Everyday Bliss For Women In Leadership

I’m so blessed with wonderful people in my life and have another wonderful person to share. Dr. Rachel Root is my coach and an amazing one she is. She has studied creativity coaching with Eric Maisel, author of numerous works including The Creativity Book: A Year’s Worth of Inspiration and Guidance and other books on how to unleash your creativity. Rachel is helping me write a book and crank out CDs which is appropriate as she is Director of Music at Trinity Lutheran Church in Tacoma, WA and assistant director of the Sacred Music Chorale. Rachel is warm, witty and fascinating to listen to. She talks just enough in our sessions and not too much, cuts to the chase and makes a lot of sense. She lets me ramble when I need to, rail against the injustices of equipment malfunction and personal oddity and I truly feel loved and accepted through it all. If you’re looking for a great coach to help spark and hold your creativity, get in touch with Rachel, she’s a corker! Click to email her here.

Scientist Stephen Hawking Moved to Specialist Hospital (click here for full story)

“He was transferred yesterday from Addenbrookes Hospital and he is stable,” said a spokeswoman for Papworth. She declined to give further details. Police are also separately investigating allegations of an assault on the 62-year-old. “We still want to speak to him and we are continuing to speak with the people who provided the information,” a spokeswoman for Cambridgeshire Police said Tuesday. The Daily Mirror newspaper reported in January that his three children were worried he was being harmed by someone suffering from Munchausen Syndrome by proxy, a disease where sufferers hurt others to draw attention to themselves…”

Stephen Hawking is widely considered to be the most likely successor to Einstein. Hawking is perhaps best known for his 1974 discovery that black holes emit radiation, and for his “no boundary proposal” made in 1983, in collaboration with Jim Hartle of Santa Barbara, CA. He holds the Lucasian Chair in theoretical physics at Cambridge University, in direct line of succession from Sir Issac Newton, its second holder, and notable for being born exactly 300 years after Newton. Professor Hawking suffers from motor neurone (Lou Gherig’s) disease and is confined to a wheelchair. The thought that anyone would abuse a person under such circumstances is deeply disturbing.

When I lived in Cambridge in the 1980’s, Hawking was a familiar sight terrorizing the University byways in his motorized wheelchair. He was often to be found holding court in The Eagle pub - made famous by Francis Crick and James Watson when they literally discovered DNA over a pint there. Or at The Bath pub which sold Pizza Hut pizzas the students inhaled…but that had nothing to do with Hawking’s patronage. [*wink*] Always a gaggle of adoring students around him, Hawking was generous with his time as a faculty advisor. It is indeed sad to hear that one of the most celebrated scientists of our time has potentially fallen victim to what in social services we used to call an “indoor stalker”. Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy is brutal on the victims of its sufferers. Most cases you see are perpetrated by mothers on very young children up to six or seven years old, but MSBP is not unknown in caretakers of the disabled and frail elderly as well.

If you can spare it, send some good healing vibes to Steve, over in the heart & lung hospital in Papworth - a little town about ten miles outside Cambridge city. He’s working on some of the most complex problems in science - it would be nice if he had the time and comfort to finish his life’s work before someone goes too far and finishes his life for him. Spare a prayer too for whomever the perp is. Whoever that person is, they need help and healing just as much as Dr. Hawking. And if you haven’t read his Brief History of Time yet, you need to get it post haste. Good stuff, Maynard.

Well what do you know, I’m a:

Cappuccino!


What Kind of Coffee are You?
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As if that wasn’t enough here’s another, my Greek Goddess Persona:

Athena

?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??
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And a Soul Typer! The image was a bandwidth hog so I removed it but it was a beautiful fairy/angel and said: “Artistic” - You are naturally born with a gift, whether it be poetry, writing or song. You love beauty and creativity, and usually are highly intelligent. Others view you as mysterious and dreamy, yet also bold since you hold firm in your beliefs.

