Today’s post is about finding inspiration close to home.

I’ve been on a gradual evolution over the past while, in many ways.

One of the key things I’ve been changing is opening myself up more to beauty.

When I say “beauty,” I mean things that resonate with me, things that stir my senses deeply and nourish my soul.

A cup of lemon herbal tea brewed with the leaves of my backyard lemon tree has a deeply beautiful aroma and taste.

Taking time to prepare myself and feel beautiful on days when I’m going out is a beautiful process in and of itself.

Grass beneath my bare feet is a beautiful feeling.

Really good conversations are beautiful and soul-nourishing, too.

I have always appreciated the wisdom and depth that many people accumulate on their journey of life; it’s one reason I believe there is a deep tradition in many cultures of revering the elders.

Listening to someone speak who has accumulated inner magnificence is a beautiful thing.

This last vacation, I visited a candy shop where my mother used to work as a college student (she said they let her eat as much candy as she wished and it gave her a permanent aversion to sugar–which meant we didn’t get much of it as kids!)

The store, when I went there, was 50% candy, 50% curios.

I am not a fan of knick-knacks for their own sake.

But I am a fan of beauty, and of selecting carefully chosen pieces of beauty that I love for decorating the sanctuary of my home.

I found a pretty green placard, and it really spoke to me. It says, “Happiness is when you’ve gotten really good at being you.”

It has flowers on it.

I held it in my hands, debating for a moment, then I decided to buy it.

Now it is sitting on my desk, and it has shifted the energy of my work environment.

I love it.

I feel like it’s a message from my roots, as I found it at my mother’s old stomping ground.

I am moving away from decorating my space out of a sense of obligation with things people have given me and moving toward selecting my own decorative pieces that mean something to me. It feels like it’s helping my space support me.

How about you? I hope you have a space for you where you feel nourished, where you can appreciate beauty.

And if you don’t, I encourage you to find one or create one–start to change your space in small or large ways so that it supports and nourishes you better.

It will give you space where you can feel peaceful. And that will help you with your intuition.

I’m on a work-lite vacation this month as I tour a few western states and enjoy downtime with the kids before school starts up again.

For part of the last week, we were in Bend, Oregon. What a peaceful, beautiful place! I love the Pacific Northwest. Last Christmas break we spent a few days in and around Portland, but this time we enjoyed the evergreen-y goodness of Central Oregon.

People there ride bikes a lot. They mountain bike on nearby trails. They bike through the parks. And they bike around town. There are a lot of bike stores. One second-hand store even has bikes mounted sideways to the porch posts!

One evening, when the lightly pine-scented air cooled, we headed out to spend some time at a park near the river. The kids climbed the creative play structure (shaped like a pirate ship). Tourists and locals floated down the peaceful river nearby on kayaks, inflatable boats, and intertubes . . . at one point we event spotted three girls drifting along on an inflatable mattress!

The mellow evening traffic on the nearby residential road was quiet, but at one point it surprised us with a chorus of laughter and shouts from a passing pedal-powered trolley bus.

Of course this town has a pedal-powered trolley bus. Biking seems a point of pride here.

It used to be that I looked forward to visiting big cities. So exotic, so exciting, each with a different skyline, local accent, story, and ambiance.

These days I still appreciate the bustle and romance of the city (I’m a proud citizen of Los Angeles county, after all) but when it comes time to take a break, I appreciate the quiet of trees.

My son Energy Boy and I sat with with the trees, next to a trail that he didn’t feel like hiking. We imagined growing roots from our feet deep into the earth and letting the ground support us. His ever-moving feet slowed their swinging and held still. We sat together on a tree stump and simply breathed.

The roughness of bark, the stickiness of pine sap, the dust on my shoes and in the air, the sun beating down hot enough to make shade a blessing at mid day but cooling to let us feel like we’d been gifted a perfect evening. The coarse feeling and pleasant scent of grass against my ankles when I sit to roll the ball to my baby at the park–

I soak all of it in. My inner well is re-filled. My soul is rejuvenated.

It’s like I’m bottling summer moments the way I used to bottle peaches for the winter. I’m filling my mental photo album so I can flip through it and take delight on days that are less warm and colorful.

