Free Inspiration
In these challenging times, inspiration can lead to motivation that gets us through the crud. Opening our minds and hearts will lead us forward on our path.
You are invited to register to receive the Victory Letter. This e-letter has been written every Monday morning for the past seven years as a reminder to appreciate the small victories in our lives. Open up your Monday morning for a little extra inspiration to send you on your way each week. To see an example of what you will receive visit our blog page.
Time Crunching
"You can't climb uphill if you are still looking downhill." -Unknown
Ready, set, climb! There are 168 hours in the week ahead to climb towards what ever it is that we want and need in our lives. Ok sure, 56 of those hours should be spent sleeping for optimum health and functionality, but then that leaves 112 hours to do what we need, want and desire to do.
For me, at the end of the week on Friday, I will celebrate 52 years on the planet! Amazing to think about but that is 455,520 hours that I have been living my life. Not quite sure why I am so into numbers this morning - perhaps it is because over the past weekend I have been working on my business and 10-year life plan. The business plan required some number crunching - the life plan some quality and time crunching.
After all these hours already spent at this thing called "my life" I am no worse for wear - except maybe for the darn hot flashes I seem to be now experiencing and some heartache along my way. It all just seems to come together to bring me, me. Just as each of our cumulative lives brings us to who and what we bring to this earth.
Pedal Pushers
"Right now, today, you are one choice away from a new beginning." - Marcy Blochowiak
As Monday morning unfolds - we are at the beginning of a new week. Now the choice each of us have before us is to fight it, ignore it, or accept the fact that a new week has in reality begun and jump right into it. By doing so, we can look back at weeks end and celebrate what it has been brought or changed in our world and subsequently, into the world of others.
With your calendar before you, what lies ahead of you over the next 7 days? Does anything you see bring with it the opportunity for you to fully use your strengths and passions? What challenges will you be able to overcome? Who will be the people to assist you towards the best week possible? What can you do right now in this moment to make what you want to unfold actually happen?
Removing the Splinter
"Hope is a waking dream." -Aristotle
This morning as my words and ideas start to formulate in my head, I look at what has come to pass in the week gone by, while welcoming the new week before us.
I want to share with you this morning a thought about something as simple yet complex as a splinter. My girlfriend, Nancy, got one right before she came here for a visit this past week. There it was, smack dab in the middle of the bottom of her foot. Every time she walked on it she felt some pain. Tried as she might she could not get it out. Thinking at times she had gotten it out, during the first few days of her visit, a callus built up on her foot and the irritation and pain would not go away. It was pretty constant each time she stepped on her foot.
Finally, it got to the point that she had to go to the doctor about midweek. Sure enough they actually got a significant splinter out of her foot. They had to cut the skin back to have the splinter reveal itself as it had become quite embedded in her foot. As soon as the splinter was out it was amazing how her foot began to quickly self-repair itself. Within 24 hours she was pretty much pain free from it, walking on her merry way.
Now, we have all had it, that little tiny piece of a splinter or thorn that gets into our skin and makes us a bit crazy. We can't see it yet we know that it is there because of either the slight irritation or full on pain. Sometimes it is hard to think about anything else because of the constant irritant.
No matter how big or small the splinter is the body knows that it does not belong there. It lets us clearly know that we need to figure out a way to remove it. As soon as it is gone, the body is quite amazing in how it repairs itself and gets us on our way.
I can't help as I think about this how other essences of our life really work the same way. They come to life not necessary as a splinter but as a "problem". It may pop up and you think you have it fixed when it pops right up again, never really having been truly resolved. It seems that the one factor that helps us to remove the splinter of a problem is hope. Hope in knowing that anything is possible if we put our mind to it.
Wants vs. Needs
"You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you might find
You get what you need. " -The Rolling Stones
Now this morning when I woke up - there was another idea rolling through my head for today's letter - but then the closer I got to the computer, these words came literally singing into my head. Perhaps it was the number of messes I cleaned up (that I didn't make) around my house on the way to the keyboard.
Yes, indeed, these words that Mick Jagger started singing so many years ago do ring loud and clear with life's twists and turns, especially for me, as of late. What we imagine our life to be and what it is, sometimes, turns out to be can sometimes turn out to be two different stories. So where is the victory in that we might be asking ourselves - I am for sure this Monday morning.
The answer perhaps lies in looking at the difference between one person's bitter lemon and one person's lemonade.
