I grew up in a family that placed great emphasis on giving back to the community. The involvement by my parents in many different volunteer capacities, including leadership positions on various boards was a blue print for how I have chosen to live my life. I have always felt the need to use my gifts of talent, time and treasure to help make a difference in my local community. In fact, I believe that I have blogged about this before: here.
I am currently on the Advisory Board for the group Authentic Leadership in Cincinnati and will be working with the Business Development Group of Cincinnati's United Way organization, but the group that I wanted to bring up here in this space is the IHM Job Search Ministry, whose leadership board, I have recently joined. Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) is one of the largest Catholic parishes in the archdioces of Cincinnati. This group is an off-shoot of the well-known Job Search Focus Group (JSFG) in Hyde Park (Cincinnati suburb). The goal of the group is to provide training, coaching and support to the many folks in the area who are in transition. Job search is more than a full time "work" process, but is also an emotional journey lined with worry, stress and self-doubt especially given the economic conditions in the world today.
The IHM group met last night, and our speaker was well known area psychiatrist, Dr. Buzz Auvil, who spoke on the topic of Stress. Just wanted to leave folks with a list of strategies that Buzz recommended to the group to help alleviate the overwhelming feelings that can occur during job search or during any type of life transition.
Own the Stress-once you own it, you can control it!
Take Care of Physical Needs: exercise, eating right
Seek Support
Take a Break
Get to Know Yourself
Learn Relaxation Techniques
Spiritual Practice-prayer, kindness to others, meditation, spiritual reading
Buzz opened the session with a wonderful prayer from Thomas Merton that I wanted to share with you:
MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
“Making a difference” has always been my mantra, yet age, wisdom and stage in life have united to bring me to the point where I can now take greater action.It is time for me to move beyond my family and community; beyond the individual lives that I have impacted.I have felt a calling, actually a very large magnetic pull towards some type of greater difference for a while now, but had felt limited due to lack of surplus funds.Sure it would be great to have a fully funded foundation to make donations to worthy causes that I believe in, but I think that a lofty plan like that has to have a simple start.The simple start is the major “ah ha” or awakening that I have just experienced.If I silence the call due to thinking that I am limited in doing my heart’s work, then I will live a life unfulfilled, not being able to use the strengths and talents that I have been given to exact change in the world around me.
Two recent events have come together in my life to put me back on the path to realizing the whisper of my dreams.The first occurred Monday night when I participated in the CEO-ACT seminar.After listening to veteran financier Steve Klumb, SVP of National Bank, I realized that there are funds out there for all kinds of endeavors.I look at my friend and fellow XU MBA alum, Brian Siegel, who also is quite passionate about making a difference and I see that beyond his volunteer roles, and positions on foundation boards, he has stepped up to the plate to create his own foundation and to gather a team of people who can help him reach his goals.
The turning point for me was the front page article in today’s 11/19/08 Enquirer with the headline:“This year, Santa needs some Christmas cheer”.The picture of Bill Zapf, Sr. as Santa is the absolutely most realistic picture of Santa I have ever seen in my life and the look on his face of such concern amidst the wonder and magic of Christmas is so clearly evident. Enquirer writer, Cliff Radel, reports that Bill has been “playing” Santa for 37 years, decorating his North College Hill home with a bazillion lights and holiday decorations and donning his “uniform” to stand outside, no matter the weather, to wave at passing cars and hand out candy canes.He said it all began when he was young, and his large family of 8 could not afford to put up lots of decorations and light displays.His father would pile the whole family into their station wagon and drive through the Cincinnati neighborhoods looking at the Christmas magic displayed in other people’s yards.Bill wanted to create that same magic for the families of his neighborhood and thus his display and nearly four decade run as Santa was born.
The Enquirer photo shows Bill with that look of concern because he won’t be out in front of his brightly lit house this Christmas season spreading the cheer that will most certainly be needed more than in any other year.Bill won’t be there, because he has pancreatic cancer, one of the most deadly forms of cancer there is.Bill isn’t concerned about himself or the pain he is going through; he is concerned that he won’t be able to personally make a difference in the lives of the people who will be passing by his house this holiday season.He won’t have the strength to stand outside; to lift his arm in a huge wave; to voice a boisterous “ho, ho, ho”; to hand out small canes of red, and white striped candy.In this time of personal challenge, he cares more about others than himself.The Enquirer quoted Bill as saying, “Tell everybody, my prayers go out to them…and if they can say a prayer, say one for me.”
My prayers are with Bill as he takes this final journey and with his family as they help him through it and work to keep his dream of making a difference alive in North College Hill.
His story has had such a profound effect on me and is the last tiny key that unlocks the restrictions on my ability to give of myself in a greater way.Now I take this knowledge with the solid idea that nothing can stop me from achieving my heart’s work.Nothing.Because in the end, doing what you are called to do is what life is really all about.
