Journal

Maybe that's as good a way as any to describe what an Emerging Future looks/feels like : I get to change my mind.  I get to change my mind often and without hesitation and explanation.  I get to step into a thought and in doing so, find another just over that edge and follow it, instead.  I get to live fully, moment to moment, and have that living reflected ... Continue Reading >>

Mom and I just got back from spending the day together. Man! That woman is a hoot! I sure hope that there is some genetic coding in there, somewhere, that will allow me to look forward to being 83 and as irreverant, outrageous and funny as she is! The drive to the hair stylist's took 40 mintues - and we laughed all the way. She's really an amazing woman. ... Continue Reading >>

I wrote The Year of Practical Magic... and The 5 Keys to Making it Happen as a reminder to myself to keep moving forward. It is also the first time I've written this way - about 5 keys to anyting! I have identified the 5 things that I believe are essential to creating a different life. Not just talking about and/or thinking about a different life but ... Continue Reading >>

Once again, the end of one year and the beginning of another. Cycles and rhythms. Inhaling and exhaling. Ceaseless… relentless… harbinger of the mindlessness of repetition and the potential of the hope that is carried in the dawning of a new day. Closure. Fresh starts. Moments to reflect on completions and things still undone. If I were to tell the ... Continue Reading >>

It’s Christmas Eve. No matter how it actually unfolds, I am always mindful of a darkened sky, stars blinking through the crisp, cold air; ever-decreasing activity on the road as people reach their destination and settle in for the long-anticipated time with family and loved ones; snow falling softy and quietly, adding to the sparkling cloak that Gaia has ... Continue Reading >>

I had breakfast today, with a woman who has become a deeply meaningful part of my life. I would trust her with my life and, perhaps more importantly, I would trust her with the lives of my sons. I do not say that easily or loosely! My time with her is always a great adventure of discovery, about myself. She and I both know that as we share aspects of our ... Continue Reading >>

I found out, yesterday, that a woman I had come to know from her being a client, has passed on. Since discovering this, I’ve had a couple of phone calls and email exchanges with others who have been touched by her passing and, no doubt, by her having lived. It has left me wondering: if (as I believe) all things unfold exactly as they should, what is ... Continue Reading >>

I'm very fortunate to have people in my life who find things that they know I would have an interest in. One such discovery recently sent to me is the voice of Danielle Rama Hoffman who also embodies the essence that I know as Sekhmet. Let Danielle's words flow through you. Her words describe the truth of my experience of this Sekhmet energy in expression ... Continue Reading >>

I seem to be intimately connected to the weather. When I think a thought, the weather reflects it back to me, in its unique and inimitable way. I’m sitting by the fire, feeling snug and comfy in my blue leather recliner….feet up and laptop at my finger tips. To my left, the two palladium windows offer me a lens through which to watch the world unfold, a ... Continue Reading >>

It’s one of those typical ‘Watch out! Winter’s coming!’ kind of days. Sitting in my office, I look to the left and watch traffic moving quickly along the four lanes of what is the main artery from one end of the city to the other. A grey day….damp and cold…thick with moisture from the falling snow….reminiscent of so many other such days in my long and ... Continue Reading >>

I’m not quite sure where to start in tracking my own thoughts. I’ve had some of the most potent experiences, in the last 10 days, of my entire life. Women gathering in small groups, talking….began with the Whispers from Within writing retreat. A small group of women….sometimes unsure, sometimes afraid, sometimes confused, angry, resentful….and yet through ... Continue Reading >>

Maybe I’m just getting old and crotchety. Or maybe I’ve been having these conversations for so long that I find myself wanting to make quantum leaps and am unwilling to engage in incremental nano-inching as an authentic expression of human potential. And then, maybe it’s none of that – maybe it’s just that my bullshit detector has become so well honed over ... Continue Reading >>

Day 1 of Whispers from Within and already, the outside world is reflecting what we’re discovering inside ourselves. It started to snow…that soft, silent kind of snow…and by the time we were ready to call it a day, it was beginning to transform itself into an equally lightly falling rain. The weather man says tomorrow will bring rain, high winds and a storm ... Continue Reading >>

I read Sarah’s blog today. I stand with her as she chooses to stand alone, claiming the truth of her own experience. There are those among us who have been victims. There are those among us who are perpetrators. There are those among us who would prefer to think that neither exist; that we are over-reacting, or blowing things out of proportion or ... Continue Reading >>

