Our Inspired Imperfect Heroes of Fearless Inspiration

I was looking for inspiration for my blog today which is the 20th day of my 31 day blog challenge. I can't believe I am more than halve way there! So for inspiration I went to the Oracle Youtube.com. I found a very short video by Richard Branson.

As we know, Richard Branson is one of the most successful humans on the planet. You would think he had it all under control. That's probably one of my biggest struggles throughout my life is that I didn't feel I had control especially because I didn't ever read very well or as my mother said, "Oh you were just a slow reader." She still contends that instead of perhaps I have Dyslexia? So when Richard Branson confessed that he didn't do well in tests or didn't even know, in business, what is "net" and what is "gross." It was a jaw dropping moment for me as I have gone through the same thing!

Alright Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your raw and quirky honesty. You have inspired me, a kindred spirit to know that being an imperfect human on her way to finding her own success in life has lot's of hope.

And speaking of inpiration and imperfection, tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day and the Inauguration. I will celebrate tomorrow with gratitude to all the impossible heros that have graced our planet. For the inspired leaders that have had obstacles of some kind but transcended it because they had a dream! Nothing can be more powerful.

Yours in Fearless Inspirational Dreaming,

Mary Ann

A Tribute to My Mom's 90th Birthday

Tonight was a wonderful celebration with my family in honor of my dear Mom's 90th birthday. She is quite an inspiration to all of us. My  Dad passed away 12 years ago just before my parents 60th wedding anniversary. Watching Mom live on her own all these years with fierce independence is remarkable to witness. She is almost always with a cheerful positive attitude and prides herself in being a "spirit giver." She lives in a senior living complex and shares that some of the old people there are way too negative to her. So she doesn't go to the lunch room all the time as she needs a break. She plays Bingo every week and wins all the time. She say, "You know I always win everything I need. Last week I won paper towels and I was all out of them and this week I won tooth paste and I needed that too!" She makes me laugh with her appreciation of simple abundance.

Birthday girl Mom with sister in laws Roxie, Mary Beth & Me (the tall one in the back)

When people meet Mom they can't believe she's 90 years old. She has so few lines (never had work done to her face) and hardly any gray hair! She claims her good skin is from using Nivea cream for all these years. And of course, she doesn't sit in the sun. She's remarkable and I have learned many fearless lessons from her.

Mom is in the phase of her life that she doesn't want anymore cards or material things. She brought a card from each one of us that she has treasured over the years and had us write something new in them for her 90th birthday. I love that, it not only saves paper and money, it's a great heart felt ritual. So I decided that we all needed to read our cards at dinner. My brother Johnny went first and later he went through dates pertinent to my Mom starting with 1923, when she was born, and named off important events that happened that year. I love my family and how much fun we have when we get together.

One of the fearless lessons Mom taught me is to surround yourself with beauty. She always loved beautiful old hotels with lot's of history. So we took her for her birthday dinner at the Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena.

I feel so blessed to have been adopted into such a wonderful, fun and festive family. Happy Birthday Mom!

Yours in fearless gratitude,

Mary Ann

Climbing a Tree

On our walk today around Lake Hollywood, we walked by a group of young men, 20 something years old. They were acting like obnoxious boys scaling the hill and and climbing up a tree. There were three of them in the tree and two were on the ground talking to them. I sensed that they were either too scared to climb the tree. So as we passed they said, "Those guys are stuck in the tree!" My first instinct was to try and help but I knew they were kidding so they could cover up their fear about being up in the tree with them. I said to my husband, "I should have just told them to jump!"

Going deeper into the idea of climbing a tree and the symbology of it starts me pondering.... Am I afraid to climb my tree of bliss or my life? I feel like  I actually climbed a very tall tree last year. Am I stuck? I just want to sit up here and look at the view. I am not ready to jump yet.

I think I want to reconcile with that feeling and make it "okay." I luxuriate in the notion that I can actually climb a tall tree and sit and enjoy the view.

