White House Summit Working Families

In June the White House hosted a Summit on Working Families.  As I talk to our employees and visit other employers it is evident that the work-life challenges are more intense.  Most kids now grow up in households where all parents work.  Women and men are both struggling to meet their work and family responsibilities and many workplaces have not kept up with their work flexibility and access to leave needs.  The sandwich generation is being squeezed more by grown kids who can’t find work and eldercare, which result in high stress, obesity, and unhealthy lifestyle choices.  This is not about balancing work life and home life, but about having the energy to be effective at both.  Energy gained and maintained through daily wellness practices. 

Louisiana Community Coffee Moment

I’ve always been an early riser and have fond memories of the Louisiana Community coffee smell as I made my way through our kitchen to find my mom who was usually sitting by the glass sliding doors at the back of the house watching the birds.  Mornings in Chile were special because of a family of pigeons that perched on vines across from our balcony.  I’d watch as they’d walk across the vines picking up breakfast along the way, but it was their cooing and its calming and centering effect that brought me to our balcony each morning.  How do you start your day?  Consider slowing down and taking a few moments to pause, creating a centering moment filled with gratitude and intention to being present.    

Palemo Soho

Buenos Aires was experiencing a week of mild weather with crystal clear skies.  Our hotel was in a neighborhood called Palemo Soho which is known for its cafes, restaurants, and alternative street culture.  We had arrived on a 3-day holiday, being celebrated with street musicians, and festive outdoor markets.  The first morning, as I tried to find my way back to the hotel, I quickly got lost in music that was everywhere, and streets painted in multiple colors.  There are times in our lives we need to get lost, break away from life patterns that have kept us from inhabiting the story of our days.  Life’s not so much about intensity, but about intention and mindfulness.  Get lost today. 

Recoleta Cemetery – Who’s to Say

Lots of memory moments on our Buenos Aires trip and one was a walk through the Recoleta cemetery, one of the world’s most extraordinary graveyards.  It was the mausoleum of a 26-year old that died on her honeymoon in an avalanche in Austria that struck my heart.  She stands as a bronze statue in her wedding dress outside her tomb with her dog.  But what stole my heart was the cat that our guide told us can be found most days at the foot of the statue.  Just a graveyard cat who has found a sunny spot?  Who’s to say, but I know for me as I lightly petted his ears his contentment and love was real.  Things death can’t even take away. 

Life-Songs

Last week my morning readings were taken out of Nipo’s, Book of Awakening, and day after day it opened to page 291- Growing Inside the Song.  The reading started with a poem by Emerson, “What lies behind us / and what lies before us / are tiny matters / compared to / what lies within us.”  I worked at its meaning all week without much progress, until today as I read an email about Peggy’s death last week, less than two weeks after her cancer diagnosis.  Now the words have meaning as I feel Peggy’s gift she left inside of all of us, touched by her specialness. Peggy served as Manager of the CEO Cancer Gold Standard program and taught us all about the power of believing, patience, and persistence.  Honor the life-song of others growing inside you today.    

Saint-Exupery Night Flight

It was just a two hour flight from Santiago to Buenos Aries, but my excitement grew knowing we’d fly over the snow covered Andes that had been tantalizing me for almost a week.  In the morning they’d rise out of the Santiago smog and by noon proudly paint the horizon with their boldness.  I sat by the window and watched the city slowly disappear.  The plane banked and snow covered peaks lightly brushed with clouds sprang into view, and I was instantly lost in 40 year old dreams.  The summer before college I had read Saint-Exupery Night Flight (1931), and now I was his co-pilot as we made the lonely mail run across the Andes to Buenos Aires.  Never give up your dreams!    

South American Tobacco Addiction

My voice resounded with a passion that surprised me; we had walked the streets of Santiago the night before, and were overcome by the number of smokers.  I’d swept my left hand across the audience, stepped to the edge of the stage, and said, “Of the 1 billion smokers of the world, 80% reside in low to medium income countries like Chile, and represent millions of future deaths, years of family hardships dealing with tobacco related chronic disease, and lives made slaves to nicotine addiction.”  I was silent for what felt like a few minutes looking at the audience, watching the faces of understanding and pain.  I could feel the tears on my face and the faces of others as the world burden of tobacco swept across the room.  I wiped my tears, “We have to do better We can’t allow tobacco to claim another generation of children and grandchildren, their tobacco free life journeys depend on us!” 

Bolivia Streaked Horizon

We’d boarded at 9pm, sleep was hard, but exhausted I finally dosed off.   I woke as we were crossing the Argentina Bolivia borders and felt a strong pull to open the plane window shutter.  Slowly raising it, instantly a deep reddish orange streak of horizon raced across my view and I was mesmerized by the thought of its energy circling the world.  I’ve experienced this many times before when flying, but each time always feels like a first time, filled with the excitement of watching the birth of a new day above the clouds, touched by the colors of heaven.  Sleeping passengers around me began to stir as the soft rays of morning danced across them.  And I realized it’s the sharing of these moments that make them special.  Share special moments today. 

