Waiting? Seize the day!

Most recently I have been contemplating waiting. This morning as I awoke, I looked to the window and to what did my wondering eyes should appear, (no not reindeer) but the sun rising and one of the most dense fogs I have seen in quite some time. And fog to a photographer can be a dream. The softness it brings, depth and an ethereal quality to an image. I grab my camera, scribble a note to my girls, and jump in the car and off I go, in an effort to capture a favorite tree as the sun beams down through the dewy boughs. I head for a tree that I have been lucky enough to capture a year or so ago that spoke to me, you can view some of them on a cafepress site that I put together in order to share them http://www.cafepress.com/brendalevos/5569842 the calendar showing the best selection of images http://www.cafepress.com/brendalevos.266326990 of the morning.

Actually when shooting that very morning, I had been very focused on the river, and the fog and capturing its beauty. As I had felt that I had captured some images that I was happy with and as the sun was beginning to usher the fog from existence, I turn to head toward home and the image I saw would continue to be one of my all time favorites, that of the sun beaming through the boughs in the fog. And while I do love the images I was fortunate enough to capture, being there, in that moment as I was doing what I thought was my goal for the morning, I turned and was faced with something much more beautiful that I could have imagined. So I seized the opportunity and clicked off a number of shots which I will forever treasure.

As I arrive and position myself in a similar location, I notice that it is a bit earlier in the season, and the trees are perhaps providing too much foliage for the sun to stream through as it had in the years earlier. So I wait. Perhaps it will still be as wonderful. And I wait. As the sun rises, it just isn't the same, and the same feel isn't there, and maybe it never will be. It reminds me of a poem:

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite. 
Or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting perhaps for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil
or a better break
or a string of pearls
or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls
or another chance. 
Everyone is just waiting

Are you waiting? What are you waiting for?

I have recently decided to make an effort to live from a position of abundance rather than from scarcity. As I open my pantry, I ask myself, what is this representing in my life? I had shelves and shelves of food. One devoted solely to "special" food. Things that I picked up at Tastefully Simple parties in the past. Things that I was saving for a "special" moment, event, party, time. And in all honesty, my "saving" them, was only in reality allowing them to perish, expire, and become worthless. 

Purging my cupboards of some of the extraneous things I had been needlessly hanging on to. Deep in the recesses, I discovered a box, one that I hadn't seen in quite some time. I had been saving it. It was a packaged dinner not in need of refrigeration, sweet and sour chicken....chicken included! And then it had dawned on me, I last recollect seeing that box, as I relocated it into its current destination as we moved from the lake to our current abode. Let's just place that somewhere in the very early 1990's. I couldn't even bear to open the box, its next relocation was as it dismounted my hands in horror, and stuck a landing deep amongst its companions of the last decade or so that it had resided in my kitchen, straight into the garbage.

Something saved.....something wasted. While I do believe in saving things, I have most recently come to cherish being present in the moment. What could be more "special" than my family and this very moment? Why are they not "special" enough for the "Chocolate Ugly Cake Mix" or the "Savory Wheat Beer Bread?" Why isn't Monday night "special" enough? Why isn't your artistic talent "special" enough be make a career of it? Why isn't today the day you open your eyes to how quickly life passes, how quickly a decade can slip though fingers waiting for a "special" day? Why isn't today the day you tell someone you love them, staff you appreciate them, the postman you are grateful for the service he provides?

Seize the day! Start a project, do something for someone, do something for yourself. Live!

Don't be the chicken rotting in the cupboard!

P.S. The poem, its author, Dr. Seuss. ....tanslates.... even something small and somewhat childish, can be profound. What is the poem you are living this day saying about you? What are you waiting for?

Auggie Express or Light Speed Marketing

Sometimes it's really hard to envision a finished design project when you are dealing with a unusual space -- especially one that travels at 40 mph. This past winter Augsburg College (Minneapolis, Minn.) chose to pursue "wrapping" a MetroTransit light-rail car since the Hiawatha Line comes within blocks of campus and many students use the service daily. Information about the light-rail system is also something that we include in our day and weekend college admissions collateral.

