Guy Kawasaki doesn't know it - yet - but his is SUCH a member of my tribe! I know he describes himself as an evangelist, but in my tribe he is the soothsayer, seeing into the future through his ability to see & stand in the unfettered now. Guy extols the value of having milestones that mark our passage into a more aware intentional on-purpose future. Real goals with actual heft - things that I'd call up or over to John to shout out, "Keet, I just got THIS done!"
Milestone #1 was passed last night. With an immense assist from John, I threw the bash of my life (our wedding weekend was in a class of it's own). Not because the food was so epic or the beverages rocked. Because the preparation were, on my part, stress-free & hit each of my goals.
The solidly comfort food dishes were easy to do, there was a good balance of gluten-free/dairy-free with glutinous & mooovelous choices, 24 cans of Yuengling lager & 12 of Y's Black & Tan were the backbone with others bringing additional beer & wine.
Lovely way to start - spent 30 mins (6:30 - 7:00) just smooshing with Angela Heldon Caldwell. Claudia had set up for her niece to help me set up, but things were on an even enough keel we could take the time to visit instead of bustle.
The kitchen was clear & clutter-free when the first guest arrived. The rain held off & it was a lusciously cool evening (rain was forecast).
Claudia & Brian have an ideal house for entertaining, making my job super easy - and we loved our rare glimpses of Max, their mega handsome Siamese. And although I crashed before the end of the party, regretfully leaving it to the hosts to clear up, most of the food was served in dishes that could be tosses along with any left-overs; I don't know about Claudia, but I would have been ruthless in chucking out left-overs.
Since we left them with the mess, super glad we'd given them what was declared a spot-on hostess present - beautiful napkins featuring sailing boats. And Claudia, being treasurer, will be happy we did it under budget!
Among my take-always - - we could have used the family-sized Stauffers lasagne & double the number of meatballs and my now famous mac & cheese; for the mac & cheese, had doubled the Betty Crocker recipe, using a combination of Trader Joe's Cheddar w/Gruyere, Cheddarw/caramelized Onion, NY Cheddar, also doubling TJ's Party-sized Meatballs, served in half & half hickory-smoked bbq and sweet & tangy sauces. Finally got the greens right - just two smallish bags of field greens with two types of dressing. Desserts were a family-sized conyptaier of chunky Chips Ahoy cookies & one box of Butterscotch Krimpets each piece of frosted cake cut into three bites-size portions, sectioned mandarin oranges & apple slices dredged with fresh lemon juice. Only need one batch of the g-f pasta w/marinara (recommend using the 2nd half of the box for add'l mac & cheese). Got kudos for the sommer veggie g-f pasta salad - a ton of different veggies & ranch dressing.
The chili dip ringed with cheddar cheese with a super-sized dollop of sour cream in the middle was a hit, with the dairy-free version went untouched until dolling it up like its companion. Trader Joe's spinach dip was doctored with a splash of Worcester Sauce & two tablespoons of diced water chestnuts. Smoothed out TJ's onion dip with sour cream, added two tablespoons of French's fried onions, with another generous tablespoon sprinkled on top. Hummus, d-f cream cheese with chutney & with cocktail sauce/tiny shrimp rounded out the offerings. I held off on the guacamole & mild salsa, since I *forgot* to get Tostitos scoops (duh); when one of the guests ( <3 ) brought a bag & salsa, I couldn't get into the fridge to find the guac - it was not missed. A bag of Doritos, rippled & sour cream/chive potato chips worked out; glad I got two bags of Frito scoops, because we needed both.
The popularity of the crackers - original Triscuit & Wheat Thins, a plain round, g-f rice crackers - took me by surprise. No sorprise the cheeseboard was a hit - a triple cream Brie, a creamy blue, NY cheddar, Muenster, pepper jack & pub cheese, all from Trader Joe's.
The sheer exuberance of the evening, the wonderful mix of ages - from middle school to way beyond middle age. Everyone has such an energized, happy time. THE GONDOLIERS was an unforgettable experience, from the WOW production to the last potato chip.
