Steve, Lisa, and their three children lost their home in a few minutes Tuesday afternoon when the Black Forest Fire (#blackforestfire) blew up around them.

Steve bought the forested lot more than 30 years ago.  When he and Lisa married, they camped on the site while building the garage themselves.  The lived in the garage while building the house stick by stick over several years.  They have added onto it and updated it themselves through the years.

We have known Steve and Lisa since the mid-80s.  We enjoyed their home deep in the forest north of Colorado Springs, even before we moved south from Greeley in 1996. We have stayed connected while the children that we have been blessed with have grown up. 

That part of the burn area is still too dangerous for them to visit.  I don't know what they will do next.  They have family in the area and a strong church to support them.  They are heartbroken but they are survivors as are the 370+ other homeowners who literally saw a portion of their lives go up in smoke (the white smoke above tends to indicate grass and forest, the darker smoke is usually buildings).

Part of what makes their loss so touching is the story that goes with the home, the emotional investment that we all can identify with when we learn of security threatened and lives changed.  Stories have that unique power to move us and we don't embrace them enough in our own lives. "We are our stories"

How many emails do you receive in a day? How many do you open? How many lead you to do something?

Like pointless PowerPoints, endless emails are time wasters and and a burden. Just as I spent years creating ineffective PowerPoint presentations before learning how to do better; I am working this spring to improve my emailing skills for my benefit and for my clients.

And so should you.

I write 10-20 emails per day. Since leaving HP/Agilent, I communicate more via email than through any other medium. Whether proposing a service to a potential client, asking for permission to proceed, or explaining what went wrong, emailing is a critical skill that I need to keep working on.

Geoffrey James gives six helpful tips for "How to Write a Convincing Email" in a recent Inc. magazine article.  Of his six tips, I am working on two of them this month.