TheListServe Blog

Goodbyes. I've had to say goodbye more times than I would have liked. But I guess everyone can say that. I'm not talking about the see you later goodbye or the goodbye we automatically address to a waiter. I refer to THE goodbye. The one that tears up our throat and make our eyes go all wetty when we say it. We all know it. No matter what the circumstance is. This goodbye is usually said to people who really matter to us and it for instance occurs when we are moving far enough from them that they won't be as easily reachable as they were. What makes this moment difficult is that we are aware that not only we're saying goodbye to a person, we're saying goodbye to a relationship. Deep down we know that this bond won't be the same anymore. It may progressively vanished as the time goes by or get stronger. It merely depends on individuals. But when we say goodbye we don't know how things will be and it's confusing. It feels like a chapter of our lif...

Once upon a time — and listen, for although this sounds like a fable, I will try to make every word true — once upon a time there was a young boy named Patrick, a young Christian boy whose father was a deacon, and whose grandfather was a priest. Patrick, though he was raised in a Christian household did not himself know God. I imagine he was like most people, just living his life out without much concern for spiritual things. But then something really terrible happened. Raiders attacked his parents’ villa, and Patrick was taken off to be a slave in Ireland. I suspect that his parents had plans for him to go off to the city to become an educated gentleman. Instead, he was taken off at age sixteen to become a slave. Instead of going to school, he was forced to become a shepherd. In his loneliness and emptiness, he began to remember what he knew about God. And he started to pray the prayers he had been taught; I don’t know what prayers, but I imagine he prayed the “Our Father.” He start...

Hi all, I want to write about a subject that is very close to my heart - bees! I started bee keeping last year, and have two colonies right now. These two already managed to supply my family and my friends with more than enough honey, and keeping the bees is a tremendously satisfying activity. They smell so good, and are very tidy animals, and are just very, very interesting overall. The insects' way of dealing with the world is just so very different from how we as mammals approach it - it seems almost alien. Anyways, what is probably most impressive is the workload these little animals deal with. For one kilo of honey, they visit 4 million flowers, and fly a distance equivalent of more than 4 times around the earth. Think about that for a second. And then, if you start to think about how they "furniture" their housing themselves by the wax they sweat out, how they can control temperature inside the hive to the tenth of a degree, how they collectively make decisions i...

I've been in business for a long time now, and every once in awhile, I'll get friends and family asking me to talk through their business plans with them. It's one of my favorite things to do! Along the way, I've come up with a few things that seem to apply to every type of business. If you're thinking about starting a business, or in the beginning stages, here are a few tips to help you start your venture. 1) Decide what your goals are, and how hard you want to work. There's a big difference between a plan that ends with you making a comfortable living vs. one with a $100M payout. Decide what route is right for you. 2) Do something you're truly passionate about. If it doesn't sound like an exciting adventure, to you, from the beginning, keep looking for the right opportunity. Starting a new business can be a rough road, and requires a certain level of belief and momentum to keep going. If you're not into it, it's hard to keep it going during ...

To begin, let me say that I live a blessed life, surrounded by friends and family that love and support me. I attempt to appreciate such great fortune as much as I am able, especially as I have grown older and seen such disparity between friends of mine who do not enjoy my same socioeconomic advantages. Even now, as I am preparing to leave for college, which promises to be a separate segment of my life entirely, I know I have my parents and friends to look to in times of trouble. That is not to say I haven't lived without struggle. From the onset of my life, at the very inception of my beginning days, I endured disappointment. I was an unhealthily premature baby, 8 weeks ahead of schedule by the doctors shared estimations. Naturally, this made me extremely fragile and unhealthy. I had to extend my stay in the hospital from a single night to almost two weeks as my parents weighed the magnitude of the reality they were facing: if their first-born son would ...

Hello world! I just got the first Listserve email, and it was a little bit too similar to what I was originally going to send so I deleted my email and started again. I feel as though this is going to turn into a mass swapping of inspirational quotes for us to all live our lives by…but hopefully it will vary more as time goes on. I’m going to just share some secrets with you instead. 1. When no one is watching, I like to dance as if I’m in a hip hop music video. 2. I haven’t washed my hair for four days. Dry shampoo is one of my favourite inventions. 3. I’ve always wanted to break my arm or leg. I don’t want to really go through the pain, just ever since I was younger I’ve been jealous of the slings and crutches involved. 4. I like Justin Bieber’s new song… I don’t want to and it pains me to say it, but I think I do. 5. I GENUINELY (and irrationally) believe I’m going to win the jackpot on the Euromillions Lottery one day. I know people always have the...

When I turned twenty I had reached a point where my earthly possessions could be summarized as the clothes I was wearing, an old bag containing some more clothes, a few science-fiction books, and my guitar. No money, no place to live, just a bunch of friends who helped me out of the streets and put me back on my feet. Ending up in such a pit you first feel anger, then sorrow, then you make fun of it because that is the only way to make it bearable, and then you can go forward. It took me three more years to be able to shop for food without having to count change in my pockets. Twenty years later I gave the books away but I still keep the old bag as a memory and my guitar is now standing in the living-room where I occasionally use it to sing for my kids. Life has been a tough ride so far, but at least I know how to live without being bothered by simple objects. I know the only things you can count on are: - What is inside you: your skills, your knowledge - Good friends, and othe...