The Amazings

Recently I had dinner with two phenomenal women – amazing women actually. Each exceptionally accomplished. Yet firmly grounded in the reality of living – the good, the bad, the important, the yucky, and all matters of chaos, messiness and muddlings that get mixed throughout the living.

What was wonderfully striking about our dinner was the absence of chit-chat. We immediately engaged in the sincere discussion of living lives. The values we bring to the living. How those values challenge and enlighten the living. Where we find support for living our values. The values that matter and how we go after more of those values.

As we said our good byes, I was reminded of author Sophfronia Scott’s quote, “Build your ark before the storm hits.”

Yes, absolutely build your ark before the storm hits. And absolutely, positively stuff it to overflowing with Amazings.

Amazings who honor and value you. Amazings who care about perfectly, perfect you with all of your glaring imperfections and foibles. Amazings who stand arm-in-arm with you on your ark or around a dinner table.

Who are your Amazings on your ark?

photo credit: ARK via photopin (license)

Go with Laughter

Like so many of our contemporaries we are in that stage of our lives where we’re asking ourselves, “What’s next?”  What’s the next chapter in our lives, what’s the next company we’re going to create, what’s the next vacation we’ll take, what’s our next philanthropic effort, what’s the next milestone we want to achieve? We seem to be in a constant “what’s next” mode.

And that’s a good thing isn’t it?  “What’s next” is the covenant we make with ourselves to grow and be our very best everyday.  It’s a promise to our future and to those we love.  It’s the spark that fuels our talents and dreams.

In a text exchange with my treasured, precious, and beautiful gal pal last night, I began to wonder if we ever ask ourselves the question, “What’s last?”

Below is the poignant and thought-provoking text I received from my angel of a friend while she kept vigil in her father’s hospice room:

My mother makes us all stay very quiet in here.  I told my sister when I’m dying, I want everyone telling funny stories and laughing.  Laughter is the thing I want to hear as I leave this world.  Promise me that, will you?

 As I was texting back my promise, she then sent this:

Or a good trash-talking Euchre game.

Well, there it was.  I moved quickly from tears to laughter to clarity.  If we know “what’s last” we know how we want to live each “what’s next” in our own lives.

If we’re clear about “what’s last” it can become the compass that guides our present and our future.  If we can articulate in our own minds “what’s last,” it seems possible to increase life’s vibrancy while living with an inspired clarity.

May knowing your “what’s last” fill your “what’s next” with purpose, passion, laughter and a few good trash-talking Euchre games!