What Is It You Do?

A pod-to-blog project continues with this article based on Episode 29.

Ever go to a party and someone corners you and asks you “What is it you do?” Do you have an easy answer at the ready?  Well, being two women with non-traditional career paths, we kind of hate that question.  It makes it all about performance.  Who we are is so much more than what we do!

Today we turn our attention to careers and work and specifically, career trajectories.  Many experts recommend specific pathways to success, a strategy toward the ladder to accomplish your professional goals.  When locker room conversation turns to 401K plans, the expectations are of a younger dynamic.

As a pre-Title 9 baby, I started high school in the fall of 1974. Everything began to flip from what our mothers and grandmothers expected to do to the expectations for us.  How many of us at 18 know what we want to do and are Imparted with a vision and the tools and resources to go after what we want, especially when the world for women was changing so dramatically?

Nancy wanted to be a teacher since she was a little girl, lining up stuffed animals and giving them spelling tests. It always stayed with her - that desire to connect with students.  But when she and I were getting ready to go to college in 1978, education was not encouraged.  It was all about entering the business world, about forging new trails in formerly male-dominated fields.  What was missing was a conversation about what we were equipped to do.  Since she was active in journalism in high school she headed in that direction.  Ironically, I wanted to be Jane Pauley.  She joined the Today Show at age 25.  I wanted to follow her lead, and go to Indiana University and be on TV.  But when I met John, an engineer, I became a trailing spouse, a stay-at-home mom, and it wasn’t until later in my life that I had my first big girl job at age 50, earning a graduate degree later in life.  Now doing what I love to do, but as a volunteer.  Certainly not Jane Pauley, but I love what I’m doing.  It has been an unexpected pathway to get there.

What is it you do?  How can we respond to that question in a positive way that reflects the journey? What if your life’s work hasn’t turned out the way you expected?  Maybe better or maybe harder.  Maybe just different.  So with experience and a great day of compassion, we turn our attention to talking about our careers.

A good friend worked every day from the time she was 13, and retirement from a C-suite position with a major corporation has been exhilarating.  Another friend is leading a non-profit, but her college degree would have pointed her in a completely different direction.  We just don’t know where we are headed!

So in light of our philosophy of work,  how do we answer the question, “What is it you do?” What is work?  What is the pie chart balance of work and life?  There is an element of work where we need to work for income, for financial incentives.  We want to be rewarded for what we are contributing, and what we bring to the marketplace.  The other aspect for Nancy is that work is a place of service.  She is motivated by the connection to the mission.  It’s important to know why you are working! 

A professor at Harvard, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, published a study that tells us that more than money, we are motivated by meaning, mastery, and membership.  Nancy is highly motivated in her work life by meaning.  I identify with membership, being a part of something.  I currently work with a group of church leaders, devoted to changing some of the trends of church life making sure that everyone feels welcome.  I just love being a part of that.   Work in its best sense must line up with what we value.

What about work-life balance?  It seems to be more of a cycle than an achievable goal.  If we look at the pie chart of our lives:  family, home, volunteer work, community, all of the things we talk about at Second Cup.  In our careers to look at work-life balance, writing for Harvard Business Review, this author recommended some things:  

1. Pause and denormalize.  Take a step back and ask what is causing me stress.  How are these circumstances affecting me and my life?  Mentally pause to acknowledge these factors and ask what's going on if my work and life are out of balance.

2. Pay attention to the emotions that are brought up.  Increasing cognitive and emotional awareness helps us put things in perspective. This leads us to important questions:  If I am sacrificing, how long?  If I am putting work above family, do I have a partner to balance that out?  If not, do you have the resources needed to make a change that works better for you?

3. Implement change in two ways:  public (get your resume ready) or private change (work patterns and set expectations in the workplace such as when are you replying to emails?)  

Work looks differently for all of us especially as we enter and inhabit our sixties.  We can make private changes that help us answer “What is it you do?”

1. Begin with gratitude.  

2. Invest in the people around you. 

3. Acknowledge disappointment.  

4. Be kind to your younger self and the decisions made.

So what is it you do?  Are you retired?  Are you and your husband still working? “I’m very grateful to have had these experiences in my life, and here’s what I do for work now, but I’m also involved with these things in my life (family, community podcast!).”  Be prepared to give that answer!  

POINTS OF GRATITUDE: the unexpected twists and turns in my non-traditional career path

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

What do you value most:  membership, mastery, or meaning?

