Skills For Success

Last week our family took much of the week off from our regular routine to say goodbye to a beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother who passed away on Mother's Day.  Betty - Jane Jones, my mother-in-law, taught me many things as a young bride, then as a mom, and now as a grandmother myself. Though most of her family members have careers or jobs that we could not leave entirely, we spent much of the week together remembering a humble, loving woman who always had time to put the tea on when her family came to visit.

Now as a coach and trainer who encourages people to find  harmony between what they do for a living and how they spend time privately, I realize the influence this loving, caring woman had on me. Sometimes I have long work days when I may only have a brief moment with my family, but when I have shorter work days (or weekends) I meet my daughters for coffee shp or take the grandchildren to the playground.

The idea of trying to have a 50/50 balance daily between work and family is usually not possible for most of us. Finding a harmony between work and home over the week or the month is the key.

For our family last week it seemed that time stood still for awhile as we laughed and cried over photogrpahs and memories that Betty - Jane  had been part of for so many years.  Last night we gathered the grandchildren for a brief fireworks display and popcorn because that is traditon, and Betty- Jane would have liked that we continued with our family rituals, which were so important to her.

Today we're all back at work and in some cases "catching up".  But I'm glad we took time as an extended family to appreciate a terrific person that I had the privilege of calling "mom".