Here we are again, folks! Out with the old! In with the new! Many of us have already reflected a bit about the past year and prepared one or more New Year’s Resolutions. What can we promise ourselves to start or stop doing on the first day of the year, that we’d truly stick with, once decided? (If you’re reading this after day 1 of any new year, you have my permission to start wherever you are!) Often New Year’s resolutions are about kicking a habit or improving our own lives in some way. In my efforts to support and inspire others, I love to throw out random alternative ideas. We can create New Year’s Resolutions from anything that sparks us! For instance, I enjoyed fashioning this poem (of sorts) with relevant rhyming words to suggest a wider view of resolutions. (Many of these serve to share impact beyond our...

 If we had a chance to plant something for the future, what would it be? Our spring weather has been erratic this year. Still, in our neighborhoods, locals are at work cleaning up their gardens, trimming bushes, seeding lawns, and planting annuals. Colorful pansies are one of the favorite blooms found around borders, mailbox posts, and up walkways. Depending on our local climates, some planting tasks maybe done year-round. It might not be productive to toss seeds randomly out our windows any given season, hoping to see them sprout. On the other hand, Jack’s mother threw magic beans out their window in the fairytale “Jack and the Beanstalk”, which yielded some interesting - and scary - adventures for Jack. This confirms that planning is helpful, but some spontaneous actions work in magical ways too. Gardens are the most obvious things that come to mind. Vegetables gardens are great because we can...

AI (artificial intelligence) is all the rage. In my networking meetings and social media posts, folks are asking “How do you use AI to streamline your business?”. Surveys are being conducted through web platforms. Market research studies ask about our uses of AI. Companies who sell subscriptions to such services, and product developers want to know. How can AI make life easier? AI has been incorporated with technology for many everyday uses.  For instance, telephone solicitation, voice menus to access any customer service entity by phone, social media, financial and accounting services. We’re so used to it. We may not notice it at all (except how annoying it is when AI doesn’t understand our question or is programmed to keep looping a specific set of answers and nothing else). I don’t know about you, but I have mixed feelings about AI. When people ask me how I use it, or what...