What was your childhood dream for your career?

What is it you do?

We Love to Learn

A pod-to-blog project continues with this article based on Episode 21.

In the season of love during Second Cup, we discussed our mutual love of learning.  One of our values is to be lifelong learners.  We don’t want to ever stop learning.  We want to stay curious!  It’s interesting how learning works when you are north of 60.  Why in high school did we dread things like chemistry and science fairs, and now we watch nature, and think, as Nancy shared, “I’d like to learn more?”  I just love the idea of a senior science fair as Nancy suggested!  Let’s figure out more creative ways like this to motivate us all during this interesting season of life.  

There are terrific programs for learning for people of all ages, but I got to thinking about this topic in light of my recent journey to my Master’s degree.  My goal was to finish by the time I turned 60, and I made it! (just barely!) I actually finished during the global pandemic which makes it especially memorable.  I was working at Notre Dame at the time, and it’s a great place to learn.  I live nearby so I enrolled in their Executive Master’s of Non-Profit Management.  You can take as long or as short as you need to finish it.  Because I had a signature birthday goal, I did it in about two years and it was a great experience for me.  It was really hard, and I felt good about that.  Some subjects came naturally due to work experience but other courses like accounting, statistics, and economics did not. There were many new concepts and I had to really study, and isolate myself from the rest of my life to get the work done.  I was with a cohort and that was essential, working and studying together.  We aged from mid-20s to mid-60s and all were working in the field of non-profit or education so we had things in common, but were a very diverse group of people.

Nancy shared that one of the bonuses of structured education is being exposed to so much diversity.  In her higher education studies as an adult, that was one of the significant advantages.  It was great to be exposed in a concentrated amount of time with a shared learning goal with that variety of folks. 

Nancy encouraged me to participate in the graduation ceremonies, and I’m so glad I took the time to celebrate that accomplishment, even if it was gray hair poking out from under my mortarboard.  And I shared that day with my husband, and with Nancy and her husband, and it was a wonderful celebration.  Do it! Sign up!  Walk!  It will matter and it will matter to those who love you.

Besides formal education, there are so many learning resources available.  A few resources:

1. Craftsy - skill-based craft techniques with free classes.

2. Master Class - learn from experts in bite-sized lessons.

3. Colleges in your area.  Look for adult audit classes or community outreach, community-based learning, and guest lectures.  

4. Creative Mornings - an international collection of events for people who want to be with other creative people.  Look for them in your town, or follow online offerings for virtual field trips.  

Get curious!  Develop a sense of wonder! Just try stuff!  Just make stuff!  When we started, we knew nothing about podcasting, and hopefully, our listeners didn’t know that!    I’m just so proud of Nancy for figuring out the technical aspects and how we both dove into this medium and made stuff!  

POINTS OF GRATITUDE:

Public libraries and all they have to offer

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

What’s the last new skill or subject matter you jumped in to learn?

What’s easier about learning when you’re north of 60?  What’s harder?

What will you learn about in 2024 and what will be your first step?

For the Love of Money

A pod-to-blog project continues with this article based on Episode 19.

If someone were to give you millions and millions of dollars with one assignment:  give it away.  What would you do? Where would the money go? Who would advise you? This was a fun exercise for Nancy and me as philanthropically minded people whose hopes and dreams for the world go beyond our personal means. 

Money is one of those things that can reflect our values.  Let’s take a look at the checkbook register or online banking.  That, along with my calendar and my last several text messages reflect my values.  According to an article in  Inc,  in order to set up a spending plan, we need to take time to assess values, dig into past experiences to see what influences the way we handle money, and then check our calendar too. Often money seems tied to emotion but it goes beyond that.

A couple of years ago I was in a graduate program at the University of Notre Dame for a Masters in Nonprofit Management.  I took this accounting class, basic accounting for non-profit management.  One of the first things the professor said to us was, “You know you’re in a field that is filled with compassion.  Usually, you are working toward helping people.  It can be packed with emotion.  But you have to remember numbers are not emotions.  Numbers are tools.”  And I immediately thought how I wish someone would have told me that when I was twenty-three years old!  The numbers are neutral! 

