High Notes

I recently crossed paths with a friend, Pastor Joel, and we mused how I cannot not create!   It's likely that you have a unique God gift that nudges you like that, too.  :)L

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

A benefit concert is planned for November 15, 2013, for community support of the CAP Agency Crisis Nursery.   A separate flyer will be sent soon with additional information for you to use and to post. 

LEARNING ABOUT ME

Watch for the release and easy free access of the DVD, Learning About Me.  This DVD electronically packages two of the children's books that I have written.

GIVE AND TAKE

I promised in an earlier newsletter that more information from the book, Give and Take by Adam Grant, would be forthcoming.  Look for the book.  I learned a lot.

Here are the high points for me in this book.  Givers are the winners in the most successful and the least successful categories.  Giving generously—often and to many—is important, however, the giver can never lose sight of his or her own goals and healthy growth.  Takers are concerned first that their own needs are served, even if the words may sound giving to others.  Selfish or self-less are the dangers to avoid in interpersonal motivation.  Givers.   Takers.   Matchers.   Understanding can change self or other perception in the stuff of relationships.   

BEING INTENTIONAL

Sometimes situations come up that we have never faced before, and we honestly feel clueless about our response.   But most often, something kicks in from our values or experience that gives us the guidance for making good choices.  

Lifelong learning continually updates the knowledge base that serves us when making decisions.  Learning new information is step one, but applying that information is step two and equally or even more important in the process.    For example, many people attend conferences but immediately file the information and forget it when they get home.  Intentional application of strategy makes a huge difference in outcomes.  This might involve new information or tried and tested wisdom. Continue to learn and be intentional about the use of your entire foundation of good knowledge.

Genesis Creative Concepts

Promoting Natural Wonder

PORCH TIME

Love’s spirit is filling you.

Be open to receive.

Take a deep breath.

Maybe two will do.

The tasks are still done

With wider vision, maybe more fun.

Most children regularly ask why.

What causes the tide to rise?
They might wonder about clouds.

Why is blue the color of the sky?

Perhaps they have visions we miss.

As adults we go first to logic.

The answer may seem obvious to us

So we overlook the question: what’s this?

Meaning.  It’s not a fancy word.

Yet, the answer, turned over

Might cause us to soar

Like the Albatross or a backyard bird.

Ten minutes, more or less.

Be open to wisdom.

For a moment reflect and go beyond

Whatever you call “the mess.”

Be watching for God's favor.

High Notes

Journey with me to a true commitment to our environment. Journey with me to the serenity of leaving to our children a planet in equilibrium.
Paul Tsongas 

This pictures is missing the one year old boy from our family who wears the shirt.   But I think we can all take a lesson from his name: Will.  :)

PORCH REFLECTIONS:

My friends, Randy and Jane, just took a road trip to Georgia.   Randy described seeing many houses with front porches and all variety of chairs, some that rock and others that don't.   A company of creative MN custom builders that I know has built access to the fireplace from the porch, so this idea can flow toward northerners.

What happens when people take time to sit on a porch?   Sitting in a state of relaxation can cause time and lists and goal directed action to slow or momentarily stop.  A porch can be a conversation place for two people from the same house or an invitation to neighbors walking by.  "How is your family?"

Ideas are like clouds floating by.  One has to slow down enough to catch them.   Porches can create a place for people to do that.

Do you have a porch? 

Do you have a place like a porch?

Porch like experiences might happen when you are anywhere and carried off by sounds of music.

It might happen when you are watching the bird feeder or watching hummingbirds drink nectar from the flowers.

Make room in your life for porch time!

Do not go where the path may lead.   Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.  Emerson

Genesis Creative Concepts
Promoting Natural Wonder

www.ltcarlson.com

Alaskan Beauty!!

Thank you, Michael and Laura, for this beautiful sample of Alaskan habitat!

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Learning Through Story.

Vicarious

1.  Experienced through another person rather than at first hand, by using sympathy or the power of   the imagination.

2.  Done or endured by somebody as a substitute for somebody else.

3.  Delegated to somebody else or performing a function that has been delegated.

Parents are sometimes given credit for living through the successes of their children.   This use of the word vicarious is sometimes viewed with a jaded eye because this experience can create unneeded pressure for a son or daughter and take away opportunity for the parent.

