In an article by Larry Platt in the Philadelphia Citizen regarding developing an equitable work force, he quotes Warren Buffett who said,“When the tide goes out you can see who is swimming with no shorts.” A bad market, in essence, reveals bad business.
photo: Nick Fewings
One of my favorite sayings is “Never let a crisis go to waste! Learn from it.” The metaphor was first used by Churchill. What if our shorts were our strengths and when they are off when the tides goes out (in our case a medical crisis) we can be left with only the picture of what embarrasses us, our self perceived weaknesses.
Let’s put our shorts, our strengths, on. You can do this by going to the Penn Center for Positive Psychology website and doing a questionnaire, the VIA Survey of Character Strengths. It will determine your strengths in rank order and describe them. It is free and will take you about 30 minutes. Then once you know the top five, use them in your interactions. Pay attention to them. The website is loaded with other information that you may like to see.
Those who have read “The Times Of My Life” know that positive psychology and this exercise are part of the Ethics course that I taught. Students found the exercise to be very enlightening and empowering once they acted on their identified strengths and used them in daily life. They didn’t allow them to go to waste. They became part of their decision making and path through life.
“The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.” - Psalm 28:7.
You can get spiritual enrichment by going to the website below to see a video of Chaplain Tim Gavin of the Episcopal Academy, who has given four meditations for reflection in this difficult time.
Yesterday Vicki and I video streamed the worship service at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Wayne. The worship streaming occurs on Sunday mornings at 9:15. Go to the church’s website and you will see a link that will take you to the worship service.
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