Sometimes, I think there is a universal concept that floats just above the clouds all around the world.
Sometimes, if you are tall enough, not in height, but in spirit, I think you can read the message.

I think Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos got the message

IF you find people that are Passionate. IF you take care of People. PROFITS follow.

His new book, Delivering Happiness is a great story. It’s Tony’s story, and…

Wait, you don’t have the book yet?

Because it’s not released until June 7!!!!

BUT, you could win an advanced copy!

(I’ve read it and it’s worth it!!)

It’s easy.
1. Finish this sentence “I want to read Delivering Happiness because……..
2. Email it to (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)by May 6, 2010.
3. The finalist will be selected based on the amount of laughter when read to a 4 & 7 year old, and your book mailed to you.
4. The final response will be posted on May 10, 2010

Have fun!!!

 

I am a proud parent.  Really proud.  I’m warning you that if you aren’t in the mood for gushing, you might want to skip this post!

My daughter is 7, born into a family of extroverts.  Well, I’m a functioning introvert, but that’s just as bad. This is quite challenging for her sometimes, since she is the exact opposite. Clearly, exiting the womb, as an introvert.  I’m sure, that if she could have talked when born, she would have said “I was doing just fine where I was…why can’t I just stay here?”

So, can imagine our surprise, when last year, we attended the summer show that Circus Juventas puts on every year, where she announced

“I’d like to join the circus.”

What! The circus? Are you kidding me? And her simple reply, yes.

Why in the WORLD would an introvert want to join a circus?

and perform in front of, oh, say, 500 people at a time? Maybe it’s because all the introverts I know are adults, and by the way, if I asked any of them if they would do it, their answer would be a bold NO!

So, last fall, she started going once a week to practice, under the big top.  If you haven’t been to this place, it’s got to be on your list of things to do. It’s very cool. The first semester she took a class called circus experience, and got to try something new every week…trapeze, German wheel, hoops, silks, trampoline, juggling, you name it. The next semester, she was still excited and got to choose a class to focus on a skill.

I was secreting hoping for juggling, because it’s done on the ground.

She chose side by side trapeze, off the ground.

I was surprised at first, and after I thought about it, decided if I was doing it, that’s what I would have picked!

Every week, we pile in the minivan and head off to St. Paul for class.  My 4 year old and I sit in the back, and watch all the kids practice. I must admit, I have been irritated on more than one occasion, while in stuck in traffic, wishing secretly that she’d change her mind…but, she didn’t. And now I’m glad….because,

Under the big top, she has been learning:

1. Self confidence: That she CAN do things that scare her. I can’t tell you how many people that know her, comment on how confident she is becoming.
2. Strength, Physical & Mental: When not at the circus, she’s on the monkey bars at a park, until her hands blister. She is completely at home on the monkey bars, almost like breathing air.
3. Mistakes are ok: She falls off the bar, and guess what, just gets back up. No negative self talk, no processing why she fell, she just gets back up, and keeps going. That’s a skill that’s gonna come in handy…

Last night, was her 1st performance, and I was holding back tears. Proud tears, for a little girl, an introvert, who continues to face her fears, and “smile & style”.

I am glad, my daughter ran off and joined the circus, and it’s one of the best things that have happened in her life. 

It really does take a village, or in this case, a circus, to raise a child.

Thanks Circus Juventas, for making the world a better place~

p.s. I STRONGLY recommend seeing the show this summer…July 29-August 15.  If only for a few hours, you can escape the day, imagine yourself flying threw the air, and join the circus.

Special Thank You’s to:

Dan & Betty Butler, for your vision to start this non-profit 16 years ago and now is the largest circus school in the country. (And for hanging out at FSU, one of my colleges!)

Marissa Dorschner, for coaching Ellie, and helping our little introvert figure out the world and do things she didn’t think she could do.

Kasey Scarpello, for answering the same questions, over and over, with a smile. Administrators are the life blood of any organization, and you are no exception!

To all of the coaches, who come from all over the world, USSR, Mongolia, Morocco, Chile, China, India, to share their talent with our kids….Zina Avgoustova, Jason Burnstein, Tim Carlson, Risa Cohen, Zacc Fricke, Chimgee Haltarhuu, Mostapha Hassouni, Jeff Kasper, Charley Mason, Bat Nyangar, Lili Rancone, Amy Sackett, Sun Yan Hong, Zhang Xu, Rachel Butler, Lena Gould…and the student coaches Maria Balogh & Joey McEachern.

To the administrative folks: Nicole Lahoz Arne, Emily Janssen, Rhiannon Fisk, and Kim Thompson. Like the inside of a clock, you make things tick, without you, there would be no circus.

Yesterday, I went on my 1st field trip with my 1st grader. We went to the Bakken . It’s a pretty cool place and a great example of a guy with a vision and a passion for something…it just happen to be electricity.  Earl Bakken. Everyone’s got a story…and his is pretty cool.

As I stood there, with all the other moms’ and 2 dad’s….i was wondering what the heck I was suppose to do! I’m still a rookie at this stuff…the mom stuff, field trip volunteering stuff…I hate to admit it, but I was reallly nervous. I’d rather speak in front of 10,000 people…now that’s easy!

