The Caring Catalyst

Who Cares - What Matters

A PARADE OF ONE

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On our morning walk
we didn’t find a parade,
One found and included us.  . .

It was different this year,
wasn’t it?  
MEMORIAL DAY
Yes, we know it’s the start of summer
. . . it used to be the start of summer vacations
. . . it used to be trips and vacation spots
hotdogs, potato salad, family gatherings,
it used to be a lot of fun. . .
It was different this year
and maybe not even because of the pandemic. . .
Maybe it’s because we remember different this year;
maybe right now even in the midst of
our-at-the-very-moment heartbeats,  
we are writing a History
no book has ever held.  . .

And maybe
MEMORIAL DAY
with all of its modifications this year
is even more special
than all the years that we’ve celebrated it
in the past. . .
And just maybe
that’s what will remember
about this
MEMORIAL DAY
Instead of us commemorating it,
IT
now commemorates each and everyone of us
in the most special and significant way.  . .

Maybe. . .

With a most
sincere
honest
pure
Parade of One
(y o u)

(NOTE THE REASON FOR THIS SPECIAL
SECOND BLOG POST ON MEMORIAL DAY
IS A THING OF RECOGNITION AND HONOR FOR):

RE-MEMBERING

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Happy Memorial Day.

How can you assure it?

One simple word:

R E-M E M B E R I N G

–literally, by putting together the Pieces of your Life that have meaning and significance to you the Ones who make those Memories worth
RE-Membering–Putting back together.     .     .

The World will debate and argue, but the greatest forces in and out of this World
are our Memories

and the Love that makes those memories
significant,
meaningful
and always worth
observing and celebrating.        .        .

It’s easy to  J U S T  Limit these Memories to our Veterans

or for those who have recently died,

but any day we truly
RE-Member,

that we actually put together those snipets of

Once  Upon  a Times

and ‘Remember When’s’

that put all those glorious colors to the
Tapestry of our Lives,

becomes a true Memorial Day.

Like any Holiday,
it really is celebrated most,

not so much on it’s Noted,
Dated Day,

but when fully Recognized,
Realized,
Revitalized
again and again and again with,

yes, that one single, beautiful thing called

M   e   m   o   r   y

So, on this Memorial Day,

R      E   –   M     E     M     B     E     R  :

It’s not enough for us to just merely
Remember,

but for us to just simply Re-Member one thought,

one memory
past Eternity.

T r u l y:

Give   thanks   not   so   much   for   those   who   have   died;                                                                      

but    for   those   who   still   fully   live   within   us   all.      .      . 

F i v e    W o r d s:

H   a   p   p   y       M   e   m   o   r   i   a   l       D   a   y.       .       .

T        H        A        N        K           Y        O        U

Unmade Beds

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“IT’ S  YOUR  BED,   NOW   LAY  IN  IT !”

.          .          .Ever hear that not-so-sympathetic

cliche sighed at you.       .       .

Sounds more like an evil curse,

doesn’t it?

.          .          .You’ve brought on all of your troubles

Now you will have to suffer the

not-so-pleasant-consequences

with an ample helping of

b          i          t          t          e           r

G  O  O  D          F  O  R          Y  O  U

on the other side.     .     .


I rolled out of bed
on a defeated Thursday morning that felt
like a rainy Monday
with this thought as
a-not-to-spare-one-second-filled-schedule
starred
weighed
me down:

MAKING      MY      BED

The Covers are scratchy
The Sheets are rumpled
The pillow too frumpy soft
The Comforter,
IS  NOT
.          .          .but it’s MY  Bed
and when I lie myself down
not always to
so-effortlessly-sleep
I  RE-member
I     R E S T
in a thought
IT     IS     MY     BED
and I can  RE-make  it
any time’s
any way’s
any place’s
any how’s
I  wants
w     i     t     h     o     u     t
permission
green lights
go-aheads
obstacles
detours
judgements
unless’s
accept’s
until’s
and’s
or’s
but’s
if’s
when’s
and  t h a t
G          I          V          E          S
what no pharmaceuticals
promises
.       .       .nighty
N          I          G          H          T

