My sweet little green convertible drove past 175,000 miles yesterday as I was winding through yet another seemingly untouched portion of Texas. Over the last two years, we have logged over 100,000 miles together traveling this magnificent state on roads that are new and smooth and a few that unfortunately, were not. Never in my wildest visions and dreams did I ever think that I would spend this much time driving or that I would spend this much time traveling Texas. What struck me yesterday as my little car passed this milestone with me was that I have driven in almost all 50 states of this USA without a GPS. Now, driving alone in Texas, my GPS has become an oddly close friend.
Having driven so much in the past without one, I was very skeptical and leery about even owning a GPS. We had a hard time together for a long time because it just couldn’t be trusted. When it would send me in a direction that made absolutely no sense, I would not mind it, second guess it and continue to travel the way that I knew would be best. It got the blame when I was lost no matter what. I would test it in Austin, where I live and if it didn’t send me to a favorite location the way that I would normally go, it would confirm to me that I was going to be right more often that it was.
I freely admit, now, how wrong I can be. One day I was traveling, again, in the middle of nowhere when I made a conscience decision, for no particular reason other than probably boredom, to once again not mind my GPS directions. I ended up on a nine mile stretch of deeply rutted dirt road much too narrow to turn around in. The trees on either side were thick and heavy and I started to sweat and breathe a little too hard feeling a little too fearful. My little car is very low to the ground so it took me an hour to travel these nine terrible miles. It took me just under an hour to decide that it was time to mind my GPS without question.
Since giving my power to my newly found old friend, I have seen places and things that have blessed me. In the middle of nowhere, I have driven around a corner into a wide open space and seen sunsets as big as the whole Texas sky. I have seen deer, goat, cows and many other amazing animals enjoying their natural habitat. I have visited small diners in remote places and had the best coffee and meals offered with the sincerest of smiles. I have seen magnificent homes on top of hills, in the middle of open spaces and tucked up against their barns. I have seen ranch gates that looked like the entrance gates to heaven and ranch gates that were modest, private and small yet equally as welcoming.
I gave power to my GPS and it opened my eyes and led me to new and now cherished experiences. I have to wonder, what else I might be holding onto that in its release, I may be blessed. What are you holding onto that you need to give up control over? An unfaithful customer? An unhealthy business or personal relationship? A commitment that drains you of both energy and time? An employee that is a bad egg and will always be a bad egg? A time management system that is not working?
I talk to my little car and yes, she talks back. She is digging the scenery as much as I am and we’ve decided that here just might be another 100,000 miles in us both. I don’t talk to my GPS any more. Didn’t do either of us any good when I did. Now I just give her control and enjoy the ride.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Your Own Truth Serum
I stayed in bed very late this morning. Until long after the sun had risen and I could see through the small horizontal high window in my bedroom a teeny part of the tree branches of the only tree in the backyard. The branches were dancing in the wind and telling me that being quiet and listening to the truth serum in my head was okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. In rhythm.
2011 is going to be my year of calm and quiet. At least my intention is that it starts out that way. The book (Recipes From A Life: Essential Ingredients for your Business Success) will be released in just a couple of months and I need to be quiet and centered until then. My life is going to change and I am excited deep in my bones for this new adventure of change. I dream realistically about where I am going to let this book take me. The places I will travel and the people I will meet are all on my vision board.
But first, I needed this morning. Today is my Baby Casey’s birthday and I needed to relive his birth and slowly let my mind wander over the last 19 years of his life and my world with him in it and now with him in it less and less. These last six months have been filled with changes in direction. Some good; some not so good. But all meant to be as God does nothing that isn’t intentional. Praise him.
I stopped writing last Fall. On August 6th to be exact. I wrote two things late last summer that wreaked havoc in my life and the lives of some people around me. Writing is a passion of mine and my words caused people to stop speaking to each other and changed the course of some relationships. Not in a positive and happy way; in a devastating way. This was not my intent, at all. My intent was to show love and admiration. To show passion and respect. Instead, my very own words broke my very own heart.
So what did I do when my passion hurt other people unintentionally and unexpectedly? I stopped. Cold turkey. As I lay in bed this morning watching the naked tree branches dance, I realize that this wasn’t a good thing. I know my intentions were pure and honest. I know I bore no ill will. And I know that it is time for me to start writing again. Even if I only pick up my pen to write in my gratitude journal each night five simple lines about what I am grateful for that particular day. I can’t leave my words bottled up inside any longer. I have too much to share. It is time to let my words heal my own heart.
As I proofread the book for the final time, I think about all my potential readers and the passion that they are putting and will put into their businesses. As they work themselves to the bone and drag themselves home at night to their families, what can I say to keep them going? What can I say to inspire them to stay true to their passions and excellence no matter the consequences? What can I say to keep them on course if what they are doing IS the right thing and they know that satisfied ‘life is good’ feeling?