Mine Hotel Buenos AiresBuenos Aries

It is the first morning in Buenos Aries and the 7th day of our South American travels. One full day of travel and we arrived in Santiago Chile Monday evening, and didn’t wake till noon Tuesday. Wednesday, I spoke to 450+ individuals about culture of health and most of Thursday we visited with an MDACC sister hospital about wellness and survivorship. Friday we rested, packed, and Saturday flew to Buenos Aries. The waves that have been cresting and soaking me finally subsided last night, and as I sit in the courtyard the stillness of the pool reflects my deep spiritual calmness and anchor of my wellbeing. Remember your spiritual anchor today as you ride the waves of your journey.

MD Andeson Survivorship Conference

Survivorship Conference Registration

Almost 8 years ago my wife & I sat across from my urologist & he said, “Mr. Baun there is no easy way to say this, but you have aggressive prostate cancer”.  This was my first day as a cancer survivor; living with, living through, & living beyond cancer.  What I’ve learned is that survivorship is not just about me, but also includes my family, friends, & caregivers.  The MD Anderson Network Cancer Survivorship Conference is Sept 19-20 & offers break sessions about thriving in a cancer journey.  The keynote is Olympic gold medalist & cancer survivor Shannon Miller.  Touched by cancer?  Attend the conference & learn to thrive with the touch of MD Anderson’s caring community.     

Spiritual Presence

The blinking bike light caught my attention, so I slowed down and he crossed the street before I made my turn.  My mom was born in 1914, died of cancer in her early 50s, and never learned how to ride a bike.  But she fished and picked apples at her dad’s farm, and showed me how to ride her sled down the farm hill.  She taught John Glenn English in college, and crossed the Pacific in a huge transport ship holding me as a baby to join my dad in Tachikawa Japan.  I can’t read a Robert Frost poem without hearing her voice and feeling her love for words.  This morning I caught her spirit in a blinking bike light and honor her with my tears as I write these words.  Honor your spiritual life today by recognizing its presence. 

Kindness

The last few weeks have been a blur of work and preparation for my talks next week at the Corporate Well-Being Conference, and Clinica Alemana de Santiago, Chile.  It seems like the more I get done, the more I have to do.   We all have experienced what Mark Nepo refers to as “unexpected surges of kindness”.  Yesterday as my world spun a little too fast several random moments of kindness appeared and together they gradually stopped my spinning.  It’s the random, unrehearsed, acts that reach deep into our impatient souls and remind us of the gentle healing power of kindness.  May kindness be a part of your day.      

Grace Filled Stillness

Yesterday, I met a couple about my age sitting in the waiting room from Alabama; we had a playful conversation about the Bear Bryant and Charlie Mac football years, and then talked about our cancers.  He was facing his 4^th cancer and had come to MD Anderson fighting with hope.  As he described his journey, it was in the stillness between his words that I saw the calmness in his eyes, and in this calmness you could feel the grace empowering his courage and hope.  A nurse called my name, and we both said, “God bless”, at the same time, and I walked into my treatment reveling in a stillness filled with grace.  Live in grace filled stillness today. 

Life Flow

It’s an amazing 3-4 hour “life flow” experience watching my blood being removed through one IV, and then returned through an IV in my other arm.  I’m always a little tired after the procedure, so Friday MaryBeth drove us to the lake house for a relaxing weekend.  All weekend I couldn’t help but think about the flow of our lives, and how hard I’ve worked to maximize the flow of time.  Sunday I stood in a flower bed surrounded by swarms of butterflies and realized that life flow is born from rest time, dream time, spiritual time, and time made sacred by living with the moment, not from managed moments.  Today let life flow.   

Leukapheresis Provenge Treatment II

Been there, done that.  We all know the feelings that surround these words.  My 1st & 2nd Army parachute jumps were so very different.  1^st jump I was #1 jumper standing in the door waiting for the jump masters command.  He said go, and I hesitated thinking, “I could die doing this”, and then his boot hit my rear end and I was out the door.  The same day I jumped a jet.  I was the 5^th jumper and remember getting sucked out the door – no time to really think, the jump was pure reflex.  I’ve been reading Embrace Release Heal by Leigh Fortson and her words have moved me to be more open to my inner wisdom.  Visualization of my supercharged immune system attacking my cancer cells has become a daily practice, an intuitive reflex.  Today starts my 2^nd round of supercharging my immune system; embrace your inner wisdom today.