Category Archives: Inspiration

Love Notes for Finding Joy

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Back in my happiest place this weekend, friends!
Wishing us all to find our joy every day.
Wishing us all to lower our threshold for feeling it, internalizing it, expressing, sharing, and spreading it.
We all need all the joy we can get these days… all days.

  1. When I see you joyous my heart sings in joy right there with you! To know you are happy, at least in that moment, eases my mind so much.

2. Nature Music Your children Your friends Whatever brings you the most joy, I wish it on you in oodles and loads! More, more more!

3. What’s on the agenda today? I hope there are multiple things you look forward to! You can tell by the smile they bring when you anticipate! 🙂

4. What do we need to live a joyful life? I think our relationships are key. So I wish you people who open up your mind and heart for joy joy joy!

5. Where do you feel joy in your body? May that part of you be always open and bright, a vessel and a conduit for as much joy as you can handle!

6. The places, the people, the activities, challenges, feelings, memories, and events that bring you joy–may you immerse regularly!

7. Sometimes in life joy escapes us. But let us never lose hope that it will return to us eventually. We can be patient and whistle for it! 🙂

8. Sometimes joy is small. It can be just being okay and appreciating what’s good. The more we can feel joy at the small stuff, the more joyous life is!

9. OH hey FOOD! that is one of the MOST JOYOUS things in life, no? May you eat, drink, and be merry merry every day!

10. May your joy find you from the inside every day. May it connect you with everything that amplifies itself — all of us are better for it! Peace, dear one

11. That smile that reaches and crinkles your eyes — oh my gosh it just lights up the room! May your life stimulate it often and well!

12. How do we describe joy? Can we really articulate it? Even if not, it’s okay – because we can relate. We know it, share it, amplify it together.

Happy Weekend, friends. More tomorrow. 🙂

Love Notes for Dancing

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Shake it, friends! What rhythms find you today? How will you sway those hips and sashay those steps out on the street? I wish for us all to let loose a little more, offering our inner and outer music to one another more routinely, normalizing dancing through our activities of daily living. Standing desks are the best for this–what a great invention!

Dancey You. Full of joy. Cardio in work clothes. Let’s go.

  1. When words fail us, may music step up and connect us through rhythmic movement — We can dance rather than talk our way to our togetherness.

2. What’s the ideal rhythm for your gait? Once you find it, you can curate your street walking playlist. Every day is more fun after that!

3. May life bring you dance partners of all kinds, who will teach you new steps and broaden your world in the most musical ways!

4. What are your playlists? Who do you invite to share each? May you have dance partners stashed all over your life!

5. May songs from your formative years visit you when you least expect them, stirring you out of your torpor and moving your bottom deliciously!

6. Ever seen that lady who walks on the treadmill like it’s a fashion runway and her personal theme song plays in her ears? I wanna be her.

7. What is the next activity that you can convert happily into a dance? Who can you pull onto your makeshift dance floor?

8. Have you ever watched those dance improv contests? How can we incorporate dancing into our creative lives? Let’s mooove!

9. OH I just wish for the freest part of your spirit to fly ahead of your body and lead the latter in the funnest choreography!

10. When you feel that familiar fatigue of post-lunch workday lag, may a favorite song pop into your head and overtake your body!

11. May we all have multiple chances to dance freely, joyfully, and shamelessly to our favorite music every day!

12. This one is for Dancey Shane! Thank you for your kitchen boogy videos–they always make our days and inspire our own jams!

I like these lighthearted Love Note days. Sometimes we just need to shake it out and have fun. Happy weekend, friends– More tomorrow!

Love Notes for Bridging Difference

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The PA student wellness talk went great! 42 or so junior colleagues engaged with me and my badly designed PowerPoint for ninety minutes and I had the BEST time! I realized this morning that for the youngest of them (about half the class), the pandemic hit during high school and the beginning of college. It reminds me of The Fourth Turning and how significantly the intersection of phase of life with momentous human events influences our world views. This summer I was challenged to address the impact of generational differences on organizational culture in a corporate wellness talk, and I started to see age and generation as another form of diversity.

“Respect and challenge the hierarchy,” occurred to me for students this year. We elders (some very elder indeed) still run things, and our experience and wisdom matter. We also have much to learn from our juniors, from their fresh and diverse perspectives. If we can all lead, from any chair, by humble and confident example, our professional culture will progress toward stronger inclusiveness and mutual respect.

I continue to seek conversation and connection with both conservative and progressive friends around politics. But I want to go deeper than news headlines and the loudest arguments. I want to know what core goals and values we share, to start walking together to see where our paths diverge. Where are our shared destinations, and why do you choose 90/94 while I choose Lake Shore Drive? What are the dis/advantages of each, what are the trade-offs?

I am really starting to miss more long form posting here, how fascinating! We are 60% through this daily blogging challenge. Many thanks to all who have followed along (Hi Mick and Donna!), and welcome to any new friends! Now let’s see how much love we can find across difference:

  1. Keep your antennae tuned for those who would divide us to serve their own purposes. This is NOT our better nature. Resist them and stay connected!

2. You and I disagree on this today. That may not necessarily be the case in the future. We can keep our minds open to change, without shame or judgement.

3. You don’t believe everything I believe. But let us not let that stop us from staying curious and connecting anyway. May we see light in each other no matter what.

4. The holidays can challenge our patience and resilience to triggers. *deep breath* May we stand firmly in love and ties of respect and shared history to get us through gratefully.

5. Our biases come honestly or not, we inherit many and form others organically. It’s a human thing. But let us hold them loosely and let them go to connect to one another.

6. Today and all days, may our differences feel softer, less threatening, and approachable with openness, light, and optimism for connection.

7. How wonderfully diverse we all are! How boring the world would be if we were all the same! May we appreciate and celebrate every spectrum!

8. To my friends who vote differently and sit with me over a meal or coffee to discuss–thank you. Our persistent and resilient connection gives me hope for our future.

9. I love you because we share important things in common. And the places where we differ teach me, make me better. Because of our love.

10. One deep breath can be the difference between a connecting moment and a destructive one. Let our breath give us the space to make the connecting choice.

11. Humility Curiosity Empathy Kindness Generosity — Is there any theme of love note NOT founded on these?

12. These fun music mash-ups like AC/DC-BeeGees — If we can so easily and artfullly blend divergent melodic creations, why not try with our policy ideas? We are a creative species, no?

Oh, I like this set, friends. Onward to 30!