Another adventure

I am going to Boston next weekend and just the idea gets my adrenaline going. It's amazing how traveling makes me feel like part of the human race.

It's the vagabond in me.

Good work

A day full of coaching means

insights
synchroncities
breakthroughs
clarity
achievements
satisfaction

That's some good job.

Big adventure

So I'm watching Oprah and Gayle's Big Adventure today and laughing like a hyena. I realized that whether they're happy or sad, I shed more tears while watching The Oprah Winfrey Show than viewing tear-jerker movies like Beaches and Terms of Endearment.

These two dear friends are in Arizona after hours in the car together. Bickering just like any other two people in those circumstances would. What a hoot. Then they pull into a motel that has teepees for rooms. More laughs. The two of them are filling out registration cards at the front desk and the clerk, an older woman, asks where they're from and they laughingly say "Illinois." Finally Gayle points to Oprah and asks the woman if she looks like Oprah Winfrey. The woman says yes. Gayle says it is Oprah Winfrey and the woman looks incredulous. She asks if she's on Candid Camera.

What fabulous TV. They captured the essence of friendship. Provided some laughs. And I imagine it must be wonderful to have the power to make someone's face light up when they have a flash of recognition. I remember former President H.W. Bush (was it from an article in The New Yorker?) talking about how he loved that about being president -- seeing people get excited at the sight of you.

Very uplifting.

Running

Book progress at warp speed. I'm gaga. Need to breathe. Eat a big salad. Crash on the couch.

Off to it ...

Dynamic duo

I read with great interest Oprah's interview with Barbra Streisand in the October issue of O magazine. For starters, we're talking about two of my favorite women because they live with such strong passion and purpose and they walk their talk. Oprah's Q&A has a nice rhythm to it and it really gets to the heart of Barbra's issues and success.

I also couldn't help but recall the wonderful experience I had the last time Streisand was at The Garden. I was working in midtown Manhattan at the time, so I just strolled over after work. I had heard that there was a line where you can, at the last minute, buy any tickets not used by sponsors. I was thrilled to get in, didn't care a lick that I was in the nosebleeds, because I could hear her. Every note. Every word.

I can listen to Barbra Streisand sing almost anything, but Don't Rain On My Parade brought tears to my eyes like nothing else. I couldn't believe I was there.

My favorite quote from the article:

"You'll get paid vacations and summers off," my mother would tell me [about being a secretary]. "It's a steady job." But I knew I had some other destiny.

You don't say?

Boundaries and breath

I am very cognizant of boundary-setting these days. Situation by situation. It's challenging to try not to be too much of pleaser but also be accommodating where possible. Sometimes it's such a fine line. Where to push it? Where to hang back? Where to stand my ground?

What I have found is it's very satisfying to reinforce a healthy boundary.

It's like expelling your breath after holding it for a while.

Head and shoulders

I feel ...

Prettier. Saucier. Lighter. Hipper.

Yep. I got a haircut.

Just wondering

Does the fact that I'm craving spinach right now -- with garlic and extra virgin olive oil or with feta in an omelette -- suggest I want things that are unavailable to me?

Book notes

Big writing strides today. Makes me high.

Honest American

I just watched former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey on Oprah and I found it, frankly, riveting. He is scathingly honest, some think too much so. As a life coach who is all about helping people to live authentic lives, I admire his courage and applaud him for forging ahead with his life.

And if he encourages or inspires just one other gay American to live an honest life, good for him and good for all of us.

Super cook

Rachael Ray is the American dream.

I'm watching Larry King Live and marveling at how even, gregarious and humble she is. This is a person who can "hold" success. Perhaps it's because she never sought fame or fortune or anything close to what she has achieved.

"I'm completely unqualified for any job I've ever had," she says unabashedly.

Keep cooking and chatting and living, Rachael. It's a great lesson.

Blissful solitude

Today I had brunch with a friend. She's one of those people who enjoys her solitude immensely. We are kindred spirits in that way, among others. We bond on that.

I am so heavily drawn to people who get it, who are comfortable in solitude, crave it even.

How ironic.

Presto

Where did the day go?

Bank, gym, grocery store, shoemaker, dry cleaner, coffee with a friend, drug store, impromptu movie screening in Manhattan.

Presto. Day gone.

But so much order.

How very satisfying.

Staged

I saw a friend steeped in his art tonight. He's an actor. What fun to see him on stage, complete with accent and humor.

So delightful.

Chiming in

I left a cafe after a really good life coaching session with a client this evening. Decided to pick up some groceries. As I walked the two blocks, I heard a beautiful sound. It was a wind chime. The more I walked, the louder it got. I kept looking up at the windows of the high rise apartment building I was passing, but didn't see the source.

That chime made me feel the coolness of the breeze more. Something about the sound and rhythm together was soothing. It signaled the weather changing, the crispness of the air.

It felt divine.

Tools of the trade

Talked to a client about The Artist's Way and its tools today.

First, the concept of the artist date. You take your "artist" on a date, something to nurture her creativity. A gallery, a stationery store, a concert, a session with your paintbrush. Something like that. It allows you to revel in your own or someone else's art, to focus on a part of life that often gets overlooked in the daily grind.

