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Canada, Border Crossings and Your Route to Success

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The Davis family drove from Michigan to Canada for the weekend. Like many Michiganders, Canada was a frequent getaway for the family. They knew the route and they had visited many times in the past. Yet, this trip was different. In the past, Michigan residents were able to cross the border and return with nothing more than state identification. However, the rules have changed, and you must now have special identification. The family had entered Canada with no problem. However, when they reached the crossing to head home, they found their familiar route blocked by a new rule.

Blue Water Bridges - Explore
Image by Sentrawoods. via Flickr

In 2009, many people felt like the Davis family at the gate. You were motoring along on familiar roads believing you had the proper paperwork and just as you saw the goal, the home stretch in site,  your progress was halted by a rule change.

Some of you crawled under the gate, others motored through it and some may have tried to reason with the obstruction to grant you passage. Whatever choice you made, I’m happy to inform you that you can now cross over.

It is a brand new decade. Last year, the rules changed and this year there may be addendums but in this new decade you control the path. You can adjust your strategy, and route or you can wait until mercy or an immunity period allows you to pass.

Rule changes are part of the game but if you mentally prepare for them they do not have to interrupt your journey. What stood in your way last year and how could you have solved it better/faster or avoided it completely? What changes can happen this year that would slow your speed or worse bring you to a full stop? Your roadmap to success must have alternate routes. Planning for delays or even failures is essential.

On this first Monday check your supplies and your route and make sure that you are ready to go the distance or you may find yourself struggling to prove you really belong on the road.

Note: The names of the family have been changed to protect them from my creative liberties but the story is based on fact, or more accurately the facts as they were related to me and then filtered through my own storytelling perception.  If you enjoy the liberty taking and the post, please visit again.

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Hot Sweet Cup of Possibility

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Crowned Lily
Image by Creativity+ Timothy K Hamilton via Flickr

Written by Karen D. Swim

Possibilities, shades of maybe, bouncing prisms of what if. Nerve endings tingling as you wonder,  could this be the one? Blank page breathlessly waiting for ideas to caress. Fragments gently spill to fill the space, heart beats faster, mind and fingers rhythmically strumming the chords, pieces moving, transforming blank to creation.

Alas, work is done, satiated, deep breaths, luxurious stretch, languishing in the moment. Next step, are we ready?

Query, viewing, sharing. Anticipation, hope, not breathing, waiting for yes, eyes closed, kaleidoscope of maybes, cautious optimism interrupted by blissful expectation.

Accepted, chosen, hope realized, heart leaps, elation, fruits of labor, then back again to the blank canvas. Pens up, fingers attentive, ready? New day, fueled by what can be.

It’s Friday people, time to play.

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Life, Death and Dreams

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Written by Karen D. Swim

Do you have a dream graveyard? Tombstones planted in the backyard of your life that trumpet the life and death of long forgotten hopes, goals and plans. Birthed with possibility, shining bright with a vision, they now lie silent in a land of dry bones.

“It whispers; all is waiting here

Kept safe for thee, year after year,

Beautiful songs in thousands;

Where hast thou been, where, where?”–Erik Axel Karlfeldt

There are many reasons we allow dreams to die – impatience, lack of know how, fear, doubt or perhaps timing. The good news is that you can resurrect the dead. I took an eye-opening  trip through my own graveyard recently. There were dreams that were mere fancies of imagination, lacking the passion needed to sustain them. Yet, there were others which made me linger at the tombstone, desperately trying to recall why I had not taken life-saving measures. Even from the grave, they called out to me, causing a swift intake of breath as I was filled with the possibility of a second chance.

“The inability to open up to hope is what blocks trust, and blocked trust is the reason for blighted dreams.” –Elizabeth Gilbert

In this place, as I came face to face with death, life was renewed. I could shed the things that did not fulfill my life and my purpose. With a clearer vision I could also wisely choose the dreams that had never really died but simply rested in peace until it was time.

How about you – any dreams that deserve a second chance?

Hop, Skip, Double and a Dip

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Written by Karen D.  Swim

I watched the little girls draw the crooked squares in colored chalk on the sidewalk. I smiled remembering my own childhood games of hopscotch. Hop, hop, hop. The first round was always easy because you knew what to expect. Hop, hop, hop, land, hop, land hop. You knew just how long you needed to balance on one leg before landing on two feet again.

