Archive for the ‘Holiday’ Category

Remembering a Life of Service

Monday, January 18th, 2016
A Life of Service

A Life of Service

I am working today, but on projects supporting the work of faith-based communities committed to responsible environmental stewardship – which is an appropriate way to spend the holiday!

Best Wishes for a Peaceful Holiday Season

Friday, December 25th, 2015
Best Wishes for a Joyous Holiday Season

Best Wishes for the Holidays

Thanksgiving Blessings

Thursday, November 26th, 2015
A Brighter Future

A Brighter Future

This image captures the blessings for which I am most profoundly grateful this Thanksgiving holiday. I took this photograph when I was working in Conakry, the capital of Guinea, a French-speaking country in Africa. I was there working on a project for Land O’Lakes, an agriculture cooperative of more than 1,000 member dairy farms. I love this photograph because it shows a girl doing something few girls in her part of the world are able to – attend school! Her smiling optimism contrasts with the grinding poverty of her country for which she represents the hope of a better future. This photograph reminds me of how fortunate I am for my education, and my continuing education, as I invest in building capacity for my business, Prisere LLC. It reminds me of how blessed I am to be able to do work that is deeply meaningful to me and, I hope, makes a difference to the lives of others. The photograph is evidence of the blessings I have enjoyed and continue to enjoy, in traveling around the world for my work.

This image also reminds me of how much I treasure my relationships with my French friends. When in Guinea, the French soldiers helpfully showed me the safe places to eat to minimize the risk of illness. And they kept me out of trouble when I was nearly arrested for taking photographs! At that time, Guinea’s strongman-dictator viewed photography as an activity calculated to motivate civil unrest, so I unwittingly put myself in harm’s way when I took pictures. I have photographs such as this one in my office to remind me what I have for which to be thankful and where my attention to be focused. I am spending part of the holiday today going through my photo albums and reflecting on my blessings. And I expect this exercise will multiply my motivation when I return to work tomorrow!

Happy Fourth of July!

Saturday, July 4th, 2015
Fourth of July

Enjoying the Holiday

Memorial Day

Monday, May 25th, 2015
Honoring Those Who Served

Honoring Those Who Served

Today is Memorial Day and in addition to remembering those who served, we can also honor veterans by patronizing their businesses. There are three million veteran-owned businesses in the United States, as men and women bring the leadership skills they developed during their military service to become successful entrepreneurs. There are online directories to locate businesses that have been certified by the U.S. Veterans Administration as being veteran-owned. It is amazing how military service equips people to become successful with their own businesses. My home inspector is an Air Force veteran and his business is the best of its kind in the state. One of my favorite restaurants was started by a Navy veteran. So today as we remember and honor those who served, we can also support what they continue to do for usĀ in our local communities.

Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King

Monday, January 19th, 2015

On this national holiday, I decided to take advantage of the resources offered by the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute of Stanford University. You can go online and read and listen to many of Dr. King’s speeches as he delivered them. Dr. King offered insight not only into civil rights issues, but into what we need to do to foster a more inclusive economy centered around human values. This quote comes from the “Beyond Vietnam” speech Dr. King delivered in New York on April 4, 1967:

“We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from being a “thing-oriented society” to a “person-oriented society”. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”