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My husband and I recently took a trip of a lifetime to celebrate the 20th anniversary of my company The Watershed Group and our 37th wedding anniversary. Starting in a small alpine village in the Austrian Alps,

then journeying to north of the Arctic circle to the Lofoten Islands off the coast of northern Norway.

We were in search of beauty and peace, tonic for our souls.

As so often happens in travel, we found much more than we were looking for. Beyond the majesty of the Alps and the wild, wind-swept beauty of Norway’s scattered islands, it was the people that we met who shine brightest in our memories of the trip; random strangers who reached out to connect with us, human to human.

There was the young customs agent from the island of Jersey who chatted with us while we waited an hour for our rental car in the Munich airport. We listened, enraptured, to his stories of life on a tiny island in the English Channel and his quest to achieve his triathlon dream in Nuremberg,...

Today is the 20th anniversary of The Watershed Group. As I look back 20 years I am reminded of the fear and exhilaration I had when I stepped away from my conventional job as the executive director of the Hospice of North Central Florida (now Haven Hospice), to go out on my own.

I loved that job and I loved the people I worked with, but my soul was saying "there’s more to do!" and I could not shake that feeling. Have you ever felt so compelled to do something that you could not turn away from it?

When we begin to trust that our inner voice has wisdom and that wisdom is guided by the Divine, no matter how you define Divinity, stepping out into the unknown is less frightening.

My journey has been just that, jumping in with both feet no matter what I’m doing. From feeling overwhelmingly compelled to build the 18-bed hospice care center in Gainesville Florida and convincing the powers that be and donors that it was the right thing to do 25+ years ago. To feeling...

My first real, significant job out of grad school was as the executive director of Hospice of North Central Florida, now known as Haven Hospice.  When I joined the team there were three staff members and double that number of volunteers. Yet, tiny as it was, our organization was part of a great social movement, one that we created with others across the country as we went along.  It was the early 1980’s, and we’d heard the call, coming from across the Atlantic from Dame Cicely Saunders and from Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross here in the US; people facing death deserved their dignity, and their voices heard. Our mission must be to ease their suffering and to heed their wishes, whether that meant an end to medical intervention, or treatment for as long as possible.

We put together a team of like-minded people who wanted to make a difference in society, one person and one family at a time. One day, after looking for months for the right person, our first full-time...

           This month is a very special one for me; I am celebrating my 19th year in business as The Watershed Group, a big anniversary for my “baby” and a good moment to reflect on the adventures I’ve had so far as a startup founder and proprietor.

            I was Executive Director of Hospice of North Central Florida when I realized that it was time for me to make a change. I was frankly terrified to leave a job I loved - but I knew I was not meant to stay there until retirement. I didn’t want to leave hospice work and I didn’t want to move from my hometown, so I thought I would try my hand at consulting. I knew it would be a big leap - I had heard that most consulting businesses fail within the first 18 months – so I kept my nursing license active just in case this gig didn’t work out (I still do!).

...

What is the number 1 thing in the world everyone wants?  Can you answer that? What does everyone want so desperately?  I believe that the answer, quite simply, is: MORE.

• They want more success at work.
• They want more happiness in life.
• They want more passion in their relationships.
• They want more money.
• More energy.
• More productivity.
• More meaning.

Everyone wants more of the good things that life has to offer, right?  Well, to get more, we need to activate our full potential.  We need to hit a higher gear and become high performers at whatever we do. We have to become more focused, productive, influential, and successful.

And it’s not always easy. Many people are struggling more than they have to in these areas.

Even though we all have big goals and dreams, many people today are stressed,

overwhelmed, and uncertain about what the future holds.

So, think about YOUR life.  Do you feel you’re being as productive, influential, and successful as you...

Image Above: Our grand daddy live oak on the ground

I’ve always loved trees. I loved climbing trees as a kid.  We had our favorite "big tree" where my friends would meet, a giant live oak that had grown up around a telephone pole.  As elementary school kids we would ride our bikes to the "big tree” and climb up its enormous, gentle trunk. Then the brave ones would slide down the telephone pole, splinters and all.  Mostly we sat on its outstretched branches and just enjoyed the world from that lofty perch.

The first poem I memorized was Joyce Kilmer's Trees; "I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree."  I’ve even made a pilgrimage the Joyce Kilmer National Forest in western North Carolina (Did I mention I love trees?).

My husband and I live on a beautiful wooded property outside Gainesville, FL.  We are surrounded by enormous live oaks whose branches defy gravity, reaching out to embrace the Light, paralleling the earth with...