Life is what happens when you are busy, and this year has been no exception. Did you take time to just be, dream, and do? Maxed out on vacation, feeling particularly frustrated that I had driven myself to such unreasonable demands... I look at the tired face in the mirror and decide to lighten up already! Today I am embracing my human side, the one that really likes and wants to know that the incredibly bright teacher at my kids school is a published journalist, who is taking a break from the heavy writing demands to see what inspires her next.

Yesterday, through LinkedIn, our family was able to get in touch with Micheal Purcell, THE technogeek law guy, who set up our FIRST Windows PC, when we were really just technology babies and the internet was just a bunch of URLs faced by AOL. :D

Leading up to the holiday shutdown, I am working 2 hours a day at Sun, to turn time and attention to the other loves of family . My work is important to me, and I like working around creative and inspiring/inspired people. I also choose to embrace "other" heart work.

Much of my work has taken the form of a dizzing pace of IBIS and Service Management and problem solving with smart people that work darned hard.. That is fun on most days. Sometimes we get so busy with "criticality" and "projects, fires, and reoprioritizations" that we forget the fun in favor of survival til the NEXT break.

I am a good news good deeds junkie, so I enjoyed this bit of news my friend Lori shared about Sears making a difference for military families not just during the holidays, but changing the way they operate to create an extraordinary environment. This is important because some have had to really struggle during the holidays with family members in the active military-- it really means the whole family is in some sort of active miltary service!

You know that woman you sit on hours and hours of conference calls with is actually doing alot of other great stuff that happens when she is on break?

And so I close with the challenge.. Did you dream today? Did you dare to encourage others to envision and embody their best selves? OR did you act in the worrisome selfish state of turf protection-- an exercise in busy futility holding on to that which used to be..