I recently read Influencer, The Power to Change Anything, Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, and Switzeler, which gives several examples of the use of story and vicarious learning in a very deliberate and powerful way.   Oh yes, I took notes with my pen, but even more powerfully, I mentally took notes!

The examples given told about the use of TV stories, designed to show positively changed behavior related to a cultural issue.  It actually reminded me of a story I read one time of a researcher who taught words to her parrot by modeling the teaching with a lab assistant in sight of the parrot.   It all makes sense.

So, what are my mental notes?  Life learning is an active process.   I can be inspired by listening to music, but my neural network fires up in a new way when I make music.  I have said that I intend to write on my blog about personal use of creative principles.   You have heard me say before, Fill up.  Fill up.  Fill up.  Spill over

This week all of the accumulated reading about vicarious learning has spilled over.

JK Rowling has been my inspiration in many ways.  I follow her as a person and not the Harry Potter books.   Funny!  This week I was touched by her recent foray into publication under a pen name.  I also researched with the librarian, the Nancy Drew mysteries, a series which was written by several writers under a pen name, Carolyn Keene.   Nancy Drew was my first reading as a child related to a woman of independence, intelligence, and inquisitiveness.

"Daring to risk the uncertain…" is the first phrase of my definition of adventure.  There is a great deal of uncertainty about a writing project intended to teach and model vicarious learning, in this case future roles for women, through imagination.  But willingness to accept mistakes is an important part of the creative attitude.  Trying and exploring are good things and reflect a curious spirit.  Seeing with my spirit as well as my eyes has taken me down this path.

Curiosity I have.

Adventure I love. 

Stay tuned.   I plan to!

High Notes

Thought for the day:  Be blessed to love and serve others.  Linda

SEEING IS REMEMBERING

I am not a landscape gardener but do compartmentalize my garden appreciation in pots on my decks and by my doors.   I care that we keep that which affects us in positive ways in front of our eyes and in our ears.   You regularly hear me talk about books I read or color or the woods.   Or you hear me talk about music, that which I make or that which I hear on my favorite classical music station.  You won’t hear me talk about the news.  So, putting flowers in the pots to greet my arrival home served several purposes.   Purple is a color I usually associate with the church and tradition.   In this case it is actually the red geraniums that trigger my sense of history.   My dear departed mother always planted geraniums by her front door so it is a very small way of honoring as well as enjoying.  My grandmother always had moss roses on her front steps at the farm so generally there will be a pot of those on the deck somewhere, too.

I share so you will also enjoy and think about what you intentionally keep in front of your eyes!

NEST BUILDING

Spring is a time for new beginnings.  It may be reflected in leaves on the trees or flowers in bloom.   It may be reflected in the traditions of June weddings.   I think creative new beginnings are much like watching the birds build their spring nests…one twig at a time.   That’s how new creative products are developed…one idea at a time.   Just like the birds gather from a variety of places, so do creative strategists.   Ideas come from conversations, from books, from observing any aspect of life and making notes.   Since I love writing, intriguing words are often saved in my iPhone notes for later use.   Just remember that “spring” can be a year-round attitude summarized with this saying: Today is the first day of the rest of my life.

WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE?

It is so important to be proactive to keep what we believe in front of us, eyes and ears.   My gardening pots are an example of this principle as it applies to me and the color which uplifts me.   But this week I have also added to the affirmations that I post around the house in places that I see regularly.   Advertisement works.   This principle has been proven by marketing gurus and is witnessed regularly in all of business.   Actually, some people like to watch the very expensive commercials that are aired at half time of major sports events.   It affects our behavior.

Since advertising works, it occurred to me long ago that I should apply it on a personal venue and advertise to my family those things that had strongest value to us.   I have always appreciated and posted personal characteristics as well as loving, giving qualities that lead to life success.   It has been said that five years from now our lives will reflect the accumulation of things we read and people with whom we associate.

What are you reading?  Who do you hang out with?  Next time I will tell you about the book Give and Take by Adam Grant that I am reading now.