Tricks or Treats

 ”Change if you look at it as something you can always count on, can be   a comfort.”           - Clint Eastwood in the Bridges of Madison County

 As I look out my window this morning it is quite a different view than the one I saw last  Monday as I wrote to you.  Gone are all the beautiful golden leaves.  There are a few  hanging on, but the branches of the aspen trees outside my window are now almost  empty. 

 Between winds this past week and the chilly, frosty nights that came to pass, the change of season is coming to reflect what will be happening outdoors for the next six months.  It will get colder, snow will cover the ground and winter will soon find its way into the scenario.  Though we have nearly two months before the official begin of winter – the prelude of the days gone by make its coming appearance very evident.

I loved this quote about change when I heard it last week because it holds so true.  You can embrace what is going to come or you can fight it.  Many times fighting it does little more than delay the inevitable.  You can miss the golden moments along the way.

For example, yesterday with the leaves all over the ground and Travis home for a quick weekend, he started raking the leaves in the back yard.  The yearly romp in the leaves began with Travis hiding treats for Samantha in the bottom of the pile.  Sam burrowed into the pile looking for and finding the treats, over and over again.  This weeks picture is a moment when she was coming up for air.  

Cherishing the moments we are given as they come, allows us to enjoy them thoroughly.  Embracing that which is to come allows us to be open to enjoy the good, the bad and the ugly (another Clint term).  Winter days bring with them beauty all their own and in fact, the writer in me loves writing in the winter the best.  There is something about writing in front of an open fire with snow falling on the ground outside that inspires me.  

When I look past the just the golden leaves missing from the trees outside my window I see that their departure has opened up my view to see even more of the mountains to the distance than before.  I can now see a whole new vista that the leaves had previously been blocking.   

What are the moments of the season of change that inspires you?  What moments do you stop and cherish?  How do you embrace the rights of passage?  It can be small things from the raking of leaves to preparing for Halloween which is just days away.  I guess to sum it up, you can focus on the tricks or the treats.  The choice really is ultimately ours, as we choose the attitude and joy in which we move forward with each day.

Wishing you a prosperous last week of October with many treats to enjoy each day. 

Gathering Moments

“Anything you fully do is an alone journey.”  – Natalie Goldberg 

 The glow of gold from the aspen tree outside my window is truly spectacular this  morning!  I am writing this letter many hours later than normal as I had a late start to my  day.  Normally I take my Monday morning walk around Coot Lake with Sam and my  girlfriends after writing the letter but today – the walk came first.  Time was the deciding  factor – and I ran out of it.   

Today is a beautiful fall morning with the haze of the day adding a beautiful backdrop to the oranges, gold’s and reds that are everywhere!  Each fall it amazes me that the colors of something as simple as a leaf can be so riveting!  I have been taking lots of pictures, which I will have up put up on the blog today.  Figured this would be better than sending you tiny little photos in this letter.  Take a look later and let me know what you think.  See if I am seeing what you are seeing!   

Over the course of the last five days I have had quite a bit of time to myself.  With Ed and Bailey off on a trip back east I stayed home to take care of Samantha, who had some surgery last week.  So for five days I found that alone time can mean focused time, and focus is what I tried to do.  But even then I realized that there was still more to do than I could possibly get done – even without a lot of interruptions.  In fact the more time I had to think, the more ideas kept generating in my head!   

There is something to be said about alone time – about coming together with yourself in your head.  Something in your inner core seems to unwrap a bit when you take away all the outside noise and just look at yourself head on in your mind and in the mirror.  For me, the beauty of this season is a great source for reflection.   

My garden has been calling for a lot of my attention these last few days as Tuesday we had our first frost of the season.  The result was the demise of my tomato plants and zinnias.  In one fell swoop they were reduced to fragile dying memories of what they once were.  Funny, yesterday as I worked and reflected in the garden I thought of the analogy of the garden with the stock market.  While the frost had hit some of the plants hard – others were still thriving.    

