Happiness is Love

Dylan was happy to see me today. His little kid kisses were full of thanks to have mom back.  With no grant deadline or travel in sight, it's good to be back to normal life, being a mom and folding laundry.

I confess that I am guilty of  being a road warrior and grant junkie. For the past month we  traveled cross country from  Sonoma, CA to Columbus, Oh and NYC. This past week we submitted all of the poverty reduction U.S. Treasury Grants we labored over during 18 hour work days-  and held our final meeting in Louisiana, literally the beautiful bayou. The people, they were warm like an apple pie right out the oven. An old minister and college professor schooled this white girl on how to play dominoes. Scott (one of my business partners and a dear friend) and I left after eating the best gumbo, being embraced by a group hug and farewells from our new friends.

After sleeping for 14 hours, I woke this morning absolutely delighted to run errands to replenish the basics like TP and garbage bags, do the dishes and enjoy the connection of laughter, hugs and random conversation with the kids, my brother and the people round home that I love. It's amazing what being MIA from your own life will do to your TP supply. (Ponder that for a moment. It is meant to be odd.)

During the travel, I picked up a magazine, The Atlantic, founded by Ralph Waldo Emerson, who I admire for his logic, poetry and science based spiritual philosophies. Tonight, online I was steered to a video by the Atlantic about a Harvard research team that followed 269 Harvard students, 10 men through their entire lives starting in 1930 to document the keys to happiness and how to live well. The men are now in their 80s. The video is short and well worth the watch up to the final seconds.

I found the video while searching for the folloing quote:

“I am the happiest man alive. I have that in me that can convert poverty to riches, adversity to prosperity, and I am more invulnerable than Archilles; Fortune hath not one place to hit me.” 

Sir Thomas Browne

Life reflects back to us our own attitude. We experience what we expect to experience, because it is what we create. When we face adversity and view it as opportunity. The attitude shapes our sight. The adversity passes and we are left with: The Opportunity.

The Harvard Study's concluded that happiness is love. I believe our happiness comes from our way of being. When our way of being is loving, that is what the world reflects back.

As I center on this with faith in a loving God, I am the happiest woman alive.

Ever Feel Just Incredibly Blessed?

After a month of traveling from Sonoma, CA to NYC for work, I came home to see this sign. The porch was decorated with ten beautifully carved, lit pumpkins. The whole house was clean, including the boys room, the dishes, fresh sheets. This is all the work of the amazing, magnificent (drum roll please) Jenny Arde.

Jenny (pictured with beau Todd) is a single mom, like me. She owns her own business, again ditto. She is renting the spare room in my home and her son and Dylan are sharing a room while construction finishes on my investment house, the mother-in-law home on my property. She will move into that home at the end of the month. And what's brilliant is: we lift each other up! We help one another with the kids, cooking, laundry and she is bringing so much to the table on the construction projects from drywall hanging to painting. The business she owns is a painting company. So while she builds equity in my properties, I am giving her slashed rent so she can save her money away to buy a home for her and her son.

Here's a photo of our boys with their best bud Travis before last week's soccer game. This week Ashton cleaned Dylan's room and left a note for him that said, "Thanks for being a really good friend. Love, Ashton." Dylan and I are so blessed to have such great friends in our lives.



Speaking of, for her birthday, one of my dearest friends, Robbi Firestone took me to see Teatro Zinnzani. It was amazing. She won the tickets at a philanthropic event she attended this summer. We had the best time. Robbi does so much good in the world, it doesn't surprise me that the universe gave something remarkable back to her. Last year alone Robbi donated over $30,000 to local non-profits from her art. She is a world class oil portrait artist. My favorite story is her donation to Camp Korey, which is a retreat for children with life threatening illnesses.

With all of this gratitude, how could I not instigate something to give back to the world. When I got sick from my trip to Ohio and stayed home with my mom, I was spoiled by her homemade chicken noodle soup. As soon as I got back to Tacoma, I made a quadruple batch of soup and delivered it to sick friends. Everyone is sick right now and so many people don't have insurance- or even moms close by to make soup. So I threw the idea onto Facebook as the Chicken Soup Movement to encourage others to do the same and 134 people from across the country have accepted or passed it onto others to join to make soup for sick people in their neighborhood. Crazy, awesome! Check it out.

$500,000, Einstein, NYC and a Long Lost Friend

It's my favorite work of art, because it comes to life in person. I haven't visited it in over ten years. It took $500,000 to get there and I arrived at the MET with the man who stole my heart as a boy seventeen years ago in high school.

