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Why aren’t people smiling?

October 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

IN SHORT DEMAND – SMILES.

 Who smiles these days?

We spent Saturday in the Magic Kingdom to celebrate my granddaughter’s thirteenth birthday. It was also the fortieth birthday celebration for the Magic Kingdom! As you might imagine, there were huge crowds, much like the holidays. It was our intent to leave early, as we had spent prior day at the park with our son and his girlfriend, celebrating her birthday!

Instead of hitting rides with the kids, we opted to wait and engage in some good old fashioned people-watching. There we were, in one of the happiest places in the world, and hardly anyone was smiling! The main intent of the masses seemed to be rushing from one ride to another, missing nothing; get their money’s worth, I suppose. Hardly anyone made eye contact, and when they did, eyes quickly darted off toward an assumed destination. Very few were smiling; many little ones were outright crying!

I took the time to chat with a ‘cast member’. She was smiling! I guess it’s their job to smile, but not everyone in costume sported a big grin! When my grandchildren and their parents returned from their ride, they had big smiles when they saw the fast passes we had collected for them! Kids don’t like to stop for anything when it comes to having fun, but they were amiable enough to have lunch; no big smiles but no frowns either. I’ll take that as a win!

When concentrating, the corners of my mouth go down, which is quite unfortunate as I have a great smile! For all intent and purpose, it would appear that I’m frowning! When a good friend brought that to my attention, I was horrified! It takes a concerted effort for me to make sure I’m not frowning when listening intently to anyone. I have to think about smiling! Even when I’m having a good time, I sometimes have to tell my face!

At church this morning, most people were not smiling, but our good pastor, Father Tony Quinlivan delivered a humorous sermon and by the end of it, many had smiles on their faces. After church, we hit the local Wal-Mart and as you probably are guessing, no smiles there either. It was really busy too! Grocery aisles were jammed and no one wanted to move. When someone allowed me through, I’d smile and say, “thank you.” A few returned a cursory smirk but no big grins or intelligible “your welcomes.” I wonder if I can really make a difference.

I know that if nothing changes, nothing changes. Now that I’m more aware of it, I’m going to make a real effort to smile, greet people and make sure my face exhibits that I’m enjoying life. Maybe you’ll try too. If enough people really do make an effort, in time we may become a smiling society!

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I’m Nobody! Who Are You?

January 19, 2011 By 2 Comments

I woke up this morning with a poem by Emily Dickenson on my mind …

I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us — don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

This is so out-of-context with my goals of a few short years ago. When Trust God and Buy Broccoli came out in 2006, I envisioned huge book signings; throngs of people streaming out the door to meet me and purchase a signed copy. Oprah would be calling for an interview; after all, I’d not only lost over one hundred pounds, but was also maintaining a healthy body size since 1993! I’d be on the spiritual speaker’s circuit, like Joyce Meyer and Dr. Wayne Dyer. My profound words would be quoted all over the world!

None of that happened.

Instead, the economy tanked out. I wondered where the money would come to pay my cell phone bill.  Clients were opting to buy groceries or hang onto their savings, rather than invest in coaching with me. Sobbing, I finally confessed to my husband. He assured me that I was neither a failure, nor would we be living under a bridge if my business did not contribute to our household budget. He told me that my job was to help people and paid my phone bill.

Something inside of me shifted that day. I saw my work in a different light, not necessarily creating a six figure income. That was the first and last time that I needed to depend on Dave to keep my coaching practice afloat. When my focus shifted to helping others, my business financial needs were also met, surely a God-thing.

This year’s vision board has no focus on public-spotlight grandeur – no pictures of Oprah, Joyce Meyer or Dr. Dyer. My goals now are strictly to help others to find the spirituality in their lives. The rewards are greater than I ever could have imagined. I’m happy and know that I’ve made a difference in the lives of others. As a nobody, I can make a difference. Maybe not on such a grand scale as the people I admire, but one person at a time, I am making a difference.

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Dream Big ~ Dream Interesting!

