An Important Post

I've been wanting to write this post for quite some time. A couple of weeks ago the right opportunity presented itself. 

It's become the most-read post on blog this year. 

I can't tell you how gratifying it is to integrate professional goals and personal needs. One of the four thousand things I love about Plenty.

The irony of improvement.

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You're exactly where you need to be.

When you feel poor, the answer is to give something away.

When you feel tired, the answer is to exercise.

When you feel uninspired, the answer is to create.

When you feel overwhelmed by your to-do list, the answer is to take a break.

When you feel lonely, the answer is to offer friendship. 

When you feel unloved, the answer is to love others regardless.

When you feel lost, the answer is to stop searching and accept where you are.

When you feel that the world is stacked against you, the answer is to radiate gratitude. 

Thanksgiving.

Grateful for family most of all.

Grateful for health and the perspective to appreciate it.

Grateful for friends and for laughter.

Grateful for love and hope.

Grateful for work that matters to me, and grateful to matter to my work.

Grateful for the chance to make a difference and the chance to see that difference being made.

Grateful for all of you.

Onwards and upwards. 

Happy Ninth Birthday Event 360!

A quick post to share that today is an important day in our E360 family. Yesterday was Event 360’s ninth birthday, meaning that today is the first day of our tenth year. 

If you put your future on the flip of a coin you’d still get much better odds than if you banked on your company surviving into its tenth year. Fewer than one-third make it that far.

The fact that we’ve turned nine and are ending one of our busiest, most exciting, and most successful years – with a growing number of exciting projects, in the most difficult economy of the last three generations – says volumes about the vision, values, and commitment of our team. I’m continually amazed at what a great group of people we have here.  

Together with our clients and partners, we’re building an exciting future. Our mission continues to be simple: We help nonprofits use experiences to create a better world. There’s a lot of need out there, but we’re helping to make a difference.

And the best is yet to come. Onwards and upwards!

Galaxy Explorer

Here’s a quick Thanksgiving post. When I was 7 or 8 years old, the one toy I wanted more than any other was the LEGO Galaxy Explorer. I could go on and on about it, but suffice it to say I hounded my parents for months and months and I simply tortured my poor sister with my pleading and begging. This was all way back, when Christmas was still a mystery, and gifts were few and far between, and winter meant staying home with the people I thought I’d always be with, my family.

Santa in the form of a loving Mom and Dad sought fit to place the Explorer under the tree that year, and I played with it for years. I still remember laying all the pieces on our blue shag carpet Christmas morning, putting it together for the first time with my Dad and Uncle Rich. I put it together and dismantled it and augmented it and blew it up and reconstructed it dozens, or probably hundreds, of times after that. I couldn’t count how many times the Galaxy Explorer crew and I saved the Universe.

As I grew older I lost or gave away or broke most of my toys, and I got involved in things that seemed cooler and more mature. But I knew enough to save the Galaxy Explorer — and my mother, bless her heart, never got rid of it. When my parents died I was touched and excited and oddly heartbroken to find the box lovingly stored away. 

This morning I pulled out the box and put it together with my two oldest sons. I’m not sure that this makes any sense to anyone except me — but the whole thing encapsulates everything I’m thankful for this year.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.