One of the greatest

unnoticed

G          I          F          T          S

is not just to

C                 H                 O                 O                 S                 E

but  to

C                 H                 O                 O                 S                 E

again and again and again and again
a n d.       .       .

s     u     d     d     e     n     l     y

that

you-made-your-bed-now-lie-in-it

f       e       e       l       i       n       g

doesn’t have such an

un-made feeling

a     n     y     m     o     r     e

W  A  K  E       W  E  L  L

.     .     .live  better
to WAKE WELL
a  g  a  i  n

Losing to WIN

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Psssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst:
I HATE TO LOSE
I always have;
I’m not a sore loser;
a bad loser
but it has a way
of not just messing up my day
BUT DAYS. . .
In fact,
I’m so competitive
I’ll try and beat myself
trying to make it through a closing door
walking faster than I walked a route yesterday
doing one more thing than I feel is possible
YOU NAME IT
I’m ON IT. . .

B U T. . .
Gratitude Can Calm Our Urge to Compete with Others

Gratitude could help
(M E)
u s
get through the pandemic without turning on each other,
S U G G E S T S
a new study. . .

 JILL SUTTIE, a freelance journalist sort of brought things to light during a fairly dark time for us. In the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, we are seeing many acts of kindness and even heroism. Neighbors look out for one another by buying groceries or sing songs together. When doctors, nurses, and paramedics ran out of masks, people donated or sewed new ones.  

But not all people act kindly when feeling threatened. There are those who hoard medical supplies or refuse to stay physically distant from others. Sadly, some become more selfish when they think we’re competing against each other for survival. 

How can we avoid reacting in self-serving or vindictive ways during the pandemic? A new study suggests that practicing a little gratitude may be useful. 

In this study, participants from the National University of Singapore played the “Trucking Game”—a research tool that measures how people bargain or cooperate in conflict situations. In the game, players try to get from point A to B as quickly as possible, while opponents can assist or block players at will. The game is over when both players reach their end point.

Before playing the game, some participants were asked to write about a situation that made them feel grateful, while others recalled events that brought them joy or were emotionally neutral (like their daily routine). When it came time for participants to play the game, they didn’t know the other player wasn’t a real person but a set of preprogrammed, highly competitive moves. 

Participants had opportunities in the game to thwart the other player by blocking routes along the way or not stepping aside to let them pass, and many of the participants did so when faced with a competitive opponent. However, those induced to feel gratitude were much less likely to block their opponent’s progress than those who’d been primed to feel joy or no particular emotion.

While not entirely surprised by these findings, study coauthor Lile Jia was impressed by them—especially given how competition usually brings out our worst instincts.

“Showing that gratitude can ameliorate competitive impulses in this setting speaks to the potency of this emotion in reducing undesired competition,” says Jia.

To further test these results, he and his colleagues set up another experiment, this time using a random group of Americans of various ages (instead of the original group of Singaporeans, to see how culture might affect results). Participants were told they would be paired with another player (though, actually, there was no other player) to compete in a moderately difficult and timed word game. Before playing the game, they were induced to feel either gratitude or a neutral emotion. 

After playing the game—in which participants were always told they lost—the researchers showed them a narrative describing their opponent as either competitive or not very competitive. The idea was that losing to a very competitive person might make participants feel more upset about losing and make them want to punish their opponent.

After “losing,” participants were told that their opponents would be entering another competition that involved solving anagrams for a chance to win a cash prize. The participants could choose one of three clues to help their opponent solve the anagrams more quickly, with clues ranging from least helpful (“it starts with the letter P”) to most helpful (“it starts with the letter P and it’s an organ in your body”). Choosing less helpful clues was considered a form of vindictiveness.

Results showed that participants induced to feel gratitude were much more likely to give the most helpful clues than participants in a neutral mood. Even under circumstances where they might want revenge, people who felt grateful were less likely to be vindictive.