While the tomato plants were dead there were plenty of tomatoes that were still ok, needing immediate harvesting.  I could have stood there bummed out about my now dead zinnias or clear the debris and start planning for next spring. Doing the later gave my zinnias the dignity and joy of their beauty over the past four months!  By clearing and composting now I will be ready for my investments come spring!   

What I also concluded to was that having alone time with just me, Sam and my garden allowed me to fully see it.  To fully appreciate the joy that it gives me.  With talk of that four letter word possibly arriving later this week (snow)…I just have to go with the flow appreciate the beauty of this season and do what I can each day.  Just me, myself and I is the one thing I have control over and how I look at everything as it unfolds in my life.   

I hope that you can do the same in your week ahead.   Find some of that precious alone time where you fully engage with the world around you.  No worries of clocks or time constraints – no people or places needing your attention.  Just the time for you to connect with what you want and need in that precious moment.   

Gather up the lessons to be learned all around you in this season of gold.   Fill yourself up for the possibilities during those long winter months ahead.  Just like a squirrel with its nuts, we can store the memories and savor them while cozying up to the fire on a snow filled day.   

Happy Gathering! 

To Your Success and Victories,  

Cheri  

Cheri Ruskus

Changing Rhythms

“All human situations have their inconveniences.” – Benjamin Franklin

Happy Monday,

If there is one thing that is for sure – life, as we know it anyway – is not perfect. It has its ups, it’s downs, it’s ins and it’s outs. Some days are happy, some days are sad. There are some days that find us challenged by all that happens and others when every moment brings us nothing but sunshine. But when you wrap it all up into one collective unit and call it “your life” what is the words you would use to describe the days of your walking on this planet? Yesterday would have been my grandmother, Mabel Claire Praschma’s, 100th birthday. I poured a shot of whiskey (her drink of choice), toasting to her and the difference she made to me in my life. She was a colorful person who loved her family, a good joke and to make other people smile. She had her share of trouble during her 80 years on the planet but it never seemed to stop her from telling a good story or finding smoothing to smile about. When I was a little girl her and I would talk for hours and hours about everything and nothing at all. When Grammy (as we called her) died I found a little poem that had been clipped from a newspaper (she was a great paper clipper) in her dressing table top drawer. I ended up putting it in with her picture that hangs in my hallway. It so much captured her essence and I thought it would be nice to share it with you this morning. Not sure who the author is but it was as if the words had been written just for her. I found myself uttering the words to this poem during times of significant change.

New Dreams for Old

With changing rhythms softly slow

The clouds of dusk float by,

And, as I watch them fainter grow

The old dreams die.

For night, behind the clouds,doth wait

With high hopes in a star,

And I must go – a gypsy’s fate –

Where new dreams are.

I love the thought of “changing rhythms” because after all, isn’t that what life does – change rhythms on us. We just need to catch up to the beat or tempo that it is currently playing. Some times we may not care for the tune but “going with the flow” can make all the difference between enjoying what we do have around us or not. Here in Colorado we enjoyed a perfect fall weekend with the change of season swirling all around us. While it was cold and wet it was the perfect time to do some inside chores including getting out the Halloween decorations and bringing some of the outside plants indoors to save them from the frost that is imminent. There was even time to try and rearrange my office. Planning for the growth and ongoing development of my business. So while I know that any morning when the sun rises I will see my garden in ruin from that first frost or the snowfall that is to come, I will put my energies elsewhere to lighten the blow. Change my rhythms so to speak. Life happens the way that it does – it is our attitude that makes all the difference. My sister Susi’s birthday is today – a Libra just like Grammy sharing Columbus’s birthday. Happy Birthday! Perhaps we can take on life with the explorer’s attitude of Columbus – being open to whatever it is waiting for us just around the bend. Happy Exploring!

Pedal to the Metal

“It’s useless to put the brakes on when you’re upside down.”

• Paul Newman

 
 
Happy Monday, 

After a number of very strange dreams last night it was almost a relief to get up this morning and begin a new day.  As I looked at the clock on my nightstand – 4:44 seemed like as good a time as any to get this day rolling.  I was more than ready to get my mind engaged onto something else that I could have a little more control over.   

