Rebalance Your Life With Networking, Women and Wine!

For me, sixth grade was a long, tortuous year. In spite of having at least enough coordination and height to be the tetherball champion, I was always the last one chosen for four-square, teased incessantly about my A+ grades, and rode my Schwinn bike home alone each day.

However, I was able to find one element of triumph in this jungle of rejection, and that was during gym. In particular, the balance beam. It was only 6 inches off the ground, a detail not lost on my acrophobic brain. In fact my tall, lanky frame felt almost graceful as I trotted across the smooth, wooden path. When I reached the end, I dipped my foot and swirled around with ease, a move choreographed to compliment the arc of my dancing arms and solid posture. I found the journey mesmerizing. A calculated series of fluid movements that meant unwavering concentration on staying completely parallel to the bar, head held high, proud and confident.

As I reflect on those years, I realized that we all seek balance in one way or another. We crave that feeling of equality, weight distributed between two events, two people, or even two opposing ideas. Gravity and nature have created that in us, and we thrive on that dominant sense.

The trouble is, that it’s is constantly slipping out of sync. Each day our delicate intentions are thrown to and fro, tumbling about in our hearts and minds like so many bee-bees, stuck inside a closed sphere, causing us to obsess over how they got there and how to extract them. We are often drawn to the imbalance as opposed to celebrating those things that are in perfect harmony and wellness. A habit that causes us much pain.

I don’t think I’ve spoken to anyone this past year who hasn’t had some challenges on various scales. Two-thousand and nine is almost a memory and to some of us, a swift utterance of “good riddance” escapes our pursed lips. Even though the difference between 09 and 2010 is divided only by one greeting with the moon, we all look forward with relief to the reinvention of prosperity in 2010. We can’t wait to receive the balance we feel we are lacking and for the wheel weights on our vehicle of consciousness to be found.

For Networking, Women and Wine, 2010 will center around restoring balance in your life. Our events will continue to celebrate the metaphor of wine, its flavors and explorative elements. We will continue to emphasize the unique qualities of women, and we will offer you assistance in reestablishing balance in your life.

From social, to visceral, to spiritual, to practical advice, together we will find that harmonious balance bar, sweep gracefully along its path, and then, become beacons and strength to others around us seeking meaningful connections and true friendships!

New Horizons are Waiting!

As I sit in my office and gaze upon the beauty outside my window, I have observed many things. On occasion a hummingbird will dash into view, his iridescent wings catching the light as he stares at me for one, brief, lightning moment. More frequently a proud cardinal will perch upon a cedar branch like a king upon his throne. He clearly feels he owns my backyard and is intent upon showing off his domain to me; the glass between us giving him more courage than he would otherwise display. The squirrels, who seem to flaunt a lack of worth ethic, play like children in a school yard as they dash up one tree and out onto impossibly thin branches that quiver in response to gravity's gentle laws. Their tails twitch like the nervous brow of a wary store keeper, eying a teenager from a hidden stool.

However, the most interesting visitor has been a small finch, who, until recently was feathering his nest neatly inside the edge of my rain gutter not 3 feet from my desk. He visits this chosen site with earnest, instinct driving him to create a place to call home, and to hide from the hawks that hover above the oak canopy stretching out over his precarious saucer of sticks.

As of today, though, things have changed. His visits are frenetic and short. He buzzes like a nervous mother, checking in disbelief to find that all is lost because his home is gone. Why? Yesterday we removed all the debris that lay fermenting and bulging inside the trough. A place he thought he alone possessed. It is now, sad to say, clean and shiny. The roof shingles swept clean of needles. His evidence of toil and passion gone. I think about how we all feel in today's uneasy economy.

So many things are unstable or vanish without a trace and we return to find things taken from us, much like this finch. For awhile, our behavior is rather like his as we fly to and fro worrying and carrying on about something else that has slipped through our fingers; something that we worked so hard to create dashed against the rocks of fate. We use these episodes as evidence that we are doomed, cursed or nearly at the "end of our rope."

