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Posts from the ‘Inspiration’ Category

May 18

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Can Tigger Come Out and Play, and Work?

“When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.” – Walt Disney

It’s been 15 years since I’ve been to Disneyworld. I just returned from a five day get-away with my brother, sister-in-law and niece. 16 hour days jam packed, walking miles and miles taking in the imagination and creativity of Walt Disney’s dream continuing to unfold.  Simply amazing, maybe even more so for us older “kids.”

I went feeling like Eeyore and returned with the bounce of Tigger. We drive ourselves so hard and take everything so seriously that we get desperate for a vacation. Holding back, holding out, waiting or delaying play and fun for vacation or retirement robs us of our calling to embrace and engage in each and every day.

Each day, we must choose between Tigger and Eeyore – abundance or scarcity, half full or half empty. Despite the complexity of the world and all of the Eeyores that remind us of the many obstacles, dare to risk joy, see possibility and accept delight. Lighten up and invite fun to each day. Work hard but play harder.

My simple momento from the trip is a small stuffed Tigger. I’ve hung him on a living room lamp to remind me to bounce, frolic, imagine, create, smile, laugh, believe and let my Tigger out to play and work, everyday!

“I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter.” – Walt Disney

“I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter.” – Walt Disney

May 4

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Know Better

“Once you’ve lived enough, once you’re cried enough tears, you know how blessed it is to have something to smile about. People who are passionate about life don’t have a positive attitude because they don’t know any better. They’re often positive because they do know better. They know that heartbreak could happen any day. If it’s not happening today, let’s give thanks.” – Marianne Williamson, The Age of Miracles

How often we know better but we still question or forget how blessed we truly are. Looking outward instead of in, to the distance instead of the foreground, the past instead of now, the future instead of now. Be grateful for this very moment, this day.

As my 50 year anniversary of living approaches in October, I feel like I’m in my 30s, perhaps a bit smarter and caring much less about what others think or may think. I am starting my training for my third marathon in the Fall. Not to win, but to stay in the game and enjoy the rhythm of training. To start. To finish. To start again and finish again. I still get excited about learning something new each day, but more importantly, sharing the discovery. I remain passionate about my career, but not interested in the positioning, chattering and chirping. Although I still let myself get sucked in when I lose perspective – that “knowing better but not doing better” thing again.

So as we know better, we need to be, think, thank, feel, breathe, give and love better and deeper. Let the light in and cast it back out again.

“When you wake up each morning, you can choose to be happy or choose to be sad. Unless some terrible catastrophe has occurred the night before, it is pretty much up to you. Tomorrow morning, when the sun shines through your window, choose to make it a happy day.” – Lynda Resnick

“When you wake up each morning, you can choose to be happy or choose to be sad. Unless some terrible catastrophe has occurred the night before, it is pretty much up to you. Tomorrow morning, when the sun shines through your window, choose to make it a happy day.” – Lynda Resnick

Feb 25

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The Waterline

“What goes on externally is only the tip of the iceberg in any situation. The lessons, the real changes, the opportunities to grow—these are things the body’s eyes can’t see. They remain beneath the spiritual water line, but they are there. And they represent a much more vast picture of the soul’s journey than what we can see from the perspective of our physical senses. Growth is not always about getting what we think we want. Always, it’s about becoming the men and women we have the potential to be. Loving, pure, honest, clear.” – Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love

“From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. He is bolted to earth. But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free.” – Jacques Yves Cousteau

“From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. He is bolted to earth. But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free.” – Jacques Yves Cousteau

Cast your net more deep than wide. Beneath the surface of assumptions and judgment lies compassion and kindness. The truth is below the waterline, waiting to free us to love deeper, stay longer and become who we are meant to be. Just beneath the waterline.

Feb 15

Olympic Moments

“There are times to cultivate and create, when you nurture your world and give birth to new ideas and ventures. There are times of flourishing and abundance, when life feels in full bloom, energized and expanding. And there are times of fruition, when things come to an end. They have reached their climax and must be harvested before they begin to fade. And finally of course, there are times that are cold, and cutting and empty, times when the spring of new beginnings seems like a distant dream. Those rhythms in life are natural events. They weave into one another as day follows night, bringing, not messages of hope and fear, but messages of how things are.” – Chogyam Trungpa

The true joy of the Olympics is witnessing the fruition and culmination of hard work, commitment and perseverance. Effort, focus and sacrifice win the day, no matter the medal. Potential is transformed into reality, not from luck, fairness or entitlement but from having a dream and vision and the willingness to risk it all and to pursue it with every fiber that’s within.

When Nicole Pikus-Pace won the silver medal in skeleton yesterday, she climbed into the stands to celebrate with her family – they all won the medal. The silver was her gold. Her joy and enthusiasm radiated. Today, Matt Antoine just won the bronze medal in skeleton – he’s the brother of one of my co-workers. It’s been awesome to watch the joy of their journey play out. Jeremy Abbott fell hard in his  ice skating routine, yet he had the courage to go back out, with no hope of a medal, and finish his Olympics with an outstanding performance. The fall was yesterday. Today is a new canvas to paint on.