I can only be honest and tell them that if they do not follow their heart, they will be dead inside. Just as I have been since August 6th. If they don’t stay true to themselves, that they won’t be able to look in the mirror or see inside their own heart. If they don’t honor themselves, they will waste time reaching toward their dreams and goals and they won’t be working their plan. And if they don’t get QUIET every now and then, their focus will be lost or misplaced.
I had an appointment this morning that cancelled. That is the only reason why I had this opportunity to stay tucked in and focus inside myself. It is time for me to write again. It is time for me to start living again. It is time for me to get on with book tour travel plans. It is time for me to totally energize myself from the inside out. It is time.
Thank you, God, for the quiet, the trees and the truth serum. Thank you, My Casey, for growing into such an amazing man. Thank you to all the small business owners out there that pour yourselves into your businesses every single day with everything in your heart and soul. I know exactly what you are going through. The good and the bad; the up and the down. When you are rich and when you feel poor. My hope is that I will be able to write words that help you to stop and reflect and enable you to empower yourself and relieve some pressure. I pray that you too will soon have an unexpected day to luxuriate until the sun comes up basking in your own truth serum.
Coming soon: annmaries.org
Yes, you can follow on Twitter: recipesfrmalife
2011 is going to be my year of calm and quiet. At least my intention is that it starts out that way. The book (Recipes From A Life: Essential Ingredients for your Business Success) will be released in just a couple of months and I need to be quiet and centered until then. My life is going to change and I am excited deep in my bones for this new adventure of change. I dream realistically about where I am going to let this book take me. The places I will travel and the people I will meet are all on my vision board.
But first, I needed this morning. Today is my Baby Casey’s birthday and I needed to relive his birth and slowly let my mind wander over the last 19 years of his life and my world with him in it and now with him in it less and less. These last six months have been filled with changes in direction. Some good; some not so good. But all meant to be as God does nothing that isn’t intentional. Praise him.
I stopped writing last Fall. On August 6th to be exact. I wrote two things late last summer that wreaked havoc in my life and the lives of some people around me. Writing is a passion of mine and my words caused people to stop speaking to each other and changed the course of some relationships. Not in a positive and happy way; in a devastating way. This was not my intent, at all. My intent was to show love and admiration. To show passion and respect. Instead, my very own words broke my very own heart.
So what did I do when my passion hurt other people unintentionally and unexpectedly? I stopped. Cold turkey. As I lay in bed this morning watching the naked tree branches dance, I realize that this wasn’t a good thing. I know my intentions were pure and honest. I know I bore no ill will. And I know that it is time for me to start writing again. Even if I only pick up my pen to write in my gratitude journal each night five simple lines about what I am grateful for that particular day. I can’t leave my words bottled up inside any longer. I have too much to share. It is time to let my words heal my own heart.
As I proofread the book for the final time, I think about all my potential readers and the passion that they are putting and will put into their businesses. As they work themselves to the bone and drag themselves home at night to their families, what can I say to keep them going? What can I say to inspire them to stay true to their passions and excellence no matter the consequences? What can I say to keep them on course if what they are doing IS the right thing and they know that satisfied ‘life is good’ feeling?
I can only be honest and tell them that if they do not follow their heart, they will be dead inside. Just as I have been since August 6th. If they don’t stay true to themselves, that they won’t be able to look in the mirror or see inside their own heart. If they don’t honor themselves, they will waste time reaching toward their dreams and goals and they won’t be working their plan. And if they don’t get QUIET every now and then, their focus will be lost or misplaced.
I had an appointment this morning that cancelled. That is the only reason why I had this opportunity to stay tucked in and focus inside myself. It is time for me to write again. It is time for me to start living again. It is time for me to get on with book tour travel plans. It is time for me to totally energize myself from the inside out. It is time.
Thank you, God, for the quiet, the trees and the truth serum. Thank you, My Casey, for growing into such an amazing man. Thank you to all the small business owners out there that pour yourselves into your businesses every single day with everything in your heart and soul. I know exactly what you are going through. The good and the bad; the up and the down. When you are rich and when you feel poor. My hope is that I will be able to write words that help you to stop and reflect and enable you to empower yourself and relieve some pressure. I pray that you too will soon have an unexpected day to luxuriate until the sun comes up basking in your own truth serum.
Coming soon: annmaries.org
Yes, you can follow on Twitter: recipesfrmalife
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Go Big or Bust
I had a meeting today in a part of town I hadn’t driven to in a very long time. Sitting at the stop light near my appointment I realized my stomach was in knots and I was breathing oddly. My visceral reaction to where I was had nothing to do with my upcoming appointment and everything to do with where I was. It had everything to do with being next door to a ‘big’ that I had thought was long since behind me.
