Random | The Direction of Intention

Let Your Imagination Run

Posted on September 15, 2013 by davidrobinsoncreative

I’m sitting on the floor at the mouth of concourse 2, right next to a security check station at O’Hare International Airport. I’m on the floor because I found an electrical outlet and my phone was gasping its last electronic gasps. It was seriously red lining, sending me an assortment of warnings of imminent death – and I was expecting an important call. Were I a medical drama, my phone and I would have made a spectacular episode. I saved it at the last moment, leaping for the outlet, connecting the power just before its little phone-soul plunged into that sweet no-charge darkness. I suppose it might have been higher drama had I let it die and then brought it back but I have to have some place to go in future episodes.

It was not an easy task to find an outlet in an airport. You’d think with all of the power that it takes to illuminate the concourses and juice up the ubiquitous Hudson News stands that there’d be more visible outlets. Because of my proximity to a security check station I am now being eyed by the folks in blue shirts. It’s true that my outlet is oddly placed and I am clearly on the boarder of their comfort zone. There is a metal strip on the floor marking the boundary and I am one cheek on either side. Six more inches to the left and I’d be in a walkway AND in the red zone. Now, of course, my inner drama shifts to a political thriller. It doesn’t help that I have my computer out and am tap-tapping away. I might be hacking into the security database, changing all sorts of codes, looping security cameras with pre-recorded nothingness so my colleagues in black spandex might drop into the vault and swipe state secrets. The folks in blue will be disappointed when they discover that I am merely letting my imagination run wild instead of necessitating their presence.

Commercial break: These are the t-shirt messages that just rode bodies passed me: “Originality is dead.” “Woo-Woo.” “I Am The Man” and “Batman” My t-shirt report does not include the myriad of product labels I saw riding on bodies while I was scouting messages. Once, while bored in an airport, I imagined that angels communicate with people through t-shirt messages and I spent a solid hour trying to decipher the angelic messages. Their meaning was confusing at best and I tipped back and forth between terror (there are lots of apocalyptic t-shirts riding around!) and hysterical laughter. Oh. Those whacky angels! Now I think they communicate through Paulo Coehlo but that’s a post for another day.

Here’s the real question that has been plaguing me, today. Just what is the difference between a storyteller and a story maker? Actually, I lied. I’m making it up because it is excellent torture to ponder these things publically. Makers and tellers both require some serious imagination – either on the front end or the back end of the action. My subversive intention is to inspire some nice comments regarding the question. Imagine that!

I am not lying to say that the folks in blue shirts just closed their post and dropped a metal gate. I had to quick like a bunny scootch forward or be crushed. Okay, the part about being crushed was made up. I might have been cut in half and I can only imagine how difficult it would be to arrest me were I in two pieces. I’m glad I moved! It shifted my inner drama….

[902. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.]

For a humorous look at the wonderful world of innovation and new ventures, check out my new comic strip Fl!p and the gang at Fl!p Comics.

Filed under: Play, Random, Truly Powerful People | 2 Comments »

See Your Reflection

Posted on August 9, 2013 by davidrobinsoncreative

870. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

My desk is littered with pencils and pens. They are escapees from the coffee mugs scattered across my desk where the pencils usually stand like toy soldiers jammed in a kiddie pool. I have multiple lists going. They are scrawled on standard notebook paper and they provide a crisscrossed tablecloth of sorts. My lists are not contained in the lines. They spill out in every direction. I tend to write at any angle and I bend the words, as the moment requires. I have 3 notebooks: a journal, a work journal and a cartoon idea book. All three are open and stacked in no particular order. They are well worn and loved and filled with scribbles and ideas. No one could make sense of them so I feel that my state secrets are safe. No code breaker would willingly take on my handwriting.

I have a sun of blown glass. Tamara made it for me because she knows that I suffer from the absence of light in the Seattle winter. Her gift of the sun has brought to me great light when I most needed it. Next to the sun is a clay vase that Tom made for me many years ago. I’ve cherished it these many years because it was his very first clay project and he wanted me to have it. The vase is wabi sabi, it is a leaning tower; in it I keep incense from Bali and from special people. Both the sun and vase are sacred to me.

