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All you need is love

The theme of one of our recent Toastmasters meetings was “The Secret Ingredient.” The person who was serving as the Toastmaster that day was someone who loves to cook, and whenever she gives a speech or responds to a question on the subject of food, I always find my mouth watering just listening to her. Throughout the meeting, she made references to her grandmother, who always included a secret ingredient in her cooking. No matter what type of food she [...]

By |September 23rd, 2011|Columns, Family, Values, Writing|

I’m ba-aack. :>

My blog was down for longer than intended while some major renovations were being done on my website, but I'm back up and running now. I'm planning to continue posting my Chanhassen Villager column here every week, and I'm going to start including other little nuggets as well. I hope you'll enjoy reading my posts, and that you'll do a little exploring on the rest of my website, too. I'd love to hear what you think about it!

By |September 23rd, 2011|Uncategorized|

Up or down, left or right, we can always get there from here

The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on July 28, 2011. My husband and I went up north last weekend. Except we had to drive south to get there. We spent the weekend with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, who live in the Chicago area but recently bought a cabin at Fox Lake, which is about a two-hour drive north from their house. From ours, it’s a six-hour drive in the other direction. It was a great weekend, and other than the time we spent riding out the storms....

By |July 29th, 2011|Columns, Family, Respect, Values|

Turning a lump of coal into a diamond

The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on July 21, 2011. “Discover the Diamond Within.” That was the theme of the TELI – the Toastmasters Education & Leadership Institute – that took place last Saturday. Because the theme was so closely aligned with my passion for helping people find their buried treasure, I had applied – and was accepted – to be one of the presenters. The program I did wasn’t my usual message about finding the gifts, skills, talents and traits that we often don’t recognize in ourselves. Instead it was about taking a lump of coal – as Superman used to do back in the 1950s TV series – and turning THAT into a diamond.

By |July 22nd, 2011|Accountability, Columns, Professional Speaking, Toastmasters|

Where’s King Solomon when you need him?

The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on July 14, 2011. I’ve always been fascinated by the story of King Solomon, and by his wisdom – in those Biblical times before DNA testing was available – in determining who was the real mother of a baby that two women were fighting over....

By |July 15th, 2011|Accountability, Columns, Family, Values|

Secrets for solving crisis can be found in two places

The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on July 7, 2011. It’s no secret to anyone who knows me personally – or to regular readers of my column or other writings – that two of the things I’m most passionate about are Toastmasters and Dream Coaching. And as naïve and idealistic as this may sound, I truly believe that the world would be a much better place if every person in it spent some time taking part in Toastmasters meetings and working with a Dream Coach....

By |July 8th, 2011|Accountability, Coaching, Columns, Respect, Toastmasters, Values|