In my financial partnership with my husband, I tend to be more of a spender than he is.  I think it’s going to be more fun if we have more stuff and do more things.  He tends to be more of a saver because he thinks we’ll be more secure if we have money in the bank. Because we approached from such different perspectives, we jokingly started something that we referred to as Financial Night.  I still remember that for most of our marriage, it was on Monday nights, and I just DREADED it!  Even Nancy remembers and testifies to my dread.  On financial night, we just went over everything:  what was due, what was left, what was upcoming.  Because a spender married a saver, this turned out to be an essential practice. We both learned from each other, and we both knew where we stood financially. While financial night at my house has relaxed over the years, we continue to have conversations.  I’m so aware of married friends, especially female friends, who are unaware of the money situation in their home and marriage.  We have had experiences walking with someone who was rather clueless as to how to start.  Together, Nancy and I encourage you to reevaluate.  

Nancy’s household has done it differently.  No weekly meetings!  Her conversations are oriented around paydays every couple of weeks.  In any long marriage, there are seasons.  Nancy and her husband trade off responsibilities.  There can be different ways to distribute the financial actions of the home, but what must be shared is a vision.  No one should have to carry the burden of planning and figuring things out, which can be a lot depending on circumstances.  These conversations give couples a chance to look at values.

A recent season for Nancy brought her to the remembrance of a key point of gratitude:  a simple statement reframes the financial conversation: “Here’s what we’ve been able to do!”  What you’ve been able to cover, to support, to do, is helpful information, especially when we tend to look at it in the negative context of what hasn’t been possible.  Look at everything that has been accomplished! 

Values impact planning and here are a couple of examples.  We set aside a higher proportion of income for travel because we attach high value to visiting family abroad.  We can track how close we are to our goal of visiting them and gives us joy in anticipating a trip.  We have created a mechanism for alignment with our values, values we decided on ahead of time, to make sure they happen. We are part of a scrappy little church here where we live.  As a church, we’ve decided to purchase an abandoned building downtown to create a space for the entire community.  Based on our values as a couple, we made a decision to support this effort financially.  That was not without thinking, praying, discussing, and even a little pain.  But it aligned with our values enough that we were willing to extend that pain point.  

When it comes to money, information is power.  Knowledge is power.  You can align what you are doing with your values, even if it’s basic family care all the way up to charitable donations.  There is a whole spectrum of ways to assign value to money and money to values.  

When the kids were younger, I would often head to Target and with my littles in the cart, scan the end caps for bargains.  My thinking was often, “Maybe I can find something to do with this.”  I have a lot of Target end-cap regrets.  Those were not values-based purchases for me.  (And hey if you value bargain hunting, I applaud you, but that's not my thing.  I was avoiding the pain of doing without, of loneliness, of filling time as a sometimes bored young mom.)  An article in the New York Times about values-based spending jumped out to me:

We do have another option to make values spending decisions that better align with our true selves.  Spending doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and with a little knowledge and planning, we can end up with statements that reflect a personal manifesto that we are proud to call our own.

Why not take a few moments to assess values, check your “checkbook,” your calendar, and your text messages, and see how your time, your money, and your resources are lining up with your values? 

POINTS OF GRATITUDE

I’m thankful for all those years of Financial Night.  Through tears, laughter, and many many years, we have learned to make decisions together.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

How is your spending in alignment with your values? How is it misaligned?

What is a practical step you can take to be more informed about your financial picture?

Are you a spender or a saver or somewhere in between?

Offering a Loving Welcome

The fifth installment in the Season of Love on Second Cup with Lynn and Nancy.

Looking at life through the lens of love, in Episode 17 of Second Cup with Lynn and Nancy, we talked about offering a loving welcome, in other words, hospitality.  It brings to mind a warm welcome and a gracious spirit when someone is glad to see you.  It’s not always a party, as Nancy wisely pointed out because some of the most hospitable people we know are not necessarily party planners.  Unsurprisingly, it has nothing to do with the china or the glassware or the floral displays.

What is key to offering a loving welcome so that others feel good when they walk in? Anticipation - you want them to know you’ve planned for them as you greet them warmly.  There are no awkward pauses. They can sense you were waiting for them to arrive. They haven’t interrupted but are welcomed in a clear, thoughtful way.

