Love lessons derived from an audio book...a good listen

I just finished listening to Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture."
I am late to the table on it, I know. But Pausch's story to his children was a book I wanted to read and kept putting off...  so I took it in on my Ipod...while on the treadmill, my son's football practice, or running around the track.
Sometimes good reading comes from good audio. And Pausch's story left me breathless with mood swings. I laughed out loud and tried to suppress many sobs into a whimpers.
Pausch's walk through life, his love for his wife, his children and the way he didn't care about his dented car or to wait for a manager to fix a receipt, are telling examples of a life lived in the moment.
There are so many lessons from the Last Lecture that I am not sure which to single out.
Pausch's memory of his parents letting him paint his room with huge math equations and chess pieces sticks out for me. His parents let him create. It was important to him and they cautiously and supportively stood aside. His mom even showed the room off after he left home. And Pausch never forgot the subtle nod of permission and confidence  his parents gave him 38 years later.
I want to give my kids permission to create and follow through on ideas, be they design visions or anything else. I try hard to let go when the boys want to do something that might impinge my adult sensibilities.
I don't rearrange the ornaments at Christmas anymore. I let them put the ornaments in places that speak to them. This can be difficult if you grew up with the mantra..."Big ornaments on bottom, little ones on top," like I did. But I got over it.
I let the boys decorate the wall of their playroom totally in stickers because....Well, why the hell not?  It's their space and it's not like I do any entertaining among the match box cars and Bionicles.
And for the last two nights in a row, we let them sleep in the upstairs alcove on the floor with their flashlights because they thought it would be cool.
Who am I to judge this in-house adventure?
I just hope one day they remember their mom was alright.

Life support from Twitter

I was reading some blogging tips on Twitter that basically told me my blog was on life support because I do not post enough.
And that if I only write about myself, the content is snooze worthy.
Hmmm.
It got me thinking.
Why do I blog? Tweet? FB? or attempt social media dances at all?
I get eyeball rolls from more than a few friends and/or family members about the immediacy of my FB posts when I am on vacation or another location, say, climbing a tree. And sometimes I do -  like  Peggy Orenstein aptly points out in her article, "I Tweet therefore I am.' - need to be present and tweetless in some moments. It's not all about the stage. I get it.
But my social media enthusiasm is not about navel gazing. This realm feeds the newspaper reporter side of me. I still crave news and information despite my industry departure three years ago. I have accepted that this is an ingrained feature whether you leave journalism altogether or find another media niche outside the fifth estate.
My boys- while not necessarily newsworthy to you - are my biggest beat that I have had the pleasure of covering. So I write about them when the muse strikes. They make my world sing. And if no one reads, it's Ok. An author friend once told me if you are only writing to be published, you won't be. I write because I love it and if someone laughs along the way that's good too.
And Twitter?
Signing in to tweet every day is like a virtual newsroom. It's a cool fix of information at your fingertips.
But what's even more interesting is that leaving journalism, has helped me discover a whole world of news covering opportunties, writers and content lovers that I had heard existed before, but never checked out.
Since ramping up my Twittering, I've learned much and run across so many very cool blogs that I would never have had the pleasure of knowing about if I didn't start to investigate.

Here's quick snapshot.

LovethatMax - http://www.lovethatmax.blogspot.com/
This is an awesome, award-winning blog written by Max's mom Ellen Seidman about "bringing up a kid with special needs who kicks butt." She is also an editor. And she put together blog postings from mom around the world who had children with special needs and detailed their different experiences. (There is something about those Scandinavian countries that get so many things right.)

Or Adriana Gardella http://nyti.ms/9G
who blogs for the New York Times with "She Owns It.' This space catalogs real life stories that capture "ambitious, hard-working and inspiring women — innovators who are passionate about their businesses and, in many cases, striving to change the world."

And then there are mommy bloggers like Jennifer James, who in my estimation, has created an amazing space for moms of all interests in blogging. She is founder of the Mom Bloggers Club http://www.mombloggersclub.com/.
Since I have been connected, I've discovered events that I was previously ignorant to, like #Blogher10 going on in NYC - a conference and networking opportunity for women. From the tweets it sounds amazing and empowering. There are also other mommy bloggers to be connected to like Tomica Bonner, a writer and mom of 7 who shares frank truths on various subjects here and others to follow on Twitter like @herbadmother and @crazyadventures. And if mommy blogging is not for you, there are business savvy and all around inspirers like @bizshrink, @scjoson, @85broads and more.
The good news for me and for you is there is more like it to be found, even if you do it in moderation.
Let me know what you've found out there.