Two empty Altoids tins, a sandwich bag with cords to charge my phone, a binder clip, a pocket flashlight, a pencil sharpener, little post it notes and a spattering of business cards for accent. Overseeing it all is a sculpture I made of wood, wire, clamps and paper: a crow cawing at the world. Next to the crow is a set of Unblockers. They are a gift from David and are “writer’s inspiration dice.” Each die has a word from Hamlet on each face. There are five dice and I throw them every once in a while for kicks. Right now they say, “Mercy sword, soldiers, weakness. Farewell.” David feeds my creative soul and sends me music treats and periodic whimsy to stoke the fire. Once, he and I did a collaborative painting on several panels spread across my kitchen floor. I have saved it all these years. Someday I will have a proper space to hang our painting (or I will surprise him with it!).

My desk is a snapshot of my life. Multiple projects in motion, chaos rolling on top of attempted order, talismans from friends and cherished loved ones. It is warm and whimsical and sometimes maddening so I restore order only to achieve swirling motion and chaos once again. The pencils and pens look like leisurely sunbathers scattered here and there and I will give them a reprieve for another day. Besides, like me, they are more productive when rested. Order looms on the horizon and I will invite it in soon but not too soon. Premature order will limit my choices.

Filed under: Creativity, Random, Truly Powerful People | Leave a comment »

Pass Through Zero

Posted on August 3, 2013 by davidrobinsoncreative

864. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

For the next few days I’ll be at the gathering of my clan. My papa turns 80 so I’m reposting from the archives. This one was post 403:

This morning Mark wrote a comment about my recent post on Zero. His thoughts and question made the top of my head blow off. Everything from the eyebrows up is gone. I have substantial eyebrows (from my father’s side of the genetic pond) so I will attempt an eyebrow comb-over to cover the crater that used to be my cranium. If heads were volcanoes I’d be Mt St. Helens. I may need to invest in hats.

In my post about being at Zero I wrote, “As choices go, Zero can be utter stillness, the wasteland, lost in the woods, a score on a math test, or the moment before the big bang. It most certainly is a state of mind.”

This is Mark’s comment:

“If the Big Bang occurs at the very moment that the universe knows all that is knowable, and the subsequent explosion forcibly disperses that knowledge in the formation of the rapidly expanding new universe, that next infinitesimal moment represents one unit of knowledge gained. Therefore, the journey has begun whether or not you know it. You’ve passed through zero already. What do you learn next?”

Sitting in front of the Fremont Library on a sunny spring afternoon I mentioned to Scott that I was at Zero and he hit me between the eyes with poem by Hafiz. I wrote about being hit by Zero and Hafiz and Mark shot from the hip unloading both barrels of E.O. Wilson at point-blank range. I’m not sure what I learn next but this is what I just learned: 1) Zero is provocative! 2) I have amazing people in my life, and 3) my new dish shaped head is great for carrying a full half pound bag of peanut M&M’s; I’m never far from a tasty treat.

Filed under: Random, Truly Powerful People | Leave a comment »

Learn Through Osmosis

Posted on July 23, 2013 by davidrobinsoncreative

853. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

For reasons I cannot identify, the word “osmosis” became the word of the day. I heard it everywhere I went. I can’t remember the last time I heard the word osmosis but today it was everywhere, lurking on the lips of even the most casual passerby.

It began with the woman sitting at the front desk of print services place. I was taking the next 30 cartoons in to be scanned, opened the door to the shop and heard her say, “It’s like I was supposed learn it through osmosis or something!” I asked the obvious question, “What were you supposed to learn?” I was consciously intruding on a conversation with someone I’d never met and she winked and said, “Wouldn’t you like to know!” I double pumped my eyebrows and she laughed and told me I was bad and asked how she could help me. When people open a mischief door like that I usually jump through but we were already on the innuendo edge so I let it go. I guess I’ll have to learn through osmosis what she was supposed to learn through osmosis because she wouldn’t tell me.

