggling to recover from a divorce from my kids' mom. I encountered a lot of singles during my mid-single years who tended to be controlling in relationships and, alternatively, to keep relationships distant to avoid being controlled. At the end of the day, […]

My mother talks about the devil more than anyone I know. Maybe that's a generational thing. I'm not sure. She has told me during the hardships of two divorces and hitting roadblocks in my career, "The devil is camping on your trail!" I think it's always a good idea to be aware that there is […]

We produced a LILY Pod episode on pursuing personal and relational excellence, while remembering to keep in mind that joy is the design of our existence. It is wise to include the pursuit of happiness as the underlying sentiment of all ambitious endeavors. This includes stepping back to observe our creations as good, just as […]