How did it go for you in the week gone by trying not to watch any news?  Of saying no thank you when gloom and doom tried to enter into your life?  I held strong and it felt good.  Sadly though Ed did tell me on Saturday morning that Paul Newman had passed away on Friday.  What a great man he was with a face that was as beautiful as his heart.   

Strangely, a friend had just sent me an email on last week complete with a great picture of his beautiful blue eyes.  I am sharing that picture with you this morning.  He had run through my mind a number of times prior to Saturday morning’s news after not having really thought about him specifically for years.  Yet, how many times I have seen his face on the jars in the grocery store selling his “Newman’s Own” brand of product.  Not realizing until I did some reading online yesterday that through those products he has raised over $250 million for his charities for kids.   

Yes, he was a great humanitarian – one of which we should all aspire to emulate.  Some one our “Leaders” should learn and grow from.  With more people like him, the world indeed continues to go round.  Today’s quote came from an interview I read while online yesterday from an interview with Bob Thompson of the National Post.  It was said a couple of years ago when he was asked to share a life lesson, something that guided him through his career. 

I don’t know about you but I loved what he said. Both wise and true, especially during upside down economic times.  It does not serve us to put our brakes on and live in fear.  You’ve got to hit the gas and joyfully keep going, just as he did for the better part of his 83 years on this planet. 

With September winding down this week I wish you the power to give your life all you have to give, to make a difference in not only your life but in the life of others as well.   To continuously be reinventing yourself so that every fiber of your being is engaged in this life you have been given.   

Maxwell Maltz was a plastic surgeon that at the age of 61 culminated his highly successful career by creating Psyco-Cybernetics.  He believed that it was as important to treat our inner scars, as it was to treat the outer scars.  He said,  “The lucky or successful person has learned a simple secret to call up, capture, evoke the feeling of success.  When you feel successful and self-confident, you will act successfully.” 

Look at the open road before you, put it in drive, engage the pedal to the metal and let your life take off!

Clear Thoughts

It is not the mountain we conquer – But ourselves. 

• Edmund Hillary

 
As my fingers hit the keyboard this Monday morning they are moving a bit slowly.  These darker mornings make it a bit harder to get up and at em.  This is the last official week of summer with fall coming to the calendar next Monday morning. 

Yesterday I walked around my garden enjoying the last days of time before the fall sweeps it away.  It is hard to believe when looking at some of the flowers and veggies that are thriving so nicely that in less than a month their time will be done.  I thought I would share in today’s letter with you a variety of pictures that I snapped in the garden yesterday.   

One of the aspects I love about my garden is that it gives me time to think.  It is one of my thinking spots.  In this fast paced world, a thinking spot and the time to thoroughly enjoy it can be critical for our sanity.  Last week I found myself enjoying the simple pleasure of having enough time in my schedule to do a lot of thinking.  Simple enough to do but something that doesn’t happen enough.   

With a lot of metaphoric mountains ahead of me to conquer in the months ahead I needed to look deep into myself and figure out just how I was going to climb them.  Surprisingly all the thinking I did conjured up a bit of fear in me as the mountain kept getting higher and higher.    “Feel the fear and do it anyway”, were the perfect words that I needed to read in a book I am currently reading by Barbara Stanny.  Those words have been my mantra for me over the last few days as I plan my course up the mountains of my goals and ambitions.   

The power of our brain is an amazing thing and can give us great insight into our selves and the world around us.  Unfortunately we can let life sweep us up and not use it properly.  Sometimes we can even let others do our thinking for us.  Finding it easier than making our own decisions.   

The media and all that comes with it from television to printed material throws others ideas and wants for our time and money at us.  However we do it, we should find time to clearly know what it is we really want in our life, to indeed spend the time thinking it through.  The next key is to make the decision clearly and move forward.  Just knowing what we need to do and not doing it can make us off center – stopping us from climbing the mountains we know we need to climb.   

So as you journey through your week ahead, pay attention to the quality time you give yourself to simply think clean unobstructed thoughts.  Go to that thinking spot that allows you to clear your mind to think.  Perhaps find a new thinking spot along your way.  Somewhere in nature is always good or a quiet little corner of the world just for you. 