Most small business owner’s dream of getting big and bigger; more sales, more employees, more overhead, more locations and more income. More and more. Dreaming is great. We all need to dream and visualize and have a concrete plan for the future. Unfortunately, many business owners dream and do and fly by the seat of their pants not realizing what may come with getting bigger. Where is the bigger plan? The bigger road map? The bigger energy? The bigger story?
My company got big. Really big. And while it did, I just flowed with the bigness of the day to day. While I saw a future, I didn’t take the time to put a road map on paper. I said over and over again that I could handle everything that came my way. As you now know, I owned a very large corporate catering company in Austin, Texas. My first kitchen was the ideal. Great size, perfect location, a layout that couldn’t be beat and an amazing atmosphere. This kitchen was stuffed to the gills and in hindsight, it was perfection and I should have never left it. But I got a whiff of BIG. A smell of ‘what if’ and before I knew it, I was jumping. No plan. No agenda. Just straight off the cliff. My ideal kitchen was 1400 square feet and before you could say, ‘fool’, I was building a 3600 square foot kitchen facility mid-town in a mall undergoing revitalization as a corporate facility. It was a stunning place with new and beautiful equipment, a beautiful conference/meeting room and a fresh clean big atmosphere. It was a dream to work out of even if it was out of the way and far away.
Before the story ends, I got even bigger and ultimately lost everything. The story is long and tough to hear but rewards with a happy ending.
One of the essential ingredients for any business is the plan. We can talk about ‘your’ time, what your dollars look like and which relationships you need to keep, but before the bottom line you must have a plan. It is great to have a vision and to believe that the universe will provide. But before the story ends, there needs to be a chart, a graph and drawing of the future.
My meeting went very well this morning and afterwards I drove slowly by the mall where my big kitchen used to be. I was amazingly calm as I accessed the face lift the place had gone through in the years since I had last been there. My back door was still there with its welcoming window and green awning. No signage so I couldn’t satisfy my curiosity over who was in ‘my’ beautiful space. All these years later, I have a sense of closure that I didn’t know I needed. I drove away with a satisfying sense of calm over the fact that I made it through my ‘big’, intact with plenty of lessons learned.
Do you have a road map to your BIG?
Most small business owner’s dream of getting big and bigger; more sales, more employees, more overhead, more locations and more income. More and more. Dreaming is great. We all need to dream and visualize and have a concrete plan for the future. Unfortunately, many business owners dream and do and fly by the seat of their pants not realizing what may come with getting bigger. Where is the bigger plan? The bigger road map? The bigger energy? The bigger story?
My company got big. Really big. And while it did, I just flowed with the bigness of the day to day. While I saw a future, I didn’t take the time to put a road map on paper. I said over and over again that I could handle everything that came my way. As you now know, I owned a very large corporate catering company in Austin, Texas. My first kitchen was the ideal. Great size, perfect location, a layout that couldn’t be beat and an amazing atmosphere. This kitchen was stuffed to the gills and in hindsight, it was perfection and I should have never left it. But I got a whiff of BIG. A smell of ‘what if’ and before I knew it, I was jumping. No plan. No agenda. Just straight off the cliff. My ideal kitchen was 1400 square feet and before you could say, ‘fool’, I was building a 3600 square foot kitchen facility mid-town in a mall undergoing revitalization as a corporate facility. It was a stunning place with new and beautiful equipment, a beautiful conference/meeting room and a fresh clean big atmosphere. It was a dream to work out of even if it was out of the way and far away.
Before the story ends, I got even bigger and ultimately lost everything. The story is long and tough to hear but rewards with a happy ending.
One of the essential ingredients for any business is the plan. We can talk about ‘your’ time, what your dollars look like and which relationships you need to keep, but before the bottom line you must have a plan. It is great to have a vision and to believe that the universe will provide. But before the story ends, there needs to be a chart, a graph and drawing of the future.
My meeting went very well this morning and afterwards I drove slowly by the mall where my big kitchen used to be. I was amazingly calm as I accessed the face lift the place had gone through in the years since I had last been there. My back door was still there with its welcoming window and green awning. No signage so I couldn’t satisfy my curiosity over who was in ‘my’ beautiful space. All these years later, I have a sense of closure that I didn’t know I needed. I drove away with a satisfying sense of calm over the fact that I made it through my ‘big’, intact with plenty of lessons learned.
Do you have a road map to your BIG?
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Stamina and Guts-Straight From the CIA?
I don’t dig my birthday. I could tell you all the reasons why but that is not the point of this story. I just need to tell you that my parents call me every year on my birthday. It is usually the only day of the year that I talk to my Mother. I do talk to my Dad a little more than that-his birthday, Christmas and Father’s Day usually. Last week on my ‘lucky’ day, when they called to sing Happy Birthday, I happened to be driving and answered the phone. They sang together and then we actually chatted for 10 minutes or so. They asked after my children which is a very big deal and asked after my book, also a very big deal. After we hung up, I had plenty of windshield time to contemplate our communication; plenty of time to think about how my parents, my Dad especially, affected my professional life.
