by Bruce McIntyre | Nov 8, 2014 | Serendipity
The summer before my senior year in college, I participated in a studies program in Ibaraki, Japan. One member of our group proved to be especially entertaining. He had mapped out our entire trip, arranging the connections between airports, subways, and train...
by Bruce McIntyre | Oct 31, 2014 | Caregiving, Uncategorized
On October 24, 1901, a 63-year old school teacher named Annie Edson Taylor garnered some fleeting attention. On this day, she became the first person to take the plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel. After her husband died in the Civil War, she traveled all over the...
by Bruce McIntyre | Oct 24, 2014 | Spiritual Stuff, Uncategorized
The blue of this water defies description. Accented by the Sierra Nevada mountain range, Lake Tahoe demands attention. Now I see what all the fuss is about. Not long ago, my wife and I had the chance to slip out to Lake Tahoe while in Reno to speak at a...
by Bruce McIntyre | Oct 17, 2014 | Serendipity, Uncategorized
Have you heard of the notion of emotionally intelligent signage? The idea is that a sign should be more than a rule. Rather, the sign ought to convey its highest purpose, while appealing to our better selves, often with humor. Some examples: -Reserved for...
by Bruce McIntyre | Oct 10, 2014 | Serendipity
New experience. The doorbell rings. As I open the door, I witness a semi truck easing down the street and a guy in our yard asking if I’d like to buy some North Carolina furniture. Door to door furniture sales? Really? For a second, the thought of a new bedroom...
by Bruce McIntyre | Oct 3, 2014 | Resilience
Needing to get out of the city, I landed in a northern Oklahoma cemetery. Yes, I’ve been cemetery walking again. Come to find out, I’m not alone. Recently, I sat with a table full of folks from Northern California and Nevada who all admitted to cemetery walking...
by Bruce McIntyre | Sep 25, 2014 | Serendipity
For 700 years, they’ve been holding hands. According to news reports last week, “Archaeologists in England digging at a 14th century burial site made an unexpected discovery: A couple buried together holding hands had remained that way all this time.” Further...
by Bruce McIntyre | Sep 19, 2014 | Resilience
Marcy Gardenhire passed away in 2010 after a long struggle with cancer. She lived and died better than most people I’ve ever known. A few years ago, she wrote these words of encouragement that kept her going: Faith. By far, this is the best place to start. Have...
by Bruce McIntyre | Sep 12, 2014 | Serendipity
Do you have any friends who are like free entertainment? Mike is one of those friends for me. Every time we get together for lunch or coffee, he seems to have a story that no one could possibly make up. Preparing for his sister’s wedding a few years ago, Mike was...
by Bruce McIntyre | Sep 3, 2014 | Caregiving
If you had to boil your story down to one sentence, what would it be? Essentially, this exercise demands that we know the point of our stories. Surviving adversity, finding true love, experiencing rare friendship, our stories will be most effective if they have a...