Sunday, May 28, 2017
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Danny Iny changed my life
Danny Iny's brilliant collaborative masterpiece ~ Engagement From Scratch! ~ set things I've held dear to my heart flat on their ears! Reading all those spectacularly creative voices sharing their "wish I'd known THIS when I started building an online community" wisdom ~ the sort of generous sharing that has me loving the massively friendly, speak-my-language folks I've tagged up with through Danny. And wondering, from an unexpected, fresh perspective - what do I want my online presence to shout out to the world?
This afternoon, my brain cells suddenly broke out into a dance & reconfigured themselves into something at once unrecognizable - and - yet oh so right! The bittersweet realization dawned that "older2elder," like Cyber Access for the Technically Timid (CATT), is fine for an aspect of what I do, BUT the deepest, all-encompassing core theme of my true north purpose remained elusive.
There I was, in the middle of the afternoon & 2/3 through the book, seeing a term I've cherished for years shift from being my catch-all concept to simply an essential component of a mystery greater whole.
Right there & then, I started playing with different ideas, splashing them across the pages in a playful rainbow of colors, playfully switching between the hues, seeing how joyfully they played against each other.
And slowly surely certainly it became clear - my absolute is-now, always-was life manifesto is to bring a bodacious a sense of PLAY to as many people as I can in this & any other lifetimes!
Yes, I am a grannie listener, a life enthusiast, a general instigator, CATT -and- Cupcake Lady, creativity cheerleader, heart's desire drumbeater. But - thanks to Danny & his fabulous friends - my jiving swinging moon-walking brain cells waltzed me to the aha that, above all, I am a playfulness coach, doing everything I can to bring smiles of every sort & size to all ages, all stages. Always have, always will.
Psssst ... Wanna learn how to play Intergeneration Hopscotch? Stick around, I'll show you how... and you can add a few special hops, skips & jumps of your own!
This afternoon, my brain cells suddenly broke out into a dance & reconfigured themselves into something at once unrecognizable - and - yet oh so right! The bittersweet realization dawned that "older2elder," like Cyber Access for the Technically Timid (CATT), is fine for an aspect of what I do, BUT the deepest, all-encompassing core theme of my true north purpose remained elusive.
There I was, in the middle of the afternoon & 2/3 through the book, seeing a term I've cherished for years shift from being my catch-all concept to simply an essential component of a mystery greater whole.
Right there & then, I started playing with different ideas, splashing them across the pages in a playful rainbow of colors, playfully switching between the hues, seeing how joyfully they played against each other.
What oh what over-arching theme reveals
the power play
behind my true heart's desire?
the power play
behind my true heart's desire?
And slowly surely certainly it became clear - my absolute is-now, always-was life manifesto is to bring a bodacious a sense of PLAY to as many people as I can in this & any other lifetimes!
Yes, I am a grannie listener, a life enthusiast, a general instigator, CATT -and- Cupcake Lady, creativity cheerleader, heart's desire drumbeater. But - thanks to Danny & his fabulous friends - my jiving swinging moon-walking brain cells waltzed me to the aha that, above all, I am a playfulness coach, doing everything I can to bring smiles of every sort & size to all ages, all stages. Always have, always will.
Psssst ... Wanna learn how to play Intergeneration Hopscotch? Stick around, I'll show you how... and you can add a few special hops, skips & jumps of your own!
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
Pleasant places
That quote has been posted in the 2nd floor bathroom for more years than I remember. Happily finding out how true those words are!
It's doubtful that anyone who has known me well for any great length of time would think of me as craving order, having a place for everything. Certainly not my elementary school classmates, who may remember the times teachers would keep me in from recess to dig out my messy desk.
No one, especially me, gave any thought to the possibility that everything was out of place because that was my normal - feeling, being out of place.