Clear thoughts ahead to you! 

Play Nice

Play Nice      

       – A Mom 
 

As I sit to write the words of this morning’s letter the reminder comes to me of these two words that have been vibrating over my head during the past several weeks – Play Nice. 

I know as a mother, it was used by me countless times over the years.  As I a child playing with my brother and sisters it came up quite often too. 

I bring it up this morning because after weeks of heartwarming tales unfolding of our athletes playing nice, our political, dare I use the word leaders hit the airwaves.  Apparently their mothers forgot to share these words with them.  Or remind them that it is not nice to talk poorly of others.  Now I know I walk a thin line in discussing politics in this letter.   So just let me clarify I am not standing on one side or the other of the political line in voicing these words to you today.  I am just thinking it would be a whole lot easier to stomach it all, if these big kids on the political playground could play nice!   

One of these days in the not to distant future one of them is going to be our President.  How are we all going to respect any of them after all the bashing that has gone on?  I heard the other day that it is all part of the political process and I can’t help but think -  why?  As a businesswoman I cannot imagine trying to get a new client by putting down my competition profusely and continuously in order to gain the confidence of that potential client.  It is my company and myself I am selling and that is what I should spend my time talking about.  Isn’t it?   

It’s kind of like the proverbial teeter-totter or see saw of the playground in that which goes up – must come down.   Sooner or later the pull of gravity will create the inevitable outcome.   

I can’t help but wonder how our forefathers who wrote the Declaration of Independence would take in our current political process.  How would those 57 men who came together to find harmony for the ultimate good of a new America feel about the finger pointing we have been listening to?  Benjamin Franklin, one of those men, once said to  “avoid trifling conversation.” 

The way we play with others can mark the tone of our success in many ways.  There is something about working together in a harmony that makes each day, not only more fun on the playground but much more productive as well.  How do you find yourself playing each day?  Are you in harmony with those you play with?  Are they in harmony with you?  Would your Mom be proud of the way you find yourself playing?   

As you get out on that playground of your life this week – do it with joy and hope that what you do not only makes a difference in your day but in the day of another as well. 

Happy Playing!

Fruits of your labor

Work is passive without you.  It can’t do anything.  Work is only an idea before a person does it.  But the moment a person does it, the impact of the work on the world becomes a reflection of that idea – the idea behind the work – as well as the person doing it. 

• Michael Gerber

 
 
Happy Monday, 

Happy Labor Day and the first day of September to you!  I woke up this morning debating whether to sleep in a bit or to go ahead and begin the day, the week as usual writing this letter to you.  Sleep won out for an extra hour but here I am clicking away to you still pretty early on.  It’s hard to believe that this is the last official weekend of summer!   

Today is Travis’s first day of college. While it was not the easiest thing I ever did sending my son off last week. I did it.  I survived it. Now it’s time to think about the months ahead as he begins a new academic journey and his steps towards defining what his life’s work will become.  As he does that I take on the journey of accomplishing my own work that needs to be done in my world.  Having work that I love makes the pain of his being gone a little less brutal.   

Work – it is the reason Labor Day was created over a hundred years ago.  Celebrating those who labor.  It is interesting when you think about the work you do.  Some people see it as a paycheck and benefits.  For some it is the fiber of what they do.  In looking it up in the dictionary there were 9 different nouns for the word work.  Which best describes how you look at it?   

1. Paid employment at a job.
2. The duties or activities that are part of a job or occupation.
3. The place where somebody is employed.
4. The time that a person spends carrying out his or her job.
5. The physical or mental effort directed at doing or making something.
6. That which has been made or done as part of a job or as a result of effort or activity requiring skill (often used in combination).
7. An artistic or intellectual composition for example, a book, treatise, painting, sculpture, film or piece of music (often used in the plural).
8. The transfer of energy, measured as the product of force applied to a body and the distance moved by that body in the direction of the force.
9. That which has been or is in the process of being worked on or manufactured. 

