Anthesis

We exit Central Park West at the museum, deciding to grab a hot pretzel, this delicacy courtesy of one of New York’s many food trucks.  On the way we pass a street vendor touting prints of past New Yorker magazine covers.  The artwork captivates me.

 

We spend 5 days in New York City, and everywhere we go we’re greeted with kindness and generosity.  Mets fans give us their seats at the playoff game; bartenders, waiters, concierges take the extra minute to share a story; taxi drivers point out the sites, bus drivers wave us in even when we can’t come up with coins to pay the fare; subway riders point us in the right direction when we look lost. As we recognize this pattern is emerging, even the New Yorkers we share it with are surprised.  When did this city become so human?

I’m home now, purchasing a 12-week New Yorker subscription on-line, reveling in the instant gratification the digital world offers me. Of course, I sign up for the print package, too (no additional cost).  I need to hold the illustrations, branded with that iconic typeface, in my hands.

Diving into my first article (I can’t resist, it’s about writing after all), the author’s chronical of his education unfolds. He speaks graciously and voluminously about these storied, published writers (in New York, of course) who are his instructors; however, his tale is not about what he was taught, but how he was taught, how he was made to feel.

He speaks of being taken seriously in the ignorance of incunabula, of bearing witness to the humility borne from a willingness to see and share failure in the moment, of the power praising even a shred of goodness plays in fostering perseverance, of a value system that places family and loved ones over work, of feeling respected and validated while being told he’s just submitted some horrible work, and he speaks of the currency that is kindness.

These lessons can be applied anywhere, in any situation. We are all teachers.  We all have something to impart on this world.  Whether it be to our children, our co-workers, our clients, our teammates, our partners, our friends, our neighbors, even complete strangers, we all have something, both the masterful and the mundane, we are put on this earth to share. Say it in a way it will most certainly be heard.

Life is in some ways so very simple, if only we can let it be so.

Read the New Yorker story here.

Crux

“If you find yourself struggling,” as she so astutely observes we are, “ask yourself two questions:  1) Am I breathing?  2)  Am I listening?”  I find it ironic that I choose to crawl out from beneath the covers on this, the first crisp, fall-feeling morning of the season, in hopes of forgetting current challenges only to find words I used just yesterday echoed in the voice of my yoga instructor.

The work week ended with a resounding thud, in some serious frustration, having been approached with not one, but two problems that leave me stumped.  It’s not the first time in my life I’ve been faced with a confounding situation, but the first time in a long time I’ve felt so completely devoid of options with no time to stew, under a deadline to solve.

   

He calls it “the magic,” what happens when a leader opens up her mind, imagining what her piece of the business will look like in three, five, even ten years, and shares her thoughts out loud.  It’s my job to supply the journal that casts a spell on (160) ordinary businesspeople, with just enough but not too many prompts, enabling them to channel their inner creativity and imagine the possibilities of a future full of growth they can’t yet see.

As the small group of decision-makers on the phone furiously debates the tradeoffs of pausing today’s activity to plan the path to tomorrow, I absorb the discord, and take deep breaths to quell my panic, furiously taking notes in hopes that in this listening I’m able to see.

On another front, I ask for thirty minutes of time late in the day.  “She’s wearing me down,” I tell him in my meeting invitation, “I need some more ammunition.”  As we talk, I explain how baffled I am, how lost I feel at my inability to put my finger on what she wants.  I’m questioning whether my preconceived notions are getting in the way.  Am I listening?  Because I sure can’t see the way forward.

Do people truly ask the impossible of us, or is there something within ourselves preventing us from making anything possible?

A yoga instructor will tell you full expression of the postures is entirely possible; with an open mind, a dedicated practice, endless patience and a bias for self-love we can all get to our own personal edge. The answer is in the cues:  Breathe to calm down and listen to the words in the dialogue; they will never fail you.

Rumi says, “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”  Isn’t this our task with everything in life?   Doesn’t the voice within cloak the answers to our toughest questions? What would happen if we were truly open to listening and not afraid of the inspired and extraordinary answers that magically appear?

My conversation with him leads to an unconventional service model and the necessary empowerment to offer it.  And in this dialogue he finally sees a barrier he is uniquely positioned to remove for me, clearing one more obstacle in the path to my full potential.

Helping others imagine and articulate possibilities is the essence of my writing.  It’s about asking the right questions.  Unlocking “the magic” of strategic thinking in business leaders doesn’t feel a whole lot different.  If I can cast aside my fears around putting my creativity out there, the solution just might reveal itself.

And so I breathe, and listen to the dialogue in yoga. For the first time in a 1-1/2 year practice, I hear the part about pressing my shoulders down, and as I do, my legs magically rise.  I’ve hit my personal edge in this, the most challenging of the 26 postures for me, and surprisingly it’s not a struggle.

