Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams. Ahsley Smith

It rained last night. And then it snowed. This morning, when I opened the front door to get the newspaper from the mail box, diamond like drops hung suspended from the needles of the snow-dusted pine tree by our front door. They glistened in the porch light, tiny irridescent moments of magic suspended in the air.

It was beautiful.

Yesterday, I sat in a room with two other staff members, a facilitator and six clients of the shelter where I work. We were participating in an 'expressive writing' workshop. Margot Van Sluytman, the facilitator, read a poem from her book Dance With Your Healing~tears let me begin to speak~ and invited us to spend ten minutes writing out what feelings arose within each of us from the piece she read. When we were finished, she invited each of us to read something we wrote. There were words of sorrow, of passion, of joy. Words that drifted in the air, momentarily suspended on a breath of hope. Words that darted out and stung like tiny bees busily buzzing in a honey cone. Words that sailed effortlessly into the heart. Beautiful, glistening feelings expressed in words that hung like tiny pearls of light in the air.

It was beautiful.

Later, my eldest daughter Alexis, came by on her way home from work to visit. She stopped in at the art studio to say hello to the artists, many of whom she's worked with in her volunteering at the shelter. As we drove home, she told me how much she enjoyed being in the studio. The vibrancy. The joy. The pure passion that filled the air was inspiring. The contentment of the artists at work, the sense of hope, of possibility hanging suspended in the air, surrounding everyone and everything.

It was beautiful, she said.

Beauty.

It is all around us. Filling out each moment with possibility. With hope. With joy. Amidst the sorrow and the sadness. The joy and the passion, there is beauty overflowing.

We just need to open our eyes and breathe it in through all our senses. Become conscious of all that is around us to the sights and sounds and beauty filling each moment. If beauty is in the beholder, then we must each become the beholder of beauty in our lives.

The question is: Are you opening your eyes to beauty this morning? Are you opening your heart to see the wonder all around you?

A Whimsical Day

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own.And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go. Theodor Seuss Geisel

Today is officially, Cat In The Hat Day in honour of Theordor (Ted) Seuss Geisel who was born on this date in 1904.

When my daughters were little they loved Dr. Seuss. Especially, his very first book which was written on a challenge to write a book with less than 50 words -- Green Eggs and Ham. Liseanne, my youngest daughter, would ask to have it read to her again and again and again. Dinner time became a ritual of exclaiming, when her plate was in front of her, "Oh no! Green eggs and ham."

I loved the nonsensical ryhmes, the fun characters on every page, but the most powerful aspect of Dr. Seuss stories was the wisdom tripping along the rhythmic verses. Beneath the nonsense, on top of the verbs, wisdom strutted with unerring verve!

Tee hee! See we can all do it too.

Be nonsensical. Be seussical!

It's a day for tall hats, striped socks and rhymes. It's a day like no other day, 'cause nobodies ever seen this day before.

This is a day for fun. For celebration. For living life no holds barred. Way out there on the other side of your comfort zone this is a day to step out in top hats and high tail hijinks.

Gone are the headaches of yesterday.
Gone are the fears that got in your way.
Today, you can awaken without consternation.
Stand up and be heard without reservation.
Today is your day to make your mark.
To step outside and banish the dark
To rid your head of unwanted fears
and fill your day with all you hold dear.

Today is your day to stand up and sing
To dance in the sunlight and create fairy rings
There's nothing to fear but what's in your head
Keeping you from taking the steps that you dread.

So come on, get up, let go of that frown
And turn your world upside down!

Tee hee!

Have a whimsical (though Dr. Seuss never thought of his work as whimsical!) day. Have fun. Enjoy. Get out there and play!

The question is: Are you willing to step outside your comfort zone and be silly today? Are you ready to be your inner, Cat in the Hat?

Unexpected awakenings

If every day is an awakening, you will never grow old. You will just keep growing. Gail Sheehy

Yesterday I had to be at the shelter where I work at 6:30 am to greet some volunteers who were coming in to serve breakfast. One of the volunteers was, Charlie Gay, founder and CEO of HUB, Humanity Unites Brilliance. Charlie is one of those guys who solicits sharing just by the warmth of his smile and gentle eyes.

As I lead him up to the second floor where breakfast is served, we ran into one of the clients who took The Passion Test. Charlie is a good friend of Janet Bray Attwood, so he was really interested in talking to *Chris about his experience with the test. Chris stopped to chat, told him how he really enjoyed the course. How he has his passion card pinned to his locker door and how it is making a difference in his life.

All the while they are chatting, a cameraman is filming the conversation.

We go upstairs and run into several other clients who took the Passion Test. All of whom are exuberant in their responses to what a difference it made to them.

After breakfast, I took the group up to the art studio where several artists were already busily creating. Charlie, needless to say, was impressed and moved by the spirit of the place and people.