“Sabotaging their partner’s chance of winning a lottery did not directly benefit the participants, who had already been eliminated from the competition—yet this harmful impulse existed,” says Jia. “Fortunately, the impulse got weakened among those induced to feel grateful.”

  • Gratitude JournalGratitude JournalCount your blessings and enjoy better health and happinessTry It Now

Why would gratitude reduce feelings of vindictiveness? Jia says it might be because grateful people are less selfish and show greater empathy toward others, in general. Given that people often respond to competition by becoming more competitive themselves—at the expense of others—it’s little wonder that gratitude might reduce this tendency. 

Jia’s study adds to our understanding of the power of gratitude by showing how it helps people be kinder to others in unfavorable as well as favorable circumstances. This could have huge consequences when we are in situations where we may be tempted not to cooperate or to lash out at others—like during the current pandemic.

“In such threatening interactions, destructive behavioral cycles are easily established,” says Jia. “The present research underscores the potential of gratitude in stopping such destructive spirals.”

Jia points to other ways gratitude can help during the pandemic, too—by strengthening relationships and building a sense of community. 

Research suggests that practicing gratitude helps people “gel,” he says, encouraging them to coordinate their actions toward a particular goal—something relevant to our current need to shelter in place. So long as cooperation is the norm in this situation, and grateful people don’t feel that they are being taken advantage of, encouraging more gratitude is all to the (greater) good. 

Jia’s research reinforces the importance of practicing gratitude as we go through this pandemic. Not only will it help us be more cooperative, it’s good for our personal well-being, too—protecting our mental health and making us feel more positive and optimistic about the future. 

“If we take a broader look at the benefits of gratitude, then the argument for encouraging feeling more gratitude becomes all the stronger,” says Jia.

Ohhhhhhh yesssss
I’m competitive
and most would never see or even imagine
that inner
F I G H T
always raging me
UNLESS THEY NOTICE
some of the good I attempt
(THIS IS MY BIGGEST DAILY COMPETITIVE EVENT)
just to be a little
better than the day
the afternoon
the morning before
the next one
and even when
I LOSE
. . .WE WIN

READY. . .
SET. . .
LET’S GO
(and never stop)


OAT’ed UP

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I shared this over three years ago under much different circumstances;
C I R C U M S T A N C E S
that could have never have been imagined
and far from understood
C I R C U M A T A N C E S
that still
even at our most current moment
are difficult to imagine
and feel far from being understood. . .

B U T

Maybe there’s another
a different way
of seeing
I T :
There is sowing your oats
and then there is serving them,
eating them
and digesting
all the goodness
that can’t begin to fit on a spoon,
in a bowl
or even on a cafeteria tray
or a table. . .
EAT UP!
and make a NOTE
of BEING
THE GOOD YOU MAKE

A Walk To HOME

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Dark-street

Have you heard the Story?

Have you Lived it from either end?

Arun Gandhi is the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi;

When he was sixteen years old, he was asked by his father to take him by car to a meeting. While his father was at the meeting, Arun was to go to a nearby town, buy groceries for the family and bring the car to the garage. At 5:00 p.m. Arun was suppose to be back to pick up his father and drive him home.

Arun had fulfilled his duties and since there were time and money left, he went to the Movie Theater for a John Wayne double feature. He was so entranced by it he literally forgot about the time. Much too late, he hurried out of the theater and went to pick up his dad. It was 6:00 p.m.; he was an hour late. His father was worried something terrible had happened. Arun told his dad that the garage had not gotten the car ready in time.

He didn’t know that his father had already called the garage to find out about his son’s whereabouts.

Arun’s father reacted to the lie like this:

He told his son that he, as a father, must have done something terribly wrong in bringing up his son, so that his son would have had to lie to him; and that he would not let his son drive him home, but walk all the way and think about what he had obviously done wrong in raising his son. Arun begged his father to get in the car with him, but his father did as he said without speaking another word.       .       .

I T      W A S      A      F I V E      H O U R      W A L K !

Arun drove behind his father at walking pace until, late at night, they got home.

Arun Gandhi said that after this he never again lied to his father!

