IT'S A GIRL!

Heather Anne Spivey glided ever so beautifully out of my wife's body and into our hands (and into her life) this morning at 4:27am.

We are beside ourselves, and I am speechless.

More later.

Love,

Jim

The fun of mountain-climbing, without clinging to the mountain

Everyone wants to be on top of the mountain, safe and secure, but all the excitement, happiness, and growth occurs while climbing. If you've reached the top of your particular mountain, it's time to jump off and find the next mountain to climb and, while you're climbing that mountain, slipping and struggling every step of the way, remember to:

"Let your test become your testimony; let your mess become your message."

-- Tim Storey

Yesterday was an important day to remember a man who really got these subtle points some 30 years ago. He gave a rousing speech that moved the world on yesterday's date in 1963, letting his personal test become his testimony and the mess he found himself and the world in become his message, and it included these powerful words, sent to me by a dear friend yesterday morning:

"I have a dream today. ... I have a dream that one day every valley shall be engulfed, every hill shall be exalted and every mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

... I have a dream.

... When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, 'Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.'"

-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

So, we are all in this together, this collective mountain-climbing adventure, and none of us are any higher up than anyone else in the grand scheme of things, and yet we all have meaningful, relevant, and timely stories to share that help all of us all grow and learn and better climb our own personal "mountains of the moment." And in the end, the mountains themselves don't really mean anything; they will be "made low" before God in due time. The notion of stressfully competing for the top spot, to be the best, playing "King of the Hill," is a child's game and no longer serves our common interests. We are better than this - not better than each other, but better than our previous selves. This is a time in which we must all learn to lift ourselves up, and to lend a hand to our brothers and sisters, by offering our testimony of faith and messages of hope to each other - to support each and every one of us in our journey to our shared destination of a better world for all.

I offer this message in honor of the 4 profound exchanges I had with, first D.M., then C.D., then G.T., then G.B. yesterday. Gentlemen, you move and inspire me, with your testimonies and your messages, and I love you very much. We are each on our own unique mountain, and yet we honor each other fully in the shared challenge of the climb, and our words of brotherhood echo throughout the valley for all to hear.

SoulBlaze

"Little ideas that tickle and nag and refuse to go away should never be ignored, for in them lie the seeds of destiny."

-- Farmer Hoggett, in the movie, "Babe"

"Some people want to live within the sound of chapel bells, but I want to run a mission a yard from the gates of hell."

-- John Wesley

I found these two quotes in an obscure little website called SoulBlaze.com - "Welcome to the Revolution" (how interesting), and they capture the nature of my initial discovery and ongoing experience of my life's purpose - both how it came about years ago and how it feels today. And "SoulBlaze" says it all as an expression, because my soul feels ablaze with passion and commitment for my work. I got "tickled and nagged" about this calling for years before "scratching the itch" and surrendering. And then I found that I don't tend to hang out with perfect people (as if there are any), in perfect, pretty places (no matter where we might meet), but rather with real people in perfect, purifying pain - people struggling to break free from the fire of their own arrogance, laziness, and weakness. I relate to these people personally and love them with all my heart. This is me and my fight we're talking about. The fight is a good one, and it cleanses and heals me, but it requires daily discipline and rigor, so hanging out in this place on a regular basis develops these qualities in me while inviting others to come along for the ride (the "Welcome to the Revolution" connection), and I am thankful that they come to keep me company, and to learn for themselves. And this is not about "dwelling" in the pain indefinitely, but rather about being able to "be" with it for as long as it requires of me. I used to run away from pain or ugliness, my own or anyone else's, thinking that it would steal my ability to experience beauty and joy in my life. Quite the contrary; I've learned that it brings beauty and joy into sharper focus as my tears wash the complacency and resignation from my eyes.

Loving leadership

"Leaders who have their accountability built into and maintained through carefully cultivated personal relationships are far less apt to go astray or compromise their integrity than those who have only hierarchical, 'official' relationships. Why? Because it is much easier to walk away from an organization than it is from people you love and respect."

