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I work with my husband.
WITH him.
Not FOR him.

For 30 years we’ve worked side-by-side –
usually in the same physical office,
our desks within throwing distances.

How do we measure time?

On December 30th three years ago,
we were on Rapa Nui.

Easter Island.
A tiny island with a long history.

Can’t is a 4-letter word. It’s a curse. A threat. A boundary.
“You can’t” … you don’t belong, you’ll end up hurt.

Can’t creates hesitation and doubt.

“Be strong.”
As we plan my mother’s funeral, the word Strong comes up over and over. Be strong. Your mother was so strong.
What is strong?
Mom was a tall, physically strong woman, who grew up working on the farm. Her grip was strong. When she held your hand, you knew it. She could heave 25 pound bags of flour with one hand.
She was intelligent. Smart. Mathematically astute. She was mentally strong … until Alzheimer’s slowly destroyed her thinking skills.

Forget perfect. Perfection is procrastination.
It distracts us from fulfillment.
Yes, perfection can be satisfying – but true joy springs from letting go.

Perhaps the hardest thing we do is pause.
Reflect. Learn from the past year. Years.

One word showed up strongly on my 2020 vision board: Share.

I’m a writer. I believe in the power of words. I write for business, for education and for marketing purposes. I trust my skills to elicit results when working on those projects. I’m also an introvert. So, where an extrovert might call friends and have long chats, I grab a pen or keyboard and write long passages. I have decades of journals, reams of poetry, a completed novel, and three books in draft stages. My private words. My silent stories.

Stories that may not stay silent any longer. I blame that on a compliment.

By honoring perfection and order, my parents unintentionally taught me NOT to finish things. That line jumped out from my journal the other day, followed by a cascade of insights into why my life has been an endless series of starts and stops.

I want to be who I am. Genuine, authentic. Branding myself suggests I have to figure out who I should be. How do I present myself to attract followers? To impress others? Who do I want to identify with me?

The predictable reaction to change is discomfort. Why?

How do we “recalculate” and see change as adventure?