The key to offering a loving welcome?  It’s always about the other person.  As you plan to have someone over or get ready to host an event, consider what their experience will be.  This doesn’t have to be extravagant - a box of crackers, a block of cheese, and a cluster of grapes, and you are ready to welcome someone.  It’s not about the fanciness; it’s about the atmosphere you set. Nancy recently had a neighbor over to share a bottle of wine after months of trying to make it happen.  Nancy pulled out some jarred sauce, some frozen meatballs, and created a light Italian supper, and kept the emphasis on the guest.  She was in the mindset to be able to offer a warm welcome at a moment’s notice.

For me, as an introvert*, the best part of any gathering is the preparation.  I love getting everything ready to welcome guests, right down to the paper straws that Nancy most likely sent me.  But welcoming people is about so much more than setting the table. We had a party at our home the first Christmas we lived here.  We wanted to show welcome and appreciation for our neighbors.  And as the new people on the block, we were a little nervous.  We had the party, and for five years after until the pandemic cut our tradition short, we continued.  Here’s what I learned:  People want to contribute.  I told people bringing a dish to share was optional, but every single person brought something.  They want to feel part of it.  If someone asks what they can bring, let them!  Offer a suggestion!  Another suggestion, plan for safety.  We have some wide steps on our front porch and some older folks at the party, so we installed a handrail.  This provides some physical safety, just as important as the emotional safety you’re providing with your warm welcome.

It's okay to be good at this.  I used to get teased a lot, and people would call me “Martha Stewart” and not in a flattering way! Maybe I was overachieving a bit, but I think a little extra effort makes guests feel special when they get here. Nancy recalled a time when some of her co-workers were in our city for a big international event.  We hosted them at our home on New Year’s Day.  We opened the door big and wide and provided lots of food. They were far from home and found a coffee maker and a comfortable chair.  They were tired and needed to be nurtured and left to themselves.  Sometimes my introverted nature comes in handy!  Twenty years later some folks are still talking about it and that gives me such joy.  Those people stayed and stayed and stayed.  I sliced every piece of cheese and old Christmas salami at the end of the night. It wasn’t fancy, but it was a warm welcome when they needed one!

I love following people who are good at this hospitality thing.  We both love Brunch with Babs. She’s out there showing us how to live with charm. energy and graciousness.  She embodies all of this.  We also love Shauna Niequist too!  She encourages us to make it about the people, and her recipes are excellent.  Her book Present Over Perfect is great if you are looking for a reset in how you welcome people.  Highly recommend!  A newer book by Shannan Martin is called Start with Hello and it addresses the reciprocal nature of neighboring, like my neighbors who open their patio every Friday night for whoever can gather. 

If you haven’t done it for a while, make the effort and invite someone over.  Keep it simple!  Practice the simple art of offering a warm welcome in a loving way. 

*I’m an outgoing introvert so you might not guess I need time to recharge!

POINTS OF GRATITUDE

I’m grateful for my neighbors.  They share time and space and garden produce.  I know their names and their dogs’ names and love the friendly waves several times a day.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

What makes you feel most welcome at someone else’s home?

What is your go-to party snack or meal?

What’s the most important task to get ready for an impromptu gathering at your home?

Love for the Long Haul

The third installment in the Season of Love on Second Cup with Lynn and Nancy.

For Nancy and me, long marriages are our stories.  My husband, John, and I just celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary.  Yes, we married young, but not that young.  It’s been a long time since we've been together, and I couldn’t be more grateful.  Nancy and her husband, Tom, are just a year and a month behind us, so next summer they will celebrate 40 years of marriage as well.  

The other day, someone asked me if I had one word of advice on a long marriage, and I said “Commit.”  You’ve got to mean to stay, and barring emotional or physical harm, do everything in your power to do just that.  

This is not everyone's story and it doesn't mean it's the best story. It just happens to be our story. And just know that if this is not your story, we honor it and understand everyone's path is a little bit different. Recently I went out to lunch with a bunch of ladies from my neighborhood. It's a very social group out here where I live, and they're just lovely. And since it was close to my anniversary, I just started asking some questions. How did you meet your husband and how long have you been married? Best marriage advice.? And one thing I learned afresh is just how different everyone's story is.

So what struck me is the stories of how people met and how exceptional they are. And I wondered what was the unusual thing about the way Nancy met Tom. Nancy shared, “Well, what's unusual about it, and it played out really throughout our 38 years, is that I'm a native Floridian. I'm from Florida. Tom's from Illinois, and he’s very Midwestern. And when we met, I was living in Ohio, he was in Illinois, and we actually met in Indiana. So what's kind of unusual is that we were living in two different states, met in a third, and then little did he know that I was just very Floridian in the way I think and always wantied to come back here, which ultimately we have.”

