Category — Uncategorized

I’ve always fancied the idea of learning how to ballroom dance – like Salsa and such.  I never did get around to taking lessons but would try to learn a few steps here and there (and no, I do not watch Dancing with the Stars).  I’ve always been a good student in any undertaking I’ve pursued.  But when it comes to dancing, I find myself trying to take the lead vs. following.  I step on toes, the whole nine yards.  This of course, throws off the whole balance of things.

So, of course, I try to analyze this.  Not so much the why, but more the why not? Why can’t I just let go?

Then something happened. Recently a friend of mine and I were watching a colleague seriously ballroom dance, he could cut up the carpet.  There were others on the floor doing the usual small circle dance, but this guy was all over the place.  Could he move!  We were laughing,  saying how we couldn’t POSSIBLY dance like that.  Each dancing partner he was with looked just as talented as the one before.  We were amazed, just watching, talking about how we have two left feet when it comes to that.

Then he came over and invited me to dance.  I resisted, and tried declining nicely. After all, I won’t look anything like the others who were on the floor!  He kept encouraging me, pulling me out onto the floor.  “Okay okay.  Just be patient with me,” I asked.   And he had me out of the dance floor, winging me around, twirling, changing directions.  He made me laugh, and I found that I started to relax into the dance moves as he coached me along.  He made it easy.  He made it fun.  And I didn’t look like a fool.  He asked my friend to dance after, and she had the exact experience. She couldn’t believe how easy he made things, it was enjoyable!

I began to realize that in dance, just like real life, having a good leader makes all the difference.  Knowing the steps, having the confidence to bring others to a new place, while  building confidence as they learn can create an experience like no other.

It’s funny because I always find myself in a position of leading one way or another.  If it’s not business, then it’s  family, a side project, you name it.   I’m used to leading and it’s where I find myself most comfortable.  But I also found myself quite comfortable following in this instance on the dance floor. It felt good to relax and allow the natural order of things to just be.

It reminded me of when I was twelve years old and I went to a square dance with some friends while vacationing in VT up at the lake house.  I was partnered up with this older man (he seemed old then, gosh knows he was probably 40 or something! lol).  Anyway, I remember he was whipping me around on his hip, and I had the best time. In fact, all our friends did. We were all pleasantly surprised how much fun square dancing was.  Again in this instance, I didn’t have to be anything but me.  And I allowed things to flow.

So, lesson learned.  Allow things to be.  Let things flow. Lead when you must. But following can also be good too.

Image source

Sometimes we find ourselves in the position where we have to say words that will hurt another’s feelings.  Over the past months, I’ve found myself in this position and it has been gut wrenching.  Speaking my truth meant hurting someone I care about very much.  But, as I’ve gotten older, I realize that can no longer sacrifice my own truth at the sake of protecting someone else from hearing it.  It just cannot be done.

Being Selfish

In a sense it feels selfish, a word and concept that I struggle with.  The word selfish has such negative connotations. Growing up, I was called “selfish” by my parents when I was doing something without regard to their (or other people’s) feelings.  The word was very rarely used in a positive manner.  Is it ok to be selfish?  I’ve asked myself this a thousand times.  I’m thinking it is.

I’m either on or off the tightrope

As I further explore this, the metaphor of a walking a tightrope came to me.  For so long, I’ve been on the tightrope, taking very careful steps.  I don’t want to fall, right? What happens when you fall? Things break, it can get ugly. So I was so careful to not say anything too dramatic or would cause a flare.  I kept an even keel.  I took one small step at a time… tried not looking down… that way I didn’t have to face my own truth or missteps in the process.  I discovered that I need to be either on or off the tightrope. there is no in between.

Falling Off

Falling is one of those things we all fear.  Falling in dreams, falling in front of others, it is humbling and shows vulnerability.  I’ve taken some real hard falls in the audience of others, it can be completely  humiliating. But, to get beyond this whole thing, I had to take the risk and fall off the wire I was walking.  What I found is that while I did get dirty and banged up a bit, I survived.  Go figure.

Free to be me

And so, as much as I am sorry about saying the words that hurt, I find that I am… for the first time in a long time… free to be me.  I am discovering a new voice who is aligned with my inner spirit who wants to fly.  I am no longer held to another’s expectations of who I am “supposed to be”.  I no longer need to push down my feelings to hold another’s before my own.

I’ve also learned that by speaking my truth doesn’t mean that I don’t care about others.  In fact, it’s a more loving way to be.  Who knew?

