Featured Story: Living in a Loving World
October 4, 2009
Too often in this world we can feel alone and isolated. We need the power of connection in our lives to keep life feeling meaningful and alive.
This week I am highlighting the story of a person who truly makes a difference in my life; that is my wonderful neighbor Dolores.
Dolores doesn’t know that I am writing about her. She is in her eighties and has just gotten her first computer, so hopefully she can read this. She wouldn’t necessarily want me to write about her. She doesn’t really think that she’s doing anything special. But the love and caring that she contributes to my life makes a huge difference, especially because my family lives far away.
Dolores has taken it upon herself to look out for me. She doesn’t do that because she has to. She does it because it’s in her bones. She and I are both of Italian ancestry and we feel like “paisaini”.
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he sits by her front widow alot and keeps an eye on the world. I want to make clear that Dolores is not nosy in the traditional sense, but she is interested. She keeps an eye on things and knows everyone in the neighborhood and their comings and goings.
I personally love this because it makes me feel safe in my home and looked out for. She calls me every few days if she hasn’t heard from me and says, “Are you ok, I haven’t heard you recently.” I love that. Too many people live alone and isolated and Dolores is always listening for me and my little dog Miss Sweetie to make sure we’re ok.
Now get this, Dolores doesn’t just look out for me and Miss Sweetie, but she also looks out for my tomatoes. That’s right she makes sure that no one steals my ripening tomatoes! I have been cultivating these darned tomatoes all summer and as a fellow Italian, she knows how important they are. So while I was away, she made sure that my tomatoes were intact. Gotta love that!
But speaking of stealing, here’s another amazing fact about my neighbor Dolores – she actually caught some robbers by looking out her window! Yes she did.
Several years ago, Dolores was sitting at where window when she saw a car pull up. Two young men got out with a big gym bag. They took out hard hats and put them on. Dolores thought that was suspicious so she got her little pad and paper that is always at the window with her, and wrote down the license number.
I too would have thought this suspicious, but I doubt I would have taken the smart steps that she did. But here’s the best part – when she later found out that there had been a bank robbery in town, she was able to provide police with the detailed information that let them catch the criminals. Isn’t that amazing!
Listen, if you’re lucky enough to have a neighbor like Dolores, you’re not only completely safe, but you’re also in the family. I wanted to offer her this tribute for all the ways that she looks out for me.
Today, think about someone who loves you in the background of your life, someone who is looking out for you. Go take them a tomato or have a conversation or in some way appreciate that this world is made of loving people – people like my neighbor Dolores.
My Story Raw & Real – We Can’t Avoid Life
September 11, 2009
So here’s the lesson coming in loud and clear – We can’t avoid life!
It’s easy to hide, it’s easy to stay in our shell and it’s easy to make other people the source of our problems, but they are not. I’m saying this because part of my old shell has just been cracked open and it was really painful.
It always is, but that doesn’t mean anything is wrong. That is the part that is hardest to understand about these moments.
People have asked me a few times, “Did you see it coming?” It meaning the end of my relationship. That’s an interesting question. Hmm, did I see IT coming? Possibly. But how do you really know what is coming? That’s the hard part.
The hard part was that I was actually trying to avoid this exact pain. I was trying to avoid the pain of getting connected to someone again and then have them leave. I was trying to avoid that because I’ve experienced it many times before and I have some idea that I shouldn’t experience it again.
Note that I say ‘idea’ that I shouldn’t experience it. This means that we really don’t understand life at all. How do I know what I’m meant to experience? I don’t. So did I see it coming? Yes I’ve always seen it coming. But the real question is – Was I meant to avoid it? Was I meant to step out of the way? Or is this exactly what life was meant to bring me? Exactly this and nothing different.
I was cracked open and now what do you see? You see an open egg. That’s exactly the point. Life wanted to open me, but because we are wired to avoid pain, we don’t open easily or willingly, so life needs to crack us open.
Mother nature herself is creator and destroyer. But here’s the beauty – I am alive. And now what you see inside of me is raw and real, just like the soft inside of the egg. I am alive and doing really well. I wouldn’t change a thing about what happened. I needed to learn something and experience something. My prayer every day is that I learn whatever it is and then I take it out to help others.
I have dedicated an entire week to writing these stories raw and real. I hope you’ll stay with me on the journey and I hope that they touch and inspire you. Please feel free to comment on the blog.
Yours in story,
Annie
Story of the Week, Little Dog, Big Love
August 2, 2009
I was not planning on getting a dog. I enjoyed travelling and being able to come and go as I pleased.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved dogs. I had always had one growing up, but in my adult years I was more of a cat person, probably because cats are more independent like me. I could leave them for days at a time and they would be fine without me. Not so with a dog.
But I went to Atlanta to visit some friends and while I was there, one of my friends showed me a picture of little spotted puppies, that someone had sent her. They were the cutest things I had ever seen.
My friend encouraged me to email the woman and ask about them but I told her in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t getting a dog. But my friend wrote down the email address anyway and said, “You never know.”
I’m not sure why, but I ended up emailing the woman. I thought that I was only going to find out what kind of puppies they were, nothing more than that. She emailed back saying they were miniature dachshunds. Yikes, I had always wanted a dachshund. I didn’t know they came in mini size and were spotted to boot. My resolve was going downhill fast.
