The Wall

I woke up yesterday dreaming of The Wall, one of the most visited memorials in Washington DC. 246 feet 9 inches long with its highest tip 10.1 feet high, tapering to 8 inches at both ends with 58,272 names etched in stone. Its reflective qualities bring past and present together and remind every visitor of the ultimate sacrifice soldiers have paid for our freedom. 1st Year, I could see it in the distance / like a coiling snake, but its soundless cries kept me away // 2nd Year, as I walk through the tree line / all I could hear was Johnson’s cries and feel Frank’s cold hand // 3rd Year, I really tried / but I couldn’t find my way / there were too many tears // 4th Year, I walked the mall till dusk / finally stopped at the flags around the Washington monument / and waited for the comfort of darkness to cry alone // 5th Year, “Mister” / she was wiping my tears / “come with me and talk to my dad” // Too many tears / she takes my hand and walks me to the wall / past thousands of names // We stop / “I come every year; just to tell my dad / how proud I am for what he did” // She takes my hand / and runs my fingers across her dad’s name // I am now a part of the wall and the wall is now a part of me // - Captain William B. Baun, Army

Work Life Journey

“It’s not what you achieve, but who you become (The Only Way to Win, Jim Loehr 2012).  I’m 65 years into my work life journey or story – where are you?  All of us have will have moments in our life stories that become the memories that define who we are, how we will respond to life, where we are going.  I remember the day I held the first soldier to die on my command and feeling the deep burden of leadership.  We all have life stories, some hidden deep inside or recurring nightmares, others when recalled make us smile.  What’s important is what we learned from these experiences, and how we apply it to our life journey.”  These are my opening words I jotted down for a talk I give this week, after viewing the sunrise Saturday morning and experiencing the birth of a new day.  How well do you live your life story? 

Rainbows and Rain

I woke up in a spin. Everyone on the ground was looking up, frozen in place as we watched what we thought we’d never ever see happen, a parachute that was not opening and looked like a long cigarette roll. Like all of us he was just a kid. A tall, thin kid, who wore glasses, and had a funny laugh that made you smile. Frozen on the ground we watched him fall at a rate of 22 ft. per second, and there was nothing we could do. As a passion driven person, one of the hardiest lessons I’ve had to learn in life is to step back at times and just let life happen. Was it John Lennon who said, “To see the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain”? Some days I have to remind myself it just not my turn to drive.

Listen to Your Heart

It was the summer after I graduated from high school and I was working at a summer camp in New Hampshire for boys from the Boston ghettos. All came with real life issues, some in handcuffs, some in wheelchairs, and many without parents. I had my own real life issues - my mother would die of cancer the next year, and I had friends that were fighting in Vietnam. The day I got the letter, I had just worked through a mild seizure with a wheelchair bound epileptic in my cabin. My stress level was high, and then I read the letter, a friend had died in Vietnam. I walked to the camp office and immediately punched a hole through the wall. The camp director took me for a walk, listened, and then said, “Billy, life is going to happen, learn to let go of your anger by listening to your heart.”

Weed Pulling

In 1968, 4 of us headed out to Washington to work in a Green Giant Pea factory.  Two really didn’t really need the money and had only come along for the ride, but Teddy and I needed the money to help pay for college.  On our days off, Teddy and I would sit on the steps of the country store in Dixie Washington, and farmers would stop and hire us for a 10-12 hour day at $100.  It was usually hard and dirty work, but some days we walked the wheat fields and just pulled weeds.  This morning, I woke up having a soulful, introspective moment pulling weeds that were starting to choke out my daily joy.  Do you have some weeds that need pulling today?

Far Far Away

Saturday, I flew to Las Vegas to be a speaker at the Medical Tourism conference.   The trip started with a window seat where I could watch the landscape change as we flew west, and in a way that’s where I stayed.  My room was in Caesars Palace and opulence does not go far enough to describe the six towers, casino, pool, food, and conference areas.  But my mind never left the grandiosity and natural wonder of the Grand Canyon formed 70 million years ago, and to get lost in its wonder, look beyond seeing, and grasp for things beyond my reach.  Lao Tzu, father of Taoism, said “Wonder into wonder, existence opens”.  I took a trip to Vegas on Saturday, but ended up far far away. 

Stories that Inspire 1st Steps to Sustainable Change

The sunset, after the rain storm yesterday, stirred up memories of the first time I saw the red rock cathedral like towers and steeples in the Garden of the Gods. A few hours of hiking and climbing around in these massive structures gave me memories that have become a part of my internal story I’ve relived a thousand times. Internal stories inspire and influence our actions and when shared, the actions of others. He told me his 23 year old daughter had been diagnosed with lung cancer, I asked, “how long had she smoked”, he cried and finally said, “she never did, I was the smoker in our family”. I looked around the room, many were thinking about how their choices affect others, maybe, just maybe my story would help someone take a first step to sustainable change.