Lyft and Lift

“Have faith.  Everything will turn out alright!” – Scott

Lyft and Lift

It was the weekend train schedule.  That meant we were standing on the platform waiting for a train to take us from Brooklyn back to Manhattan longer than usual. And, on this Saturday night it felt different, more frantic than usual.  The platform was pressed to near capacity and people were on edge as the information sign flashed additional train cancellations.

When the train arrived we moved forward to the open doors as one with crushing humanity and oppressive heat.  There were people sitting and standing, most tightly clustered in groups of family and friends until we arrived at our stop near Second Avenue & 42^nd Street.  As we emerged from the underground, we were greeted by the screaming of sirens accompanied by first responder vehicles in response mode.  This is often the case in Midtown so we didn’t give it much thought until we arrived at our selected restaurant to celebrate my son-in-law’s birthday.

Just after we were seated, Jean, my daughter Annie’s roommate, looked up at us with startled eyes and said, “A bomb just went off in Chelsea!”

Police continued to visibly increase through the night and by Sunday morning there were officers in body armor, carrying automatic weapons positioned on the streets.  Many routes were closed to traffic, so we used our feet as a vehicle to retrieve breakfast from Junior’s on Broadway where our stomachs were soon full, comfortable, and unsettled all at the same time.

Our time was full as well, so I ordered a ride to the airport using Lyft and the car arrived within three minutes.  Scott, our driver, helped load our luggage and we slid into the cocoon of his car and began pleasant conversation.

“You’re on your way back to Utah?”  Scott said to us we drove toward the Midtown Tunnel.

“Yes.”  I replied as we passed more emergency vehicles and police offering protection near and around the UN.  “With everything so unsettled we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to navigate to the airport.”

“Things are a little bit more peaceful where you live aren’t they?”  Scott continued.

“Sometimes I think we live in the last peaceful place in America!”  I agreed.

“Have faith!” Scott counseled.  “Everything will turn out alright!!”

I looked at his eyes as they reflected at me from his rear view mirror.  They struck me as a reflection of his words.  They were still, sincere, resolute, and belonging to a man who conveyed the deeply rooted spirit of New York.  They reminded me of the eyes of one of our greatest leaders, George Washington.

Scott’s words and eyes showed me that Mr. Washington is remembered more deeply in the City than in just stone and museums.  His spirit lives on!

My spirit was lifted through Scott’s Lyft, a driver who holds his conviction close and delivers more than a simple ride.  He delivered faith in our future directly from his heart to mine.

When Good Fortune Arrives

“This is just like a movie!” - Teresa

When Good Fortune Arrives

The air was chilly and seemed to help the excitement gel into place.  Teresa and I walked toward our cars with grins embraced by the slight confusion on our faces.

“What just happened?” Teresa said to me as she glanced my way.

“I’ve never seen anything like it before!”  I countered.  “He just said he would help catapult your business forward by giving you his current business if you decided to purchase his building!”

“This is just like a movie! Why would he do that?” She said quizzically.

From the first time we met Charley there was a connection.  Charley is an artisan, one of the best I’ve ever met.  As Teresa and I worked with him during our first meeting I could see that the two of them were “of a kind.”

Teresa’s business is newer and growing.  Charley’s business is mature and flowing smoothly.  He’s ready to retire.  She’s ready to blastoff and make her mark on the world.  I watched them communicate and appreciate all at the same time.

One of the most important things Charley communicated to us was that his life has changed.  His wife recently had some health issues.  They’ve spent their years together building their business without a thought of how the time they share could come to an abrupt end.  Now, that revelation has been opened to them.  They’ve decided to do something about it.  They are retiring so they can spend as much time together as possible.  And, they want to do something more.

Charley also wants his experience and efforts to continue on.  That’s why he wants to pass it all to Teresa.  Another common friend said, “He’s been looking for the right person to give it to and he knows Teresa is that person!”