I have to laugh at people who tell me that you can't be "friends" with your subordinates - that, after all, "business is business," as if leadership really depended on maintaining some carefully calculated distance between you and the people you lead (maybe so that you can treat them like machine parts and still live with yourself). What a clever cop-out that is. That way you never have to put yourself on the line for real human beings - for people who depend on you for their livelihood. You can be cold-hearted and mechanical in making those tough decisions that "good managers" must make in a pinch. These same people will often call "caring for others" being "soft." Well, I don't know how they've defined friendship or love in their lives, but for me it is the hardest work there is, and the most powerful by far. Truly caring for the well-being of other human beings is brutally difficult, because first you have to grow up and get over yourself (a really big job for most of us), and you have to do this while living in a self-centered, self-serving society that does not "reward" this growth in obvious, externally visible ways. The rewards are invisible, internal, and deeply personal. In my experience, there is nothing "harder" than putting your heart on the line for others, being 100% accountable to them for your every leadership action, and there is nothing "softer" than offhandedly claiming that "business is business" and using that as an excuse for being a distant, cold-hearted task-master. Fortunately, I believe most of this kind of leadership behavior is "learned" and stems from ignorance and/or habit, not callousness or cruelty. This opens the door for new learning opportunities and the development of new leadership habits that can help make whole lives, and the whole world, work better.

Calling on life to come

"Life's splendor forever lies in wait about each one of us in all its fullness, but veiled from view, deep down, invisible, far off. It is there, though, not hostile, not reluctant, not deaf. If you summon it by the right word, by its right name, it will come."

-- Franz Kafka

This applies to our "baby-in-waiting," as well as to each of our lives' highest visions. Each is a new life waiting to be born, if only we will say the right word. My word for our little baby: WELCOME! I will be catching you right as you enter this new life, and any day now, introducing you to your eager family, who will know you as Heather Anne or Tyler James Spivey. Come reveal yourself, little one, we are ready for you!

Celebrating my wife

"My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me."

~ Winston Churchill

It is literally only days now before our new baby is born, and I want to take a moment to honor and celebrate my fabulous wife. She has been such a trooper through the long hot Houston summer, and she is so ready and organized for this baby's delivery, and she is so powerfully supported by her wonderful Mom's Support Group, and she is just so damn beautiful, as the attached clearly shows.

I am such a big, adoring fan of yours, baby!

Love,

Me

As the training continues (Feb. & Aug. - what a difference)

"Training is principally an act of faith. The athlete must believe in its efficacy; he must believe that through training he will become fitter and stronger and more able to achieve his goal; that by constant repetition of the same movements he will become more skillful and his muscles more relaxed...He must be a fanatic for impossibly hard work...and enthusiastic enough to enjoy it."

-- Franz Stampfl from On Running, 1955

"The real value of athletics is not in the actual event that plays out in the limelight of applause, but in the silent hours of dogged determination and self discipline by the exacting conscience."

-- Mark Twain

What a difference 6 months and almost 500 miles under my belt have made in my belief that "I am really going to do this." It's just like the difference between the two runs Rocky makes up the Art Museum steps in the movie - the first one a plodding death march, the second a sprightly dance. In the second photo here I'm actually calling a member of my marathon training support team, primarily to express my growing confidence and enthusiasm about the whole thing. That was my call to you, D.M.. It always helps to share the joy with someone once the work is done. I'm going to be running this marathon in January with 3 great friends in Houston, and I am so proud of all of us, because I know we are willing to put in "the silent hours of dogged determination," no matter what. I'm going to go out and run at least 6 more this morning, putting me over 80 for August so far, on my way to another 100-mile month. By the time the big day comes, with a million people out on the streets to cheer us on, I will have trained over 1,000 miles total, on my own in the quiet early mornings, and I will need to call on the confident reserves made possible by every last one of them to get over that finish line. Have a good run today, team!