November is for being Thankful

Those that know me know that I try to be thankful everyday and to share gratitude regularly.  It isn't always easy but I think it is important.  I believe in thank you notes and thankful lists and that life is better when we are able to pause and take in the amazing things in our lives.

So November 1st, not only marks the beginning of the Holiday season and holiday decorations and holiday music (I love Christmas Carols!!), but marks the beginning of my 30 days of thankful posts.

Day 1: I am thankful for  
The Student Leadership Training Program (SLTP).

SLTP has been a part of my life since the summer of 1994.  This summer will mark the 20th year that I have been involved with and impacted by this incredible program.  SLTP was started 25 years ago.  Jim's dream of empowering student leadership continues to thrive today and every day is more and more important.  When I was 13, participating in SLTP was vital to my self-esteem and my development.  This program helped me to realize that I could do more than I ever thought I was capable of doing.  SLTP taught me skills that I use every single day in my life to this day.

My continued involvement in SLTP is an anchor in my life.  It brings me deep satisfaction and I am able to make a difference.  I have been surrounded by people that care deeply about the world and about make this place a better one.  We believe deeply in the power of students to change the world.





I am so thankful for having SLTP in my life. 

A Slideshow is worth a thousand words...

When I returned to work after my vacation there were plenty of people that told me that I hadn't had a "real vacation".  In many ways, I certainly did not have the traditional vacation - but, as I have said before, it was exactly what I needed.  These slideshows tell the whole story so clearly.

Letter to self

Today in the mail I got my letter to self.  Every summer at SLTP we write a letter to ourselves.  And every January we receive that letter.  I am always surprised, even when I know it is coming.  There is something strange about seeing your own handwriting in your mailbox.  The letter this year is so poignant to me right now.   It is as though I really had projected myself into the future and wrote exactly what my future self needed to hear. 

On July 17, 2010, I wrote:


Dear Self-


Thank you for taking the chance and the time to SLTP.  TLC was a great experience.  While the lessons were important what you really learned was about yourself.  Please remember the things you value. Please remember that the reason you are good at your job is because you care deeply and believe that the work you do makes a real and tangible difference in the world. I am sure that when you get this letter you will be busy.  Busy is goo as long as it is busy doing things you love.  Are you doing things you love? Have you allowed SLTP to slip to the back burner? Are you still singing karaoke?  Are you making change? Remember that you are not alone even when it feels like it.  You have a solid foundation - stand strong on it. 


Questions to ask yourself:
-- Is your apt. clean? Why not? 
-- Are you still exercising? 
-- Are you actively connecting to the world around you? 
-- Have you found love? Why not? 
-- Are you still loving your job more than you hate it? 
-- Are you building your friendships? 
-- Are you being true? 
-- Are you happy? 


I love you.  I don't always remember that but I do! I am pretty awesome. 


Love,
Liz

Such good questions I asked myself.  Important reminders to myself. 

Letters to self - another reason that I love mail!

Making plans

In two weeks (Feb 4-6) I will be in Boston to see my two favorite Lauras!  yay!

I am very excited about having plans and for getting a chance to see my friends.  It also happens to be the weekend of an LI meeting for SLTP.

It is going to be a great weekend of great people.  I'm excited for future plans...

Skype

Technology is quite an incredible thing.  I haven't really played with Skype much until recently.  It is a pretty cool way to keep in touch with people and stay connected.

Today was a key example.  I haven't been able to make it to many of the SLTP skillshop sessions this year because without a car and the increasing winter snow it has been super challenging.  The amazingness of technology allowed me to tune into a special skillshop today.

SLTP is one of those places where I feel at home and comfortable.  It is where my heart core and my brain connect and I feel whole.  The way I feel at SLTP is how I am trying to feel in the rest of my life.  Like I've said in a previous post, my brain and heart don't always connect...I want my brain and actions to be connected to my heart.  I want my actions to be grounded in what I believe and what I feel.

On my dry erase board at work right now is the quote from MLK that says, "It is always the right time to what is right." For me, that is the embodiment of what it means for my core and my brain to be connected.

Dancing

Bossman, DR and I performed this dance number from GLEE at our holiday party. We had lots of attitude and sass.  We were really quite excellent.  I was Quinn, Bossman was Santana and DR was the Brittany.  It was a big hit and an excellent kick-off to the party.  In fact, there was an encore request later in the evening.  There are no pictures or video....we will do the dance but not broadcast it publicly.  It was a great time.  Below is the original video along with two of our favorite reinterpretations.

Holiday Shindigs

I am so lucky to work with the people that I work with.  I just got home from our annual office holiday potluck and it was so much fun.

I don't know how I got so lucky to work with people that are funny, caring, and dedicated to our work.

I know I haven't posted in awhile.  It has been a very busy December.  And it has been emotionally draining.  It isn't that I haven't been having joyful moments and lots of great times - but that I haven't been reflecting on it.  I lost my way for a little while in the joy quest and the desire to live an intentionally joyful life.

Living from the heart is so much harder than living from brain sometimes...Living in joy is living from my heart and I need to keep remembering that.

Luckily I work with amazing people that remind me of what is important both day-to-day in my office and through SLTP.  I am so blessed.

I stand...

Such a BUSY, BUSY 3.5 days.  Cooking..family..Re-energizer...

I am ...tired. sore.  fulfilled.  proud.  inspired.  hopeful.

There has been so much to be joyful and thankful about.  Right now, I am excited about going to sleep and not waking up to an alarm clock.

On that note, one of the amazing things about this weekend was a new CD of SLTP music and the below song was the first.  It is "I Stand" by Idina Menzel...

I stand for the power to change.  I live for the perfect day.  I love til it hurts like crazy. I pray for a hero to save me.  I stand for the strange and lonely.  I believe there's a better place.  I don't know if the sky is heaven but I pray anyway...