We began the project by starting some creative work with our outside design firm. Of course, we wanted to maximize it's ability to grab people's attentions. But, as we moved through the process, we started to ground ourselves with the key messages that we wanted to make sure we were communicating. In the end, we used our in-house designers to come up with a well-designed, attention-grabbing train that also communicates our basic brand and messages.

Of course, we still weren't entirely sure how the finished product was going to look. It was especially nerve-racking knowing how much of an investment the College was making and that it was going to be on the train for 6-months. As you can see, what we were provided with as a proof really doesn't do the finished product justice.

In the end, our administration and campus community have really rallied around the "Auggie" train. We've even added value to the investment by having monthly events that require taking the light-rail train, such as a Twins baseball game or visiting the Mall of America.

Mark Chamberlain:
Production Manager at Augsburg College Office of Marketing and Communication
www.mchamberlain.us
 

Keep Going...

This past weekend I ran in a 5k, words I never thought I would hear myself utter, even in jest. While I didn't actually run the entire course, walking about 5 blocks of it, I did finish, and that felt really good. I hadn't quite fully understood what a mental game running is. You can convince yourself you can make it to the next tree, block, or garbage can, or the full 3.1 miles. You can convince yourself that your legs really don't ache (that badly), and that you can take that next stride, and the one following. In the end, as you turn the corner for that final stretch, you can see the finish line and your loved ones cheering and you know that while difficult, worth the effort, worth every step.

So, is life any different than running? You can convince yourself that you are a winner, successful, a loser, a victim, a martyr. And while each of those rings true for most people at one point in their lives, if even for a brief moment, have you signed those adoption papers on any one of those labels making them a permanent addition to your family, given them a room in your home, and set the table for them at dinner? If as I have heard so frequently lately, "thoughts become things" is true, then what is it that you are becoming? What are you thoughts making you, a victim or a champion?

A while back, I came across something that has stuck with me, I will paraphrase, "Don't look at the distance you have yet to travel, you will only be discouraged, look back in gratitude for how far you have come and move forward." It is about taking that next step. I have most recently been listening to Keep Going: The Art of Perserverance an audio book (hardcover) that I have had on my ipod for quite some time but was drawn to once again.

"Being strong means taking one more step toward the top of the hill no matter how weary you may be." Joseph M. Marshall goes on to describe a story in which a young woman had three suitors, and couldn't decide which one to marry.

So her father devised a test to determine which was worthy of his daughter. He asked each suitor to run to the top of a steep hill and back down again seven times on a cold rainy night. So they began, and the rain had made the hill muddy and the running was not easy, but the young men tried. By the third time they were soaked and had fallen in the mud and were soaked to the skin. By the fifth time, they were mostly crawling. And by the sixth time they were moving on sheer willpower. Each had completed the 7 journeys to the top of the hill and returned again, and it seemed as though the issue of who would marry the young woman had not been resolved. The young men collapsed thinking they had done everything they had been asked, when the father appeared only to ask them to climb the hill one final time. To which two of the suitors proclaimed that they could not, as they were too exhausted. The third young man, equally exhausted, stood and with all the remaining strength he could muster, took one more step and fell on his face. The father chose the third young man because he found the strength and spirit to try.

In the end, it wasn't an enormous effort, but that of one step that won him his bride.

Remember, life doesn't require it to be a long purposeful stride, forward movement is all that is required. At times in your life, you may feel that you are floating, gaining great distances with each step. At other times, it will take every ounce of strength that you can muster just to raise your foot and move it forward and not give into despair. Perhaps only a crawl. What is it that can defeat that despair, but hope. "Hope is one of the sparks by which life sustains itself. The ability to hope is one of life's greatest gifts...if we do not hope, we have empowered the cause of our difficulty. Every step is hope expressed."

What is your next step? What step can you take today to move your closer to a goal, to create balance your life, to make your work environment more productive or fulfilling, to make a difference in the life of another? You can do it, move forward, keep a positive attitude, remember it is a mental game. You CAN convince yourself, you CAN keep going.