The most unusual thing about when I met John, which was when we were in college, was that we actually lived across the street from each other, but we had never met. And then we met in a city that was away from where we went to school. It got me thinking that it is just all kind of magical.  It's very serendipitous.  And in the Christian worldview that Nancy and I have - mysterious in the way God moves and leads us to be together.

Even in the mundane days, there is a little bit of magic, but not it’s not always magical. We consume a lot of media that tells us it should be perfect and exciting. We saw Top Gun Maverick movie, and so you think your relationship should be something like Tom Cruise comes back from a day spent flying fighter jets, and then you take them out on the sailboat and you look like Jennifer Conley and your sweater tied around your shoulders and the sun's setting behind you and every day should just be like that. But it's really not.

That's just true of any part of our life. There's a lot of routine and mundane and functioning and interacting, especially in marriage.  Right now Tom and Nancy are in a season of both working remotely and they work a large part of the day in the same room.  Their desks actually face one another.  If it gets to be 5:30 in the afternoon, they might ask “Are you done?”  And the other says, “Yes,” and then they go to dinner or something.   So ordinary as is much of life, but at least for right now it's working and they are making the most of it. Sometimes we do have to be aware of the influence of social media and recalibrate our expectations. 

This long haul of being married is a marathon, not a sprint. And in a marathon at the start, everyone's excited and cheering and very optimistic about how the race is going to go. And there are points when that you reach this runner's high and everything feels great. But there are also just those points where you hit a hill.  There's a hill in the Boston Marathon called Heartbreak Hill.  Sometimes you're just tired and you just need a drink of water and you need to rest. And I think it's kind of a good analogy for what our really long happy marriages are happy over the long haul. But there are times when it's just really either mundane or even really hard.

Now, I'm not a marathoner. And five miles has been Nancy’s longest to date.  Still impressive!  But she doesn’t just go out and run five miles.  She had to train.   Build up from a 5k to a 5-mile race.  That's true of investing training into our marriage. How am I supposed to know how to live with another human being and to deal with conflict, to kind of know when to stand up and when to yield? The personal dynamics are rather expansive, aren’t they? Workshops, counseling, books, asking older mentors, seeking wisdom.  Find help and guidance. Put the effort in early on.  

Doesn't it hurt when you run? And the answer is absolutely, it hurts. It always hurts. And we expect it to hurt because who goes out and runs five miles and just one morning? So is living with another person, sacrificially, and giving and considering the needs of someone. I mean, all of these kinds of things are going to stretch us. And sometimes it could hurt because my partner's not perfect.

Back to my ladies’ luncheon,  I was asking for marriage advice at my luncheon today. And someone shared that  the best advice she heard came from Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the late Supreme Court Justice, who famously said, “Sometimes I just pretend to be deaf.” Sometimes I just need to let things go. I've learned, we've learned to recognize what matters, what's important, what is okay to let go. And I find that when I am focusing on the minutiae, the little things that annoy me, I need to maybe take a reset, maybe there's a pebble in my shoe, or I haven't had enough water, or I need an energy bar or something.

Knowing ourselves is essential.  Nancy shared that she’s aware that when stressed she becomes critical, and who can be on the receiving end of that?  It's Mr. Schneider. So she has learned to recognize that in herself, and he recognizes that as well. Part of training is better understanding of yourself and what your pressure points are, what those triggers can be, and then being honest about it and discussing that. It works both ways.

Keep laughing together, finding things that are funny, finding ourselves funny. When I can laugh at myself, that's the best way to get past a little rough patch in the road. Nancy agreed and during the course of our conversation shared, ‘ One of my top three things that I love most about my husband is his humor, his sense of humor and our shared laughter. I do think it's essential. Life's just too heavy. So we need to fight for the joy.”

Indeed.

Fight for the joy.  

POINTS OF GRATITUDE

I am grateful for my husband of forty years, and his commitment to give his very best.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

If you’re in a long-term relationship, what is a one-word key to success?

Mystery? Magic? or Serendipity? How do you describe things you can’t explain?

What helps you fight for the joy when life is heavy?

