Happy Birthday Naomi!

Good day to all. This would have been Naomi Grace Tyrell's 10th birthday.  It was a day to pay it forward with random acts of kindness.
Naomi was such a special child and now can soar and walk through the gardens of God without any pain or limitation.

May we each  live our days on earth giving back to others and showing grace to our fellow man.

Peace and again Happy Birthday to Naomi and all who appreciate and love life to the fullest and even to our enemies and those that have fallen away from our hearts.

I wrote this poem several years back and it is worth a revisit since it captures Naomi so well.

Upon the eternal sky of heaven, God has woven into place stars and planets and made the moon and earth.
Upon the earth, mankind has been placed amongst the animals and each other.
Throughout life, God is at his loom weaving.
Weaving stories of people's lives and people's dreams.

Looking out a window, we see a broken dream at first. To have and to nourish a healthy daughter.
Dreams dashed to the rocks.
an interruption to the continuance of peace.

Yet a look closer to this picture, we see a family drawn closer to prayer and to the Word of God and His people.
A witness to the world=
A shining Beacon of hope to those with Neiman Picks.
A welcome mat for Christ to stand upon.
To gather His flock in dependence upon Him.

Being in the midst of this world is not easy. It is hard to see those who lack since I am one of those too.
But it is great to see how God provides. God sustains. Nourishes Souls.

The potter spins this clay upon the wheel. Making a pattern for Naomi and her family. Best suited for their use and ours as well.

May God bless us all as we look at her. Seeing her hands and feet and her soul and all her organs that God has knit together.
Not one little stitch out of place.

And now God has called her home.  A place to dwell on those streets of Gold so that His world will be more complete.

Let her butterfly spirit invade our world to bring it peace and joy and love. May His presence and her love dwell in each one of us today and forever more.

And today we celebrate what would have been her 10th birthday and the world is a better place because you visited it, Naomi Grace Tyrell.

The world misses you!!  

Keep dancing on those streets of gold.

Kindred souls

I watched the documentary, Nim, on the attempt to communicate with chimpanzees. It is difficult to communicate between the two species.  Even though chimps and humans may have similar emotions.

Let's have that sizzle: a primer on sales.

Sales. It is that dreaded word sometimes. Yet after these few moments, I hope to have you think otherwise.

Rewind the clock of time and go back to your childhood, that time when you were a student and had multiple opportunities to sell.
Remember that case of chocolate bars that you received or that case of light bulbs or catalog of magazines or seeds to sell.
Your assignment was to go door to door and to friends and family and sell these treasures.  What I enjoyed during those moments was waiting at the door and seeing the reaction of those who would open the door and be able to do something totally different than my everyday school life. I got to be a semi professional salesman early on in my life.

When I was in the midst of this early sales career of my life, what drove me was the incentives of selling so many boxes of candy or lightbulbs.  Then I could come home with a nice watch or plaque.

When my niece was visiting us in Maine, we went to the Portland Childrens Museum and there was a general store. Abby went in there and stood at the cash register and rang items through the scanner.
Several of our family stood there as she rang up our order and gave us our total.
What this incident taught me is that sales is a little bit about play and taking on a role early on in our lives.

Growing up requires that you monitor all of the senses that go through your mind.  Ever stand in front of that cereal aisle and see the vast array of choices of products to buy. It can be overwhelming at times.
Boxes upon boxes of cereal.. differentiated by the slightest of margins. Whether it is the design on the box of a cover, the prize that may be inside that box or the terrific taste that one experiences each time one eats it.
My favorite cereal is the Frosted Mini Wheats.  I love the small bite size consistency and when covered with milk, it has a good crunch with just the right amount of sweetness.  And it can be tempting to bite into throughout the day straight from the box itself.

Even as a child, sales is a lot about play.  It involves chasing down the business owners and often being told that they are not at home during the moment.  It involves a little bit of that hide and seek as you try to not spill the entire contents of your bean bag until you are right in front of them.
It can be also like that game of twister and as the dial is spun, one can get into some rather uncomfortable positions.
Or that dreaded game of the towers of Jenga where one has to be careful not to pull out that key block of support.

General Electric had a popular slogan of "We bring things to life."
In essence, what this is is the use of our imaginations.

Much of the world is understanding our perceptions and needs.  A lot of what a salesperson does is unveiling what our true needs are at the time.  It is like going to a show and seeing magic performed.
We can not always tell at the amount what is going to happen but it often involves pulling something out of the hat and seeing the rabbit emerge from who knows where.


When I was young, I saw an advertisement for a gum that burst with flavor when it was bit into. I went to the store later on during the week and purchased the packet of gum. When I got home and unwrapped the package, I bit into the gum and no burst occurred. I tried during the next 5 bites and no massive burst happened.

