fall is so beautiful

Our volunteers chatting away with the founder of YouthBuild at the mixer they put on!
Deep in thought!

The foliage outside our office window!

I had a semi relaxing weekend. Most of the weekend I was under the weather and dealing with a massive headache but still it gave me some forced downtime which is always nice.

On Friday our volunteers hosted a mixer in our building. It was a hit! We finally got to meet some of the other organizations in the building and also let them know about the awesome work we are doing. Plus it was just fun.

To the left is a picture of a few of our volunteers, Shawn and our new awesome Regional Program Manager Josh. Plus notice the awesome foliage in the back. I was talking to a volunteer when I looked out the window and noticed it. It was the first time any of us had seen the sun that day and it lit up the foliage outside so beautifully.

Being apart of Fall has been sort of healing process for me. It is teaching me the art of being in the moment and learning when to let go. I live in a beautiful neighborhood and all of the newly changed leaves are just gorgeous. Yet now the leaves are quietly falling away and I am realizing that fall is a part of a whole not a whole within itself. It doesn't stick around forever and once its gone, there will never be a fall like it. So I spent a huge part of my weekend just simply walking around and taking it in.

I also did some hard core reflecting and reading this weekend. I started and finished Nancy Pelosi's Know Your Power. I wasn't uber impressed from the beginning but it turned out to be a really good read and really inspiring at this point in my life. I'll highlight an excerpt:

Lindy taught me to think differently. I remember telling her that I thought I had too many opportunities, that perhaps I should give up one of my positions. This was prior to my election to Congress, when I was chair of the 1984 Democratic National Convention Host Committee, and also chaired the committee that enforced the delagate selectionr rules. In her wonderful southern accent, she said, "Darlin, no man would ever , ever have that athought."

And then she gave me a significant piece of advice. "Nancy," she said, "know thy power." Know your Power. I had power in my hands and I should use it. Lindy's words had an enormous impact on me.

I also finally finished up Life Entrepreneurs and now want to give it to every person I know. I skipped out on the game this weekend which I feel bad about. I really do enjoy being social. But I knew that it was important to take at least one day to myself. And what a wonderful day it is.

Okay well now on to what will hopefully be a productive day at work.