Category: Big Lessons

Venting: Not Just for Dryers

My father used to day “Denial is a perfectly functional response”.  The short version of this is “Denial.  It works”.    I have learned that the same is true for VENTING.  It’s functional.  It works.

Venting is a little different than complaining.  It’s different because it’s often preceded with the warning/disclaimer of “I just need to vent”, which means “I need to talk and you need to listen”.  This is an awesome arrangement, in my opinion and in my experience.  It allows the venter to process, to get it off his or her chest, to hear the words out loud that otherwise are going to rattle inside the head for who-knows-how-long.

Like complaining, which I also love in its place, venting lets us get to the heart of the matter.  Maybe not immediately, but often eventually.    The ventee can sometimes help with that or sometimes not.  Good friends usually get this right, but if not it’s usually a self-correcting process, as in “I just need to tell you this!  I don’t need a solution!”

Venting and complaining can lead to great changes and great things.

Long Live Venting.

I am a Writer

I have learned that I am a writer.  First, I learned it from all of you, who said that this counted.  Who knew?

Then I learned from the two gifted other members of my writing group, Kat and Ariel.

And all along I learned from my sister, Lava, who seemed to call me a writer before I had written anything.  (Ahh, unconditional support!  Nothing beats it!)

And now I have actually submitted TWO items for publication!  I learned about the Chicken Soup for the Soul submission process from Lava, who has had many stories published there, and I did it!  Just now!

Avoiding Meeting Madness

So many lessons from one event, and the first one learned by me about a thousand times so far,, and counting.

1. VERIFY the meeting time!  Otherwise, a leisurely trip may turn into a big crisis, needlessly!  It’s as easy as counting on the calendar, rather than my memory.  Just do it!

2. Comm Ave at Kenmore Square is a great place to catch a cab

3. A cab ride is that saves the day is worth its weight in gold.  Well…maybe not quite that much. But possibly the more than the number on the meter, and I can split the difference.  Well… maybe not split it in half, but I can certainly afford to show my appreciation for having my day saved.

4. It feels really good, when going to a new place to meet with new people, to arrive early.

Be Open

The lesson for this day is “Be Open”.  Kat and I started the week with this intention and this day (3/10) taught the lesson:  Be open to whatever comes your way.  That’s the short version.

Here is the long version:

After a two days of sitting in San Francisco hotel conference center chaird and listening to technical presentations via PowerPoint, I knew I had to find a yoga class.  The hotel concierge found and printed a listing of a studio nearby, with a class schedule.  “Mellow Flow” sounded exactly right!  I walked over and was waiting for the elevator with another yoga-looking person.  Sure enough, she said she was going to yoga, so I followed her.  I asked her if it was indeed “mellow” and she was non-committal, as was the woman who checked me in.  They both asked me if I had done Kundalini yoga before – I had sampled it as part of another class, just once.

I seemed to have the times wrong so I had to make some quick arrangements for meeting a friend after class.

The space was beautiful – a high-ceilinged loft with low lights and LED tealights, which made me think of Sally.  There was a green book in a basket – World’s Healthiest Foods – Gale’s bible.  The teacher, with whom I had arrived, it turned out, looked like Lava’s friend Liz, and was named Michelle.  I felt surrounded by connections.

The class was awesome!  Kundalini yoga is all about breathwork and meditation.  The postures were few, but just right.  The music was great.

After class, the teacher served tea and date balls!  Who ever heard of snacks at yoga class?

I told her that I enjoyed the class but that I was surprised that it was called “Mellow Flow”.

That’s when I found out that I had gone to the wrong place!  Mellow Flow was on the floor below this class, in a complete separate yoga studio!

Who ever heard of two yoga studios in one building?

The wrong place at the wrong time turned out to be absolutely and exactly the right time and place for me.

 

Be Grateful and Thrive

OK, I confess I just stole this title from looking at someone else’s magazine on this plane, but I’m sure the article is also about what I learned in February.

For each day of the month, I posted something for which I was grateful, as my Facebook status.  It was a very rewarding experience and made me very aware of how fortunate I am and how many things there are to be grateful for*, both large and small, in my life.

From the obvious and big, including my wonderful friends and family, to the obvious and small, Egg McMuffins, and on to the not so obvious, a taxi or superglue when nothing else would do the job.

I am learning that my awareness of my gratitude has extended beyond February.

* I am grateful that I having my own blog means that I can end sentences and phrases with prepositions.

 

BOOK EARLY already!

WHAT is so hard to learn about this lesson?  Why am I still learning it?  Or not learning it??  Book flights early!  As soon as you know your dates.   Just do it!

I lost out on using a free flight just by snoozing and waiting.  I ended up paying for it, and paying twice what it would have cost a week ago, at that!

Book early!!!!!

Go to Jamesons

This lesson has to start with a story.

It was May, 1981.  Steve went to local hangout, the bar at the Queen City Motor Inn.  “Where is everyone?”, he asked the bartender.  “Oh we’re out”, was the reply. “Jameson’s Social Club is in, now.  Everyone  goes there”.  So Steve went there.  And there we met.

I am learning to go to Jameson’s.

Instead of pushing and pushing for everyone to come back to Queen City, or in this case to put project resources on the project that was very important, I am learning to look around at what now is important, see where everyone has gone, and go join them there!

As Steve says, “good things happen” when you do this!