Tuesday, August 5, 2008

You say it's your birthday...

Well it's my birthday, too. Sorry I couldn't resist. So I just realized that I spelled Australia wrong in my blog address. Awesome! But today since it's the day of my birth, I'm not dealing on past mistakes instead I'm moving forward and embracing positive action.

For example Becky and Bethany made my office festive with a disco ball, ribbons and some beautiful flowers. Do I have the best co-workers ever or what. I know a lot of you are jealous. Anyway, did I mention that I have a pool in the back of my office? I guess what I'm trying to say is embrace what you have, instead of lamenting.

It is a lot easier to say on your birthday I admit then when x, y, and z happen on just a regular day. But maybe you could keep the attitude all year. Worth a try! I also love my birthday, because all my family and friends who I love call and reach out. It's awesome.

So today it's all about celebrating. Tomorrow I'll worry about the rest of it!

Monday, August 4, 2008

A Day in the Life!

Well I just spent a leisurely weekend in a couple other mountain towns, 'Crested Butte and Gunnison'. It was a respite. Even though I live in a mountain town and work in another one when you're visiting and you're on vacation it's just different. I relaxed and walked around an art festival, which always makes me want to get creative.

It does remind me of my belief that when you need a moment to just take a mini-holiday in your own town. So often we get caught up in our patterns, and we just need a break. I've been a bit reflective lately, because my birthday is coming up, actually in about an hour and a half MST. Each birthday I take stock of my past year so I can start my new year with a fresh perspective.

My thought this time is that I want to embrace my gifts and talents. And I want to stop selling myself short. I found this quote again (one of the many that I saved)...it spoke to me. "Power can manipulate, coerce, and destroy. And as long as we are convinced we have none, power will always look negative. In fact, power means simply our capacity to act. From this lens, we each have power--and often, much more power than we think. If we accept ecology's insights that we exist in densely woven networks, then we must also accept that every choice we make sends out ripples, even if we're not consciously choosing. So the choice we have is not whether, but only how, we can change the world." --Frances Moore Lappe, In Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity, and Courage in a World Gone Mad (Small Planet Media).

So my revelations are starting tomorrow--what better day for a beginning then celebrating a birthday!

Friday, August 1, 2008

Back to it

One thing that I'm learning over and over is that even when life throws a lot at you--you can't give up what you're striving to make happen. So now instead of giving up when I have a setback, when I haven't had time to get caught up or even remember what all I need to catch up on...I just get back on track. It's a major accomplishment.

I was talking to my friend Ruth about this, and we both realized that what we work on doesn't change, but maybe our progress and our recognition of the steps we've made (often baby steps) needs to be more prominent.

One thing I've focused on in my life is making it more about love versus fear. This is a theme that is repeated in all I've learned about leadership. You can either lead your life with love or with fear.

This expresses it better than I could:
"A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, pride, and superiority. The other wolf stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside of you and every other person, too." The child thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?" The old Cherokee simply replied: "The one I feed."

I am doing my best to choose love.