And these stories show us the potential that is waiting for fruition in each one of us, if we dare. And while we may never get to the Olympics, we all have Olympic moments. When we lay it all on the line, give our best and never hold back, we win the gold.

Feb 8

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Imagine

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.” – Dr. Seuss

Combine imagination with a pair of sunglasses and the six foot wave of snow in my front yard transforms into waves rolling in on the beach in Malibu, Kona, Monterey Bay, Cancun (insert your favorite beach here). Surfs up.

When we are not overcome by the trivial, each day becomes “show and tell.”  A simple shift and we’re laying on a beach, warm sun on our face, relaxing to the music of the ocean waves dancing on the beach. Imagine. Delight. Lighten Up.

“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Jan 9

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Steady

“The sea can do craziness, it can do smooth, it can lie down like silk breathing or toss havoc shoreward; it can give gifts or withhold all; it can rise, ebb, froth like an incoming frenzy of fountains, or it can sweet-talk entirely. As I can too, and so, no doubt, can you, and you.” ― Mary Oliver, A Thousand Mornings

“The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man.” – Euripides

“The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man.” – Euripides

Amidst the chaos, we can remain steady. Unmoved by wind and waves. Rolling with ease. Calm drawn from within. Steady.

Dec 27

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The Sum of It All

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” – Robert Frost

Before diving into next year with a slew of the same unfulfilled resolutions, take a moment and look back at the year that has gone by. If you take photos on your phone, this is a great way to sum up a year quickly. As I looked at both my photos and my calendar, I am surprised at how surprised I am. It’s been a year.

February in Washington D.C. for work; March on a cruise; in Spring, my nephew graduated from college and my niece graduated from high school; my brother ran his first marathon; my niece ran her first half marathon; I trained all summer for my second marathon; back to DC in July with Emily; a summer of Sundays on the pontoon; chickens moved into the neighborhood, making walks with Molly and Lily an adventure in excitement everyday; an intense year at work with 27 website transitions in 8 months and an acquisition, etc… and life goes on, and on. And it does whether we recognize it or not.

If I thought too much about what was to come, I would have frozen in my tracks. We may make plans and some will work and others won’t. As Woody Allen observed, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” As much as we think we are in control, we are not. It’s not what we go through, but how we go through it. I passed on some fronts and failed on others, but humbly keep getting back up and trying to do and be better.

In the new year, my resolutions, more importantly, my promises to myself are to recognize the boundless gifts that are embedded in each day, to keep growing into the person I am meant to be and to give more than I receive. I can accomplish this through living a healthy, well-rounded lifestyle – running, eating well, faith, prayer, gratitude, compassion, choosing love over assumptions and judgment, light over shadow.

Life is made up of the sum of our decisions, actions and inactions each day. Choose well.

Dec 19

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Tidings

“Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!” – Anne Frank

“Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.” – Epictetus

“Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.” – Epictetus

As the race to Christmas and the new year comes to an end, I wish all quiet in the rush and discovery of the depth of the season, of life. Listening to Christmas songs, the words that caught my attention this week and that I really heard for the first time – “God rest ye merry, gentlemen, let nothing you dismay…O, tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy.” We need comfort and joy and in rest, the good tidings that permeate our lives are revealed, as if for the first time.

Dismay not and get caught up in the true meaning of the next week and how it can change your life well beyond a day, beyond the wrapping. And as the new year awakes, may the ornaments that hang on the “tree” of your life be ones that give comfort and joy to you and all those that cross your path and walk beside you on your journey. Ornaments of love, understanding, peace, empathy, enthusiasm, forgiveness, delight and awe. O, tidings.

Nov 27

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Bob and Weave

Like a boxer in the ring, we bob and weave through our days, fists up to protect a hook to the chops, a jab to the ribs. On the defense to protect ourselves from a cheap shot.

Business, politics and the media thrive on the negative, the downside, survival and “winning” by demolishing the opponent. Competition that challenges and improves our skills has become mean-spirited, unreasonable and hollow. Ideas and healthy debate to create better solutions to make our world better have turned into polar left and right, I’m right and you’re wrong. Cynicism is in fashion.

And in the midst of it all, hope and light remain. Perhaps quiet at times, but strong and present as ever. Lately, we’ve had coworkers’ babies, kids, puppies and dogs stopping in the office. A young father tenderly holding his first child. A mom with two confident little ones walking in the office like they own the world with their best friend as their driver. A puppy cuddled and the tone of our voices get higher and animated. And as we gather to witness and be a part of it, we become softer, tapping into our hidden reservoir of joy and delight. We wake up.

We are transformed by connection, conversation, time with family and friends. Reminding us to reaching out instead of retreat. Less bobbing and weaving. More light and life.

Oct 15

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One Acorn

”The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Go start a forest today with a smile, a compliment, an unwavering enthusiasm that rises above the distractions of the day. Expand your horizon by getting outside of yourself. So much to discover, to be grateful for. The power of one acorn.

“It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

“It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

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