Image source

So the last post was all about not being able to offer something you don’t have. This post is about offering something that others don’t need or want.   I had an experience yesterday that made me take a step back and take a closer look.

So here’s what happened.  I’ve been taking yoga since the beginning of the year, I really like it.   At the gym I go to, there are two different yoga teachers who have completely different styles.  One teaches a class on Sunday morning that is relaxing and when I first started going, I thought it was somewhat challenging.  Then I started taking the other teacher’s evening classes who teaches a more traditional style yoga that is more intensive.  Now that I have a point of comparison, I have come to look upon Sunday’s class as a nice stretching/relax type yoga class. It allows me to move peacefully into my Sunday when I can make it.

This past Sunday, the more intensive teacher was substituting for the “relaxing” teacher.  Because this teacher is more into teaching traditional yoga poses with some challenging vinyasa flows (moving from one pose to another),  I’ve seen her ego get in the way when she tries to impress newer students who attend her classes. I know she wants students to love what she loves, I get that.  But let’s put it this way, the very first class I attended with her she did an inverted pose using the wall.  It was a more advanced pose and I was not the only first-timer in the class that day.

Given this, I was a tad worried about a disconnect with this Sunday class, but I was hopeful that she would take it easy on students…because….they are different… and beginners for the most part.  Surely she’ll notice the diversity in the room.  And if she were smart…she would use this class as an opportunity to attract some of these students to her classes in the evenings.   The Sunday morning class is much larger due to the relaxing nature of it, and the teacher’s soothing voice which works well for a Sunday morning ritual.  Also, the level of intensity is much lower and as a result, there is a broader mix of ages, experience, and such.

Now, just so I’m clear, I prefer the more intensive teacher because she helps me understand what yoga is and pushes me to my yoga edges.  I like that kind of thing.

So back to this past Sunday’s class.  You can probably guess what happened by now.  She did not take it easy on the class, in fact she pushed the class beyond where it wanted to be.  In this case, she offered something that the others didn’t want or need.  I wondered as we worked through a pretty rigorous Sunday morning routine, how she was missing the cues of the other people around me.  Several people stopped throughout the many poses and flows, there was clear struggle to keep up, heck I was struggling, and all the while, she was missing the cues.  At the end, people could not get out of there fast enough.

It seemed that it was more important for her to show people what she knew rather than tuning into what people really wanted.  She didn’t have to do that. She does have an easier class that is more stretching that would have been more appropriate for this crowd. But she didn’t go there, instead she wanted to show people what she her yoga was about – and her love of it.  All well and good, but unfortunately I don’t think she’ll be getting many students to her classes based on that.

Walking out of the class, my sister and I ran into the teacher. We wished her a good day.  She made a remark about “wondering if she pushed it too far, but then thought everyone was doing a great job.”  Really, what did she see?

It got me wondering about how often do we do that – offer something that others are not ready to receive – want – or need?  I suspect more often than not.  Especially if are set on “showing people what we know” vs. what they care about.  I see this alot when it comes to making public presentations. Speakers are so focused on telling everyone what they know, they miss the audience cues for what they really need to know.

And giving her some slack, perhaps she was nervous and intent on making a good impression.  To a fault.  I see this happening too when I teach tai chi.  A new student comes and my teaching partner likes to blather on about what tai chi is, the history, the this, the that.  I find it’s better to drip tidbits of info on people and bring them along slowly rather than shower them with a firehose. Let them experience the wonder of it, not tell them about the wonder.  But I’m far from perfect.  Just another lesson along the way on this journey…

Image source

I’m always up for a new challenge and I’ve got a new one I’m looking at starting tomorrow.  It’s a physical fitness bootcamp, thanks to my sister-in-law Kelly .  It’s an 8-week program where groups compete with each other to achieve the greatest improvement as a whole.  There is a personal trainer that helps each group, and keeps everyone focused on their goal.  I must say it’s been quite awhile since my feet have entered a gym – perhaps 15 years plus??  My feeling has always been that exercise doesn’t need to happen in a gym per say.  I’ve participated in karate and tai chi classes, but all have been held in a dojo and not a formal gym. My other routine is a couple mile walk with my dog.  It will be interesting to see how this goes.