There is a famous saying in sales and that is "don't sell the steak, sell the sizzle."  A lot of this can be reflected in the features and benefits of the products which we sell.  A feature is an aspect of the product that we sell and the benefit is what happens when the product hits the hands of the consumer and it becomes their own.

When I kept debating back and forth with my friends on which computer should I buy, it all centered on whether I would get an Apple or a Dell. Then I had to decide on the memory I would need, the accessories that i would want. Then during the Easter of 2003, a friend of mine, Paul Crisci, had an old HP computer that he did not need. It got me into the modern era with the internet. It was almost like an Edsel, a lemon. A very old clunker of a machine. It crashed every few hours and took a little while to get back up to speed. I did a lot of work on that machine from my blog and learning how to use the internet.  Then one day, I had enough. I browsed through the web pages for Apple and one day while at the Fitness Edge, I looked at the Apple Page and I saw just what I wanted. A 24 inch refurbished I Mac Machine!!! Just the ticket to modernization!!!  It was at that split second I knew what I wanted.

From taking a look at some of these motives and slogans, we can see that



During my career, I have been indirectly involved in sales.  When I worked at Schrier Brothers, my first interaction with sales was when Mark Schissler had me take down one of his orders. He gave me about 40 items of products from White and Brown bags to boxes and pallets of foil and Solo cups.
I was new at the time and just knew their names. As the years passed, I got to touch some of the products and see where there were on the pallets in the warehouse.

Many times I dove under the desk or into the filing cabinet and located the products that needed to be sold.
One of our star salesmen, Stew Reitzfeld, consistently earned top performing honors with his sales. Often in the office, I overheard our staff of Susan and Michelle and Kathy stating, "We are helping Stew look good. Through my conversations with them, it took their knowing the customer's needs as well and working with our buyers and vendors to make sure that the delivery process went well.

Sales often has to deal with the process of having the right fit.

Creating ripples in a parched land

Take the plot of land that is out there.
Look at its weedy condition.
Its lack of moisture.
Its lack of warmth.
Build upon it.

Not houses of stone.
But houses of the heart.

In this land, we have experienced a rift
  A rift of hate
  A rift of violence.

Only the LORD can heal that rift, that divide
  that has kept sides apart to long!!

Take that watering can.
  Let the older generation teach the younger generation,
    as my dad did once in Arizona for his granddaughter.

Of how to be gentle and loving
   and caring.

It takes one person at a time to make those small
  differences.

Only one pebble to be thrown into the pond,
   to fill the pool with so many ripples,
   waves and pellets of water dancing to
    the music of ones touch.

May the Lord bless our nation and our world with His enduring love.

Finding Our Place in The World

Have you ever wandered through life and wondered where you are going?  I have spoken to some people lately and that is the question that they have asked me.  And it is the same one that I have  asked myself.

I see the trees and the view of all the trees is a little daunting.  It is hard to know how to proceed through the forest without tripping on the roots that pop out of the ground.

The search for the next chapter in one's life, whether it is a job or relationship or something else, is a lot like Finding Nemo.  Just as Nemo's family searched all over the ocean to find him, looking to the world is the same way. It is vast just as the sea is vast.  So many places to go, yet each place can seem just like the last bit of blue water that swirls around you.

Yet it is important to remember the distinct coral reef that Nemo may see and hear the sounds of the fish nearby. We need to do that as networkers to take a look at the connections that we have and make meaninful interactions with them. 

It has been a while since I have placed words to a screen for taking some of that time to think is hard.
I went to a workshop yesterday, Write Yourself Free, to learn how to write without having a critical mind at first. To place words on a page and then figure out how to structure them better.

Maybe that is the solution to finding work in the real world and figuring out what we are going to do when we grow up!!!

Faithful Servants

This poem was created and read by me at our farewell retirement party for Paul and Karen Butterfield and their 35 years of service to the Lord at Trinity Baptist Church on June 10th, 2012. 

Paul and Karen as the Anchors of the Lord’s Work

     Rocks not easily shaken.

Not a day has gone by at Trinty Baptist where the work of Karen and Paul has not been seen.

From the times of washing the windows

To the removal of coffee stains from the floor.

To the movement of chairs across the sanctuary

To the Tables of communion

To the times of worship

  From a far and up close.

Of countless chats with God to keep us in line and in tow

For His great plan.

From the prayers in the quiet of your temple

   To the unseen hurts and seen praise.

And for your time at the game night and  potluck

  Of your unknown Zenga skill

  Which knocked down my elaborate towers

   That skill which continues to build the kingdom and

    Challenge me to live a better life.

