Writing – Page 8 – FindYourBuriedTreasure

Guess who’s coming to your holiday dinner?

If you were having a dinner party and could invite four people from anywhere and anytime in history, who would be on your guest list, and where would you hold the dinner? Every once in a while, I’ve had to answer questions similar to this – usually in a Toastmasters Table Topics session or contest. But this time, it was during a Holiday Happy Hour with a writing group I belong to. There are actually two separate groups, because the first one was growing too [...]

By bettyliedtke|December 14th, 2012|Columns, Holidays, Quotes and Sayings, Toastmasters, Writing|6 Comments

Hitting the big time starts with hitting the small time

The first order of business this week is for me to let you know when you can watch the episode of “It’s a Woman’s World” that I mentioned in a column a few weeks ago. I was one of three writers on the panel that day, and in addition to discussing writing issues and attitudes, we each read an excerpt of our recent work. I read one of my Villager columns. If you’re in the metro area of the Twin Cities, you can see the [...]

By bettyliedtke|November 30th, 2012|Columns, Professional Speaking, Writing|2 Comments

A positive experience outshines negative ads

“Quiet on the set!” Yes, they really do say that. At least, they did last Sunday when I was in St. Paul for a taping of the show, “It’s a Woman’s World” for SPNN – the St. Paul Neighborhood Network. But they – meaning the producer of the show – said it just once, when two of the people in the room were having a whispered conversation on the side and didn’t realize that an individual recording of one of the show’s participants was about [...]

By bettyliedtke|November 9th, 2012|Columns, Respect, Writing|Comments Off

Find your voice – and use it!

“I found my voice. Now what do I do?” That was the subject of a session I presented at the Toastmasters District 6 Fall Conference last Saturday, and it’s a question I spent a long time trying to answer for myself. When I first joined Toastmasters, one of the reasons was that I felt I could express myself fairly well in print, but not when I was speaking out loud. I didn’t have any noble or global ambitions at the time, I just wanted to [...]

By bettyliedtke|October 26th, 2012|Columns, Professional Speaking, Toastmasters, Uganda, Writing|Comments Off

Morning sun brings an enlightening experience

I didn’t ask for a message or a miracle, but that’s what I got. I was sitting on the sofa in my family room, doing my prayer exercise. This is a ritual – part prayer, part journal, part asking God for advice – that grew out of a class I once took. Now it’s something I do every morning. The past few weeks had been extremely busy, with the kind of work that made me feel like I was taking one step forward and two [...]

By bettyliedtke|March 30th, 2012|Columns, Family, Writing|1 Comment

Laughter and lotus and friendly reminders

I need to lighten up. I realized this after talking with a friend of mine who was telling me about the yoga class she’s taking. At one point, she asked me if I’ve ever done yoga. “You should take a class,” she said. “I think you’d really enjoy it.” Actually, I have taken a yoga class. It was years ago, and I continued it until the day I got hit at a stoplight on my way to class. I don’t hold it against the yoga [...]

By bettyliedtke|January 21st, 2012|Columns, Writing|Comments Off

Learning – and unlearning – in Uganda

A few of the things I learned in Uganda: What ostrich meat and boiled goat taste like; How to say “How are you,” “Fine,” and “Thank you” in Lugandan and Swahili, and how much fun it is to say names like Musa, Magala, and Busembatia out loud; That if you can drive a car in Kampala and live to tell about it, you can drive anywhere in the world. I also learned how isolated and alone it’s possible to feel, even when surrounded by large [...]

By bettyliedtke|November 11th, 2011|Columns, Family, Travel, Writing|Comments Off

Time out for writing

I was out of town for a few days last week, even though I couldn’t really afford the time away. But that was the point. The trip was a 3-day Writers Retreat in Hinckley, with uninterrupted time for the kind of writing that most of us can’t find time to do in our regular and overly-busy lives. There were 15 women at the retreat, all with different types of businesses, and different types of projects they wanted to work on. We spent most of each [...]

By bettyliedtke|October 7th, 2011|Coaching, Columns, Writing|Comments Off

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 was preparing, Grandma gave it [...]

By bettyliedtke|September 23rd, 2011|Columns, Family, Values, Writing|Comments Off

You’re never too old – so what are you waiting for?

The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on June 9, 2011. Several people have told me how impressed and inspired they were by the woman I wrote about in my column last week. She’s in her late 70s, and contacted me recently about Dream Coaching because she knows she’s got some talents and gifts that she’s not using, and she doesn’t want to waste them. “I’ve got 25 good years left,” she told me, “and I want to make the most of them....”

By bettyliedtke|June 10th, 2011|Coaching, Columns, Family, Values, Writing|Comments Off

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