Computer Lessons

She called me on my cell phone and waited as I adjusted my ear piece. She needed help retrieving her word file. It was a letter to my sister and she used it as a base to practice 'bold', 'underline', and 'italics'. I didn't even know she knew the word 'italics'. She was born in Egypt and English was not her first language, or even her second. She talked to me about solitare and her frustration with moving a set of cards from one column to another when the drag and drop function was defective. It was like listening to a new born baby speak with a full vocabulary. It was all at once disorienting and delightfully entertaining at the same time.

She decided it was time to learn how to use a computer and started taking computer classes twice a week. She wanted to know what it was that created such an addiction for her 18 year old granddaughter. What kept her up so late and who was she talking to anyways? It agitated her that even her youngest grandchildren who were 7 and 10 years of age knew how the use computer and she didn't. She thought that if they could do it then so could she. She is in a class with 11 other people she calls 'senior citizens'. The teacher gives her homework - and remarkably she does it with rigor! She has an email address and has learned how to send and receive messages. Now she can send us her recipes!

My mother. Married to my dad for 54 years. Still the designated driver for all her friends, the master chef, the queen hostess, the power shopper, and the ultimate social activity coordinator. She takes care of the universe and expresses her love through her food.

My mother. 74 years old. An example that it's never too late to learn. Proof that action gets noticed. And evidence of the unending inspiration that parents can deliver to their kids. Way to go Ma!

That Sound

I heard it this weekend.

It was fast and powerful.
It had movement.
It had energy and a stream of electricity running through it.
It had tension, but not a bad tension, the kind of tension you are drawn to and want to know more about.

If I closed my eyes, I could see the nature of its origin…
It was green with wild orange and red undertones and a flush of deep blue.
It was not disheveled or frenzied as it sometimes can be.
It was crisp and clear and easy to picture.
It was strong and I could tell it was going to be huge.
It resonated with determination and drive.
With single minded focus and passion.

It was Peter Tosto of Finditt.com in the process of explaining his creation - the only search engine in the world hooked directly to a news feed leading to a world wide revolution in search engine optimization. It was his description of how anything in the universe can be found on www.Finditt.com and how his SEO strategy invites real estate agents to list as many homes as they want on his site for only $149/year and drive high search rankings instantly. It was the way he proved his expertise by taking my website and optimizing it with the term ‘real estate sales coaching’ and increasing my rankings to the front page of Yahoo and MSN within just a few days. It was him helping me to understand how the news and the internet work in tandem to drive site popularity. It was his knowledge and skill that completely blew me away. It was his tone and his absolute certainty about where he is going, and how he is getting there.

It was the sound of inspiration; an entrepreneur living his dream and executing his vision.

Escalating Badness

Have you ever noticed that when things start to go wrong, they just get worse? That's the kind of day I had today. Escalating badness. It's a function of the law of attraction. When you focus on the thing that makes you feel bad, you continue to feel bad and then you emanate bad energy and that energy just attracts more bad stuff. The trick is to gradually move yourself out of badness and into a more happy, joyful state. Easier said than done, right? Well let me try...

The first thing I need to do is be kind to myself. I say, "Today I had a bad day. Tomorrow, I will choose to have a better day."

The second thing I need to do is imagine what a great day looks like:

I wake up feeling refreshed and energized. The sun shines through my window blinds. I take a few minutes to give some thought to what I am grateful for. I leap out of bed and wake up my kids. They are unbelievably cheerful and they get dressed, brush their teeth and get ready for school as I shower and get ready too. They are in the car on time and ready to go. As I drive them to school, we all sing out loud to a song that the three of know the lyrics to. I give them a hug and a kiss, I tell them I love them and to have a great day. They too tell me they love me and I am ready to face my day.

I get to work and I walk into my office to see a pile of cheques on my desk ready for deposit. I receive emails from customers who are thrilled with my company and send me at least one referral each. I get a bunch of calls from prospects who have heard great things about me and ask me if I'd be willing to work with them. I meet at least one new person who is dynamic, intelligent, interesting, and doing amazing things in the world. I connect with some of my friends and swap stories. I feel great.

I head home to pick up my kids who have already finished their homework, are both in amazing moods, and are ready to go home, have a great dinner, light a fire and watch a movie together.
Before going to bed I write a blog entry.

That's a perfect day.

The third thing I need to do is say "Thanks for such an amazing day."

Funny how that whole process just made my today so much brighter... I have a strong feeling that tommorrow will be a great day!

The Wrong Pizza

My kids are at their dad's tonight. I called them at around 7 p.m. to check in and discovered that they were having a grand old time with their uncle Max, who was babysitting for a few hours. When I asked what they were doing, I was told that they ordered a pizza and were just sitting down for dinner. My son always orders the same pizza: black olives and pinapple.

He told me that they made a mistake, instead of black olives they put tomatoes.
I imagined a pizza with tomatoes and pinapple and thought it might not be the greatest combination. So I said, "Tomatoes and pinapple? What does that taste like?"

He said "They forgot the pinapple too, they put chicken instead."

"Did you call and tell them they made a mistake?"

"No, who cares, I can live with it. It's actually pretty good Mom."

Funny how sometimes 10 year olds have the wisdom to just go with the flow and enjoy the surprises along the way. Perhaps, we too can curb the complaining and discover some of the surprises that are right infront of us enjoy!