It took 41 years of realizing something was amiss, 28 years of building awareness, 16 years of AH HAs & 7 of increasingly focused action, but here I BE - in an interesting AND well-ordered room. And it's been that way, consistently, for over six months.
At this particular moment, there is a lot of stuff in here that doesn't belong, BUT it's clear those thing are in transition, in the sorting stage from being in the wrong place in the Front Room to finding their right place. And it is clear that the room itself, this room we once called the Computer Studio & now The Retreat, IS inherently orderly, its space open & welcoming its temporary guests because it is secure in its own true state.
Open your space, open your life. It took a) my desire & willingness to live a better something I did not know/experience -and- b) the great Marie Kondo to make the shift that got me to 1.5 orderly, interesting, use-filled rooms in Squirrel Haven.
Confession - I did not clear & clean either The Retreat or The Front Room in Marie Kondo's trademark style, but I did clear out the books, all at once from throughout the house, which wasthe kick-start I needed. And I will use her method to do the rest of the house. As she says - take the relatively teensy sliver of your life to do one mega clearing & cleaning marathon that puts everything in its true place -or- spend ALL of your life dogged & bogged in an unending marathon of trying to keep up. Marie Kondo - the human embodiment of "open your space, open your life."
Here's something I've learned - it didn't just take me all those years of first awakening to deeper awareness to increasingly focused action to get to here, sitting in a seriously cool-looking room with a life-thrumming vibe. News flash - Marie Kondo's book, The Life-changing Act of Tidying Up, wasn't published until 2014. All the other articles & books I'd read down the years didn't click. Marie's did. Right book at the right time - neither of those factors were in my control. But one thing was. Me.
For over at least a dozen years, "Open your space, open your life" has been posted next to the door in the 2nd floor bathroom. I never stopped believing that better was possible -and- did not beat myself up for not being there yet.
Here I be, on May 9, 2017, in a room that celebrates creativity within empowering boundaries, parameters. Am waiting for my breakfast sweet potato to finish heating so I can top it with hummus & roasted Brussel sprouts, then move forward with my day. Get in my first listen-of-the-day to Mel Robbins' 10 Rules of Success (with thanks to Evan Carmichael), wash my hair, get together with Margaret & Elaine to craft my Kronos/Kairos necklace while John takes Richard & Bronzi out on a ramble & to lunch, then onto spend time this afternoon with young friends, later transform last night's yum VEGAN dinner into a new incarnation, finish ithe day off with a batch-up cuppa with Karen.
The quote on our 2nd floor bathroom wall says "Open your space, open your life." Looking over my day, looking around the room, looking at my life, am reminded of an even more spot-on quote, from the Bible - My lines have fallen into pleasant places.
Indeed, they have!
It's doubtful that anyone who has known me well for any great length of time would think of me as craving order, having a place for everything. Certainly not my elementary school classmates, who may remember the times teachers would keep me in from recess to dig out my messy desk.
No one, especially me, gave any thought to the possibility that everything was out of place because that was my normal - feeling, being out of place.
It took 41 years of realizing something was amiss, 28 years of building awareness, 16 years of AH HAs & 7 of increasingly focused action, but here I BE - in an interesting AND well-ordered room. And it's been that way, consistently, for over six months.
At this particular moment, there is a lot of stuff in here that doesn't belong, BUT it's clear those thing are in transition, in the sorting stage from being in the wrong place in the Front Room to finding their right place. And it is clear that the room itself, this room we once called the Computer Studio & now The Retreat, IS inherently orderly, its space open & welcoming its temporary guests because it is secure in its own true state.
Open your space, open your life. It took a) my desire & willingness to live a better something I did not know/experience -and- b) the great Marie Kondo to make the shift that got me to 1.5 orderly, interesting, use-filled rooms in Squirrel Haven.