In previous posts, I definitely have undertaken various lifestyle changes in diet, thought processes, practices, and this one is really no different.  I’ll keep you posted on my progress.  I’m looking forward to getting back to a better eating discipline too – I’m kind of off track from my year-long pilgrimage of no wheat, no whites, no sugar.  I did feel better then too…if there was only a way to avoid smelling a fresh loaf of bread!  But I digress, I’ll deal with that one too.  And eagerly await my physical transformation…

I’ve always prided myself in being what I called “observer”.  Not the police detective-type observer where you notice how many people are in a given area, what they are wearing, who looks suspicious, but more an observer of life and how my actions and choices affect my “reality”.  I’m acutely aware of my thoughts going on in my head, and how they come to life in my world.  I’m often not overly surprised by how things manifest, especially if I can trace it back to an originating thought somewhere along the lines. I hold myself pretty accountable, and make important thought-action-life connections that I try to learn from.  Am I the only one who does this?  Do you ever find yourself listening to your own thought process?

So, while this been helpful to a point, I also started noticing that I’m not getting anywhere fast.  I seem stuck in my same sames…nothing seems to move one way or another.  It feels a little like the movie Groundhog Day… Same cast of characters, still observing and not getting anywhere.

Then one day I was listening to one of my favorite Abraham Hicks seminars and something clicked.  They were talking about how we spend all this time observing life that we end up being “trained observers” who react to what’s happening around us.  And when we spend time “observing” things that are around us, we are tuning into those vibrations of those things, and it’s usually a mix of things we don’t like and do like, right? Like the guy who just cut you off and now you’re feeling irritated…just when you were enjoying that song on the radio….stupid guy….

When I’m feeling foul about something, it becomes really easy to all of sudden begin observing things I don’t like… such as…I don’t like the fact that my house is a mess…which leads to a new thought that matches the one before…I don’t like the fact that I have all these unfinished projects around me… then… I don’t like how my office has no door, and on and on and on.  Those thoughts are pretty accessible to me and somehow all similar feeling thoughts come flooding my brain. My husband always had the knack to so quickly recall such detailed “lists” of things that piss him off, and I’ve always wondered  “Wow, how does he do that?”

According to Abraham, what’s really happening is we become prone to having our thoughts and feelings redirected by what’s around us, and we live and breathe in a react-only mode.  We’re not taking charge of our own vibrations (feelings), instead we are taking on the vibration of those things around us.  So that’s when it clicked for me…I’m letting the world dictate my thoughts and feelings in that moment.  Sure, live in the moment that is good.  But don’t let every moment dictate how your life will take form because if all you think about is what is, then you’ll never ever get to “what it could be”….which is that hopeful place we all desire.

If possible, take deliberate action every day to spend time thinking about our aspirations and dreams.  Close your eyes and feel it like it’s happening…feel your way into how cool it will be when…you get that car, job, home, take that vacation…   It is those thoughts…the ones we feel good about that are much more powerful than any negative thought we have.  Spend time being a dreamer, they say.  But don’t just think it, feel it.

So, I test everything.  I decided to test this one out and would make a deliberate attempt to think about outcomes I want to have vs. don’t want to have. For example, my profession involves public speaking and when I have a talk coming up, I decided to deliberately envision the good “high” feeling at the end of a presentation.  I talk myself up, telling myself it will be “my best one yet”…and then try to bring about that positive feeling and visualize people coming up to me saying “great job… loved the presentation….do you have a business card… Do you have second, I wanted to talk more about… ” and I replay that feeling and vision over and over leading up to the event itself.  It’s essentially a “pre-paving” of an outcome I want through focused thought.

Before I began to really understand this, I would spend time agonizing over writing the darn PPT. I would famously procrastinate until it was T-minus-zero and then be shocked that I was feeling unprepared, and then go and dream about my “unpreparedness” like showing up to school late, can’t find the room, I’m half naked, and so on.  How unproductive.

I want to tell you that my test worked, and continues to work flawlessly every time.  The key is to get the “feeling” of the outcome you WANT whether you’ve ever experienced it or not. It really doesn’t matter. It’s all about moving into the feeling of the outcome you desire – even if you’re in the middle of a messy moment that appears to be unyielding…just think about the outcome you DO want vs. the one you are experiencing.  It almost feels “genie-ish”… And things can manifest very fast..as quickly as you blink. It’s almost like tuning yourself like a radio station…up and down till you find that perfect reception spot…

Just yesterday, I was out shopping with my son and he was getting on my nerves and my patience was short. I had that pit in my stomach, and I wasn’t finding anything he was saying or doing funny in the very least bit.  Annoyance was mounting big time… We were also in traffic, it was going very slow and it seemed that the  guy in front of me must be the “nicest guy in the world” letting everyone go before him…  Can you say high blood pressure?