W         O         W.       .       .

You  think?

And we thought,

“M O T H E R ‘ S       G U I L T      I S      B A D ?”

Is this some kind of non-violent parenting?

Or  Child  abuse?

Would it be effective in 2020 and beyond?

Would  our  children  have  followed  us  the  five  hour  walk  home?

Would  we  have  really  pondered  our  own  faults  in  parenting  during  the  long  walk  home?

.          .       .and Now?

We  take  steps  every  day,  don’t  we?

Each step we take,

even if we don’t notice,

are being watched,

maybe even emulated by our children

and the children in all of us.       .      .

Have they.         .         .

.       .       .Have we noticed.       .       .

Maybe it’s not so much the walk home.         .         .

but,

The   W a l k

T    O          H  O  M  E,

that  makes  all  the  Difference;

in  and  out  of  this  World,

and  more        .        .

Everything  in  between!

Pssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst:

Let’s    take    a    walk.            .             .        

And instead of all of the steps we’ve taken
and far left behind. . .
let’s focus on the
next one
and all those before us
as we journey on. . .
Always on
hand and hand

A Bad Burn

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Last week during the mid-week blog
we took a look at
CAUTION FATIGUE
and the other side of
T H A T
Coin might be
How to Avoid Burnout in the Middle of a Pandemic

Rachel Fairbank, freelance journalist tried to extinguish something that’s very real over these past several weeks and especially, ongoing.

Burnout is defined as a state of emotional, mental and physical exhaustion brought on by prolonged stress. Given the nonstop barrage of stressors these past few months, many of us are probably well on our way to developing burnout, if we aren’t there already.

“Burnout is chronic stress gone awry,” says Sheryl Ziegler, a psychologist and author of the book “Mommy Burnout: How to Reclaim Your Life and Raise Healthier Children in the Process.” 

Stages of burnout

The stages of burnout include a honeymoon phase, in which a person devotes extra time and energy to dealing with their stress; followed by mitigation strategies, when a person is crankier than usual but is still trying to juggle everything; followed by chronic stress, a point when people have an even harder time coping and often find ways to detach themselves from others; and finally, by full-blown burnout.

If these stages sound familiar, well, at least you’re not alone. As a society, we seem to be on a path to burnout together. We started in those ambitious first few weeks with big plans: We were going to learn how to bake and knit! After a few weeks of trying to juggle quarantine and work from home and homeschooling and job loss. Now we all seem to be stuck in a phase of chronic stress, either lashing out at the people around us or detaching from the world at large

“A lot of people are in the second and third stages right now,” Ziegler says. “We are all here.” 

That said, there are strategies that we can employ, even in an era of physical distancing and omnipresent fears about our health and safety. These are some of Ziegler’s recommendations for avoiding burnout during a pandemic. 

Know the signs of burnout

“Knowing the signs of burnout are really important,” Ziegler says. What stage you might be in will vary, and it’ll look a little bit different for everyone. People who are burned out are often detached from others, feel drained and unable to cope, and lack their usual energy. They also often experience physical symptoms such as headaches or stomachaches. 

As Ziegler points out, it’s normal to be stressed and anxious, given everything that is going on. But just because this stress is understandable doesn’t mean we can’t find ways to cope. 

Stay connected with others

We may have to practice physical distancing, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be creative about staying connected with others. When it comes to preventing burnout, strong social connections are key. 

As Ziegler suggests, in addition to friends and families, lean on online communities that might share some of your concerns. Whatever your situation is, whatever your struggles are, there are people out there who can relate. Make sure to prioritize these connections, as they will help buffer you from burnout. How to Disconnect From Social Media but Stay Connected to the World

Social media is terrible, and social media is amazing. It inundates us with panic-inducing news and paralyzes us.

Shift your standards

It is okay to cut down on the number of hours of school each day or to say no to extra job duties at work. As Ziegler points out, as much as we want to do everything, there just aren’t enough hours in the day. It’s important to be selective about what we take on as well as practical about what we can accomplish, given our constraints. 

