Love Your Neighbor

It was Saturday around mid-morning when I looked out the front window and saw a little girl from up the street bent over and looking with intense focus in one of our flower beds. I watched for a moment and realized that she was repeatedly picking something up and putting it down. So, I wandered outside to see what was happening.

As I approached, I saw that she was holding a huge old toad that had just woken up from winter hibernation. It was a bit lethargic but nevertheless it was eager to be on it’s merry way.

“Hi there. What have you got?,” I asked.

“I found a big old frog”, she replied.

“Wow! I think it is a toad who just woke up from a winter nap.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Can I keep it?”

“No, but you can come and visit it when ever you like. I don’t think it is going to travel far. It likes being around the flowers and the bugs that are attracted to them.”

“OK.”

And with that she put down the toad, hoped on her bike and headed home.

A couple of days later, I was out weeding in the front yard. When a small voice behind me asked, “Have you seen Mr. Toad today?”

“No, but I suspect he is around here some place.”

We looked for a minute or two but we could not find the toad.

“What are you doing?”, she inquired.

“Pulling weeds. I want to grow flowers more than I do little trees and dandelions.”

“Did you know my Mom is a nurse?”

“Yes. She has an important job.”

“I know. Do you have any extra flowers I could give her? I want to thank her for what she does.”

At the moment, I was weeding a flower bed that had about three hundred plus daffodils in full bloom. I looked around and said, “Definitely. I have more than enough to share. Let me go and get some scissors from the house. You start thinking which colors you like.”

When I returned from the house, she pointed out all the different kinds she liked and I clipped two or three of each kind until we had a bouquet of flowers that required two little hands to hold.

At that moment, her Mom called from up the street and started walking down toward our house. This sweet little girl popped the big bouquet of flowers behind her back. 

Next, she looked at me and then she looked at her bike. Having gotten the message, I put down my scissors and picked up her little bike. Together we walked up the hill toward her Mom. 

Soon, Mom and daughter met with huge smiles and hugs. The little girl was beaming and the Mom was close to tears from the act of such love.

I handed the Mom the bike, thanked her for her work as a nurse, and headed back down the street. As I came to our front steps and picked up the scissors, I thought of the following quote from the book of Matthew, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

In a world that has been turned upside down and sideways all at the same time, it is time for each of us all to remember this simple but powerful phrase.

As sheltering in place slowly comes to an end, we must continue to be generous, kind and compassionate people. We need to be present to one another and support one another as best we can. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote, “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” And loving your neighbor is a powerful “little bit of good.” 

Remember: the only way through this is together. Friend to friend. Neighbor to neighbor.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Look at the Bigger Picture

In January through early April of this year, I shared with all of you on a weekly basis about working thought the trough of chaos during interesting times. Then throughout the rest of the spring, I covered the many topics that we explored at the Spring 2018 From Vision to Action Executive Roundtable. For example, I shared about the connection between organizational history, culture and meaningful work within successful organizations, how to improve thinking within an organization, and how leaders can be both brave and bold during difficult times. In July, August and early September, I wrote weekly about the lessons I’ve learned from the countless hours of visiting with great leaders. And finally this fall, I shared with all of you what we explored during the Fall 2018 From Vision to Action Executive Roundtable. The focus this year was on building, maintaining, and improving teams during the digital era. And now, we come to the last full week before Christmas, Kwanzaa and then New Year’s Eve. 

In a world filled with challenges, complexities and problems, we, as leaders, can become overwhelmed, worried, numb, and burned out. We also can become cynical about the future and our ability to adapt to the new and emerging challenges and problems around the world. We could just give up and choose not to lead. But I strongly discourage us from falling into this mindset.

Instead, I encourage each of us to remember four things. First, organizational change is the sum of individual change. Therefore, we must commit to on-going personal and professional development. As Gandhi said so many years ago, “we must be the change we wish to see in the world.”

Second, we must create “islands of sanity”, referencing a term from the work of Margaret Wheatley. We must create safe and empowering spaces at home and at work where people can do the deep personal and professional work of becoming better people and better partners with colleagues throughout the company, and the world.

Third, this is the season when we must come together and rediscover what unites us rather than what divides us. We must focus on finding and rekindling inside ourselves and others a sense of higher purpose to our lives and to our work. We must build the bonds which will hold and support us through our challenges. We can not let others stand alone to face the difficulties of this time.

And finally, we must give the gift of love, support and respect this season to all we meet. By this act alone, we will transform the big picture and create a place were people will feel like their life is meaningful and special.

May this holiday season be the beginning of many special moments of connection and joy for you and yours. Thanks for including me in this important work, and I look forward to being back in touch with all of you on Monday, January 7, 2019.

Warm wishes and happy holidays to each of you!

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Living Into the Moment of Now

Recently, I was washing dishes and looking out the kitchen window as the sun broke over the eastern horizon. My mind was full of everything that I needed to get done. E-mails, deadlines, and prep work for upcoming events were consuming me. I felt burdened by the pressures of the coming day.