December 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Dream BIG ~ Dream INTERESTING!

A few weeks back, I planted an avocado seed in a pot. I’ve thrown a lot of avocado seeds away in my day, but I guess they deserve a chance for a new beginning too, eh?

I watered it dutifully and waited. Nothing happened for about ten days, maybe even two weeks.

Then the day came where something other than dirt greeted the watering can; a little tiny stick of a thing popping up out of nowhere! The following day, I swear that little nub doubled in size! A week later, I’m looking at a scraggly foot-tall stick with the beginnings of what looks like leaves on the top.

So, now what?  This is my first venture into avocado propagation – do I trust trial and error or do some research? A quick Google leads me several articles and I discover what to do when the shoot is six or seven inches tall.  I need to cut it down 50%. Oh no! I’m too late by three inches! But having nothing to lose, I’m going to follow the directions. The article says that it should sprout out again and then I’m directed to plant it outside where it could be as big as sixty-nine feet! Or, if it stays in the pot, it could be an interesting house plant.

This whole ordeal really parallels to life. I have choices- YOU have choices! – To be as big as we can be, or maybe not so big, but interesting.  Maybe both!

I’ve really made some dramatic changes in my life over the last five years, and even more this past year. What do I want to do in 2011? Dream big? Dream interesting?

What will I do with that dream? If I take no action, that dream will just stay an old avocado seed and that’s that.

I haven’t picked the date yet, but I’m going to call a bunch of my girlfriends to see if they want to get together to create vision boards for 2011. We’ll get all messy – glue sticks, magazines, cardboard, and let our seeds of a dream take root, sprout and become something.

 Maybe something big.

Maybe something interesting.

Maybe both.

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Sailing into 2011

December 8, 2010 By 4 Comments

There are twenty-three days left in 2010. In her blog, another friend recalled her goals for this year,  and it gave me pause to consider where I was with mine for 2010.

It is a habit of mine to make a dream board in January, and hang it where I can see it often, allowing me to stay on course with an action plan. I didn’t do that in January, so no wonder why I’m struggling to recall my goals! I did go back to my old journals and was able to glean my direction. Oddly enough, even without a rudder on my ship, I sailed through a few of my goals.

I had planned to further my education this year, to the highest level for life coaches, that of a Certified Master Coach. On Sunday I will have achieved that goal –and can put some more letters behind my name! I will also be credentialed to mentor other coaches and best of all, take my coaching practice in the direction I am lead to pursue, that of Spiritual mentoring! I am proud and excited to have cared enough about my work and clients to become an expert in the field.

I’m going for a do-over on the dream board for 2011! It is fun to bring my goals to life, through words and pictures. It’s not going to slip by me again!

So, on New Year’s Eve, I’m going to sponsor a dream board party, inviting friends to bring their magazines, glue sticks and posters to my house. We’ll  have a ‘pot luck’ dinner and then spread out on the dining room table, sip some sparkling water and dream of where we want to go in the coming months. Sounds like a perfect way to visualize our direction and keep on course!

Another goal was to publish a third book, a meditation journal. That happened too. Seasons of Spirituality was borne out of a conversation  with my husband, who suggested going the route of an e-book. That has some challenges, as a 365 page pdf document is cumbersome to download. To navigate those waters, I broke it down into twelve separate books, and download them to my list every month. It has been so much fun to find quotes from years of journals, coordinate them with art and typeset the pages with lines. I am not quite finished, but releasing it in October has given me the opportunity to share it with my readers while it’s still in creation!

Thank God, there was no crazy diet this year. Seventeen years ago, I vowed to never diet again and changed my lifestyle to support healthy eating choices. I’m maintaining over a 100 lb weight loss ever since.  I never have to make that doomed resolution again. Why, if you even look at the word, you can see it’s doomed to failure … DIE-et.

I won’t wait until the last minute this year – I have the twenty-three days to daydream and plan my annual life-trip.  On December 31st, I’ll have a more clear picture on where I want to go. Where do you want to go in the upcoming year? Good question, eh?

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