In the midst of the mourning and discarding of lost hopes, I wonder, if we could or would see these tragedies as only a transition, instead of a pronouncement of the end, if we might discover new horizons that have been waiting to be uncovered. I ask myself if my own eyes are open to the possibilities that even tragedy can bring. How will I move on without being tempted to nurture my scars and show them off to others seeking sympathy and a shared sorrow?

It seems the bird understands this. By the afternoon hour, not long after his tragic loss, he revisits the location for a very different reason. I know because I saw the splash. I even thought I saw his feathers curled up in euphoria, his beak wryly showing signs of contentment. For in place of the mud and soil was a small pool of clean water; the remnant of a rainstorm caught in a low buckle at the end of the aluminum tube. He had found a spot to bathe and frolic. This very spot where he planned to raise a family or at least rest his wings, was now a playground. A place of joy. And he was happy.

For now at least, I will remember this moment and how it feels. Perhaps I will tie a feather to my lamp so I am reminded that when some things are swept away, it is up to us to discover the joy that can be found in what replaces it. For if there is one thing certain in life, it is the fact that there is always more. What that 'more' is, is up to you and how far you will fly to find it.

Singing a Song of Courage

I used to compose music. I was passionate, imaginative, inspired and deliberate. The ballads came quickly, with words and chords that complimented each other like chocolate and whipped cream. For awhile I was the prodigy of the neighborhood.

Why didn’t I move forward with my music?

Well, for starters, I was only 8 years old and my concert hall was simply my back yard.

It was glorious really. I sat in my swing, rising up and down with a motion only limited by the rhythm of the chains that yanked me back to earth with each arc of energy. While I hit the high notes I rose into the air enough to see the white pebbles that covered the roof of my house, and catch a glimpse of the bird’s nest in the pepper tree not far from the fort I had built out of chenille bedspreads and wooden clothespins.

It was my domain. My little sound stage, I thought the acoustics were fantastic and the possibilities endless.

I remember feeling like I was the only one in the world as I pieced together lyrics and codas, crescendos and repeat verses, finally enjoying that wonderful sensation of carrying the final note up to the clouds and out to the stars. My little songs might have been good, but most likely they were something only my parents listened to from the privacy of the back door, pleased and laughing at the same time.

So why talk about my swingset symphonies? Because it illustrates something that most of us probably did as children but wouldn’t dare do as adults. That is to explore something with abandon, confidence and purpose; to move forward without a thought of failure or criticism, letting our minds be our guide and silence the inner voices of counselors, parents, or jealous peers.

During our gatherings, we, as women with a desire to create friendships and solutions, gather to celebrate what it means to release our inner potential. Coinciding with the season of the release of white wines, we sip on Chardonnay and Riesling and hopefully find a new song in our hearts. One that returns us to our child-like desire to find the voice deep inside us that longs to create; to feel the quiver of excitement in our bellies when we know we’ve found something we love.

George Sheehan, an American physician, author and running enthusiast is quoted as saying, "Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be."

A modest statement of sorts its power lies in our ability to believe it. And that is often the hardest thing of all.

As women we are always nurturing others to believe in themselves. We urge our children to pursue their greatest dreams. We perpetuate the magical myths of our culture, like Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy to lend faith and possibility to a world with too much reality. We create visualization techniques for our boyfriends, partners and husbands to send them out the door with a shield of self-love, set on a path of purpose.Yet, as we look in the mirror all we see is what we need to change, what has worn out, what isn’t remarkable. Those poisonous thoughts make what we WANT seem so very far away.

How can the idea of wine help us segue to a new sense of courage?

When a wine maker experiments with blending and making wine, he has a finite amount of valuable juice to work with; the result of a year of effort, expertise and revenue. But still, he has a dream. A dream that he can find that one flavor that expresses all the grape is meant to be. Something that when sipped, imparts a flood of aromas and flavors, unique and heady.

With flasks and barrels all around, he is ready and willing to mix with abandon and science to find that perfect glass. And, not unlike the effort it takes for us to do what we know we must to do to find what’s inside ourselves, he sprinkles in a little hope and courage along the way.

Today we challenge you to find your own mixing room of flavors, OR your own backyard concert hall of possibility. Go ahead, find your voice and find the inner courage to release all you can be and all you’re meant to be!