All That Matters

It is the week of the Jewish holiday, Sukkot, a harvest festival, sending out wishes to the world that all might have enough to eat and a place to live. A time for counting blessings and fostering hope.

Jan shares the remarkable story of his meeting a muslim inside a dwelling built for this Jewish holiday and the power each of us can draw from connection.

This week is the one year anniversary of the terrorist attack on innocent families in kibbutzim and at the Youth Dance Festival in Israel. That violence began a cycle of loss of life on all sides. This year's anniversary is a day of memorial and silence, one that can lead to reclaiming what is most important about our lives and being true to our own values- a time of clarity and healing, of focusing on blessings we possess and those we can yet make real.

At the changing of the seasons we feel change calling us. Jan shares two poems that speak to blessings in front of us if we will simply lift our heads and risk seeing, we will uncover possibility and miracles of humanity.

In the words of Rachel Goldberg-Polin, mother of Hirsch, "Hope Is Not Optional."

In moments of tragedy, we are called on to seek light. Jan shares the true story of 24 year-old Gili Adar who perished nearly a year ago, struck down by terrorists in a moment of dance. Her parents show us how essential it is that we remember, but more, they call on us to find 'slivers of joy' each day and to share them with one another. In such a way, we honor memories and create new light.

Being the first at anything, breaking long-held barriers, takes perseverance, audacity, and quiet determination. It also takes an ability NOT to take NO for an answer.

Jan shares the story of Robin Herman, who helped lead a change in the reporting of Sports that helped transform the industry, and open doors for others, and that matters..

As some of you may know, as a young boy Jan met Maria Von Trapp on a visit to Stowe with his grandmother. Over the his formative years, she gave him a gift that has stood the test of time, one that can empower each of us to rediscover wonder and our own authenticity.

We know about Thoreau and Walden. Who knew his writing contained poetic ways of seeing the inner world of the mind and the heart? Jan shares the story of Thoreau's personal relationship with his mentor's wife and how it led him to discover that connecting to another human being can be a way to "splice the heavens?"

Sometimes, like the singer, Pink's, daughter, we feel ugly. We all have days like that. Jan shares with us not only Pink's words to her little girl, but ways to claim the perfect day, and rediscover love, beginning with ourselves.

Jan shares the true story of his involvement as a teenager in an ecumenical summer camp where he learned a lifelong lesson about Judaism from a big bear of a man, an Irish-American priest, Father Bill.

It is a gift we all can share in today if we wish to create bridges of blessing within ourselves and for others..

Success comes in many cycles of life. Perhaps we recognize in the genius of others our own rejected thoughts. Jan shares a view of embracing the first step of our next success and calming the positive first step only we can take.