Expressing Love Through Creativity

There’s more to creativity than we think!  It’s not always about making something out of art supplies or planning the perfect party.  It’s helpful in problem-solving! A few years ago Nancy’s little family of four was visiting with her extended family, and they were out having a picnic, likely at the beach because those people love a shoreline.  I mean who doesn't?! They happened to be away from the house and the hotel and therefore had none of the typical problem-solving supplies.  

Now, this is a pretty active group,  and they are used to playing a lot of games. So after the sandwiches were consumed and the chips and dips were cleaned up, a game of flag football was about to begin.  But there was a problem because they had no ball. Not to be deterred, this group decided to do a survey of what they had in the car. Here’s the list:  duct tape, a towel, brown paper bags, and sandwich wrappers.  Nancy wasn’t sure who got the credit for this bold act of creativity, but about two to three minutes later, they enjoyed the very first game of what became “trash ball!”

Did it become a tradition?  Well, Nancy’s family still jokes about it.  It’s part of family lore.  And if they are all headed out to do something, they remind each other “Don’t forget stuff or we’ll have to play trash ball!” It’s become a bit of a measuring point for them. 

In the second season of Second Cup, Nancy and I talked about being intentional to highlight ways that we can better love our family, our friends, our neighbors, and the community at large.  We tagged it “The Season of Love.”  High on the list is being intentional with what we create and what we put out into the world. So we got to talking about the gift of creativity, a list of items or experiences that we can create that will help speak love and encouragement to others. And so Nancy asked me about problem-solving!

The first example that came to mind for me happened many, many years ago when I was a child. And I grew up on a farm. and for the longest time, it was just my brother and me (we have another brother who came along later) and most often my brother was often my only option for a playmate. We had nothing in common, as we each leaned toward stereotypical boy/girl interests. Little Lynn used problem-solving to figure out what he loved, which was baseball. He could spend hours throwing the baseball off the roof of the barn and catching it. And my love at the time was drama and making up plays so I convinced him to join me, and for a moment in time we became the announcers for the Chicago Cubs baseball team in our imaginary play. Now that was something I could get my brother to agree to play with me. Using the power of creativity,  I'd solved a problem for myself. 

And the application?  You have to look at what the other person really cares about. It's not just about solving a problem for yourself. It's how can I incorporate what the other person in this scenario really values? In Nancy’s case, people valued playing a game together, so they were willing to come together and do what it takes to create the equipment they needed to play the game. And for my brother and I, it had to do with baseball and dramatic play.

The other example was much more recent. I went to spend some time with my grandson who lives in another country and just to be the after-school care provider for a few days. And so as a grandmother for the first time, I packed up what my grandmother used to pack up, which was books and stickers and, and little activities that you do with your hands. 

Well, when I got there and we started playing after school, I realized that there was a much greater interest in running and jumping and climbing and that we were not really going to sit and do stickers. And so at that moment I just kind of started looking around and we made obstacle courses from what was there. And we would stick stickers on the wall and then run fast to grab them and then go stick them on the other wall. It was just sort of pivoting, another word maybe for creativity or problem-solving. And it was so much fun!

Sometimes it's very loving when you receive from the other person that that's not quite what they want to engage in. But you can easily pivot to make it work for both of you. By the way, this story refreshed Nancy’s memory about two-year-olds!  They do want to run fast and climb things!

Nancy used to drive through for an iced coffee on her way to work, and she would see the same ladies working the drive-through since her purchase happened at about the same time every day.  They were always very upbeat and encouraging to Nancy and acted as if her small purchase really mattered.  They treated her well and got her day off to a good start.  It inspired Nancy to reciprocate in an act of sharing love through creativity.  

So she picked up some flowers at a grocery store on her way that morning. And so when the server in the window handed Nancy the iced coffee, Nancy handed her some flowers along with a handwritten note.  This was a fun moment for Nancy, not only because they had been good to her and became a regular part of her morning, but just to see the joy on the employee’s face.  She looked and Nancy and said, “Oh I love you, girl!”  And Nancy said it back and there was a moment!  

That’s another opportunity to create a memory, to use something very routine, very ordinary. it's a little reminder to slow down enough to notice those opportunities.  With this simple act of creativity, Nancy created something extraordinary.  

POINTS OF GRATITUDE

Through creativity, we can make moments to encourage, uplift, engage grandchildren, comfort, and love others.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

What’s an example of creative problem-solving from your childhood?

When have you had to pivot to engage in successful play with a child or grandchild in your care?

Is there something creative you can do this week to show someone you care?