Confession - I did not clear & clean either The Retreat or The Front Room in Marie Kondo's trademark style, but I did clear out the books, all at once from throughout the house, which wasthe kick-start I needed. And I will use her method to do the rest of the house. As she says - take the relatively teensy sliver of your life to do one mega clearing & cleaning marathon that puts everything in its true place -or- spend ALL of your life dogged & bogged in an unending marathon of trying to keep up. Marie Kondo - the human embodiment of "open your space, open your life."
Here's something I've learned - it didn't just take me all those years of first awakening to deeper awareness to increasingly focused action to get to here, sitting in a seriously cool-looking room with a life-thrumming vibe. News flash - Marie Kondo's book, The Life-changing Act of Tidying Up, wasn't published until 2014. All the other articles & books I'd read down the years didn't click. Marie's did. Right book at the right time - neither of those factors were in my control. But one thing was. Me.
For over at least a dozen years, "Open your space, open your life" has been posted next to the door in the 2nd floor bathroom. I never stopped believing that better was possible -and- did not beat myself up for not being there yet.
Here I be, on May 9, 2017, in a room that celebrates creativity within empowering boundaries, parameters. Am waiting for my breakfast sweet potato to finish heating so I can top it with hummus & roasted Brussel sprouts, then move forward with my day. Get in my first listen-of-the-day to Mel Robbins' 10 Rules of Success (with thanks to Evan Carmichael), wash my hair, get together with Margaret & Elaine to craft my Kronos/Kairos necklace while John takes Richard & Bronzi out on a ramble & to lunch, then onto spend time this afternoon with young friends, later transform last night's yum VEGAN dinner into a new incarnation, finish ithe day off with a batch-up cuppa with Karen.
The quote on our 2nd floor bathroom wall says "Open your space, open your life." Looking over my day, looking around the room, looking at my life, am reminded of an even more spot-on quote, from the Bible - My lines have fallen into pleasant places.
Indeed, they have!
Saturday, May 6, 2017
Head in the (word) clouds
Today kicked off the Bryn Athyn Bounty Farm Market's 2017 season. John & I were not one of the vendors - no Cupcake Lady this year. Oh, I went, but as a customer. Saw many a disappointed youngster & parent. Thank goodness free creativity workshops will help fill the big empty space in my life & heart.
Friends went from feeling downcast to excited as I described what's afoot in my life. In trying to describe Cyber Access for the Technically Timid (CATT), found myself wishing for a word cloud showcasing the perks & pleasures of internet acccess. From e-mail & Facebook to Pinterest & podcast & everything in between, a word cloud could show off what hands- & stress-free entry can mean, especially to oldsters elders ancients.
Hmmm... What could I include? To begin with...
FREEDOM
CHOICE
INDEPENDENCE
CONNECTION
CREATIVITY
JOY
FUN
LAUGHTER
THE SHIPS - friendship, relationship, partnership, ownership
LEARNING
MASTERY
THE BIG "E"s - engagement, energized, empowered
CONFIDENCE
INTERDEPENDENCE
CONTRIBUTION
SATISFACTION
CONTROL
OPTIONS
And that just scratches the surface of all that flows - for any age - from exploring, getting familiar with, feeling at home on the World Wide Web!
While I dearly miss not being part of this year's Bounty, great things are rushing into my life. Time for the Cupcake Lady to move out of the spotlight, welcoming the CATT Lady to center stage!
Friends went from feeling downcast to excited as I described what's afoot in my life. In trying to describe Cyber Access for the Technically Timid (CATT), found myself wishing for a word cloud showcasing the perks & pleasures of internet acccess. From e-mail & Facebook to Pinterest & podcast & everything in between, a word cloud could show off what hands- & stress-free entry can mean, especially to oldsters elders ancients.
Hmmm... What could I include? To begin with...
FREEDOM
CHOICE
INDEPENDENCE
CONNECTION
CREATIVITY
JOY
FUN
LAUGHTER
THE SHIPS - friendship, relationship, partnership, ownership
LEARNING
MASTERY
THE BIG "E"s - engagement, energized, empowered
CONFIDENCE
INTERDEPENDENCE
CONTRIBUTION
SATISFACTION
CONTROL
OPTIONS
And that just scratches the surface of all that flows - for any age - from exploring, getting familiar with, feeling at home on the World Wide Web!