I looked over at that same Teresa.  She was chilled.  It was the night air.  And, it was also the thrill of being given an unspeakable gift, an unanticipated surprise.  I watched it consume her.  I felt it enrich my understanding of good fortune.

There are different kinds of good fortune.  One is certainly the good fortune of receiving.  Another is the giving of good fortune to another.  And finally, there is the perpetuation of good fortune. 

The perpetuation of good fortune is something we can all participate in by following Charley’s example. Perhaps Charley conveyed this to me best when he said, “I designed these earrings with simple beauty and superb craftsmanship.  You can’t get them anywhere else!  They’re my design.”

You’ve spent a lifetime designing the good fortune that is uniquely yours.  When good fortune arrives, make it even larger.  Share it with others.

Flight School

“She asked me why we didn’t land at the airport.” – Reed Critchfield

Flight School

“I’ve been pilot for many years.” Reed said to me as we were walking through some potential space for his company.  “And, I invited family members to come and fly with me for the Labor Day Holiday.”

Reed took his five-year-old granddaughter into the sky, for her turn, not long after his family arrived at the airstrip.  They were climbing to altitude when Reed heard a loud sound bang from the front of the plane.

“I knew immediately something was wrong!” He continued.  “My plane stopped climbing and it was clear we were in trouble.”

His experience, personal calm and cool head allowed him to immediately take control of the situation.   Fear, mostly for the welfare of his granddaughter, gripped his heart.  He began to act while planning for their safe arrival on the ground.

He looked at the ground below as he looked out of his cockpit to see how far they were from the runway.  “I could see I was going to be about two miles short.”  He said.

Once he could see he was not going to make it he immediately began to search for an alternative-landing site.  He identified a field in the near distance and set out to glide the plane in.  He steadied himself while listening to the air hissing around his aluminum cocoon. He had practiced many times for this situation and he kept reminding himself of this preparation as he glided along.

His glide path allowed him to see family members come to life where they were waiting on the tarmac below.  They heard the absence of engine noise and reacted immediately, each person hoping with all their might that the two flyers would return to ground safely.  The family rushed to their cars and began to drive while projecting the landing path of the small airplane, now a glider.  They desperately wanted to add their support for its arrival.

“The ground seemed to arrive before I knew it and luckily the field we landed in was relatively flat.  In fact, it was so smooth that my granddaughter surprised me as I lifted her from the plane as I stood on the welcome ground.  She asked me why we didn’t land at the airport.”  He said with a slight grin pulling at the corners of his mouth.

Reed walked to the front of the plane with her and lifted the hatch so he could show her the seized engine.  As he did so, they were swarmed by cars and were soon wrapped in the arms of those who loved them.  They were all safe and reunited because of the preparation, knowledge and skill of one.

Reed spent a lot of time over the rest of the afternoon making sure that those witnessing the salvaged flight learned all they could from the experience.  “I wanted to make sure they knew everything I did and why I did it.  Life can have scary moments!  By teaching my family how to navigate through a dangerous situation I was able to increase their confidence.  As it turned it out, Labor Day was flight school, an opportunity for me to give my experience to those that matter most to me.  I don’t want them to live their lives in fear.  I want them to soar!” 

Quit and Go Home

“In the past decade alone, we’ve used innovation and technology to transform the U.S. energy story from one of scarcity to one of abundance.” - John S. Watson

Quit and Go Home

1973 was a long time ago.  Yet, I remember it vividly.  It seemed as if our world was being turned upside down.  OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, imposed an oil embargo against the United States.  As a fifteen-year-old boy I was perhaps most concerned about being able to have enough gas to drive a car when I obtained my drivers license in the coming year.  I was afraid.

Then, after driving for five years there was another oil shock in 1978 and 1979 and it seemed as if the wheels had completely stopped rolling in Southern California.  There were times when we couldn’t purchase gas for our cars and frustration ruled the day.  One close friend, who commuted from Santa Ana to Los Angeles daily, would have his daughter do her studying while she waited in line for up to four hours at a time to purchase fuel.  There were times when we couldn’t even purchase fuel.

