The Constellation Learning Newsletter
March 2009

I write to you from my kitchen table under a large window overlooking the Mexican Sierra Madres. The pueblo in which I am living is on the Bay of Banderas where large hump back whales meet, mingle and reproduce. I was blessed to see a mother and baby swimming side by side while out fishing on a friend’s boat.

Some things are best witnessed from close up. For more observations, keep reading.

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~ Monthly Message ~

“I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer.”

-- Jim Carrey--

“The purpose of life is a life of purpose.”

-- Robert Byrne --

I have heard from a few of you wondering if I’m still alive. I am. I have not intentionally put off writing a communication from beautiful Boca de Tomatlan; I’ve simply not had much to say. Or at least not much I thought applied to work, or leadership, or anything remotely inspiring.

Being on sabbatical has been good for my soul, not to mention my body. Hiking is working kinks out of long-dormant large muscle groups in the same way reading Ken Wilbur is stretching my mind. I came for simplicity. I have found it.

I’ve whiled away the hours resting, reading, dotting I’s and crossing T’s. It’s been time of completions, and with them, new beginnings. I’m painting again and have read four Pulitzer Prize winning books. Things I haven’t taken the time to do in way too many years. Things I really enjoy. Seems I’m relinquishing deadlines and adding lifetimes instead.

That said I have been writing—a lot. Over 20,000 words, observations of life here. Intended only as a sort of journal (without the blood and guts), something else has taken shape—just not the shape I thought it would. More like feathers. And funny. Who knew? I think a book is birthing.

If you’re curious, click here for a culled sample.
I’d be interested in your responses.

But the fact that I neither cared to write anything “business-oriented” nor felt I needed to was quite telling and so I took a look under that rock and discovered that somewhere along the line, without forethought or apparent design, I ended up in a niche market conducting leadership development workshops and programs.  It began in the personal development field decades ago and sort of spread. Do I do corporate work? Sure. I like the pay-scale. Still, it is the personal development, the unfolding, the blossoming of the human spirit I find most fulfilling; the pay-offs are more rewarding than pay-checks.

A dozen years ago I began writing this e-communication to graduates of the Trust Program. Then came coaching and corporate clients and this newsletter sort of became a leadership e-letter…wh-wh-what? How did that happen? It happened when I started to think that dollars and cents were more important that contentment and sense.

Sabbaticals evoke blinding truth-telling. It’s been utterly freeing.

Is this a leadership e-letter? Hell, no. It’s a life e-letter. Always has been, I just tried to squish it into something the world doesn’t need—another business newsletter popping into your in-box, clogging it up to help you grow your business! Those who read it regularly and apparently miss it when I’m silent don’t do so to become better leaders or grow their businesses, although that may be a benefit. They read it to become better people. The bottom line on leadership is as basic as life itself: better people make better leaders.

And better people are people whose intentions, words and actions are aligned. Period.

A + B = C.

It’s as simple as that.

So look for a return to basics: a life letter, coming soon to an in-box near you!

“Life is like a blanket too short. You pull it up and your toes rebel, you yank it down and shivers meander about your shoulder; but cheerful folks manage to draw their knees up and pass a very comfortable night.”

-- Marion Howard --

(For back issues please click here.)

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