A Poem for My Father

heavy as honey
full as an ocean
the waves from your throat
reverberate,
rotating every cell
as they travel through my spine
into my core

thick as rain
smooth as the skin behind your ears
the wisdom from your past
seeps into my present thoughts
lifting the dense fog in my mind

where there was black and grey
in an instant there is clarity
colors combining
now only white exists

as each vulnerability is exposed
my inner self rises higher and higher
until I am no longer in my stiff chair
but flying above the conversation
seeking a place to
re-evaluate
re-examine
re-arrange
my faulty conclusions

Weightless contemplation
is the un-seen side effect
of your tone.

A poem for T.H.

In the darkness,
you reach over to feel
my lips as you toss crunchy,
salty, sweet pieces of your heart
into my mouth.
While the plot is moving forward,
we are nose to nose;
and I'm not making it easy on you.


In the absence,
you trace my life-line with your fingertips,
soft and moist, thick with skin and bone.
I feel younger with each stroke,
like you are removing the heavy years
with every gentle graze,
until I am a virgin Cinderella,
and you my handsome prince,
the hero anxious to kiss my hand.
Though we practice lifts like ballroom dancers
between aisles of greeting cards,
I feel like we are at the finest banquet
experiencing our first taste of movement,
with saffron petticoats reflected in gold trimmed mirrors.


Out of the light,
with only my toes keeping me on earth
and your lips pulling me toward heaven,
I feel a glimpse of eternity
in the wonder
of a first kiss.

"By their fruits ye shall know them"

Part I

The light in me is often hard to see
Not always am I crystal clear.
The disguise is heavy, but I've grown
to cherish its weight in my bones.
When I see the light in you,
and how easily you share its truth,
hope rises and forces the mask to flake
from my skin, like little seeds
sprouting greens through dark soil.
I thought that I woud teach you.
Now I'm the over-confident Senior,
learning from the Freshman how to
open up and let the light into
my core.

Part II

As I kiss the sugar off your lips,
weightlessness envelopes me.
How can I know so little
(and feel even less)
when I'm expected to be the opposite.
I wonder,
what will the fruits
of our friendship taste like?
Sweet?
Bitter?
Most likely, bitter-sweet -
life's favorite flavor.
If only all my future loves
could be as warm as your
southern accent in my ear.

How She Does It

I just finished reading, "How She Does It" by Margaret Heffernan. I really enjoyed her tone-of-voice and clever insights about what it's like to be a female entrepreneur and run your own business -- something I've thought about doing. I learned alot about how I work from reading this book. I tend to be more masculine in my emotional and communication styles, so it was good for me to be able to learn from other people's life stories and see how I can embrace my femininity not only at work, but in life. I highly reccommend it to anyone serching to improve their business - male or female. And if I ever do get the courage to start my own company, I'll refer back to these critical lessons.

Pattern recognition is essential. Broad peripheral vision will keep you better informed than market research.

Intuition, empathy, and a sense of zeitgeist are mission-critical talents. Recognize them, reward them, hone them. People with these talents are much harder to find than number crunchers. **Zeitgeist is capturing the spirit of your time, before the market realizes it's time.

Business isn't rational, and companies are living organisms, not machines. Don't expect them to perform like machines.

A successful company is built on values and a sense of purpose. People want to contribute to something bigger than themselves.

Leadership is orchestration, not command. The true test of leaders may be how little they need to do.

Besides having a market to sell to, culture is the most important thing in business. Nurturing people is the way that companies build value out of nothing.

Great cultures turn personal values into process. It is how cultures survive their founders.

Service is ennobling, not demeaning. Customers are the only source of revenue, and everything else is an expense.

Mistakes are learning. Those who don't make mistakes don't make anything.

Be a good planner, but a brilliant improviser. Success hinges on handling surprises, not denying them.

Asking for help is a sign of strength. If you can't accept help, your business will never be smarter than you are.

Families develop professional talents. They aren't competition, but sources of education and perspective.

External commitments enhance managerial excellence. All work and no play makes both Jack and Jill stupid and burned out.

To understand the market, you have to spend time in it. Every minute you aren't at your desk, you can be picking up signals.

Emotion is not weakness. It is inevitable, honest, and an energy source. Recruit people with emotional intelligence who have and inspire passion.

Sustainability is the true hallmark of business success. Profits matter more than revenues.

Stories are us. They're more articulate and more memorable than numbers.

Business is one way of making the world a better place. It is about contributing, not consuming.

Business doesn't follow rules.

Crashes in Cars

Life is precious.

Fenders are not.

After being in a car crash yesterday afternoon, I am so grateful to be alive!

The accident was more traumatic than harmful, no one was injured and we did not hit another car, but I know that the outcome could have been much worse. If any one of the circumstances were different, (i.e. there was a pole in our way, or a heavy semi coming the opposite direction) then I would have been seriously injured or paralyzed or killed. But thanks be to God, I only have a scratch on my foot and a sore neck from bracing myself.

Getting in an accident is a humbling experience. It wakes us from the deep sleep of invincibility. We are forced to recognize how fragile we are and how little control we actually have in the outcomes of the universe. After the shock subsides, all we can do is brush off the dust, pick up the pieces, and thank God for the blessing of His protection. I wonder if He measures our sincerity by how long afterwards we continue to drive cautiously. Or by how long it takes for us to forget how dangerous the potential weapon between our fingers we casually call a "steering wheel" can be.

And if He does pay attention to our feeble attemts at repentance, at changing bad driving habbits, what causes Him to stretch forth His hand a second or third or 100th time? Hopefully, it's a combination between our faith, His compassion and His mercy.