JK Rowling

JK Rowling's 2008 Harvard Commencement Speech.

Inspiring, powerful, heartening advice:

click on the link below to watch

http://www.ted.com/talks/jk_rowling_the_fringe_benefits_of_failure.html

RIP JD Salinger

"Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be." ~J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 22, spoken by the character Holden Caulfield

when life gives you lemons...

I love documentaries, and I am looking forward to this one.

More than 130,000 advertising professionals have lost their jobs in this Great Recession.

When creative people have to be creative on their own ... anything can happen.

Check out Lemonade

took the vow

I love Deepak Chopra.

I listen to him on sirius/xm; I read his books; I listen to his meditations

Have you taken Deepak Chopras Vow of Non-Violence at I Take the Vow? Deepak Chopra wants you to take a vow of non-violence in your thoughts, your speech and your actions.

I took the vow ... I thought it would be easy ... but I find that I am already stumbling.

I started a 10 week exercise program, hoping to increase my daily cardio. It's a combination of Tai-Robics (martial arts to an aerobic tempo) and cross training. We box. We box on a bag 3 to 4 days a week. There's something about the hitting, punching, and jabbing that fills me with trepidation.

What do you think?

Am I breaking the vow of non-violence?

the power of half

Did you read Nicholas Kristof's op-ed in the Sunday New York Times? If not, check it out here.

Are you ready for a paradigm shift? What if... what you thought was best for your family wasn't? What happens when one family decides to stop taking and start giving back?

Check out the book The Power of Half by Kevin Salwen his daughter Hannah Salwen.

thepowerofhalf.com

to be married to a hero

In this photograph, Coretta is upset with her husband, who had been attacked the night before by a disturbed white racist but had not defended himself. Though the police urged King to press charges, he refused. “The system we live under creates people such as this youth,” he said. “I’m not interested in pressing charges. I’m interested in changing the kind of system that produces such men.”

Martin Luther King Jr. Photo Essay - Time Magazine

superhero

We're reading The Lightning Thief before it comes to theaters next month. And it got me thinking...

If your life is a story and you are the main character, why not be the superhero? What would a superhero do right now? You know that moment in the book when the plot twists and the hero is challenged and you are yelling because you know exactly what the hero should do? Well, view your life as if it was a story and be it ... go do it! Go be the SuperHero of your life.

MLK Day

Happy MLK Jr. Day

a day of service

compassion

From profound tragedy comes our chance for compassion.

Compassion leads to love ... and love makes the world go 'round.

President Obama writes in Newsweek on Why Haiti Matters

for Haiti

If you haven't already...

please consider a donation to help the earthquake survivors in Haiti.

Doctors Without Borders

Partners in Health

... or donate $10 to the American Red Cross by texting 'Haiti' to 90999 all fees will be waived by the cell carriers

two questions

I read Daniel Pink's book, A Whole New Mind, and loved it. Looks looks I'll need to pick up his new book, Drive.

Watch this video...

It's a great message for the new year.

Two questions that can change your life from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

bright side?

Will has been sick for the past two weeks.

First it was meningitis, then pneumonia...

It's been awful.

But on the bright side...

We usually go to Sun Valley the week after Christmas. Traditionally it's an action packed week of skiing, dinners out, seeing friends... It's a whirlwind.

This year, with Will sick, we didn't go. The kids and I played games, read books, built Legos, and watched movies. They have been filled with my undivided attention.

This quiet week at home has been a nice pause of reflection on the year that was and the year that begins today.

There is always so much that we could or should be doing. But it is lovely to be given the chance to be in the moment... just being... together.