Life sometimes feels like a game of hopscotch. Sometimes you maneuver a tiny square on one leg and in other places both feet are firmly planted on the ground. Along the way you pick up your marker as you progress from square to square. Unlike hopscotch, the squares are not neatly drawn in brightly colored chalk. You may find yourself balancing longer than is reasonably comfortable on one leg praying to reach the spot when you can put down both feet and steady yourself. Hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, land, hop.

In hopscotch and life  the game grows in complexity as you add more people. No longer jumping from square to square, you also have to jump over the obstacles that others have placed in your path. Hop, jump, jump, hop, hop, land, jump, hop.

As I sat musing, the little girls giggled, ponytails bobbing up and down as they each took turns, hopping, landing, and picking up their marker. Hop, land, hop, bend,  jump, turn to do it again. I watched as the smaller little girl took her turn, eyes on the pattern, with determination in her eyes – hop, hop, hop, jump, hop, bend, stumble. Rather than become discouraged they collapsed into giggles, declared a winner and started a new game, hop, hop, hop, land, hop, land, hop.

I rose from the chair with a smile determined to go and start my own new game, no colored chalk required.

How’s your game these days? Are you jumping on one foot or two? Do you start a new game when you stumble or just go to the end of the line?

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Why the Shallow End of the Pool is Better than Dry Land

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Written by Karen D. Swim

“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”  –Abraham Lincoln

Are you standing on the sidelines assessing, reviewing and analyzing or are you suited up and in the game? I’ve got my issues with Abe but the quote above hit me square in the eyes. There are things I wanted to do but waited. I waited for:

  • The perfect conditions (they never came)
  • More information (which I gathered and never applied)
  • Proof that it would work (the proof turned out to be doing nothing equals nothing)
  • The perfect me (like that would ever happen!)

My waiting did not make me smarter, or the market more ready for what I had to offer.  I would not advise a novice swimmer to jump into the deep end of the pool. But I would tell them to  get into the water. Go ahead and start out at the shallow end but for Pete’s sake to learn to swim you gotta get wet!

You could watch other people swim, you can gather information but without actually getting in the water you’re just another schmo on the sidelines getting splashed by the people who had the guts to be in the pool, even at the shallow end.

It’s hump day, and from where I stand, the water is looking good.

Have you ever waited yourself out of an opportunity? What did you learn?

Coming Soon to Theaters Near You

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Written by Karen D. Swim

“First of all, I choose the great [roles], and if none of these come, I choose the mediocre ones, and if they don’t come, I choose the ones that pay the rent.”–Michael Caine

When an actor auditions for a role they are often given a scene to play. The tiny slice of dialogue taken from the entire story may cause the actor to ask, “What’s my motivation?” As things change around us we may feel as though an unseen director has handed us a new part. Thrust into a role with which we are unfamiliar with nothing to guide us we long to know, why we are here and what’s driving our character.

I felt this way for much of March. What had worked before was no longer the solution. I tried out for different roles and very often did not get the part. At the end of the month I found myself longing for that invisible director to call “CUT!” already and put an end to my awful performance. Where were the stage directions? Where was the background? Who was I supposed to be and why was I here? If it were up to me, I would write new dialogue and cast someone else in the part. It was then I realized…it was up to me.

We do not always have creative control over the entire story of our life, and while that may sometimes be frustrating, it is a good thing. (Seriously, think about some of the boneheaded decisions you would have made if you had complete control over everything.) However, we can take the scene and create our own motivation. We can improvise dialogue, change the direction and make the part our own.

I not only decided to own the part but take full producing credit. My motivation is living the life I want to have without fear or apology. It means that I will take the stage each day and give the performance of my life even if no one else is in the audience. I will take risks and be ready to own the good and bad reviews. I will not use a stage name because I want people to know the real me.

What’s my motivation? I am. To live my life to the fullest and own my purpose and potential means refusing to be an extra in the scene of my life. I don’t have to audition, the part is mine and the time has come to deliver or go home.

So here I am finding my motivation and stepping to the stage.   Rehearsals are open door and performances are free, so come on in, grab a seat and enjoy.

Have you ever struggled to find your own motivation? What actions did you take?


“Life’s like a play; it’s not the length but the excellence of the acting that matters.” — Seneca