Posts by Lauren Williams
Shiny bits and sparkly bobs
I haven’t blogged in darn close to a month. I’ve been slogging through knee-deep mud, everything from revamping some of my tools for communicating with clients to research for a committee-in-formation for one of my professional societies. Sometimes you just have to watch your step, avoid distractions, and pretend you’re a Clydesdale pulling a wagon.…
Read MoreGarbology, the most depressing hopeful book you’ll ever read
Garbology Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash by Edward Humes is a painful examination of America’s rapport with rubbish. It’s easy to generate refuse, toss it in recycle and walk away. Dishearteningly, everyday citizens’ well-meaning efforts to recycle waste are, at least as of Garbology’s 2012 publication, mostly misplaced. Turns out the folk in charge…
Read MoreCelebrate the mystery
Machines can’t crochet. A client taught me that. Looping my chain on-line, sleuthing taught me that no one can build a machine which can pattern and manipulate needles with the complexity of the weaves our hands stitch. There is a contraption shamelessly dubbed a crochet machine, but, in fact, its talent is “warp knitting.” Celebrate…
Read MoreAdapting, coping, serving – recycling in Kirkland
It’s heartening to see the creative and caring adaptations our communities, from the staff at restaurants to our public servants, are developing every day to try to return our society to more typical routines. For me, especially ones which contribute to protecting our environment. And so it pleases me to post announcements about the following…
Read MoreCrystal-edged line
It’s a crystal-edged line between bragging and providing information sometimes. I’ve just finished a very preliminary introductory course to Motivational Interviewing (MI), an incredibly powerful way of framing conversations to allow a person, whether a service provider, a sports coach, a teacher or a parent, to help another person, whether a client, team mate, student…
Read MoreBasements – spiders and mystery boxes and broken stuff oh my
I had the pleasure of contributing to another online article: “15 Brilliant Ways to Declutter Your Basement Right Now” by Sarah Crow for April 24, 2020 Best Life‘s Smarter Living column. I haven’t owned a basement in a while, but oh the (bad) memories….
Read MoreCreative, close-knit, commendable cooperation
I just treated myself to a gorgeous, not-so-little hall tree from Second Use in Seattle, one of my favorite salvage shops in the US. Went poking around their site to answer a question and learned something brand-new about them – they accept donations on behalf of Habitat for Humanity and split the sales income. Goodwill accepts…
Read More2e Seattle
Support can come in many forms. It’s not always easy to find. I’m not a member of 2e Seattle, but I wish I’d known about it when I needed it. 2e Seattle is a network for parents of twice-exceptional children; children who are both highly intelligent and challenged by learning differences. To say being a…
Read MoreCreating Constructive Conversations
Did you know there are better and worse ways to hold a conversation? I’ve touched on it in another post. But I’m starting a beginner’s course in Motivational Interviewing, a rigorously studied method (1,000+ examinations as of this writing), which is adding myriad nuances to my understanding of this skill. Some people recommend Nonviolent Communication…
Read MoreBittersweet Day
I was planning on a gleeful, goofy post about donating a trash bag stuffed to ripping with child-sized Santa Claus hats to The NOAH Center, a no-kill animal shelter in Stanwood, today. Because I did. Blasted things had lived under my bed for a YEAR, creating dust bunnies, multiplying like them for all I knew,…
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