Cherry On Top: Badass With a Gluegun

It's Cherry Blossom Festival time in DC.  Poet Pablo Neruda's poetry completely relays how I feel about my work.  I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.  Translated in my simple words:  I want to help others feel joy. 

Every year the beauty of the season comes in the form of fluffy pinkness.  This year the weather has rendered the bloom time to be a quick one.  I called seven florists yesterday looking for twigs and was told that they are not coming this year because it snowed and snowed and snowed and snowed.  The flowers pop and then fade very quickly; therefore, the branches can't get to the florist before the blossoms are goners.  If you want to see these beauties, this is the weekend to head down to the Tidal Basin.  You can also watch the explosion from your very own computer on BLOSSOM CAM.   http://www.earthcam.com/usa/dc/cherryblossoms/

In the meantime, I need a prop because I have a TV appearance to talk about the secrets behind Spring celebrations.  Floral factoid:  the first batch of 2,000 cherry trees arrived from Japan in 1910 and were diseased.  Coordination by a woman with whoop pow, Eliza Scidmore, the first female board member at Nat Geo, had them ship over another batch of 3,000 in 1912.

Here is a craft if you want the pink beauties in your life to last all Spring.  I used a glue gun and must say that Martha Stewart has nothing on me with this DIY project. 

1.  Buy a tissue paper craft kit by Klutz and follow the directions. 

2.  Or, buy pink tissue paper.  Make a cherry blossom flower template as shown.  Trace on tissue paper and cut out.  Glue two pieces together.  Scrunch in middle.  Glue gun to twig.  Voila!

 

Final pic coming after I appear on Let's Talk Live. 

Hope you feel like a cherry blossom busting in joy.  If ya need a little inspiration, play Neil Diamond's Cherry Cherry really loud, and dance like you're Martha Stewart with a glue gun. 

More secrets behind spring traditions from my appearance on Lets' Talk Live

SHOULDA WOULDA COULDA

Someone recently asked me to talk about work-home balance.  I feel like a bit of a fraud shedding light on this one because it is an area that needs some attentions in my life.  While I'm cooking dinner, I often check my email, facebook, twitter.  I want to be here when the kids get home from school but often I'm still at my computer finalizing an edit, or an email, or a carpool, or an appointment.  When is enough enough?  We are all so busy.  People say the key is to create boundaries of when to do what and for how long with the goal of enjoying the present.

Something recently popped up in my positive psychology work that really speaks to me- STOP SHOULDING ALL OVER YOURSELF.   Eliminate what does not bring you JOY!  And I'll add to it, STOP SHOULDING ALL OVER YOUR KIDS.  Maybe your child shouldn't play 2 or 3 sports every season.  Maybe he or she won't play varsity soccer or God forbid, get into an ivy league school.  Maybe they'll be happy playing one sport and getting an education in something they want to pursue.  Same for you mom.  Same for me. Maybe I won't be the next big deal.  But I'll be me, being happy. 

As I try to balance work and home, I am trying to find what is right, right now.  My new practice is that every time I walk through a door, I think about what is good right now.  What can I be grateful for instead of what I should do to have something else.  There's my work-home balance tip:  STOP SHOULDING AND START BEING GRATEFUL FOR WHAT YOU HAVE RIGHT NOW.  All the should coulda woulda will fall away and give you more time to be present.   I like presents.