Touchstone Review

[Reuquen Boyett]

Inrecent years, we have become all too familiar with a sense of frustration and helplessness resulting from a lack of control over the situations we encounter, from pandemics to political polarization. Every new situation feels like unprecedented territory. How do we move from frustration to forward motion? How can we develop our resilience and minimize the negative emotions that can accompany challenging situations? As leaders, how can we guide our teams?

One powerful tool is tapping into what I term touchstone memories. These are past examples of our resilience during an unexpected event. We can look back on them as evidence of our capability to face new challenges and move through them.

As I reflect on a period of uncertainty in my own life, I remember an experience that my son Oliver and I shared, which continues to bring me hope during frustrating times. In September 2020, there was no end in sight for the pandemic. Through those anxious months of quarantine, a little pottery bowl that my family made on our last pre-pandemic trip to Asheville had served as a happy reminder that we may be able to visit again someday. But one day, my then seven-year-old son accidentally broke it.

The breaking of the bowl symbolized that no matter how careful we are, some things in life will fall to pieces. The repaired bowl became a visual reminder that we have had practice overcoming obstacles and we can do it again. We also made a video, intentionally creating a touchstone memory.

We can also use touchstone memories while leading our teams. Every organization has stories that remind us we have experienced change before, and not only did we survive, we thrived. We can identify and use these touchstones to help ferry people through new times of change.

As a (London based) reviewer getting to write about a rum bottling before its official release in the UK is very useful and frankly, really exciting. On that note in my glass today I have the 22nd Exceptional Cask Selection from Foursquare Distillery which has yet to have arrived to the UK market.

Long story short this is a marriage of rums double aged in ex-Bourbon and ex-Cognac casks for a total of 14 years of maturation. Long story long this rum can be split into two components maturation-wise.

On the nose it seems very woody. Charred oak, dried figs, canned plums, wallpaper paste and walnuts. Canned peaches, red apples, marmalade and crystalised ginger. Blackcurrants, black grapes, raw cocoa nibs and cinnamon sticks. Once you get past the burnt oak smell, layers of fruit and spice start showing up. Brown sugar, almonds, burnt match sticks along with some earthy notes. A layer of bourbon-y vanilla as well.

On the palate it feels quite chewy. Charred oak, ripe plums, dried figs, rich honey and nail varnish. Angelica root, black grapes, maple syrup and blackcurrant. It feels pretty acidic and bitter, but the rich fruity notes are fighting to balance it out. Dark chocolate and some stone fruits. Black sour cherries, stemmed ginger and allspice. The finish is long with plums and bitter oak.

While the Touchstone OM has a standard scale length of 25.5 inches, the nut width is 1-23/32 inches, slightly narrower than the standard 1.75-inch width. The modern-feeling neck has a slim profile and a satin finish, making it easy to grip and slide up and down freely while playing. The review model came set up with medium action, which I found to be very comfortable.

The Bourgeois Touchstone OM Vintage/TS, which streets at just under $3,000, is a traditional-style orchestra model that gives players access to a beautiful vintage tone with excellent projection and tonal balance. Between its powerful voice, classy appearance, and relative affordability, the Touchstone is a prime choice for any guitarist looking for an OM that will make a strong impression on listeners.

Now, I recently had two guitars here to review which made me think about this conundrum. The main reason being that it was the first time in a while that I had pretty much identical instruments to compare side by side.

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Purpose: The Touchstone Process was developed as an ongoing process to systematically analyze published, peer-reviewed studies of Reiki, the results being made accessible to the public online.

Method: Thirteen scientifically qualified experts in the field of Reiki were assembled into 3 teams to retrieve, evaluate, and summarize articles using standardized, piloted evaluation forms.

Results: Summaries of 26 Reiki articles, including strengths and weaknesses, were posted on a newly developed Web site (www.centerforreikiresearch.org), together with an overall summary of the status of Reiki research and guidelines for future research: The Touchstone Process determined that only 12 articles were based on a robust experimental design and utilized well-established outcome parameters. Of these articles, 2 provided no support, 5 provided some support, and 5 demonstrated strong evidence for the use of Reiki as a healing modality.