Next, osmosis came to me in the Salvation Army store. I went in looking for a small refrigerator and heard a shopper say, “I guess I’ll just have to osmos the price.” There is no verb form of osmosis so I especially appreciated the new word creation. I use the word “story” as a verb and it drives Horatio nuts. I will add “osmos” to my collection of verbs-not-verbs just to see if I get a ticket from the word police.

Later I was with Pete at Starbucks and we were talking about art and the trouble we’ve caused the women in our lives. I’m not sure why those two topics collided but we seemed to weave in to trouble and out to art and back again. A guy standing in line was in a heated conversation and exclaimed, “Doesn’t he know that I learn everything by osmosis!” Clearly, he was being sarcastic but I began to wonder why this word was following me. I’m given to seeing life as a series of metaphors and serendipities so when a word keeps popping up I think I’m supposed to pay attention. What do I need to osmos (see, I’m practicing!).

Pete saw the look on my face and asked if I was okay. I replied, “I have a lot to learn, apparently.” He thought I was talking about the trouble we’ve caused our women and said, “Don’t we all!”

Filed under: Random, Truly Powerful People | Leave a comment »

Be A Master

Posted on July 15, 2013 by davidrobinsoncreative

846. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Many years ago Doug and I waded into the river that ran just beneath his cabin and he taught me to fly fish. Doug was amazing. I remember watching him place the line in the stream exactly where he wanted it to go – it was like watching a dancer or a sword master. He was doing something more than fly-fishing. He became present. His “being” changed. He became the flow.

Today Skip took me behind the scenes at a winery in the Willamette Valley. We walked the vineyards and he taught me about growing grapes. We went into the winery and he walked me through the process of sorting, fermenting, barreling, blending and aging the wines. I learned about oak and stainless steel and concrete. Skip was like Doug. When he began telling me about the wines he changed. He became present, excited, passionate, and joyful. His “being” changed. He became the flow.

I have been fortunate in my life to meet and come to know a few masters. They inspire me. They delight in sharing their passion. They delight in offering their gift. They seem to have all the time in the world. They know their craft so well that it becomes an extension of their bodies. They are easy in their doing. They know what they can control and what they cannot and have long ago given up trying to control the uncontrollable and so they radiate a kind of peace when they enter the temple of their passion. And their peace is infectious. It is as vibrant as it is quiet.

I asked myself the same question today that I asked myself years ago standing in the stream with Doug: What is the temple of my passion? What do I love to do so much that my being changes and I enter the flow? And why would I give my time to anything else?

Filed under: Power, Random, Truly Powerful People | 1 Comment »

Say Yes Each Day

Posted on July 13, 2013 by davidrobinsoncreative

844. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

There is now a poem on my desktop by e.e. cummings. It’s entitled, “i thank You God for most this amazing.” I’ve read it every morning since the poem found its way to my desktop. I read it to remind myself to say Yes to each day; to say Yes to each moment of each day.

One of the themes that appeared in my conversations these past several weeks is the realization of each precious moment of life. My friends are losing friends to death. We know that we likely have less life in front of us than behind us. And, so we talk of our lives with the kind of appreciation that only a limit can bring. Here’s the poem for your desktop if you are so inclined:

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping green spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

Filed under: Random, Truly Powerful People | 3 Comments »

Take One Single Step

Posted on July 5, 2013 by davidrobinsoncreative

836. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

I am thinking today about loss. Every path taken leaves a life path unexplored and therefore unknown. Sometimes that feels like loss. Sometimes it feels like extraordinary loss. Sometimes the grief of the loss is crushing and it reduces you to nothing. And, it is from nothing that the new has space to take shape and grow. It’s a cliché until you live it.

A simple dip into the thesaurus gives me four options: Damage. Defeat. Bereavement. Deficit. The dictionary tells me that loss is a fact: the fact of no longer having something. I think the dictionary is wrong because it assumes possession. It assumes that the loss is a “thing.” Loss, real loss, has nothing to do with possession.