This past weekend Lou and I went to the IMAX Theater to see ‘Hubble’ in 3D. Settling into our seats, my thoughts went straight back to my Dad and the still fresh birthday conversation. My Dad is an amazing man. He was deeply educated at MIT and holds many patents, namely for the gyroscope. He founded Sperry Gyroscope and we found out just a few years ago, he was recruited by the CIA during his Sperry days and spent the rest of his career with them working in an extremely high level and highly secretive position. His professional career is still kept very tight lipped. Every now and then one of my siblings will hear a story and pass it on. We discuss in amazement and wonder. My Dad is somewhere beyond brilliant. He is the one who taught me determination and guts. From him I learned stamina and intestinal fortitude. I remember asking him once how he got up and made it to work every single day when I knew there were days when he probably needed to just hide. How he could get on that airplane and prepare to be gone from his family for an extended period of time. He told me that he did what he needed to do. I have said that same phrase myself many, many times over the years.
The ‘Hubble’ documentary was rather fascinating and I mentioned to Lou afterwards how I couldn’t help but have my Dad and his space involvement on my mind. One year on my birthday, my parents didn’t call. During this time we were lead to believe that Dad was designing payloads for the Space Shuttle, working for NASA. I wasn’t too worried about them not calling because there was a shuttle currently in space and I figured he was covered up with the mission. The shuttle was having trouble getting back to ground needing to finish a project and wait for weather to clear. Still a week after my birthday and no call, no news. Instead in the mail from Dad is a one page piece of paper with a New York times article taped to it. The article and picture are talking about how much, W. G. McArthur, my Dad, enjoyed his shuttle trip and his exciting first space walk. In my Dad’s barely legible handwriting on the same paper is a note: What a great ride. Can’t wait to tell you all about it. –Dad
No wonder he didn’t call on my birthday! My Dad was on the freaking space shuttle orbiting the earth and strolling in no man’s land! I called my parent’s house in Aspen, no answer. I called their house in California, left a message. I flipped that he didn’t tell any of us so that we could be watching him this whole time. I flipped because my kids could have been talking about Grandpa being in space at school! I called my siblings-all who received the same ‘letter’ and we were all flipping.
At this time we had no idea that our Dad was enmeshed in the CIA and could keep a secret better than anyone as obviously his whole life was a secret. He waited days and then finally called us one at a time. He wasn’t on the shuttle; he was ‘just’ in the control room. It was a total coincidence that one of the shuttle astronauts had his same exact name. Apparently they joked constantly, my Dad in the control room and his clone in space living out my Dad’s dream of being an astronaut.
So here I am many years later, celebrating yet another birthday and thinking about my Dad and his example of high-test life and career dedication. There are plenty of stories surrounding my Dad. How he ended up at MIT instead of honoring Canada’s request that he be on their Olympic Team, both summer and winter. How he accepted his job with the CIA. How he fostered determination and grit in his five wildly self-sufficient children. How his work ethic is evident in all of us. His story just may need to be told.
May you have a ‘Dad’ in your life to set the example of doing it and getting it done when you least want to. The example of being brilliant in what you do because that is what you have chosen. That you can take everything you learn and funnel it into being an entrepreneur who isn’t afraid to take risks and perform under pressure. May you take control of your business and learn from all the examples of success in your path.
I think this may have been a good birthday. Recipies From A Life: Essential Ingredients for Your Business Success. I may owe it to my Dad.
This past weekend Lou and I went to the IMAX Theater to see ‘Hubble’ in 3D. Settling into our seats, my thoughts went straight back to my Dad and the still fresh birthday conversation. My Dad is an amazing man. He was deeply educated at MIT and holds many patents, namely for the gyroscope. He founded Sperry Gyroscope and we found out just a few years ago, he was recruited by the CIA during his Sperry days and spent the rest of his career with them working in an extremely high level and highly secretive position. His professional career is still kept very tight lipped. Every now and then one of my siblings will hear a story and pass it on. We discuss in amazement and wonder. My Dad is somewhere beyond brilliant. He is the one who taught me determination and guts. From him I learned stamina and intestinal fortitude. I remember asking him once how he got up and made it to work every single day when I knew there were days when he probably needed to just hide. How he could get on that airplane and prepare to be gone from his family for an extended period of time. He told me that he did what he needed to do. I have said that same phrase myself many, many times over the years.