We ended up having a phone conversation and she told me that she and her husband hadn’t wanted a dog either. But they fell in love with these little dogs and now they had 14 of them. In addition to the puppies they were trying to sell an older dog who was ten months old. They had wanted to breed her for her beautiful coloring, but she was too small.
I didn’t want an ‘older’ dog. In fact, I didn’t want a dog at all. But just to placate the woman, I told her to send me a photo. As you can imagine, once I saw this photo, I was a gonner. This was the cutest face I had ever seen.
I wondered if the woman had posed the dog this way just so I would find it impossible not to buy her?
But I clung on desperately to idea that I couldn’t have a dog with my single life. But even while I was telling myself that, I was printing out her photo and putting it up on my wall. Geez, she was cute.
This game of denial all came to a head the day that I just happened to meet two friends, both in the same day. Just by accident, I had scheduled a lunch meeting with my friend Dean and a dinner meeting with his wife Ginny. I never see both of them in one day so it was very synchronistic.
Over lunch I told Dean about the dog and he got very excited. “Oh that’s great that you’re getting a dog. Let me call Ginny and tell her to bring you our dog carrier so you can go pick her up.” I vigorously tried to tell Dean that I was NOT getting a dog but he was already on his cell phone calling Ginny. Oh well, I’d just have to tell her over dinner that she had brought the dog carrier for nothing.
When I met Ginny for dinner and she showed up with the puppy carrier, I proceeded to explain that I wasn’t getting a dog. But strangely, much like her husband, Ginny didn’t seem to hear me either. She went right on asking me what I was going to name the dog and she even had the audacity to tell me she didn’t like the name I chose. I ended up driving home with the dog carrier in the trunk and pondering a new name for this dog that I wasn’t going to get.
In a flash, I thought of the name Miss Sweetie, full name Sweetheart. I am Annie Hart and she would be Sweetie Heart. I got home and booked my plane flight. I was headed to Atlanta and retrieve her.
Upon seeing Miss Sweetie for the first time, I burst into tears. She was the tiniest, most precious dog I had ever seen. Thank God the dog owners didn’t laugh at me for crying so hard. I had never had this happen before.
Before I could take her away, she tried to cling to the owner’s leg.
But luckily we got out of there in one piece and Sweetie and I were on the plane home.
She was amazing on the ride home. I even took her out and sat her on my lap in the airport and she didn’t make a peep. I thought I had found the perfect dog. Little did I know that the quiet was not due to her manners, but that she was literally frozen with fear.
When I arrived home, a whole different dog unwravelled. Within a few days, I had come to the conclusion that I had bought the most anxious neurotic dog on the planet. What was I going to do?
I decided that she was going back where she came from. This was not what I had bargained for. I called the owners and left a message on their phone. “I’m sending the dog back. Something’s not right with her and I can’t handle it.” They never called me back.
Stay tuned for next week’s part two of Sweetie’s Healing Journey. If you’re a dog lover, write and tell me what you think of the story.
*author’s note – little dog insisted on lying in my lap and getting a belly rub, while I wrote this story :>)
Spread a Little Love
May 18, 2009
Listen, we all need more love. That’s it. That’s really all we need. We don’t need more money, more banks, more clothing, more chocolate (well I do!), but we seriously need more love.
Now I know that this is a completely obvious statement. ‘What is new about this?’ you are asking. Nothing. Nothing at all.
It’s been said over and over again by sages, mystics, priests, gods, goddesses and even scientists are starting to hint at it too. So it is absolutely nothing new.
But what might be a timely notion is the idea of love in action, love in business, love in the tiny details of life. Just when you least are thinking about it is probably when love should be entering. And I’m not talking about romantic love either, which usually isn’t love at. I’m talking about consciousness and intent.
Here’s an example. I called a collegue of mine in England the other day. I had actually called to ask him for a favor, a big one, but he was having a very hard day. So I dropped my agenda completely and was just present to his siutation.
He was very angry and having a frustrating day. He wasn’t delivering his projects on time in his consulting work, people weren’t doing what he wished and he had to change his plans of going to see his aging mother on the weekend.
You know how that goes when life is not going how we want? Annoying right?
So I asked him if he wanted the two minute fix. He knows me so he said yes. He knows I don’t fix people, but I provided a bit of consciousness that was temporarily out of his reach.
I said, “Look, I know that more than anything you really want to help people.” He sighed. “I know you love people and you really want to help them be their best. That’s why you do what you do.”
(another sigh) “So that’s all that matters. Not the deadlines, not what others are doing. All that matters is that you put energy, love and caring into everything you do - today, tomorrow and always.”
He sighed a big one and then we hung up.
I never got my favor, but that’s ok. This was my opportunity to spread a little love, share a little kindness. For me this is what matters most.
We all need more love. We don’t need more money or more clothing. We do need more chocolate but that’s a form of love.
So that’s it. Change your thinking, change your story, go out and love in everything you do today, tomorrow and always.
Video of the Week – We All Need Hugs
May 16, 2009
I love this video! I want to get out on the street and do this too. We all need more hugs….what a great way to bring more love into the world.
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