Posts Tagged ‘inspiration’

When I was a little girl, my mom had an antique typewriter—the one pictured on the About Me  page of this site. If she needed to type something and didn’t have access to the more modern machines she used at the office, she’d pull out that big, clunky Remington and start pounding the stiff, old keys.

When I was 12, I wanted to type like Mom. So I asked to borrow old Model Seventeen, carefully covered the keys with black electrical tape, and started training myself in the Qwerty keyboard. It didn’t take long before I was fast enough to make the long, silver keys crush together in a big clump, too.

Since then, I’ve earned a degree in journalism and picked up a lot of additional training. But none of the formal education I’ve received has been as essential to my everyday work as the hours I spent practicing on that antique typewriter.

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Okay, it’s not really polarized … at least not for the great majority of Americans as they work or try to find work, and worship or don’t worship, and spend time with their traditional or nontraditional families. The great majority are just trying to live their lives the best they can.

For that great majority, the world doesn’t become polarized until they launch into a discussion of some religious or political issue … or until they turn on the cable news channels. Then they suddenly find themselves combatants in the so-called “Culture Wars.”

Squirming? Don’t. MoveThatMountain.com isn’t drifting into religion and politics. This is neutral ground. But it’s also a place about overcoming your challenges, conquering your bad habits, coping with your crises, and figuring out how to make your life a little easier. Doing combat in a culture war takes a lot of energy that might be better spent moving the real mountains in your life.

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“You have a piss-poor attitude.”

It’s an old country expression–one that will not please my mother when she discovers I’ve used it. But the thing about old country expressions is they’re quite … expressive. When you hear that phrase, you have no trouble conjuring an image of the attitude in question or remembering the last time you felt that way.

This is not the attitude to win you an affectionate squeeze from your sweetie, a gold star from your boss, or really great service at your favorite restaurant.

On the other hand, it has its good points.

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It’s been a real bad day. One of many lately. But then the radio decided to have a chat with me. It said, “Hey, Soul Sister!”

I love it when the radio wants to chat. This time it reminded me that music can always make me smile, even on bad days. It reminded me that I love R&B—even though “Hey, Soul Sister,” by the group Train, isn’t an R&B song.

And it reminded me that you need to have soul to get through tough times.

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What happens when you have a big dream but no education or experience to support it? Does that mean you have to give up your ambitions—or at least put them on hold until you can collect the prerequisites?

Not necessarily. How’s your supply of chutzpah?

Edith Head was an educated woman. She had a B.A. in French from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.A. in Romance Languages from Stanford. But she didn’t have the education necessary to get the job she really wanted.

So it’s a good thing she had all the nerve in the world.  Read the rest of this entry »

Recently I settled in to watch a DVD of my favorite reality cooking series. In an early episode, one of the contestants, already a successful chef, confided to the cameras that he’d decided to appear on the program to show his children he’d done something with his life.

His honest confession made me a little sad.

The idea that you have to appear on television—gain some measure of fame and public recognition—to validate your life explains everything from reality TV to … well … blogging. But it’s a flawed perspective.

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So … we’re two weeks into the new year. How’s it going?

That well? Uh-oh.

How many times have you planned to launch into a new project at work, make a serious commitment to your personal goals, renew a relationship with friends or family members, start losing weight, lay the foundation for starting your own business? You get off on the right foot with a lot of positive thinking and excited optimism.

Then reality sets in.

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You know things have reached a sad state in your life when you realize you’re envious of a saucy little miniature Daschund.

Oh, I know. I’m not the first to write about a dog’s life. But those who came before were lamenting how nice it would be to lie in the sun with no responsibilities.

For me, it’s all about the chew toy.

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Have you ever cared for a colicky baby? Here’s what they do:

They cry.

No, they don’t cry that sweet delicate whaaa that inspires people to stick something called a “binky” in their little mouths, dry their tears, and coo over how precious they are.

They … holler!

That’s right. From the depths of those tiny bodies comes a hellish, shrieking, sirenlike wail … a deafening sound that can drive sane people to asylums, previously happy couples to divorce court, and family pets to surrender themselves to local shelters.

Remember that scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds when all the children ran screaming from flocks of attacking crows? That’s nothing compared to the stampedes inspired by the cries of colicky infants.

But you can’t blame the babies. All they know is they’re experiencing acute abdominal pain and they want someone to make it stop. So they wail … and wail … and wail.

And then there are colicky adults. No, I’m not talking about adults experiencing abdominal pain. I’m referring to adults experiencing emotional pain … only instead of wailing for someone to make it stop, they hold in their misery. But if they think their silent screams won’t cause trouble, they’re kidding themselves.

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Screwed up much in life?

Welcome to the club.

Sometimes the biggest mountains we have to move are the consequences of our own mistakes. We assume whatever we’ve done is so HUGE there’s no getting past it. Maybe we’ve gone bankrupt, destroyed a marriage, ruined our credit rating, damaged our reputation, alienated our children, wrecked our health, or committed a crime and wound up in prison. And we can’t imagine how we could ever put the Humpty Dumpty of our lives together again.

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