I’ve shared with you some of what’s feeding me creatively. What have you been up to lately? How are you re-filling your creative well?

Here’s a copy of the email I sent to my list tonight. It has more details about the special offer I am sharing with newsletter subscribers. If you want in on the offer, you may sign up for my newsletter in the box on the right.

Hello there.

At some point you subscribed to my email newsletter list.

(It came with a LinkedIn profile template.)

I haven’t sent something out for a while, so here’s a long-time-no-see hello!

As part of my quest to make a powerful difference, I am restructuring my business.
I am shifting focus from copywriting and to the realm of intuitive and strategic business consulting.

I’ll be sending newsletters to my list roughly weekly. The name of my newsletter is (appropriately) Strategic Insights.

We’ll talk about intuition as it relates to business. And about strategy as it relates to business. And how you can put the power of metaphors to work in serving your business.

If you want to know more about what I’m doing, (and learn about my goody for newsletter subscribers) here it is:

I am an intuitive. This has been a constant for my entire life. Figuring out what to do with it has taken some time.

What do I mean by intuitive?

I can read people and situations. I get beautiful metaphors and information.

Metaphors are an information-rich way to dig into the framework of something and learn more about how things are going now, including strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and opportunities.

Of interest to you, I am very good at seeing the potential of people and businesses, intuitively sensing their greatest strengths, and holding a creative space of potential and light. The clients I’ve done intuitive/strategic work with have been able to access their best work and create a metaphorical framework of what their bigger future could look like.

This can be scary, dreaming those bigger dreams, so it’s helpful for them that I also broadcast light and calm.

In other words, I help entrepreneurs dream up and flesh out bigger-yet-achievable goals about the impact they can have on the world . . . the number of people they can impact . . . and the depth of experience they can provide. In a scaleable way. Like I help them come up with event and product ideas. Etc. Because . . .

I am also a very strategic thinker.

This is why copywriting and consulting has been so fun for me.

Some of my past accomplishments include helping move over $1 million (to date) with my copywriting and consulting, achieving PowerSeller status on eBay in the minimum time frame of three months (using copywriting skills to drive sales), coaching my professors through getting published when I was in college (and getting paid for it), and enjoying being on the steering committee for Johnny B. Truant’s Badass project.

Intuition and strategy are a rather powerful combination, and I’m seeing useful things unfolding by putting the two together.

Further up, I mentioned a special goody for you.

And here you go:

I am inviting you to book a free 30-minute intuitive strategy consulting phone session. This offer is only available to my newsletter subscribers. (New subscribers get the offer too. Please invite your entrepreneurial friends to join, if you think they would benefit.)

What can we cover in 30 minutes?

It’s long enough for us to get a metaphorical or strategic snapshot of where you are now and address a question or two you’d like feedback and insight on. You can get a taste of how I work, and I can get a sense for what you need right now that an intuitive strategist could provide.

If you’d like to sign up for a session, you may do by signing up for my newsletter.

Tuesday is free session day. Sign up now before this Tuesday is filled!

Rebecca

P.S. This session will be most valuable for you if you are serious about moving your business forward and want greater clarity about using your strengths in a leveraged way. If that is you, this could be an interesting exploration for you. Sign up for my newsletter to get it.

Hi there.

I’m restructuring my business somewhat and focusing more on the intuitive / strategic side. This comes after the recognition that my most powerful work seems to be the intuitive and strategic work I’ve done with people.

I channel light, work at a deep intuitive level where I can sense and work with many elements beyond the here-and-now. I can probably help you find some clarity about what your greatest gifts are, and most likely help you form a metaphor to describe it. Together, we can explore the metaphor to see how your gift is powerful, how it can serve. And we can find things that may be blocking you, and work on dealing with those blocks . . .

I also excel at strategy. Which means I can help you develop an action plan to broaden and accelerate your impact.

Intuition and strategy. Powerful combo.

With that shift, comes an offering. I’m now offering free 30-minute Intuitive Strategy sessions to people who sign up for my newsletter.

Want a taste? Sign up in the box on the right.

Hi there.

