The blog

There are many things about growing older that are not so pleasant, but one of the pure joys of aging is seeing how something that happened decades ago fits into your life puzzle in an amazing way.

I’m looking out the airplane window between St. Louis and Kansas City enjoying the beautiful sunny morning. My heart is full of joy and thankfulness for the opportunity to “accomplish my work and enjoy my life” (the tagline of my company Productive Environment Institute) by visiting family, spending time with one of my CPES (Certified Productive Environment Specialist) colleagues Marya Welch, and serving a new client, the Kansas City Regional Library.

At the same time, I’m reminded of a similar experience over three decades ago when I flew this route in the opposite direction — from our family farm back to what was then our home in the Virginia suburbs.  I remember thinking that the next year was going to be my best ever. A few short months later, much to my shock, my 14-year marriage came to an end, and what I thought would be the best year ever, turned out to be one of the worst.

Ironically, this experience was a trigger for launching the book Less Clutter More Life. The basic premise of the book is that our lives are a puzzle, but unlike a puzzle you and I might put together, in which we put the frame together first, only God has the frame for our life puzzle.  That puzzle is much bigger than we could ever imagine, and everything that happens in our lives is a piece in the puzzle.

I can’t wait to see what happens next!