Tag / Ryan McGuire

by Michael

Where Loyalty Leads

Loyalty gets you places. Good places. It doesn’t always feel that way or look that way.

In fact, it often seems the opposite is true, that being loyal is out of touch. The politically saavy move and the shrewd choice is about agreeing to what you need to for the moment.

That’s loyal to the moment but not to the deeper, more meaningful thing that is you. It’s disloyal to you.

Being loyal to you–which emerges from that first loyalty of being loyal to God–leads to shimmering beauty. No matter how circuitous the path, loyalty ends in the neighborhood of strength.

by Michael

My Blog: Good Decisions

I was in a room listening to physicians talk about intensive care and how timelines were important to patient care and to providing health care. Patients get better when they’re treated. Or they don’t.

If they get better, doctors know why. And the same is true if patients don’t get better. If certain things were going to happen, like recovery, then they would have happened.

The importance of recognizing that trend along with all the other information available is freeing. It can free you to choose well. It can enable a person to have a good death and a good life in the sense that there’s life to live after the next decision.

by Michael

My Blog: While Sleep-Deprived

I was groggy, unrested, and driving the other day. It had been a wearying night that ended an even longer few days.

I attempted to change lanes on my way to work and upon hearing a car honking, I swerved to my original lane. No one was hurt. No accident happened. It was my reaction time that was suspect.

The horn was from another car in an entirely different lane. But I reacted, thinking I veered. Of course, then, I did veer. Afterward, I kept thinking that there are things to refrain from when you’re sleep deprived. There are things to do more slowly when you’re sleep deprived.

When I’m unrested, I’m subject to reacting. When I’m tired, I’m subject to the short terseness that doesn’t help. If I want to help, if I want to be kind, I need to rest so that I’m not flinching and jerking at horns even when they come from people in my face.