Day 596: Que rica la vida

Hoy me han pagado para comer y jugar, y para hacer algo que ayuda realmente a la gente. Como la vida se puede estar mejor que eso?

http://woobox.com/iajo63/90n3wc
Eso. Me ayudais a ganar? Click, click = yo feliz. Yo soy la dos en el primer nivel.  Y si quieres hacer coaching conmigo en espanol, lo vamos a hacer... gratis... 

Gracias. Thank you.

I played with Frankers and clients. We laughed. I ate courgettes. Each one made me moan a little bit. I ate meatballs too. I haven't eaten those willingly in about ... ever... and these ones were sweet and firm and herby and gorgeous. I made little noises for them too. 

I loved the people I worked with, both colleagues and delegates. They were all so open and funny and warm. We ate some more in the evening. Salad, salad and pudding. I am full, in so many ways. 

Not least, of course, this voting competition... it's been SUCH a thing. So many poeple are being delicious about it. I shall expand on this. For them moment, I'm floating cells on a river of rich gratitude for all this help.
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Day 595: Silk and Frank

Warm and silky water saying yes to my skin and my soul this morning. Wonderful women laughing and saying yes to the water. Diving, both the off-the-edge kind and the ducking under kind. Both lovely. The former a little thigh-slappy. Woke me up, though.

A playful joy of a job today with Frank Partners in all their juicy glory - and a real discovery on the train on the way home. I LOVE this work. We played with personal impact and difficult conversations today. I love Frank's way - honest, playful and simple. Brilliant. Loved it. 

A chat with beloved Lilley. I miss her, and I didn't make that clear enough. And one with fine, fine, fine Tanya Hunt. She's ACE. She filled me up with glee. 

And all those wonderful people supporting me on my quest for votes. They count and they don't count. What counts is the playfulness, the support, the generosity, the connections with people I haven't spoken to in ages... the competition is the vehicle.. the side-effect is so much richer than I could have imagined. I am humbled and full of learny tastiness. 

Thank you too for a view that takes my breath away in our new place  -  from Alexandra Palace all the way over to almost Canary Wharf... the huge, flat expansiveness of East London, all glittery shiney in our eyes. Phoooooo. Come and visit! You are welcome. 

http://woobox.com/iajo63/90n3wc... always

Glee Sloth

Well THIS is new... 

I was dreading asking for help from people, even for something so simple as a vote for my  scholarship video. 

And it's been amazing. Strangers have voted (looking for the one in the brown jumper who looks drunk/like a turtle in the still). Friends, acquaintances, enemies* have voted. I suspect some animals have been involved. 

This is how happy I am

Seriously, though... people have taken the time to log on every day to click, to share it with friends, to ask for extra details if they weren't sure which one I was, to watch the video, sometimes, and to leave such rich, encouraging, reinforcing comments and compliments. I'm SO grateful. 

* I blatantly made that last one up. 


It's reminded me of lots of things. Firstly, that what you're afraid of usually turns out to be so much richer than you might have expected... sure, it was uncomfortable at first, and there's still a twinge, but it's great, and it's worth it, and I'd never have tasted such generosity and warmth from all these people had I been too scared to ask. Thanks too to Fiona Sturrock for an out-of-the-blue email that gave me a kick and a boost to get on the case and be creative about it. You rock, Fiona. And there's more to come. 

Oh and I done another dive. Two. They were splashy.

It's also reminded me that people are LOVELY and that there's power in just that knowing, when it sits alongside you like a friend. Thanks to Loose Baker, who proved that today with a wonderful story of opening to a stranger instead of letting fear and socially encouraged prejudice get in the way. An inspiration. 

And a call today has reminded me how much I adore this work. I love it! It lets me swim in it. It feels like home. 

For all these things, and so many more today, thank you. 

Utter

Ha. Just made myself laugh out loud by writing CUNT on my business card template, as my job title. 

SO childish. Some things don't change. Not sure I want them to. 

Yeah, but I won't, though.

Turtle-faced Video, with gratitude-fuelled click option!

Thank you. Every time you vote, your soul gets bigger. Or mine does. Or maybe ours.
xxx

I Done a Dive

Big, brave sploosh

Yesterday, despite huge fears, I asked a friend for help and faced my fears by diving into the pond with her. Twice. I took it on the thighs each time. I have thighs like barricades, though, so that was okay. 

Today, I done it again. This time, I slipped in like a hot knife in butter, thighs all gentle. And I did it on my own. I've been TERRIFIED of this for such a long time (er... about 33 years). And now it's done, and every day it gets easier. I enjoyed it (both days). The very first time, I nearly cried - not from thigh-slap... just from being moved that something I'd made so shadow-big was so quickly done. I still had to leap the fear hurdle the second time, and again today, but the hurdles are getting lower (thanks, Lifeguard Jo, for the support and the hurdle story).

vote for me

Today, in Frankfurt airport, a man bbrriiiipped at me. I had just made a pigeony yawn noise, which was long and sounded a bit like that. I was in a deserted bit of the airport and there were only a few people about. This man brriiipped first and then grinned all big before disappearing through a door. He was dressed a bit like Mr Benn, actually... ooh... I SO should have followed him.
And last night, I posted my 'please give me a CTI scholarship' video. Here it is. 


Here's why, too:
I really want to help people find the thing they really want to do and the person they really want to be so they can enjoy kicking ass doing good and happy things for the rest of their lives - even... no... ESPECIALLY those people who don't believe it's possible for them. 

VOTE FOR MEEEE!

Help me get there!

Vote to help me win my scholarship!

Click. Vote. Share with friends. Repeat daily. (and I look VERY like a turtle in the still - worth a look, believe me)

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If you would do this today (and tomorrow, and any day you think of it), I would be so very... so very what?... Grateful!

Thank you.

Day 591: Massive, Life-changing Fail

A grumble of pugs
(that's their collective noun, apparently)

What a useful, telling, life-changing fail I have been undergoing. If I was partial to emoticons (which I am so enormously not), I'd have put one in the title... to give you a clue to how brilliant this is.

Following the instruction of a book, I agreed (with myself, and now with you) to speak only well, aspirationally, postively about what I'm doing, building, creating. And about other people, of course. Where my focus goes etc...

And I find, to my shock and surprise, that I'm a massive grumblepunnet. What are the things I talk about? The things I'm having challenges with; (ha... just started to list them but fuck it, no. I'm not doing that right now). Some of them I tell even though I feel fine about them - hmmm... why?  Some of them give me value in a perverse way. Others make me a victim (I could have sworn I gave that up). Others are just... well... habits. 

I'm having a life-changing moment.
Don't fuck with me.

This is MINT, this stuff. This is RICH. This is what I need to know. Shall I waste time fretting about how I the person I thought I was can have been getting so caught up in all of this, despite all the gratitude and the delight at small things?

No. Well maybe a little bit, but I've had my quota now... it's time to move on. 

On an entirely separate note, how incredible in is Iggy Pop's voice? Now there's a voice that's lived! I'm in a cafe in Highgate, surrounded by really, really reaaaalllly stylish furniture and beautiful paintings, writing this post and listening to Iggy Pop gravel his way through whatever it is he might be talking about. For the second time today, I speak this word out loud: MINT!