A year ago I sat on a lakeside beach in New Hampshire. I was alone and had a troubled heart because I did not want to do the thing that I knew I needed to do. I did not want to start walking the path of loss. Donna emerged from the woods and sat beside me. She is wise and somehow knew what I was struggling with. She helped me see that my reticence was about the hurt that my choice would bring to others. She helped me see that the hurt was necessary and would begin a path of growth for all involved. When I left the beach that day I knew what I had to do and although it took a few more months to work up my courage, I did it. And the trail of loss began. The trail of growth began.

Little did I know that the trail would take me to a loss at the far end that would be greater – exponentially greater – than the loss that began on the shores of the lake in New Hampshire. Along the way, each successive loss has been like a layer falling off, like the rings of a tree dropping away until only the core remains. This last and greatest loss-layer has brought me to a core. My core. There is no more armor, no more deflection, no more pretense, no more masking, no more illusion. There is only this raw exposed core and an intense amount of gratitude for the first step, for Donna coming out of the woods and all the guides and friends that appeared along the way, and mostly for the clay that for a brief and special time formed a container for heat, healing, exploration, laughter, and a desire to learn to pray. It is in that desire that a new step beckons. It is a call that requires one single step out of this loss and into the space that the new has space to take shape and grow.

Filed under: Metaphor, Random, Truly Powerful People | Tagged: grief, growth, loss | 1 Comment »

Celebrate The Return

Posted on July 1, 2013 by davidrobinsoncreative

834. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Yesterday I was present as a very special community gathered to dig a hole. The event was the equivalent of a barn raising but instead of assembling a structure, this community dug a hole and made a pond. People arrived with shovels, plates of food, and bottles of wine to share. They came because someone in their community, someone that they dearly loved, asked them to come and support her. The pond marked a passage from the old into the new. She wanted her friends to celebrate her passage.

I can only imagine that digging a pond by your self would be no fun. It’s a lot of work! Walking alone through a life passage is no fun. It’s a lot of work, too. It’s necessary to do it alone and requires a lot of digging. It requires removing layers of dirt and muck. It requires stepping in new and unknown directions. Ultimately it demands releasing who you know yourself to be, creating space and living with the ambiguity of not knowing who you are or what you are doing. Walking a life passage is a process of internal combustion and internal reconfiguration. One day you wake up and understand that you are different. You have, as Rilke advised, lived into your question.

After the passage you return to your community. You are different and they must learn you anew. Because you are different you bring to the community the wisdom of your passage. Digging a pond with a community of support is a riot of fun and it is easy. People smile. They laugh and share stories of their passages. We dug our hole in a matter of minutes. The dig master had prepared the electrics. Rocks were chosen to line the pond. A liner was laid, water filled to level. A pump and small fountain was readied and placed. The community cheered the pond but really they were cheering the return of the person they loved. They knew that there is no reason to make such an arduous passage when there is no community to return to. The passage happens within the individual but the real boon is in what the individual brings back to the community. That demands a proper celebration.

Filed under: Random, Transcendence, Truly Powerful People | Leave a comment »

Show Up Sleepy

Posted on June 7, 2013 by davidrobinsoncreative

810. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

I began my career in the theatre and have never lost my distaste for doing meetings or classes before 10am. “It’s insanity,” I grumble to myself as I try to get my synapses to fire before they are ready. A humane culture would not expect its citizens to be coherent until their third cup of coffee. Theatre folk have it right. A late night dinner and bacchanal follows the performance. It’s the middle of the night before they wind down. Sleeping in is the norm. Sleeping in is the expectation! Morning rehearsals never start before 1:00pm.

All winter I teach a course with Alan that begins at 8am on the west coast. During those dark winter mornings, hours before the sunrise, when even the most enthusiastic bear is deep in hibernation, it is tough to shake consciousness into gear. Often before class I stand out on the deck hopping in the frigid cold morning air to snap me into coherence. My neighbors think me mad. Don’t tell Alan. Desperation is the grandmother of invention.

So when I was asked to do an early morning free phone seminar for the International Coaching Federation Leadership series, I asked, “How early?” It turns out that in the summer the sun rises really early so early feels late. No coherence snap necessary! I told the host that my topic would be “Coaching a Growth Mindset” – because it sounded good. I figured that at 8am, even with decent prep, I’d still be slightly dazed and almost anything would fly out of my mouth. That might terrify most folks but I’ve learned that I’m a better presenter when I take the brakes off my thought. Letting my mouth fly allows me to learn from myself since what I say surprises me, too.