And all the while, the cameraman kept filming.

It is so very comforting to watch and listen to the clients as they talk about their journeys, and talk about the changes that are happening in their lives as they expand into the truth of their human condition -- we are all magnificent beings on the journey of our lifetimes. Where ever or human condition leads us, we are always on a voyage of discovery. In our awakening, we bring to light the beauty and spirit of our souls, the gifts and unique talents of our being all that we are meant to be.

It was an inspiring and uplifting early morning awakening. When Allan had called me Friday night to tell me that Charlie wanted to come into the shelter early morning, I was somewhat disgruntled. I had looked forward to a morning of lazing around in bed, reading the newspaper, chatting with C.C., enjoying the day. I didn't really want to go into work.

Sometimes, in the most awkward of times, we find the most beautiful of expression.

Yesterday, surrounded by the energy of the volunteers, the heartfelt and uplifting sharing of the clients with whom he spoke, I felt alive. On fire. In the fire.

Expect the unexpected and you will never be disappointed. It was an unexpected exhuberant start to my day. And I was delighted!

And when I got home, C.C. was just waking up. I climbed back into bed, read the newspaper with him and had the morning I'd looked forward to anyway!

The question is: Are you anticipating the unexpected? Making room for miracles to lighten your day?

*not real name

Living the new normal

To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there. Kofi Annan

We were in the recording studio again yesterday. As we sat around, chatting, listening to the performers who had come in to support the project, one of the musicians from the shelter said, "The hard part about doing this is going back to the second floor and being part of that chaos."

Another musician chimed in. "Yeah. It's so tough to be in that place where everyone is depressed. It used to feel so normal. Now, it feels the opposite."

"I was just talking about that last night with one of the floor staff," the first guy answered. "She was telling me that normal becomes what I get used to. And after awhile, I get used to that chaos as being normal, and then, my will to change it starts to ebb away. My choices all start to support the normal I'm accepting as being what I've got. And nothing is what I've got."

It was an inspiring afternoon. When we left the studio around 6:30, I drove the musicians back to the shelter. "Whew. At least we can go right up to our floor without having to spend time on second," one of the guys sighed as we pulled into the driveway.

The second floor is the 'day area' at the shelter. It is a place where clients can hang out. Sit at a table. Read a book. Chat. Play cards. Do nothing.

It is a safe place. Warm. In from the elements. It is also a place where 'nothing' happens because those who are there have little to do. They have begun to accept 'nothingness' as a state of being in their lives. Having nothing has become their new normal.

In a place where resources are continually stretched, where staff to client ratios range from 1:50 to upwards of 1:100, there are few extra resources to devote to finding ways to inspire people to 'do something'.

And yet, doing anything is better than doing nothing.

Lao Tzu, philosopher and founder of Taoism wrote, "Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing."

There is always a place for 'doing nothing'. For quietly sitting in meditation, letting your mind wander in fields of wildflowers under clear blue skies. There is always a time for stepping back, sitting it out and letting the game pass by without you in it.

In the world of homelessness, however, those times yawn into tomorrow. Those times for doing nothing become the very time when you need to be doing something, anything, to change where you're at, to grow wings, to sprout ideas, to leap into action.

In the normal of a shelter, doing nothing becomes the end of doing anything.

Doing nothing keeps you stuck in believing there is nothing you can do. That where you're at is where you're destined to always be. That who you are is nobody but the nobody you appear to be through the homelessness that has infected your thinking.

I read somewere that 'we are always one choice away from making our next choice.' In homelessness, the choices made are always built upon the choice that began as an impossibiliy, being homeless, and grew into reality, being homeless. When normal becomes the thing you fear the most, changing away from what you know becomes a distant horizon. Choices become limited by the reality of where you're at.

On the second floor of the shelter, there is time to do nothing, and little opportunity to find the will to do something about the nothingness in each person's life.

The art program. The various learning opportunities we present, the writing workshops and even the video production, are all opportunities for something to take birth.

How do we keep the energy flowing? How do we encourage people to think beyond the limits of the nothingness of their environment, to see the possibilities of life beyond homelessness?

There is a bigger idea here. A thought that is taking seed. A dream that is quietly being born. I can feel it. Sense it. Shimmering at the edges of my consciousness. Glimmering in the glow of a dawn rising.

Now is the time for me to do nothing. To let the idea take seed. To let it ground itself in my subconscious mind so it can expand with the possibilities pushing at my consciousness, leaping forward into expression. This is not about 'doing nothing'. It is about letting 'the universe', that collective consciousness to which all things are connected to all things, have the time and space to breathe.

That's my question for today. What's something that can be done to change nothing into something? Can you see it?