LinkedIn is an interesting beast, isn’t it? It’s more business-oriented than Facebook, but you’ve got to keep some personality. And sound interesting. And look like someone people would want to do business with.
In a few short paragraphs at most.

Piece of cake, right?

Two good examples of well-done summaries can be found under the LinkedIn profiles of Ali Brown (entrepreneur) and Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero (copywriter). These are very different profiles, so I’m including both of them with my commentary on why they work. Each is followed by a simple template you can follow to achieve a similar effect.

***If you want to skip the commentary, scroll down ’til you get to the parts with a lot of blank lines. Those would be your templates.
Ali’s profile is a great one to model if you have a range of product or service lines.

Here it is, with my commentary:

“Ali Brown is founder and CEO of Ali International, a company devoted to helping people achieve financial freedom through lifestyle entrepreneurship.”

[Rebecca says: Her first sentence lets us know right away her name, title, company, and company's purpose.]

“Named one of the Inc. 500 fastest growing companies in the nation for 2009, Ali International comprises four brands: Ali Magazine, the Millionaire Protégé Club, Ali Boutique and Shine.”

[Rebecca says: See how the bio casually drops an award into an introductory clause? That makes it seem very matter-of-fact and polished. The rest of the sentence lists her offerings.]

“Ali Magazine is the glamorous bi-monthly publication that nourishes the mind, body and soul of female entrepreneurs. The Millionaire Protégé Club is an exclusive members-only club and coaching program for entrepreneurs who want to accomplish more in business and life. Ali Boutique is a chic collection of must-haves from designer flip cameras to lavish jewelry and hot new looks. Shine is a live conference for entrepreneurs that allows them to learn the very best in business and success strategies from Ali Brown in an inspiring and motivating environment.”

[And that last paragraph simply give one sentence elaborating on what each of Ali's four brands offers.]

Here is your template for the Ali profile, which is good for an entrepreneur or business offering multiple service or product lines:

[Your name]______________ is [title]_______________ of [company]__________________, which specializes in [write the driving theme of your business or what you do for people here]__________________________. Her business offers [list your service or product lines here, or summarize what you do] __________________________________________________. [Now add one sentence describing each offering]. ________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Voila!

(Anybody else thinking of “Mad Libs” right about now?)

Lorrie’s profile, on the other hand, is great for an entrepreneur or business that focuses on providing primarily one service. In Lorrie’s case, that is copywriting:

Here is her summary with commentary:

“Trust Red Hot Copy With Your Business”

[Rebecca says: She starts with a headline that also has a command!]

“Hi there, Glad you stopped by. I literally know hundreds of different copywriting techniques. And I’m a pro at figuring out which ones work best for my clients. Got questions? Let me see if I can anticipate some of them…”

[She's using a conversational tone of voice and addressing the readers directly. See how she's being friendly and showing off her chops? Also the "Got questions? Let me see if I can anticipate them" is borrowed from master copywriter Bob Bly, who uses the same device in his copywriting marketing material. See how great marketers notice what each other are doing?]

“‘What qualifies you to write my copy?’
Good question. Well, I’ve been a professional freelance writer since 1980. I have a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) – one of the top J schools in the country. My work has been published in various newspapers, magazines and all over the Internet.

In 1999, I discovered copywriting is different than other kinds of writing. It all started with a client who wanted me to do his sales letter. . .”

[Rebecca says: Lorrie goes on to include a multi-paragraph story that gives the background of how she became a copywriter. It's a good story because it's likeable, it qualifies her as being successful, and it casts her as very personable.]

“Specialties

go to www.redhotcopy.com and find out

or if you really want to see what I can do, check out www.theshefactor.com”

[Rebecca says: See what she did there? She's directing your eyeballs to her website to encourage you to learn more. Great tactic.]

Here is the template from Lorrie’s profile, in case you like that one:

[Headline. Suggestions: focus on a command like Lorrie, or focus on a benefit, like "Experience less back pain when you visit my chiropractic office.]

_________________________________________________

[Newsy opening. "Hi there" is good and general. "Hello" works too. "Thanks for visiting my LinkedIn page" is folksy and winking.]

____________________________________

[Next, give a statement about your expertise and what you can do for people.]

