Honoring Those Whose Shoulders I Stand On

My Dad died at a fairly young age.  He developed a rampant cancer that took him in a very short time.  I flew home to spend a month with him before he passed, and to help my Mom and family travel the challenging road of watching someone you love die.  During this time together, my father and I were able to talk about death and dying.  One of the things that I liked to do as he grew too frail to read for himself, was to read to him.  Once a week or so I would collect up the numerous cards from well wishers, and I would read then aloud to him, and then he and I would talk.  There were a couple that really touched him profoundly and one of these was from his secretary at work.  She had sent a card, sharing that she had started to lobby prayer on his behalf - in a really BIG way.  She had started with her prayer circle, and then taken it to her church at large, and then had written letters to numerous Catholic monasteries, and had networked with other Catholic prayer groups.  My Dad was amazed and touched by the hundreds of people, who didn't know him personally, who were praying for him.  He said to me, "but I'm not even Catholic, why would they do this?"  "Because," I said, "one person, who loves you dearly, and truly SEES the light you bring to this world, so profoundly believes in you that she felt impelled to reach out, on your behalf to try to DO something personal and life changing, not just for you, but for everyone who CHOOSES to include you in their prayers."  He was touched that those exercising that power BELIEVED IN HIM and in the difference that prayer could make in his life, and death.  In that moment when he realized he was not forgotten in his frailness and dying, but was held in reverence and love in the hearts of those who prayed for him, he found peace.

When Life and Inspiration Intersect

Someone once told me there is a place where what you are passionate about and what people want, intersect, and the challenge is finding that "sweet spot".  I agree.  In the last couple of weeks the work that I have been doing to articulate the gifts and talents that make me, uniquely me, has been integrated with purposefully working to connect with like minded people.  What I am finding is that there is a great deal of reflection that is involved with the experimentation.  Woven into this process is a constant reconnecting with what others, with successful web sites and connectivity are doing, and then sitting back and working through how what I've learned truly applies to me.  It is NOT about mimicry, but more about taking an idea that is specific from someone else's site, and then identifying the key concept behind the approach, and then looking at the idea through my unique lens to see if there is any relevance.  I find myself dialing, dialing dialing, and then rethinking and dialing some more.  I have gone through a number of iterations and I'm still iterating.

It is all good, in the end.  It is fun work and full of thought and analysis and experimentation, which is right up my alley.  I am enjoying the connectivity and the exploration tremendously.  I have found that it is really easy to loose one's self in surfing the web and finding all kinds of ideas and approaches.  It seems that the analysis is that the entry page has to be fast, easy, and to the point.  Mine isn't there yet, but I'm learning!  There are a number of key elements to most home pages, and it appears that there are a lot of visuals and a lot fewer words.  I seem to have that flipped, currently, but I'm working on that.  It also seems that personal creativity is a differentiator as well.  I have seen some great sites where the page had a "hand crafted" look to it.  I really like that approach being a graphics and drawing kind of person myself, so I'm thinking that I'm going to head in that direction. 

In the end it is about heart space.  The really good sites have lots of heart and soul to their voice.  I'm getting there with that as well.  The challenge, for me, is imagining the people that I'm talking to being in front of me and making what I'm writing, saying, presenting truly personal.  Developing a sincere and caring voice in an empty room populated only with the screen that I'm typing into, seems at times delusional.  I am getting it, but it certainly would be a lot easier if there really were a live audience present to use as a sounding board.  This process feels like delayed reaction on the part of the audience.  I create the material.  I put it out there, and then I round up some followers, friends and virtual guinea pigs run the concepts by and get some feedback from.  It's effective, just not immediate.  So I work on one element and then leave it alone for a bit to perk with the public, while I work on something else.  I'm learning pretty quickly that short attention spans and catchy quick ideas are the flavor that seems to be most palatable. 

What a great learning curve and what a fun project.  I'm excited about where it's going and what will come next and doors open and the horizon opens up.  I'll keep you posted.