Thoughts on Marathons

For those of you who don't know today was the 39th annual running of the Houston Marathon and Half Marathon.  The event annually attracts approximately 22,000 runners from across the world.  Today a second time marathon runner from Ethiopia ran the full 26.2 miles in 2 hours and 7 minutes.  That is an average mile pace of just under 5 minutes.  Talk about endurance and running for the long haul.  I for one cannot run.  I am saying that I cannot run.  I physically think that running is something my body was not meant to do.  But that doesn't mean I haven't completed my fair share of "marathons".  After all I have 2 children.  9 months of pregnancy followed by 3 months of not being able to sleep through the night is definitely a marathon.  Most of us don't like marathons while we are in training and we may even not like the running but we relish in the end.  My father-in-law, who was a runner, was heard often to say the greatest thing about running is stopping.  The greatest thing about our life marathons is surviving. But you know what I notice about runners(even those who love stopping), they always start again...and so do we.  Are you running a marathon right now?  If so, know that sooner or later there is a finish line and that sooner or later you are going to want to run again!  So just keep moving...!

Old and New

I love to get new things, try new restaurants, go to new places.  It is exciting and fun.  But when it comes to work...new does not excite me.  It is scary and intimidating.  It challenges me to step outside of my comfort zone and to think and act in a different way.  I like old and comfy at work.  It suits me!  I have my routine and I know what to expect and when to expect it. 

Tomorrow is the last time I will ever meet with my very first team of employees as a whole group.  We are moving on to something new.  It scares me!  I have settled into a great routine with a wonderful group of people.  They are my employees but they are also my friends and tomorrow I have to say good-bye to some of them.  It is bittersweet.  I will find a new groove and have a great new group of talent to help cultivate but the comfort of the old will be gone.  The friendly banter and the jokes will change.  The interactions will take on a new way of being.  I am excited and I am nervous.  I have shed a few tears this week as I think about all that this team has taught me!

Tomorrow we will celebrate what we have done, where we are going and who these nine people have shaped me into!  And then we will step in the scary but amazing world of the new.  The only thing that will remain unchanged is that change is inevitable and that "the beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy."

Music Moments!

Have you ever found yourself driving down the road listening to a song and suddenly fighting back tears?  Or maybe the song took your glum dreary day and turned it around.  Or maybe it just touched your heart with its music or lyrics.  My whole life has been a series of these types of events. Nothing as ever been able to move me like music.  I have read books, attended seminars, watched movies and just about any other inspirational activity you can name and none can top the crazy feeling I get when a piece a music moves my heart.

Today was a music movement day!  It started like any other day.  Get everyone out of bed and moving.  Feed people breakfast.  Make sure that homework is in the correct backpack and that eyeglasses and musical instruments don't get left behind.  Then scurry them out of the house.  That leads to best part- the drive.  During out short 12 minutes in the car my sons can ask some of the greatest questions, tell the most delightful stories and generally remind me each day how special and precious each moment with them is.  For example, last week my parents reached the monumental 47th anniversary.  When Karl asked how old that made PopPop and I said 68...Paul started to cry and said "so that means he will die soon?"  After assuring him that PopPop is not ready to go to heaven Paul rejoiced and said "good because I am just not done with him yet!"  What precious boys...so you can imagine that the actual drop off at school is a little bittersweet each day.  There is a part of me that wishes we could drive for hours and just talk.  But they quickly would tire of mom and the car and so these moments are fleeting each day but so very precious. 

The music moment came today when the following song came on the radio.  I know that many of us have heard the quote and been touched but there was something about the comparison of the first breath and the last that made me well up with tears.  You see I am blessed on both sides.  Precious boys and delightful parents....how true it is that each day...I breathe in the joy of my children and exhale the wisdom of my parents!  For each of them I am eternally grateful!

The Breath You Take, George Strait

He looks up from second base dad’s up in the stands
He saw the hit, the run, the slide there ain’t no bigger fan
In the parking lot after the game he said
“Dad I thought you had a plane to catch”
He smiled and said “Yeah son I did”

Chours
Life’s not the breaths you take
The breathing in and out
That gets you through the day
Ain’t what it’s all about
Ya just might miss the point
Try’n to win the race
Life’s not the breaths you take
But the moments that take your breath away

Fast forward fifteen years
And a thousand miles away
Boy’s built a life he’s got a wife
And a baby due today
He hears a voice saying “I made it son
He said “I told you dad you didn’t have to come”
He smiles and says ”Yeah I know you did”

Chours

Just like it took my breath when she was born
Just like it took my breath away when dad took his last that morn

Life’s not the breaths you take
The breathing in and out
That gets you through the day
Ain’t what it’s all about
Ya just might miss the point
If ya don’t slow down the pace
Life’s not the breaths you take
But the moments that take your breath away

Count the moments today that take your breath away!