     Now for the rematch!

    But from which you have a steady hand.

    Guiding His people into the truth and the life.

From the right hand corner of the choir .

   The gentle voice of your love for Jesus.

And now you will be able to rest at night

   Without the call of “Hey Paul, a leaky valve”

 

Karen for your gentleness

  To repair the lives of broken women

   To shepherd them and to guide them in the way everlasting.

     And for your Courage as you faced your frailty and let God bring you back to life.

      And you being a lighthouse to us and to Fairfield Grace

      Of your beacon that never died or given up.

   May your words and your meditations be pleasing in His sight

   May you grow the kingdom of God in South Carolina

   May it echo and reverberate up North.

    And to the South and the East and the West.

As the sun begins to set on your time up North.

 May the Lord bless you this year into your new season.

   May you see your family grow deep in the love of the Lord.

Establishing deep roots in the Almighty!!

May you hear our call of the Kingdom for wherever you go!!

And may you continue to keep us in your prayers.

For our God is an awesome God!!!

Let's brew up the broth of education

Think back to your days as a student at that square desk with the metal shelf for all of your papers, pens, and books.  Those lockers lining the hallways and the changing of the classes at the 10:10 bell.  Of the rotated schedules of periods, requiring the knowledge of EXCEL even before it was invented.
Tests and lectures and the like.

Creating  communities of learning is one of the main tasks of our educational system. And it is formed on the basis of forming a foundation during the first three years while at home and then putting up a frame from the time of preschool to kindergarten and then the next 12 years are spent filling that frame out and then during post high school years, putting the frosting and flavor to that cake.  Very expensive morangue but important nonetheless.

Mayor Corey Booker of Newark, New Jersey, shared with Oprah Winfrey that "education is the cauldron  of creativity that serves to meet the common goals of our communities."
That is an apt description of what education is and when we take a journey from the cavemen to the techno geeks of the 21st century, we will see how that it is the case.

When we go back in time to the cave men, fire served as a central way for men and women to gather at the end of a long day of hunting and gathering. No cell phones or Ipads existed back then. What existed was the woods and the fields and the ingenuity which was required with their hands to make  an existence.  Wholesome values were taught to the children growing up and there was a need to cooperate with one another.

Fire brings forth light and warmth and can create the cauldrons that are forged for the olympic games held every two years.  Those cauldrons are displayed in the middle of the stadium for the opening ceremony and the location of it and the torch's path are sometimes kept in the dark.
Once the runners finish the relay of thousands  of miles and the spark reaches the cauldron, the flame bursts and stays lit throughout the competition of the games.

Education is a lot like the relay to the stadium. There must be a steady effort to keep the flame lit and it requires teams of thousands to keep the light lit throughout the travels in the rain, in the snow and sleet and up the long paths that it travels.  Sometimes disappointments result and there can be failures along the way.

In some parts of the educational world, the spark may be rather faint and especially in the inner city where there is a widespread epic of drop-outs and delinquencies.  The teachers there have to work with innovative models.  Some of those models have worked and been made into motion pictures and books.  Look to the Freedom Writers, to the Dead Poet's Society of how these authors reached into the imagination of children, sparking them on paths to make a difference for society.

In my life, I had such teachers.
I remember when I left the private school classroom at The Henry Viscardi School and went into public school with the metal desks and the classroom with the blue cinder block walls.  I had a special teacher, Miss Gorton, who paid attention  to me, a frail student, who needed propping up a bit to succeed. For I was not like the other kids in my class.  But I had that spark and its ember needing tending every few moments for it to be successful.  For she encouraged me and helped me relate to my peers and included my mom and dad on some field trips to historic sites in Connecticut.

 I remember in the 8th grade in my algebra class, Mr. Scrofani had us play math baseball in which our class was divided into two teams.  Each team would come up to bat and answer questions from concepts that we were studying: whether it was the quadratic formula, or the multiplication tables or solving a complex equation, it served as a way to keep us as students on our feet. Or back to the dug out if we struck out and got the answer wrong.  I always looked forward to these moments.  I wish I could have some of them back.

In high school, when I took Spanish for three years, I had Miss Goggin and she taught me how to translate and speak Spanish and I had opportunities to create small dialogues and compositions and papers in Spanish. I remember standing at the kitchen counter overlooking the backyard and writing my first paragraph that I recited during our class assignment. Mine was something like: Camino por el parque y vivo.  I had a few more lines but the rest eludes me at the moment.

Those kinds of details are not important but what is important are the connections that get forged early on and the ways that we solve problems that pass along our paths.