It’s one of those days that those of us who know snow, know well. It’s been snowing for almost 18 hours and the world has become the page that this monochromatic message is written on. Last night, I lay in bed and watched tiny snow flakes fall like a wall of frozen rain. Against the night sky, the background was lit by street lamps, making everything ... Continue Reading >>

I blinked - and almost 10 days went by. I wonder how that happens....I've been spending my 'time' in the future....considering, wondering, pondering, exploring, discovering....getting a 'sense' of what it will take for Intention 2009 to manifest. Since January 2006, elements have been falling into place; and clarity has emerged about those essential ... Continue Reading >>

I am exhilarated! I just spent two days in amazing, wonderful, weird, compelling, provocative, evocative conversations with a small group of women, discovering all that I have to say about The CODE Model™ and CODE Model Coaching™. I surprised myself! These things – The CODE Model and CODE Model Coaching – are not anything that I learned or worked at or ... Continue Reading >>

Last night, I had an opportunity to spend time in conversation with Sarah. It became evident very quickly how much clarity she had; how willing she is to do what it takes; and how able she has become to identify what is deeply meaningful to her and do what it takes to live it. Sarah has done what it takes. She has reached out to people who can work with ... Continue Reading >>

For the last few months, I have been aware of this pressure, this need, to cleanse…or empty…or clean out. I am mindful of how full my closets are, my shelves are, my house is, my life is, my body is with ‘stuff’ that has accumulated over my lifetime. It is not that these things did not serve their purpose or, in their time, did not bring me great joy. Nor ... Continue Reading >>

I read Lori's latest blog entry on 'Speaking Up....Speaking Out'. There are far too many places in the world where women are legitimately in grave danger when they give voice to their own thoughts. Making a simple request or declining to engage in some way will get you killed. Fortunately, for most of us, this country is not one of those places. Perhaps ... Continue Reading >>

Yesterday, I got a call from the woman in New York who is our publicist. She had an opportunity to offer me: a journalist for major print media was looking for someone with children (that would be me) to comment on how to get children to wash their hands in light of the (latest) wave of medical concern called MRSA - a staph infection that is highly ... Continue Reading >>

It’s not enough: • for me to breathe once a day….and hope that for the remainder of my day, someone else will breathe for me. • to say ‘no’ only when I’ve run out of reasons not to say ‘yes’, knowing all along that ‘no’ was my truth.• to be silent to avoid being irritating or annoying or shunned when the absence of my voice ensures the slow but steady ... Continue Reading >>

...to discover the tasty morsels that have slowly sunk to the bottom in the great stew of life! Today, I'm exhilerated and exhausted - both at the same time. I am just buzzing with the potential that we all are - ready to rock and roll! - and in the same instant, am ready for a nap. It occurs to me that this is another real-life, real-time example of how ... Continue Reading >>

Day 4 of Leadership Redefined - Reclaimed is over. This small group of women covered more ground in four days than most of us cover in four years. It wasn't always easy and it wasn't always fun - and it was worth every second. Today, they look and sound different. They are more awake..more present...more connected to themselves. They have clarity. They ... Continue Reading >>

Day 4 - and we're almost done. Bellies full from yet another great meal at Oceanstone; a few off to shop at Peggy's Cove; and we return to complete the cycle of this experience in readiness for the next. Beginnings and endings and new beginnings - all standing in the same space, at a different time. Who would have thought that we could pack so much living ... Continue Reading >>

Day 3 of the 'Leadership Redefined - Reclaimed' women's retreat. More than any other time, today it is very clear to me: leadership is a state of mind. It has nothing to do with credentials, positional leverage, social status, etc....it has to do with who we are. LIke charity begins at home, leadership begins in creating our own lives. We lead the same ... Continue Reading >>

Day 2 of the Emerging Futures: Leadership Redefined - Reclaimed. Metaphors are wonderful things. Today's was that of smoke leaving the fireplace and wafting into the room. It was not the only smoke there. Through the day, I was aware of the degree to which women have become habituated to being nice; to staying in the conversations at the level of the ... Continue Reading >>

I sit here, in the dark, feeling the need to write yet unsure about what seems to need saying such that my body has been awake since 4:30 a.m. Again, a restlessness that prods me to consciousness of body and mind, pushing for connection to my fingers and the keyboard. And so, here I am, not quite knowing where to start and ready to engage nonetheless. I ... Continue Reading >>

Day 1 of 'Leadership Redefined - Reclaimed'. Although our day has been a leisurely one (3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon), it feels as if we've been here for days! Insights, discoveries and instant change are not a function of time invested. They are the natural by-product of our willingness to be present, to be aware and to engage. I ... Continue Reading >>