Lettuce and Roses
"The thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time." - Abraham Lincoln.
There is so much going on in this world in every single moment. For some of us - a few things keep us ticking along and for others the proverbial cup runneth over. But I do love what Lincoln had to say. It is a reminder of how similar we all really are because we can only take life one day, sometimes one moment at a time. Good, bad or indifferent in how those moments are - one foot does have to follow the other in bringing them to pass. The who's and how's in which we spend those moments is based on a number of choices that are placed in front of us each and every day. No doubt about it - it can become very overwhelming.
Eight years ago this month, now gone by of June, I started writing the Victory Letter. I started writing it for a variety of reasons. One was to stay in touch with people in my life on a regular and consistent basis. The second was to have something positive and uplifting to say. To insure that no matter what was going on in my life, good, bad or ugly, that I would start my week off each and every week with gratitude and finding the silver lining in any clouds that may have formed overhead. After all we all have the clouds - it is what we do with them that carries us forward. The flow of the letters and the wonderful responses I have received over the years has been a huge gift to me in my life. I thank each of you for being apart of it. One book has been published with the letters and another one is in the works. It is amazing what a little idea, perseverance and commitment can result in. There have been very few Monday's I have skipped - only in a few occasions where life took a stronger hold and did not allow the space to make it possible. I think I can still count those Monday's on a single hand.
Heartwarming
"It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen." -Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
This Monday morning finds me putting one foot in front of the other. All the while questioning what exactly my steps should be moving forward. We arrived home late last night after another drive from California to Colorado. I felt a large mixture of emotion as the miles ticked by, hour after hour. As with any loss, especially one so monumental as losing a parent, I find my emotions changing from minute to minute.
First thing this morning I went out to my garden to assess the damage of being gone yet another month and found that with a few hours of good solid clean up and it should be good to go. My heart though - will take much longer to mend.
There were some beautiful cards waiting for me when I got home - and if you were indeed one of the senders - thank you so much. Sitting in the garden I opened them up and yes, cried yet one more time. One of the cards that were in the stack was a card from my Mom and Dad - sent by my Mother only days before she passed away.It was an anniversary card for Ed and I, in honor of our 23rd Wedding Anniversary. I knew that it was coming as I had been helping her get out her "June Cards". On that card she had shifted to my sister to help her get it out. Sure enough, she was sweet, thoughtful and loving, right up to the end.
Peace and Light
"A mother's love is the fuel that enables normal human beings to do the impossible. " -Marion C. Garretty
As I begin to write the words for this week's Victory Letter I am sitting in my mother's backyard, next to the pool that she loved so dearly. Sipping my coffee, the buzzing of a hummingbird reminds me that life goes on - though mine has changed so completely. On Saturday evening a little before 6:50 pm, just hours before the summer solstice, my beautiful and wonderful mother took her final breath in this life. After nearly three years, her battle with cancer is now over.
The course of the last several weeks, helping my Mother go from the hospital to dying at home in her own cozy bed, will be with me all the days of my life. With my siblings by my side we knew the end was eminent and the goal was to make our mother as comfortable as possible. Conversations were had with her that will now have to last the rest of our lifetimes. It was amazing as friends and family from all over came to visit her. It pushed her from only having the couple of days the doctors had predicted to lasting a couple of more weeks.
My mother created a rather large family with 10 children total. Four of us that she gave birth to and 6 that she took in as her own when she married my step-dad. The logistics of all of us coming together again over these final days of my mother's life was a bit daunting to say the least. Friends of my mother loaned us motor homes that we have been camping out in over the course of the past nearly three weeks. Dinners would be in numbers as high as 20 people and simple necessities such as getting an open bathroom were a real treat.
It was interesting the dynamics that came into play - with all of our emotions pretty raw, feelings got hurt and arguments ensued. My mother, in her constant motherly way until the end, lined up a number of her grown children one day at the bottom of her bed, myself included. She wanted to make sure by having us at the bottom of the bed that she could see each one of us clearly. She reminded us that communication was so important during a time that she knew was incredibly hard on all of us. There she was unable to even get out of bed - reminding us that she still knew how to use the paddle. Each of us knew she meant it.
Powerful Friendships
"To the soul, there is hardly anything more healing than friendship." -Thomas Moore
As I write the words to this week's Victory Letter, my heart is full with the love that I have for a woman who not only gave me my life but who has been so full of life herself. This past week I have once again journeyed to California to care for my beloved Mother. Last Tuesday she contracted pneumonia and her battle with cancer is coming to a close in the days, perhaps hours, ahead.