These are a few of the baton relays that kept my educational flame burning.
In the world, there are these vast pockets that are not burning brightly. Places where that cauldron was not lit early in the hearth of the home. 
That is why it is so important for the spark to be lit.

That is why this conference on creativity is being given. It is that place where we can learn once again to play in the sandbox and to walk up to the chalkboard and draw or take a swing at a math problem that seems to be daunting.  It is all a matter of breaking down of life into small teachable moments, to be digested one at a time.
Remember that wise saying of how to eat an elephant.  Definitely the best way to eat it is one bite at a time.  And extremely well done.  Now how to cook one is another story.


Poetry often has that connection where we can learn from the greats of our past and what they thought and from they dreamed.

What brings back some of these thoughts to me is that in four days, I will be back on campus at my alma Mater, Fairfield University, to reconnect with the students that I once studied and shared life with- life in the moment and also life that is eternal.  A long time has passed since I left Bellarmine Gardens in May of 1987 with the diploma in hand under the hot sun.  But I have those friendships that have been rekindled with that flame of love and encouragement over the years as griefs get shared and as moments of life will be remembered.

Get outside of our boxes

Thinking outside of the box.
That is what I have been told often in the world of the networking groups. I have been told of its importance.

That means having to get a box in the first place.
Or maybe we have already lived in the box.  That box may be a little crowded.
Or it can be a little dark and dank in there.

Oftentimes in the news, there are reports of cardboard cities that emerge.  Those shelters and homes which the poor live within. And sometimes students on campuses erect them to raise an awareness of an issue such as hunger.

Maybe such a city should exist in the networking world.  Places where the job seekers can go and be in these little sanctuaries of advice and well being.  They are places that I have benefited from getting advice and suggestions for improvement. Not always easy being told to have that better appearance or trim the nails a bit.  Advice received in the past but somehow blown out of my box and needing to come back within it.

So off to the world to face it with courage.  Something that even me with my optimism lack.
Fearing that knocking on a door may lead to change. But maybe change for the better.

And if I run into that box, I sure hope it comes with clearly identifiable instructions or else I will be totally befuddled as to what to do next!!!  And as I said, I have to think outside of that box.

Clearly a cunundrum but something that life in general requires.

Peace and a Happy Memorial Day Weekend to all who read this!!

The world wrapped around your mind

One phrase that keeps popping up in my reading is the idea of the world wrapped around your mind.  For that to occur, the physical characteristics of the world would have to be broken.  Yes, I do agree that both the world and the head are round and spherical in shape. Yet both are very solid and both have a liquidity to them.
Yet one is able to wrap the intangibles around each other. Both the world, those in it, and the mind are shaped by ideas.  Those indeed can be wrapped around and into the individuals shaping them and impacting the world as a result.

The one thing  I can physically grasp is the creating of the wrap sandwich that one orders at a deli. The chef lays out the tortilla wrap on the counter and lays chicken, onions, cheese, tomatoes, olives and pickles and whatever else one wants to place in it.  Then he  folds it over and presses it in the grill and cuts it evenly into two halves.  Then one is able to sit down and eat the soothing texture of the vegetables, meat, bread and cheese.
Now that definitely wrapped physical elements while putting pressure on them and then gets digested into smaller pieces once eaten. Those same pieces that went into the creation of the sandwich.

So our thinking is a lot like that of making a wrap and getting it into our mind and wrapped within it is the process of digestion or understanding.

One will never look at a wrap in the same way again!!

Shedding our mortal skins!!

Shedding our skins.
Think of the potato skin that some discard but then there is the careful washing of the skins.  And the tastiness of the skin against the teeth and how it clings to the nicely baked potato within.
That is the good aspect of the skin.  And skin is always good on fruit and vegetables for it has added nutrients and value.

Now with us humans, skin has a little different value.
It definitely protects against the elements and has been termed as the largest organ in the body.
Now that is something to trump against the brain and against the heart. Those organs must be real envious that they have been demoted from the number one position.

Yet what skin does is it helps me to reflect on how snakes get to shed their skins and leave them behind in the dirt. Almost like what happens when one has a bruise or cut and new skin forms on top.  Once when that happened to me, I was amazed at the intricate weaving of new skin over that very spot of rupture.

Now for us as mere mortals, we are going to be shed our bodies which the Bible calls tents and we are going to be able to receive new incorruptible bodies from the Lord.

And it is fitting that the Holy Scriptures remind us to put off the old self and put on the new self.

And all this reflection came from the simple thought of how great it will be to shed our old self as we become more comfortable in our own skins.  And that confidence will create a nice glistening shine as we go out into the world and is something that the cosmetics industry will not be able to compete with!!

Peace to all my readers aspiring to live lives of a number 10 status~~ towards that of glory~~~