The ‘Hubble’ documentary was rather fascinating and I mentioned to Lou afterwards how I couldn’t help but have my Dad and his space involvement on my mind. One year on my birthday, my parents didn’t call. During this time we were lead to believe that Dad was designing payloads for the Space Shuttle, working for NASA. I wasn’t too worried about them not calling because there was a shuttle currently in space and I figured he was covered up with the mission. The shuttle was having trouble getting back to ground needing to finish a project and wait for weather to clear. Still a week after my birthday and no call, no news. Instead in the mail from Dad is a one page piece of paper with a New York times article taped to it. The article and picture are talking about how much, W. G. McArthur, my Dad, enjoyed his shuttle trip and his exciting first space walk. In my Dad’s barely legible handwriting on the same paper is a note: What a great ride. Can’t wait to tell you all about it. –Dad
No wonder he didn’t call on my birthday! My Dad was on the freaking space shuttle orbiting the earth and strolling in no man’s land! I called my parent’s house in Aspen, no answer. I called their house in California, left a message. I flipped that he didn’t tell any of us so that we could be watching him this whole time. I flipped because my kids could have been talking about Grandpa being in space at school! I called my siblings-all who received the same ‘letter’ and we were all flipping.
At this time we had no idea that our Dad was enmeshed in the CIA and could keep a secret better than anyone as obviously his whole life was a secret. He waited days and then finally called us one at a time. He wasn’t on the shuttle; he was ‘just’ in the control room. It was a total coincidence that one of the shuttle astronauts had his same exact name. Apparently they joked constantly, my Dad in the control room and his clone in space living out my Dad’s dream of being an astronaut.
So here I am many years later, celebrating yet another birthday and thinking about my Dad and his example of high-test life and career dedication. There are plenty of stories surrounding my Dad. How he ended up at MIT instead of honoring Canada’s request that he be on their Olympic Team, both summer and winter. How he accepted his job with the CIA. How he fostered determination and grit in his five wildly self-sufficient children. How his work ethic is evident in all of us. His story just may need to be told.
May you have a ‘Dad’ in your life to set the example of doing it and getting it done when you least want to. The example of being brilliant in what you do because that is what you have chosen. That you can take everything you learn and funnel it into being an entrepreneur who isn’t afraid to take risks and perform under pressure. May you take control of your business and learn from all the examples of success in your path.
I think this may have been a good birthday. Recipies From A Life: Essential Ingredients for Your Business Success. I may owe it to my Dad.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Small Hotel Today-Hotel With A View, Tomorrow!
I find myself hiding away in a small cramped hotel room in hot and humid Houston. Lacking my GPS, I really have no idea where I am. This is a good thing. I have a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach as I wrap up my work day and hunker down to spend time concentrating on the last edits I will be able to make to the book. This feeling is definitely a new one. Not good. Not bad. If I stop to think about it I am directed to the power of my own intention. The intention I had to write my story and to help as many small business owners who would possibly listen to what they can do to fulfill their dream of real success.
Recipes From A Life is a reality. That is the feeling in the pit of my stomach. This is really happening. Despite the odds. In spite of the people who told me I couldn’t do it or would probably never really do it, I am really going to be one of the 2% who actually publish a book.
I’ve been dreaming about ‘my’ flock; about the people that I am going to be able to help. Dreaming about the weight I am going to take off of their shoulders. Dreaming about the power I am going to help them realize. I am going to tell people that they can indeed enjoy their business and that running it doesn’t need to be a 24/7 exhausting mess. I am going to be able to tell entrepreneurs far and wide what they need to do to run their business in a manner that will work for them and show them how to do it. I am going to teach them how to manage their business from the inside out so that they can enjoy all the other aspects of their lives that are important to them.
I was lucky enough to speak to an association in Corpus last week. Only about 100 people but each one of them was fabulous. It was a very engaging ‘speech’ on the differences between managing and leading and I had a great time. The group was interactive, the best kind and what I wish for as a speaker. Afterwards, the leader gave me a gift and more than one participant wanted to take their picture with me. I am not a picture taker and was quite uncomfortable. In thinking about this event later as I thanked God for the opportunity, I realized something. They wanted to take my picture because I made an impression. I offered a nugget of information that they wanted to remember with a photo. Wow.
I promise myself that I am going to spend more time hiding away in small hotel rooms enjoying the process of this book journey. I promise to enjoy and savor every moment until its birth in just a few months. Then I am going to sign copies and speak. Sign more copies and speak some more. I am going to tend to the flock with everything I have in me and then some. Then when it is all said and done, I am going to escape to bigger and more wonderful hotel rooms in fabulous faraway places!
Recipes From A Life: Essential Ingredients for Your Small Business
Recipes From A Life is a reality. That is the feeling in the pit of my stomach. This is really happening. Despite the odds. In spite of the people who told me I couldn’t do it or would probably never really do it, I am really going to be one of the 2% who actually publish a book.
