BARBARA HONORED ON THE COVER OF “WEST COAST WOMAN”
Barbara is featured as the cover story in the December issue of “West Coast Woman” magazine, in an interview with Carol Darling. View the article at www.westcoastwoman.com.
For more articles by and about Barbara, visit www.barbaraglanz.com/articles.
ADMITTING LIMITS
This is a letter I wrote to Bob Buford in response to something he wrote called “Is There Too Much of a Good Thing?” about two of his pastor friends who handled burnout in very different ways. He asked the following questions:
1. Do you think everyone is at risk of being brought down by a tragic flaw? A blind spot they refuse to see?
2. Think about your life. Have you ever experienced burnout? Do you have a tragic flaw that makes you vulnerable? A secret life—so far undetected?
3. The Aspen Times has on its front page each day: “If you don’t want to see it in print, don’t let it happen.” Good advice. What would you not like to see in print?
Perhaps you will be able to identify with my response to him. Just an FYI — we are both coming from a personal position of faith.
Dear Bob,
I cannot begin to tell you how much your “musings” have meant to me. You always touch my heart, challenge me, and encourage me to stop and take a few moments to think more deeply about my life and faith. Thank you especially for the latest issue. I realized that I have not been admitting my limits, and it is showing up in my stress level and in my relationships. (I hate to admit that last week as I was talking with a friend late at night and multi-tasking so I could leave at 7:00 am to speak in Arizona and then on to my kids in Portland and Seattle for Thanksgiving, I found myself not really listening….but, shamefully, instead, focusing more on my tasks than on him).
I have been home only 17 days in the last three months, and even though there is no one to come home to, I still need that haven of rest and having a “normal life.” My struggle, like your pastor friend’s, has been that when I started my company in 1995, I said to the Lord, “Lord, You gave me this gift, so this is Your company and You put me where You want me to be.” As a result, He has sent me to all seven continents with no marketing! So, the struggle is that if I am free for a speaking date, I feel as if I should be there, since I have asked God to be in charge.
What you reminded me of was what I think is my tragic flaw— and that is caring too much and trying to please everyone. In my Bible study we have been studying a series from “Walk Through the Bible” on spiritual warfare, and it occurred to me that perhaps Satan is promoting this blind spot in many of us who are trying to do God’s work—a feeling that we have to do it all. Sometimes I even find my self-esteem getting caught up in my work, reminiscent of spending much of my early life trying to prove to my mother that I was worthwhile.
I need to reread Philip Yancey’s “What’s So Amazing About Grace.” That book has had a great impact on my life with his simple definition of what grace is — “There is nothing we can do to make God love us any more, and there is nothing we can do to make God love us any less.” Wow! What a reassuring and precious thought! We do not need to do ANYHING to prove ourselves to the Lord. And, in fact, if He is in charge, then it is not about us, and we are free to delegate, say “no,” define our mental and physical boundaries, and choose to stay within them WITHOUT GUILT.
I am sending you blessings and a wish for a year overflowing with love. On Thanksgiving Day I always make a list of all the people I love. As the pages fill and fill, I feel blessed beyond measure. And I am blessed to have you as a new friend in the Lord. Thank you, Bob, for all you do to make this world a better place.
Warmly,
Barbara
How would you respond to Bob’s questions?
To learn more about Barbara’s work, go to www.barbaraglanz.com.
Finding Hope and Joy in Your Life
“When darkness seems overwhelming, light a candle in someone’s life and see how it makes the darkness in your own and the other person’s life flee.”
Rabbi Harold S. Kujshner, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People”
I serve on the National Advisory Council for Guideposts, and this was an excerpt from Dr. Norman Vincent Peale’s booklet, “Hope: Opens the Way Where There Seems No Way” to help us find renewal in our lives:
1. Make an inventory of your joys. Sit down with pencil and paper and write them down, not forgetting the commonplace — a comfortable chair, the house or apartment that shelters you, faces that are dear to you. (I have done this for many years in what I call my “Blessings Journal.” It is simply a spiral notebook in which I write the blessings that have occurred that day. I find that even on the darkest day, I can find one or two blessings!)
2. Step outside and take five deep breaths of good, fresh air. Note every beautiful thing around you: sunlight dappling through trees onto a well-kept green lawn, a lighted train rushing through the night, moonlight’s silvery radiance lighting up a church steeple, the crunch of snow under your foot on a crisp winter day. (I just stopped as I was writing this and noticed that the vast expanse of the ocean today is sparkling with millions of tiny crystals of light, and I can hear the children laughing in the pool. How blessed we are to simply be alive!)
3. Do an unexpected favor for someone and note the look of happy surprise and gratitude it causes. It will fill you with joy. (Last night I took a Mum plant down to a 90 year old lady who lives in my building. The look on her face brought tears to my eyes. She is no longer able to read or to walk by herself, so my visit was the highlight of her week, she said. She talked and talked, and I was filled with joy that so iilttle of my time could mean so much to someone.)