Penquisition, home of many useful review blogs and keeper of one of the more fun and tempting pen show tables, have teamed up with pen designer Ben Walsh of Gravitas Pens to bring us the Touchstone Fountain Pen. The pen is made from anodized aluminum and is carefully curated to be the goldilocks of pen sizes. It's not too wide or narrow. It's a full-length pen that will be comfortable in most grips, but short enough to fit in most pockets or pen holders. The grip section is gently shaped, but not in a way that steers the hand toward any one grip style. Basically, they've set out to make a pen that is comfortable for anyone to use. And while I can't speak for everyone, it was certainly comfortable for me.

The pen body is widest toward the middle, with a gradual taper toward either end, terminating in pointed finials. The cap screws on with metal threads, and is slightly wider than the body, leaving a clear edge so that you always know which end is up. The surface is a matte finish that still looks shiny but avoids the mirror-finish that collects fingerprints. The grip section is slightly narrowed at the middle, with a flare to prevent slipping, and is textured with very subtle ridges to help with grip. Ink does get into these ridges, especially when filling the pen, but they are shallow enough that it was easy to wipe them clean.

The pen comes in three very attractive colors. I chose the Orange with a deep Green grip section, but there is also a Purple with a Teal grip and a Blue with Red grip. It is taking a lot of willpower to not order the Purple one and create a frankenpen of the beautiful combinations.

The pen comes with a steel #6 Jowo nib engraved with the Penquisition logo. My EF nib was a little snaggy on arrival, with the right tine catching on the paper during certain directional strokes, but it smoothed out nicely with a few swipes of micromesh. Overall it writes very nicely, with great flow and the nib did not dry out even when I left the pen in my bag without using it for a week.

The first run of these pens also comes with a custom Rickshaw Bagworks Solo Pen Sleeve, turning this awesome duo into a trifecta of pen collaboration. I love to see this all come together, and the end result is a fantastic product. I've carried this pen daily since it arrived in its rad pen sleeve, and really enjoyed using it. The only days I didn't use it were when I ignored it on purpose to see if it would start up again right away after being neglected for a while. It was difficult to not use it! I kept reaching for it, and had to remind myself to use something else. I do feel that they've achieved their design goal of making a perfectly comfortable, portable pen. At $129, it's also priced well for what you get.

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The Touchstone Process is the outgrowth of an effort to determine the current state of Reiki research. William Rand, founder and president of the International Center for Reiki Training, began developing the Reiki In Hospitals website in 2005. Out of this effort, the Center for Reiki Research was formed with the intention of compiling a list of current evidence-based research on Reiki and making that information easily accessible to both the Reiki and the medical/scientific communities through the Internet.

Rand gathered a group of research professionals who could locate relevant studies and write cogent summaries. Using the Reiki In Hospitals database, a request was made for volunteers in January 2008. Within a short time a team of twelve qualified researchers formed. Nancy Merrifield was instrumental in organizing the group and coordinating their activities, which included developing the concept for the Touchstone Process.

The two members of this team searched for and gathered studies, making use of services such as PubMed, National Library of Medicine at NIH and the Cochrane Collection. Only studies published in the U. S. were accessed and from this group, only those published in peer-reviewed journals were considered, as these had already gone through a process of professional scrutiny.

A team of eight developed special forms for gathering metrics from each study in order to maintain uniformity. Forms were developed for both qualitative and quantitative studies. Each study was separately reviewed by two members of the group. If there were significant differences in the reviews of a particular study, the group leader requested a third review.

The most salient feature of this process may be the inclusion of all U.S. published peer-reviewed articles devoted to Reiki clinical and preclinical research. Evaluating this entire body of evidence-based research was a feasible endeavor because prospectively designed studies have been conducted only over the past 20 years.

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