ImageA few weeks ago I attended the Women’s Leadership Conference through the Catawba Valley Chamber of Commerce. Wonderful day with inspiring speakers and good company.

I was challenged in particularly by Denise Ryan of Firestar Speaking. She asked us to introduce ourselves to each other using one word.

One word.

Now, I’ve done the exercise of describing the business, myself, etc. using 6 words: “We take the stress away.” and “We’re not afraid of your stuff.” come to mind. But one word? Really?

Of course, being the creative gal that I am I had to throw away the first obvious words: creative, energetic, extrovert, Aries, me. Even the not so obvious ones: non-plussed, tireless, hungry. Then it dawned on me: I’m here.

I’m here. I’m here. Say it up-side-down and sideways and that is me all over. I’m HERE.

I’m here standing in the continual grief of my sister’s passing away this year. I’m here embracing it as the ever-present drumbeat in my soul. Mostly it stays in the background, but it often finds the opportunity to rage on and envelope my heart.

I’m here for my kids. Just here – whatever they need. My mom read Dr. Spock when I was a kid and he suggests “Love them. Feed them. Leave them alone.” So, I do. Being here is an expression of love, isn’t it?

I’m here saying goodbye to a marriage that went downhill and here as a single mom trying to figure it out. As I’ve said before, I have become comfortable saying “I don’t know what’s next.” I think that is a quality of being here (and now). I’m here. My mind isn’t weaving the future, planning and contorting it into goals and anticipated achievements. I’m just here taking in this new experience.

I’m here for our clients – and my staff is ‘here’ too. So much of what we do involves simply showing up and listening to the needs, fears, worries of our clients. I think that is why I try not to change appointment times with them. They really rely on us being ‘here’ for them during a stressful time. I like to be reliable here. I like to be authentically here too. Our clients appreciate the authenticity of our interactions with them. We really become intimate with their circumstances (and their stuff!) and that kind of relationship opens us up as well.

We are here for our clients with a tool bag of resources and techniques and well, tools (tape, picture hangers, box cutters). WE bring the tools to work with whatever the present circumstances present. We just unpacked a lovely woman this past Monday and somehow just one of her shelf pegs got lost – we had a spare one in our tool bag. You can’t put a shelf up with 3 pegs -you gotta have 4! Glad I was here with that 4th peg!

As I close this blog out, I just re-read Dr. Bill Thomas blog on Reimagining the New Year. He writes about January and the god Janus looking forward and backward in time, the gatekeeper of the new year. Reimagining is not about making resolutions and fixing what went wrong in the past, it’s about standing in the here and now and imagining new possibilities.

What do you imagine for 2014? Email me or post below and let me know.

Me? I imagine just being here and I’ll continue to be here . . . until I’m not.