Ever heard of pronoia?
It’s the opposite of paranoia—the belief that the universe is conspiring in your favour.

Last weekend, two friends sent me an article on gratitude from the NY Times. I hadn’t seen it yet, but they had me covered.

Fifteen years ago, my reaction would’ve been very different. <more>

One of my weekly check-ins with my boss 30 years ago is embossed in my mind. Watch the video to find out why ! <more>

The nurse asked me a routine medical question that made me freeze:

"Do you do any recreational drugs—like <more>

Last week our daughter Stef drops off 2 year old Mae at daycare. Accompanying her is our 10 year old grandson Max.

What happens next is amazing <more>

It’s July 31. We finish dinner and I say,

“Max, let’s get your sister in the stroller and go for a walk around the neighbour.”

“Sure thing Bump."

As we’re passing the school where Max will be going into grade 5, <more>

I have a few standard lines when I pass people from behind while running on our local trail.

As I’m coming up to pass, you’ll hear me, <more>

Imagine you’re heading out on summer vacation. Your 4 year old and 7 year old are all excited and jabbering away in the back seat. You double check the trailer hitch to make sure the camper is securely attached and pull out of the driveway at 9:30am. You figure you’ll be at today's destination by 3pm and you think back to when you were one of the kids in the back seat. You glance at your partner, “It’s beautiful out, I’m really looking forward to the drive.".

You’re not one kilometre from home and you hear a loud noise and then see <more>

Tomorrow we head out for our annual family vacation— kids, spouses and grandkids. It’s something we all look forward to each year. Unfortunately, we’re down one person this year as our son-in-law is on an extended voyage at sea for his work with the Navy.

As the grandkids have gotten older, we’ve <more>

After 4 years in our new house I decided to put a few finishing touches on the garage. Specifically, paint the floor and take the rough "construction look" out of a small set of steps.

I move stuff from one side of the garage to the other, paint and then reverse the process for the other side. I think I handled everything in the garage <more>

I’ve been thinking about retreats a lot lately. Probably because I just finished two this month, finalizing one in July and a few on the docket in the fall.

This "retreat thinking" caused me to recall <more>

This past weekend we were looking after our 2-year old granddaughter, Maesey, for an hour or so to cover for our daughter who wanted to get out for a long run.

We did the usual kid activities—some food, some colouring, some hide-the-duckies, some toys and some reading.

What strikes me is her <more>

A few weeks back I was speaking with the senior leadership team of a large national police force. During one of the exercises someone asks, "In our work, we are constantly barraged with negative situations. What advice do you have so that we can be grateful ?" He goes on, "Our work is <more>

Last week I’m checking out of my hotel. It’s early in the morning. I approach the reception desk and notice a brightly coloured service bell 🛎️ on the counter.

I look at the Front Desk Associate and say, "Nice bell." Then I slowly reach into my briefcase and presto—I pull out <more>

I recently spent a couple days in Toronto with our 9 year old grandson Max. We went to watch a Raptors basketball game and to explore the big city.

And explore we did—we did a ton of walking.

The most common sentence I said to him during our walks was, "Hey buddy, looks like <more>

Junior high had to be the best 3 years of school for me. One of the things we did at that time was build and ride go-karts. Our speedway was a nearby paved hill behind a local <more>

Last week I’m in Toronto and planning lunch with a colleague,

"Andrew, let’s go to that same place we went in January—it was fantastic !"

We arrive separately. The host sits us. When our server arrives at our table, she says,

<more>

A couple weeks back, Max was having his weekly sleep over at our place. As we’re getting ready for bed, he comes racing downstairs, heads to the freezer, grabs an ice cube, looks up and asks,

"Can I have a spoon ?"

<more>

I’m in my office and a text notification from my wife appears,  <more>

One of the precious gifts of being a grandfather is that greeting cards include special messages from the grandkids—no matter their age.

It’s a couple weeks back, Max arrives with my birthday card but he doesn’t seem his normal upbeat self.

<more>

A couple weeks before Christmas, Lyn says, "Did you see that the rates for safety deposit boxes are going up ? Do we still have ours ?" <more>