I’ve been dreaming about ‘my’ flock; about the people that I am going to be able to help. Dreaming about the weight I am going to take off of their shoulders. Dreaming about the power I am going to help them realize. I am going to tell people that they can indeed enjoy their business and that running it doesn’t need to be a 24/7 exhausting mess. I am going to be able to tell entrepreneurs far and wide what they need to do to run their business in a manner that will work for them and show them how to do it. I am going to teach them how to manage their business from the inside out so that they can enjoy all the other aspects of their lives that are important to them.
I was lucky enough to speak to an association in Corpus last week. Only about 100 people but each one of them was fabulous. It was a very engaging ‘speech’ on the differences between managing and leading and I had a great time. The group was interactive, the best kind and what I wish for as a speaker. Afterwards, the leader gave me a gift and more than one participant wanted to take their picture with me. I am not a picture taker and was quite uncomfortable. In thinking about this event later as I thanked God for the opportunity, I realized something. They wanted to take my picture because I made an impression. I offered a nugget of information that they wanted to remember with a photo. Wow.
I promise myself that I am going to spend more time hiding away in small hotel rooms enjoying the process of this book journey. I promise to enjoy and savor every moment until its birth in just a few months. Then I am going to sign copies and speak. Sign more copies and speak some more. I am going to tend to the flock with everything I have in me and then some. Then when it is all said and done, I am going to escape to bigger and more wonderful hotel rooms in fabulous faraway places!
Recipes From A Life: Essential Ingredients for Your Small Business
Sunday, September 26, 2010
The Power in a Mani/Pedi
I managed to disappear into a manicure and a pedicure yesterday. Middle of a Saturday afternoon, after a long and satisfying workout, I decided that I needed to not only treat myself but that I needed to be quiet. No phone, no computer, no one in the chairs next to me. It was only me and the little girl who has been massaging and beautifying my feet for years now. While she knows me and my daughter by name, she doesn’t make, encourage or force conversation. I am allowed to disappear into whatever my mind chooses. My own kind of mediation.
Of course my thoughts started with the list of errands I needed to finish before I started another hectic work week on the road. Workout, dry cleaning, box to the Goodwill from the trunk because it was in my suitcase space, grocery store, gas… I realized that I can run these errands without thought or concentration because I have been going to the same places to satisfy the same needs for many years. Dan at Foundation for my car, Adam at the dry cleaner, Julie for my nails, Zona at the Dr’s office... In my quiet, I realized more deeply than ever that I have an amazing personal group of supporting businesses that I both trust and adore.
Week Seven in the book is all about the supporting people and businesses that your business needs to be connected to in order to be ultimately successful. Now, only as I contemplate moving across this country, alone, did the power of my own personal connections dawn on me. I can drive to Church without thinking, park in the same area and sit in the same seat as I have for years. I know my Whole Foods and Sprouts like the back of my hands. I find it interesting that while I know how powerful business connections must be, I would only now be impacted by the power of our personal ‘business’ connections. I am saddened to think that I may have taken them for granted.
Not too long ago, I started a mission to hand write a thank you note every day. Some days I miss and some days I write several. I love snail mail and sending post cards when I am on vacation is one of my very favorite things to do. I love showing gratitude and want to show appreciation as much as I can. I am going to challenge myself to write a thank you note this week to everyone on my personal support team. I challenge you to do the same.
Next set of edits on the book are due this week and I am quite ready to immerse myself back into rewording, rewiting and rethinking my original thoughts and words. I am excited to read Editor Emily’s notes and play with her revisions. It will also be interesting for me to reread Week Seven now that I have this new perspective. Business and personal connections=professional and personal success.
Want to keep updated on book progress? Annmarie is now on Facebook.
Of course my thoughts started with the list of errands I needed to finish before I started another hectic work week on the road. Workout, dry cleaning, box to the Goodwill from the trunk because it was in my suitcase space, grocery store, gas… I realized that I can run these errands without thought or concentration because I have been going to the same places to satisfy the same needs for many years. Dan at Foundation for my car, Adam at the dry cleaner, Julie for my nails, Zona at the Dr’s office... In my quiet, I realized more deeply than ever that I have an amazing personal group of supporting businesses that I both trust and adore.
Week Seven in the book is all about the supporting people and businesses that your business needs to be connected to in order to be ultimately successful. Now, only as I contemplate moving across this country, alone, did the power of my own personal connections dawn on me. I can drive to Church without thinking, park in the same area and sit in the same seat as I have for years. I know my Whole Foods and Sprouts like the back of my hands. I find it interesting that while I know how powerful business connections must be, I would only now be impacted by the power of our personal ‘business’ connections. I am saddened to think that I may have taken them for granted.
