Each year, I swoon with delight at the scene in my backyard. After a long winter with bare branches, the tree in the backyard puts out tiny buds of a delicate green. If the sun is out and the temperature is warm, the tree fast-forwards to an explosion of white blossoms. No green is visible, just the white blossoms. I have never learned the name of the tree, and I have never tried to look it up. I don’t need to know its name because I know its beauty. Corny, but true. Perhaps my delight comes from knowing the winter coats and boots can truly be packed away for a season. Or knowing that the days are longer with more sunlight to give energy to so many ideas and activities. It’s definitely a sign that this bear is coming out of hibernation. Hello, glorious spring! When the blossoms disappear, I…
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Yes, this is a morbid topic, but we need to talk about it. There was a time when people stayed in one place their entire life. Everyone you ever knew was most likely in that same place. The world of an individual probably knew in full when that individual drew his or her last breath. Now we move about, but more importantly, we are in contact with people all over the world. What happens when a person with global contacts dies? How do other people learn about this event? The Idea Behind This Blog Post I started to write this post one year ago. The idea came to me about seven years ago when I was exchanging emails with a friend in another country. He travelled a lot as an independent consultant and spent much time away from his family. This was in the pre-Twitter, pre-TripIt, pre-Facebook, pre-all-sorts-of-social-networking-applications days. I…
4 CommentsI bought myself a treat the other day: a handcrafted pen by Gunnar Langemark of Langemark Pens (site in Danish). I was struck by the beauty of the colors of this pen. The black wood is “bog oak” – oak that has been buried in a bog for hundreds of years, even thousands. This particular bog oak comes from the area around Roskilde, Denmark. One of Gunnar Langemark’s friends discovered it when he was out riding in the forest. The lighter colored wood (my photograph doesn’t do it justice) is called “Purple Heart”, which is a popular name for a tree that is native to Central and South America. It has a nondescript story, but it is beautiful to hold and behold. Gunnar has videos on his site so you can see how he makes the pens. I hope you can sense the care he puts into bringing these bits…
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