Morning mind is a gift. It relaxes the inner editor. Here’s a secret: most people want a presenter to be coherent so they assume coherence. People want you to succeed. And, when you show up to share your thoughts, when you put down the need to be clever and simply share, you are always coherent. Just to hedge your bet, tell the callers that you are a circular thinker and it is possible that you might lose them (in my case, it’s true!), so open to questions at any moment during the call. Encourage relationship. Open. Treat people on the call as allies in a process of transformation with you. Finally, remember that prep is a lifetime affair, not something you do the night before. You already know all that you need to know. Prep gives shape but has nothing to do with depth or capacity or worth or value. Remember that you have something important to share (note: share, not say) and no one on the planet can share it like you. Do great prep the night before and then let it go: know that the moment you start the call, something better will roll out of your mouth because there will be people present with you. You will be in relationship with people who want you to share with them. They are not judges or critiques. They are community. No amount of prep can put you in relationship; only showing up can do that. And sleep is optional.

Filed under: Random, Truly Powerful People | 4 Comments »

Shout Shhhhhhhhh!

Posted on May 31, 2013 by davidrobinsoncreative

804. Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Today I’ve had three separate conversations about how badly I suck at community building/business and marketing (the same stuff in my case). I am – it seems – the master of one-way communication. Do you know that over 13,000 of you read this blog over the course of the year? Several hundred of you read it each day. Some of you tell me when a post rings a bell for you. Sometimes you reflect your stories back to me. It is a discipline to me, a meditation. I love to write about the magic I see. I love to rail against the education system or write about what makes me weep. Even when I feel that there is nothing more to say, when I sit down to write, something always pours out.

Do you know that I’m a coach? Do you know that I help people everyday to open their stories, move through their blocks, and step into their power (thus, the name of my business, Truly Powerful)? This blog is an extension of my work in the world. I don’t think to say it because I assume that I’m shouting it. Raquel dope slapped me this morning and told me I never ask for help getting the word out into the word. I think I do…but apparently not. When I took Kevin Honeycutt’s amazing launch class for speakers, he gave me my all-time favorite feedback when he said, “You shout ‘shhhhhhhhhhhhh.” So, if you know anyone who’s blocked or not fulfilling their purpose, send them to me. I do it for organizations, too and who doesn’t know a constipated organization? I could use a few more clients. How’s that for an ask? Of course, Diane reflected that I rarely make a strong ask. I shout shhhhhhh in my marketing, too. It’s in my nature. I am boldly quiet.

People often reflect that they have a hard time finding me. “How is that possible?” I ask myself. Could I be any more out there in the world? Carol recently reflected that, in addition to being the master of one-way communication, I am a marvel of deflection. Ask me to tell you about myself and I will inevitably tell a story of triumph about another person. I love helping people to their triumphs! Message: if you come looking for me I’ll point you to someone else. Last week Skip and I gave away over 30 hours of time to budding entrepreneurs. Skip is a gold mine of information, wisdom and insight. Literally. I am a transformer of perception and consciousness. If you want to meet your purpose and light it up, I’m your man. When we were bemoaning our dearth of income and empty seminar attendance I asked myself, “Why would anyone ever attend any workshop we give when they get it for free everyday…”

Did I also mention that I am a slow study? Alan told me once (not a direct quote) that perhaps no one hires me because everyone is my friend. I like people. People like me (mostly…there are a few who would stone me if given the chance). So. Truly Powerful People teach what they most need to learn. Take off the brakes. Shout it from the mountaintop.

Help me make this a conversation. Share your stories with me so I might share them with the other 12,999 people looking in. I welcome your stories of my ineptitude (they show me that you love me;-) or tell me about the mountains you move everyday. We’re all doing it. You are wise and heart-centered and deserve to know each other.

Filed under: Random, Truly Powerful People | 3 Comments »

« Previous Page — Next Page »