I hit a bump in the road yesterday. It seemed life was sliding down a staircase, and all I could feel was rug-burn. Misunderstandings and miscommunication piled up; an explosion ensued. I reeled from it, realizing my part in feeding the fire only in hindsight.
My mama always says The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
This morning as I licked my wounds, I sang my heart out to Alanis Morissette’s song, THANK YOU, which embraces all adversity with gratitude. I cried and felt joy and sorrow simultaneously.
Then I found this interview with Alvaro Fernandez about how gratitude can make you happier by 25%. I knew that already, but it was a great reminder. I communicated my apology and gratitude to my friend who was in deep pain, too. We both grew stronger for the experience, then laughed and gave each other a long-distance hug.
Author of A Better Day – A Better Life, Kelly Wilson, a work from home mom with toddlers about her feet, equates her ‘me time’ with the time her husband spends on the golf course on Saturdays. Taking on the mindset that her free time is a round of nine or 18 holes helped her establish some ground rules for herself.
Listen to Kelly Wilson’s ideas of how your leisure time can be like a day on the golf course, too. [Listening instructions: Click on the link, then click on it again for it to open your media player. Be sure your pop-up blocker has been deactivated.]
Information overload is no longer just a symptom. It is the disease itself.
I tried to skype a friend recently. Her landline and cell phone were ringing in both her ears simultaneously. She placed her hands to both sides to block out the noise (it was fruitless). Thousands of miles away, I became overloaded by her information flow, too. I was guilty of forgetting to turn off my Tweetdeck so incessant pinging laced our Web chat.
But help is here. Information Overload Day is August 12th. Basex, a savvy company that no doubt offers purchaseable solutions to IO (that’s information overload for You Underloaded), is hosting a Web event to offset too much input.
While I’m basking under the Southern sun at my family’s farm, Web conference participants who pledge not to multitask during the length of the conference get a 50% discount on their tickets (which are $50).
Mutlitasking is a myth, anyway. As my friend, whose ears were blocked by the sounds of messages singing and pinging, proved, we can only handle so much information. Hopefully, this conference will be just the thing to help others get a grip on data surfeit, too.
The word faith got some bad play during the interminable eight years of the Bush administration. We started wars in the name of faith. We cut social services in the name of faith (in a collapsing capitalist structure).
Somewhere along the line we lost the golden thread of faith as the invisible thread to the Divine that informs our Being. Kind of like the reason we’re here, and all.
But today’s TUT message got me to thinking. It observes a moment in time when a tiny bird lands on the exact branch it set out to land on. How does it do it, the author asks?
…that little bird just knew. It had faith, in spite of not being able to see how things would work out, that if (and only if) it stayed the course the details would be taken care of; that an opening would appear and a twig would be found. In fact, had she slowed down enough to carefully and logically inspect the tree first, the prudent thing to do, she would have lost her lift and fallen to the ground.
Sometimes overthinking things gets us tied up in a mess. Slowing down is good when it is done in faith that things will work out just as they should. It is in the inner knowing that our Divinity resides, raising us all up and landing us right where we need to be.
Whether we carry our baggage inside or out, we all have our own load to bear. My ten year-old daughter’s room is no different. Her biggest issue is The Paper Plague. She starts projects, usually stops mid-page, then stuffs it in a drawer, on a surface or under her bed. We tackled her desk, then her floor, then her drawers. By the time we had gotten to her shelves, I had engaged in full-blown ruthlessness. I even tossed old paint-by-number pictures that never made it in their frames, much less on the wall.
We engaged in what Arielle Ford calls ’space clearing’. When we unload our junk, we make room for new experiences. I tried to convey this notion to Sophia:
“All of your unused paper is in this drawer,” I happily pointed to her top desk drawer that was bulging with supplies. “All you need is a new concept,” I told her, mimicking what my cosmetician had told me just a day before (of course, she was trying to sell me a new product line; I was merely trying to sell Sophia on the idea of cleanliness!).
