Our Mother's Hope

“Everyone wants to be loved and paid attention to.” – Marty Newey

Our Mother's Hope

“We are the people our mothers warned us about.”  I slowed and let the other car move past me a little bit, just so I could read it again.  This little saying, and warning, caused me to reflect.

“Am I a person my mother warned me about?”

Bob Conard’s voice echoed in my heart.  “My dear old mother.”  Then, after this introduction, he would go on to tell me some of the great advice his mother had given him.  His mother is a water-color artist and one of the most beautiful people I’ve ever met.  She’s always been loving, caring and patient, as long as I’ve known her. 

I’ll never forget the day Bob showed me one of her emotionally-tugging water-color-paintings.  The beauty of her work is nearly a perfect reflection of her soul.  Both are master pieces as well as treasures.

I’ve known my friend, Marty Newey, for forty-two years now and treasure his friendship.  He sent me a message a couple of weeks ago and asked me to have lunch with him.  I leapt at the chance.  A few days later, we met at a comfortable restaurant, a place where we could talk.  After all, the real purpose of our meeting was to feed our souls, to re-connect.  The food, while delightful, was a simple metaphor of how a soul is fed.  Strong personal relationships, deep human connection, is what we all crave.

“My mother says, ‘Everyone wants to be loved and paid attention to.’” Marty rehearsed to me as we stood talking in the adjacent courtyard after lunch.

Then he went on to tell me how an employee of his mother’s assisted living home came to her apartment to meet with his mother.

“She walked into my mother’s place and my mother burst out with, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen!’  They spent a few minutes together and when the case worker walked out and began to pass me she said, ‘If your mother ever needs a place to live please have her come and live with me!’  My mother pulled me aside and said, ‘Complement other people as much as possible!’  She does and the impact is amazing!”  Marty expressed in his quiet, thoughtful way.

I stood laughing, because his story was amazing!  In the end, Marty and I hugged each other as we parted.  Our stomachs and our souls were full, recharged, so we could go out and make a difference in the world again.

I felt at peace as I drove to my next meeting, right up until I read, “We are the people our mothers warned us about.”  I slowed and let the other car move past me a little bit, just so I could read it again.  This little saying and warning caused me to reflect.

“Think of the wonderful people we’d be if we simply followed the advice and lives of Bob’s and Marty’s mothers!” I said to myself.  If we did, the bumper sticker would say, “We are the people our mothers hoped we’d become!”

Important Things

“I need to get back to volunteering.” - Christina Schmidt

Important Things

Our friend, Cortni Sivertson, accepted a different role in our company.  It was a sweet and bitter announcement, to be sure.  We were all glad to have her use her specialized skills more effectively.  We weren’t glad to have her using those cherished skills in another location!  So, in our office, a group of us gathered to thank her for everything she’d given us.  It was also an opportunity for our group to sit, laugh, rekindle our personal relationships, and simply talk informally about important things.

“The past few weeks have been interesting for me!” Christina Schmidt said to those of us gathered around a small, round, white-topped, table.

Christina, one of my favorite people in the world, just happens to also be the embodiment of goodness, strength of character, and caring.  I’ve never met anyone with bigger heart or greater resolve.  When she speaks, my ears yearn for more!  Luckily, she continued.

“I was in the grocery store with my kids, the other day, when I watched a woman mistreating her child.  Her behavior was so awful, I feared for the welfare of her daughter.  So, I followed her out of the store.”

Once the woman left the store she rolled her grocery cart up to her car, literally threw the small child into the back seat and then scratched the girl’s arms, pulled patches of hair from her scalp and violently hit her.  Christina stepped up and stopped this abuse.

“Son, go get our car and pull it here, behind this car so she can’t leave.”  Christina calmly requested.

He quickly went and drove the car over as requested.  Christina gathered the injured child out of the other car, protected the child by using her own body as a shield, called 911 and child protective services, all as the woman continually berated and threatened her.  Others, encouraged by supplemental strength from Christina, then began to gather around, offering added support until the police arrived.

When the police arrived, they saw the mangled child and immediately gave her shelter.  Then, they arrested the girl’s mother.

“I couldn’t believe it!”  Christina said.  “The woman lashed out at her child as she cowered in the back seat.  Then, when she was finished, she stood up straight, fixed her own hair and said, ‘Good.  I feel better now.’!”

As she spoke, I looked across the small, round, white-topped, table in our office and directly at Christina.  My gaze was one of more than one of admiration.  It was one of reverence!

Christina was a counselor, prior to using her specialized skills, just as effectively, in our business.  Now, we were glad to have her using those cherished skills to benefit someone else, a small girl who needed her protection!  So, while seated together in our office, our group thanked her for everything she’d done for a child we didn’t know, but deeply loved, just because she was a child.  It was also an opportunity for our group to sit, rethink our societal relationships, and simply talk informally about really important things, such as doing more personally, to protect the smallest amongst us.

“I need to get back to volunteering.”  Christina said to us with greater resolve in her voice.

I whispered back, “We should all be more like you Christina, my champion and guardian of important things!”

The Power of One

“When I arrived in Virginia I didn’t know anyone.  Then, I met one guy who became my friend.” – Alfredo Gallegos

The Power of One

“This is still the land where dreams come true!”  Alfredo said to me as we ate a celebration dinner with our wives.  As it turned out, Alfredo show me that we have a lot more to celebrate than I was thinking when our dinner began.

Alfredo Gallegos is a successful husband, father and business man.  Some would look at his success and think that perhaps he was “lucky,” or he inherited success from his family.  I knew that wasn’t the case, but as I sat talking with him, I could hear Kristin Murdock’s voice right up front, in my mind. 

“The harder I work, the luckier I get!”

As a young man in his early twenties, Alfredo discovered he needed to finish his college degree to climb the corporate ladder.  So, he did some research and then got on an airplane to Virginia, with a suitcase containing two pairs of sacks, jeans and a couple of shirts.

“When I arrived in Virginia I didn’t know anyone.  Then, I met one guy who became my friend.” Alfredo explained.

This one person befriended Alfredo because they had both once lived in the same area.  That one commonality created a connection between the two.  It was enough that the stranger began to help Alfredo in school.  He introduced him to his network of friends and they began to go to social events together.  They remained close friends right up to the time when Alfredo decided to go to Texas to attend another university.  Once in Texas, Alfredo worked hard to finish his degree.

Texas is also where he met his wife and began his family.  Then, when his wife told him she’d like to move to Utah because her family was living there he simply said, “o.k.”

“By this time, I knew I could go to a new place, make new friends, work hard and build a business.  And, I knew I wasn’t starting over again, alone.  Now, I tell my kids my story and let them know that they can build an exceptional life for themselves, if they will just work hard. This is still the land where dreams come true!”

“The harder I work, the luckier I get!”  Kristin Murdock’s voice said to me as I watched Alfredo tell me his story.  His eyes are a different color than Kristin’s, but they share the same, common, look of determination and belief.

They still believe that one person can make a difference in the design and planning of their own life.  They both know that hard, persistent work every day, toward living a desired, designed outcome will allow them to ultimately succeed.  Perhaps just as significant, they know that using personal experience and friendship, one-on-one, can make profound changes to lives now and to lives yet-to-come.

Alfredo was making a profound change in my life with every word of his story.  

“He’s the living persona of the power of one.”  I said to myself as he talked.  Hum, can the power of one become exponential?

As it turns out, Alfredo and I were celebrating more than I was thinking when dinner began.  Our time together was really a celebration of the power of surrounding ourselves with great people, one at a time. 

One, has the capacity to change each one of use more and more rapidly, when we employ its secret personally.

Live “The Power of One!”