Be Inspired

Monday, January 23, 2012

Honoring Greatness - Beginning with Yourself

(NOTE: This is the original version of this article which appears in Tammy’s new book: There’s Always Something Going Right)

What if you went about your entire life trying to bring forth the ‘greatness’ in every person you met? You would stop and notice. You would honor and name every great thing you saw, so enamored by their gifts and the values they exhibit in the way they live. One of the qualities which I know to be fairly strong in myself is a core faith that all people are good; that

Friday, January 20, 2012

An Argument FOR Arguing

Arg!! Why can’t I get my kid to stop arguing with me? Why must they challenge every simple request?? I have heard this lament many times (Oh, I think it was out of my own mouth! ) What does an arguing kid mean? That they don’t respect our authority? That they don’t like our rules? That they want power and choice? That they feel we are dictators of their freedom and choice? And how can I prepare them to handle authority figures in life if they are always arguing with every rule and

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Glass Half-full? Hey, At Least You Have a GLASS!

PERSPECTIVE IS EVERYTHING, RIGHT?

How good are you at welcoming the vibrant challenges of your life? In church last week, an opportunity was offered to attend a wonderful presentation on Monday. My cousin complained that she had to work. I smiled and reminded her that that wasn’t a problem. She GOT to work. She HAS a job – and man, did she get that! It was such a true reminder that perspective in life is everything when it comes to handling stress. What might it take to see every

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Forget the Guilt of Failed New Year’s Resolutions: Focus on the NEW DAY!

Today’s a New Day. So what are your New Year’s Resolutions? Each year as we struggle to remember to write the correct year on our documents, to start to think about organizing our papers for taxes, to try NOT to think about the next long vacation, and recover from the long holiday, we are prompted to ‘begin fresh’ with resolve to change something in a positive way. ) Ironically, this comes from an assumption that we are messing up, which in itself doesn’t seem like a strong start for

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Peer Mediation, The Wisdom of Children - and the Power of One to make a difference.

In 2005, the Conflict Mediator Program I coordinate and helped create, won a Golden Apple Award. Today, I have moved the direction of my program toward Positive Interdependence- one where the trained students begin each mediation helping the students name their own great qualities, paraphrase what they hear - and later, after resolution - name the great qualities of their previous ‘nemesis’. The result is fewer mediations, more praise notes passed at recess, greater Peace. Greater greatness