Second, the morning pages. First thing in the morning, three pages of stream of consciousness writing. Julia Cameron likens it to skimming the fat off the top of day like you can do to soup that's been chilled. It sets a tone of clarity.

This client derived so much benefit from these. A reminder to practice what I preach.

Up, up and away

Today I met with a former client who has recently been to Egypt. She cited a ride in a hot air balloon as a highlight of the trip. And she went up despite being afraid of heights.

So inspiring.

Five years

It's been a hard day. Commuting into Manhattan this morning made me jittery. Thankfully I had decided to let the day unfold organically. No concrete plans.

This afternoon I went to Chelsea Market, where singer/song writers played all day, among them a dear friend who I love to watch perform. I ate some good food and mingled. It was also strange to be in the very place where I was five years ago today, as I had worked at Oxygen Media in Chelsea Market. Comforting yet a bit eerie, I'd say.

I came back to Hoboken in the early evening, only to find as I walked along the waterfront that the town's interfaith memorial service was about to begin. Standing across the Hudson River from Ground Zero, singing God Bless America with helicopters flying by gave me moments of connection that punctuated the day.

As I left there and walked home along the river, I loved the sight of the Empire State Building against the blue sky and a cloud that was so long it almost seemed like a stripe extending along the island of Manhattan. The cloud was gray, tinged with orange around the edges. Just a gorgeous picture.

Hope and beauty.

Life and style

So I have devoured the special fashion issues of Vogue, Bazaar and Elle with glee. I've studied proportion and color and texture and silhouettes. I so enjoy seeing how I can wisely update my wardrobe, resuscitate a long-dormant item, give something old a new twist. There is a creativity and freshness about crafting a fall wardrobe.

I think the spirit of it is perfectly captured in a new Gap commercial. It's Audrey Hepburn in her classic black "skinny" pants, in a dance scene from Funny Face. Only they've replaced the sound track with AC/DC. It's a clever way to say skinny pants are back in style.

There is something more than surface to all of this. It's a chance to reinvent oneself, as the outside reflects what's within.

Yep, I'm ready for sweaters and jackets.

Peace on earth

I find myself watching over and over again this news footage where an investigative reporter in San Diego gets beat up by a couple allegedly bullying and assaulting others in the community. It is disturbing to see two people so emotionally out of control. The reporter told Larry King that while the man was attacking him, the woman said she'd get the gun; he felt his life was spared because she couldn't find it.

Somehow it seems ironic that this morning I was proud of my own emotional maturity in a few trying situations.

Calm is good.

Quotable

I ran across this quote, a favorite of mine, while cleaning out my desk and files over the weekend. I used it on my application for a journalism fellowship at the University of Michigan a cool decade ago and it did its job very nicely.

She took it as a regrettable accident, to be borne patiently for a while, that she happened to be imprisoned among people who were dull. She had caught a glimpse of another world and she knew that it existed somewhere, the world that had created trains, bridges, telegraph wires and signal lights winking in the night. She had to wait, she thought, and grow up to that world.
-- from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Karma supreme

So I'm watching an Oprah rerun today. This young guy from the Chicago area had felt compelled to do something active in the wake of Katrina, so he collected donations of goods and clothing. Then he realized in order to get them there he'd have to load up a van and go to the Gulf Coast, but he couldn't afford it.

But alas, as a lifelong White Sox fan he had two World Series tickets, so he sold them to get the money he needed to deliver the goods. A wonderful, heartwarming story of selfless giving, I'm thinking. It lands him on Oprah.

Oprah calls him onstage and says she has a surprise. The next thing you know, two players from the White Sox come out and present him with: a jersey with his name on it, tickets to the All-Star Game, a trip to spring training, season tickets and an award for his good deed. The guy was just blown away. I cried like a baby.

Now that's some serious karma.

Microcosm

Yesterday afternoon I was eating brunch with a friend at an outdoor eatery on the Hudson River. It was idyllic, truly.

Somewhere after eating and while sipping a bellini, a man at the next table began choking. He was with his extended family and someone at the table knew the Heimlich maneuver. It took about three tries, but finally the piece of meat causing the problem was expelled.

It was one of the longest minutes of my life, as I honestly felt I was about to witness death. It was minutes before I could speak. My friend was just as speechless. It left me reeling.

Much later in the day I caught the end of a documentary on September 11th. As the credits rolled, the camera was on a woman who reached for a pair of clean, well-creased white pants lying next to her. She held them up to the camera and said these were the pants she was wearing that day. She described how she washed them and washed them time after time trying to get them clean, knowing full well she was trying to metaphorically wash away the evil of the day.

"Unfortunately they don't fit anymore, but they're clean," she said with a smile.

The theme of the day -- Life is precious.

Reminiscing

I can't relate to the idea of cancelling beach plans because of the weather. I never could. To me, rain means finding a corner to read a riveting book. Cloudy skies mean donning sweats and reading The New York Times on the beach. More cloudy skies mean going to an arcade and doing ridiculous things I wouldn't normally do. And depending on who I'm with, there's the ever-lively game of Trivial Pursuit.

I missed our family vacation this summer. It would have included all of the above. I long to bring it back.

Next year ...