Tag Archives: joy

01/18/21

Stopping To Find The Joy In The Storm

I recently had a Chairwoman of the Board client, one of my favorite clients (equally brilliant husband is a former client), cancel a meeting. She is a delight to work with so I miss it when she cancels.

Her reason was that it had snowed in Madrid and she had small children who needed to build a snowman as it did not ever snow in Madrid.

Actual Madrid snowman

[It ended up snowing more than three feet in Madrid, so if she hadn’t chosen that early moment to build a snowman, it would not have happened. As in life, timing is everything.]

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08/13/20

The Cloud of Darkness Versus Joie De Vivre

On the morning of my wedding in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on 1 December 1979, I heard a knock on my door at the Hilton Hotel in downtown.

Rising with the nervous energy one would expect on such a day, verifying it was just after six in the morning, I opened the door to find a courtly Southern gentleman (bride’s side of the family) standing there with a sweating six pack of beer. I wish I could recall the brand.

We shared a beer — meaning we each drank one. I believe he departed with the remaining four, but I cannot recall. I can only inform you that I did not drink them.

The man was wise and felt the need to arm me with his excess wisdom before I married his gorgeous niece.

Amongst the pearls he left behind was this:

“One cannot make oneself happy, but one can prevent oneself from being unhappy.”

The oddity 0f the circumstances under which it was delivered left a lasting impression more permanent than a tattoo.

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