Tonight I’m finding myself in a bit of a conundrum. It’s this place of questioning the constant push to sell, sell, sell. It’s almost as if the world is churning and groaning… creating a place of insecurity and fear and it’s tough not to jump into this big pool of uncertainty. Every so often, I dip my toe in and it’s cold. There are plenty of opinions to support the need to push and fight to the front of the line and several desperate faces to keep me company. But really, is that where I want to end up? Is that where you want to end up?
There is another place to stand. It’s the land I began my journey from. Let’s call this land PASSION and when I find myself there, I find little need to push myself anywhere other than where I already am. In this Land of Passion, support comes from deep within and exudes a glow/a shine/a sparkle that draws others to it. From here, there is no need to fret because the details work themselves out as I focus on what I have, not what I don’t have. Standing here feels warm. I can move forward at a pace that sustains the drawing peace that works so well.

In writing all of this, it’s obvious to me that I openly point towards the Land of Passion as where I’d prefer to stand and live. I’d love to say that I’m not budging! I’m planted firmly and won’t move from this land. We all know, however, that life is full of it’s ups & downs, it’s pushes and pulls, it’s yings & yangs, it’s zings & zangs… so I’m not making any promises. I will however give it my best effort to remind myself what is important and what does work best.

So, if you should happen upon Ms. Zinger Zanger and her toe is dipped in the pool of uncertainty, if she appears to be pushing or pulling and ranting the words, “sell, sell, sell”… if she has that desperate look on her face… just say the word, “Passion”. As you remind her, perhaps it will inspire you to remember it as well and then others will catch on and then we can all dance in the glow of the draw.

Have you watched the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic yet? Definitely a chick flick in so many ways, but this movie had a beautiful underlying cause around choices and how they define you. While we all make choices every day of our life, how often do we actually intentionally own how our choices affect us and those around us. The way I see it, we can have a strong and infectious passion that drives our presence, but it can be fogged by so many things. We have this delicious & shimmering life force, the essence that shares love and carries us through the dimmer and questionable parts of life. Our choices can make our life force murky… and cause the brilliant stream that connects one to another to flicker and maybe even compromise the connection. This force recognizes the force in others, but when our concentration is on other things ( new shoes, new dress, new purse, new sofa, new blah blah blah… ) the connection falters and begins to drift away. Other things take its place and that shimmering life force is all of a sudden tarnished with the absence of life and cold bling bling. In the movie, the guy points us to the difference between cost and worth. Before every dollar spend and every decision made… take a few minutes and ask yourself, “What is the cost and what is it worth?”. Today, I had a list a mile long of things to do. I’d not been able to do much for the past few days… family obligations, etc… This morning, my mom, asked me to accompany her to Wal-mart and help her grocery shop, pick up meds, etc.. I wanted to say “no” simply because I had so many things that I felt behind in. I stopped and measured the cost and worth of the situation. I know that my mom is 85 years old and there’s no promise as to how long she will bless us with her smile and wisdom. The cost is nothing compared to the worth.
Should you be someone that makes choices and second guesses them… as we all do. Should you be someone that looks back on choices gone bad and beat yourself up time and time again… as we all do on occasion. Know that you are one of millions. We’re all human and can’t expect to get it right all of the time. It may help, however, to stop and give yourself a minute to measure the cost -vs- the worth when you’re torn between “should I” or “shouldn’t I”. And if you’ve not watched the movie CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC, treat yourself to a movie. It definitely leaned in favor of “worth” in my book!

While we all desire a warm and toasty holiday season, full of good cheer and love, it’s easy to step into ‘DO’ mode and forget to create the moments as we hope they can be. This is such a busy time of the year and we really do have to make the time to design it special. Here are a few “holiday traditions” that may be fun to try this year.
~Find Christmas short stories (either children stories or not) and read one per day/week between now and Christmas. Great for the family or just you.
~Take a gathering of food related ornaments and decorate a tree in the wild for the animals. If your small and furry, food is tough to come by at this time of the year.
~Create a WINTER SOLSTICE tradition on Dec. 22nd (the longest night of the year. Have dinner by candlelight or a bath surrounded by candles or light luminaries using brown paper bags, sand and candles.
~For the children: Create a Santa’s workshop in a room in your home. Help them spruce up old, out-grown toys and give to a charity.
~Invite family from afar to enjoy a remembrance candle with your family. Pick a night close to Christmas and encourage family households to light a candle in remembrance of each other… bringing everyone together even if they’re miles apart.
~Create a global wish list… pulling together ideas on how you or your family can live greener or positively influence our world. This is particularly useful if you’d like to encourage a sense of community with your children.
~Once gifts are opened, create a wrapping paper battle. Weapon of choice is, of course, balled up wrapping paper wads.
~Roll out brown paper on the table this year and have everyone draw a Christmas item or write an inspirational saying. Now you have an instant table cloth… personalized for the season.
~Paint your windows with acrylic paint (Christmas trees, snowmen, etc…)
~Once Christmas is over (sometime in the first part of Jan.), to avoid the post-holiday blues… create a snowman party. Serve snowball shaped food, build a snowman, enjoy white-hot chocolate, etc…

Create your season! Enjoy it. Happy Holidays from Zinger Zanger, Inc.

Wow, it’s easy to stay busy and not collect our thoughts. Here is this great tool, ready and willing to accept whatever I divulge. It’s such a friend and I’ve not taken it seriously. Well… that’s changing. Today this blog and I are re-acquainting ourselves. We are agreeing to work together in service of truth and heart.

Before, I let this space intimidate me a bit. I felt pressure to perform, if you will… as if the only words allowed to be dropped had to be made of gold. In my mind, they had to carry an influence and stop hearts… open up minds and cause earth shattering revelations. No wonder I’ve not written any more! What pressure I’ve put on myself… until now. Now, this is a place to be raw and fresh… and sometimes I may not even think before I write and who knows what will come out! I’m OK with that.

Whoever is out there and has a busy life to face, consider writing somewhere. Capture your thoughts and then… let them go. Consider this a privilege. Honor the words that reflect your thoughts. Recognize the life in them. Collect what you’ve learned, be thankful and step forward. Now, take a bow. You’re amazing and life is yours! What a gift!

This week has been busy and full of wonderful revelations. I attended a networking function with wall to wall women in business. It made me curious about what really moves a business to success. While I can see that several different applications make contributions to the overall cause, what pushes it over the top? I suppose that the meaning of success plays a large role in the path to get there. In this particular room full of women, I stumbled across what appeared to be several different meanings of success.

Challenged to snap into the way of the room (purposed to push my business into the limelight-eager to be noticed) I stepped back and continued to witness and watch. What is it? At this point, it can’t be a popularity contest (which really wasn’t working for me anyway). It has to be deeper than that.

Hmmmmmmm… all that I could come up with… passion and connection. Standing in our place of passion is magical. Passion and purpose create a draw. We don’t have to work so hard. We live it. When we talk… passion and purpose come out. When we stand… passion and purpose stand with us. It’s much stronger than anything we can come up with in our head. It’s connected to a bigger purpose and it’s contagious… beyond our control. This is where I yearn to stand.

What about you? What inspires you? What does moving forward look like in your neck of the woods?

Warmly,
Robin