Barbara Brooks created Flamingo Strategies LLC to help clients stand up and stand out, through telling and sharing their stories of impact and purpose.
Hacking Away at Happiness is her blog.
All in Travel
Life isn’t exactly like the Choose Your Own Adventure book series because we can’t go back for a re-do. But we do have options.
Whether planning a vacation or deciding where to have dinner, we should take that old rule from journalism and turn it on its head. We should alwasys start with why.
Thanks to the coffee mishap, ideas are percolating. So here’s what I’m thinking about change.
Maybe we all need to do things that make our heart pound. Dive deep enough—or climb high enough—that we have to truly focus in order to stay alive.
Whether our trips are long or short, to the beach or to the mountains, solo or with others, we’ve got to make time to unpack. And not just the dirty clothes.
It’s mighty powerful when people around us take the time to reflect the good qualities they see in us. We all can be mirrors.
If I’m not not careful—if I’m not aware of what I’m doing—I’ll not only ruin the rest of my time in Solana Beach, I’ll also ruin the imperfectly perfect life I have in Denver.
Over the past six weeks a lot has changed. Maybe that’s why we all need a puppy. To help us notice change. To help us lose control. And to see it all as growth.
Now I see what’s happening: Those tricky Stoic gods tossed me a second eye surgery because I didn’t learn enough from the first one.
Losing Ruby connects me to anyone who has ever experienced loss. And anyone who ever will. So hold your pets close and your humans even closer. And don’t give up on love.
I returned to the hot springs. I knew there was more to see. And to say. Especially about getting old. And learning to love the skin I’m in.
As I dipped from pond-to-pond, or floated on my back, I forgot all about the male gaze. And the female gaze. Instead, I gazed inward.
Whether our latest trench is made of heavy, mashed-potatoes snow—or of our own negative thinking—here are a few ways we might find ease.
Time—like temperature, or space, or stimulation—is relative. The 2020 election is just two sleeps away. Change can’t come quickly enough.
Once in a while I’m lonely or cranky or scared. But I am not hollow or barren or profitless. And neither are you! So let’s be aimless together.
The desire to be heard—across vast physical and emotional distance—is what makes us human. I’m desperate for connection yet afraid to go out. So it’s time to hit the road.
In Almost Everything: Notes on Hope, Anne Lamott wrote: The opposite of faith is not doubt. It’s certainty. Now, there’s a Baja Aha!
I planned to give the shaman nothing to go on. Until Tom said: You’re not going there to play Stump the Shaman. You’re going there to learn.
Fear of missing out is a powerful thing. But once we put that aside, we can appreciate that we are on the right path. The only path.
Even on the days we feel scared or bored or invisible, of this we can be certain: The best years of our lives lie just “over the hill” up ahead.