Perhaps that’s why I was so attentive as John S. Watson, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Chevron, recently said, “In the past decade alone, we’ve used innovation and technology to transform the U.S. energy story from one of scarcity to one of abundance.”  And, his comments brought to my mind Thomas Edison and the way he approached creating abundance.

When Mr. Edison was sixty-seven years old he came home after ending his day at his laboratory.  He had dinner with his family and not long after they a man came rushing into his house.  The man bore urgent news.

A fire had broken out at Edison’s research and production facility!  Mr. Edison went to the scene, which was fueled by the many chemicals being used in the buildings.  Because of these chemicals, the flames were an intriguing green and yellow and were shooting six or seven stories in the sky.  This, along with the tremendous size of the fire, fought by men and engines from eight surrounding towns, caused a large crowd to gather.

As Edison made his way calmly through the crowd of hundreds of onlookers and frightened employees he looked for his son.  Once he found his son he said, “Go get your mother and all her friends.  They’ll never see a fire like this again!”

“What?!” His son replied.

Edison responded calmly with, “Don’t worry.  It’s all right.  We’ve just got rid of a lot of rubbish.”

That’s a telling reaction from a man who had just lost his life’s work!  Most would have gotten angry, quit and gone home!  But, Edison knew that such behavior would have accomplished nothing! Rather than let this destruction break his heart and ruin his life he said to a reporter the next day that he wasn’t too old to start over again.  “I’ve been through a lot of things like this.  It prevents a man from being afflicted with ennui.”

John Watson is not and Thomas Edison was not a man filled with weariness or discontent.  At a time when others were harboring feelings of scarcity, they focused on creating abundance for themselves and others.

Watson and his company Chevron, along with others, have succeeded in transforming perceived energy crisis into tangible energy abundance.  Such a feat can’t be accomplished without a scrupulous outlook and people, people who combine innovation with talent while remaining focused when others are transfixed by a “falling sky.”

Though Edison watched his hopes and dreams be incinerated against the sky and lost the equivalent of an estimated twenty-three million dollars, of today’s dollars, he elicited enough energy to make the equivalent of two-hundred-million dollars that same year while putting his employees back to work and producing new products that the world had never seen before.  He suffered a breath-taking disaster and replied to it by creating breath-taking abundance.

Will you and I respond in the same way?  Will we put our energies, emotions and exertions where they will have a real impact?  Will we say, “Well, this is what has happened and there is nothing I can do about it.” Will you and I adopt the same scrupulous approach in our lives?

Yes!  Let’s say, “I’m not going to quit and go home! I will combine my talent with innovation, work hard and focus on creating abundance when everyone else is cowering in fear!”

One Big Thing

Cool nights, shorter days and color leaking from trees

One Big Thing

“It isn’t spring,” I said to myself as I was cleaning my garage and working in my yard yesterday.  Summer is getting dangerously close to turning into fall.  And, fall is the time I like to do my “spring-cleaning.” 

The dust and clutter of outside work is everywhere!  We’ll all be sort of locked up, spending more time inside, soon.  So, it only makes sense to make sure everything is prepared to weather the long, cold, dark days ahead.

“It isn’t spring for me either,” I breathed out as the ache of work ran from my shoulders to my toes.  I stopped for just a moment and reflected.

When I was in the spring of my life I had lots of hopes and dreams.  Most of those are no longer with me.  However, one thing is still with me.  It was a conversation I had with my friend Ron Green many years ago as he was entering the winter of his life.

“My life turned out just the way I planned it!” He said to me with a twinkle in his eyes.

I could tell he meant it.  There was that “thing” in the lilt of his voice.  There was conviction etched on his face.  He had lived the life of he own design and was grateful for it.  I returned his gaze and while looking at him with great admiration, asked myself, “Is my life turning out the way I planned it?”

