finding your passion

When I was a young girl attending university I became an English honors student.  This event in itself was a surprise to me, that I should be accepted into the honors program.  It was the first time in my life that I really felt I could be more than ordinary, more than a girl from outport Newfoundland.  It was the first time that the universe responded to my heart's greatest desire to be a learned person of literature.  I wanted to hear and feel and fully experience the power of language and how we as humans communicate what is in our souls.  It was the beginning of my love affair with words that continues to this day.

Looking back I wonder if things would have turned out as well as they did without my beloved professor, Gildas Roberts.  Dr. Roberts was extraordinary.  He was a man of small stature but large presence.  When he walked down the hallways of the English Department he seemed to glide, with his academic robes gracefully swishing behind him.  He was immaculate in dress and personal grooming, distinguished and charming.  He knew he caught your attention and he enjoyed it.  He entered the classroom with the same flourish and looked out upon us with a mischievous gleam in his eye.  Only Gildas Roberts could make Beowulf rise from the pages to live amongst us in the classroom.  His flawless reading in Old English gave shape to a language that was as sweet in the ear as it was upon the tongue.  I went on to take advanced Old English.  Dr. Roberts taught one other student and me in his office for two semesters.  We were two eager young girls with our feet tucked beneath us in large leather chairs, ready to learn from a man whose wisdom we so deeply admired.  That winter was a blessed time.  Snow falling outside the window of Dr. Roberts' office while we read and translated word for word the entire text of Beowulf. By the time spring came we had finished our translation.  As a gift for our many hours of dedicated work Dr. Roberts gave each of us a signed copy of his personal published translation of Beowulf.  It is a treasured book in my library to this day.

After I graduated from university my life took a number of different turns and it was many years later that I decided to reconnect with my professor.  Sadly, my dear Dr. Roberts had been tragically killed in a motorcycle accident while traveling in Wales.  It broke my heart to not get to tell him how much he meant to me and how important a role he played in my life.  Part of me supposes that he knew.  But youth is not always respectful of the gifts bestowed.  It takes time and perspective to gain genuine understanding of what was imparted by those who taught us when we were young.  It was when my children took an interest in Beowulf that I began thinking of Dr. Roberts again.  As I read and translated the text for my kids I heard the voice of Gildas Roberts patiently enunciating each separate sound of the Anglo Saxon words. Once more Beowulf came alive for me and I was able to incite in my kids the awe and wonder of the story of a hero and a monster.

How fortunate are we when we find our passion!  There is a joy in it like none other.  We are fully awake, alive in the pulse of our greatest existence.  It is in our passion that we find our reason for being, our purpose, our right alignment with the spirit that guides us.  I wish for you just such an awakening, just such a doorway into your passion.  You deserve nothing less.

happy by choice

So often I have found myself saying, "I'll be happy when..."  My thinking put happiness in the future and placed its dependence on some event or thing or person coming into my life.  It was as though happiness was something I had to wait for.  It was not in the present, or at least the happiness I hoped for was not in the present.  And I seemed content to live like that.  Waiting for happiness to arrive.

Louise Hay, author of "You Can Heal Your Life," teaches that anything we want in life we need to affirm in the now.  Say it like it already exists.  "I am happy."  The first time I said that I let the words resonate for a while.  I said it over and over until I understood that to be happy is a choice.  It is something I am or I am not, and either way I choose it.  At first it was surprising and a little uncomfortable.  I get to choose.  It's up to me.  It's in me.  I don't have to wait for it, or hope for it, or long for it.  I can be happy right now just by saying so and believing it.

We live in world filled with people who long for, wish for, and wait for, but cannot seem to get what they want.  I have been one of those people.  "Someday things will be better."  Today I look in the mirror to have a upfront and personal conversation with the woman who is me and I tell her, "Someday is today." I know that the choice to be happy is all mine.  No matter what has happened or will happen I am alive with the certainty and blessing that today is the day I am happy by choice.

If we choose to be happy so much of what we struggle with will ease.  Like magic we will be surrounded by other happy people, drawn to us by the power of our choice.  This simple truth can be applied in all other aspects of our life.  What we think and what we believe draws to us and creates for us our reality.

make it one step at a time

In the evenings, my son and I have been hiking up South Mountain near our home in Phoenix.  We go in the evenings because the sun is off the mountain at that time, making it a little less hot.  July in Phoenix means the temperatures are never much below 110 degrees.  It's our time to get some exercise, push ourselves a little, and to talk.  I especially enjoy the talking part with my son.  He's always funny and entertaining.  Our goal is to make it to the top where we can collapse on the bench at the viewpoint for a few minutes of respite and water before we head back down.

When we start out on our walk the summit seems a long way off.  The path is easy at first but as we hike up the mountain trail the climb grows more challenging.  It's always the last 10 minutes when our talking slows because breathing is more labored from the effort of manouvering up the steep, rocky path.  But once we see the end in sight we are motivated and excited to make it to the finish.  Coming to the top we look out over the valley for a view well worth the effort.  It is our reward.  And as we look back down the path we climbed there is a sense of satisfaction that we made our way, one step at a time, to such a spectacular vantage point.