Then I looked over at my son, and I thought, “Whoa this is NOT how I want to be spending my time”.  At that moment, I said those very words out loud… and I stated that what I did want was to relax, enjoy this time, and see where it went.  Traffic all of sudden loosened, and we were moving again. I felt the entire pit of my stomach dissolve into nothing, and my mood immediately lightened. If that’s not power, I don’t know what is. Was it really me? Who the heck knows and I’m not sure I care to know.  It just felt better is all.

Of course, I’m not perfect and I’m not saying I don’t get down or negative.  I’m just sharing something I learned that is helping me feel better every day, and really allowing me to live the life that I desire of my choosing.

Try it, and let me know how you fare.  I’d love to hear any stories you’ve experienced so we can all learn from each other.

Signing off with lots of love and healing light…xxooxxoo

I was driving down a side street the other night,  making my way on a trip to BJ’s to pick up ribs in preparation for my son’s birthday dinner.  I was feeling a little low, as it was 7:30 on the night before his birthday when I’m running around getting things at the last minute. Seems to be a regular thing for me.  Days run out of daylight, and I’m still not done.  So, I’m sitting in the car (with my son sitting in the passenger side) asking myself in my head “What’s really going on here, why do I feel so…unenthused with everything?” and at that moment, Rush came on the radio singing Closer to the Heart.  At first I was excited, I turned up the radio, told my son “I LOVE this song”, until I started singing it….

And the men who hold high places
Must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality
Closer to the heart
Closer to the heart
The blacksmith and the artist
Reflect it in their art
They forge their creativity
Closer to the heart
Closer to the heart

Ouch, that hurt. Tears bubbled up to my eyes, as I’m driving with one hand, wiping my face with the other catching the teardrops, hoping to be invisible…Closer to the heart I thought.  That was it.  That is what is missing.  My list of things and deadlines looming is not closer to the heart.  The things that are filling all of my days and nights are not things closer to the heart.  Writing here is closer to the heart.  Meditating is closer to the heart.  Watching tv with the family is closer to the heart.

I will start prioritizing my time around things closer to the heart first, then allow for the other things to fill in.  We’ll see if that shifts my energy.

In today’s day and age with GPS systems easily accessible at a decent price, who needs a map? It always tells us where we are and where we need to go. No worries, right?  Just program in the address of our destination and poof, there it is.  A direct and often shortest path to our destination.  But what about those times when you don’t have access to technology, or even a map?  How do we find our way? It’s funny, I’m not inclined to get a GPS thingy because I like the adventure of dead reckoning – finding my own way and carving my own path.  Fortunately, I was blessed with an incredible sense of direction, like a homing pigeon, and I rarely get it wrong.  My husband calls me his human map.  He’s the type who needs a GPS system. My daughters call me for directions when they are lost.   But let me tell you, when I am “off” it’s really bad.  I get all turned around.  It’s usually more a characteristic of the day than a moment, I know when I’m off.

But I wanted to talk about this notion of driving without a map and how this is really a translation into our life.  We live our entire life without a map. There is really nothing that is telling us where to go next, in the physical sense. We must navigate on our own, rely on our own homing devices, and choose our own paths.

For the most part, it works, right?

No one told us how to be an adolescent, we just did it.  No one told us how to be born, no one told a woman how to have a baby, you just do it.  We seem to have all the homing devices we need to make it in this world.  Atleast I think so.  It’s when we disconnect from those parts of ourselves when we really lose our way.  We get all turned around, in our own lives and are unsure what to do next, where to go next.  We lose a little faith in the process of the journey, and worry can literally splinter into every choice we make. It’s the eternal pendulum of struggle betweeen our spirit, emotional and physical/material needs.

I know alot of people I know are getting laid off, losing jobs and it can be scary.  I feel their pain, been there and done that.  I’ve vascillated back and forth with the best of them, do I do this, do I not do this, what will happen if its not right, what happens if …if if if.  The reality is we are not listening to what our inner thoughts are calling us toward.

In every situation where I’ve found myself without gainful employment of some kind and hit bottom where every fear was flared, I went resume  crazy, put myself into overdrive, and usually found myself in a new job that is EXACTLY like the old job that I didn’t like anyway.  Now that’s the true definition of insanity – finding myself in the same spot again and again and wonder why?