 

We can fight ourselves, or we can accept the fact that every day, every minute, we are recklessly exposed, and just go with it. That's the magic.

“Let the darling finish this who turns listening into seeing.”  --  Rumi, These Exhaling Sounds

Ripe

His voice laced with melancholy, he wonders out loud how long it will be before he lands in the 7 box.  We’re talking in the vernacular our company uses to review talent. The tool is called the 9-cell, a simple matrix with an X-axis indicating potential and a y-axis for performance.  The further an individual is placed to the right in the matrix, the more potential she’s perceived to have, the further up, the stronger the performance.  The 7 box sits in the top left corner.  It’s the place where you’re performing at your highest level and have experienced all the growth you're capable of in the organization.  Others view you as a positive contributor, successful in your area of strength, happy to remain exactly where you are.

 

So why does the 7 box feel like the end?

As he’s sharing his thoughts on this year’s evaluations, my mind wanders to how I would feel about landing in the 7 box. The coveted boxes are 8 and 9:  Eight, just to the right of 7, where you’re considered a top performer, ready to make the next move soon or the 9 box in the top right corner, where you’re firing on all cylinders, about to be shot from a cannon into the stars.

 

It’s the lack of potential the 7 box screams to the universe that has us feeling uneasy.  And the tone that voice in our head uses, telling us we are somehow less because of it. It’s not surprising these thoughts might bring us down, especially where earnings increases can be substantial for those who move onward and upward, and status is determined by title.  Many executives, furiously climbing the ladder for years, can’t imagine themselves being stopped.  There’s a real sense of a loss of control.  You’ve done all you can and now it feels like it’s only a matter of time before the powers that be are poised to put you out to pasture.

 

I’ve heard it said that adults in their 50’s are considered to be at the happiest age; researchers attribute this to the belief that accomplishments align with expectations at this point in life. We have amassed a substantial body of work and we’re able to stand back and study it objectively. We decide we can stop killing it; we no longer have something to prove.  We take the pressure off; happiness comes when we’re at peace, content right where we are. Maybe those goals we had for our younger selves don’t reflect our true selves.

 

Could it be the 7 box is an indication we want more out of life, that our true calling is on the tip of our tongues, ready to manifest itself if we can bear to listen?  We’ve spent our careers fitting into the organizations we’ve worked in.  Now we’re discovering who we are, and our potential lies in interests and opportunities to employ our talents that don’t even exist in this place, this industry, this field we’ve called our own for so long. What if the 7 box means this organization we’re part of doesn’t fit us?

I’m willing to bet this is why the 7 box makes us so uncomfortable.  If we don’t do this, this thing we’ve been honing and perfecting all these years, what will we do?  We’ll need to take the riskiest step of our lives, potentially, and move in a completely different direction to realize our potential.

 

So I would argue sitting in the 7 box doesn’t mean we’ve exhausted our potential.  It means we’ve developed all we can here; we’ve outgrown this place. We can stay, work reasonable hours, creating a balance that allows us time to satisfy our interests in the outside world or we can move on to a new full-time job making real a pursuit we’ve only dreamed about.

To me, potential is about curiosity, in our jobs, in our relationships, in living.  If we’re always curious, and keen to stretch ourselves in order to satisfy that curiosity, we are boundless. The 7 box isn’t the end, it’s just the beginning.  

Brew

Coffeehouse Rock is its own music genre now.  Only in the 21st century. Perched on a rock retaining wall, legs dangling over the edge, I'm sipping my coffee in the early morning sun, watching birds swoop gracefully across a backdrop of densely packed evergreens climbing layered foothills. The words start to come to me and for a minute I'm disappointed they'll fly away before I can capture them. Until I realize I can write with my camera. Only in the 21st century.

This weekend in Colorado has been a godsend; an excuse to unplug if I want one, yet connectivity available if I choose it.  His brother built a house in the mountains.  His sister-in-law has made it a home. It's rustic and glamorous all at the same time:   Queen Anne chairs upholstered in rich red brocades, bejeweled chandeliers, a gun sleeping in its leather holster on the massive carved walnut bedpost. 

In the evening we sit "in front", tucked in seats with bright orange patterned cushions, nestled in Mother Nature's Omnimax theater, 360 degree views of endless mountains. As darkness falls we stare up from the hammock, a star shooting across a speckled sky, the crescent moon setting in the west. Enveloped in such majesty I can't help but think how small we are.  Yet in this place we live large in all the ways that really matter.   

At daybreak we brew our coffee one over-sized mug at a time, crowned in a foam of whipped milk.  We crawl back into the king-sized bed, three or four of us tucked under warm quilts; we ask questions, contemplate answers, offer insight, witness epiphanies, howl with laughter, brim with tears. 

