life

Achieving work / life balance is commonly a goal most of us are told to strive towards. Like climbing a mountain, once on the top, a sense of accomplishment, possibly even fulfillment, awaits. Certainly, the concept of “balance” is welcoming and conjures up a picture of the harmony that exists when both sides of the scale are perfectly even and almost ethereal.

But, how long will that last? 

Travel has always been my vice. Throw in dark chocolate chips, avocado, yoga, beach days, and it’s pretty much me in a nutshell. These days, we can add water bottle stickers to that list, so when Live a Great Story showed up on my radar, they had me at stickers.

More people have climbed Kilimanjaro than one might imagine. I asked everyone I could what they knew about Kili. After much well-intended but useless advice, Sue, a client of mine, provided some crucial tips: “It’s freezing on the top. Bring the warmest clothes you have.” She shivered in remembrance. 

Most of us stumble into adulthood a little battered and bruised, which means we must attend to our wounds before leaping into the lives we were meant to lead. Maybe we have patterns of behavior that involve abandoning ourselves in times of stress. Perhaps our responses to love are still subject to the family programming we received as children. Or maybe our lives have been adversely impacted by a materialistic society steeped in straight, white, cis male supremacy. Whatever the case, nobody is beyond the power of redemption or outside the reach of kindness.   

It has been a long 12 months for the majority of parents across the country. With schools being closed for many towns and cities, many parents have either been forced or made the choice to homeschool their kids in order to keep them as safe as possible during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Think about how many people there are in the world. Too many to count, too many to know, so many!

There are those who travelled from far distance across the mountains, rivers, and seas

 seeking protection from wars, diseases, and natural disasters from every direction. 

Our initial experiences are still driven by fear 

The fear of losing loved ones, and we can't afford to lose another 

One of the best books I’ve ever read, Patricia Leavy’s Spark is, you guessed it, a story that you can’t put down, so plan on staying up until you finish.

One day in 2008, I got a call from my older sister, telling me that our father had been diagnosed with stomach cancer and the doctor had given him three months to live. I was living in Minnesota at the time, far away from Ogden, Utah.
 
I quickly arranged to go back home. 

I headed out to “take care” of Dad for a while. 

I moved back home, back into the old house he raised us in, and I learned once again how strong and determined he was.  

Let's talk about millennials, again. I just read yet another slight about them. While the article it was in was quick to point out that there might just be a reason for their attitude, it bashed them anyway.