"I Stand"

When you ask me, who I am:
What is my vision? And do I have a plan?
Where is my strength? Have I nothing to say?
I hear the words in my head, but I push them away.

'Cause I stand for the power to change,
I live for the perfect day.
I love till it hurts like crazy,
I hope for a hero to save me.
I stand for the strange and lonely,
I believe there's a better place.
I don't know if the sky is heaven,
But I pray anyway.

And I don't know
What tomorrow brings
The road less traveled
Will it set us free?
Cause we are taking it slow,
These tiny legacies.
I don't try and change the world;
But what will you make of me?

'Cause I stand for the power to change,
I live for the perfect day.
I love till it hurts like crazy,
I hope for a hero to save me.
I stand for the strange and lonely,
I believe there's a better place.
I don't know if the sky is heaven,
But I pray anyway.

With the slightest of breezes
We fall just like leaves
As the rain washes us from the ground
We forget who we are
We can't see in the dark
And we quickly get lost in the crowd

'Cause I stand for the power to change,
I live for the perfect day.
I love till it hurts like crazy,
I hope for a hero to save me.
'Cause I stand for the power to change,
I live for the perfect day.
I love till it hurts like crazy,
I hope for a hero to save me.
I stand for the strange and lonely,
I believe there's a better place.
I don't know if the sky is heaven,
But I pray anyway.

Warm Fuzzies...

Yesterday was a wonderful day of warm fuzzies...

I received an incredible email from a former student.  She has been having some challenges and we spent some time on the phone discussing them.  She sent me a beautiful email.  She said:

I just wanted to thank you again for being in my life and for looking out for me.


There are so many people in my own life that do this for me.  It is lovely and humbling to know that I have an impact on someone else's life.  It is also a bit hard for me to manage.  I get uncomfortable and squirrelly with compliments and thanks.  Yet another thing I am working on being better about.  I am thankful that I can be a part of her life and that she allows me to be a piece of her world.  I feel eternally grateful for my students and the small role I get to play in their lives and the amazing lessons they teach me.

I got to see another SLTP friend.  We had coffee.  We laughed.  We talked.  We cared for each other.  It was another reminder of the amazing connections and heart-lines that are in my life.  These moments of meaningful connections.  Times when we reach out to the people that matter to us and connect.  In those moments are past shared experiences and future anticipated moments and the very precious present.  Sometimes I am amazed at the number of people in my life that I see rarely and yet are so deeply connected to my life and who I am so genuinely happy to see.  These people fill me with love and joy.

Last night I arrived home and checked my mail.  In my mailbox was an envelope from the lovely SH and inside it was full of SLTP-style WARM FUZZIES!  Thank you for the heart-touch.

Visitors!

Yay,  There are SLTP visitors coming to town this week.  The SLTP C-team is coming to visit today.  They are bringing me my staff manual since I haven't been able to get down there to pick it up.  Then later this week another LI will be in the area and we are going to have coffee or lunch or tea or something fabulous.

I like visitors.

Doing something....

I am heartbroken by the suicide of Tyler Clementi.  I am heartbroken by the pain that we cause each other for no reason other than fear.

I started writing this post on Friday.  I got the very first sentence out before I started crying in my office.  I work at a college.  I work with students every single day and feel the depth of their desire to belong and to feel welcome.  A big part of my job is to help find ways to give them connection to each other, to the campus community and to the world at large.  Everyday I see the many little things that we all do to each other that cause such pain.  Most of the time these things are passed off as "jokes".

It isn't funny.

I have been lucky enough to work with an extraordinary program called SLTP - the Student Leadership Training Program - that has been naming this very real and very devastating problem with bullying and hazing for a long time now.  Why does it take death for the rest of the world to wonder, to question, to say something...?  When do we stop hiding ourselves behind the idea that "boys will be boys" or "girls will be girls"?  When do we stop saying that this is a phase or that it will make us stronger?  How many students have to be hurt before we start expecting more from ourselves and standing up for those that feel so beaten down they can't stand up for themselves?

I work on a college campus and need to do something.  I am working with a group of colleagues to start a dialogue, do some training and start reaching out to students.  It is good to feel like we are doing something and I have hope that it may make a difference.  We work on a college campus with students...It is our responsibility to care and to act.

This isn't a post about joy but about action.  I don't know who is reading this but I urge you to act in whatever ways you are able.  Every small thing makes an impact.  Please make yours.

Ellen's message to the world

Unexpected reminders...

In my office there is a bowl of quotes.  All kinds of quotes about kindness, gratitude, friendship, diversity... Every few days I pull out a quote and I write it on the dry erase board on my door.  Today I pulled a quote that has been a part of my life for a long time:


"None of us is as smart as all of us." - Ken Blanchard


I pulled the quote out, read it and immediately started smiling.  SLTP, the Student Leadership Training Program, has been a part of my life since I was 13 years old and now I'm 31.  This program has shaped who I am and changed my life.  I hope I give it even a small piece of what it gives me.  This quote remains a reminder to our staff that together we are stronger and smarter than we are alone.  It is a lesson that is often missing from other parts of my life as members of organizations all try and be the best all by themselves.

The lesson that together we are better is one that we all need to understand more fully and embrace as part of making all aspects of our lives better.

Choosing that particular quote out of the bowl reminded me of all the wonderful people I have been lucky enough to work with through SLTP and the amazing experiences I have been lucky to have.  I am truly blessed to get to work with this group and this program.


**************
SHAMELESS PLUG:


If you are reading this and have or know children in grades 7-12, give them the opportunity to do something amazing and join the SLTP family.

www.sltp.info

I'm happy to answer questions.  :)