A Summer of Questions – Page 10 – Disney Creativity and Innovation Keynote Speaker

Ordinary gifts day 4, home

dog on couch — Early evening, waiting for Cheryl to come home from Disney.

Is there a limit to everyday, ordinary gifts?

No.

Why?

Because.

Because…

Bathrooms.

Kitchens.

Bedrooms.

Living rooms.

Chairs.

Flooring.

Lamps.

Weekly trash and recycling collections.

Windows.

Towels.

Stoves.

Microwaves.

Soap.

Pets.

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This website is about our HOME. This is the fifth of five daily, differently-themed blog posts about: (1) mind, (2) body, (3) spirit, (4) work, (5) home. To return to Mid Life Celebration, the site about MIND, click here.

Ordinary gifts day 3, home

Disney speakers — The real adventure is creating personal vibrancy.

Disney Speakers think differently — Here’s to the crazy ones…

Apple logo – Apple is not a fruit company. What? You don’t have to make sense when you own the place.

Why are ordinary gifts important?

Why?

You’re kidding, right?

Ordinary gifts, like oxygen, sunlight, hunger.

Make sense now?

Then add on some more, like…

Craziness.

Nuttiness.

Childish.

Olympic podium Gold.

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Ordinary gifts day 2, home

What are ordinary gifts?

Ordinary gifts are as common as laughter, smiling, and honesty.

Even as simple as smiling.

And someone is smiling back at you.

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Ordinary gifts day 1, home

gift of life — Life is a gift…but it is not a dress rehearsal…live like you mean it…

breakthroughs — epiphany… breakthrough… twin sons from different mothers… a gift to the world

Cheryl Noel and Mickey Mouse — Encountered Mickey and Minnie on the route to a Disney gift shop. Talk about a ‘gift’.

Ordinary gifts?

Yes.

What are ordinary gifts from your experience and perspective?

They arrive every single day.

Childlike curiosity, even though nearing 70.

Asking what i’d do “If Disney Ran My Life?”.

Answering, and implementing, what i’d do “If Disney Ran My Life?”.

The desire to prioritize my priorities.

The gift to try to live a life that is an example, not a warning.

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The wild places, home

Photo of a bicyclist's shadow at Walt Disney World entrance — During the height of Covid-19’s stay at home order, Florida allowed outside exercise. Bicycling at WDW was perfect, logging 30 miles per day. WDW was a ghost-town. Closed to everyone except crazy locals like me that bicycled through it without seeing any vehicles. It was “wild”.

Why do you love the wild places?

From an early age, nature and all of Pennsylvania’s wild things, bugs, flowers, birds, creek critters, fish – all of it mesmerized me.

Still mesmerized. In my yard. In our community. In our Country. In Glacier, especially, and intimately.

Dan Fogelberg’s song, The Wild Places, entire lyrics:

“I was walking alone through the lofty San Juans
With a heart full of light
And a head full of songs
I was thinking of time
And how much it will cost
To recapture the souls
That we surely have lost

In the cities and towns
There are millions who dream
But the traffic’s so loud
That you can’t hear them scream
There’s a heaven on earth
That so few ever find
Though the map’s in your soul
And the road’s in your mind

So many mountains before us
So many rivers to cross
Where is the wisdom to bring
Back the vision we’ve lost

Can we gaze with wonder of children
Into the deafening night
Has it gotten so dark
That we cannot remember the light?

When you sleep on the ground
With the stars in your face
You can feel the full length
Of the beauty and grace
In the wild places man
Is an unwelcome guest
But it’s here than I’m found
And it’s here I feel blessed”

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