Newton's 3rd Law

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

* Smile at a baby and the baby smiles back.
* Tickle a child and hear them giggle.
* Be kind to someone and watch them smile.

Today we live in a society where you can do almost anything you want and never have to think about the effect you will have on someone else. We don’t teach our children about consequences for their actions. We live our secret lives never expecting anyone to find out.

Any yet, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. It will hurt someone else.

Let’s think about what we do and the impact it has on other and have a positive effect.

My New Best Friend

In May I started working out at the YMCA. I went to be with friends, to get this body into better shape and to keep from having a knee replacement. In the last 6 months I have lost at least one size in clothing, went from not able to walk on the treadmill for 3 minutes to easily doing 60 minutes at 10% incline as a warm-up and have met a few new friends along the way. One of those friends is a bag of frozen peas.

To be honest, I have never been easy on my body, always pushing it to do things it was never meant to do. I played sports and what I lacked in natural ability I made up for in determination and persistence. That is in part why today I have one knee that was rebuilt in the mid-70s and the other needs some major work.


Each night I come home from the Y and grab my bag of peas out of the freeze and sit at my computer or in front of the TV with that bag on a sore body part, a knee, a foot, a shoulder. I know that without my buddy the peas I would be unable to continue the workouts so we have this wonderful relationship where we spend just the right about of time together, not too short and definitely not too long (have you ever had frost bite on your shoulder? I have.)

As I think of it that bag of peas is like family. They help you to remember who you are, they ease some of the pain of life, but you sure don’t want to spend too much time with them.

So next time you have an ache get yourself a bag of frozen peas.

If I Never

If I never tried,
………………… I would not fail
………………… I would not over come
……………….. I would not succeed

If I never cared,
………………… I would not feel rejected
………………… I would not feel satisfaction
………………… I would not feel as if I truly lived

If I never loved,
………………… I would not know heart ache
………………… I would not know true happiness
………………… I would not know true love

Leadership is not........

I was thinking about leadership the other night. Getting people to do task, to participate is more than just telling them what to do. In my career I have had the opportunity to have people report to me and have had the opportunity to lead many cross functional teams where I have no real authority over any of them.

People often think that Leadership is about ‘Telling’ someone what to do, but the truth is leadership is about having the ability to get people to ‘want’ to do things. You get them to want to because you have created a case showing them what the benefits or values are in completing the task. You get people to follow your leadership out of respect for you because they trust that you have a great good in mind and aren’t just doing it for self. Or people follow your leadership because they see where what you are doing will improve them or what they want.

I have had Leaders that I willingly followed and I have had Leaders that I had to follow. Given the choice I would choose a leader that I wanted to follow.

A true leader does not need to bark out commands or threaten.

Leadership is not…..


DICTATORSHIP

Shhh, Listen

The tick, tick, tick of clock on the wall, the sound of a train running through the valley and an occasional car diving buy on the rain slicked roads. The house is quiet tonight. I enjoy the quiet.


It is nice to just have quiet.

Veterans Day

Remember those that have served so that we can be free. It might just be one of your co-workers, uncles, brother, or sisters. Everyone of them,living or dead deserve a heart felt thanks today and every day.

Flooded Fields

My normal commute takes me through some very pretty farm country. Now that we are into the fall and it is dark going to and coming home from work I usually don’t pay attention to the scenery but this morning in the dark I caught a faint reflection out of the corner of my eye and when I looked over to the left it appeared as if I was driving along a lake. Over the weekend the river that runs through the valley had risen over its banks leaving the field flooded. As the night sky lightened I could see that most of the area had standing water and the horses that once grazed in that larger pasture were now in a small pen next to the house up on a hill.

Farming along a river has many advantages; the soil is rich, the water is plentiful and the land is flat. However, there is the price you pay for the seasonal flooding. Flooding in this valley is common and that means the residents are more than able and prepared to handle it. It is a price that the owners of this land pay for all the benefits that it offers.

There is always a price to pay; we just need to make sure the benefit out ways the cost.

Factory Reset

Two of our IT staff work out of the same Office I am in. Today one of them got the infamous Blue Screen of Death on his lap top. That was when we started talking about the Special Blue Button on our IBM ThinkPads. Pushing that the blue button walks you through the steps to reformat the hard drive and then reinstall the software that was part of the original factory installation.

