Grandma and 5-year-old in Florida

This in from Kate Schott.

I met a sweet (all alone, barefoot, mismatched pajamas) 5-year-old last night in a McDonald’s bathroom off a highway somewhere between Disney World and Miami Beach.

Grandma was in the restaurant having a meltdown, because the child had run away from her to go to the bathroom.

“I can’t handle this! I’ve got two babies to look after!” The other baby was in the stroller holding an empty bottle and crying.

Grandma continued to shout every once in a while when we were all back in the restaurant. I’m guessing drugs or severe mental health issues played a role here too. But the stress of taking care of kids is real, too. All parents know it.

I told her I would help. I told her I’m a mom, too. Five-year-old sat with us and we chatted. I learned that they lived in the Motel 6 down the street with Mom and Grandma. There was a Dad, but he’s not around anymore.

I wanted to ask more questions, but I didn’t. I wanted to help more, but all I could do right then and there was help Grandma by watching over 5-year-old for a few moments.

This story doesn’t have some grand happy ending. I’m not going to ask you to donate money or vote one way or another. What I am asking you to do is think about how you can alleviate poverty in your corner of the world. I promise it will improve your life and an entire community. Every little bit counts. We do it by talking to our kids about poverty (and drugs and education and mental health).

A few weeks ago my daughter and I researched charities in Chicago that would allow 8-year-olds to volunteer. We are so excited to work with Lakeview Pantry when we return from Florida.

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Kate Schott lives in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood with her husband, two children and four feral cats. She believes that we all have a responsibility to care for underserved populations—be they animals, neglected children or homeless adults. She served as a writing coach on one of the PICTURE THIS Projects project I also worked on. She previously worked as a communications consultant and loves yoga, bourbon and meeting new people.

What is your Big White Truck?

by Gale West

Happy New Year!

As 2018 is upon us, I am so grateful to be alive. I’d like to share the insights I’ve acquired from my encounter with a big white truck. Hopefully, you will find some inspiration for the coming year.

As some of my friends know, I was in what could have been a fatal accident in France three months ago. I was a passenger in a car that was hit broadside by a big white delivery truck at 60 miles an hour. The broken bones have healed. While at the time this didn’t feel like a gift, as I look back, it was definitely a gift.

I worked with a shaman many years ago who was convinced that one could not fully embrace being alive until you faced your death. I remember coming home after the accident and looking around my apartment thinking, “What would it be like if I never came back? As people went through my things, my journals, what would they find? Who would they see?”

Then, the bigger question one asks when one looks death in the face, “What really matters? All the things I've angst over, my regrets, my doubts, my frustrations, do they really matter?”  The answer was a big NO!

As a result, the questions that are now calling me are:  How do I bring more moments of joy, connection, beauty, and lightness of being into my every day existence?  How do I honor the dreams that are still whispering in my heart?  If not now, when?

There is a relaxed urgency that permeates my days. It feels like an exciting adventure filled with grace and blessings.

At times in our lives, our own big white trucks necessitate a cause for pause. Be it the death of someone close, an accident, being fired or the many other iterations of the big white truck experience. At the time they can feel like crushing blows, but then, ultimately, an invitation to stop and ask the question, “What really matters?”

I spoke to someone a few weeks ago, asking him about his big white truck. He paused for a moment and then shared an experience of being in Nicaragua. He had become friends with four families who were living together in a little shack. One of the women had a small business making tortillas.  She gave him some of the tortillas she had made. When he offered to pay, knowing her circumstances and wanting to help, she refused his money saying, “You are my friend.” He was struck by her incredible generosity when she had so little.  He came back to Chicago and began looking around at all the things he had accumulated realizing it no longer had the same meaning as before. He is still pondering the question, “What really matters?” So far, the answers have been profound and life changing.

What is your big white truck? What really matters? What dreams are still whispering in your heart? If not now, when?

May you give yourself the gift of lingering in moments of joy and delight.

Monet's Garden

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Gale West is a healer and coach to businesses and lives. She helps clients transform their personal relationships to money and success through workshops, retreats and breakthrough coaching. She has taught business, entrepreneurship and leadership at universities, both in the states and in China.

Gale has been trained and certified in hypnosis, Internal Family Systems, Hakomi, and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and other transformative modalities. She is a teacher and certified consultant in the Akashic Records with a global following for her consultations and classes.
 

Gale's passions are swimming, grand adventures and bringing out potential wherever it lies.

She lived in China for close to 5 years, but now dwells a 1/2 block from Dempster in Evanston.