Set boundaries for yourself

Boundaries are really important, especially in these times. Boundaries can help make your workload and home life a little bit more manageable. It’s okay to say no to things, it’s okay to adjust your expectations, and it’s okay to prioritize what’s most important. 

Schedule time for yourself

Don’t feel guilty about it, either. If we put a meeting on our calendars, we do everything we can to make sure we show up to it. Caring for yourself, in whatever form that takes, is just as important; in fact, CALENDAR IT; put a self-care time/date on the calendar and don’t break it!

“Every day, schedule time for yourself,” Ziegler says. “When we are under stress, we don’t tend to squeeze in healthy things for ourselves.”

So carve out a time for yourself. Calendar it and give that time as much priority as a work responsibility. Your mental health and wellbeing is important. You Need to Walk Outside Every Day

In a time when our fitness options are limited, don’t discount the benefits of walking. Walking doesn’t have to be done in large increments, just steady, regular ongoing times of walking.

Have a change of environment

Even small changes of environment can help keep us from feeling overwhelmed. This could be as simple as moving from the living room to kitchen or going for a short walk around the block. Given that we are all at home all the time now, a small change of environment will go a long way toward helping us feel mentally refreshed.

Move your body

As Ziegler points out, there’s a big connection between staying active and maintaining good mental health. 

“People have to remember working out is good for your mental thoughts,” Ziegler says. As we are a lot more sedentary than usual, moving can help us stave off some of the effects of abrupt changes in our routines. 

Even if you only have ten minutes, it’s worth fitting in a few calisthenics or a quick walk.

Practice mindfulness with your diet

Being at home all day while stressed means a lot more snacking and a lot more unhealthy foods. Unfortunately, although in the short term, reaching for a bag of chips or a carton of ice cream feels good, when it comes to balancing stress, these snacks hurt more than they help. Being mindful about what you are eating will help in the long run. 

Power naps are rejuvenating

If you have twenty minutes, consider taking a power nap to boost your energy and productivity. Find a quiet spot, set the alarm and do your best to relax. If it’s hard, Ziegler points out that power napping is something that gets easier with practice. 

Early afternoon, when your concentration and ability to focus is suffering, is a good time for a power nap. Twenty minutes is the sweet spot, as 30-60 minutes can leave you feeling more tired than when you fell asleep. Of course, if you’ve got 90 minutes for a full nap, that also works, but that’s harder to carve out of your schedule. I’m a huge 10-20 minute cat-napper.

Notice your words

Words have a way of becoming reality. “We have to notice our words,” Ziegler says. Allow yourself to vent, allow yourself to release all your fears and worries, but then find a way to pivot and channel your fears and worries into something productive. 

A side hustle can help you feel in control

If you are worried about your job security—or if you have been laid off—developing a side hustle can be a productive way to pick up new skills while also giving you a way to regain control over your situation. 

Now is the time to think about what other skills you have you can use to your advantage. If nothing else, this will help you regain a sense of purpose, which is key to weathering periods of potential burnout.  For years I’ve had a job application from STARBUCKS and when people see it they ask me, “Are you looking for another job?” I tell them ‘No, but it’s powerful to know I have choices. Today, I CHOOSE to work here, but I have other options.”
BOOM–talk about FREEDOM. . .Instant Burnout Extinguisher.

List your fears

There are so many fears and anxieties in the world right now, and for good reason. Instead of bottling up them all up, Ziegler suggests listing them all out and then—and this is the key part—coming up with strategies for how you would cope if the worst happened. 

“Give yourself your moment,” Ziegler says. “Then, stop, and make a plan around it.” 

Are you afraid of losing your job? Not being able to pay rent? Getting sick and needing someone to care for your children? Name these fears, then start making plans. Just the act of thinking through them will help your regain a sense of perspective and control.

Right now, the world is a scary and stressful place. There is no avoiding it. However, even in the middle of all these worries and anxieties, there are still actions we can take to help mitigate the worst effects. Adjust your expectations, carve out time for yourself and do whatever is in your power to preserve your sanity for the long run. Because it’s going to be a long run.

Psssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst:
We all know where to get it. . .
B U T
we don’t always take the time to actually go out and
GET IT!

EVERYTHING

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WHEN I READ THAT
I WROTE THIS:

Not everything that grows comes from the field or the ground

Not everything that soars flies in the sky

Not everything that nourishes comes from a plate or the end of a fork

Not everything that saturates is wet

Not everything that is read comes from a book

Not everything that is believed is known

Not everything that has felt can be touched

Not everything that was, is

Not everything is any one thing

Not everything is every thing

WHICH MADE ME THINK:

AND MADE ME FEEL

Like I’ve always been paddling towards the
END OF THE WORLD
only to find a
U N I V E R S E
of new
E V E R Y T H I N G S

CAUTION FATIGUE

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People with and without masks in New York City's Central Park on April 25, 2020.People with and without masks in New York City’s Central Park on April 25, 2020. Getty Images—2020 Alexi RosenfeldBY JAMIE DUCHARME  a journalist from TIME Magazine brought us an interesting question that we might all have to do a double-take on before answering it. . .
DO YOU HAVE CAUTION FATIGUE?

Even as the
“OPENING UP”
is now beginning to take place;
it’s still painstakingly
S L O W
As these ever-so-slow
lockdowns drag on and on in many U.S. states,
there are worrying signs
that people’s resolve to continue social distancing
is flagging. . .

An illicit house party in Chicago made headlines this week, as did photos of crowded beaches in Southern California and packed parks in New York City. Anonymized cell-phone data tracked by the University of Maryland also shows more and more people are making non-work-related trips outside as quarantines drag on, and a TIME data analysis found that some states are experiencing new surges in coronavirus cases after initial declines.

Jacqueline Gollan, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, has coined a name for this phenomenon based on her 15 years of research into depression, anxiety and decision-making: “caution fatigue.”

Gollan likens social-distancing motivation to a battery. When lockdowns were first announced, many people were charged with energy and desire to flatten the curve. Now, many weeks in, the prolonged cocktail of stress, anxiety, isolation and disrupted routines has left many people feeling drained. As motivation dips, people are growing more lax about social-distancing guidelines—and potentially putting themselves and others in harm’s way, Gollan says.

Even as some states begin the process of reopening, it’s crucial that people continue to follow local social-distancing guidelines to avoid back-sliding. To help, use Gollan’s tips for fighting caution fatigue.

Take care of your physical and mental health

You’ve heard all these tips before, but they bear repeating: get enough sleep, follow a balanced diet, exercise regularly, don’t drink too much, stay socially connected and find ways to relieve stress. “If people can address the reasons for the caution fatigue, the caution fatigue itself will improve,” Gollan says.

Gollan also says it’s important to improve your “emotional fitness.” She recommends expressing gratitude, either to others or yourself; setting goals for how you want to feel or act; and taking time just to decompress and laugh.

Reframe risks and benefits

As important as they are, goals like flattening the curve and improving public health can be hard to stay fired up about since they’re somewhat abstract, Gollan acknowledges. So it can be useful to think about how your behavior directly affects your chances of getting sick, and thus your chances of spreading the virus to people around you.

People tend to overvalue what’s already happened, assuming if they haven’t gotten sick yet they won’t in the future. “But if your behavior changes and you have a gradual decline in your safety behaviors, then the risk may increase over time,” Gollan says. Remembering that reality can prevent you from falling into “thinking traps” like convincing yourself another trip to the grocery store is absolutely necessary, when it’s really just out of boredom, Gollan says.

Rebuild your routine

Coronavirus has probably shattered your regular daily routine—but you can still make time for things you valued before the pandemic, like exercise and socializing. Creating a new normal, to the extent possible, can be stabilizing, Gollan says.

Focusing on small pieces of your new routine can also be a helpful way to grapple with uncertainty. If it’s hard for you to think about how long quarantine may stretch on, instead focus on the immediate future. “What are you going to do this morning?” Gollan says. “Are there things you’re not doing that you should?”

