Got it, thanks.

This is the best we could do today. It’s cold and flu season and we are right in season. I got the cold first and generously shared it with Lois. One of the good things about getting it first is that Lois sets the bar for how I will take care of her when it’s her turn. If she sets it high, then I’m obligated to pamper her when she gets it. Low, then it’s my choice, but after forty years of marriage, I’ve learned the consequences of making the wrong choice.

Like most couples, we each have our own respective cures. She goes for the Tylenol & tea combo, and I break out my “magic” pills. I brought 100 of them back from Thailand where they wiped out a real nasty cold in two days. She tried them once and they wiped her out instead of the cold. They are amazing and available from your local pharmacist in Thailand, China, and I guess anywhere in Asia. I figure I can get about six more colds before I have to go back and get some more.

In the meantime, we keep our faces covered and lay low waiting for it to pass.

The Shadow knows

"Only the shadow knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men," was the opening line to The Shadow radio show that began in 1930. He was a dauntless crime fighter who never let himself be seen, only heard. At the end of every show, The Shadow would say, “The weed of every crime bears bitter fruit. Crime does not pay . . . The Shadow knows.”

I’m often attracted by the shape of shadows on a surface. Shadows have a unique way of taking on the shape of the surface while at the same time retaining the shape of the object. Shadows can heighten our anticipation of a pending crime in film and television and at the same time provide hours of entertainment for a kitten. They can evoke a sense of comfort when we talk about being in the shadow of someone's protection. Shadows can make us look taller, shorter, thinner and wider. They mimic our every move and are totally dependent on us for life and movement.

In many respects shadows are like people. When we are doing something that we shouldn’t, we try to hide it “in the shadows.” We avoid being exposed by the light, preferring to lurk in the darkness. We retain our identity and our shape, yet at the same time, we take on the shape of whatever else lurks in the shadows. Other times, we follow in the shadow of a mentor, blending in with the surface only to be exposed to light, when we are ready. As for me, I prefer the light, leaving the shadows way behind.

So what's your hang-up?

"Hang-ups" are a procrastinator's favorite tool. For example, I've had so many "hang-ups" during the past week, that I just haven't taken the time to put up a new blog image. Every time I sat down at the keyboard, I would begin to think about something else. I would get hung-up, or distracted, and like this knot of ubiquitous plastic hangers, whenever I would try to pull one out, it would only get caught on the next distraction.

While some hang-ups are fun as they delay us in what we should be doing, other hang-ups are downright annoying. How often have you started to clean out the garage only to find about ten things that you put out there over the past year to repair? Do you follow the distraction and begin repairing everything, or do you stay focused on cleaning the garage? It seems every task leads to more and more tasks because of something we didn't do when we should have.

Some would say, "The best way to not get hung-up on anything is to not do anything," but then you're stuck with a never ending knot of hangers. So stay focused and finish the job. It will make life so much easier.

White birch memories

During the summer months in New England, many people put candles, pictures, figurines, or some other decorative item in their fireplaces until the cold returns in the fall and it’s time to bring in the logs and settle down to a warm fire.

On one of our trips back to New England, after my parents relocated from Rhode Island to Cleveland, we brought back three white birch logs to put in our fireplace each summer. It was emotional comfort for mom and dad as they reminded them of the beauty of New England, but the logs never saw the light or felt the heat of a match. They were just decoration. Each fall, it was my job to carefully wrap the “sacred” logs and put them back in the attic so we could use the fireplace. As I recall, my parents even planted a white birch sapling in our yard when I was a young tree climber. Unfortunately, it was too young to survive my climbing, and I was too young to know better.

A few years after we were married, we bought my parent’s house, and yes, the “sacred” birch logs were included. They were considerably lighter in weight than I had remembered, but they had long dried out, and in our last winter in that house, we found they didn’t burn well, either.

He went that way!

Have you ever tried to "read" a child's face? Have you wondered how a baby interprets what we look like or what we are doing before they can form a word?

When I see a face like this, I guess I put myself, as a kid, in his place. "I didn't do it Mom, he did it!" "There he goes, Mrs. Jones, the kid who rode his bike through your petunias." "I didn't knock over your outhouse, Mr. Whipple, those kids running down the street did." The words are all there, but we need to see the face to complete the communication.

In business, we so often we hide behind our emails, voice and text messages, tweets, and conference calls to communicate yet, more than seventy percent of us communicate best visually. That's why face-to-face meetings are so important in business, especially first time meetings. We add so much to our words with our gestures and expressions, the language of our body.

Fall already?

What happened to September and July? Last week went by so fast, I didn’t even get a blog post up. I think I remember August, but here it is fall already, definitely the shortest season of the year. The rains come, temperatures drop, and the leaves throughout New England change from green to yellow, red, and finally, brown. While we all like to photograph the broad sweeps of color across the mountains, down the country roads, and reflecting in the lakes and ponds, somehow it’s hard to capture the beauty of the moment.

Like snowflakes and people, every leaf is different. They are different in size, color and shape, so move in close and capture the detail and the beauty of each leaf, while it lasts. The snow will be here before we know it.