Not too long ago, I started a mission to hand write a thank you note every day. Some days I miss and some days I write several. I love snail mail and sending post cards when I am on vacation is one of my very favorite things to do. I love showing gratitude and want to show appreciation as much as I can. I am going to challenge myself to write a thank you note this week to everyone on my personal support team. I challenge you to do the same.
Next set of edits on the book are due this week and I am quite ready to immerse myself back into rewording, rewiting and rethinking my original thoughts and words. I am excited to read Editor Emily’s notes and play with her revisions. It will also be interesting for me to reread Week Seven now that I have this new perspective. Business and personal connections=professional and personal success.
Want to keep updated on book progress? Annmarie is now on Facebook.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Don't Leave Home Without Them-Clean Drawers
We will always remember where we were on 9/11. Always. For me, it was one of those typical days when I went into work early, 3: am. I still owned my corporate catering company then and we had breakfasts to deliver and plenty of lucrative lunch business. It was going to be a great day. I was addicted to National Public Radio in the morning, still am. Early, early they broadcast from the BBC. Early morning, still dark outside, money making business on the books and National Public Radio. I remember that feeling of how life just doesn’t get much better.
Rudy, my best driver, was out delivering breakfasts when news of the twin towers stated coming across the radio. When Rudy was finally able to call in, he was setting up breakfast in a conference room that had a TV tuned into CNN. He was rooted to the floor. Immobile. As was I. As were we all. Obviously, sadly as a nation we made it through the day as dreadfully terrifying as it was. That day wasn’t the whole story for me though. It was that night and the morning that followed.
My children were full of questions that evening, just as everyone’s children were. I answered their questions as best I could with what little information I had and with all the words God could put in my mouth. I remember we stayed up late no matter how hard we tried to follow our usual routine. With Lia and Casey finally settled, I myself made it to bed about midnight. I laid my XL nightshirt carefully at the foot of the bed along with my cozy house slippers and fell dead asleep in one of my simple white cotton nightgowns. My internal alarm went off, per usual, at 3: am. I slid out of bed, put the nightshirt on over the nightgown, stepped into my house shoes and slipped so very silently out the front door and into my car. Without turning the headlights on, I pulled out of the driveway and headed to the kitchen. This was my normal routine, slipping out of the house in the dead of night without waking up my children. I’d go the kitchen and get work done, in my nightgown and nightshirt until the sun started coming up. Then I would head home get dressed, feed my kids and get them off to school.
Did I feel like the guilty Momma for leaving my kids in the morning? Absolutely! Yet, I had no choice. The kitchen needed tending and many a morning over all the years, I completed more work between 3: and 7: am than I did the rest of the day. I was a single Mom doing what I needed to do to provide.
In the wee morning hours of 9/12, I slipped quietly out for the mile drive to my kitchen. Haven’t brushed my teeth and not wearing drawers. I pulled out of the neighborhood onto the main street where the kitchen was located and was immediately greeted with flashing blue and red lights, fire trucks and police cars. Emergency vehicles end to end in front of the group of buildings where my business was! The street was blocked off and I am close to hyperventilating as I crept up towards the first police car. I was waived out of my car so I could speak. Yes, in the nightgown, covered with the nightshirt, hair pebbles style on top of my head in the big clip and rotten morning breath. I tell Mr. Policeman that my business is in there and I need to get in as the panic bubbles up from my gut. Turns out there is a fire at the other end of my building and I need permission from Command Central down the street in order to enter the parking lot and get to my business to see if there is any damage. So here I am at 3: something in the morning, walking down the main street in my house shoes and no underwear to get permission to get into my business.
I did get in and I didn’t have any damage. Praise God. I don’t remember crying. I just brushed by teeth, arranged my hair back on top of my head and got to work. Apparently the business at the other end of my building was owned by a group of Muslims. The security cameras showed that they set fire to their own business in an effort to burn it down and blame it on a 9/11 hate crime. Bad scene. Bad people. Bad damage. Bad day to not be wearing underwear.
I was born in Manhattan and remember the towers well. They are part of the fabric that is me. My Lia and I had a theatre trip planned to Manhattan in the spring after 9/11. Even though we were encouraged to cancel it, that was simply not an option. We visited Ground Zero where the air was silent and respectful. There were still working cranes standing tall in the hole and debris hanging from the tress. The buildings next to the tower’s hole were still covered with burnt windows and charred concrete. Some of my closest relatives came to join us and we took the ferry out to Lady Liberty and Ellis Island. My grandfather came through Ellis Island so many years ago and I still remember taking the stairs to Lady Liberty’s crown when I was little. You can’t go up inside of her anymore, sadly she’s closed. The view from the top of her head is unbelievable. Like you can see the whole USA!
