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This "Wild & Precious Life"

What Are We Waiting For?

3/17/2023

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“The most difficult thing is the decision to act. The rest is merely tenacity.” – Amelia Earhart
Well, I clearly have not been in a blogging frame of mind – it’s been over a year since I last blogged, and I only posted once in 2022. Perfect segue to my topic for this post – waiting – I actually have been thinking about blogging quite a lot over the last year and yet I waited and waited and waited some more. Don’t get me wrong I haven’t been sitting idle waiting to write this post, in fact, over the past year, I watched two of my children graduate (one from high school, one from college), helped my mom move, and sold the house I grew up in. I facilitated Positive Intelligence (PQ) groups, spoke for Women at Microsoft, led a leadership summit for MNCPA, and launched a women’s leadership program, National Women’s Impact Leadership Institute (NWILI) in the Twin Cities. Not to mention continuing the coaching and consulting work I love. 

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Creating Home Within

2/28/2022

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“You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.”— Eckhart Tolle
I re-read my January 2021 blog post as inspiration for my first blog post of 2022 (it's been a long while since I last posted) and I had weirdly forgotten how it ended – with enoughness. Wow, interesting how quickly I forget about being enough and go about my usual strivings for being better, doing more, trying harder. This is a deep rut in the road of my life that I continue to fall into. And to quote Portia Nelson’s poem Autobiography in Five Short Chapters from Chapter III –

​“… There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in ... it's a habit.
       My eyes are open
       I know where I am. …”

​With open eyes I see that it all starts from enoughness.

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One Year (And A Month) Later ...

6/25/2021

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"We must proclaim the truth that all life is one and that we are all of us tied together. Therefore it is mandatory that we work for a society in which the least person can find refuge and refreshment." Howard Thurman

Preface … I wrote this post a month ago – and then I didn’t put it out there. Throughout this month I’ve read and re-read it, edited it, sent it off to a trusted friend and still I’m hesitating. In the midst of my hesitation, I got curious – what is going on, why am I waiting? And I realized that I’m feeling vulnerable – I’m not sure how this will land, I’m not sure it’s “right” whatever that means. So here goes – I’m posting it as I wrote it (plus some ongoing editing), stepping into my discomfort – it feels like a metaphor for what’s next for me as I take a look at my post-pandemic life – what’s next is getting present and curious, breathing, experimenting and living into the moments even if they are uncomfortable and I’m not sure how they are going to go.

Post … What is it about birthdays and anniversaries – there is a ritual and comfort in marking the time and the people in our lives. Late May has always been a busy time for me with my birthday and my late dad’s birthday just one day apart, plus the Memorial Day holiday. This year there was another layer with commemorating George Floyd’s killing and all that that heinous act has brought to light and triggered around the world. How do we sit with the memories and the grief of the loss of this past year? 

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What Is Our Ripple Effect?

1/31/2021

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“Never underestimate the valuable and important difference you make in every life you touch, for the impact you make today has a powerful rippling effect on every tomorrow.” – Leon Brown
With the inauguration and official (and thankfully smooth) transfer of power in the United States, I’ve been thinking about power and impact lately. What does it mean to be powerful? What is the impact of that power in the world? What is our ripple effect? As I’ve learned as a Radical Leader® we are all ALWAYS having impact – the key question is, is it the impact we WANT?! 

Power and impact live within the broader context of connection. Humans are wired for connection, as Mark Nepo says “we have an innate call to find each other and join.” This connection with ourselves, others, the universe and God forms the context for our lives and is the water where the ripples emerge. 

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I Am Here

10/16/2020

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"It seems the closer we get to being broken open, the more rawly we experience the muscle of paradox ... inside everything that is breakable, including us, is the one unnamable thing that is unbreakable." - Mark Nepo
I have never been much of a meditator, in fact I had decided a few years ago when it seemed like everyone was talking about mindfulness that I simply couldn’t do it because my attention continually wandered! Then when I took up a sitting practice as part of Presence-Based Coaching training I was taught that the whole point of meditation is to bring my attention back – that’s the muscle I’m building! I can do that! And once I practiced, I began to see the impact of slowing down enough to be present in my own body, truly with myself at least once a day. This practice stretches time and allows me to be still – it’s changed me and lets me drop down into my own knowing. As Glennon Doyle says in her recent book Untamed  “I can know things down at this level that I can’t on the chaotic surface.”

​

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Breaking Patterns

5/31/2020

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"Certain conditions continue to exist in our society, which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear?" - Martin Luther King Jr. #GeorgeFloyd
I wrote a post for my blog a couple of weeks ago and just didn’t put it out there – I wasn’t exactly sure why. It felt like there was something missing, it didn’t feel complete, it wasn’t ready. And I see now that there was a reason for my hesitation because the world has changed again – as I write I am listening to the constant hum of helicopters and insistent whine of sirens and I’m in a place of rawness. Layers of what I know and patterns of my life are being stripped away. With the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing protest and unrest in my city and others around the country I’m left grieving and unbalanced. This is not my pain directly and yet I feel it. This is not my experience directly and yet I’m in it. I wonder how to show up in new ways for my whole community.


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We Can and Are Being and Doing This Together!

4/5/2020

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"Breathe it all in, love it all out." Mary Oliver
I last blogged on 2/24/20 – that was only 40 days ago (interesting number of days!) and in that time the world has changed before my eyes; I’ve been trying to catch my breath and find my way forward and I’m thinking you might be too. As my 16-year-old son said yesterday – “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life” so true, this is a first, even in my much longer life.

For the second half of the last 40 days I’ve been “busy” – but not busy in the way I have always thought of the word. Typically, my busy is focused on the doing – meeting with clients and colleagues, gathering with friends and family, carpooling, emailing, doing or “reminding” my family members to do household chores, running from thing to thing, fitting in one more task from the list – don’t get me wrong I’ve still been doing many of these things albeit in new ways and at the same time I’ve been busy trying to make sense of what is happening. I’ve been subsumed into the chaos of my thoughts – so much to process and so much time to process and yet clarity continues to escape me. 

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What's nature got to do with it?

2/24/2020

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"In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect." Alice Walker

True leadership is visionary – we know it when we see it, just as we know the true beauty of nature through its rich presence, perfectly imperfectness, and wholeness. It inspires and transforms us. This authentic leadership is available to and for all of us. By connecting with our inner leadership presence and bringing it to the world, we have exponential impact wherever we are.

Being in nature calls me into my own presence and wholeness - my sense of who I am. And when I'm inspired, I'm called to show up in the world in a new way. That's exactly why I decided to center my website on images of nature. 

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What does acceptance mean to you?

1/22/2020

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"Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them." Albert Einstein
What does acceptance mean to you? I’ve been asking that question of myself lately! There’s a lot of information out there on acceptance – when I Googled “acceptance articles” 249 million results appeared in 0.58 seconds. AND, although I haven’t read them all 😀 I’m pretty sure none of them will tell me what acceptance means to ME.​

​The word acceptance has been popping up all over my life recently! I have a high school senior who is applying to colleges – being “accepted” is a big deal, the Holy Grail in fact and “denied” and “deferred” leave these young men and women feeling like acceptance is pretty far away. Acceptance really matters!

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    Caroline Cochran, PhD is a Certified Presence-Based® Coach and a Leadership Development Consultant with over 25 years of experience.

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