What if there was a Blue Button that would allow us to go to a factory reset of our bodies. No more wrinkles, no more scares from the bumps and bruises of life, no more heart ache from being misunderstood and offended. We push the blue button and we are reset to the way we were designed to be.

Just 5 Little Words

“Home is where the heart is”, “Home, Sweet Home” both phrases are common. But what is a home?

Almost 4 years ago I relocated my mom from her home to here. The previous 73yrs Michigan had been the only place she had ever lived. She endured the extreme cold and feet of snow every winter, the high heat and humidity every summer. All that doesn’t change a thing in her heart, it will always be home.

While a residential dwelling is often referred to as a "home," the concept of home is broader than a physical dwelling. Home is often a place of refuge and safety, where worldly cares fade and the things and people that one loves becomes the focus.

Today I was with my mom as we prepare to move her to her 3rd residence in less than 4 years. My mom doesn’t share much of what she if feeling. She tends to just go with the flow, on the outside at least. During that interview she was asked to write any phrase or sentence that came to mind. She wrote 5 little words that had so much power and completely described the impact of what was happening to her.

She has Parkinson’s disease and every day she loses just a little more of that ability to control her body. She keeps being socially engaged in anything she possibly can. To take her outside and allow her to sit in the sun and enjoy the fresh air or to be able to listen to or sing along to music are the things that she enjoys most now.

That phrase, I want to go home.

What do I think?

I am sitting here after 11pm on Election night I was just asked “What do I think?” My response, “What changed, this is still the best country in the world, we still have the ability to elect our leaders, no one man controls this country or makes our laws or policies. So what changed?” Yes we will have a new President.

So what changed, this great country of ours elected its first non-White president. I sit here and remember vividly the 5 days of pure hell that occurred in 1967 approximately 50 miles from my home. I am talking about the Detroit riots. After the 1st day of the riots my dad took my sister and I out and showed us where his gun was, where the ammo was and how to fire the weapon. I was 11 and my sister was 15. We were taught how to defend our home and our younger siblings incase anything happened while my mom and dad were at work. All it took was one call from my uncle who was a Detroit Cop and we were on alert status.

The origins of urban unrest in Detroit were rooted in a multitude of political, economic, and social factors including police abuse, lack of affordable housing, urban renewal projects, economic inequality, black militancy, and rapid demographic change.

Our election results are truly historical. I am proud of how far this country has come in the last 40+ years. What do I think? This man will work within the confines of our Constitution and do what he truly feels is best for this country. I may not agree with the direction but I will continue to pray for wisdom and clarity for our president and all those around him.

Healthy Foods

I was doing a little web reading today during lunch and ran across an interesting article on 7 foods that fight over-40 fat. Since I am over-40 (52 to be exact) and have a desire to burn off some of the EXTRA fat I have been carrying, this article caught my attention.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that 3 of the items on the list are already a normal part of my life. 1) Water instead of Soft drinks. I cut out unnecessary sugar – no soft drinks, pastries, candy – in my mid- 40s and until recently my weight stayed in check. 2) Eat Walnuts. My favorite snack is walnuts; every weekend when my husband goes to the grocery store he buys me a small bag of walnuts. I ask for the small bag because I have trouble not eating the entire bag so a small one is perfect. 3) Hot Sauce. Anyone that knows me knows that when eating out I use jalapenos or Tabasco sauce on just about everything. I love tasty spicy food. It is true, it makes me feel good.

So what is the point of this, it is just one of those days where I needed to look at what I am doing right and decided to share.

The Right Atmosphere

Think about the Lunar Module. These ships were designed to land on the moon and protect the astronauts that were on board of it. When you see one up close one of the first things that jumps out at you is how fragile it really looks. Did you know that the same materials that are used for helium party balloons were a major part of the Lunar Module? Look closely at this picture and you will see that the reflective material is in fact a gold coated Mylar foil that is about 0.0005in think. The Lunar Module was designed for a specific atmosphere; it functioned best in that atmosphere.

We are designed for a specific atmosphere and it is when we can control our atmosphere that we are at our peak performance. We can protect our atmosphere by what we allow to be around us. We need to protect what we see and hear. We need to provide the proper rest and nutrition for our bodies to thrive. We need to provide an atmosphere that is full of life to live a life that is full.