By Sondra Whitt As we go through life, we all experience pain, hurts, adversity, wounds — sometimes self-inflicted, sometimes inflicted by others. The wounds that we suffer may be physical, emotional, spiritual, or financial. They may be small wounds that we can easily recover from or so devastating to us that it takes weeks, months or even years to fully recover. People respond in different ways to these wounds. Some people are so hurt and broken that they give up, surrendering to bitterness, self-pity and victim-hood, while others grow stronger and become better people because of the adversity and struggle… Read More

January 31st, 2008 at 7:19am

By Jim Whitt Sondra and I made our weekly trek to the Cosmo Cafe to see our favorite server Katie. Last week we told Katie that we will be going to Normandy to spend a week in a villa with our friends Bill and Nancy Lauterbach from Kansas City. Well, we found out that Katie has a degree in French and has been to France so we have made her our official expert on all things France. She was pretty busy tonight so we had to skip our French lesson. But it worked out fine because her friend Hosea waited… Read More

January 25th, 2008 at 8:35pm

By Jim Whitt To add a little more to Sondra’s post on Common Sense Customer Service…we’re shocked at how clueless store clerks and personnel in restaurants can be about basic common sense and courtesy. Simple things like saying please, thank you, yes sir, no ma’am and one of my all time major irritants is when you ask your waiter for something or thank them for something and the response is, “No problem.” Of course its not a problem…it’s your job! How about responding with, “It’s my pleasure,” or “You’re welcome.” So, our idea is a Common Sense Customer Service skills course so… Read More

January 23rd, 2008 at 2:38pm

By Paula Lau I had a disquieting experience with a person whom I had been counseling over an extended period of time. The problems this individual had were many and varied. Unfortunately, it seemed as soon as one problem was solved another developed. And as time went on, this individual was becoming increasingly discouraged and unhappy. As most counselors will tell you, this is not the direction we want our clients to move in! So as each problem developed I did my best to re-frame, re-direct, look at the positives, downplay the negatives and encourage the individual that “surely the… Read More

January 17th, 2008 at 2:09pm

By Sondra Whitt  One of the things I enjoy most about the holidays is getting to spend time with people that I don’t often see. At a holiday get-together I over-heard a conversation between a couple of people in which one stated that he would like to know what it was like to be content. At first, I was surprised by his statement. He is a comfortably retired executive, has a nice family, excels in his hobby of making beautiful woodcrafts and furniture, is getting ready to build a new home and seems to have all his needs and most… Read More

January 9th, 2008 at 10:23am