Learning Something New!

I visited my mom in Oklahoma for Mother's Day weekend and on the way I stopped at a little bead shop in Bartlesville. While there I discovered that one of the owners was the designer of a gorgeous seed bead bracelet that was on the cover of Beadwork magazine. So, I bought a kit. I've not done much at all with seed beads. To be honest, I've been a little bit intimidated by them. But, how hard can it be? OK, not so hard once you figure out the stitch -- but boy, is it time consuming! I'm sure as I do it more I will get faster and my stitches will get more even, but one of those 4.5" pieces takes me 1/2 hour! (The bracelet has 9 of them.) I was surprised that the teeny tiniest beads were the easiest to work with. My bits and pieces don't look like much yet, but they have aspirations of looking like one of the bracelets shown below! My beads and flowers are brown and turquoise.

After I got to Mom's, I checked Stephanie's blog (PixieBug) and she had a new post on about The Whole Bead -- and that is where I was! I just thought that was really cool. Small world. Stephanie lives in Nebraska, I'm in Kansas, and The Whole Bead is in Oklahoma.

Maybe someday soon I will finish my bracelet and post a picture. It may be a while. I'm having a few technical difficulties these days with equipment (uugggh!) and have a really busy week and weekend coming up -- family visiting from out of town, wedding, graduation, Memorial Day service, and birthday cookout for our son. Then back to work on Tuesday and start all over again!

Magical Moments - Go Ahead and Write it Down!

"The act of writing down a dream is a magical moment." Carla wrote that statement in response to a post I had written about dreams. Those words have really been sticking in my mind. I was going to write about the power of journaling but dreams are taking over! (For today anyway!)

I have been trying to read my list of dreams daily. It helps keep what I value as important at the front of my mind.

This past weekend I went about business as usual but found myself doing things that I normally don't find the time for. Sunday evening as I read my list of dreams I counted 12 dreams that my activities had moved me forward on. I didn't set out to work on 12 dreams-but it happened. I think it happened because I have been putting positve words in my mind instead if negative. I have a really bad habit if grumbling about how busy I get. Just putting a positive spin on that busy-ness and realizing how my activities are moving me toward my dreams has been amazing.

Want an example? One of my dreams is to teach. I realized after doing Sunday School and Girl Scouts that it really is not teaching chilldren. Not on a regular basis anyway, once in a while is OK. I mentor/teach a weekly class for unmarried, pregnant couples and that is fulfilling . I've taught Bible studies and enjoyed that. But, what I really love is teaching adults something that will not only educate them but inspire them to be better than they are in some area and to encourage them to do the same for other people. I love to learn and then share what I have learned with other people.

A couple days ago a supervisor asked me to do a brief inservice for my work group of 12 women on The Dream Manager that I wrote about recently. Today she called from a seninar she was attending and said the business woman next to her was interested in having me present to her office staff about a topic I had done at work several months ago. Isnt that awesome?! I think so and J just had to tell someone !

Have you written your list of 100 dreams yet? If not now, when?

What's Your Dream?

I recently listened to a management audio book called, "The Dream Manager," by Matthew Kelly. It really got me to thinking and looking at my life. It is so easy to get caught up in the necessary everyday duties of life that we forget our dreams -- and maybe even forget we ever had dreams. When that happens we find ourselves living "quiet lives of desperation." What a description! The book is geared towards management and learning how to help employees recognized and fulfill their dreams -- the payoff is basically that they become more engaged in their careers in the process and there are lots of benefits to that.

I don't manage people anymore in my career, but I do have adult children, a husband, friends, am a leader at church and mentor young adults who find themselves in life situations where they can definitely use some dreams! One of the gifts I've been given is that of being an encourager. (When my son was 14 he told me I was like Barnabas - what a compliment!) What a great tool this book is! Not only a great tool for helping others - but a great tool for helping myself ('cuz if the well is empty, you can't give anybody water)!

One of the suggestions of the book is that you sit down and make a list of 100 of your dreams -- all in one sitting. I think the number 100 is key because it was really hard to even get started. I love making lists (sometimes that is a curse) but this was hard. I felt like #1 had to be the most important and the first one to accomplish. Wrong! By the time I got to about 85 some serious stuff started kicking in. It was a little like journaling -- it usually takes a bit of writing to get to the deep stuff! #100 may have been one of the most insightful for me -- "get out of ruts -- and stay out."

I am listening to the book again - in the car with my husband as we drive to work every day. He saw me typing my list into the computer and asked what it was. I told him he couldn't read my list until he made his own. I didn't want my dreams to influence his dreams. Not at this stage anyway - hopefully we will find that we have some of the same dreams. We are at a place where we need to dream again. Our children are raised and out of the home and we're pretty settled. We will be married 25 years in December. I'm excited to see where this leads!

It is kind of amazing to see people's first reaction to making a list of 100 dreams. I assigned this as homework to my class on Tuesday night too. They just looked at me with fear in their eyes at first. They are in some tough situations and the ideas of making a list of dreams is almost incomprehensible to them. I am exited for class next week.

I've started journaling about some of the dreams, determining if they are short-, mid-, or long-term, and researching to see what it will take to reach them. I've only on #3, but it is a start! Actually, I started in order down the list but I don't think I will continue going in order. One of the things I have realized is that I will have to work hard not to make this just another "to do" list. I often get to the point where my whole life feels like a huge "to do" list, just check it off and go to the next thing. That's not a very good way to live -- it's not living at all, it is just existing. I know that, but just knowing it doesn't always produce change!

I'd be interested to hear from you about this topic of dreams -- and I challenge you to make a list of 100 dreams of your own.