Local News from Across the Rainy River District
We’ve been learning about how to improve focus as an important aspect of managing our minds. The holidays can be a season in which it becomes more challenging to be able to focus well. There are so many things to do! Our minds and bodies can become particularly busy and […]
Being an Xennial, growing up as a 90’s, and raised in the suburban northwest metro of Minneapolis made for a unique experience. Life was suddenly electric with all things new. All things experimental, fresh, and dynamic. Be it art, music, media, culture, or new ways to spend time, the loud […]
You know who is amazing? It’s pretty clear. They are stellar and epic in so many ways. Perhaps it’s because of the natural beauty of our region—the iridescent shimmer of the landscape, the incandescent canopy of stars that stretches above our town—but there seems to be a steady gravitational pull […]
There is a beautiful paradox in our world. It sits within the very heart and soul of the human story. It is a tension indescribably fundamental, ancient, sacred, and gently profound. It is also very easy to forget that it holds our societies together. It is this: We are individuals. […]
I’m writing this column 30,000 feet above the South Pacific Ocean – somewhere north of Bora Bora and French Polynesia. South of Hawaii. Above me, a thousand stars sprawl across night’s canopy. Below, the Vantablack ocean stirs. To say I’m carrying a full heart and enriched spirit feels like an […]
For many, there are moments when the mind feels like a butterfly trapped in a hurricane. Fragile wings caught in roaring winds. Fighting to stay aloft against a storm that never seems to end. From an outside vantage point, the struggle can look invisible. Even gentle. The butterfly flutters. It […]
Last month we took a look at the importance of focus and took a few steps toward being able to focus well. This month we’ll take some more steps towards improving our ability to focus. It’s been said that having the ability to focus well is like a superpower. We’ve […]
It’s a memorable (if not magical) thing when professionalism meets side-eyes, smiles and sarcasm – the kind of story everyone asks to hear again and again. Years ago, I was recruited out of Minneapolis as an educator and orator when our region was rapidly changing. New industries meant new needs […]
We are born into a world of words. Like countless others, words define my life — first as an avid reader of stacks of Archie comic books, later as an educator, later as an author. It’s easy to think of words as tools, mere instruments of communication, or sonic stepping-stones […]
Often, I wonder if the universe utilizes my days and nights as a personal comic book for itself. When life gets too relaxed or predictable on my end, the universe seems to say: “Nope, today you’re my entertainment, Rob.” It was May. The buds on the trees were bursting in […]
First love arrives like sunrise over a sleeping city. Equally inevitable and undeniable as dawn slowly flooding everything with impossible gold. It is a new beginning… one you had no idea you were waiting for. Suddenly, an ordinary life lifts into a new unpredictable world. The simplest gestures begin to […]
If you’re anything like me you may sometimes notice your thoughts jumping around rather wildly. When our minds are jumpy we tend to feel unsettled and find it hard to focus on one thing at a time. This can be frustrating to live with. A lack of focus usually slows […]