In 2002, I found myself in another layoff.  I had moments of fear, but I sat back more.  I didn’t jump into the old patterns. I got quiet. I listened to my thoughts, fears and concerns. But more importantly, I let things happen, I let go of the ropes and let my inner guidance take over.  It requires a bit of faith and determination, it’s much easier to get back into the old cozy warm bed of finding a job – atleast I know what that looks like.  And I discovered that truly every job loss was an opportunity to realign myself with what I do like – even though I may have not gotten it quite right every time, but it was in a sense, a gift to realign with what is important.

I also found that this last time around it was different than the rest – I had been in this spot 3 other times, and they were not all layoffs. Fill in the blanks.  However, despite the challenged economy, I found independent work.  I found myself attracted to doing different things, with different groups.  It all led me to where I am now.  We need to learn to let go and allow our guidance systems to come back to the surface in our mind so we can hear it.

We are being shown a path.  A path that will deliver all that we really want.  And we don’t need a map to find it.  It’s already been carved out, we need to get quiet so we can hear our own thoughts, and discover the joy of the journey itself.   I truly believe you can’t go wrong when you are tuned into our inner urgings.  It’s when we don’t listen that we get all turned around.

Here’s to finding more paths to carve with only our inner guiding maps…that no one can see but us. Then blaze a trail, and the whole world will finally “see”.

Hello friends, it’s been some time since I checked in here on my blog.  Well, good news I’m back and ready to roll.  It’s been an interesting few weeks, and bitter cold here Brrr….I’m not loving living in New England right about now.  We’ve already had 6 or 7 storms, and we’re only at Jan 15th.  Florida is looking better and better.

Life’s been busy here, work has never been busier.  I feel blessed about that.  It’s almost too busy because I’m checked out alot mentally, working my mind overtime.  I’m trying to keep my focus ahead on desires and a life I want, some days are easier than others.  But, lately I’ve been noticing more of life’s little surprises and their ripple effects of doing good things.   It’s not that I didn’t have them before, but I’m not sure I was keeping track of it.  In fact, I’ve had a steady stream of nice surprises.  It started at Christmas when I received two very thoughtful gifts from my kids.  First, my 12 yo son decided I needed to have a star named after me.  So, I received a beautiful certificate and map of a star for me.  I was really touched, he’s a bit of a romantic at heart.  The fact that he thought of it on his own was touching. I know he spent time thinking about something I’d like, he’s really a considerate fella.  Then, my daughter Kristen compiled a beautiful scrapbook that covered the first 15 years or so of my life with them.  She did a spectacular job, the attention to detail was incredible.  Again, I was blown away.  I know she must have been working on this for months.  She alluded to me before the holidays that she’d been “swiping things from under my nose for months.”  Hmm, that’s a nice feeling…not! But she was funny, because she knows now that my picture box was a nightmare. She made something beautiful out of a pile of, well… you know, my disorganized mess.

It was nice to be on the receiving end of their love.  It made me wonder what I could do to bring more of that into everyday life. Why does it need to wait for special occasions?  For all the less-than-perfect moments we experience in life, these nicer moments seem to make up for them in spades.  It breeds more kindness and compassion.

Speaking of special occasions, we threw a little birthday party for my father-in-law and his twin brother Dick.  It wasn’t a milestone birthday or anything, but my husband had the idea to throw a little party for his Dad and Uncle.  But in the spirit of giving back, sharing good times, good energy flowed throughout the day.  I was a little worried about how the day would go, the family is a tough nut to crack. Fortunately there were no worries.  The cousins who don’t usually spend time together had a blast, seeing that they had stuff in common with each other.  It was cool.

And it’s not hard to plant your own nice little surprises, it doesn’t have to be a party.  Write a nice note in your child’s backpack or partner’s pocket, being courteous sharing a smile, lending a hand, shoveling a walk, whatever we can do.  Be of service.  Because life’s little surprises are worth it. Even when it seems bad and cannot see our way out quite yet, it usually ends up good.  Let’s pay it forward and move that stagnant stuck energy or black clouds by planting goodness where you can, no matter how big or small.  It’s worth it.

Until next time…

Last weekend I had the opportunity to meet an interesting person who is an energy healer named Glen Phillips.  I was introduced to Glen by my husband’s aunt who is really cool to be with.  She’s not that much older than my husband – one of those screwy family things.