“It isn’t spring anymore” I continued.

No.  It isn’t the spring of my life anymore.  That simply means I have things to do outside and inside of myself to prepare for my day of twilight.  The day when I, like my friend Ron, can say to another, “My life turned out the way I planned it!”

Before you roll your eyes, know that not everything has turned out in my life exactly as planned.  It hasn’t in the past and it won’t in the future either.  And, that’s one of the miracles life offers every one of us.  Life often gives us much more than we planned for.  It repeatedly, unexpectedly delivers more than we ever dreamed possible!  Different can be better!

Better!  Now I’m thinking about “one big thing.”  What is it I want to be known for at the end of my life?  This is a question to ask oneself during every season of life.  It doesn’t have to be asked only in spring. Summer is dangerously close to turning into fall.  Fall is the time when I do my spring-cleaning! 

One Big Thing!  It only makes sense to make sure everything is prepared.  How do I want my life to be remembered?

Swimming Through Time

Two wires and a dry pasture

Swimming Through Time

I looked out the window and didn’t see what I expected to see.  I looked again.  I still didn’t see it!  I looked a third time more earnestly.  Nothing!  It was early in the morning and I was already thinking about the future.  However, this little dose of “the moment” snapped me back to right now.

“This wasn’t what I wanted to do this morning. My life is like swimming up stream!” I muttered to myself.  At the same time, I knew that if I didn’t solve the problem right “now” a significant area of my pastureland wouldn’t get the water it needed to live.  So, I got into some work clothes and began to walk back to see if I could identify the valve or electrical problem causing the disruption. 

The walking soon allowed the tall grass to tickle my senses and my thoughts began to focus on the issue at hand.  I was searching for a solution! 

Such seemingly trivial problems or tasks have always been part of my life.  I suspect they’re part of your life as well.  And, on this particular morning, the glow of the sun haloing in the eastern sky acted as a revelatory catalyst to teach me about how to stop struggling against the current.

Just under twenty years ago the surrounding high mountain desert had swallowed up this same piece of ground.  Now I was enjoying the lanky grass topped with tassels of seed waving at me as I passed.  It was a small thing, but not insignificant!

Each step caused me to recall the many slight and undesirable tasks I had completed to transform this land.  Now I was walking through the all-inclusive.  The sum of all the small undertakings knitted together to form the whole.  It was eye opening! And, the sun seemed to burst its way over the peaks as if announcing that the day had arrived along with my new appreciation of how small things had combined, with time, to create something of magnificence.

It seems as if we, you and I, often miss the magnificence and significance of the small moment. We’re so busy planning for our future that we often don’t take pride in the tasks we’ve been given right now.  We just take each moment for granted; deposit our salary (or commission) and dream wistfully of the amazing things we’re going to do in the future.  The things that are more suited to our talents and us.  Or, we harbor some animosity for our current circumstances thinking, “What am I doing? This job or seemingly menial task is a waste of time!”

How silly we can be!

Everything, every task or assignment matters!  It doesn’t matter if we’re fixing sprinklers, mucking stalls, or taking tickets at the local movie theater.  Overlooking small things as simply a means to an end is an oversight.  Everything is a chance for you and I to do our very best and can be transformative if we will simple respond to whatever life throws at us with:

Hard work.

Honesty.

Helping.

When we focus our efforts in this way, we begin to partner with time.  We begin to swim with its current and to see our future in a new and different way.  It is revealed to us, not as a wish, but moment-by-moment in a way that is reminiscent of a bricklayer’s technique.

“Step-by-step,” I recited on my way toward the dry back pasture!  I looked around and smiled, no longer upset at the inconvenience.  I knew that my best work, applied to this very moment, was creating something of beauty and significance.  I held that future in my hands as I repaired two small wires. 

You’ll love swimming through time!