Toss out three things you no longer need. Go to one drawer and empty it. Evaluate what you’ve been keeping and why. Then, if you really don’t need it, give it away or a toss.
I can already breathe easier in Sophia’s room. Now, all I need to do is tackle my own…
When it rains it pours is a saying that applies to most of life. Sometimes we’re on a high; other times we seem to be headed downhill. The roller coaster ride called life never ceases to provide us opportunity for learning and surprise.
Such was my day today.
After working a fifteen-hour day wrangling 50+ extras on a set with two live elephants, I’d say I had earned a time-out this morning. It seemed to flow well until I met resistence on the phone with one of my clients. Her tone was sharp, and I felt wrongly accused. Clearly my system was worn. I needed a break, and it didn’t seem as though I was going to get it.
Then the IRS sent me a letter stating I owed them a penalty, plus the self-employment taxes I had proven I do not owe. Twice.
So I waited until a reasonable hour on the East Coast to give them a call. It was then that magic seemed to unfold. Expecting the resistance I had felt with my German client, I instead received the warmest, kindest welcome ever. The representative went above and beyond the call of duty, even tracking my profile when we erroneously got disconnected so she could get my number when I called back into the switchboard. She returned my call, cancelled the bill, and wished me a good day with the sincerest of apologies.
“Your frustration deserves attention. Let’s hande this right now.”
I was blown away.
So I asked her who her supervisor was. She clearly deserves recognition for a job well done. She modestly thanked me, telling me she was up for review and that it would certainly help. I wrote a letter of thanks and placed it in the mail the same day.
Kindness comes from the strangest places. Sometimes we expect it, and it does not come. We wonder why we should continue to be kind when it seems the world around us has turned stone cold. Then you enter a warm pocket of air where blessings abound. I could almost hear the Universe giggle in glee at the mere thought of surprise.
Script consultant Linda Seger, who has received accolades from the likes of director Ron Howard, shares her wisdom of focus and reward.
“I make sure that I do my work at my highest creative time (which is mornings) when I’m freshest, so I am not interfering with my work during my play time.” How does she play? Listen to Linda Seger’s wisdom here. [Listening instructions: Click on the link, then click on it again for it to open your media player. Be sure your pop-up blocker has been deactivated.]
While much of the world was bidding Michael Jackson adieu, I was in a Salzburg radio station translating an interview with The Soulmate Secretauthor Arielle Ford on the other line. The radio host was incredibly gracious ~ she handed me her questions in German, which I simultaneously translated to Arielle. She spoke for two minutes, then I summarized what she said in German. I was very nervous at first, but relaxed after the first few minutes. All in all it went well.
Earlier in the day I grieved Michael Jackson’s passing. In fact, I’m not done yet. It comes in waves. The sight of him on the front page of a tabloid, his music on the radio ~ he has left a gaping whole in our hearts. As one new friend told me yesterday, “He gave so much of himself to this world. A piece of ourselves went with him.”
I was really present to the paradox of life yesterday. A joyful topic, such as finding your soulmate, can be handled simultaneously as a global icon bids farewell. It was a poignant moment for me in which I gave time an extra hug.
We all have a personal bank account of time available to us. Michael spent his time on Earth as an artist who was largely estranged from the very world he was entertaining. His fame came at a very high price.
I’ve decided to joyfully skip down the lane of life with my bank account of time resting softly in my heart. What will you do with yours?
RT @arobins: "Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude 2ward it, for that determines our success or failure." -Norman V. Peale 18 hours ago
LibraryJournal says new book"The Power of Slow" offers thought-provoking commentaries on efficiency and expectations..." http://bit.ly/jR1rH20 hours ago
This morning as I licked my wounds, I sang my heart out to Alanis Morissette’s song, THANK YOU, which embraces all adversity with gratitude. I cried and felt joy and sorrow simultaneously.