On a call the other day with my wonderful business coach, Michele Scism, asked me the question"What is your vision for 2013? I paused, and laughed, "My vision is foggy." Michele in her simple yet profound way pointed out that I can do anything I want. Her company is aptly named  "Decisive Mind"and here I am at the beginning of the year sitting in a tree looking at the view with nothing decisive about what I want to do in the new year!

Am I fearless? I don't know, I'm just too busy enjoying the view, at the moment...

Yours in fearless tree climbing,

Mary Ann

2012 The Year of Fearless Women

 What an amazing journey it was last year. I put together a very short video with a few photos from 2012, the creation of the book, Fearless Women, Visions of a New World. It was wonderful to review all the accomplishments, photographing 49 women, creating a Fearless Women LA Event in May, the creation of the Fearless Women, Visions and Wisdom Calendar 2013, our book becoming a bestseller on Amazon, the cover on the Reuters Billboard in Times Square New York and a book event at Barnes and Noble at The Grove in LA. What a year!

Enjoy our little video!

Yours in Awe and Fearless Gratitude,

Mary Ann

January is National Be On- Purpose Month

There are interesting holidays that take over the whole month. I just found out that this month, January is National Be On- Purpose Month. I began to think, what purpose are we on and what is the purpose? Don't get me wrong, I've heard the phrase said in so many ways and so many meanings. There's, find your purpose, live on purpose, got purpose, live your life on-purpose, creating on-purpose, and you did it on-purpose.There is on-purpose coaching, websites to help you live your life on-purpose, websites to help you connect with on-purpose deep feeling people,  there are very helpful websites to teach you what it means to be on-purpose, and even a be on-purpose church. I didn't realize until I heard about this month of January dedicated to "being on-purpose," that it was such a huge movement or philosophy. Where did this come from? 

So I went to the wisdom of Googled and asked, "What does the phrase on-purpose mean?" Most of the Googled attempts led me to websites that took me "off purpose." In this ezine article I glanced at explains, "If we forget about quantum physics it could be said that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. That logic could be applied to what the term, "being on purpose" means. Basically being on purpose means following a direct path to our objective." Okay...thanks for giving me the answer. 

So I am thinking that if I should live my life on-purpose, I should not wake up in the morning and go through my day like it's an accident. I don't know, it puts alot of pressure on someone creative like me who likes to live in "the flow" of life. It seems so hard-lined to be on a straight and narrow path to my objective. Well, it's something to think about, another Zen Cohen.

Some might say that...

Yes I did! 

And speaking of months and calendars, I will be on a marketing- purpose for a moment and let you know that you can purchase an awesome calendar with cool months dedicated to very inspiring messages and causes, Fearless Women, Visions and Wisdom Calendar 2013 on my website www.fearlesswomenglobal.com.

Yours fearlessly on and off purpose,

Mary Ann

A Dedication to All Fearless Women from a Gentle Poetic Warrior

This email from Karen Mertes couldn't have come at a more perfect time. In my fearless journey of healing my body for the last two months, I have been contemplating about this Fearless Women branding and what to do next.

I want to share you this written word piece from a gentle poetic warrior emailed to me by the cover girl of our book, Fearless Women, Visions of a New World, Lt. Col. Karen Mertes  shared the stage with this man, Sunday when she was the Keynote Speaker at an event in Orlando at the University of Central Florida. Here's what he wrote:

"I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Lt. Col. Karen Mertes, and this I dedicate to her and all fearless women around the world who are moms, CEO’s, wives, etc., etc.  Whether you made the book or not all women are fearless."

