Citizens Interested in Arts Presents “2012 Grantees on Parade”
December 28th 2011
This is my favorite nonprofit organization.
Don't miss this first-time ever performance.
Click HERE for Tickets
All I want for Christmas is Jasmine
December 24th 2011
'Twas the night before Christmas and out by the pool
The night-blooming jasmine my wish for this Yule . . .
What? Jasmine? For Christmas? No poinsettia?
This year, my wish was for a backyard flush with night-blooming jasmine, with the amazingly delicious scent pervading my home. So in unromantic but efficient fashion, I drove my VW sleigh over to Home Depot and found two lovely plants just begging for a home.
What I didn't realize was that the pesky winter sun was too far out of the Southern Hemisphere to shine directly on my yard. I discovered that night-blooming jasmine needs two things in excess to do its thing — sun and water.
So each day I shifted those plants around to catch whatever sun they could, and fed them water like a parched drunk at a bar.
I had high hopes.
But nothing.
I resigned myself to having to wait until next summer to see and smell those gorgeous blooms, when the sun is such a plentiful commodity I have to hide from it.
But it's Christmas. And that's when miracles happen.
Last night, around 10pm, I got my wish. Through my open back door, on the wings of a delightful Florida winter breeze, the heady, powerful scent of jasmine filled my house. It literally took my breath away-in surprise and joy.
Better than baking bread, better than the scent of the evergreen tree.
Best, because there is nothing better than a wish come true.
Merry Christmas to you all, and may all your wishes come true.
Volunteers Are Partners Too
November 19th 2011
I am just finishing the editing process on my book about how to have an insanely good partnership —after failing dismally at mine— so just about everything I experience is now viewed through the partnership prism.
I am also at a time in life where giving back is of vital importance. I am a serious (read: committed, passionate, focused) volunteer for a local nonprofit arts charity. I watch this organization experience the same things any for-profit business experiences, and it's abundantly clear to me that volunteers are partners too.
Some people think that being a volunteer comes with its own set of rules, but from experience I can tell you that's not only not true but will not work. Volunteers are entering into a partnership, and with that comes all the requirements of being a good partner.
Volunteers change the world. I think it's the most honorable profession there is and am stunned daily by the commitment I see in those who came before me. Many have been there, passionate and productive, for more than a decade; I am on just my second year. I have learned so much from all these fine people. Volunteers bring a staggering breadth of experience and connections from multiple industries, making the whole better than its parts. You don't get that in your average for-profit business.
And yes, bumps happen. When they do, I can promise you it's because something is out of alignment in the volunteer partnership.
Partnerships start with PARTNERS. And to be a good partner, you have to know yourself very well and be honest about your motivation, temperament, skills, weaknesses and ability to commit. Volunteering is that second job, but it needs the same commitment you give the first. As with any job, you must be in the right position and doing what you do best. So be very honest with yourself and the other volunteers. Tell them how you can best serve and say no to a position in which you know you will fail or be unhappy.
Here are a few questions you will want to ask yourself before you make a commitment to volunteer. Because once you commit, others count on you. A business, nonprofit or for, is like a building: It's all about the foundation. A crack in that foundation can bring the whole building down.
- Why do you want to volunteer?
- Why do you want to volunteer with ________ ?
- What are you good at?
- What are you bad at?
- What feeds you?
- What limits you?
- What is your best quality?
- What is your worst quality?
- What will you absolutely not tolerate under any circumstances?
- What do you absolutely refuse to do?
- What do you value?
- Where / how do you get energy?
- Does this organization/volunteer partnership position feed that?
- What skills do you bring to the organization?
- What does commitment to this volunteer partnership mean to you? (Full-time, part-time, all-in, finance only, team player, must be boss, whatever it takes etc.)
- What irks you?
- How do you express that?
- What is your communication style? (passive/active/electronic/emotional/straightforward/practical/ long-winded/direct/with humor/polite/loud/quiet etc)
- What is your personal style? (freespirited, anchored, butterfly, tortoise, structured, chaotic, calm, serious, loose etc)
- How do you behave under stress or in a crisis? (calm, analytical, emotional etc)
- How do you solve day-to-day problems? (negotiate/settle/fight/go silent etc)
Angels Do Exist
November 15th 2011
Angels exist. I know because I have met one. Citizens Interested in Arts, the charity I volunteer for, just named Sonia Tita Puopolo as the 2012 Champion of the Arts. Sonia is the author of Sonia's Ring: 11 Ways to Heal Your Heart.