While I dearly miss not being part of this year's Bounty, great things are rushing into my life. Time for the Cupcake Lady to move out of the spotlight, welcoming the CATT Lady to center stage!
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Crazy for Danny Iny
Danny Iny is my kinda human. He wants to succeed, rewarded with all the prestige & goodies that brings, but he thinks just as much - maybe more - about helping people like me, folks who lack funding & core support & sometimes a fully-grounded concept.
Page 10, Engagement From Scratch: ""There were plenty of businesses that were doing very well, and there were more than enough of them to support a thriving consulting & coaching practice for Peter (biz partner) & myself. But there were a lot of people who really needed help. And we wanted to help. We both gave away a lot of our time for free, but we couldn't keep up with the demand - free advice just couldn't scale."
Danny & Peter checked for books/programs they could recommend to folks with great ideas but no funding or backers. They came up with nothing. Oh, Peter & Danny found a rich market for such a guide; it just was filled with under-funded on-the-brink entrepreneurs.
"We realized that if we wanted a solution to offer these entrepreneurs & business owners, we would have to build it ourselves - and that's exactly what we did."
Engagement From Scratch is an astonishing book - approachable, clearly written, entertaining & wildly informative material from a jaw-dropping wide range of super smart & creative people. Each gem of wisdom is relatively short - ten pages, max. And you walk away from each stand-alone read feeling seriously more empowered.
Danny GIVES away the online version of his book, as simple as a free download, and 50% of book sales go to support teaching about entrepreneurship.
When I first told my business coach my plan to split my older2elder activities between income streams & community pay-back, he looked at me like I was an over-idealistic crazy woman. I have every faith that Cyber Access for the Technically Timid and Every Moment will attract eager clients, making it possible to do more pro-bono work and, in time, write our own books, post our own YouTube coaching videos.
I know it can be done - Danny's doing it.
Am I crazed, like my biz coach thought? Far from it - am fixed focused determined. Well, actually now that I think about it, I am crazy - crazy for Danny Iny!
Page 10, Engagement From Scratch: ""There were plenty of businesses that were doing very well, and there were more than enough of them to support a thriving consulting & coaching practice for Peter (biz partner) & myself. But there were a lot of people who really needed help. And we wanted to help. We both gave away a lot of our time for free, but we couldn't keep up with the demand - free advice just couldn't scale."
Danny & Peter checked for books/programs they could recommend to folks with great ideas but no funding or backers. They came up with nothing. Oh, Peter & Danny found a rich market for such a guide; it just was filled with under-funded on-the-brink entrepreneurs.
"We realized that if we wanted a solution to offer these entrepreneurs & business owners, we would have to build it ourselves - and that's exactly what we did."
Engagement From Scratch is an astonishing book - approachable, clearly written, entertaining & wildly informative material from a jaw-dropping wide range of super smart & creative people. Each gem of wisdom is relatively short - ten pages, max. And you walk away from each stand-alone read feeling seriously more empowered.
Danny GIVES away the online version of his book, as simple as a free download, and 50% of book sales go to support teaching about entrepreneurship.
When I first told my business coach my plan to split my older2elder activities between income streams & community pay-back, he looked at me like I was an over-idealistic crazy woman. I have every faith that Cyber Access for the Technically Timid and Every Moment will attract eager clients, making it possible to do more pro-bono work and, in time, write our own books, post our own YouTube coaching videos.
I know it can be done - Danny's doing it.
Am I crazed, like my biz coach thought? Far from it - am fixed focused determined. Well, actually now that I think about it, I am crazy - crazy for Danny Iny!
Monday, May 1, 2017
Mount up with wings...
Seven months ago, I chose to step away from life as It had flowed, took a sabbatical from who knows what. Didn't then, don't now - just went with my gut.
