Traffic Jam in the Buffalo Underpass

do baby buffalos make good pets? the only reason i ask is i had an up close encounter with one this morning and he was pretty darn cute. it got me thinking about our own herds and the people who watch our backs ...

more on that in a sec ...

out and about early picking up kids and dropping them at preschool and orchestra practice i was in the mood to treat myself to a quiet drive home over some rutted dirt backroads. i drive this road a lot. today there's snow on the mountains ... from pike's peak to rocky mountain national park. mountains as far as the eye can see and it's truly a majestic sight.

that's what i went for.

but today the buffalo were out. they live on this cute little farm with a cute little red barn and a cute little silo. their cute not-so-little pasture is divided by this rutted road. these buffalo have a nice life. they even have their own underpass that gets them from pasture to pasture efficiently.

today there was a traffic jam in the buffalo underpass.

chow was arriving in the west pasture. buffalo who were hanging casually in the east pasture now have the intention of getting to the chow. quickly.

i stopped. today the buffalo were way more interesting than the mountains. i got out of my car and walked right up to the fence flanking the buffalo underpass.

now i don't know much about the dynamics of buffalo society ... the hierarchy ... their moods and personalities ... but the buffalo who were still idling in the traffic jam on the east side were definitely getting aggressive. snorting. pawing. pushing.

i walked back across the road to the chow pasture where buffalo are popping out of the tunnel one-by-one like candy in a pez dispenser and that's when i met the baby buffalo who stole my heart.

he was darn near airborne when he shot out of the tunnel. and then he tripped and fell. i liked him immediately.

i guess, this morning, i was slightly more attractive than the buffalo chow as he stopped and checked me out. my phone has a "built in" camera (ha) so i pulled it out of my pocket, stuck my hands through the fence to get as close as possible and then proceeded to drop the danged thing as i was pulling out the stylus to operate the touch screen. a camera yes. an efficient camera no.

but now i really baby's attention. while i'm quietly cursing the stylus and considering the merits of just letting the buffalo HAVE the phone (if i dared show you the crappy pics you'd understand!) i notice he's tentatively moving towards me.

i'm on my knees, reaching for my phone. watching.

baby is taking one step forward and then glancing back.

you see, a couple of BIG buffalo stop who've just popped out of the tunnel have now stopped to watch. the fence is starting to feel REAL flimsy ...

and here comes baby. one step forward. one glance back. one step forward. one glance back.

until he's about 5 feet away, which was plenty close for us both. and then we just kind of had a moment. he was all gangly legs with a grayish brown coat and huge blinking doey eyes.
i could almost hear the pitter patter of little hooves across our high sheen hard wood floors ...

baby buffalos are really, really cute ... if you're in to the mangy coat and hump kinda thing.

i didn't get the picture i wanted as he stampeded back to the big boys as soon as I reached in far enough to get my phone out of the grass and slipped against the fence, which really felt more like hitting a giant cheese grater, causing quite a rattle ... but i was really moved by how brave he had been ... getting as close as he got before i wiped myself out.

but this is what i suspect happened ... these big buffalo who had stopped to monitor the situation were the supporting players in baby's choice to act courageously. and i had an extraordinary experience this morning, just hanging out in a baby buffaloes space for a few moments because of his courage.

so it got me thinking about the power of having people in your corner. not in some grand intangible way, but really, a small group of people who support you in being courageous in life.

my dictionary defines courage as a "firmness of mind and will in the face of danger or extreme difficulty".

if you're up to something big, you're going to encounter difficulties. that's just the way life works. want an easy life? go sit and watch tv and never leave your house. you see, courage isn't the lack of fear or doubt, courage is ACTING in the face of those fears and doubts.

the dictionary says this takes a firmness of mind and will. well, i don't know about you, but some days i just don't want to do it on my own. i require a swift kick from someone reminding me i am courageous. someone standing beside me. a couple of big buffalos watching my backside, lest i backslide into mediocrity.

there's a word for this dynamic, possibly coined first by napoleon hill in his book "think and grow rich". a mastermind group. regardless of who thought up the phrase, some well-known authors and business folks are putting this topic on the map again. why? because it's transformational.

simply put, it's folks connecting with other folks in order to support each other in living an extraordinary life.

i have a brand new mastermind group that's meeting officially for the first time this week.

i'm jazzed.

an office supply entrepreneur from texas ... a pilot and army reserve professional working just miles from the pentagon ... a brilliant 20 year old with a heart of gold ... a mindset coach from colorado ... and me ... all different walks of life and not necessarily much in common except we're all up to something big.

and we're here to support each other in playing big.

i'll keep you posted on what we're up to so check back often. trust me. these are people you want to know.

i'll also be posting some great resources here in the coming days on the power of the mastermind and how you can create this same support structure in your life!