What Type of Soul Do You Have ?
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Have fun with these…

The Gamut Point of Fashion < -- click here for a thought provoking photo of differences in Iraqi fashion

Anyone who has fixed ideas about the state of hijab (veiling, hair and body covering) in Iraq needs to get themselves on over to Iraqi dentist Zeyad's awesome “Healing Iraq” blog for consistently provocative, informative content and check out his photo blogs, one of which is of a several radical Women’s Groups holding events in Fardus Square, Baghdad where the photo above was taken. This particular photo shows a stunningly attractive, fashionably dressed young Iraqi woman in spangled high heels looking at the camera from a crowd scene. She is wearing a chic burgundy blouse-set and black trousers. Her makeup is flawless, her nails manicured. She wears a golden ring, silver watch and necklace and her hair is loose, bound only by sunglasses perched atop her head. She could have stepped off the corner at Hollywood and Vine. Her look is bold, challenging. She is nobody’s fool, slave or property. Standing in front of her with her face turned in profile from the camera is another woman, perhaps in her mid-40’s wearing a dark but fashionable pants suit, with a sage green flowing scarf wrapped securely around her head. The front of her hairline shows by a few inches. She’s modern, but not taking any chances (like many of my Muslim girlfriends who lived overseas). The aura about her speaks of quiet certainty, she is intent upon a speaker, or a scene in front of her. She appears to know exactly what she’s doing and where she’s going.

Or how about this one, my favorite picture of all. I love the grey haired lady shouting into the microphone. I don’t know what this is all about, but she’s giving some issue the what-for alright. Man, what a granny she must be! What a mom, what a daughter, what a leader…
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Here is my darling kitty Anoushka. She is also known as The Noush Cat, Noushie Numpkins, Noushel-Bushel, ‘Nou Shoes’ and was recently diagnosed with a non-serious form of feline epilepsy. I’m posting her (darling, intelligent - a cat with two hands!) picture in response to an assignment for Andy Wibbels “50 Coaches 50 Weblogs 50 Days” teleclass which is a total hoot. You’ve got to go visit Andy, he’s a real fun guy. Here’s a link to Andy’s EasyBake Weblogs in which he is educating the world of Life and Executive Coaches about Blogging with a mission to get 50 Coaches all blogging in 50 Days. So far we’ve all signed up at TypePad (which I love much better than my previous Blogspot location) and are learning about all the bells and whistles available. Currently we’re checking out “Audio Blogger” (I’m the one shouting “Howdy!” at Andy’s blog here) Blogging has risen in prominence in the Coaching community in the last year. Some of us have been blogging for several years (sporadically, in my case) and some of us are new at it. All of the coaches I’ve read who blog vend amazingly rich content and a beauty of personhood that you’ll love getting to know. If you want to read some cool coaches, log into The 50 Coaches in 50 Days Blog and check out the “Participant Blogs” list. Riches galore!

Good stuff, Maynard… (okay, who’s old enough to remember that sub-reference?)

I have an amazing friend named Cairril Mills who lives in Bloomington, Indiana and has been working for a professional organization I belong to in Silicon Valley, California to spruce up our web presence. Cairril is an excellent web designer, graphic artist, web mistress and visionary. She singlehandedly took our local ICF chapter, the Silicon Valley Coach Federation from a one page mention on someone else’s website to a spiffy, professional new look and more search engine hits than you can shake a stick at. You need to see Cairril’s work. Even if you have your own designer, her own website is a gorgeous piece of art in itself, a pleasure to view and is located here.
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Have you ever had the feeling that you’re being slowly flushed down a singularly aromatic oubliette? Like the proverbial piece of celery run through the dishwasher backwards? This is where I am as we close on our mortgage refinancing, like millions of other Americans have in this last year. This particular process has been vexing in the mosquito range of annoyance. One petty mixup after another, constant misspelling of our names, the street address wrong on five of the twelve documents we needed to sign….a complete fubar. They came to us a few mornings ago with a document that required me to give up all legal rights to my house in order to obtain the loan. Which I am not about to do, it being my equity that bought the thing in the first place. We both stared at the clueless female loan officer who had come an hour late to our home with bogus documents and unreasonable requests. Then she apologised, this was some other person’s loan, but the part about me having to sign the house away would still apply.

“Not our loan?” we asked.

“No, sorry, someone else’s.”

“But to get the rate you spoke of I will still have to sign over the house?” “Yes, that’s right.”

“I don’t think so. This is completely unreasonable.”

“But you have to,” she said. “No one will write you a loan as good as this unless you play ball.”

“Uh…no. It’s obvious we’re not even in the same ballpark. Please take this back to your boss and tell him thanks but no thanks.”

“Well, okay then. Thank you for your time anyway Maria and James, so sorry.”

“That’s Maryam and Jason.”

“Oh yes of course, right, sorry Maria…. ”

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*fluuuussssshhh*

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Even coaches have days from hell. We’re experts on how not to have them but we’re only human and sometimes all the training falls to the side in the face of egregious idiocy. So how best to cope with situations like this?
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