I hope you will find ways this very day to appreciate someone in your home or office or simply someone you interact with as you go through your day. It will add to your joy and theirs and to the total amount of goodness in the world.
For more ideas on ways to become a more appreciative and hopeful person, get Barbara’s book, “The Simple Truths of Appreciation–How Each of Us Can Choose to Make a Difference”
“We Are All Children”
A friend gave me a book of poetry titled “A Lifetime of Love – Poems on the Passages of Life” by Leonard Nimoy. I have been deeply touched by his words – not at all what we would expect from Mr. Spock!
I particularly love this one because if we heeded these words, I think we might have world peace:
We Are All Children Searching for Love
I am convinced
That if all mankind
Could only gather together
In one circle
Arms on each other’s shoulders
And dance, laugh and cry
Together
Then much
Of the tension and burden
Of life
Would fall away
In the knowledge that
We are all children
Needing and wanting
Each other’s
Comfort and
Understanding
We are all children
Searching for love
We are all children
Seeking the fountain
We all children washed by the rain
We are the dreamers
We are the dancers
Life is the music
Love is the Song
We are all children
Needing laughter
Fighting tears
Hiding fears
We are all children
Seeking release
Hungry for peace….
We are all children
Crossing the ocean
We are all children
Tossed by the storm
Swimming in waters
Of God’s devotion
Seeking a harbor to
Offer us home
We are all children
Of various ages
We are all children
The near and the far
Give us the peace
To search not for sages
Give us the strength
To love what we are
Come
Let us dance together
Sing together
Let us reawaken
The innocence
The wonder
The simple
Joy and faith
Which is rightfully ours
Let us unburden ourselves
Of the disguises
The roles
The weights
The chains……
Which hide and bind
The children
That we are
For we are
All of us—-
Children
A THANKSGIVING IDEA FOR YOUR EMPLOYEES AND CUSTOMERS
Are you looking for a creative, meaningful way to appreciate your employees and/or your customers this Thanksgiving?
Send their families a copy of The Simple Truths of Appreciation!
THANKSGIVING SPECIAL:
BOOK $12.00 (Retail $15.95)
BOOK WITH DVD $15.00 (Retail $19.95
One of my newer books is titled The Simple Truths of Appreciation, How Each of Us Can Choose to Make a Difference. There is so much negativity and cynicism all around us today that people are desperate for positives and hope and a focus on goodness. I find that everyone can seem to share what is going wrong but have difficulty coming up with what is going RIGHT, so we need to become more positive, grateful people, focused on what is good in our lives.
The #2 thing people want from their jobs is “full appreciation for the work they have done” yet 65% of the workers interviewed said they got NO appreciation for the good work they did all last year. Isn’t that sad?
The other need we are seeing in the workplace is a desire for employees to have more connection between their families (home life) and their work life. When Baxter Labs did a worldwide study asking their employees, “What can we do to make it better for you?”, the answer most received was that they wanted to be recognized as “whole human beings with a life outside of work.” I am seeing this over and over in my work in corporate America.
Finally, new research from Gallup says that only 12- 15% of our American workers are giving their very best to their jobs. 8-10% are burned out, but that leaves 75-80% just doing enough to get by. I believe that is primarily because they do not feel a sense of purpose in the work they are doing and they do not feel valued by the company.
SO, MY IDEA WOULD COMBINE ALL THOSE NEEDS, and Thanksgiving is the perfect time to do this. I would like to suggest that companies purchase copies of my book, The Simple Truths of Appreciation, and send them to their employees’ homes as a Thanksgiving gift, thanking the families for sharing the employee with them and for all their sacrifices to help them do their very best work. I think it is a gesture neither the employee nor the family will ever forget.
The book is a short book with lots of beautiful pictures, and it is filled with stories, both personal and business, of people who are making a difference through appreciating others. Even non-readers are enjoying it, so it would be a book for the whole family. Another idea is to also send it to all the organization’s best customers to thank THEM for their business.
I am always trying to think of creative ways to encourage people that they CAN make a difference. This book, containing some simple strategies of how to remember to appreciate people, like putting five pennies in one pocket at the beginning of the day and each time you appreciate someone, moving the pennies to the other pocket with the goal of not ending the day without having moved all five pennies, can help make this spirit of appreciation actionable. And that is what we need more of in this hurting world!
THANKSGIVING SPECIAL:
BOOK $12.00 (Retail $15.95)
BOOK WITH DVD $15.00 (Retail $19.95)
ACT SOON AS THANKSGIVING IS NOT FAR OFF! Special runs through November 30!
To order, visit www.barbaraglanz.com/products/books/.
When we bless others, we free the goodness in them and in ourselves. - Rachel Naomi Remen -