This week's letter is extremely personal and heartfelt as I watch my mother lying here next to me in her hospital bed, in the wee hours of this Monday morning. She is trying so hard to hold onto life - one she loved so completely. In this week's picture (taken just a few short days ago) my mother, Jeannine Landreau, (the woman on the right) is posing with one of her best friends Margie. This picture inspires the topic for this week's letter - friendship.
Unique Imprints
Yes, there are two paths you can go by,
But in the long run,
there's still time to change the road your on." - Led Zeppelin, Stairway to Heaven
There are moments in life that we plan and plan for - then there are others that just happen. This morning the thought that comes to mind as I continue to get acclimated to my world here in Colorado is a moment during our drive from California to Colorado late last week.
With my daughter, Bailey, behind the wheel we jammed it home in one day. As the day progressed we came to one of my favorite parts of the drive, Black Dragon Canyon in Utah. With the beautiful majestic rocks filling my senses, the song Stairway to Heaven just happened to start playing. Bailey looked at me and grinned, knowing the little piece of heaven I had just found myself enjoying. My senses filled with the music and the scenery that surrounded us. Beautiful moments in our life I believe give us the courage and strength to move forward during the not so beautiful moments.
Beauty to Behold
"Beauty is as beauty does." -Jeannine Landreau
This morning of Memorial Day, I hope you have slept in or doing whatever it is that your soul most needs you to do - that is the essence of a three-day weekend - isn't it?
Of course the official reason for this day is to remember those who have fought for our freedom as Americans. I remember and feel gratitude in so many ways. I find myself also this morning, thinking about it and paying respect to "remembering" all that has come before us on our path. Yes, all those special elements that have come together to make us the person we are today. Perhaps this is because I have been spending so much time lately walking down memory lane here in Southern California.
From the time spent with my Mom to visiting old friends and stomping grounds - this past month spent here is not one I will forget anytime soon. While there has not been a lot of time for play with all that was going on with my Mom - the moments that did transpire are probably more vivid than ever.
Sprinkling of Sugar
"Just a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down, in the most delightful way!" -Mary Poppins
A vision of a big heaping spoon full of sugar being ingested, in just enough time to make people nicer, is a vision that crossed my mind as I heard my friend Nancy sing these words of Mary Poppins the other day. Writing to you this morning, sipping my coffee, I contemplate the week gone by. It was spent mostly in the hospital taking care of my Mom as she developed an infection. She is home resting comfortably now I am happy to report.
Since I was at the hospital nearly 24/7 for a number of days, it was quite an eye opener. I don't know if you have spent much time in a hospital but they are worlds unto themselves. And just like any experience where you are getting service, the range from good to scary was wide. In fact, after leaving my Mom at the hospital the first night alone, I decided that it might be best that I hang out there with her continuously to insure her care. A decision I was so glad that I made.
Star Gazing
"You become what you think about." - Earl Nightingale
It is an interesting phenomenon hanging here in Los Angeles and the reality of bumping into someone who is considered a "star". While Wikipedia's definition of a star is, "a massive luminous ball of plasma that is held together by gravity. In Hollywood, the illumination is more geared to the TV or Silver Screen. Over the course of this past week I have run into a couple of "stars" only to of course discover they breathe pretty much just like you and me. They use the same gravity as you and I to hold them on this planet.
In fact, it was funny while at an event last week there I was minding my own business when I overheard a gentleman to my left talking to his son on his cell phone. He was making arrangements for his son to get home since the golf tournament had run over.
Embracing Leadership
"A leader these days needs to be a host - one who convenes people, who convenes diversity, who convenes all viewpoints in creative processes where our intelligence can come forth." - Margaret Wheatley
This morning brings us into the 4th day of May already! Prior to starting this letter today I struggled with a coffee maker that didn't want to make coffee. I found an alternative source to insure my caffeine fix for this morning. Just goes to show that where there is a will, there certainly is a way! As I sip my coffee in between words, it tastes all the richer for want.
The month of May we focus on the Master Mind principal of Leadership in the Victory Circles. Over this past weekend I was pulling together the May issue of Victory Woman magazine (on your online newsstands in the next couple of days) and thinking a lot about the importance leadership plays in our life and in our businesses. I particularly love today's quote by Margaret Wheatley as it talks about the importance in leadership of bringing people together.
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