I wrote this piece years ago, and it still feels like the truth to me.

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Here’s the thing to know about love. Sometimes it feels great, like a sunny day in the Northwest after 26 days of rain; but sometimes it feels like the early stages of  flu- unsettled, achy, and a loss of appetite.  Okay, well maybe not as bad as the flu, but love lives can be irritating, like an insect bite that keeps itching. This is good to know about love because it allows you to have reasonable expectations, that love will not fix you or your life- it will keep you interested in life and if it is good, keep you honest and trying to be yourself.

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“Even hundredfold grief is divisible by love.” –Terri Guillemets

Jack was so full of life that the most memorable thing about him was the way that he would exclaim daily- “This was the best ….. ever!” about most everything- from a game of roller hockey to a great combination of snacks to a snuggle with a dear friend. He was as fearless about his love of life as he was eager to share his appreciation in words and hugs. He was awake to the wonder of it all and never embarrassed to express it. This is the heart of the story about the life of a boy that ended too soon.

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Dedicate yourself to the work of love and positivity.

Make your work an offering to the highest good  for everyone you can think of.

Allow the force of goodness to magnetize all the people, circumstances and

resources you need  to achieve your greatest potential.

Learn to receive the goodness in equal measure to what you create.

Better still, don’t measure the inflow and outflow.

It is all the same.

This is a solid ground to come back to over and over and over again.

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“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: We did it ourselves.” – Lao Tzu

It was a year ago when I was sitting at Midtown, our local wireless work cafe, when the idea was first planted in my head…  “You need a CEO to get this business where it needs to go.”

“What?”  I asked.  “You can get a CEO?”  The conversation turned into a bid for a local angel conference and the surprise upset win.  The investment committee was inspired by my desire and willingness to let someone else build and scale my business.

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“There is nothing as mysterious as something clearly seen.”  -Robert Frost

It was a great pleasure to have a regular day today. The drama that consumed most of my energy and concentration yesterday was over and I emerged whole and intact.  Maybe even more than intact; I was stronger today with more trust in myself and more faith in my process. We learn about our fortitude from using it, we know our ability to hold onto ourselves most when we are being pulled by the currents around us.

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“Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are.” ~Arthur Golden

It was a bright sunny balmy day and I was grateful for the light and crystal blue skies. It balanced the darkness inside that threatened to overcome me as I listened to the negative rumors and meanness that has been circulating about me and Good Clean Love in my small community of investors. I think there is maybe no more difficult space for me in life than holding onto myself in the face of public criticism.

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“I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one:  “O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.” And God granted it.”  -Voltaire

While it is true that our enemies might well have the first and perhaps even most accurate vision of our faults, their polarized vision of who we are rarely does justice to the complexity that creates enmity.  When fear and hurtful intentions are the driver, our perspective is, at best, clouded and unfocused.  I try to avoid creating enemies in life.   Even when I can justify bad feelings about someone because of things that have been said or done to me,  I have found that feeding the flames of anger and revenge only tend to beget more of the same.

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“Life is partly what we make it, and partly what is made by the friends we chose.” -Tennessee Williams

My friends provide a mirror for the best parts of myself.  It took me a long time to learn to choose relationships with people who valued who I am and how I live in the world.  For many years, my friendships instead reflected back my insecurities and my lacking self worth. Having friends who laugh at you is not at all like having friends who laugh with you.

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“Acceptance is not submission, it is acknowledgment of the facts of a situation. Then deciding what you are going to do about it.” -Kathleen Theisen

There is great beauty and strength in learning to see and accept things as they are. It is an easy and invisible reaction to look away from the facts, to refuse to see what the world is showing us in order to protect our own ideas about how things are and how they should be. Often, we have to get hit over the head with the facts to relinquish our views and preferences, which explains why things often have to get to an extreme place before we are willing or able to react.

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“If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.” -Buddhist Proverb

There is a subtle but profound distinction between having a clear direction in life and a marked destination. I am all for the continued effort to define our life’s direction.  Ironically, sometimes our focus and skills on defining this direction are so acute that we unwittingly get deeply attached to the outcome. The more strategic our plan,  the more defined the results become in our planning; what was a healthy direction can become trapped in our own desire.

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