Insights

Traveling to Virginia and Ohio this past week, I escaped the smoky Boise desert and landed in the sticky humidity of the East. Both places feel like home, even if they could not be more different. In Virginia, I rented a 1930s cottage for a college visit with my daughter. Excited to find a desk by a sunlit back door to work at, I opened the curtains and saw a nice patio and a huge backyard - chock full of weeds. I immediately recognized those weeds. We'd fought that same batt

Seven people showed up at 6:30 am yesterday morning for our second Community Future Walk. Numbers grew from last month, and 80 percent of last month's participants returned, plus three new people. Everyone naturally paired with someone else, letting one person talk on the way out and the other on the way back. A lot of dreams were verbalized, including one that my colleague Angie and I share about Future Walking the Camino de Santiago. (We may have started something!) The gra

Lake Michigan from Chicago last week, which I grew up seeing from the other side. Same lake. Completely different view. I watched the sun rising over the same water I used to see it setting. Amazing what a shift in perspective will do. One of my favorite things about the World Cup has been watching Americans rediscover their own country. You've probably seen the memes: international visitors losing their minds over Waffle House, ranch dressing, wide grocery store aisles, and

Oh, to be 1 and 4 and left in the backyard with a hose. My brother went into construction. I went into the FBI. I’m sure this somehow prepared us both. I spent this week in Chicago working with a construction company as part of their 20-year running leadership program. It was an extraordinary thing to witness: a company that has invested in developing its leaders for two decades, evolving as the industry and the people do. During the last cohort, they included well-being in t

My family at Acadia National Park. This was part of my education on freedom. I didn't realize it then. I just remember my mom worrying that the guy we asked to take our picture would run off with the camera. America turns 250 tomorrow. For most of my career, from the Army through the FBI, freedom was something I defended and protected: the Constitution, national security, the rights we're guaranteed on paper. Important work. But it wasn't the whole story. I learned the rest w