I’m excited to finally be sitting still long enough to write this…. In truth being busy wasn’t the only reason I hadn’t written, for a while I wasn’t in a good headspace to sit and write. I lost my joy for a bit almost right after my last post in June about our magnificent trip to NYC and finally meeting Robin Roberts on the set of Good Morning America! The weeks following that trip had a lot of downs and several unexpected expenses. Two LEGO Serious Play events I had already bought plane tickets for (that included trip insurance) were cancelled and I was denied reimbursement because the tickets were non-refundable. Then my car required a new engine and Joy (my RV) needed a new refrigerator.
I also was very overwhelmed and devasted along with our chapter members when my two-year term as Vice President of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of RVing Women that began in January was abruptly elevated to President in June due to a heartbreaking diagnosis for our former President. Being President of such an amazing chapter wasn’t anywhere in my plans, especially given my crazy schedule, but great leaders have stepped up to fill the open positions and I will do my best to make our former President and all of our members proud!
Even my planned 10 day trip in June to the Finger Lakes for hiking and sightseeing got cancelled when the kids had an emergency come up that required them to remain in Maryland. I decided to not to go alone and used that time for planning for the rest of the year and saved the money I would have spent at the Finger Lakes for my mega trip coming up next week.
The other major stressor during this time was the necessity for me (once again) to republish my two books Being My Mom’s Mom and Refreshment of the Caregiver’s Spirit. It’s hard to accept when the publisher stops issuing you royalties you have earned and fails to respond to requests for books for you to sell at events. The process requires issuing them a cease and desist letter which is never fun. Lucky for me I was connected on LinkedIn with a woman who worked for my previous publisher until he stopped paying her and the rest of his workers. She and I worked together to get both books into a third edition with all new ISBN numbers (yet another expense) and got them all set up with Amazon! The one bright side of having to go through this process was the fact that it gave me the opportunity to add an Epilogue to Being My Mom’s Mom that covered the last two years of my Mom’s life. Mom would definitely be happy about that! Now I won’t ever have to worry about whether or not the publisher will get me the copies of the books I need prior to an event. I’m now solely in control of my own books and that feels amazing. Whew!
Thankfully things picked up after all that and I had another huge success with a Fellowship night of LEGO Serious Play for family friends from church. It was such a joy to work with this family as they built love and joy! Another event that started me back on the joy path was my first trip to Columbus, Ohio to record a session for Caregiving.com. How that opportunity came to be is a story in itself. The now CEO of Caregiving.com was early in his career when he met me at an event 10 years ago and loved my presentation so much that he kept my business card, and after having promised himself that if he ever held his own conference he’d have me as a speaker, ten years later he found my business card and called and booked me! Who wouldn’t be joyful after that??? Columbus is such a wonderful city too and I explored as much of it as I could on foot and the hotel I stayed in was absolutely glorious! Even better, longtime friends Michelle and LaMarr who now live in Cleveland drove over and spent a day with
me!
Back at home I facilitated a great Memory Cafe event at Legacy Ridge near Dulles Airport. It was so much fun to build with those with dementia, their families and the Legacy Ridge staff! Afterwards I reconnected with a former work colleague for a dinner that lasted almost 3 hours!! Soooo much fun!
One of the greatest joys and something I haven’t even announced yet is that I completed a course to become a Trainer of LEGO Serious Play Facilitators!! I am beyond excited to now be able to help Activity Directors, health care workers, support group facilitators and others to become trained LEGO Serious Play
facilitators!! Let the training begin! I hope to begin offering the training sessions by January at the latest!
I’ve gotten three camping trips with Joy in this season so far, including at Lums Pond in Delaware where I officially ran my first meeting and election of two officers. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to hang out with Norma, one of our newest RVW members and exploring new places with her in Virginia was a lot of
fun!
My bestie Kris Lopez turned 60 in August and the entire family was on hand to celebrate this incredible woman. In addition to her party, two of the BEST events that happened were in celebration of Kris and both were LEGO related! We went to Brick Fair in Chantilly, VA which Kris was attending for the very first
time, AND she found it to be just as exciting and mind-blowing as I always do. A couple of weeks later we headed to Winchester, VA to the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley where Sean Kenney’s LEGO masterpieces of animals and flowers were on display in a gorgeous garden that neither of us had ever been to! After the event we had dinner at Chili’s, a restaurant we used to frequent when we worked together and had spectacular milkshakes from Cook Out for dessert! Back at the hotel, we did what you’d expect us to do, assembled LEGO puzzles for upcoming events! Before heading home we toured Luray Caverns which is always spectacular even if you’ve been there before!
I had been scheduled to do a two-hour LEGO Serious Play event for Tribute at the Glen in Virginia and it was a great event! What I didn’t find out until I was driving to the event, was that a DC TV station would be there and part of their coverage would be LIVE! So a two-hour event turned into 5 hours as they
interviewed me, family attendees who were building with their loved ones who are residents at Tribute and staff of this wonderful community!! It was exhilarating and exhausting getting ready for the LIVE shots, but it was an amazing day and really highlighted how beneficial LEGO Serious Play can be for
those with dementia and all who care for them!
I was able to do two great sessions with very active Seniors – one group at the Senior Center in Cambridge, MD and the other in Ocean Pines, MD. Only a few in attendance had dementia, but most were caregivers who enjoyed building Joy! Many of the participants had never used LEGO before and that made it even better! And back home I attended the Iona Community Day in SE DC, which highlighted all of the services they provide to Southeast DC residents and I answered many questions about how I use LEGO bricks with people with dementia! It was a really fun day seeing so many community members come out for games, food and music!
Last week for the first time ever I was asked to judge an Art Exhibit that focused on Memories at the Arts Center in Ocean City Maryland! It was a really fun (but tough) experience. All three of us judges were present when the winners were announced and it was wonderful to meet all of the really talented
artists! The Stories Love Music organization held its Board Meeting that weekend too, I was able to attend the art event and the Board Meeting the same weekend which I absolutely appreciated!
The rest of the time over the last few months have been working with Kris weekly to assemble my Inspiration kits and puzzles in prep for lots of LEGO Serious Play work for the rest of this month, October and November! I’ve shipped more LEGO bricks over the last two weeks than I’ve ever shipped previously! That’s just amazing! My mega trip starts next week on Sept 13th when I’ll head back to Ocean City for a Stories Love Music gala of Art and Music where I’ll also have a LEGO Play table and some of my own LEGO art pieces I’ve created over the 16 years of our caregiving journey. I’m so excited that
this will be my very first time exhibiting at an Art Show !!!
And Finally ….. thanks to one of the most professional Government employees I’ve ever encountered, I had a wonderful jury duty experience this past Tuesday and almost got selected for a criminal trial that could easily last several weeks. My upcoming travel schedule was the only thing that got me
released from having to serve as a juror in the trial, but only after I recited for the judge the 5 States and 2 Countries I’ll be in for the next 6 weeks – Ocean City, Maryland; Springfield, Illinois; Amarillo Texas; London, England; Billund, Denmark (HQ of LEGO) Seattle, Washington; and Portland Oregon. The
judge thanked me for the work I do and wished me luck on my continued journey!
My goal for this year was to complete a blog post once a month. Got off
track a little with that, BUT I believe I’m back on track! Hope you enjoyed the
recap!
Conquering Life; Love and Dialogue with Loretta Veney 