Make altruism a habit

It may help to remember that social-distancing is really about the common good. In keeping yourself safe, you’re also improving public health, ensuring that hospitals can meet demand and quite possibly saving lives. “There’s something powerful about hope, compassion, caring for others, altruism,” Gollan says. “Those values can help people battle caution fatigue.”

Just like anything, selfless behavior gets easier the more you do it, Gollan says. “Try small chunks of it,” she suggests. “What can you do in the next hour, or today, that’s going to be a selfless act to others?” Donating to charity or checking in on a loved one are easy places to start.

Switch up your media diet

Just as you may learn to tune out the sounds outside your window, “we get desensitized to the warnings [about coronavirus],” Gollan says. “That’s the brain adjusting normally to stimulation.” Even something as simple as checking a credible news source you don’t usually follow, or catching up on headlines from another part of the country, could help your brain reset, she says. . .


What I have found utterly amazing about
THIS TIME
is no matter how many times it feels that everything is
so devastatingly
D O N E
there’s still this awesome growth
that’s sprouting up all around us
A NEWNESS
that couldn’t come from any other
WAY
or PLACE
except this soil of
scary
sacred
sorrow

It’s more than a rally cry
It’s more than a hope
It’s more than a wish
It’s more than a prayer
It’s more than a promise
It’s been a fateful fact. . .
The WE of it
The ARE of it
The ALL of it
The IN of it
The THIS of it
The TOGETHER OF IT
has never interwoven
THE US OF IT
into a never known
T A P E S T R Y
of it
like this before. . .

So here’s the biggest question
that hopefully has an even bigger answer:
WILL THIS CAUTION FATIGUE CAUSE US TO BE MORE COMPASSIONATE OR MORE COLD-HEARTED. . . ?
Careful. . .

How you live
(from here on)
will scream for generations
who will never forget
what you will never have to say
but will always be heard. . .
R E M E M B E R
(now more than ever)

VISION

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We are way beyond the
SURREAL
aren’t we. . . ?
For the last 7 weeks we have had it put upon us to do
The New,
N E W
and it’s done everything it can
to not just cripple us
but destroy us
by merely
SOCIALLY DISTANCING US. . .

Have you ever felt like you are just coasting through life and missing out on becoming the person you were destined to be
especially now in this
UN-Normal, NORMAL?

Or have you felt like you’re trying your hardest to live up to your greatest potential — to make a difference – to live out those dreams in your heart that seems now to forever be beating differently. . . ?

But something keeps getting in your way
Holding you back
Road blocking you. . .

This can be
DE- Couraging. . .
Somewhere along the way we might lose sight and motivation to pursue what really makes us happy. . .
we’re lighting our Candle
only to have it immediately
s n u f f e d

We might resign ourselves to being okay with just getting by in life
And worst
accepting that some people
get to live their dreams
as we get robbed of our
V I S I O N

Sometimes the weight of our daily lives can deter us
from taking the first step towards manifesting our heart’s desires
Towards living a life of abundance.
And towards truly living up to our greatest potential. . .

While that might sound pretty heavy – today’s video
isn’t. . .

I saw it years ago
but the perspective has all changed
and so has my
V I S I O N

I’ve lived them on this journey in being of service to you. Following our dreams doesn’t come easy. It comes with the price of hardship and challenge. . .

Fortunately, in just 380 seconds of this video you can learn what each and every truly successful person has done to elevate themselves from the hardships up to living their dreams. 🙂

Now here’s a tough question…

When you look in the mirror, what do you see?

The way we look at ourselves also reflects how we interpret life. The way we think about ourselves shapes how we respond to life.

No matter where we begin, the next step in our journey of living our dreams starts inside each and every one of us.

And what keeps us going when times get hard and it seems like our heart’s dreams are merely that. . .
just dreams?


W H Y
Dream only when you sleep
. . .If you’re only dreaming when you’re asleep
you’ll never have vision;
BE THE PRIMARY PROOF
of it. . .

Professional Speaker, Author, Assurance Man