Archive for May 2009

Often we learn best when we see ourselves reflected in the eyes of another. It might be through a family member, a best friend, or even through a miracle in nature. And so, a few summers ago I had the privilege of hosting a very special guest in our home to teach me a few things about life: a monarch chrysalis.

Previously, my dad watched this creation from the very beginning as a tiny pin-prick of an egg on a milkweed plant in his garden. From there, a tiny caterpillar hatched, grew into a big caterpillar, and then created a special cocoon for itself where the magic began to weave.

Upon my dad’s urging, Bill and I stopped over and picked up this beautiful chrysalis, hanging from a branch, and took it home to nurture until it was ready to leave. Our new houseguest was a brilliant green cocoon with perfectly arranged dots of gold decoration. This was our first experience with a chrysalis and we weren’t quite sure what to expect. So we watched. And we waited. We heard that, apparently, a large butterfly was supposed to come out of that small green chrysalis!

You probably know how the story goes—a week later, a monarch butterfly emerged and flew away. In the final days and hours before this monumentous event, though, my Read more »

I’ve been following my joy around since the early 90’s, and his name happens to be Bill. We got married 15 years ago today! I remember the day before our wedding, he consoled me after I had a meltdown from being so overwhelmed. He then proceeded to iron my outfit for our rehearsal dinner and help me pack my suitcase for our honeymoon; two tasks which I couldn’t seem to do on my own. That day he picked me up when I fell, and as the years go by, life with Bill has only gotten sweeter.

After all the preparations were made and everything was set for our big day, Bill said, “Wait! We forgot something!” He continued to say that it might be helpful to have barf bags in the church pews because people might get sick from us being so cute together up on the altar. Good one! This young twenty-something dude was always thinking.

In our first apartment together, complete with hand-me-down mismatched furniture from gracious family members, we said that our marriage was like a “24-hour slumber party.” And 15 years later that couldn’t be more right-on, as we still can’t seem to get enough of each other.

Feeling grateful

And so this morning as I wave out the window to Bill as he drives away to work, my heart is full with gratitude. Watching him cruise down the road, I think to myself Read more »

There are a handful of times in my life where I have experienced something so powerful that it moved me to tears. And hearing two consecutive voice mails back in the summer of 2005 was one of those times. One was a message from a stranger and one was from my husband, Bill. I listened to the stranger’s message which began with, “Hi, you don’t know me, but…” and he continued to state why he was calling. And then I wept. I don’t know that I have ever had that strong of a reaction to such a natural turn of events, but this is one of those times where I knew my life would never be the same.

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In the early 90’s when Bill and I first decided to hang together (and knew it would be forever!), we talked about our greatest love—vacations and travel. We simply couldn’t get enough of the “adventure” side of life and were delighted to be on the same page with each other.

Hooked on vacations

Early on in our business, we led workshops together on creating conscious vacations, we spoke at travel conferences, we created our own vacation-planning process that quickly got the media’s Read more »

I love The Who. And although I’m a new fan, in a short amount of time I’ve developed some pretty good stories. Sitting in the front row, hanging with the road crew, and even going backstage! You’ll hear more about that later, but for now I want to share what I think is the most powerful story of them all.

A trip to L.A. but no concert tickets in-hand

Bill and I had made plans to see the band on back-to-back nights at a smaller theater in L.A. We like to make a big deal out of our concert trips by exploring the city and doing some touristy things as well. So while the concerts were the catalyst for the trip, we also planned to hang out in Hollywood, drive up to Malibu, stay a night on the beach, and visit the Getty Museum. We also managed to sneak in a last-minute taping of “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno.

Most importantly, though, we were on a mission to see The Who! The two shows had sold out immediately, and we didn’t have tickets. But we already had our flight and hotel reservations in place, so we decided to plan on some great seats opening up at the last minute. And while it felt a little risky, we trusted that it would all work out.

I looked at the theater seating chart and hand-selected what I thought were the best two seats in the house: Front row, center aisle, right in front of guitar legend, Pete Townshend. I playfully and intentionally mocked up two concert tickets as a visual reminder of Read more »