Time TIME time tIME TimE

Keeping ourselves in check when we don't have all the time in the world can be tricky.  My writing is certainly suffering right now because I'm chin deep in amazingly fun new stuff!  Inspiration hits me nearly every hour it seems, but my ability to sit down and capture those thoughts is simply lacking right now.

But it's temporary, so please hang in.  If partial posts with half-developed ideas (or better yet, jotted lists of randomly related ideas) were interesting, IGE would be overwhelmed with wonderfully inspiring posts that lack structure or flow and therefore the impact that they may otherwise impart.

The perfectionist in me just can't let that happen.  In fact, even the "good enough" part of me can't bite the bullet and post mostly undeveloped thoughts.

Hmmm.  Except perhaps this one.  I sincerely hope you will stick around until I can take a nice, hot iron to my time and address those wildly creative but less-than-perfect jots.  I'll do my best to make them worth the wait.

Humility

"Life is a long lesson in humility." 

        - James M. Barrie, Scottish author and dramatist


Mr. Barrie's thoughts are a fitting follow-up to Monday's post on Ego, don't you think?  What, in the last week, was your lesson in humility?  I'll be writing about mine soon...

Ego

We live in a world where professional success is a barometer for the outside world (and often for ourselves) of our personal happiness.

Consider this question:  So, what do you do?  A prolific modern day inquiry, it is one of the first things we ask in new conversation. Most of us work to make our answers as exciting and interesting as possible. We exuberantly toss out our job title or role and our company or industry, followed perhaps by a brief, clarifying tag line. Then…

Pause. Wait. Exhale. Whew! We are interesting.

So, what do I do?  My current answer is completely new for me – and honestly, I can’t help but ask why that is. I’ve been doing these wonderful things for years! Why, then, have they been absent from my response to the old, reliable question of introductory conversation?

I am a mom. A partner. I write and read and learn. We travel; spend time with family; entertain friends; explore our environment and participate in our community.  For the first time in my adult life I am not working. I am opening myself up to the opportunities of this new experience, following the ideas that strike my passions and reaching out to the people who catch my attention. It’s invigorating!

But when faced with that good ol’ question, my ego finds it just a little strange.

After all, I have conditioned myself over the years to give the traditional response to old reliable.  My professional title was a crutch, a cover, a shield. I could talk about my work without talking too intimately about myself. My ego was protected. I was safe.

That is no longer the case. There is no professional title to hide behind. In fact, just the opposite is true: the doors to new opportunity and experience are wide open!  (I’m picturing glass-paned French doors with sheer white curtains blowing in the breeze, by the way…) 

So yes, these wide open doors have left my ego feeling a bit exposed. But I’m deciding, with courageous enthusiasm, that it is a really good thing. 

Seven Inspiring Moments from the Women in the World Summit

Good morning Inspiring Girls!

I just spent an intense five minutes watching seven videos from the recent Women in the World Summit, posted at The Daily Muse.  No matter what you plan to do today, watching them will be worth it.

I was especially touched by the panel's answers to what they would change if they had a magic wand:  education for girls, mentoring for women, and reproductive freedom?   Of course!   So simple. And so complicated.

Listening to these strong, accomplished women reminds me that it is the baby steps that sometimes mean the most.  How many days of small deeds and ceaseless belief in their own personal power did  each of them trudge through to arrive on that stage?  How many lives have they touched along the way that have in turn touched them, and changed their own beliefs about what is possible in the world?  

And how about you?  What will you do today to inspire the change you wish to see...in your country, your workplace, your community?  What about in your own household or among your group of friends?  We each hold the power if we choose to use it; and together we can be an unstoppable force.  So, as Hillary Clinton closed the conference with her inspiring call to movement, I close this post with mine:

Share your strength and you will grow strong. Share your ideas and you will find inspiration. Share your experience and you will grow wise. Share your time and you will grow rich. Share yourself and you will change our world.

I Like Words

I am a verbal person.  I love exploring ideas while talking through them with others, letting ideas evolve while we brainstorm away in polite conversation.  And I freely admit to having conversations with myself...after all, conversing is one of life's most accessible pleasures.

Writing is simply another form of conversation:  it inspires us to think, consider, contemplate, and hopefully spark our own conversations - with ourselves, with people we know well, and with  completely new and interesting folks.  Words are powerful in any form.