____________________________________________________

[If you want to use the old "Let's see if I can anticipate some of your questions" route, it's done a lot, but it works, so feel free to include a few of your most commonly asked questions with answers if you like.]

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[And now include a short story about how you discovered your profession, fell in love with it, and discovered you were good at it.]

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[BONUS: Invite people to visit your web page to learn more about you!]

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I hope the tips and templates here are helpful for your business!

To your success!!!

Folks are raving about Rebecca!

“I look forward to working with her again soon!”–Tera McHugh, Founder, The Association of Women Entrepreneurs

“Helped us get 500k!”–Matt Sederberg, CEO, T-Splines

“One of my favorite writers!”–Chris Pierson, Managing editor, Action magazine

To learn more about hiring Rebecca for a consultation or to write copy for your business, reply to this email or visit http://rebeccakellogg.com

Last Wednesday, I had an incredible experience.

I hosted four bloggers from out of state (one from out of the country) at a luncheon and panel discussion I created for my local business community.

The event was a smashing success. Win-win-win.

The bloggers got exposure,
the attendees got a fabulous experience,
and it was a profitable event for me as an organizer.

And, I believe, an interesting case study.

You’ve heard you get what you ask for, right?

Well, when it comes to business, I believe this is doubly the case. There’s a big difference between thinking “Oh, I wonder if I could do something bigger?” / “Oh, wouldn’t it be so cool if x, or y, or z happened?” and actually doing something about it.

But you know what?

I’m beginning to think that coming up with those bigger questions is at least half the battle.

Once you’ve come up with a creative question or idea and fully articulated it to yourself, it’s a much shorter road to start testing it, or asking for what you want or looking for what you need to make it happen.

Once you find your idea looks viable, all that remains is to do the work to make it happen.

Let’s look at how this event happened, shall we?

A few months ago, I found the blog of Matthew Kimberley, by way of a clever comment he posted on Johnny’s blog.

(Matthew also keeps another blog on how to get a grip, which I find entertaining.)

I checked Matthew’s blog out again a few days later and made an interesting discovery: A post by Matt (who lives in Malta, in the Mediterranian) announcing that he would be part of the Fox Rent a Car road trip, which meant he would be touring the western United States. The post included a map with a proposed trip route. And the route went to Los Angeles, driving right past my city.

“Hmmm,” I thought. “There’s an opportunity there.”

I shot Matt a message, asking if he and the other bloggers would like to visit my city for a luncheon and panel discussion.

I didn’t hear back from him immediately.

But within a few days, an email showed up in my inbox from the guy at Fox who was organizing the Fox Rent a Car promotional tour.

He’d received my note, which Matthew had forwarded.

He said it sounded like a cool idea and asked what I’d do with it.

I outlined a basic plan.

He agreed to add it to the itinerary.

Suddenly, I was going to be hosting four bloggers from out of state at a luncheon event.

Mainly because I noticed the opportunity and asked for it.

Did I mention this would be the first time I’d hosted a business event on my own?

In the past, I’ve collaborated on events with Maile and Alison.

And worked with teams of other people on creating larger projects.

What I love about co-creating ventures is the heightened sense of accomplishment, the things you can learn from working with other people, and the fact that the workload is shared, and therefore more manageable (physically and psychologically).

It’s a little bit of a different picture when you’re the solo organizer.

Realizing there would be a bit of a growth curve, once again I asked for help.

I had a few conversations with Judy of Sprizzie to help me wrap my mind around what would be required.

(Judy makes and sells cute cards and other items, but she used to be a professional speaker, and can organize an event like nobody’s business).

Judy is the one who suggested I look in to having it at a restaurant rather than having it be catered at a hotel. I so loved the restaurant plan. They set everything up, they prepared the food, and they cleaned up after everything. Leaving me free to plan, promote, and run the event. You know, the little things.

The fabulous Julie Molinare gave great moral support. Julie is very sharp. She’s observant and she is also analytical and a fast thinker. I asked her if she’d review my promotional copy so I could quit agonizing over it and send it out. She gave it a stamp of approval and away we went.

I worked out pricing and positioning on my own, but also ran them past Judy or Julie to get a little outside feedback. This was helpful and kept me moving forward.

