Haston Helping Hands

How often do you ask someone, how was your day? and get the answer which is a litany of complaints or dissatisfaction?. If you are me, you not only hear it from others, you say it yourself. In a discussion with a friend, I thought what would it be like if you asked, “What was awesome about your day?” think about the empowerment you could create through one question. There is a movie I love that shows the family at a kitchen table talking about the High/Low of their day. What a great way to talk instead of “What did you learn in school today?” or “How was your day?” Let’s all be mindful and remember,  What you do, say, and think matters. Make sure what you do moves things forward, not backward.

Confession time. Though I adore Kermit the Frog and The Muppets in general. I have to admit I never really saw the appeal of Elmo. I thought he was red and loud and squeaky and really the antithesis of Kermit. How wrong can one person be?

Really, really, REALLY wrong. On Saturday, I was wearing my Muppets as Beatles on Abbey Road, t-shirt, so my music teacher told me about a great documentary I should check out called, “Being Elmo”, a great story about the puppeteer who created the famous muppet. Not being a big Elmo fan, I was skeptical but thought, hey maybe they will talk about Kermit. I sat down ready to “endure” Elmo’s genesis to get some Kermit/Jim Henson tidbits. What I experienced was a great story about someone following his dream to work with Muppets on Sesame Street. He had a dream and followed it and took wonderful chances and made great personal sacrifices. Not only did this man work with Kermit Love, Jim Henson, and Frank Oz he was respected by all of them and a lot of other people. He does work with the Make A Wish Foundation and countless other organizations that are actively engaged in making people’s dreams come true and I found out when he created Elmo he was told by Frank Oz to find a hook, the one thing that would make that character work, and so he decided it would be about love. Elmo always loves you, Elmo is always happy to see you. What I learned much to my delighted surprise, Elmo embodies all things Kermit, just in red fur not green fleece. Color me Tickled.

Think for a second about the fable of the Tortoise and the Hare-

Slow and steady wins the race, you hear that and think yes, but I KNOW I can do it faster, or use this shortcut or find a quicker way to do this task, why would I take the time to slowly, methodically do it?  Well the answer is simple. You hurt yourself by giving up the opportunity to learn. Think back on the last time you had something you had to do that was difficult, there was a process to get there and likely it wasn’t rocket surgery. Now, after you completed your difficult task, did you get a feeling of accomplishment? Yes and no shortcut would be nearly as satisfying.

In our society of hurry up and go, its very tempting to use a microwave when a crockpot will do the job much better.

 

 

 

I find it on my heart and more importantly on my mind to talk about boundaries. Choosing your friends wisely is important, and you choose your friends in the act of spending time with them. Think about it, by spending your time, (as precious a commodity as money) you are sending the message I care about you, your life, your dreams and hopes. Relationships, romantic or otherwise require work and equal amounts of effort. It’s not always easy in the maelstrom of work, love, life and the pursuit of happiness to support friendships but its almost always worth it.

Boundaries are important, if for no other reason then it sets up for people you interact with what you will accept and what you will not. This includes boundaries for your friends, colleagues, and partners. It is so easy to just let things be what they will and its hard sometimes to ask for what you want but in my experience it is the only way to get it.  So if you are unhappy with the state of your relationship, ask yourself the question. 1. What do I want? 2. What am I doing to get it? 3. How is that working?

If you know what you want, and are doing all can to get it and its not working, the problem isn’t you.

 

You can’t just talk about it, if there is something you are passionate about it, its time to do something about getting you there.. What do you want to do? Climb Mount Everest? Plant a vegetable garden? Learn a new language? Too busy? Well, we make time for the things that are important, so if it is really important you will find a way to do it, think about that the next time you make an excuse instead of a move toward your dream!

Loyal Lilypad Followers, I come to you today to talk about dental health, we all have a state of it, poor, good and excellent. Mine is deplorable, I went to get the second side of my mouth cleaned on Friday, (yes normally people get both sides of their mouth cleaned in one sitting, not this girl. The pain of my cleaning the right side was so intense it required 7 shots of anesthetic so that I would not feel the drilling, picking and maintaining the dental staff was doing to my mouth. I had to wait two weeks to go back because after that intense attention you have to let the gums rest. So this time, it took ten shots, and the doctor while looking at my teeth determined that two were too far gone and we would need to extract them. Depressing and not fun but I don’t tell you this to chastise myself, I tell you this to shine light on you. Do you floss, brush and mouthwash rinse daily? Do you take care of your health body or mouth with the same care you give to your child, friend and spouse? Think about that and please please learn from my pain!

When you ask for help, you are not weak, you are smart. Best Practices are a powerful tool we can use not to reinvent the wheel but to build your Corvette from a tested blueprint. No matter the topic, acting, dancing, singing, speaking, or vegetable gardening there is someone who is successful at it and you can benefit from their wisdom and experience. Don’t be afraid to admit you do not know something. Welcome the opportunity to learn it.