He comes outside to join me, our legs swinging side by side.  A deer comes into view.  I'm afraid this beauty may exit stage left before I can capture it.  Until I remember I can take a picture with my journal.  He tells me this buck is "in velvet", timid with soft, fuzzy antlers; a babe who can do nothing but wait patiently for the confidence and power he'll garner rubbing velvet off to reveal a hardened rack.

And so it is for all of us, in velvet at every age, fighting with ourselves to accept who we are, live out our values, expose the tenderness within.  We can get lost in the trappings of our racks, hiding behind their armor, masquerading in their ornamentation.  It takes a vacation like this to recalibrate.  And to think I debated about taking it. 

I smile as he spouts this trip's coffeehouse logic:  "There's never a good time to go on vacation; never a bad time to express love."  It really is all we need.  Even in the 21st century.

Pedagogy

They call it a “long read”.  I shouldn’t be surprised anymore that we need to warn people to brace themselves, the idea or position piquing interest might take a while to ingest. Where has our patience gone?  Doesn’t anything worthwhile take some time?

On this particular morning I welcome a long read, especially one that has me waxing nostalgic about the years I thrived on a college campus.  When I think back about my time away at school, I need to dig deep for anything other than rich, positive memories.  It’s like dopamine floods my brain, hearts and flowers float out of my mouth, and a goofy, ethereal smile of pleasure spreads across my face.Those were good times.

I’ve always felt that the act of going away to school is a rite of passage all young people should partake in.  The experience can be viewed as a homogenous enclave, this microcosm where everyone is roughly the same age, there for roughly the same reasons, but it’s also the place where many of us got our first taste of true diversity, where we were agape at the idea that being different and expressing yourself was not only welcomed, but expected. At least this was the case for me back in the 80’s. The college campus opened my eyes to the world.

Is it different for our kids today?  Has their steady diet of streaming social media and radical reality TV sated any appetite for alternative ideas or opinions?  The perspective The Atlantic brings me in this morning's long read is worrisome.  The culture at college campuses seems to be shifting from free expression to overprotection.   A pattern of slow suffocation is emerging in the free speech both students and faculty take for granted.  It threatens to raze the teaching of critical thinking the freedom to express an extreme opinion provides.

 

The traditional college experience is a fruitful collision of the nascent exposure to radicalism and the blossoming of critical thinking.  It’s access to diverse perspective at a time when young minds are ripe to analyze it. Are we sending jaded kids to school now who have seen so much, been sheltered so fiercely, they’ve become closed to new ideas before ever really being opened up?

College is about the free exchange of ideas, talking about what’s taboo, a safe place to test the waters, to be a little out there.  In this space professors and fellow students ask questions of us; we ask questions of ourselves.  We’re allowed to place an idea on the table and study it, absent of an emotional reaction, to talk about it without fear of retribution.  This is the path to learning how to think critically, to put our feelings to the side and make objective assessments that become the foundation for solid leadership; leadership of others and more importantly, of ourselves.

I want my kids to experience this kind of learning.

 

And so this morning I think maybe I need to market the college experience to my boys in a new language, one they understand, covet and embrace.  College isn’t about sitting at a desk, following the status quo, with all the boundaries many young people find so distasteful about high school.  It’s about questions, experimentation, range and lively debate; a resuscitation of the creative thinking they’ve begrudgingly forced into dormancy.

If we’re going to discover and free who it is we are meant to be, we need to be allowed to think beyond who others say we should be. This is the long read worth making time for.

For more on The Atlantic’s perspective, read here.

You’ll need at least 20 minutes.

Oblique

Her name is Agnes. She is the master of her trade, I’m told. And so I know immediately I must see her. She does not disappoint, sealing her reputation within the first ten minutes I spend with her. She asks me to talk about where the pain is. Sheepishly I tick through my laundry list.  I’m a little stunned and a lot impressed when, with nothing more than her hands and naked eye, she’s able to come to a very similar conclusion the chiropractor needs x-rays to diagnose. I know I’m in the right place.

We’ll meet weekly for a while, she explains.  My muscles need some coaxing back into their normal state.  This will take time.  Today she hones in on the fallen arch in my left foot and so it begins, a physiology lesson around the intricate, interconnected mechanics of this beautiful, battered vessel housing my soul.  I’m fascinated and relieved.  The estrogen hemorrhaging from my body is leaving all kinds of carnage in its wake; my stiffness is yet another fact of aging that has me reeling.  It’s good to know I’m not some freak of nature; this is normal wear and tear indigenous to the species.

 

I’m supine; she explains she’s going to press on my psoas, a muscle that helps the hip joint move. It’s very sensitive, she says, this is one of our “emotional” muscles, buried deep in a place that’s hard to access.  Lots of us don’t’ even know we have a psoas. My Pilates instructors speak of it along with technical terms like “transverse abdominals”.  It’s been a bit like urban legend until today. I’ve never been able to isolate this emotional muscle. I’m certain it’s never been touched. I’m flinching before she starts.

