On Confidence
Self esteem and confidence is overrated.
We live in a culture of confidence. We encourage everyone to feel confident.
For example, related to our careers:
You should feel confident!
You should know what you are doing!

How was your winter break? 

Was it relaxing? Was a chaotic? I'm going to hazard a guess that for most of us, it was a combination of both. 

I love winter break. I love the idea of stepping away and thinking about how we interact with our work. Having a week or so to not check my bazillion email accounts and turn off my work phone felt pretty darn good. 

Well, the Christmas tree is up. We drove to the mountains (with our permit, of course), hiked in the bitter cold, cut down the best we could find, and brought it home.

The trunk bowed slightly, especially at the bottom. We set it up, but in order to get it to look straight, the tree was actually at quite the unbalanced angle in the tree stand.

We put the lights on, and the ornaments (I noticed we have specific tastes - wood, felt, glass, and pine cones), and I went to bed.

I heard the sound at 1am. It was a slow but steady crash; with some measure of lightness to it's heavy thud.