I'm filling some of my newfound time and freedom learning a little more about words; digging into writing as a profession, what it takes to share ideas and inspiration on a mass scale through the written word. I'm certainly not proficient in how I conduct my research and a lot of the stuff I come across isn't really that interesting, but then I come across things like this cover letter, written in 1934 and mass-mailed to Hollywood executives. Check out what copywriter Robert Pirosh wrote, via Letters of Note, and see how it inspires you:

Dear Sir:

I like words. I like fat buttery words, such as ooze, turpitude, glutinous, toady. I like solemn, angular, creaky words, such as straitlaced, cantankerous, pecunious, valedictory. I like spurious, black-is-white words, such as mortician, liquidate, tonsorial, demi-monde. I like suave "V" words, such as Svengali, svelte, bravura, verve. I like crunchy, brittle, crackly words, such as splinter, grapple, jostle, crusty. I like sullen, crabbed, scowling words, such as skulk, glower, scabby, churl. I like Oh-Heavens, my-gracious, land's-sake words, such as tricksy, tucker, genteel, horrid. I like elegant, flowery words, such as estivate, peregrinate, elysium, halcyon. I like wormy, squirmy, mealy words, such as crawl, blubber, squeal, drip. I like sniggly, chuckling words, such as cowlick, gurgle, bubble and burp.

I like the word screenwriter better than copywriter, so I decided to quit my job in a New York advertising agency and try my luck in Hollywood, but before taking the plunge I went to Europe for a year of study, contemplation and horsing around.

I have just returned and I still like words.

May I have a few with you?

Robert Pirosh

385 Madison Avenue

Room 610

New York

Eldorado 5-6024

Perfect Timing

There’s a new charter school coming to my new town and I couldn’t be more thrilled (seems I’ve been using that word a LOT since learning about Valley Academy)!

With kindergarten registration just weeks away, a fantastically progressive public school with a philosophy spot on with our approach to education has literally landed in our lap. 

And while the school’s Charter and foundational philosophy is over the top exciting…it is the people involved (it always comes down to the people, doesn’t it?) that make this addition to our community so incredibly poignant.  The director brings years of international experience and a global perspective to our little town – if you know me at all you realize this alone is enough to peak my enthusiasm – and the Board exudes the passion and dedication of an effective team that has long been working towards a shared dream. 

It took us about two seconds to decide to enroll our little sweetheart.

It’s a risk to get so excited of course: many others share my enthusiasm and that interest will most likely result in more demand than supply, forcing a lottery for the launch year positions.  But even though it means we could miss out in the short term, I cannot help but spread the word and encourage others to apply.

Being a part of the launch of a new school in our new community and helping to build an inspiring educational experience for children and parents alike promises to be nothing short of amazing regardless of when the opportunity materializes for us personally.  That said, I am crossing my fingers and toes in hopes that we are a part of the inaugural class.

As my mother-in-law so eloquently noted: it is serendipitous that this school comes to Hurricane at the perfect time for our daughter.  And the perfect time for us.

Sunrise

I’m sitting on my front porch this morning, sipping a warm cup of coffee, writing and watching the sunrise.  Pink, yellow, orange, blue stretching out from the cliffs across the red tile roofs and palm trees below.

My neighbor’s front yard fountain shares its calming, gurgling existence.

The morning doves coo and the early birds sing their praises of this beautiful place.

I watch the cliffs turn from brown to peach to rust while their speckled green inhabitants cling to the steep rocky sides, creating one of nature’s most elaborate landscapes.

As the clouds transition to a soft white and the quiet morning continues its peaceful waking, I am once again struck by the power of this desert space on my soul.  This life transition of mine – at first glance nothing more than a bright, unending page – is gaining momentum. Looking closely, I can just make out words beginning their slow fade to black.  What will they say?

Time to take another sip.

Inspiring Retiree Advice

Good morning Inspiring Girls! I came across a little gem a few minutes ago and wanted to share it with you. It seems especially poignant for me on this beautiful desert morning as I contemplate how the next chapter in my life will unfold (and what I will do to turn the pages). Several thoughts touched me but three struck me pretty intensely:

Cultivate a generous heart. -Barbara Robinson, 71

Keep growing, no matter what. -Michael Herman, Sr. 66

Spend more time with your children…they will remember time spent and wisdom shared, not so much the items you provided. -Keith Haines, 62

I love these ideas on so many levels, and if asked to add a bit of my own insight to these inspiring reflections, it would be that sharing our time, ideas, skills and life experience are also powerful ways to invest in our world.

It is worth taking a moment to read their full (short) quotes in the article What Retirees Wish They’d Done Differently.

I am inspired to ask the retired people in my life (a population that is growing now that I live near one of the country's most popular retirement communities!), what advice they would offer to those of us who have a chance – right now – to do it differently.

And I encourage you to ask yourself and share in a comment here: when you are retired, what do you not want to say you wish you would have done differently?

I hope at least one of these gems inspires you to take another step forward in your own journey to cultivate your most inspired life!