However, with the arrival of the dawn’s light on this particular cold winter morning, I paused and surveyed the land. And there before my eyes in the walnut tree on the edge of our field was a mature bald eagle. Illuminated by the morning sun, it’s white head shined bright. Bold in size and stature, I was captivated. It was a miracle of nature and so magnificently beautiful.

Later, upon reflection, I realized that in that precise moment when I first saw the bald eagle all my worries had vanished. There was nothing but an overwhelming sense of awe, joy, gratitude and connection. It was a moment that changed me and changed my day.

I remember a similar feeling when I was younger and in the early stages of falling in love. Just seeing her come through a crowded room made my heart skip a beat. She was my complete focus and her presence filled me with joy. All that was before me was beauty and love. College, homework, papers and tests all fell by the wayside and there was nothing but this moment of heart felt connection.

I have had similar experiences with each of our children. The joy of seeing them after a business trip, the delight of seeing them figure out how to ride a bike for the first time, the pride of seeing them graduate to a new level of learning. In these special moments, there is nothing but an undivided and complete attention to now.

Yet, at our jobs and often at home many of us are consumed by endless amounts of work. We suffer from obsessive compulsive productivity disorder. Our lives have become binary in nature, i.e. all work and then an exhausted night with poor sleep. We push and push hoping to make some dent or progress in the piles or with the endless e-mails. And as we are consumed by all of this busy-ness and business, we miss the many miracles of now that surround us. 

The eagle in the tree at dawn was just experiencing the moment of the sunrise. It was not trying to be some place else or rush off to its morning meeting. It was not distracted by the beeping or buzzing of a cell phone. Instead, the eagle was deep into the moment of now.

We forget that we have the opportunity to make a similar choice ourselves. We can choose to be more present to the moment of now or we can choose to be consumed by endless details that are swirling around us. 

This commitment to living into the fullness of now is a commitment to wholeness over fragmentation. It is the choice to see our children as the living miracles they are. It is the choice to see our husbands, wives and partners as the wonderful people there are and have always been. It is a choice to build and maintain this connection to the now on a daily basis. 

And when we do this, we are often gifted with the miracle of seeing a bald eagle at dawn. Then, in this moment of complete attention to now, we feel whole, at peace and one with the entire world around us.

My hope is that each of you can live into more moments of now this holiday season. It will transform you, your family and this special time of year into one of countless blessings and miracle connections.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Small Acts of Loving Kindness

Some days we get so busy being the leader that we forget that small acts of loving kindness have a dramatic and long lasting impact.

In early January, my mother passed away. During and after the memorial service, many people shared about the impact of her actions in their lives. For example, a retired woman lawyer shared how my Mom taught her how to sew and cook as a young woman. Another person told me that my Mom was his first Sunday School teacher and then shared how important my Mom was in his life journey. Person after person had similar experiences to share. And when I listened to all of them, I realized that they were just a series of small acts done with loving kindness. When they are all added up, they had a dramatic impact and long lasting impact on the lives of so many others.

In our busy lives as leaders, we need to give ourself permission to have this level of interaction with others. We need to be more present to the moment rather than completely focused on the future. We need to protect the things that are of value from the things that really do not matter so much. As Goethe reminds us: “Never let the things that matter most be at the mercy of the things that matter least.” 

This week and for the entire rest of the summer, I challenge you to offer more small acts of loving kindness. It will have a huge impact in the lives of others and in your own life.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Remembering Our Loved Ones

Many years ago during the last week in March, we lost my wife’s brother to cancer. Any one who has lost a loved one and continued moving forward knows this is not an easy pathway. It comes with much in-depth thinking and reflection.

His wife Julie, a gifted poet, shared about this journey in a collection of poetry called Face to Face published by Cascadia in June 2010. Recently, she shared another poem with us that I in turn would like to share with all of you. I hope it will help you on your journey as you remember your loved ones this week.

Pie

By Julie Cadwallader-Staub

Skin, like piecrust, was invented

to keep our insides in

and the outside out.

Skin, like piecrust, is surprisingly tough;

stretches beyond imagining;

and can be patched with pieces of its own self,

leaving it strong in the broken places.

Thirty years ago this month, I prepared for my wedding;

Twenty years ago, I was raising three children under the age of five;

Ten years ago, my husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer

and we lost him.

Tell me, to whom do we belong if not to one another?

Doesn’t a longing for belonging

mark us as human beings?

The One who mixed flour and water

who fashioned us to be functional, resilient, beautiful-

that same Spirit pierces us

again and again

to let the inside out

and the outside in

that we might pray,

and change

and recognize our need for one another

and for the One who made us

that we might embody the same gravitational force

exerted by a pie, just out of the oven:

the way it pulls people out of every dark corner,

with its fragrant promise of communion and joy.

(Reprinted by permission. To read more of Julie’s poetry, visit her website at http://www.juliecspoetry.com/.)

Geery Howe, M.A.Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer inLeadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational ChangeMorning Star Associates319 - 643 - 2257