Spirited music

Music does bring people together. It allows us to experience the same emotions. People everywhere are the same in heart and spirit. Unknown

It was a powerful moment. Six clients of the shelter where I work, huddled over their instruments, playing together, working together, exploring together the silence between the notes, the beat within the beat.

They sat behind a wall of glass. Headsets perched upon their heads. Instruments coddled against their chests. Lips pressed close to microphones. A drummer. Guitarists. Harmonica. Vocalist.

On the other side of the enormous window, a sound engineer sat in front of a panel of knobs and dials, lights and meters, listening carefully to each note, tuning, and adjusting, beating his foot in time, nodding his head to the beat. We sat behind him, comfortable in our padded chairs, sipping coffee, laughing, talking, listening, watching.

We were at The Beach under the tutelage of Lanny Williams, one of Canada's foremost recording engineers. He's offered up his space, time, talents and staff to help us create a music video, part of which will become a series of TV ads in support of the shelter. As part of the process, we are also doing on camera interviews of everyone involved to create a mini-documentary of the creation behind the creation of the video.

It was powerful stuff. Moving. Inspiring. Humbling.

It was community in motion. A community of sound, of music, of creative spirits soaring.

In the documentary I am the interviewer. I ask the questions. People respond. At one point, I asked one of the musicians, "What does this song, Stand By Me, mean to you."

He swallowed. Paused. Said, "I used to be homeless. Then I came to the shelter. Now I have a place to call home for as long as I need it. It's there that I've met people who are willing to stand by me. To help me out. To help me up. We all gotta stand by each other if we're going to change the world."

When we stand together for what we believe in, we create a world of difference. For me, for the shelter where I work, we believe building kinder communities is integral to changing the face of homelessness and the faces in our communities. We believe that treating everyone with respect, regardless of their socio economic position, makes a difference in each of our lives.

Giving is receiving.

When I treat someone with respect, I give them space to be who they are, where they are, without forcing them to change to fit my ideas of where they should be. In return, I receive the gift of trust.

What we do at the shelter is founded on the belief that building trust with each individual requires time, space and compassion. It requires our actively listening to what someone is saying, and not saying, about where they're at. It actively involves us in holding a 'space' for someone to find themselves without fear that we will condemn them for where they've been, what they've done, how they've fallen.

We may not agree with where someone's at. We don't condemn them for being there. We hold the space open so they can find their balance, their sense of direction to figure out where they want to go, when they're ready.

At the shelter, clients can sleep under our roof when they are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Regardless of their state, we ask that they follow the rules of conduct. We respect that being inebriated is the choice they are making, at this time. Given the right time and circumstances, they may eventually make a different choice. All we can do is turn up and support them, as best we can, as they work towards finding themselves where ever they're at.

Yesterday in the recording studio, I witnessed six men find themselves in the middle of having fun, of being 'somebodies' in a world where generally they are treated as nobodies. In one of the interviews, one person said, "We're not nobody. We're human beings. Just like the rest of the world."

Each of the musicians who played and sang yesterday have an addiction. Each of them is doing work at either maintaining their sobriety or trying to find it. Each of them turned up sober for the recording, and has turned up sober for every single practice during the past few weeks.

In turning up for the music, they are beginning to treat themselves with respect. Beginning to trust themselves to do the work they need to do to claim their unique gifts.

And in turning up to support each other, they are building friendships. They are building trust. They are building a powerful song that will touch hearts and open minds. They are doing what it takes to make a difference.

It was a powerful afternoon yesterday. Powerful. Inspiring. Humbling.

I am in awe.

The question is: What do you turn up for in your life? The music, or your fears?

Polishing up my perceptions

We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion, just as effectively as by bombs. Kenneth Clark

Yesterday I gave a presentation on homelessness to a group of police officers who work in the inner city where the shelter is located. One of the officers told me that he had only moved into this district a couple of months ago. Prior to that, he was working in a suburb of about 250,000 residents. "I dealt regularly with about 150 of those residents," he said. "They were the ones who repeatedly caused problems. The only difference with them and downtown is they had fancy houses and used more expensive drugs."

For him, those 150 individuals became the yard stick against which he measured every resident in the community. "I became jaded by the 150," he said.

I asked the group of about 20 officers if becoming a police officer was about 'service'. They agreed it was integral to their call to duty. "When you became officers, did you agree to give residents in certain socio-economic groups service and not others? Did you commit to treating some citizens with dignity and respect and not others?" They all shook their head no. The truth is, they committed to treating every citizen fairly with dignity and respect.

"It is the same for us at the shelter," I said. "We are committed to treating everyone who comes through our doors with dignity and respect. To greet them where they're at, and to provide them service appropriate to their current reality. If they walk in drunk, they are invited to sleep on the first floor in the Intox area. If they are sober, they are welcomed to sleep on the third floor in the emergency sleeping area."

