Oh, Embarcadero!

Maya Angelou once said: "Try to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud."      

Walking down crazy Market Street during traffic hour is not relaxing. Busy, interesting, a little chaotic, definitely. But if you keep your eyes open and take a minute from your business to just listen and look, there are amazing gems along the way no matter where you go in the city - little rainbows to shine through the clouds.

Like this guy, rocking out on his cello at the Embarcadero. He played those strings like his life depended on it and it was seriously entrancing to hear the soul and spirit in the reverberations. Folk rock with a Celtic flair!

I love this crazy, unique city. It literally oozes creativity on so many levels. Today I got to do a project where I researched "inspired story telling" for a client. It is becoming a huge buzz phrase in the corporate communications world. And I enjoyed every second of it! I really feel that in spite of all modern tech, people still long for the deep, grassroots, meaningful things in life. 

All this to say: I'm enjoying my journey wherever it takes me. Also today I learned that next to the title CEO, CFO etc. is a newer thing called CSO- Chief Storytelling Officer.

CHIEF STORYTELLING OFFICER! Are you kidding me?! That is seriously badass and definitely my new aspiration.

Day 1 of 100

On my way to work this morning,  I called my great Auntie to visit and catch up a little. I don't talk to her as much as I'd like, but she is one of the strong women I look up to in my life for many various reasons. She has volunteered in Uganda to help treat the traumatized rape victims, run marathons for causes close to her heart, and she still works as a doctor at a Psychology office, even though she is in her eighties. She gives and gives and just keeps giving; to humanity, to the world, to her family, and to everyone who knows her. At the end of our conversation, she told me that she is proud of me, and she encouraged me to keep doing what I'm doing, to be myself, and to do something good or something kind every day, to help make the world a better place. "We need more kindness in the world," she reminded me. "It would fix a lot of the problems we are seeing." I thought about that a lot today at work. A saying on a postcard I have on my refrigerator went through my head more than once: "Who you are being is more important that what you are doing." It's a really profound thought. I need to make an effort to be more mindful of it.
After work, I made the journey back home. Here's a bit of what I saw...

Pretty amazing, isn't it? Lost in my thoughts, I was struck by the beauty of the clouds today... the way they were all so different, some puffy and billowy, others flat, but all layered in a sort of gorgeously gloomy montage dedicated to spring in San Francisco. And I took pictures.

Some people get kind of "judge-y" when others post pictures on social media. It's a weird dilemma we live though in this day and age. Everyone has something to say about how others use social media. "She posts too many selfies." "He checks in to every single place he goes. Does he really think anyone cares?" "Why does this person think we really want to see all these nature pictures?" "Enough with the baby photos already!" I'm pretty sure we have all been guilty of this at one time or another. I know that I certainly have. It's part of our human nature to judge, to assess our surroundings, to decide if it's time for fight or flight. But we also have choices. Perhaps we should be less hasty to criticize, and more willing to see and listen to what that person wants to share. I've heard and read things that encourage people to put down their camera, put down their phone or their social media and just enjoy the moment. I do understand the principle behind that and the value of it. It's important to give ourselves breaks from technology, to breathe fresh air, to look at the sky, and to smell the rain. But isn't it also indicative that we are living in the moment that we even think a still shot of the grey sky or of a flower or of a fellow human smiling is worth sharing? Is there anything so wrong with that?

The internet is bombarded with nastiness and bullying and pain.
And there is just a lot of plain old junk on there too. But there is also beauty, and it is often in the simplest images.

On the last little trek of my journey home today, I saw a bumper sticker on a dirty suburban that said: "The worst things in life are also free." I'll admit it half made me giggle. The saying had some truth in it's raw sassiness. But it also reminded me of what my Auntie told me this morning. "We need more kindness in the world. It would fix a lot of the problems that we are seeing." Many bad, painful things, are free, as are some of the best things in life. The things we do, the things we share, can affect those around us for better or worse. It's important to keep in mind that who we are being is more important than what we are doing.

Dedicated to Maggie

Sometimes we dream and it makes us cry. Sometimes we dream and it makes us laugh, or wonder, or fear...

Last night I had a dream. It didn't really make much sense, but it did make me laugh. And I promised myself that I would start writing more, so it seemed like a good idea to share it with you all...

It was at a very formal solemn funeral for some Russian female aristocrat. I'm not Russian, nor am I an aristocrat, but that is beside the point. There were leaders of nations there, military in all their regalia, and lots of secret service and bodyguards for attendees. At one point during the funeral there was a moment of silence in which everyone was to conjure up a memory of the deceased. The whole room was still to the point that everyone could hear each other breathing and the restlessness of the little ones in their seats. In that silence, the woman in the coffin started to stir ever so slightly and twitch her nose. In that solemn silence, the coffin rocked and creaked as the dead woman let out a sneeze so loud that the whole congregation jumped up in shock. "Aaaaah-chewwww!"

You could hear the grumbling and confusion in the pews, which slowly evolved in to a borderline protest.  "What the hell?" "Dead people don't sneeze!" "Why did I travel here from across the world?" "What conspiracy is happening here?" "Who is behind this?"

In the chaos, the master of ceremonies got up and requested silence in the microphone. Several times. It took about fifteen minutes before he was able to squeeze a couple words in and eventually command the attention of the befuddled crowd.

"Ladies and gentleman. Understandably you are confused at this situation. Margaret" (the deceased aristocrat in my dream) "really has passed but we deemed it a security risk to have the real body here so we hired a lookalike in order to ensure a beautiful authentic ceremony."

"Ensuring an authentic ceremony, my ass!" I thought, and might have just slightly muttered aloud. "Because we all know that nothing is more authentic than impersonating a corpse in front of hundreds of mourners..."

My dream came to a grinding halt and all I knew was that I was really glad that I caught the whole thing on camera. No one would believe it unless they saw it with their own eyes. I felt like I had a piece of history on my little camera card. Why I was filming a funeral... well, who knows? It was just a dream.

Last night my boyfriend told me that if his little sister, Maggie, were still here, she would be so proud of me for my new job and for following my dreams through thick and thin. I told him: "She IS happy. She is still with us."

When I woke up from my dream this morning, I chuckled a little. The woman's name was Margaret. Maggie lives on in so many little ways in the lives and hearts of those who loved her. She touches us and reminds us of her presence, even in our sleep.

So, on a more philosophical note, what is Death after all?

Perhaps Death is just an extension of Life and we are always in transition. Perhaps our loved ones beyond the grave are really still with us and continue to live vicariously through us. Or maybe they just, at least in this instance, cheer us with silly dreams that lighten our moods and fill our hearts with laughter.