STOP!!!!

Well, the turkeys gone, the visiting over, and most of us are about to embark on that whirlwind between Thanksgiving and Christmas that leaves little time for thinking much less reflection. We will try and put happy faces on for our friends, coworkers, and family -- yet in the back of our minds will be the next three things on our schedule that can't possibly get done if we take time out to enjoy the activity in front of us. We will be so busy planning, purchasing, and presenting over the next month that our Thanksgiving gratitude will just kind of melt away. What began as an opportunity to gratefully reflect on the things around us during the past year has been relinquished to "the calm before the storm" of the holiday season.

I can see it around me already. In South Florida an estimated 40,000 people crowded a major shopping mall on black Friday -- by 1:00 am in the morning! Makes me wonder how long lived the Thanksgiving part of the Thanksgiving holiday was for these folks. By early Friday afternoon we were reading about a temporary employee who had been stampeded to death as he opened up a Walmart store. By late Friay that became a byline to two men fatally shooting each other in a Toys'R'Us while kids shopped around them. Are you kidding me? Haven't we learned any lessons about greed and profiteering in the past few months?

I'm calling for a truce. Let's put our schedules in check for the next couple of weeks. Instead of the panic that accompanies being ready for the next activity, why don't we all commit to living in the moment. Do you know what I mean -- enjoying the people, places, and things we have right in front of us. Let's take the time for the smiles and the hugs that we will give in abundance during the next few weeks to be genuine. Who knows, in the process we might actually get back to teaching those behind us what these holidays are really all about.

one man's junk...

I threw some old cassette tapes away today. It was kind of sad for me - partly because I HATE getting rid of things and partly because it made me reflect on the inevitability of change. There is something comforting in putting on an old shirt or pair of shoes that has long since seen its time -- it just feels better. And that stack of stuff in the top dresser drawer - it's true I will never use it again or even be able to remember what I used it for in the first place, but I think I feel better just knowing it's there. The people around me will probably not get it, instead they see worn out clothes or clutter as stuff I should have gotten rid of a long time ago. But for me as outrageous as it seems these things seem more me than today's clothes or junk.

The same thing goes for old thinking, habits, and behaviors. We become comfortable with who we are, and change though inevitable is sad to us. Sometimes it's not even that we want to keep the old, worn-out "us" junk, it's just that if we keep it close to us we feel better. The people around us will probably not get it. It seems so clear to them that if we could just get rid of this or change that we would be so much better off. They might even be right, but it doesn't mean that when we give these things up we immediately feel better. In fact, at that moment of change we might feel much worse.

I don't remember that last thing I threw away that gave me trasher's remorse, but I know that I did it. It probably wasn't even that long go, I felt bad and moved on. I am certain I am better off for having gotten rid of whatever it was, but at that moment standing above the trash can I am also sure I didn't feel like I was going to better off. I'm sure I felt sad.

You Are What You Do Because of Who You Are

Had a chance to speak in front of inTerSecTionS this week. I absolutely love those guys and they are so attentive. So I hit them with this statement - You are what you do because of who you are.

So here it is for Zack (and anyone else) in easy terms. You are (what you are right now) what you do (what you are doing right now) beacuse of who you are (what you were meant to be).