It is possible to become jaded. But the reality is, when we become jaded, we are not performing our jobs to the best of our abilities.

At the end of the presentation, one officer came up and asked if he could chat with me. "I want to give you kudos," he said.

I thought he meant about my presentation. "How nice," I replied. "Thank you."

"About C." And he named the client who had been at Choices the week before. "I was a trainee in the room when he went through. Good work. It really was inspiring to see the change in him."

In my work I have become somewhat jaded about police officers. Just as they stereotype those of us who work in the social sector, and just as they stereotype homeless citizens, I too am guilty of stereotyping them.

This officer reminded me that my stereotyping limits my ability to create more of what works in my life. It inhibits my capacity to create opportunities for change, for possibilities to open up, for me to live passionately on purpose, touching hearts and opening minds.

The gift of that officers experience is that in witnessing C. move from his 'stuck' to open position, he saw the caring heart beneath the wounded man. In his awareness of what happened with C., he can see the possibilities for other homeless citizens to shift and move away from stuck into open hearted living. To move away from that place where the past is the mud they're flailing about in, helplessly clawing at air as they sink deeper into the quagmire of their perceived helplessness. In his expanded perceptions, the past is simply the path the people he serves took to get to today. To a place where they are, no matter how haltingly and tentatively, taking positive steps to open up and live life in the fire, on fire, fired up with possibility. In his witnessing C.'s journey, he can share a different story with his fellow officers. He can move them from their jaded view into a more open minded perspective where possibility exists and hope lives.

I have been buying into the myth that I work in an 'us and them' kind of world. I don't. Unless I make it so.

My passion is to create a world where possibility exists, where lives light up to the beauty and truth of the human spirit soaring free.

Stuck in jaded thinking, I am putting my attention on what I do not want to create -- and living the contradiction in discord with my passion.

Opening up to possibility, I put my attention where I want to create more of everything that works when I live in harmony with my passionate resolve to be the best me I can be, creating opportunities for the world around me to shine at its best.

The question is: Are you buying into jaded perspectives in some corner of our world? Are you willing to polish up your thinking, dust off your perspectives and open up to the wonder of human spirits searching for a fresh view all around you?

Start Right Now

Even after all this time
The sun never says to the earth,"You owe Me."
Look what happens with
A love like that,
It lights the Whole Sky. Hafiz

A beautiful friend sent me this poem from Hafiz. Even after all this time, his words endure. Add value, create light, create joy.

Time is a continuum we travel. Time is all we have to measure our progress through space. Yet, time is very subjective. A man made creation to put a value on our journey.

There was a time when I believed I would never know happiness again. Today, happiness imbues my being with a spirit of joy.

There was a time when I didn't want to live. Today, I live each moment filled with the joy of being alive. Of having this moment to fill with passion and love.

And, there was a time when I did not believe I could fill a blank screen every morning with anything worth writing. Today, I am writing my 650th blog. I could not have known when I began this process how valuable it would become in my life. How much a part of my morning it would be. How many people would make me part of their daily routine.

There is so much I do not know when I begin a new beginning. So much I do not know when I awaken to my day. Which is why, knowing my values, beliefs, principles is so important. Without them, the unknown unfolding in my day could pull me off course, could distract me from my purpose, could distance me from my passions.

On Saturday, when I was teaching The Passion Test course, one of the attendees said, "I'd feel more comfortable answering the question, "When my life is ideal I want to be...."

"What is it about the statement, 'When my life is ideal I am...' that bothers you?" I asked him.

"Well, I'm not what I want to be. I would like to be that way, know I need to be that way for my life to be idea. But I'm not that way right now," he replied.

"What would you like to be?"

"Oh, well. forgiving. I'd like to be forgiving of myself and others."

"What if you claim that desire now. What if you start right now to be a forgiving man?"

"But I don't know if I can do it."

"Start right now."

"Be forgiving."

"Yes. Start right now. Write down, 'when my life is ideal I am living with forgiveness in my heart, or however the words fit for you. However you write them, start right now."

Action engages attention.

When I focus on being forgiving, I take my focus off being unforgiving.

When I take action to create forgiveness in my life, my attention moves away from what I don't want in my life, onto what I do want in my life.

I don't know what the result of being forgiving will be. I do know that it is what I want more of in my life.

This morning I awoke and did not know what I would write. I opened my email and found a lovely Hafiz poem from a beautiful woman. The words align with my passions, my values, my beliefs. I wanted to share the poem with you. I wanted the poem to inspire my writing this morning.

All it took was the action to create the opportunity for the words to flow.

Start right now. Whatever it is you want in your life, to change, to create, to build, to dream, Start right now.

The question is: Are you willing to claim what it is you want in you life? Are you willing to start right now?