That this tiny little woman, who has every reason to hate, possesses a loving heart as big as the universe, is not only inspiring but shows that courage exists in love. It reminds us about what is important.
In honor of Sonia Tita and her book, this year’s Champion of the Arts theme is Love and Inspiration Through the Arts. And it's not some empty marketing ploy. The theme came directly from being loved and inspired by her. She created it.
This award will be presented to Sonia at the annual Champion of the Arts Gala Luncheon on March 22, 2012 at the Fontainebleau Hotel.
Click here for more information.
Dig And Ye Shall Find
August 21st 2011
(Post inspired by Rebecca Kollaras)
After losing my beloved business, identity, money, partner, employees, stature and, because of stress, my health, I transitioned into the tranquil life I always thought I wanted. While tranquil has turned out to be good for me in every way, it can also be boring. So to dodge the feeling, I satisfied my literary yearnings by writing a book. My spiritual, motivational and academic yearnings compelled me to spend a year training with Tony Robbins. I also consulted, traveled, spent precious time with my parents and children and rediscovered me. I made new friends and bid adieu to those who no longer fit. Yet still I felt unfulfilled and, yes, bored. So one day, bored, I walked around my home and asked myself what in it made me happy. The answer was quick and obvious: The fresh flower arrangements I put next to the urn containing my father's ashes. Because digging into my soul had become my post-business modus o, I decided to continue with that theme by going to the source of those flowers and digging there for answers.
No, not Whole Foods. EARTH. I'm someone who never dug a hole (literally) in my life, so how odd that the most satisfying thing I have done with this tranquil life so far is gardening. A garage full of tools later, I thrive in dirt and roots and weeds and seeds and plants and sweat and farm boots and poison plant pricks and bug bites. So far I have managed to plant only a small area because the aforementioned roots pervade my garden and confound both my tools and my physical strength. I am told an ax is the only solution. For that I will make a phone call and engage an ax-person. While a great Chanel bag still makes me cry, my new love is my Ryobi power head with tiller attachment. As it turns out, I can buy many more attachments. They saw me coming. Soon I will be trimming and cutting and cultivating and edging and pruning with sheer abandon. What a grand surprise life is. I click my heels together and close my eyes in my newly grounded, sweaty bliss, because after three decades of being in the slick, dressed up, globe-hopping, hi-stakes game of work and accomplishment, it turns out there's no place like Home Depot.
Donate Without Dollars
July 13th 2011
I am a huge supporter of the arts and was just elected VP of Citizens Interested in Arts (CIA) in Miami.
We need your help in Keeping Arts Alive and it won’t cost you a dime.
Citizens Interested in Arts will earn a donation every time you search the Internet. And a percentage of every purchase you make online will go to support our cause.
GoodSearch.com is a new Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. Use it just as you would any search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and watch the donations add up!
GoodShop.com is a new online shopping mall which donates up to 30 percent of each purchase to your favorite cause! Hundreds of great stores including Target, Gap, Best Buy, Macy’s and Barnes & Noble have teamed up with GoodShop and every time you place an order, you’ll be supporting your favorite cause.
And if you download the GoodSearch – Citizens Interested in Arts (Aventura FL) toolbar, our cause will earn money every time you shop and search online – even if you forget to go to GoodShop or GoodSearch first!
Please add the Citizens Interested in Arts toolbar at http://www.goodsearch.com/toolbar/citizens-interested-in-arts
For more information on CIA, please visit our new website at http://www.cia4arts.org
For the Beautiful Girl Who Left This Earth Too Soon, Too Young, Too Tragically.
June 5th 2011
Welcome Home
I never thought that I would be, this vision that I am
The end of a long and winding road, now everything is silence
The end of a journey, now everything is peace
Speaking in whispers, not speaking at all
No turning back now, I’ve opened a door
I never thought I’d be here, the road was so long and hard
I never thought I’d find it, the mirror of my heart
My body just a vessel, to carry me through time
My mind just an expression, now I’m not so blind
No more stones to overturn, in a search for truth inside
No more being victim of someone else’s crime
I never thought I’d get to here, but I do believe I have
I’ve never ever felt like this, like a velvet glove on hands
Only just vague memories of laying on the floor,
battered, broken and ashamed, as fists fly through the doors
I never thought I’d get a chance to shine my light of love
I never thought I’d see the day, when I knew I would be done
But here I am still standing here… no thought of yesterday
Truth and justice and integrity, the road to pave my way
So now I start a new journey, freedom in my hands
Safe and sound in God’s strong arms, walking all the lands
I never thought that I would be, this vision that I am
For everyone who’s ever walked the path, in recognition of the beauty and courage, and the journey within, to be all that we are
By: Raven Afrika Masterson
Functional Foods???????
