My friends I have missed you! Sorry for my difficulty in finding time for tea with you all.  Life has been crazy lately with the creation of my upcoming website and the Harvard Medical School’s Coaching and Leadership conference over the past two days.  I had the amazing opportunity to be among people in the field of coaching and positive psychology who are doing the coolest things in the world to help spread the message of love, positivity and possibilities.  I have so much to share but for today I thought I would drop a line to share some love.  Last night I came home after two ten hour days of learning, growing and connecting with a heart so full of love and gratitude it was bursting not to mention the exhaustion it all brought as well!  I turned on On Demand to catch that Glee episode I missed this week and what do I find???  AHHHH LOVE!  Simple, silly, beautiful love.  So I thought I just HAD to share this clip with you.  For any other Gleeks out there, you will appreciate.  See I don’t watch Glee weekly anymore but I love to catch it On Demand.  It’s like the frosting on the cupcake both of which I don’t really eat anymore:)  Glee not only is fun and silly but it reminds me of the days when the arts were a larger part of my life.  As I have shared, I grew up going to dancing school from the ages of 3-19.  Dance and performing ignited a spark inside me like nothing else could.  When we are young we find that spark almost effortlessly.  As we age, the spark explodes into fireworks of stress, pressure, responsibilities and either low grade or quite high grade misery.  And then if you are lucky, you find the spark again.  Often this comes from some major life circumstance that shocks you into realizing that YOU are the one who is choosing to live with the fireworks exploding all around you and it is YOU that could choose a different path.  That is what happened to me this year.  Over the past two days I had the opportunity to be around 700+ people who are a living an authentic life.  Living a path that creates sparks and a bright white light from within.  This authentic path is not for the faint of heart.  As a woman I had lunch next to yesterday stated “everyone always asks me why I am so happy all the time.  I tell them that it’s a choice and no my life is not always easy.  Life is challenging but I choose to see the positive in every moment.  I choose to live happy.”  I would say that no only was that the sentiment of the conference but of each person I had been blessed to meet.  Life had handed them struggles and challenges, some were shaken to their core, but all of them CHOSE to follow their heart rather than their fear.

So much came up over the past couple days that the dust is just beginning to settle.  I gained so much insight into what leads one to be happy.  In a world where we are shown all the things that we should fear and atrocities that are happening everywhere, we can forget that happiness even exists.  We think it’s typically in the souls of those more financially fortunate.  We see glimpses of it when a baby is born or a union of two people in marriage occurs but those moments are fleeting and get forgotten easily.  Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, stated Friday night that we must look for the possibilities in every moment.  Being positive is not putting a smiling face on when things are shitty, it’s the action of seeking out the opportunity for possibilities that things could be less shitty or even great in each and every moment.  We must put action behind our desires for happiness in order for it to happen.  It is not something that drops out of the sky into your lap.  You must be a seeker of joy Zander shared that the art of possibilities is that it is a way of being that needs to be chosen.  He stated “The secret of life is that it is all invented.  You can have a perfect day or week.  It’s up to you.  You day may not actually be perfect but it is what you say it is.”  Language and the story we tell is powerful.  He states when we make a mistake to say out loud “HOW FASCINATING.”  Now I think you may be getting the picture why this conference felt like a warm blanket was placed around me:)  What if we began to live life seeing the possibilities in every moment rather than the inevitable dread?? HOW FASCINATING!!  For me, Zander game me the feeling that this may just actually be possible!

I leave you with a quote that was quoted in the conference.  It spoke to me and brings tears to my eyes when I read it.

“Buddhas don’t wash away sins with water,
Or heal suffering with laying on of hands,
Or transmit understanding into the minds of others.
They introduce beings to freedom
Through showing them reality.”

Matercheta (3rd century Buddhist monk)

The reality is days, weeks aren’t shitty.  They are also beautiful, wonderful moments filled with the possibility for love.  We get to choose how we view it, talk about it and live it. I wish for you moments of possibility, love and connection today:)

Cheers!