I was ‘assigned’ 4 kids, one of which was mine. Thank goodness…she pretty much just told me what to do. (not sure where she get’s that from!) Go this way, these are my friends, sit here….she’s gonna be fine when she grows up….

On our 1st stop, we had a volunteer from the museum teaching us stuff about magnets & electricity.  Before we got started, she asked for some ‘rules’ from the kids. Here’s what they came up with:

1. Don’t do bad stuff
2. Don’t touch stuff you’re not suppose to
3. Be Safe
4. Don’t run in the museum
5. Listen

I love it when I get to learn from the simplicity of kids. I wrote these down, and thought, yep, I think it’s a pretty good list.

If kids ruled the world, I don’t think it would be any less complex, but I think the simplicity & in the moment spirit in which kids live, would make day to day living a whole lot easier…and fun.

What have you learned from a kid today?

p.s. My favorite quote from the day was from a student…“my friend touched an electric fence he wasn’t suppose to. He got shocked. He had a smudge on his face. He liked the smudge.” I couldn’t stop laughing!

Welcome to the blogging world Michele Elin!  Michele has a passion for many things, including living big, dreaming big.  This is a guest blog post by Michele, who is making her way through life, with life, in life.  Check out her Blog and Thank You Michele, for sharing your thoughts with the world.

1. Figure out who you are and who and how you want to be. Write it down. I stared with five things. Add, cross off as you go.
2. Ask people. Send out a quick email text asking people for 3 words to describe you. I was surprised by what I got back.
3. Tell people. Give back. Make sure you tell people what you see in them – It’s another way of saying thank you.

Here I am

in the middle of the night, thinking. I’m thinking about people that have made a difference in my life. Missy came to mind as one of them.
It really seems kind of silly. We don’t really know each other, but last week we had a chance to grab a cup of coffee.  She was telling me what she had been up to in the last year and I really tuned in to her talking about her struggle to find her lost identity in the absence of a “job”. We all naturally default to our job title when asked what we do. We don’t naturally say we’re a parent or a great friend or a spouse or a listener or an energizer or we’re a connector of people. We define ourselves by our jobs.

I’ve always thought

the self-awareness journey was about your consciousness of you. When talking to her, I started to wonder how much others’ perceptions should and/or could inform your own
consciousness. Would any of you that know Missy say that she is lacking in identity?

I’m not saying that our perceptions are correct, and I know the old saying ‘your perception is reality.’ I wonder how much the composite of your perceptions of Missy is at all close to her perception of herself.

I’ve long been fascinated by the question of what people see when they look at me. Would those perceptions change what I think about myself? Should they? Is it important to know how much difference there is between my self-perception & others perception of me?

I’m not really sure….so I’ll just keep exploring

Life’s just a journey with a bunch of steps that I’ll keep taking.

This is a Guest Blog post by Danny Gutierrez.  He’s a husband, a dad, a raised-in-Peru foodie, who loves life.  He’s also a church planter & co-pastor of Bloom. When I read this story, I sat in tears. The kind of tears that are nourishing, not draining. Thank You Danny, for sharing this amazing, heart touching story.

Two days in a row is what it took for me to recognize there was more to my reflections then simply another string of pleasant thoughts.

I have a friend that kept coming to mind earlier this week. More specifically, it was the awe I felt as I watched the current chapter of his life unfold that held my fascination. My friend should be dead. It should be over for him. I have known about him for a while, yet not really connected with him on a meaningful personal level until recently as his life, that seemed to already be at rock bottom, sprung a trap door and took him to a new low; a low that his family was even wondering if he’d recover from.

I remember sitting on his hospital bed, looking into the eyes of a man who has lived many years of pain who wondered if this was how it would all end. And in the last couple months I’ve seen a man who manifestly decided that it was not over. I’ve seen a man allow something bigger than his fears, uncertainties, his past hurts, to pick him up and help him put his life back together.

And my mind kept playing the last series of events over and over again. The lance-armstrong-esque determination my friend was displaying to reclaim life while moving forward had me awestruck.

And then a non-original thought hit me, one that this important work has brought to many of our attention. Tell him how thankful you are for him.

My friend is not on Facebook, twitter, or email. And I felt like simply telling him in person would come across a bit canned. Of course! What else do you say to a man whose life is being so radically changed?

So I pulled out a pen and a sheet of paper, an envelope, a stamp, and a physical street address and I began sharing how thankful I was for his strength and his courage, and what that all meant to me.

And I realized that the thank you is what acknowledged that I had made the inspiration my own. It was now a gift he had freely given me.

It was like the inspiration that had floated around my head for two days settled somewhere in my soul

when I signed my name to that letter. And now I know that the thoughts surrounding all of this will never be fleeting since they are enshrined on that note that he has in his possession.

The letter, and more importantly the sentiment, is a matter of our relational history now.

My life is richer

for knowing this man.

My hope for life more robust

having witnessed him take the outstretched hand of his Maker to sit up from a bed of pain he has been laying in for years.

Missy asked me to consider sharing what I learned from writing this last letter.

I learned

There are SO MANY life changing and free gifts swirling around our heads, laying at our feet, lingering in our past, that can become ours if we just receive them and say… Thank you.