Starting a business is a lot like climbing a mountain.  I know that sounds cliche.  But think of it this way.  The reward of climbing, working hard, and not giving up is getting to the place you most desire to be.  Once you get there you can enjoy the view and take in the wonder of where you are, appreciating why you pushed on through the difficult moments to get to the top.  So often we give up before reaching our goals because we lose sight of why we starting climbing in the first place.  But when we persist we are truly blessed at the top.

Keep climbing.  It is so worth it.

sacred space

When I was  a young girl I would go walking in the woods near my house.  I would tuck a book inside my jacket and walk along the trail, follow the old fence, and make my way through the under brush until I came to my tree.  My tree.  The one I climbed and pulled myself up until I came to that wide branch that curved up to the tree trunk creating a perfect seat for me.  And there I would nestle myself into that wooden nook, out of view amongst the green leaves and and the shroud of trees surrounding my sacred space in the forest.  For a while I would sit in the quiet to read and to think and to be with just myself.  Lost to time and the demands of others.

It's been a lot of years since I sat in that tree or any other.  I make it my practice though to sit quietly each day so that I may reconnect to the silence within, to the peace that is the soul.  It is the act of withdrawing from the world to a softer inner place that allows us to return to the world reawakened and renewed.  I carry the memory of my tree with me, returning to it in my mind whenever I long for a moment of bliss.  I feel the curve of the tree at my back, hear the rustle of the leaves, and I slip back in time to my early joy of solitude.  I close my eyes to go there.  And when I return I open my eyes to see the world is always more beautiful after we have stepped away from the noise, be it ever so briefly.

Take time for yourself.

Going for the Goal

This past winter I was glued to the mens' hockey final gold medal game in the Winter Olympics in BC.  I am a Canadian living in the US but my heart and my cheers were fully with the Canadian team.  The game was a fast, nail-biting, jumping-out-of-your-seat ride that ended with a tie and then over time.  Whoever scored the goal would win the gold medal for their country.  I cried, along with most Canadians, when we scored that goal.  It was a moment of great pride and love for my country and our hockey team.  A sweet victory made even sweeter because our women's team also won the gold medal for Canada.  

As a girl growing up in rural Newfoundland every Saturday night was "hockey night in Canada" and I spent most of those with my grandmother who cheered for the Toronto Maple Leafs, calling out their names and willing them to score while the knitting in her hands picked up speed as her hockey passion mounted.  In my grandmother's living room I learned what it meant to be a fan of a sport that draws people together and lifts them up.  We, with our team, remain focused on the goal that will create the win.  Just like in the gold medal Olympic game where that one goal made all the difference.

Creating a business is like a hockey game, and though you may laugh, I think it is true.  If we position ourselves well we work with a great team where we all support one another and work towards common goals.  We go out of our way to help each other, to ensure that we win.  If at times we lose a game, we get right back out there knowing that the loss teaches us how to be better players and win next time.   We continue to work hard, knowing it is worth it.  We practice every day so that we can improve.  We cheer for each other and celebrate success.  We know that together we stronger than we are alone.  And always we stay motivated and driven by going for the goal.

Make a Move

Have you ever needed to take that first step, make that first call and you can't seem to get going on it? Perhaps you've made a list of who you want to call, written down what you want to say, rehearsed, and then you hesitated.  You sat there imagining what could go wrong, how you might be rejected, how all of this would make you feel.  And then you decided you needed more time so you put off the call until later.  You told yourself that you would be more confident and more prepared later.  But when later came you still did't feel ready.

The key to making a move is to jump in and do it.  If call does not go well, learn from it.  If you mess up and say the wrong things, learn from that.  If the call is a success, great.  Any way it turns out know that making the call, taking the chance, was better than not doing it.  You will come out the other side smarter and more informed than you went in.  You will figure out what works and what does not, and use that information to craft your future calls for success.  How do I know this?  I've been there in the hesitation zone!  And now I am in the "make a move" zone.  Feeling the fear but doing it anyway and learning as I go. 

the dream

Every thing we accomplish in life begins with a dream.  It comes to our mind to create something, to do something and we imagine it being true. If we really want the dream to come true we hang on to it.  Then we decide to make it real.  We make it, create it and bring it into reality.  Sometimes this happens quickly.  Sometimes it takes years.  I have had the dream of working for myself for a long time.  I have imagined it over and over, being in control of my time and working from home.  It has taken me a long time to find a home-based business that I could believe in and that fit with my values and standards.  But having found one that meets my criteria I am setting out on a journey of discovery with a desire to succeed and a willingness to do what it takes to get there.  I know without any doubt that I will be guided and supported along the way by the people who work with me, by my intense focus on my goals, and by the power of my belief that it is not only possible but do-able.  I live by the words that if you can conceive it and believe it you can achieve it.