I’m sitting at San Francisco Airport (SFO), 8:10am Friday morning waiting for my 9:20 flight to Seattle (SEA). Can’t wait to see Miss Em and Bob (and Ryan, Em’s boyfriend)…It’s going to be an action packed 4 days as I’ve got lots of people to see this trip and things to do.
“Grateful” is in keeping with the Thanksgiving Holiday coming up next week. I’m starting the Holiday early. I’ll be joining my kids in an early Turkey dinner at Bill (their Dad) and Greg’s on Sunday afternoon.
Mark and I at various times have tried to keep a gratitude journal. We’re back doing it again. I love how jotting down 5 things a day keeps ones awareness on all there is to be grateful for… For instance yesterday I got an email from JudeAnn Wilson. She works in the Development Office for LCSS, the Lafayette (Indiana) Catholic School System (of which I’m a product). I had contacted her last summer to see if she’d be interested in my calendars for a fundraiser. She thought the Sophomore class might be interested, that didn’t work. Then she told me the German club might be interested. That didn’t work. I’d given up and in the meantime wondered what the hell I was going to do with all these calendars yet my optimism made me think somehow they’d find homes. Her email yesterday let me know that the St. Mary’s Parish Priest was interested in Calendars for a fundraiser they were doing for the school (I graduated 8th grade from St. Mary’s!) and could I ship them immediately. YEAH!! I was able to ship 2 boxes (96 calendars) yesterday. I kept thinking, “this will be a good thing to be grateful for in the gratitude journal!”
And since last Friday when I had my last one on one coaching session with Martha Zlatar, I’ve been meaning to write about her closing comment to me, which I was soooo grateful to hear! One of the many benefits of working with the SF Small Business Development Center (SBDC) is the ability to get free coaching. I began working with Martha in April. Over the course of the 7 months we’ve met either in person or on the phone 10 times. I have made HUGE strides in my thinking since then. In April I lacked the confidence I have today. Though I “hoped” to get here, I also had a lot of doubt. I was worried too much about money, or lack of it more appropriately. One of the first things Martha had me do was write 3 immediate goals and then asked me to write a 3 year vision plan. She encouraged me to thing Big, be Bold! I hesitated at first trying to “figure out” how my huge vision would come to pass but with her suggestion to also do a “vision board” of what I’d written, it became plausible…I began to trust. I also had experiences that reinforced my cards would be accepted in the world. In short, I began to have successes to share every time we began a session…and in closing last week she stated, “You were sooooooo meant to do this!” Grateful Grateful for such a positive, reinforcing comment! Thanks Martha!!
It’s now Saturday morning. I’m down at my favorite Tully’s coffee shop on Alki (the beach) in West Seattle. It is cooooooold here! Temps in the low 30’s, but with the cold it is also crisp and sunny outside. I hope to capture the Olympic Mountains looming over the Sound in a photo.
The real reason I flew up here was to support my daughter in her Holiday Open House at NW Art and Frame today. Em has been the one to make this happen. Her boss, Debbie, had cancer and passed away rather suddenly in August. It was tough on everyone at the store to cope with the loss of Debbie. They decided to go ahead with the annual Open House but someone needed to coordinate it all. That became Emily. She called me quite a bit over the past few weeks in a state of overwhelm but I’d remind her to breathe and through talking it out she’d be ok. Now is her day to shine and I’m going to be one of the people filling a time slot (like I did for years when Debbie coordinated the Open House). I’m sooooooo proud of my daughter today, for stepping up to the plate and stepping into her destiny! And I’ll be there to high five her at the end of the day!! So Grateful for that!!!