Monday Motivation 2/23/25

I stood on the edge of a cliff this week at Joshua Tree National Park at a lookout point called Keys View. The view defied logic as mountains, valleys, waters, desert and snow all coexisted within human eyesight. Within earshot dialects of the world were speaking on our walking trail at the universal awe of the place we were collectively sharing. Underneath the roots are extensive and interconnected in this spiritual place named after the trees that consume it. They somehow carry you to the edge and ground you simultaneously. It's alchemy. Truth is, no words can explain it. I only try.

In my lifetime, it is the first time I’ve experienced a view of this magnitude and it brought me many places in my mind but also somewhere unexpected, to the Fibonacci Sequence. In mathematics it is a sequence in which each element is the sum of the two elements that precede it. It appears in design, finance, and computing. Growth models, financial predictions, architectural support and resistance models, all built on this sequence. The Fibonacci sequence is found in nature in the patterns of many plants, including flower petals, pine cones, sunflowers and patterns on leaves and seashells. The sequence is also found in the human body, including the number of fingers on a hand and the number of segments in a limb. The golden ratio as it is called, is everywhere. Truth again is, no words can explain it. Again, alchemy. I only try.

It’s at this point in my wandering mind on Keys View contemplating how this majestic world is possible, digressing to Fibonacci, that time stands still and I realize that I am just one tiny speck in a vast universe of complexity and carry questions far beyond answering. One thing did become clear, we are all connected beyond comprehension. We all play a critical role in a golden ratio. Gratitude beyond measure took over and I was simply so thankful to be a part of it, to be a human afforded the gift to take it all in and contemplate big questions, knowing I never will understand. I only try.

So this week, let’s collectively do our part, working together as a collective transcending ecosystem to do good things in this beautiful world, in our #OneBeautifulLife. Our business and patients need us, and we need each other to keep the order of things, in whatever sequence that brought us here together on a shared path. May my Keys View be a reminder for your week to savor the journey and make it a great week ahead.

Monday Motivation 1/12/25

 

Monday Motivation

As I wrote about the experience of moving my grandmother this week, I was compelled to share a part of it with you, for the connection to your lives, and also our shared work. There is something powerful about the work we do together each day that feels like inheritance now to me, for all of the receivers. It is work we pass on, work that does good for the world, work that for our business, our patients, and each other impacts who we are and the lives of many. We give projects, awards, innovation, training, workshops, messages, medicine to support healthy living and extend lives. Our brain power, our hearts, our precious time, are all over our work. It will live on. We give what we do now to future generations and I find that thought beautiful and motivating as we start this week. Perhaps you may too. Make it a great week ahead in your #OneBeautifulLife.

The Inheritance

We are gathering my grandmother's belongings
From the bedroom, the closets, the kitchen hutch, the small wooden dainty desk.

As her memory becomes lost at the age of 98, we find a century of things.
The letters from 1942 she wrote to her parents,
My grandfather's envelope stamp from the 1960’s,
A directory of zip codes that cost $1, forever a resource for her letter writing,
A journal of her trips,
Her beloved kitchen sign from the farmhouse.

People speak of inheritance as though it is money
This isn’t so.

Inheritance is memories bottled up in hearts and minds, and in objects,

Like the old wooden cutting board that served us ham for decades, at the farmhouse gatherings, too old to ever use again, being pulled from the cupboard.
Too old to keep, never too old to cry tears and share laughter over.

The inheritance is the discovery of the normal things, together, that hold value understood by the shared hands of time for those that were there, together.

And so we gather the belongings, the memories, a lifetime of hers we’ve known, and much we haven't, with a lineage of hers and mine that have overlapped for not even half of her chapters, all gathered as the inheritance

Of memory she no longer has
Of memory we do
Of memory we pass on

This is the inheritance we gather
Memory and time
This is the substance of the sand in the hourglass

It gathers and passes, but in the glass, we find ourselves reflected, always.

Monday Motivation 1/27/25

 

Monday Motivation

It's goal setting season. Each year in tandem we establish our personal resolutions and align our business goals to set the stage for what we envision to be our best year yet. Meanwhile, life happens and we manage peaks and valleys, with grace, prayer and in my case a pocket full of pixie dust for magic, as needed. Two perspectives found me and I share them with you for grounding and motivation for the week and year ahead. I am now convinced 'help' is indeed a sacred word in this #OneBeautifulLife and am just now learning how to say it, still not with ease. Cole Arthur Riley penned this beautiful quote (see below) in her book "Black Liturgies - Prayers, Poems and Meditation for Staying Human" and I find it so stunning that it may become my mantra for the year. Leslie Sherman, Director of Strategic Alignment & Operations on my Commercial Learning team shared this business view on delegation (see below) from Felix Bertram, knowing how critical it is to our success as a team. It's equally powerful guidance as we think about leadership at work and at home. Save these resources in a safe place, set your goals with intention and by all means stay human for our business, patients and each other. Make it a great week ahead, and ask for help, in your #OneBeautifulLife.

Monday Motivation 2/3/25

 

Monday Motivation

February sits as the shortest month on the calendar as it walks the line along the edge of winter and spring colliding. It brings hope as the days start to linger longer and the light reflects a bit warmer to awaken the earth and the hibernating. With only 46 days until spring arrives, there is intentional work to do for flourishing to happen by both Mother Nature and each of us, and the February timekeeper moves fast. It's time to ensure your roots are prepared for the growth awaiting you this year. Remove what is stopping you. Then, grow as you are meant to, beautifully.

Make it a wonderful week in your #OneBeautifulLife for our business, our patients and each other.

Jack Drives Away

I walk out the door to find him in the driveway. The sixteen years of his tall frame standing next to the car smiling, blue eyes shining, teenage hair tousled, on the asphalt driveway. It’s his car, his freedom, his wheel. He’s been driving away since day one. It carries permanence now.

I have had all of his time to prepare for this moment, the same mantra I’ve said to myself most days of motherhood. Like the day he rolled over, took his first step, waved from the bus window, got his first paycheck. Like the day I had to stand on my tippy toes to greet my child with a hug and he bent down, so I could kiss his forehead. Each day now.

Each day since the day they are born is a step away, a step towards who your child becomes, a step toward you becoming a memory in their childhood days and god-willing then, a friend for life.

He comments to me with his subtle contagious sarcasm that although he will now do this drive alone, that I've been by his side practicing so many times. The irony, I think to myself in his simple sentence. I was practicing too Jack, to let you go, all this life of yours.

The tears stream down and I smile for him, with him, always

He will walk out the door now and leave

And I’ll pray

That he may never go faster than his guardian angel can fly

And I’ll always be here, waiting for him to walk back in the door, and be home.

And so it goes, and so the timekeeper carries on.