Next, I started to invite people to purchase a seat at the event.

My primary strategy for promoting the event was through Facebook.

I posted the promotional copy as a Facebook event, and linked to my website for the “Buy Now” button.

And I invited people to come, via Facebook.

The “list” feature on Facebook came in very handy here. I have people sorted by how I know them. So it is an easy matter to isolate the “business” people on my Facebook network.

I invited other people too, who are not in business, if they blog or I thought they might be interested in coming.

My initial hunch played out though, and pretty much exclusively entrepreneurs were interested in an event called “Blogging for Fun and Profit.”

I also posted the event on LinkedIn (no results) and shared it on Twitter (helpful in letting the panelists forward the event to their followers, so it may have helped with visibility, but I don’t believe it netted sign-ups).

To assist in getting the word out, I also called and/or Facebook messaged a few key people and asked them to share my event with their Facebook friends or let others who may be interested know about it.

Once again, asking was helpful in making something happen, and a handful of people did share the event. This helped build social proof and, once again, get the word out to remind people to register.

The biggest issues with planning and promoting the event were lining up the location and encouraging people to register ahead of time.

There are many, many places you can host an event.

My stroke of luck was in thinking “Oh, I’ll bet event planners do this kind of work all the time,” and searching for, and finding, a list of good event locations in my area. After that, it took a long time to call locations . . . it took phone tag to get booking details in a few cases . . . and it was a little hard to plan the event in advance and nail down attendance numbers, given that over half of my R.S.V.P.s didn’t sign up until the last possible weekend.

And the restaurant I selected wanted final figures three days in advance. Oy vey.

The way I worked with this was by doing projections. The last time I promoted for an event (where I was speaking), I drew about 42 people, and the standard for that monthly event was closer to 20.

This blogging panel was the first event I was promoting solo, so I figured 20 attendees was a reasonable guess.

This was convenient, since the restaurant wanted at least 20 people for a buffet luncheon in their banquet room. Since the bloggers plus me equaled 5 people, this meant I only needed to sell 15 tickets.

I believe by the end I sold 16 tickets.

It’s stressful as the host of an event when the bulk of the people R.S.V.P. so close to the event. I know it’s human nature to procrastinate (“What if something comes up on my calendar??”) but I’m trying to give people an incentive to register earlier for my next event. (Yes, there is a next event. More on that later.)

The day of the event was magic

I sent panel questions and driving directions to the bloggers the night before. They would be coming up from LAX.

The day of the event, I got ready, finalized my special offer for event attendees, and headed off to the event with my sister, who was in town and thought it sounded interesting.

We arrived at the restaurant. I showed my special offer to Julie and asked for her opinion. She said “go for it,” so I sent her off to make NCR copies (she had come early for the express purpose of helping me, bless her).

Judy welcomed people and checked them off the sign-up list.

Shortly after I had arrived at the banquet room, the door opened and in walked the bloggers.

It was like magic.

In addition to Matthew, we were favored with a visit from:

Amy Schmittauer of Savvy Sexy Social.

Lauren Rains of The Mad to Live.

and Nick Laborde of Locationless.

I’d only seen their online work before. This was the first time I’d seen any of them in person, and there was something surreal about meeting people that you’ve read about and having them show up at an event. Almost like having characters from a story show up at a party. Very cool.

They were cordial and delightful and generally wonderful.

People came, brought raffle items, and mingled. We had food. I think it was good. I talked to Matthew and my sister over lunch.

And then it was time for the panel.

This part of the event was very interesting.

When I speak at an event, I feel like I fill the room with energy and light. As long as I’m prepared, it’s rare that I don’t have at least one person come up afterwards and share that they got some inspiration or other whilst listening (often the thing they got inspired about is only tangentially related to what I was speaking on).

This time, I was a moderator, not the main focus. I envisioned holding space for the entire room for learning and inspiration to happen.

The space was electric.

The panelists brought so much good information and energy, it was fabulous. The attendees were very engaged, asking a ton of questions.

At the end of the event, more and more people wanted to add an item to the raffle. I believe over two-thirds of the attendees walked away with a raffle prize, and the prizes were really fabulous.

Also. Remember how I planned a special offer?

