Lessons

I found this on someones tagline:



A Cherokee elder sitting with his grandchildren told them, "In every life there is a terrible fight – a fight between two wolves.
One is evil: he is fear, anger, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, and deceit.
The other is good: joy, serenity, humility, confidence, generosity, truth, gentleness, and compassion.

" A child asked, "Grandfather, which wolf will win?"

The elder looked the child in the eye. "The one you feed."

The Horror of Meetings

You walk into the room. The silence is deafening. Everyone shuffles, gathers pens, paper, bottles of water. Polite greetings are uttered with no friendliness. Where you sit is one of the most important factors. You need to make eye contact with allies but not be directly across from the person you want or need to avoid. Eye contact could mean you get volunteered for some unwanted task. It also means that you may have to express your opinion. A dangerous thing, this speaking out. All members of this alliance toss their emotional baggage on the table waiting for the moment that it gets opened, the contents new and old awaiting exposure. Hidden agendas are checked and on the ready. It would be lovely if everything were straightforward. But it’s not and words are weighed as if they were poker chips in a high stake game. Information sharing begins with trust. Trust, a commodity that at times seems to be in short supply. A spattering of information is given and taken, nothing that would upset the balance. An uneasy truce Experience makes you do new mistakes instead of old ones.

Happy Birthday

Just wanted to give a big Happy Birthday to my sister Arlene who is turning (fill in the blank) years old. Heartfelt wishes on your special day!

Love All Trust Few

I have become addicted to listening to Podcasts and have found some wisdom in the most unlikely places. There is a Podcast called Sales Strategy Radio with Tim McMahon that I have subscribed to that deals with increasing sales. He always has solid examples and always has an interesting way of getting his point across. In a Podcast titled “The Meaning of Partnership” I have found that at this time how much it applies to my work. In a group home you have people who depend on you to help them with life skills, a partnership that if the person is to have any measure of success depends on mutual trust. There is the person’s family who joins in with this partnership of trust. They have to trust the counsellor, the organization and the person in our care. There has to be a measure of trust between all parties including the managerial personal. Which brings me to the Podcast.

In his Podcast Tim McMahon talks about partnerships. Partnership is about helping each other over life’s little obstacles. This applies in all relationships including work, home and out in the community. What is doesn’t include is trying to be victorious over your peers. Competition and control destroy trust. A single mindedness that is focused on victory or getting something on or over someone seems to be the norm in a lot of businesses. The point of trust is having a partnership with all. Partnership is based on real values not products or politics and it takes time to create and effort to be maintained. The currency is trust and it's measure is mutual success. The measure of maturity is when the achievement of results becomes more important than victory.

I paraphrased his Podcast to what I had been experiencing at work. In a business that stresses compassion, safe learning, and accountability for whatever reasons it sometimes misses the mark on trust. I met an elderly woman in a nursing home years ago, she said out of the blue “Love all, trust few.” It’s an odd insight that has stuck with me but expresses so much about us as humans.

Adventures in Cottage Land

Adventures in Cottage Land

We had a visitor at the cottage and not one that we expected. Every time we went up to the cottage there would be odd noises, the hummingbird feeders would be knocked down and we thought we heard a meowing of a kitten. The possible culprits could be a skunk, a raccoon, porcupine or something more insidious. It all came together one night when from under the cottage a banging sound started, not all time, just a random scurrying and the occasional bang. Stepping out into the cool air with flashlights and a fearless dog in tow we looked around to see if we could spot the intruder. There wasn’t the distinctive odor of skunk but we didn’t want to rule it out. Lincoln has tried to play with the stinky kitty a couple of times and I wasn’t looking forward to getting out the bathing implements. Finding nothing we went back to the coziness of the living room. Sometime later I decided to check my phone messages, which means I have to find that sweet spot for phone reception. I ended up by the boathouse with a weak signal. I heard an explosion, looked across the lake and saw fireworks being set off. The calmness of the lake reflecting the brilliance of each burst of colour created a beautiful fiery painting in the sky. I had to run up to the cottage so my nephew Kevin and my Dad could see the fireworks. Once down at the lake I realized that Lincoln was there. This is the Border Collie that is afraid of thunderstorms. I figured that if I blocked him in the boathouse and held him he would be ok for the few fireworks. It’s hard to admit when your wrong and boy did I learned my lesson. Lincoln ran up the steps with me in hot pursuit. I ran yelling his name following him past the cottage. Lincoln headed up towards the outhouse. All my commands were seemingly not taking affect. So there I am flashlight in hand screaming “Lincoln come!!! Get over here now” just to hear him go further out into the woods. My heart was pounding, I couldn’t see him. I would hear him rustling around through the leaves and he appeared far out in the woods. My yelling alerted Kevin and he started looking for Lincoln. Kevin’s flashlight illuminated the dog as Lincoln rounded the corner of one of the cabins. I guess Lincoln had to use the outdoor facilities to relieve a nervous tummy. I missed the rest of the fireworks but at least Lincoln was safe. We laughed about how sound carries over the lake and how the people doing the fireworks heard me screaming. The four of us settled in to watch a bit of TV and relax. Sometime later we heard a loud metal banging in the boathouse. To clarify the boathouse houses everything but boats. It is used for storage, home to many odd tools, swim floats and goggles, paints, part of ball return from a bowling alley and many lawnmowers. Arming ourselves with flashlights and baseball bats we headed down the stone steps towards the lake and the boathouse. Lincoln would not be accompanying us on this mission after his last excursion into the woods. There was no noise anywhere, an eerie void where our voices seemed too loud. A classic horror film moment. While Kevin and my Dad checked out the inside of the boathouse I went around to the other side. In the boathouse there was a couple of tins knocked over but no sign of the intruder. I called out to say that I had found something. There by a tree was the culprit of all the strange noises, his eyes lit blue by the flashlight. A raccoon. I banged the baseball bat against a metal drum and he scurried up a tree. With all of us now by the treed raccoon it was agreed that it was time to quit and go back into the cottage. Strategies will have to be decided on if the raccoon takes up residence here.

Vacation

I've been net surfing non stop, hence the following sites
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050902/ap_on_sc/clever_whale
checking the news about the flood
http://mgno.com/ <---- has a live cam and a blog,
I got this one from Coast to Coast's web site http://www.coasttocoastam.com/
which lead me here -------> http://www.wired.com/news/planet/0,2782,68725,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1

Just copy & paste the above if you want to check the sites out.

I'm trying to get up to the cottage so I can de-group home myself. One person is not in a happy place and it can get a tad trying at times. So much stuff going on at work that I even dream group home stuff. Must get the gang out of my head. Until I can get to the cottage I will be playing on the computer (changing the icons, playing games) or watching season 3 & 4 of Stargate.

Quinton at the Park

Quinton's fascination with trucks and all things mechanical is only surpassed by his love for the playground. He is quite at home at the park, climbing everything. My nephew is very inquisitive and handy with a screw driver and a hammer as his mother found out recently.

Halloween

It's that time of the year to start planning what to do for Halloween for the front yard. What to do. Should it be pirates, vampires, devil dolls, something gruesome? So hard to choose. I've done a Civil War cemetery & hospital theatre, freakish farming experiments, aliens, dungeons, zombies, etc. I love to plan it but I definitely have a procrastination problem. There is a wonderful site that has all sorts of links to projects for the yard. I use it for the resources. One suggestion from co-worker Sarah is to have a zombieish Alice in Wonderland. A worthy project but must talk to cohorts to see if we can put it together.

Any suggestions are welcome. Except that I should have started sooner. I get that one all the time.