A couple months back, did something else way outside my norm, all because something in my bones said, "Do it." Whenever the spirit moves me, I write four slightly different versions of the same letter; three go to individuals & one to a couple. On lined paper. The stationery doesn't' matter, the connection does.
People think of me as a gregarious person & in many ways I am. But although connecting with people is deeply & joyfully rooted in my nature, for many decades it was smudged out of my nurture. The letters help me reclaim my true self, although I can't for the life of me tell you how.
For years, I'd say in trying to explain some off-kilter trait, "My family told me...". Somewhere around my mid-50s, that changed to, "The message I got...". Nowadays, "It's more to the point - "The noises I hear..."
The older I get, the clearer it becomes that we mish & mangle, all by our little lonesome, so much of what we hear & experience, yet think it's someone else's doing. Once I realized that 99.99999% of the warped messages I've received over 65+ years were warped by ME - well, it was liberating.
Yesterday, when I wrote on another blog that the why behind Cyber Access for the Technically Timid (CATT) was "choice & freedom," something that had been crammed in, stuck down deep inside seemed to take wing & soar upward - released, jubilant.
Just now, did some time travel. Went back 3+ years to March 2014 & my first posting on this very blog. It talked about, after four (4) decades of digging down deep, had finally secured a solid foundation, The next step was figuring out the gnarly task of figuring out how the heck to create craft build a strong & resilient infrastructure.
Up to now, my life has resisted heading in anything close to a linear fashion -YET- it has been steadily leading me to the place moment being where I am capable of thinking & planning & DOING in a linear manner.
Kairos & Kronos continue their dance - for the time being, Kronos has taken the lead. And Kairos couldn't be prouder.
A couple months back, did something else way outside my norm, all because something in my bones said, "Do it." Whenever the spirit moves me, I write four slightly different versions of the same letter; three go to individuals & one to a couple. On lined paper. The stationery doesn't' matter, the connection does.
People think of me as a gregarious person & in many ways I am. But although connecting with people is deeply & joyfully rooted in my nature, for many decades it was smudged out of my nurture. The letters help me reclaim my true self, although I can't for the life of me tell you how.
For years, I'd say in trying to explain some off-kilter trait, "My family told me...". Somewhere around my mid-50s, that changed to, "The message I got...". Nowadays, "It's more to the point - "The noises I hear..."
The older I get, the clearer it becomes that we mish & mangle, all by our little lonesome, so much of what we hear & experience, yet think it's someone else's doing. Once I realized that 99.99999% of the warped messages I've received over 65+ years were warped by ME - well, it was liberating.
Yesterday, when I wrote on another blog that the why behind Cyber Access for the Technically Timid (CATT) was "choice & freedom," something that had been crammed in, stuck down deep inside seemed to take wing & soar upward - released, jubilant.
Just now, did some time travel. Went back 3+ years to March 2014 & my first posting on this very blog. It talked about, after four (4) decades of digging down deep, had finally secured a solid foundation, The next step was figuring out the gnarly task of figuring out how the heck to create craft build a strong & resilient infrastructure.
Up to now, my life has resisted heading in anything close to a linear fashion -YET- it has been steadily leading me to the place moment being where I am capable of thinking & planning & DOING in a linear manner.
Kairos & Kronos continue their dance - for the time being, Kronos has taken the lead. And Kairos couldn't be prouder.
Transformed
For over half a year, time - as it existed in September 2016 - stopped for me. Trusting intuition over logic, I let life roll along at its own tempo. What came up was attended to, without fretting or an expectation of knowing the next phase. With a respectful bow, Kronos stepped aside for Kairos to take the lead. For many months, it did - until a few weeks back. In what the calendar marks as April, Kairos beckoned Kronos over & now they are joined together in a dance, sometimes tracing Kronos' measured steps, sometimes free forming to Kairos' instinctive beat, but always in loving relationship.
I trusted both & am now transformed.
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