Toward the end of the event, I offered an opportunity to enroll in my first teleseminar at an introductory price, and the opportunity to purchase a seat at my next event at a special price. About 20% of the attendees took me up on one or both of the offerings. That’s a nice feeling. Not bad for a first attempt.

The event netted me about $500 including back of room sales, after expenses. So not gangbusters, but again, not bad for a first solo attempt. At the point a week before the event where people were not registering en mass yet, I was just hoping to finish in the black.

And now I’m moving on to the teleclass and my next event. I do invite you to check them out, I’ve got some exciting stuff planned for them:

The Organic Online Blogging teleclass will start on Wednesday.

And my next LIVE event, called “Create Your HOT New Offering” will happen in July. I’m giving a discount to people who sign up before July 1. Because I like to help you avoid procrastinating like that.

Go check it out.

On Saturday, I tried something a little bit new for me.

I gave intuitive readings at a Psychic and Spiritual Boutique.

Though I was billed as “Your business intuitive,” people asked me a wide range of questions.

And what did I do?

I answered them.

I wasn’t sure quite what to expect going in. To prepare somewhat, I practiced in advance with a few close friends, and they enjoyed the experience, but this was the first time I’d be reading total strangers.

Here’s what it was like:

I sat on the couch with each person who had a question.

On the advice of a friend who is a shaman, I held hands with the person, and closed my eyes. Mostly this helped me to shut out distractions. But I’ve done phone readings before and the images that have come up have been no less vivid.

I’d focus on the person. Maybe they’d want to tell me a bit about themselves beforehand, maybe not.

I’d take three deep breaths and tune in to their energy.

(By the way, since I’ve “come out” as being highly intuitive, some people have seemed to think I automatically know what everybody is thinking or what their fate will be. Not true. Couple of things with this: I’m not tuning in to everybody around me. That would be overwhelming. Even simply being with a crowd can sometimes be a bit overwhelming. And I’m not a mind reader. I’m intuitive. Also, the info I get is often metaphorical. Meaning is teased out. And I have to find the right questions to ask to get meaningful information.)

I wait for a scene to develop.

The scenes I’ve been seeing are highly metaphorical. I focus in on someone and see them on a path. My attention is drawn to various things about the person or their surroundings.

Most people I’ve read so far show up on a path through the woods, though there have been a couple notable exceptions.

I ask what the person would benefit from knowing about their path. Different things draw my attention. Details jump out. Sometimes aspects of the person call out to me: “Notice this!” is what they seem to be saying. It might be a chakra or some detail about the person or their surroundings that is showing up on the metaphorical landscape.

If the person has a question, I ask the question to the landscape. The image shifts, or my attention is drawn to something else. If a challenge is showing up on the landscape for that person, I might ask for suggestions on dealing with the challenge, or what would happen if the challenge were dealt with, or what would happen if the person took a different path. Then new images show up.

I report on what I see. Since what I’m getting with this kind of reading is images, emotions, and kind of a movie, I have to translate it into words. Sometimes it takes me a couple seconds to find the right words for what I see.

Sometimes I hear words to say to the person. So I share those. The messages are generally very comforting. A few people have volunteered that they found the experience validating, or interesting, or peaceful.

For now, at least, I am offering these creative metaphorical visioning sessions via this web site. I have ten minute and thirty minute sessions available. For more information, go here. The packages you’ll want to look at for this sort of work are at the bottom: Creative Metaphorical Visioning, and my half-hour session. The ten-minute session will probably not be available via my web site for long, so if you want that one, grab it now.

Amid a light drizzle we went to the park for a celebration. Our young friend had asked that her party be held at the park! With uncertain odds of rain, the mom decided to go ahead with the park plan and we headed out for lunch and such under the shelter of a pavilion.

The rain came, light enough to dampen but not enough to drench. Grown-ups huddled under the pavilion but the boys reached their limit of sitting quietly and an impromptu game of tag came together at the nearby play structure.

At one point K dashed from the play structure to the lightly damp grass, lay on his back and closed his eyes. Being the watchful mom I headed over to see what he was up to.

As I got closer he opened his mouth into an “O” shape and started making a snoring sound. What on earth was he up to?