Anyway, we happened to discover last spring that we are both into energy healing. I’ve been practicing tai chi and kung fu, which uses a combination of meditations, forms and chinese medicines to balance our “chi” in our body.  I’ve found it to be a really fun outlet.  The meditations are very cool, and the forms are also self-defense and I’ve learned some pretty neat moves.  I like to try them out on the family ) and I catch them by surprise.  But I digress…

Anyway, Kate’s (the aunt) teacher was in town this weekend and I had the chance to meet Glen.  It was very cool.  He zeroed right in on an ailment I had and literally removed it from my body using healing lights and such.  I wouldn’t have believed it but I felt 100% better the next day.  It works with a process called “releasing” and connecting the mind-body with the releasing of negative thought patterns and energies.  Now, being a little selfish I wanted to share my laundry list of things I’d like removed..and my shoulder hurts, and my left hip is sore…but I did not want to be ungrateful for the wonderful healing he did do.

Glen has an interesting story of how he came unto this healing process.  To make a long storty short, he was diagnosed with less than a year to live with a bad heart.  He was moving around day to day on a scooter because he didn’t have the energy to move on his own.  He decided to move to Arizona to work with horses for this last months, and was connected to a master energy medicine healer named Alex.  He healed his heart in one session – which of course Glen did not believe.  So he went back home to Mass. to see his doctor and get a professional opinion on his heart. He was feeling a little better, but was skeptical.  Well, upon the doctor’s examination, he found his heart was completely healed and healthy.  Done. No more scooter.  Life begins again.

So he’s been teaching this art for a couple of years and he invited me to his class on Monday night to experience it more.  I’ll get into it more over the upcoming weeks, because what I learned I was just scratching the surface.  It’s a building process, just like tai chi where it will take time to actually feel like I’m getting anywhere.  Patience is required.  And I do have patience…mostly…no comments from those who know me well, a-hemm.

But a truly wonderful thing happened during this chance meeting.  He also can see spirits – now I’m getting out there but just hang on a minute…  He told me that I had a relative with me, watching over me.  A young woman in pink, someone who passed young.  And while he was telling me this, I was excited but confused.  None of the women in my family passed “young” that I remembered.  So I said, ” Gee, I’m not sure who that may be. The closest person to me who has passed was my grandmother,” and he said… “No, she’s shaking her head no, it’s not her.”  So I went on and said “Well, the only other person that comes to mind is…my father’s mother who died when my Dad was 5″ and before I could even finish that sentence, he said “Oh Yes, that is who it is.  It’s Her!  She’s shaking her head yes.”

I was stunned. First, I never met her, nor did my Dad know her. She did die young – 47 or so, with 5 kids left behind and the Dad took off.  So, in all my family gatherings, little has ever been discussed about her.  I’ve had several different readings where I’ve been told there is a grandmother figure around me, but I always thought it was my other grandmother.

So the beauty of this is that it has opened other doors for new conversations.  I’m now exploring who this person was when she was alive.  And it’s nice because I’m connecting with my Dad’s brothers and sisters, who never really got a chance to talk about her much after she died. They went right into survival mode, and she’s more like a dream in their memory now.

It just reminds me how full circle this life is, and that we often have work to do, whether on this planet or another plane. We are always expanding in some way, and it allows us to discover new dimensions that were not previously accessible.   Even when it pushes us out of comfort zone, let’s remember that it’s for the best.

It’s finally that time of year where I head out ISA’s Marketing & Sales Summit with my partner Shari Worthington at Telesian Technology.   It’s our 3rd annual summit.  I was on the planning committee since the inception, and I’ve been working on this event (along with several others) since last March.  Let’s just say I’m glad it’s here.  It’s always good to get these things behind us.

This year I’ll be making a co-presentation with a nice guy from Jacobs Automation – Scott Summer.  We’re going to be talking about how marketers can do a better job in working with sales.  “Marketing Strategies that Enable Sales Success” is the title, I think.  A little bit buzzy, but it works.

I always enjoy the travel experience, and view each trip as a mini-science experiment.  I always enjoy discovering who, by LOA, is sitting next to me, or in line in front of me.   My Sensei Mike has shared some funny little tricks to do with energy while I’m on the road.  I’ll keep you posted on how I do, and if it actually worked.

But seriously, traveling always brings such interesting moments – moments of fun, laughter, amazement and also other less glamourous situations which I refuse to name so I don’t breathe energy into them…  I anticipate that this will be a pleasant experience, especially the mirco-brewery tour Thurs night.

I’ll also regularly post Twitter remarks as the conference goes on under #ISAMS3…

I’ll pop back in and let you know how the travels go.  Until next time…

I gotta get myself packed and buttoned up!