Today I had a conversation with a very good friend, who I’ve known for twenty years. She said she was having a sort of identity crisis that got kicked off when meeting some new people in a high-powered public setting and they asked what she did and since she was project less at the moment, she became tongue-tied and they moved on politely to the next person. Now, I am sure that this particular friend is just super sensitive to what all is going on with the planets right now (don’t ask me, look up my friend the astrologer Laura Waldman for insight at www.laurawaldmanastrology.com).

But I noticed that when my friend described a couple of reactions that she has had from some high-powered women, I felt really sad. I felt sad that those women did not have the awareness to realize what an incredibly special woman was standing before them. I felt sad that even in the year 2010, we humans still seem to be so focused on WHAT WE DO and not on WHO WE ARE.

This friend of mine has been such an important spiritual teacher to me through all kinds of thick and thin that I’ve been through over the last twenty years (and that’s in more ways than one!), she has a deep knowledge about life, about God, about animals and plants and if all that isn’t enough there have been delicious moments in our friendship when she makes me feel like I am about 8 years old—especially when we giggle so much I fear that I will pee in my pants! I am so grateful that I have the capacity to be aware of so many special people who are in my life today. Sometimes I feel like I must be in the center of an overflowing waterfall of lovely people. Real people. People who would be there for me (and have been there for me) when the rubber hits the road and the mud is flying all over the place.

These kind of people all around there for you too. It’s all about how deeply you’re willing to pay attention. How many more stories, fables or morals will we have to hear before we get it that WHAT WE DO is NOT WHO WE ARE? Sure, it’s great if you can run a multi-million dollar company, but I think it’s more important when you can enjoy the people you meet along the way because of whom they are and who you are, not because of what they can do for you.

I was thinking today of a friend that I’d become connected to on Facebook who is a fellow Coach and has gone through the same Coach Retreat training as I have. As I was thinking of this person and some other friends that I’ve gotten to know on FB, I had a warm glow in my heart for them because of how loving and sweet and caring they’ve been to me with absolutely no hope of gain from me other than my friendship. What is more important than that?

Believe me, if someone like me who can be one of the most skeptical people on this planet when it comes to other people can recognize the beauty within so many people and feel a genuine love for them I just know that you can as well. Do I really get angry at human actions and thoughts sometime? Oh, you know I do. Do I feel disappointed in human beings sometimes, of course I do. But if you think about it, statistically, out of billions and billions of people on this planet the odds are that there must be quite a large number of pretty amazing people out there for us to notice and enjoy. At least, that’s where I prefer to put my attention.

Who are you really? Follow your heart, it will always tell you the truth.

Love you!

I have a good friend Sandy who I “re-met” in 1990. It is a crazy story of how we met in 1990 on the way to a camp out with a bunch of friends. She and I were both planning to meet with this guy we knew and this guy had told us about each other. We’ve gone over the day of our meeting many times and figured that both of us left from Austin to the camp out at Enchanted Rock at the same time and recall passing each other at least once or twice. When we finally reached our destination, he introduced us and I believe it took Sandy and I about ten minutes to realize that we just might be pretty good friends and to leave the guy behind.

Later on in the evening, we discovered that way back when we were in elementary school her Dad had been our family’s Minister at the Episcopal Church we went to in San Antonio and furthermore one of my first friends in Austin, Marianne, had been Sandy’s big sister’s best friend in high school.

Suffice it to say, we’ve been friends for a good long while now and have been through thick and thin with each other. So when Sandy raised the flag for help for various and sundry things that she needed to do in the new home she had just bought, well I was happy to oblige. We spent a good couple of hours in the Texas heat this afternoon putting together a hardy plastic shed from Home Depot. It would have been a tedious process for just one person and way too many directions to follow for sure but for two of us, we manged to turn it into a fun time with songs and skits about everything. I’m sure if someone had been listening to us they would have thought we were children with very deep voices. We laughed a lot at catching ourselves making things much harder than needed like the time Sandy realized that she was squishing herself between a part of the roof that we were putting a little window in and the guest house. About five minutes into the struggle she started cracking up laughing because she realized that all we had to do was move the piece a little ways out and then there’d be plenty of room for her to fit behind so she could screw in the piece.

I also learned how to get very old nails in long leaf pine boards to stand up straight using a hammer and then root them out using various crow bars. I don’t know why but one of us started getting country songs into our head and before we knew it we were singing, “skippity do da, skippity day it’s a hap happy day…”. It’s a good thing I had to leave to go home and clean up for date night with my husband when I did because I know I’d be really sore in the morning.

What I learned from today is that no matter what work you have to do in front of you, if you have someone to do it with that you can have fun with than whatever you are doing becomes fun. I even found myself better able to pay attention to the directions for the shed to make sure we had the right bar hooking up with the right thinga-ma-jig. Crazy as it may sound, I can’t wait to go over and help Sandy again. It has occurred to me that there is a bit of Huckleberry Finn going on here but I’m okay with being Huckleberried!

The lesson I learned today is that it is good to ask for help and really fun to ask a friend to help you. I’m glad Sandy asked for help and I had such a fun time helping her. Who knew that lo those many years ago when my brother, Howdy, and I would play cards for hours and hours and hours and sing songs the entire time that it would be training for being able to have fun and bond while you work.

Everything is more fun with friends!