 
The typical 40-hour a week job (with two weeks off for good behavior) equates to 2,000 hours a year that we put into our work or 80,000 hours over a 40-year period.  It is believed that those who work longer than this, doing what they love to do, live longer.  I believe it to be true.   

There is truly something to be said to be able to stand back and observe the fruits of your labors.  Sometimes it is through seeing – sometimes through knowing the difference your work has made in the life of others.   

This week’s picture is of a Gerber Daisy I have on the balcony outside my office window.  Over the course of the past few weeks the summer sun has been getting the better of it, drying the poor thing out quickly. A few days ago, it looked almost lifeless, I thought was not going to make it.  But with a little water and care, this morning it popped back to life.  As simplistic as this is, think of it in the terms of your work life or life’s work.   If through it you are feeling dissatisfied, burnout and lifeless sometimes it just takes a little adjustment in the nurturing you give yourself to bring it back to life.   

In the week ahead do what you love and love what you do! 

Singing your Song

A bird does not sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song. 

- Chinese Proverb 

It seems strange as we move into a new week that we will not be doing so with daily doses of inspiration from our Olympic athletes.  What comes must go sometimes and the songs from China are no more.  Just as I wrote to you last week, there are so many more things I could be writing about that transpired during the games.  Once again that little doll of an athlete Shawn Johnson brought her talent and her smile to the games, giving her a gold metal in the process. 

Last night during the closing ceremonies and flashbacks of the games were a reminder of not only the wins but the loses that were experienced as well.   The lives of many athletes were changed by the hugeness of those losses and the shock that was experienced.   The expectation of winning trickled away for a number of the athletes – like the Americans women and men’s teams who both dropped the baton in the relays.  The truth is now it will be a true test of their strength to see what they do with those losses.   

When it all comes down to it – stuff happens.  Things that we don’t want to have happen, happens.   Our song that is sung sometimes not play to the tune we had expected.  We can learn and grow from it.  Sure we can stop have a little pity party and go on, or we can let it over run our lives becoming a negative and destructive factor.  The choice is always ours.  The human spirit is so much stronger than we might think.   

I have had the chance to work with a remarkable lady over the past few months.  She had been handed a song ten years ago that had not such a wonderful tune.   At the age of 45 she had been diagnosed with MS. Her name is Wendy Booker and she is remarkable.  She took news that would have knocked most people under the table for good and decided to have it change her life for the better.   

Prior to her diagnosis she was not much of an athlete at all, dabbling in a little running and Jazzercise.   Since her diagnosis she has run a number of marathons including Boston and New York.  If that was not enough, she has now also climbed five of the seven summits of the world, getting ready within the next seven months to climb the other two.   As we have worked together in writing about her journey it has inspired me to be all that I can be – no matter what gets thrown in the road for me to jump over along the way.  

This is so important for me to keep in mind right now because in just two short little days from now, the day I knew was coming for the last 18 years is indeed happening.  My son Travis is getting in the car with his dad and driving away to college.  Although he is only 7 hours away in Durango it feels like it is going to be a million.   This past week I keep looking at him and his life has been flashing before my eyes.  The gift I have had of being his mother 24/7 seems to be slipping away.   

Now I know that I will always be his mother, but he just won’t need me as much anymore.  In fact, I had this epiphany the other day.     As a mother when you do your job well, your children leave you to find the world you told them to seek.  To be the successes you told them they could be.  To find joy and yes, I guess it to be true, to find their own song.  One that might have you in a stanza or two but most of the words will be their own.  My baby must fly from the nest…and I have got to suck it up and let him go. I must find other songs to sing without him everyday – a tall order but one that I know I must and will take on.   

In your week ahead I hope you find the song you are destined to be singing.  If it is a little off tune practice until you get it right.  Find those who can harmonize with you to share the journey with you.  Remember give it all you have to give and let those do-re-me’s ring true for you. 

