Weaving Dreams: The Joy of Work, The Love of Life

Chapter 13. Finding Balance: A Four-Part Recipe to Positive Thinking and Harmony

Corporate decisions can be excruciating to make and emotionally draining to execute. If you let them, petty disputes and daily nuisances will buzz around your head, grating on your nerves and leaving you raw, unable to scratch the itch that keeps you up at night. A demanding family life, a busy calendar, and lack of time to recharge all combine to spell disaster if you don't purposefully maintain a healthy, balanced life.

Without the power of positive thinking, it would be much more challenging to find the joy of work or the love of life. But over time, I've learned how to live in the moment, walk through this journey, remain focused on the positive, and maintain balance in a shifting world. And in doing so, I've pieced together a litany of beautiful moments that, when amassed together, produce a masterpiece. Sometimes I just have to take a step back to absorb it; to more fully appreciate the artwork emerging from a life lived to the fullest. It's in those moments of distance and removal that I remember what a joy it is to be alive.

I brim with gratitude that I was born—that my mother brought me into this world kicking and screaming and announcing my existence to the autumn-colored planet. I am filled with thanks to be alive.

I am glad to go to work; to be of sound mind and healthy body and able to do my job.

I am glad for the dreams of my father. For risks taken and responsibilities assumed. For baskets ...