Learn from them and apply their lessons now.

"People over 65 were asked, 'If you could live your life over, what would you do differently?' They said three things: 1) 'I'd take time to stop and ask the big questions.', 2) 'I'd be more courageous and take more risks.', and (3) 'I'd live my life with purpose -- to make a difference.' You don't have to be an elder to ask yourself, 'What's my own bottom line?'"

--Richard Leider, founding partner of the Inventure Group

What are your life's big questions? Mine are simple, and they were suggested to me by my youngest son, Mark, when he was only 11 years old. He was seeking to learn certain things from me, and I had been failing him miserably up to that point in his life, but he was offering me another chance, and I grabbed it. His requests of 9 years ago have since become my core questions, around which I am building my life. First, who am I and what must I do to be truly happy in this life? And second, how do I learn how to love? Every conscious moment I spend on this earth is dedicated to the inquiry into those two fundamental questions. Regarding courage and risk-taking, I have learned that security is an illusion - it does not exist in the natural order of things - and that blindly pursuing the security of the future is a waste of the precious present, which is all that we can truly effect. Life is meant to be a bold and outrageous adventure. Regarding living with purpose, I have chosen the life of a revolutionary. I am a warrior of the heart. I measure my life's richness by the lives I touch, beginning with those of my family, friends, and chosen community - yes, that means you. You are my bottom line, and I am a rich man.

Get to reality!

"Everybody wants to know, 'What can I do?' We all want to save the planet, pick up the garbage, free our brothers and sisters, stop wars, and create the new more powerful millennium, 'but what can I do, seriously?' OK, seriously, 'GET TO REALITY!' Get to your own reality; become yourself, become incredibly high and real and courageously influence everyone around you with your authenticity, no matter how difficult it might be to do so."
-- Paul Williams

As busy human beings, we often find ourselves obsessing over "doing stuff" we deem important and real. After all, we have to be busy to be good, don't we? Often, while very busy, we're completely unaware of the undue stress we are causing others and ourselves and/or the ineffectiveness of our efforts in accomplishing our goals. And yet we strive on to get things done. Underneath all of this frenetic activity is a peaceful running river that contains our deepest truth. We're often too caught up in the surface turbulence to feel connected to that truth. When you take the time to dive underneath the surface, to see the world inside of yourself, you often connect to your own heartline, which connects you to every other living thing. Several of you are currently reading Tuesdays with Morrie upon my recommendation. I want to draw your attention to the little story about the waves, which speaks so eloquently on this subject of "doing so you don't crash":

"I heard a nice little story the other day," Morrie says. He closes his eyes for a moment and I wait.

"Okay. The story is about a little wave, bobbing along in the ocean, having a grand old time. He's enjoying the wind and the fresh air -- until he notices the other waves in front of him, crashing against the shore.

" 'My God, this is terrible,' the wave says. 'Look what's going to happen to me!'

"Then along comes another wave. It sees the first wave, looking grim, and it says to him, 'Why do you look so sad?'

"The first wave says, 'You don't understand! We're all going to crash! All of us waves are going to be nothing! Isn't it terrible?'

"The second wave says, 'No, you don't understand. You're not a wave, you're part of the ocean.' "

From Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

Remember, especially when you're feeling alone and scared of crashing, afraid that if you don't do something important you're going to die, that you are part of something so much bigger than yourself, and it doesn't need you to be anything but yourself.

Reversing the natural tendency

"We tend to judge others by our first and most emotional interpretation of their actions, through the lenses of our own life experience, whereas we tend to judge ourselves by our best intentions. Let's try something new - like viewing others' actions through the lens of our highest and most thoughtful interpretation of their best intentions, while judging ourselves by our actions alone. I think we will find that the world, and all of our relationships in it, will show up quite differently through this simple reversal of natural tendency. Give it a try with someone important to you."

I remember writing this 5 years ago when a small group of us were first thinking up a collaborative project that we ended up calling the Forever Spring Collaborative, with its roots at the horse farm I have just returned from, Forever Spring Farm. While there this time, B. and I reflected on the fact that nothing ever actually "got done" out of those meetings, but that they had changed each of our lives in dramatically positive ways, and that its spirit is still very much alive in our lives and in our relationships with others whose lives we have touched with its magic. This project turned out to be a laboratory where we experimented with new ways to see each other and the world, and the whole world has changed ever since.

Long live the spirit of FSC.

Going crazy

"Maybe he was crazy. Maybe crazy is what they call anybody who's got magic in them after they're no longer a child."

-- Robert R. McCammon, reminiscing about his "Granddaddy Jaybird" in Boy's Life

I love being told how crazy I've gone in the last several years. It's happened quite a number of times recently, and each time it was said with whimsical appreciation and pleasure. I am delighted and honored to be considered this way. Now that I'm back from a great vacation with my wife and youngest child, in which we visited wonderful friends and beautiful places, I feel replenished - and crazier than ever. There is a significant subset of you out there who are about to move through some exciting (and scary) transitions, and you are counting on me to be there for and with you - not to fix your problems, manage your stress, or remove your obstacles, but more to be a relentless stand for the effective, healthy, and magically powerful person you (and those who love you) know you to be - someone to listen to you as you discover your own "craziness" and not run away in fear or judgment. It takes an absolutely crazy person to take such a bold and outlandish stand in the midst of the chaos of life - you know, the "real world" - and I am here to tell you that I am just the crazy man for that job. It's good to be home!