May 15th 2011
Are you kidding me?
There’s a big article in the New York Times Business Section this morning about this really bizarre classification of foods. While I know this is not new, I find it interesting that this is in the Business Section and not published as a Health story.
Duh. It’s because food is not about health any more. It’s all about business.
I’m a marketer and I get the scam that is going on. Marketers get paid to dream this stuff up. (Who can forget the real estate boom, where ads told you if you bought this condo your acne would clear up and girls would swarm all over you?? And in fact what really happened was you got sucked into a sub-prime sewer and went bankrupt? Yes, I apologize. Profusely.)
This functional food scam is false advertising at its most blatant. Are people really dumb enough to believe this? Put a lying, cheating functional food label (Contains Omega 3!!!) on Kool-Aid and charge more for it? Jeez. The sad truth is yes. I mean really. What in the world should food be if not functional??? Are we not what we eat? Is good health not directly related to eating healthy, whole foods?
Except there is nothing healthy or whole about most of this stuff. The only function of this scam is to produce revenue for the manufacturers. Period. Your body doesn’t even recognize half the crap they’re selling.
When exactly did we lose our minds?
The sad truth here is we’ve been slowly poisoned since the introduction of processed foods nearly 50 years ago. That all of a sudden “functional foods” seems like something new is insulting and another bullet in the gun co-owned by the food and pharma industries. (Poison ‘em, pill ‘em and kill ‘em). Can’t you see? All they are doing is repositioning processed foods. It’s a marketing trick as old as the hills.
Use your heads about this stuff, people. Look around you. People are fat and sick. What does that tell you? Eat the real functional foods – a salad, some vegetables, a nice piece of grilled fish, some fruit – and leave the packaged poison on the shelf.
If you don’t get off these supermarket drugs and start eating actual, real, whole foods again very soon, you’ll spend your last dollars on medication instead of that trip to Paris you’ve always dreamed about, and have absolutely no shot of having the pleasure of being as old as the hills.
Transition or Just Plain Trauma?
May 12th 2011
No matter what you call it, it’s exactly as Maria Shriver describes it in this video.
I am in my second year of ‘transition’ and it is no easier than the first. I have traveled, studied, meditated, yoga’ed, Pilates-ed, nutritioned, supplemented, caretake-d, read and written my way through the past 600 or so days and am no closer to finding something to be passionate about than I was on day one. And it’s not for lack of opportunity. That’s what’s so bizarre about this time in life. I can imagine all the opportunity available to Maria Shriver, yet there she is.
Passion comes from within. Hello? Anybody in there???
It’s traumatic to lose what’s dear to you and have to start over. I am delighted Maria Shriver stepped forward as the voice for people like us. I see the sadness in her face and can identify.
I’ll watch intently to see what eventually lights her up again. I wish love and light for her and the rest of us disenfranchised Baby Boomers.
Yes, we’ll be back. Because for us, defeat is not an option.
What do You Focus On?
May 7th 2011
Today, on my daily walk, I ran into Eileen, one of two sisters who I love dearly and whose sister relationship makes me envious.
“How is the beautiful Sheila,” I asked? The answer blew me away. Eileen told me that her sister Sheila had fallen a month ago, hit her head and cracked her neck, leaving her paralyzed.
“But she’s okay now,” Eileen said.
Like I was deaf, I kept asking–what happened? How did she fall? Where did she fall?
Each of my questions was patiently answered, and then punctuated by Eileen saying, “But she’s okay now.”
Yet I persisted, letting my mind take me to awful places, where paralysis is permanent and injuries are unrecoverable.
As if she read my mind, Eileen kept saying, “But she’s okay now.”
I took six times—somehow I counted them — before I really heard: “BUT. SHE’S. OKAY. NOW.”
The smile never left her face. She was filled with joy. Her focus was not on the accident or the injury. She was completely and utterly focused on, “But she’s okay now.” Not only that, she had no listening for anything negative. None.
She had her sister back. Nothing else mattered.
Whew. What a lesson.
Question: How often do we focus on the bad and miss the blessing?
Me? Probably all the time.
I realized today that I suffer from paralysis too.
I focus on what’s wrong instead of what’s right.
Today, nothing is wrong and all is right.
It’s true. When the student is ready, the teacher arrives.
