Hurrah!

It's always fun to achieve a goal, delight a customer or acknowledge a deserving family member or associate.    In our hurried world, it's important to take time to say "hurrah!" when successes are achieved - those of others and our own.  The treadmill of continuous activity can be a detriment to the important celebratory pause.

Look at Who?

This week has provided the opportunity for me to be a part of two special luncheons honoring most deserving women and men.  It's always energizing to me, to celebrate the accomplishments of high achievers.  Of the many awards presented during these two very different events, one presentation was distinctively different than all others.  This very articulate, poised presenter did a lovely job of making the honoree shine.  But by also drawing significant attention inward to the credentials of the presenter, generated the feeling of "look at the honoree, but don't forget to look at me".  This most gracious honoree, not only made the presenter feel special, but also heaped obviously heartfelt appreciation and praise on so many others who were part of the honoree's success.  The "look at you" recipient garnered the respect that the "look at me" presenter was obviously craving.

In this case there was a significant contrast between the one receiving and presenting the award.  Naturally, the "look at you" recipient was far more favorably accepted than the "look at me" presenter. 

When we're honoring another, the entire focus is most appropriately on the honoree.  When we take time to selflessly honor another, the reflected praise from the recipient has far more impact than any attempts at misplaced, self-generated acknowledgement. 

Questions Connect

Questions connote interest, elicit information and give us the chance to discover commonalities when we pay attention to the answers given. 

Childhood-like Day

Only after I'd read the last page of the latest novel of one of my favorite authors, and reported my lazy day to family, did I realize that I had allowed myself the opportunity to enjoy a childhood day.  I did what I wanted to do, rather, than what I thought I should do.  (No r.s.v.p.s were neglected.)

I, thankfully, grew up in an era long before hyper programming was the norm.  My very wise Mother encouraged us to engage in many group activities, but also knew that unstructured time was great for the soul.

As a youngster, I loved Nancy Drew mysteries, as had my Mother, and fondly remember undisturbed opportunities to devour a new book.

Though I remain an avid reader, I rarely allow myself the opportunity to disengage, childlike, and spend most of a weekend day reading.

Often, when we embrace the things that brought great joy in childhood, we bring more joy to our adult years.

Light or Smudges

Generally when I look through windows I see light and landscape.  Today, I saw smudges as I cleaned the insides and outsides of some of our many double paned windows.  Fortunately, I'm usually looking beyond arm's reach.  Whether we're looking for light or smudges, we'll usually find what we expect to see.

Your Organization Is Mine

At a lovely charity luncheon and style show today I met a colleague's guest, and asked about her organization.  She wasn't certain that I'd know of it, but, in an everything's connected way - she works for my law school.  Suddenly, three non-practicing attorneys had the opportunity to collectively appreciate our law school education and the positive impact on our lives.

When we are eager to meet and connect with new people, we often reap unexpected  rewards.  Though I'm extremely grateful for my legal training, I'd not recently had occasion to consciously remember some of the many benefits of this undertaking.  When we take the time to understand our connections, we often realize that your affiliation is mine. 

Intentional v. Unintentional

Things don't always happen as we'd hope.  Often it is unintentional neglect, oversight or ignorance of the situation that causes angst or hurt feelings.  When appropriately addressed, we can forgive and move on.  However, many damaged relationships occur because we think (or know) that the slights were intentional. 

Regardless of our assessment of how intentional or unintentional the action or inaction may be, we owe it to ourselves to assess the importance of the real or perceived unmet expectation. 

Valued relationships deserve fair assessments, the benefit of the doubt and second chances.

We all make many unintentional, and often unconscious, mistakes. 

Often, we need to accept heartfelt apologies intentionally and excuse unintentional slights as anomalies.