Chose your battles

What is really worth fighting for?  Is it your pride, your reputation, your ability to say "I told you so"?  I wonder if there isn't a gene in all of us that thinks we have a right to be right and we fight for it.  I know I personally get very passionate when I believe I am right and have a hard time letting go until I have convinced others that I am right.  I work hard and feel my blood pressure rise each time I am "challenged" about something.  But really is it worth it?  In the long run is there a win for anyone when you have to fight to prove you are right?

Dealing with disappointment

In 2011. I am serving in my company's women's leadership committee.  You might wonder why single out just the women but that has always been my heart so this seemed like a great opportunity to reach out among the masses to connect with a few great women.  I have never met a women who isn't great.  I have met many who believe they are less, live like they are less and except less than their greatness demands but I have never met a women who is not magnificent. 

Each year our women's council does a little event to coincide with International Women's Day.  This year we have asked hundreds of women across HP to contribute 100 word essays on a variety of topics dealing with our careers.  We offered up about 7 different topics for the essays to deal with and not surprisingly the topic of work/life balance received an overwhelming number of articles while dealing with disappointment received no attention at all.  I guess we all would rather not have to deal with life when it hands us the undesirable.  In those times though there is greater growth. 

When I started at HP in 2000, I had aspirations of being a people manager.  I did not want to spend my career locked away in a classroom teaching bits and bytes to learners who would have rather been elsewhere or who knew more about computers than I ever would. Trust me when I say that I pursued this career movement with a great passion.  I completed my advanced degree in Human Resources in order to make myself more marketable and then we off shored our HR departments.  I studied Project Management and prepared for the PMP certification test.  I was registered for the preparation class when it was determined that HP would no longer pay for your certification test. I interviewed for positions and was told I was in the top candidates and among the brightest and boldest of the talent at HP.  Yet I was never the top candidate and the job was never mine.  For 9 years, I worked hard and poured all my best into HP.  During that time, I developed the mantra "It just isn't the right time, YET!" Each time I would say it I was reminded that the current disappointment wasn't the end of the road but was just a stepping stone to my goal.  Each disappointment was a jumping off point for me to learn.  And I did learn.  I learned compassion for those who are working hard and cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I learned patience in spite of the obstacles. I learned running faster and jumping higher isn't nearly as good as running smarter.  I learned that when you stay the course eventually you find your way home.  And I did find my home, in a small little niche group called the ESOC, where I have been able in the last two years to nurture and cultivate a passion for learning in my employees.  My team is amazing, they are all I could have ever wanted in employees and yet when disappointment comes, as it always does, I simply whisper the mantra..."it just isn't the right time YET!"

Never enough time

So when I decided to start a blog in October of last  year, I honestly thought it would be easy to at least write one a day.  I mean after all I sit at a computer all day, everyday.  Finding a few minutes to spit out some words would be easy.  But just like most things that I want to do, I don't do.  Why is that? What about the human condition makes it so easy to just not do the things we most want to?  I want to run...but I find every excuse in existence and create quite a few new ones to just not even pick up my feet.  I want to lose weight, and yet I find reasons to nibble my way through thousands of daily calories.  Or maybe I want to stop swearing or watching so much tv or whatever the goal/desire/dream....but I just don't. 

It reminds me of some verses in the Bible that talk about wanting to do right and not being able to because our flesh is so weak.  (Romans 7)  Weak is just the right word for it.  Weak means lacking in strength.  Strength is a solidness that keeps you standing...you know the old adage..if you dont stand for something you will fall for anything...so it is with my intentions. i have them but i am not strong in them so i fall for my very own excuses.  i am the very reason He sent His Son.  I am the one in need of a helper...I am so very thankful that I have no need to be strong since in fact there is one who is stronger than me who stands for me! To access that strength I need only ask. 

Too bad asking for help is not one of my best attributes- just ask my husband - just ask my father - just ask the one who made me!