Employee Engagement in a Pandemic
It seems like an oxymoron. While our teams worry about keeping safe, learn from home, work from home, and alternate schedules, how do we ensure that they remained engaged with their work? Employee engagement has many definitions, but my favorite comes from Wikipedia: An engaged employee has a positive attitude toward an organization and its values. You may want to read that again. More and more employees are placing higher emphasis on organizational values. Employee engagement is infused into every part of the employee life cycle. Whether you’re an employee or an employer, it’s important to ensure that your values are on display, beginning with the hiring process. Keep in […]
Photo of the Month | Joseph Sanders
Photo of the Month: Joseph Sanders My journey in portrait photography came in stages that were out of order from what one would typically think. Most of the time, someone will start with taking photos of family and friends, slowly learn the mechanics of the camera, and eventually master the editing techniques needed to produce professional looking headshots. For me, it was quite the opposite. Starting my freshman year at Williston-Elko High School, I began to explore the world of Adobe Photoshop in my computer graphics class. I liked it so much that I took that same class twice over my four years there just for fun. Once I moved […]
Artist Spotlight | Go Figure – Artist Cheryl Elmo
The artwork of Cheryl Elmo captures the human experience through the simplicity of everyday moments. Go Figure is a collection of Cheryl’s artwork that focuses on human connections, capturing something special in an otherwise ordinary moment in time. These everyday moments made special will be featured in the main gallery of the Aiken Center for the Arts through November 30. Come and immerse yourself in the different perspectives awaiting you in this thoughtful exhibition. Cheryl first picked up a paintbrush when she was 6 or 7 years old, and she has been painting ever since. She tried many other mediums but always came back to watercolors. She loves to see […]
Traditions!
“But it’s a tradition … because of our traditions, everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do.” Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof Traditions are funny things. They occur one moment at a time over a lifetime, and often we don’t even realize they are happening. I remember our granddaughter’s face crumbling into tears one Thanksgiving Day when I mentioned that I had prepared a different sweet potato casserole than our usual. The 4-year-old sobbed, “But Mimi! We always have the one with marshmallows on top!” Guess whose Mimi beat a path to the kitchen to make a real sweet potato casserole! Traditions are nothing to […]
Golf is a Family Tradition | Our Favorite Golf Course is the Palmetto
The first time I saw my boyfriend wearing loud plaid pants with a white belt and a clashing shirt, my thoughts were something akin to, “What a dork.” He is now my husband and his golf attire has evolved to become more sedate. We have been married 40 years. I decided 35 years ago that I would not become a “golf widow” who wonders where her husband is after five (or more) hours. My mother and sisters-in-law knew how to play, so I decided I had better learn or else be left babysitting all of the children on weekends. At the time, we lived across the street from a golf […]
First Person Account | Fall of the Berlin Wall
My family has always had a strong connection to Germany, and later, to Berlin. As a result, I have long thought that the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, with the geopolitical changes that resulted, was the most pivotal world event of my life. Although neither had any German ancestry, my parents met in the 1930s, in Heidelberg, where they were both pursuing doctoral degrees. They returned to the United States in 1937, when Hitler’s influence was clearly on the rise. They married and started a family, and my father began his career as a college professor, but when the United States entered World War II, he […]
Baking Traditions: The Search for the Great (Can of) Pumpkin
I have had many conversations about American Thanksgiving. I have been asked many questions. “Why are we all so crazy about them?” So I’m working at a kids’ clothing store in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland, and a couple walks into the shop. The man stops, sniffs the air, and puts his hand on her arm to stop her. “There’s a Starbucks. I’m going to get a Pumpkin Spice Latte and no one can stop me!” And he turns on his heels and exits as quickly as he can. “My husband,” she shrugs. “He’s American …” — her way of offering an explanation. I, with my own thick-enough American accent, say, “Don’t […]
Buying Your First New Car
So I got a new car! Yay! It was much harder than I expected. There were many things I didn’t know I would have to know. So I figured that I would give some advice on the things that I didn’t know so that anyone who is thinking about buying his or her first car could get some insight. The Dealership Finding the place to buy the car was a lot harder than I originally expected. I was pretty much under the impression that I could go to a dealership and they would have exactly what I wanted in the exact color and with all the features I wanted. Wrong! […]
Beat Holiday Angst and Depression with Gut Health
The holiday season is almost upon us and this year is no different when it comes to stress with running around preparing food, buying gifts, decorating and dealing with hard to please relatives. But with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, anxiety and depression appear to have skyrocketed. The number of Americans suffering from mental health disorders like these has more than tripled during COVID-19 according to a new survey from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health published by JAMA. Stress and anxiety can trigger symptoms in the gut, and gastrointestinal (GI) inflammation sends signals to the brain and has been linked to mental illnesses including […]
Giving Thanks with Restricted Eating
It is November and Thanksgiving is at the end of the month. Thanksgiving in this strange year of 2020 will be different for almost all of us. You may not be able to celebrate as you usually do, in the same location or with the same people as in previous years. For some of you this may be the first Thanksgiving that you have some sort of dietary restriction. You may have limitations on the amount of sugar, other carbohydrates, or fat you can eat due to diabetes. Those with heart or kidney disease may have to restrict animal foods or fat. Some of you may have food allergies or […]
