Simplify! Simplify!

Talking to several older friends, each of whom has lost the threads of lifelong interests due to people moving or dying or dealing with health challenges, it hit me that I have just two goals to achieve before the end of 2016 - make a reality of Cyber Access for the Technically Timid & fully develop my Values Statement project.  

Focus on those two goals, make them happen, then build on their success.  Create a foundation, rather than just scatter a net for catching elusive dreams.  Get real.  Simply!  Simply!  And get them both DONE.

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." 

Walt Disney

Everything I learned about dreams daring doing, I learned from Walt

originally posted on DreamReweaver...


This is a particularly perilous moment for me, a time of changing perspectives & fresh opportunities that leave me exhilarated & shaken with the new, the unexpected, the unconsciously bidden.

Someone who's helping me move through it, up to the next level of play is Walter Elias Disney.  My current personal & professional challenges are rooted in my entrepreneurial spirit - and Walt Disney was THE entrepreneur par excellance. 

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." 

Walt always tried to learn from mistakes, to keep his eye on the horizon, working his way toward it. 

Would that all of us had the great good fortune to have a big brother like Roy Disney.  Mickey would never have delighted us if Walt's creativity hadn't been beautifully balanced by his canny, kind & generous older brother.  

“My job all along was to help Walt do the things he wanted to do. He did the dreaming. I did the building.”  Roy Disney

An example of Walt's lack of business smarts - rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, his first successful cartoon creation, were registered in his distributor's name, leaving him with no claim.  That only happened once.  

Until the past few weeks, I hadn't a clue about how vitally important CURIOSITY has been in my life.  The core genius of Walt Disney is found in his curiosity.  Wait - Walt would disagree...

“Somehow I can't believe that there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four Cs. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of all is confidence."

Curiosity drove my ability to move past family crises, what looked like professional set backs, personal dilemmas.  In each case, curiosity about each situation helped me step back, if just a smidgen, to get a better view.  

Mom once pointed to my belief in the possible as the quality she most admired in me - it's rooted in my curiosity.

Now, I've moved into uncharted waters.  And that requires something that's been lacking in my life.  Confidence.  

Walt's spot on that the greatest of the four Cs - curiosity, confidence, courage & constancy - is confidence.  I'm upbeat & optimistic, with a lot of bluster & bravado.  That's a far cry from confidence.  

My curiosity could be compared to one of the Saturn 5 rockets Mim & I saw climb up to beyond the skies.  It's the vehicle caring the payload, glistening & gleaming on the launch pad.  

 

Without confidence fueling it, that's where it stays. It takes sufficient confidence to ignite my courage & constancy, all three to propel my curiosity into a successfully completed mission.

 

It's a scary grand place to be, with startling twists & turns, unexpected consequences & startling new paths.  Exhilarating, yet demanding that I give it my all or just don't bother.  Will be thinking a lot about Walt & Roy, looking to their example, putting my heart into making my own dreams come true.   

"Always remember that this whole thing 

was started with a dream and a mouse."

 Well, a mouse, a dream, two brothers & the 4 Cs.  

Autumn leaves

Imagine how autumn's trees would look if we focused on doing everything possible to hold off the process, if we considered leaves drifting down into soft piles to be against the order of creation & we humans had to do everything possible to stop it in its tracks. Like the way far too many treat human aging. 

Just had a marvelous experience with a remarkable family whose approach to a parent's aging challenges is to access as little technology & focus on as much common sense as possible. How do i clone them?

Glad to be back

The past month has been a tender time for me, so I stepped away from eldering blogging.  Am working on a memorial tribute for my sister, which will be posted online.  She passed in early July after a long period of poor health & a short hospital stay. 

It's been a remarkable experience, so different from rushing to put together a traditional memorial service - within a few days, in a brick & mortar venue, with an available minister et al.  It's been a process to be experienced, rather than event planning.

As part of it, I've been writing daily Mim memories of my always amazing, often challenging, sister.  You can find them at my DreamReweaver blog - just look for "Mim memory."  One last sister-sister partnership!

Knew I'd be back when the right topic became clear.  Over the past few days, have worked with a fabulously resilient older friend - 90+ - who fainted then experienced prolonged weakness.  

Her family didn't rush her into the ER, but chose to handle it as would have been the norm until the era of techno-medicine.  They had her see her physician, then take it easy, rest, had family or friends keeping an eye on her.  Later, when she was rested, they sought additional medical care.  

All is well.  Could just be due to being (forgive me, Anne) - old. 

John & I had the privilege of taking her out to dinner last night.  She was a bit wobblier than usual, but not so much that John noticed.  And she demolished her bacon mushroom cheddar cheeseburger.  

Got her home, she got herself ready for bed, we said our good nights & farewells.

I am so grateful to be doing the work I get to do, work I've been unwittingly but thoroughly trained for over my lifetime, work that brings me joy - makes a difference - makes me happy to wake up every morning.