QOD: what would you be able to accomplish if you had a team of people in your life unabashedly supporting your dreams and visions rather than holding you down like a 1,000 pound backpack?

Happy September 10th!

Sunday was my birthday. September 10. I don’t say that in order to solicit a bunch of belated birthday greetings. Although expensive gifts are always welcomed. Ha! No, I bring it up because I used to love my birthday. Growing up it usually meant I had the first birthday of the school year so my parties were bashes, with my entire class invited and I, of course, was the Queen in a paper hat – the center of attention - for those couple of hours. During our annual “back to school clothes” shopping trips my mom would inevitably not purchase some of my favorite selections, to my disappointment, only to have them appear weeks later in birthday gifts. Sweet.

I didn’t even mind that milestone 30th birthday, a “couple” of years past.

But they stopped being fun in 2001.

The eve of 9/11.

We were in Texas, visiting my family, when the planes hit and we knew our life here in the U.S. would not feel “normal” again for a long, long time.

For some reason we didn’t have my official birthday celebration on the 10th that year. We were waiting for some more family to fly in and join us. Of course all air travel was suspended for days that morning so they didn’t get there but we did manage to tear ourselves away from FOX and CNN later that evening to go eat some Mexican food.

But it was a melancholy celebration, with our conversations entirely focused on the differences between my grandmother’s childhood and the world my daughter had been born in to. That day I could not see the possibility of optimism anywhere. And ever since I’ve gotten into a little non-age-related funk around my birthday.

Until Sunday.

We celebrated with grown-up friends on Saturday night so my entire birthday actually revolved around our family - me, my husband, and our children. And we did exactly as we pleased on Sunday. We got up early and hit the Castle Rock Arts Festival. Because we got there early, we were able to strike up a conversation with an amazing oil painter, Katherine McNeill www.katherinemcneill.com . John (an extremely talented artist for those of you who haven’t seen his work) engaged Ms. McNeill in a conversation about technique and before we knew it she’d pulled out a painting-in-progress and we all enjoyed a significant chunk of her time, with the kids actually getting to work on the painting with her. It was fun and creative and inspiring and priceless.

Then on Sunday night we gathered around the island in our kitchen with boiled shrimp, fresh French bread, brie, grapes and chocolate cake ... my requested birthday dinner menu. We cranked up the iPod sound system and let the kids take turns spinning the tunes (everything from “Hillary Duff” to “Queen” to “Monty Python’s ‘The Galaxy Song’”) and we danced.

Sunday was a perfect day. I didn’t get caught up in anything but hanging out with the people I love most in the world, celebrating and doing things that make my heart sing.

September 10, 2001. The last full day over 3,000 people spent with their friends, family and loved ones before their lives were suddenly and unexpectedly extinguished. There were a lot of sweet, precious memories created that day. A lot of last photographs. A lot of last laughs.

“Live every day as if it’s your last.”

I’ve heard that phrase a thousand times, but remembering September 10, 2001 reminds me, again, how “serious” we should be taking that advice. Because for those people who boarded planes the next morning and went to work in tall buildings and reported for duty in secure buildings, September 10, 2001 was their last day on this earth.

And the best way I can honor them, any and all politics and memorials and 21 gun salutes aside, is to live my life to the fullest every day without squandering one precious minute – it’s called living a life of intention. And I believe in my heart, if those 3,000 were to speak to those of us who remain, that would be their message.

So the birthday funk is over. I now choose to see September 10 as a day of celebration and life. It’s a reminder to me that tomorrow is NEVER guaranteed ... that all I have is right now ... and right now ... and right now ... It’s a day to celebrate the lives of those who didn’t live to see September 12, 2001 and to honor them by playing full out while living my one fabulous, extraordinary, precious life here on this earth!

Happy September 10th Everybody!