I watched from a few feet away as the other boys cautiously emerged, crept closer to him, and assessed the situation.

“He’s asleep,” said one.

“He’s still ‘it,’” said another.

“Watch out, he’ll get you,” said a third.

But K wasn’t going anywhere and the boys couldn’t resist getting closer, closer, leaning in. Was he really asleep there, snoring in the light rain? Of course he couldn’t be. But then, he hadn’t reached out to grab any of them either . . . the boys leaned closer still.

Suddenly, K’s eyes flew open, he leaped up and got one of the nearest boys. “Tag! You’re it!”

Everybody yelled and headed for the play structure.

K is one of the smaller boys. He couldn’t have caught the bigger kids by speed alone. But by making them curious about what he was doing he encouraged them to get just close enough . . .

The moral of the story: Sometimes the game seems stacked against you. If you try out creative solutions, you might find a way to shift the odds.

. . . summer came on full-force.

There is something about cleaning out the art accumulated from the school year that still hits me with a wave of nostalgia. I remember in elementary school feeling as if the long days and weeks of summer stretched out before me with no end . . . extending forever and ever, filled with endless promise. It felt as though the next school year would never come.

Summer was hot and parched and magical.

Lazy days in the back yard with Matthew and Maria.

Pulling weeds from the garden and filling buckets with them to receive our due pay: one otter pop per bucket filled.

Standing on the garden fence and walking our way along it. Scaling the side of the house and walking along the brick ledge. Climbing the cherry tree or the apricot tree (but never the apple tree) and looking for fruit. Climbing, basically, almost anything available.

I remember our swing set. It had two trapezes, two swings, and a slide. A sandbox was below the monkey bars.

I remember the original garden, before they added on to the house. Each garden box was a perfect rectangle. Mine was generally well organized, but Tim’s was planted with enthusiasm and harvested with head-scratching–he would throw handfuls of seeds from the bottom of the box into his allotted plot. Seeds that had fallen from their packages. Seeds that we didn’t always recognize. Then he’d reap a mixed, bountiful harvest full of plants twisted together and tussling for sunlight. His box was always the most disorderly, but also the most magical to me. It looked like fairies could live there.

I remember playing in a kiddie pool–a different one every summer I believe–and running through the sprinklers. We had the best sprinklers. The ones in the backyard were like our own private water park–two or three different kinds with different patterns, different intensities. We’d get absolutely soaked and sometimes mom would even let us count that as a bath.

I remember family, often with us, often gathering. We’d gather at my parents’ house. Or the cousins’. Or in Idaho. Holidays were a tumultuous mix of noise and kids and good cooking, and road trips.

1. What’s the biggest thing you climbed as a kid?

2. What’s the metaphorical equivalent biggest thing you climbed as an adult?

I remember once when I was a kid . . . my mom was having a grumpy day and I was being slow about getting to work cleaning the garage (others were helping with that project too, but it seemed so overwhelming I didn’t even want to tackle it or jump in).

Finally she gave me an ultimatum: I could help clean the garage OR she would help clean the garage . . . and I could stay inside and cook dinner for the entire family, which numbered probably about 9 at that time.

I called her bluff and offered to make dinner.

She took me up on it.

Yowch.

She’d already started and I was locked into her meal plan. So I ended up making a more complicated meal than I’d ever made before. I think there was a meat sauce involved, and some sort of pasta. Possibly also homemade meatballs. Turned out okay, though, plus she was more cheerful after getting out of the kitchen and having a good time with everyone in the garage. Win-win, I suppose.

Fast forward several years.

My son was a little slow doing some chores one night, and I pulled the same stunt my mom pulled on me . . . I offered to let him make dinner instead.

And HE TOOK ME UP ON IT.

Keep in mind he was only 7.

Dinner turned out great. He peeled and mashed the potatoes himself, cooked the meat with minimal help, and even got a bread basket and napkin out to wrap our garlic bread. He set the table, too. And chose pickles as a side vegetable.

Pretty stinking proud of himself once it was all finished.

Thanks for the parenting lesson, mom.

Sometimes the things we think are hard can turn out to be pretty rewarding once we wade in up to our elbows and get to work.