My Cousin Joe and I stood at the ferry railing looking back at the Manhattan skyline, minus the twin towers. It was a powerful moment as we remembered doing this exact thing so many, many years before when the towers were standing so strong and larger than life. The skyline was sadly empty. It hurts to think that my children will never see them and that the Manhattan skyline has been forever altered.
Our theater trip was perfect and New York City was as clean and welcoming as ever. Returning home, I never again went to work in my nightgown and nightshirt. I never again went to work without brushing my teeth, brushing my hair and making sure I was fully dressed.
I pray for all the people today who lost loved ones in the Twin Towers and for all those affected personally by the dreadful events of 9/11 so many years ago. I pray for them peace and healing.
Rudy, my best driver, was out delivering breakfasts when news of the twin towers stated coming across the radio. When Rudy was finally able to call in, he was setting up breakfast in a conference room that had a TV tuned into CNN. He was rooted to the floor. Immobile. As was I. As were we all. Obviously, sadly as a nation we made it through the day as dreadfully terrifying as it was. That day wasn’t the whole story for me though. It was that night and the morning that followed.
My children were full of questions that evening, just as everyone’s children were. I answered their questions as best I could with what little information I had and with all the words God could put in my mouth. I remember we stayed up late no matter how hard we tried to follow our usual routine. With Lia and Casey finally settled, I myself made it to bed about midnight. I laid my XL nightshirt carefully at the foot of the bed along with my cozy house slippers and fell dead asleep in one of my simple white cotton nightgowns. My internal alarm went off, per usual, at 3: am. I slid out of bed, put the nightshirt on over the nightgown, stepped into my house shoes and slipped so very silently out the front door and into my car. Without turning the headlights on, I pulled out of the driveway and headed to the kitchen. This was my normal routine, slipping out of the house in the dead of night without waking up my children. I’d go the kitchen and get work done, in my nightgown and nightshirt until the sun started coming up. Then I would head home get dressed, feed my kids and get them off to school.
Did I feel like the guilty Momma for leaving my kids in the morning? Absolutely! Yet, I had no choice. The kitchen needed tending and many a morning over all the years, I completed more work between 3: and 7: am than I did the rest of the day. I was a single Mom doing what I needed to do to provide.
In the wee morning hours of 9/12, I slipped quietly out for the mile drive to my kitchen. Haven’t brushed my teeth and not wearing drawers. I pulled out of the neighborhood onto the main street where the kitchen was located and was immediately greeted with flashing blue and red lights, fire trucks and police cars. Emergency vehicles end to end in front of the group of buildings where my business was! The street was blocked off and I am close to hyperventilating as I crept up towards the first police car. I was waived out of my car so I could speak. Yes, in the nightgown, covered with the nightshirt, hair pebbles style on top of my head in the big clip and rotten morning breath. I tell Mr. Policeman that my business is in there and I need to get in as the panic bubbles up from my gut. Turns out there is a fire at the other end of my building and I need permission from Command Central down the street in order to enter the parking lot and get to my business to see if there is any damage. So here I am at 3: something in the morning, walking down the main street in my house shoes and no underwear to get permission to get into my business.
I did get in and I didn’t have any damage. Praise God. I don’t remember crying. I just brushed by teeth, arranged my hair back on top of my head and got to work. Apparently the business at the other end of my building was owned by a group of Muslims. The security cameras showed that they set fire to their own business in an effort to burn it down and blame it on a 9/11 hate crime. Bad scene. Bad people. Bad damage. Bad day to not be wearing underwear.
I was born in Manhattan and remember the towers well. They are part of the fabric that is me. My Lia and I had a theatre trip planned to Manhattan in the spring after 9/11. Even though we were encouraged to cancel it, that was simply not an option. We visited Ground Zero where the air was silent and respectful. There were still working cranes standing tall in the hole and debris hanging from the tress. The buildings next to the tower’s hole were still covered with burnt windows and charred concrete. Some of my closest relatives came to join us and we took the ferry out to Lady Liberty and Ellis Island. My grandfather came through Ellis Island so many years ago and I still remember taking the stairs to Lady Liberty’s crown when I was little. You can’t go up inside of her anymore, sadly she’s closed. The view from the top of her head is unbelievable. Like you can see the whole USA!
My Cousin Joe and I stood at the ferry railing looking back at the Manhattan skyline, minus the twin towers. It was a powerful moment as we remembered doing this exact thing so many, many years before when the towers were standing so strong and larger than life. The skyline was sadly empty. It hurts to think that my children will never see them and that the Manhattan skyline has been forever altered.
Our theater trip was perfect and New York City was as clean and welcoming as ever. Returning home, I never again went to work in my nightgown and nightshirt. I never again went to work without brushing my teeth, brushing my hair and making sure I was fully dressed.
I pray for all the people today who lost loved ones in the Twin Towers and for all those affected personally by the dreadful events of 9/11 so many years ago. I pray for them peace and healing.
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