Dr. Carolyn Coon

  Do you have any ‘Always’ or ‘Nevers’ in your life? What, for you, constitutes an always or a never? Do you even believe in absolutes? Personally… I do. But I am quite limiting in what constitutes an absolute. Plus, I don’t like a large number of them. My reason is that I don’t like […]

  Do you believe you matter? In your heart, at the very core of your being… do you believe this about you? If so then you can’t do less than your best every moment of the day. Stress-less and non-striving, but confidently your best you. I know I’ve written before about your importance, but do

  yourself? To an ideal? To another person? What!? Next question is, do you typically commit to a number of things/people/ideas? Or, are you more circumspect in your commitments? To the things/people/ideas you are committed to – how do you, or anyone else, know? Is it evident in both your words as well as your

  Is that your attitude? That if you don’t act on your best interests… who will? Even if there IS some truth to this assertion,  the larger question is – how do you go about asserting ‘your best interests’? And what do you do about the competing self-interests from others? Whoever wrote that no man

  It struck me that one of the more critical components in loving is learning about the other person – who they are, how they go about being who they are, what they like, their dreams and hopes, what they want from the relationship with you… and the list of things to learn and discover

  What impresses you? What stays with you long after the person, event, or ‘thing’ has passed? And when you remember, what ‘trigger’ brought it to mind? I think this is a good operational definition of ‘impressive’ – remembering over time. But what’s more important is the context and content of the memory, what impressed

  Is it? Can you say that regardless of your situation… it is well with your soul? For me, this is a ‘sometimes, yes’ and ‘sometimes, no’ response. Not always strong… but I do know that when I’m not, if I want me to be ‘well’ there’s a simple way to get there. And no,

  Do you remember the song from “The King and I” that Anna sings to the children? “Getting to know you. Getting to know all about you. Getting to like you. Hoping that you like me too.” Is this a focus, concern, interest for you? Have you taking the time to get to know… You!

  I remember a time early in my college ‘career’ when I came to the conclusion that these were two incredibly important concepts, at least for me. In many ways I think they have directed me throughout my life, at least I hope so. I also remember a banner I made for my college room

  Right – Wrong? Yes – No? Good – Bad?  A blend of diametrically opposed opposites? Is everything relative? Is there NO standard? Is the whole world ‘wrong’ in this view or is it only me? I find the shifting sands of definitions extremely taxing. And I don’t even want to think about ‘political correctness’.