The art is Autumn Landscape by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The $500,000 is a US Treasury grant Melina, Scott and I (Credit Union Strategic Planning) landed to help immigrants in Harlem to lift themselves out of poverty. Did you know that immigrants are the poorest of the poor in the U.S. for three generations? And my renewed friendship is with one of the finest people I've ever had the pleasure of calling a best friend. Back in high school he bagged groceries at the store and I worked at the restaurant across the street. Back then he was my first crush. Now he is a remarkable father, brother, son, veteran, and more remarkable friend than I could have imagined. We hadn't seen each other for over 15 years- so of course we met up in
NYC (smile). Like me, he works to help people. And our friendship is a gift, like all things in life- even hardships. His sister remarked that the timing of our friendship was good for him. She had no idea of the good timing in my life for a positive male influence to reaffirm my faith in men treating women with respect. We both lifted each other up and that is where happiness comes from: Our way of being.

Everyday my faith (in a loving God) is affirmed by life. It's occurring to me that the spirit of God in us, the way we are made in the likeness of God means that when we create anything in life it is divine. We see this in the inspiring works of art that are created by Tiffany or the feeling of awe from inventing an opportunity to be a positive change agent in the world. I'm also astounded by the story of Jesus having faith to die on the cross for our sins, and it's profound beauty in reflecting the good that can happen in our own lives and the world when we embrace fear and take a leap of faith to turn adversity (Any hardship. See the 911 memorial cross in the picture) into an opportunity for humanity, kindness and love. As I look at the challenges I've faced this last year, and how the circumstances were altered by surrendering to God and choosing faith instead of fear, I see the gift of a graceful and powerful life.

And that is what's going on in life right now. To that end Melina and I offered Scott Butterfield ownership in Credit Union Strategic Planning and the position of CEO. He accepted our offer and we immediately picked up clients in Alaska, California and Louisiana. The word is out that we are saving small credit unions and helping consumers.

And the H1N1 I picked up in Ohio (yup mom and I got really sick) laid me up at my mother's house, just long enough to let her make me homemade chicken noodle soup, for us to love one another and appreciate all the health and happiness we take for granted.

So I'm jumping on a plane from Ohio back to Tacoma tomorrow. Dylan's sock hop is this weekend and I'm certain to have a great time with the kids and my friends Jenny, Karl and Ayana. Life really couldn't be any better- with the exception of maybe getting to spend a week or a month with my Grandma Jeanne. Guess I'll have to come back to Ohio next month. That I will work on until then, Thank you God for all of the blessings in my life..

Good Times

Dylan and I have hit our work hard, play hard stride. Dylan's grades have skyrocketed. He is taking caring for the pups seriously. And soccer is in full gear. My dear friend Karl Kilga (Claire and Travis' dad) is D-man's soccer coach.



Karl works the boys out so hard they come home EXHAUSTED.












The Kilga kids, Karl, Dylan and I have been close for years; I even taught Claire how to ride her bike. While the boys work the soccer field, Claire and I relax with the puppies, swing on the playground and taunt each other with double dutch jump rope challenges. With work in full gear (The US Treasury CDFI Fund opened a new $113 million round) and my promise not to work at all after picking Dylan up from school, Tuesdays and Thursdays have officially become my favorite days of the week.



Melina and I are embracing a tremendous work milestone this week. We are celebrating the one year anniversary of our business with gratitude for the amazing people we work with and good that we are doing. As I've said before, the world is reflecting our good intentions back at us. It is amazing. I never dreamed our business would be so healthy after one year. I cried tears of joy this week. The sustainability is awe inspiring as we add new clients from across the country every week including credit unions in Sonoma and Louisiana this last week. Thank God. Thank God. Good times.

Little Girl Games

I still like to play games, little kid games. I am talking about the kind of nonsense I played with Trista. Tuesday I attempted an old game silently in my mind as I drove D-man to school in a neighborhood filled with beautiful houses. It was a game of little girl imagination along the lines of how many kids do you want to have? What do you want to be when you grow up? It was which house do you want to live in?

I always chose the little white one beside Dr. McDonalds' (both of them) office in downtown Bolivar. The one with the Bolivar sign in the front yard. It was the way they manicured the lawn with kris-cross perfection, and kept the home freshly painted. These people LOVED their home. It wasn't decadent. Ironically, my parents' home was four, maybe six times as big- with a HUGE swimming pool.

On the drive to Dylan's school, I thought what a great life visualization exercise. What is my favorite home in this incredible neighborhood near Dylan's school; Only to be frustrated by my inability to choose. None of the houses were my favorite house. I felt slightly defeated. Why couldn't I choose? It's an easy game.

Lets bring this ship into port. I sat on my porch swing this morning watching the pups do their bidness. Two middle school girls walked by. One paused in the sidewalk and turned to me, "Your house is beautiful. It's my favorite house. I look at it everyday.” And blough like a steam roller- it hit me.

My home is my favorite house. I love this house. I even told the girl, "Thank you. Thank you for telling me that you love my home. I love my home. I work on it all the time. This summer I climbed up onto the roof myself to paint the trim."

Just like the people in the little house in Bolivar, I love my home. Apparently that love is something that little girl's dreams are made of. I'm living my own dream. Bliss.

Now off to make money to pay for that paint (wink). Special thanks to my Grandma Jeanne for the love that she put into my life and home. I am grateful.