This week I worked with entrepreneurs and individuals who are in business at a relatively high level. These folks change cultures, lead others in changing, creating, directing change.... These are folks who are leading others in their fields. I see them, work with them, and know them. They are tasked with being leaders and I engage with them fascinated at how they balance their boundaries and yet engage well at home as well.
It's a hard thing, to be capable of leading, yet knowing that sometimes leadership also means choosing to follow for the goals of what is before your own heart. The experienced leaders know that balance is the basics of what allows them to be who they are. They feverishly protect their head, heart, family, and time....for it is what allows them to be themselves.
My belief is that women naturally accomplish. Our multi taking ways make us prime candidates for leadership. We are able to juggle roles as wives, mothers, friends, and workers. It helps. My husband often teases me "wrong mailbox" when I change subjects while we are working together. He prefers to stay on one subject, one task, one conversation at a time for the entire conversation....heh heh...if I did that I'd never finish anything, for most of the time I have 7-8 items going on at once.
Each of us have needs for our own balance. My personal one is solitude in visual surroundings. I can look at paintings, scenery outside, or simply create on paper, but without that "down" time in art or in music eventually I get overwhelmed. Aesthetic beauty is for me what naps are for others.
Go figure. Music is another way I can instantly energize and relieve stress by playing, singing, or listening at the piano, oboe, or instruments before me.
This morning, this day, I am reflecting on Blissdom Conference, Brene Brown and all that was Blissdom. The interaction of hundreds of bright, beautiful women who were as varied as their hair styles. The faces, hearts, and conversations listened to and shared. I am reflecting on business meetings later this week, of environments of men and women working on a mega project together, of the climate and atmosphere of those meetings. I'm thinking of the joy of seeing another project burst through its seed mode into a beautiful, vibrant project that is rapidly growing. Each part of all those arenas have significant value to me. I learn and grow personally and professionally in all three arenas. I am humbled by the brilliance of others in the complex and the simple things they accomplish.
At forty-six the journey becomes different for me. It's no longer about proving to myself that I am "enough"...it's a raw, new place...I have accepted that I will ever be overcoming, learning, and growing, most of the time knowing that where I am right at this moment is where I am supposed to be. It is a self given gift of trusting God that is hard won and long fought for. Silly isn't it? Having to work so hard to allow God to be God in my life? To know His ways are Sovereign, and while I am tasked with being obedient and listening to His call, He has the harder job...loving me just.as.I.am.
There is so much delight in the ordinary these days. In the simplicity of focusing on success in the small ways I am experiencing the majesty of allowing simple things done well to pave the way for engaging excellence. Think about it. What meal did you enjoy the most? For me it was perfectly crisp bacon, fried eggs and biscuits with a tiny crisp edge my grandmother made....nothing special in the difficulty of making, but a simple meal executed well...that makes me hunger for it 40 years later...and repeat it often. Crisp linens on my bed, fresh from changing that day. A hot bath with lovely salts simmering. An organized home. Conversations shared with friends by a fire. My personal joy has so much more to do with simple things than the complex....I finally "got" that. As the children grow up and Les comes in and out of war zones, I am more and more aware of how precious each moment is, to spend my moments more wisely. These last two weeks have challenged my peace, I've had to carefully evaluate what and why I am where I am doing what I am doing....and yet when it was said and done it came down to this:
Am I willing to obey God even when the land He's brought me to is uncomfortable? Am I willing to be where He sends me regardless of where that is...
and I, like my favorite reads in the Bible, still struggle with saying yes, but God is God..and I am not...and once the angst is over, I know I am exactly where I am supposed to be.
It's a hard thing, to be capable of leading, yet knowing that sometimes leadership also means choosing to follow for the goals of what is before your own heart. The experienced leaders know that balance is the basics of what allows them to be who they are. They feverishly protect their head, heart, family, and time....for it is what allows them to be themselves.
My belief is that women naturally accomplish. Our multi taking ways make us prime candidates for leadership. We are able to juggle roles as wives, mothers, friends, and workers. It helps. My husband often teases me "wrong mailbox" when I change subjects while we are working together. He prefers to stay on one subject, one task, one conversation at a time for the entire conversation....heh heh...if I did that I'd never finish anything, for most of the time I have 7-8 items going on at once.
Each of us have needs for our own balance. My personal one is solitude in visual surroundings. I can look at paintings, scenery outside, or simply create on paper, but without that "down" time in art or in music eventually I get overwhelmed. Aesthetic beauty is for me what naps are for others.
Go figure. Music is another way I can instantly energize and relieve stress by playing, singing, or listening at the piano, oboe, or instruments before me.
This morning, this day, I am reflecting on Blissdom Conference, Brene Brown and all that was Blissdom. The interaction of hundreds of bright, beautiful women who were as varied as their hair styles. The faces, hearts, and conversations listened to and shared. I am reflecting on business meetings later this week, of environments of men and women working on a mega project together, of the climate and atmosphere of those meetings. I'm thinking of the joy of seeing another project burst through its seed mode into a beautiful, vibrant project that is rapidly growing. Each part of all those arenas have significant value to me. I learn and grow personally and professionally in all three arenas. I am humbled by the brilliance of others in the complex and the simple things they accomplish.
At forty-six the journey becomes different for me. It's no longer about proving to myself that I am "enough"...it's a raw, new place...I have accepted that I will ever be overcoming, learning, and growing, most of the time knowing that where I am right at this moment is where I am supposed to be. It is a self given gift of trusting God that is hard won and long fought for. Silly isn't it? Having to work so hard to allow God to be God in my life? To know His ways are Sovereign, and while I am tasked with being obedient and listening to His call, He has the harder job...loving me just.as.I.am.
There is so much delight in the ordinary these days. In the simplicity of focusing on success in the small ways I am experiencing the majesty of allowing simple things done well to pave the way for engaging excellence. Think about it. What meal did you enjoy the most? For me it was perfectly crisp bacon, fried eggs and biscuits with a tiny crisp edge my grandmother made....nothing special in the difficulty of making, but a simple meal executed well...that makes me hunger for it 40 years later...and repeat it often. Crisp linens on my bed, fresh from changing that day. A hot bath with lovely salts simmering. An organized home. Conversations shared with friends by a fire. My personal joy has so much more to do with simple things than the complex....I finally "got" that. As the children grow up and Les comes in and out of war zones, I am more and more aware of how precious each moment is, to spend my moments more wisely. These last two weeks have challenged my peace, I've had to carefully evaluate what and why I am where I am doing what I am doing....and yet when it was said and done it came down to this:
Am I willing to obey God even when the land He's brought me to is uncomfortable? Am I willing to be where He sends me regardless of where that is...
and I, like my favorite reads in the Bible, still struggle with saying yes, but God is God..and I am not...and once the angst is over, I know I am exactly where I am supposed to be.
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