And this is how it is with what’s buried deep. We balk at even the thought of going there.  Stowed in this space is the source of our insecurities, longing, shortcomings, shame and failures.  For these feelings to see the light of day is more than a little unsettling. You name it; all the bad stuff burrows as far within us as it can so we don’t have to face it. There’s no chance we’ll need to talk about it; it’s so well cloistered, it’s forgotten; we don’t even realize anymore we have it.

Yet as much as we try, this jetsam never floats far enough away.  It manifests itself in other parts of our lives, so distant from the source we don’t even consider a connection between the two.  Who would ever think pain on the right side of the neck is caused by the fallen arch in the left foot?

If we’re lucky in life, we meet someone like Agnes who helps us find and release our psoas.  She listens with an inquisitive ear, observes with an objective eye; she leaves judgment outside the room.  She asks well-placed questions, and talks through possible causes, but checks admonishment at the door because she spends her time dealing with what is with the body in front of her, not what could have been if only we’d known better.  She possesses endless patience, aware that the adjustments our bodies make to compensate for a lifetime of bad habits become our default position, and this takes time to change.

 

She has her clients, she says, who are more than content to lie quietly while she gently massages the surface.  They’re here for a pleasant experience, for the express relief of the symptoms, not a diagnosis or cure for the cause.  She thrives, though, with clients like me, who want to understand what lurks beneath, and learn how everything is connected, those who are maybe a little afraid of the pain, but won’t rest until the core is reached. We brave the serious discomfort that comes with going deep into the psoas, because self-awareness and understanding the root cause bring sustained healing.

Inside these emotional muscles beats the heart of who we are. Facing what lives here means we’re one step closer to becoming who we are meant to be. It’s circuitous and scary, humbling and exhilarating. It means we accept our imperfections, beg for belated forgiveness, and question whether we have regrets.  Most of us can’t do this hard work alone.  Who is your Agnes? 

Yeoman

When friends ask me how he is doing, I’m always so thankful I can reply with resounding words like “great!”  I like to think it’s his time now to spend as he pleases; he did a valiant job in the role of a family man.  I don’t remember fathers in my generation as workaholics or traveling excessively.  It always felt like my dad was around for everything:  Home for dinner, home on the weekends, home for the science fair, for trick-or-treating, home to lead Cub Scouts, to lead confirmation classes, home for it all.  It never, ever looked like my mom had to do it alone.

 

Back then life wasn’t about luxuries.  Mom stayed home in traditional form; we were a one paycheck family when two paycheck families were something to be talked about. I don’t know if she loved it, maybe she wanted more for herself?  But if she did, her hopes and dreams weren’t uttered within earshot of her children. We heard phrases like “making ends meet,” but I never viewed this as a deliberate choice to forego a second income in favor of time dedicated to tending to the family; it just was.

 

I see my generation in the present, all caught up in big houses, exotic vacations, the latest electronics and assorted trappings, and it feels like it’s still about making ends meet, yet in such a different way. If we’re not careful we become slaves to our stuff, running on the treadmill of competition, never having enough to quite cover the elevated standard of living we feel pressured to maintain.

 

I admit, my value system in part may be derived from the time in history I was raised; I’m pretty certain the colloquial definition of “disposable income” didn’t exist in the 70s. Today, in first world countries, many of us are fortunate to have the means to acquire a college degree and other support needed to access freedom of choice.  We’re educated, with the capacity to make good money, yet this also comes tethered to the expectation that we’ll go out and do just that. Society baits us with extravagance, almost shaming us into amassing all the booty we can, just because we can.

But what if you want something different?  Isn’t there a degree of peace that comes with living small, knowing you can easily cover your expenses, free with the knowledge you don’t need to pour everything you’ve got into making a living and instead can spend time enjoying your living?

If you asked me to describe precisely how my values were instilled in me, I don’t know if I could find words to explain. They are indigenous to the unique culture my parents fostered for our family. Just last evening I asked a friend who trains people for a living if she believes we can train on culture.  Sure, she said, it can be done to create awareness, but culture needs to be modeled if it’s going to stick.

 

I don’t need much, and for this I am grateful to my parents. As Lynda Barry once said, “The key to eternal happiness is low overhead and no debt.” Maybe I was destined to be raised this way in order to feed my artistic soul.  I’ve seen it written more than once that living small gives creatives the ultimate freedom to pursue their less-than-lucrative dreams.

It feels like my dad knows this too, as he was somehow able to be there for us all those years ago when he was the breadwinner, and is now enjoying a comfortable and active retirement.  When I think about the life I’ve built for my own kids, I hope in all of our affluence I’ve somehow managed to infuse in them the aptitude to find abundance in very little.  I’m incubating not one, but two creative forces with the power to change the world.  I want them to be free to do just that.