Images of Joy

“You don’t have to put an age limit on your dreams.”   – Dara Torres 
 

With thoughts of the Olympic athletes swirling around in my head there is many thoughts of victory I could potentially write to you about this morning!  From Michael Phelps breaking the gold metal record by a mere 1/100^th of a second, to the pure joy that oozed out of Shawn Johnson as she danced across the floor to her silver victories (I love her energy!).  But the one thought that sticks with me the most is the words of today’s quote from Dara Torres.  These words came in reply when asked what she would tell her 2-year-old daughter in years to come as to what compelled her to win three Olympic metals at the age of 41. 

Perhaps I was more sensitive to this having just turned 51 this past week.  Having many dreams of my own that I hold close to my heart that I look forward to achieving in my life ahead, I could totally relate.  Now granted, I will not have the whole world watching as I move towards accomplishing those things that light my fire (and hopefully the fire of others) but they are just as important to me all the same.  No indeed the entire world does not need to be watching to help each of us move towards those things in life that bring us complete joy and satisfaction.   

Our dreams and goals can be comprised of physical accomplishments such as the Olympic athletes are sharing with us or it could be another type of personal or financial goal.  The key is to surround yourself with people who support and honor your hopes and dreams.  If you watch some of those Olympic Coaches it is as if they themselves had won the metals.  Their dedication the Olympians they coach is so strong.  It was almost as fun watching the reactions of Michael Phelps Mother and Sisters in the stands as he won each of his metals.  They were ecstatic each and every time.   

Ask yourself as you move forward in the week ahead, who are the people that support you in all that you do?  Who is it that you can turn to when fear gets the best of you?  Who is it that you know will be there for you when you hit the wall and cannot move an inch more forward towards your dreams.  Remember, these great athletes, while they are clearly in the spotlight – behind that light is a team of people who got them to where they are today.  Make sure you have your team backing you – each and every day. 

Crystal Clear Clarity

People who are confused take no action.  Clarity = Power.  You cannot commit if you are still looking.   – Keith Cunningham 
 

This morning as I write to you I am hitting the ground running after spending a full weekend with Bailey in the mountains.  Many memories were created over the last few days including driving in the car in which my daughter was the driver for the very first time!  Now she is a late bloomer when it comes to the world of driving and I have said a few Hail Mary’s in gratitude over this fact.  But she now has her permit and for the next year she will be my chauffer until she gets her license and heads out on her own (more Hail Mary’s to come).   

Last week as I came across this week’s quote and found it to be  – oh so true.  Even in teaching Bailey the ins and outs of driving I realized it is an activity where you can’t be indecisive – either you move, move correctly, or you pay the consequences.  There were a couple of times when she got a bit confused (and rightly so, there is a lot to it) and found it hard to make a decision in moving forward.  Thankfully my Hail Mary’s were working and she made the right decision quick enough to keep us safe and – well sound might be not the correct word – so let’s leave it at safe.   

There was a woman who came to our booth at the show we were doing in Winter Park who was looking at the jewelry we had on display.  She looked, tried on, looked, tried on and looked some more.  She loved the pieces, they looked great on her but she could not make a decision to buy.  She shared that she was going to think about it, make a decision and come back.  I told Bailey that we would not see her again because I could see by the look in her eyes that she had moved into complete overwhelm and gone beyond the possibility of making a decision.  

Has that ever happened to you, you want something so bad that you can almost taste it but you can’t move towards it for anything?  In fact, the harder you try the farther away from you it seems to get.  Something internally is confusing the situation.  Clarity needs to be the goal in order to achieve what you are heading towards.  Take a look at the Olympians that are working towards their dreams in the weeks ahead.  Those who are excelling have complete clarity.   

Finding clarity sometimes comes easier when we give our mind a rest.  Two examples I have found is either just letting the thought go or getting some sleep.  The expression “Things will look brighter in the morning” come from letting our mind get some rest. I have also found in the process of finding something that has been misplaced that just by not worrying about it, letting it reappear, it usually does.    Clarity does indeed equal power.   

So in the week ahead, what is the area of your life where you are looking for clarity?  What would it bring to you if you had the clarity to make some decisions, big or small?   

Wishing you a week of crystal clear clarity!