Please look at this. It was in my Technorati links.
http://www.gitrsblog.us/?p=563
Jesse didn’t tell me he was going to do this. I’m not asking you to donate, but it would be cool if you pass the word.
Jesse is the guy with CF who wrote the post I Want to Make a Difference too.
That post got 43 comments.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
I remember on my first trip to England, how surprised I was when I got into the countryside. Somehow I had expected, from looking at maps, that the small country compared to my own, would be small everywhere.
It wasn’t.
As my dear friend and I road out over the highway, I saw green rolling hills, villages in the distance, and a view took my eyes all of the way to the horizon. I had long before discovered the value of a visual change as a vacation, but this was much more than that. I was filled with a feeling of belonging.
All that I saw, the trees, grass that covered the low hilly country, the occasional bigger hill, every bit felt right in proportion and distance. I felt room to relax, to let my mind stretch out. This country perfectly suited my sense of space. I even remarked on it.
A sense of space and my place in it had I thought about it before that day? I don’t know. I do know that, when we talked about a sense of space, I was talking about something that always had been a part of me.
This morning I look at the space around me. I realize there isn’t any. I’ve turned my desk into a tiny country, with satellite nations on my file cabinet, the credenza, the table, the box beside it, the floor . . .
If it looks like that around me, I wonder how it must look inside my head?
I’m going to take a half hour to empty some places around here. I know that if I do, my shoulders will relax and I’ll start to sit back. I’d like to see whether being empty-headed might be a really nice feeling.
Space, my frontier. I’d like to explore where it takes me.
I’m going out the door to see wide open space. As soon as I get outside, I’ll be looking at that horizon under a BIG Illinois blue spring sky over Lake Michigan. I won’t be thinking about what I have left behind that needs working on.
Most things I do are not things that involve the question of whether a life begins or ends if I’m not there. The world can turn without me.
I’m going to stare at the horizon while I think about nothing. I’m going to explore space — that frontier of reflection in my mind.
New links connect blogs. New relationships connect people.
New people can add dimension and depth to your thinking and your ideas.
What new friends have you met lately? How have you made getting to know your blog easy for them? Here are three things you might do to get the ball rolling.
New friends who feel at home usually come back to visit again.
UPDATE: I am updating this post as part of my response to comments 11-13. Carma this is a post reference that I am linking back to your blog through a trackback. This should show up in your comments for the post called Make New Friends with Trackback.
This is the URl for that page http://karmasword.blogspot.com/2007/03/make-new-friends-with-trackback.html I got there by clicking the time 9:22A.M. (when you posted that post) under your blog. I copied the URL from my browser’s address bar to use it to make the link in my post here.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Related
For more on how to think like your readers see Customer Think on the Successful Series page.
Watch What You’re Doing.
We all have moments of self-doubt. Maybe not, but I sure know I do. As we get to know ourselves and find our feet, the moments get shorter. I don’t expect they ever disappear completely. The seems a momentary reminder of our fragile humanity.
This week I had a tired moment of self-doubt.
Tariq called at that same time. This lucky girl is getting to feel familiar with that blogger synchronicity, but I’ll never stop being captivated by its joyful and genuine surprise.
While Tariq and I talked about the options that stood before me and the barrier of self-doubt that I was holding up, he said something so simple. These aren’t his words, they’re mine. How could I remember word-for-word? I was listening from inside a box I’d built around me. But what Tariq almost whispered went something like this . . .
Liz, I know you know what to do. . . . . You wrote in a blog post last week. . . You tell other people all of the time. Tell yourself now.
“Act like you know what to do,” was what I answered back.
“That’s it,” he said. “Just do it for you. You do it for everyone.”
Then I saw myself on the other side of that darn barrier. What had been the scary thing that made me think I needed to stop myself from trying?
I did what I had been afraid to do. Nothing could have been so well-received.
Tariq had reminded me to know what I already knew.
It changed my life that day.
Friends do that for each other.
We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
______________
If you’re ready to change the world, send me your thoughts in a guest post. Feel free to take the gorgeous Change the World image up there that Sandy designed back to your blog. Or help yourself to this one.
. Email me about what you’re doing or what we might do. Let’s change the world one bit at a time together. Together it can’t take forever.
It was a busy night. You can read all about it in the comments section.
Here are some cool links we shared.
Thanks to everyone for the cool links and for being part of the conversation.
See you next Tuesday? I sure hope so.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
What is Tuesday Open Comment Night?
WANT TO GUEST HOST AN OPEN COMMENT NIGHT WITH ME? PICK A THEME AND TELL ME ABOUT IT. C’MON IT’LL BE FUN!
When I was a young manager, I didn’t know it but, I saw myself as a knight in shining armor. I had decided that rather than look to my boss for approval, I would look out my people. I would be their champion.
When a person on my team came to me with a problem, I would immediately want to make that problem be gone. I would listen in depth to the story and talk with the person about strategy on how to handle it.
Sometimes the best strategy would be for me to step in. Defusing problems became removing road blocks and slaying dragons. Not the best way to look at things.
Armed with sword of the story that I’d been told, I would head over, up, or down to the location of the other people involved to meet about the issue. Sometimes the meeting would include the person who brought me the problem. Sometimes it would be a meeting between me and my counterpart in another department.
The meeting would happen. I would lay out the “facts” as I had been told them in the fewest words from beginning to end, and when I was finished. I would have slayed the dragon.
All too often that would be when manager peer would tell me the other side of the story and I would look down to see a slain kitten.
These days, when I hear a story of how someone has been wronged. I listen so carefully. I put myself in that person’s shoes. I think and feel as I were the person talking. Then I do what I might to get the other side of the story. I look for innocence, compassion, and forgiveness enough to give to both sides.
I’ve sworn off slaying kittens.
We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
______________
If you’re ready to change the world, send me your thoughts in a guest post. Feel free to take the gorgeous Change the World image up there that Sandy designed back to your blog. Or help yourself to this one.
. Email me about what you’re doing or what we might do. Let’s change the world one bit at a time together. Together it can’t take forever.