            If you are a woman then by all means

Your day is hard just trying to get your kids to eat greens

Its even more complicated with life and issues

No wonder you invest so often in Kleenex and tissues

Your tears are united around the world

Being a woman is truly the universe pearl

The pressure of being a mom, wife, and homemaker

The last to be cared for, as you play to care-taker

So many then are hit with life and moments unfair

And still you look in the mirror and are required to have no fear

Cancers, divorce, illness threatened all you have worked for

The woman is simply at the center, she is the core

But regardless you pick up the sword and you fight

Because it is in you, you have a power and might

Whether you are Karen Mertes, Lisa Metwaly, or Linda Gray

You provide the sunshine when the weather seems grey

Maybe you are Janet Nelson, or Kimbra Ness

You wake up every day and take life as a test

To all fearless women around the world in every city

Every country, all towns and all who protect their community

Life is never about being afraid or running back to a nest

Its simply the goal to live and be fear-less

Across the globe your message is clear

You are heard and not one to fear

A Fearless Woman takes on all things

At the presence of knowing the suffering

And still she is fearless

And with her presence all life is blessed…

From Martial Arts Master, Author, Poet, Public Speaker, Rodney Robertson

Yours in Fearless Gratitude and Inspiration,

Mary Ann

His Credit Card was Denied...

 This is my blog I meant to put out last night on my 14th day of my 31 days of blog challenge. I got caught up with my two favorite Jack Nicholson movies, Carnal Knowledge and Five Easy Pieces. The second movie I ended up falling asleep and not finishing my blog. So here it is...

While traveling back to Los Angeles we stopped off Interstate 5 at a road side area of super commercialism where everything looks alike. As a friend of mine calls it, "the comonization of America." It's a place where you can trust the names, Starbucks, Subway, McDonald's and more. The idea is that there is a comfort in seeing everything the same, same layout, same decor, same, same same.

So we stopped in one of these areas for gas and a cup of Starbucks Joe. As I was squeegee-ing my front car window as Joe pumped the gas, a man approached me, with credit card and receipt in hand. With sad eyes he looked at me, "My credit card was declined and I need some money to buy gas to get myself to Modesto." My immediate reaction was not to believe him. I have been scammed before by this kind of approach. I dismissed him by saying, "Hey, we are just trying to get ourselves back to LA!" He apologized and said he was sorry to bother me. I watched him approach other people who dismissed him as well. Then I saw him linger by his small, old beat up car parked by a gas pump. Inside the car was a woman holding a baby.

I kept glancing back to see if he would get his gas. I didn't want to let this experience in. It was just too painful to think that he was really telling the truth. We finished our car duties and drove over to Starbucks for coffee. Then I thought, why am I buying coffee when I could have helped them fill their car with gas. Joe and I decided to be frugal and take our refillable coffee container in and get a regular coffee for $1.95 and split it. On the way to San Francisco we splurged and got two large (is that called a Vente in Starbucks language?) and spent almost a whopping $8.00 for two of them. I felt it was such a waste after thinking about the sad man with the woman and baby in the car.

We drove on towards our destination and I became so sad and guilty. Joe and I reviewed the incidence and thought of the different ways we could have helped. Joe pointed out that it wasn't like me to dismiss someone. I usually stop and ask them their story....why was their credit card declined? What was the reason they had no money for gas? I felt sick that I could have helped these people and began to cry. In a moment I saw millions of sad people in our country losing their homes, people depressed from loosing their jobs and just a sense of hopelessness. I wanted to turn back but we were already miles from that gas station.

 

What was a fearless (supposedly) spiritual practicing woman to do? I decided to pray for them and in my mind saw them getting the help they needed and visualized a wonderful wealthy person filling their car with gas and their hearts with gratitude. I felt the gratitude in my heart that our credit card wasn't declined, we could shared a lovely cup of coffee, that we had a car that was reliable and comfortable, and that I had a husband that was sensitive, conscious and supportive. I felt a warm glow of love and light fill my body as we drove through the beauty of the Grapevine on I 5 with mountains covered with snow! I sat in bliss of the beauty of life and knew in my heart that all was well.

What is the fearless lesson for me? To take the time to hear someones story and see how I can help? Yes, but the true lesson is honoring ourselves when we are not in the place where we can physically help or "save" someone in need but know, just know, that they are on their own personal fearless journey and see them in light and in divine perfection. Yes, I hold this man and his family as being taken care of and know that all is well in his life...

And the fearless journey continues....

Yours in walking the fearless path,

Mary Ann