My Wabi-Sabi Experience!
20 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
Yep- two days after Christmas, I woke up with my mouth feeling funny. I had lunch with my son and his wife that day and couldn’t get a sip of water through the straw. Not wanting to make a big deal out of it, I just moved the straw to the other side of my mouth and finished my lunch. (A little background here- about 30 years ago my dad had something called Bell’s Palsy, which is a temporary paralysis of one side of the face.) I glanced in the mirror as I was heading home from lunch and my first thought was- “Oh crap, Bell’s Palsy!” Sure enough, by the next day my face was drawn up on the left and drooping on the right. Went to the doctor, she confirmed what I thought and prescribed some meds for a week and sent me on my way to do what you have to do with Bell’s…wait!
I'm not kidding, I really looked like this!!
So now- I look like Quasi-Modo, I have a hard time talking, can’t eat very well, can’t spit when I brush my teeth, can’t smile, can’t close my eye (actually had to tape it shut at night). And with all this- all the good cuss words won’t come out right! And there’s nothing I can do about it but wait! Frustrating- to say the least!
Oddly enough, a couple of weeks ago I ran across this phrase- and it was interesting to me, so I wrote it down in my journal, not knowing when I might be able yo use it! Wabi-Sabi.
Wabi-sabi (侘寂?) represents a comprehensive Japaneseworld view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. “[Wabi-sabi] nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.”~Wikipedia
Throughout all that I read about this was the recurring theme of imperfection, asymetry, roughness, irregularity, and in the middle of all that was beauty! Now, that’s odd to me, since I don’t normally connect imperfection and beauty. To tell the truth- as I glanced in the mirror at my disfigured face- beauty was the LAST word that came to mind! But- I was about to find out that this was WABI-SABI to a tee! Imperfection, impermanence and incomplete! I knew it would eventually go away. I’ve known plenty of people who have had it and recovered from it. Some have had recurrences, some didn’t completely return to the pre-BP condition. Imperfect, Impermanent, Incomplete! The beauty of it is this- I have discovered how patient I can be! I have realized that so many people can be so encouraging and positive which was the key to keeping myself away from the pity party! I have started paying closer attention to my health and habits and making some changes! And, I have had the best possible outcome! After about 3 weeks- I feel like I am getting back quite a bit of movement in the right side of my face and can actually smile again! (It’s still a little twisted, but better every day and I know that I’m livin’ in the grace of God!)
So, the next time I find myself thinking that my day, week, month is a little twisted, not working out like I want it to, I’m going to call it a WABI-SABI Day and smile(because I can) and wait for tomorrow, because I know it won’t last!!
I'm never again going to take for granted how nice it is to smile! 
To Join or Not To Join…
02 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in Real Estate, Uncategorized Tags: Affiliate, Association Executive, Bardstown, Bardstown real estate, BOARD OF REALTORS, cooperate, education, housing, inspectors, insurance, lender, networking, Professional Association, RE, real estate broker, Realtors, success
Do you want to further your career? Yes? Then think about joining a professional organization or Association. There are associations for nearly every profession or area of interest and many have national, state and regional chapters available to join. Because you share common interests, your collective influence on your profession can be more effective than going it alone. How can becoming part of this synergistic group help further your career and business goals? Here are a few ideas…
Build your network: For most people, creating professional relationships is important, and joining a group brings you into the “inner circle” of your professional community. Giving support and getting support! Opportunities to connect with your peers through lunches, community events, educational seminars are available- if you take advantage of it. Share ideas, ask for advice, volunteer to be a speaker or become a member of a committee. Learn about breaking news in your career, “best practices”, or new ideas! Find a mentor…Be a mentor! Giving back can be the greatest reward and benefit. Participate in forums, chat groups or discussion boards! This allows you to use your peers as sounding boards and often make some great friends. Many Associations have annual conventions which is the perfect time to connect with other professionals in other areas. If the association you join is not your primary profession, but a related business- remember to sponsor lunches, set up a booth in a trade show or have a seminar showing how your profession impacts their business!
Take charge of your career: Associations can offer information about seminars, training or certification classes that may be suitable for you. Often these classes can be done through web- or podcasts so you don’t even have to leave your home. And don’t forget, listing your association membership on your résumé is impressive to current or future employers as it shows that you are dedicated to staying connected in your profession.
Broaden your knowledge: Most associations offer access to resource information such as: case studies, articles, white papers and books written by experts in your field or area of interest. Also, journal, magazine and newsletter access is provided as a part of your membership privileges. Some groups have a library of books, guides and DVDs that they loan to their members as a way of supporting all members in their growth in the profession. Additionally, associations provide a source for scholarship information, links to publications, and awards for persons achieving excellence in their field. No matter what your field is, staying on top of these issues is important. The more you know about your specialty as well as other areas of the professional circle, the more you will find yourself being recommended by your colleagues.
So, whether you are looking to learn about jobs in your field, network in your professional community, gain access to current events in your career area, or just have some fun while meeting new people, joining a professional association is a step in the right direction!
The Old Kentucky Home Board of REALTORS® is a local Association that provides services that helps its REALTOR® members and affiliated business members to give professional and ethical service to the Nelson, Washington, Marion, Larue and surrounding areas. The Board meets every third Wednesday to offer networking, informational programs and a delicious hot lunch! For more information about how you can join as a REALTOR® member or as an affiliate, please contact Peggy Smith, Association Executive @ 502-331-0408.
Before You Turn Out the Lights…
03 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
It’s time to wrap up another day, and you’re already looking forward to your “after work” routine to kick in! Before you leave, do at least 3 more things! Allow a maximum of 5 minutes for each thing. Think of this as your last chance to end the day on a productive note or to get a head start on tomorrow’s agenda!
- Call one of your more high maintenance clients to give an update or report, just to let them know that you are on top of things! If you can’t reach them, then leave a detailed message and invite them to follow up with you tomorrow. If you sound confident and composed, your client will feel that you are taking care of business for them and their trust in you will be strengthened.
- Compose and sendout an email to your prospect list that is designed to generate leads or referrals. It may be to promote a specific property, describe a great new loan program that you know about, or just to talk about how you do business and how you get paid- and of course, ask for leads, referrals and/or listings! While you are having dinner with friends, or at your son’s/ daughter’s ballgame- somebody may be reading your email and replying or passing on your information to another friend! Sometimes nothing happens, and that’s okay- it took less than 5 minutes, but if you get that one lead or callback you’ve been looking for, it’s a five minutes well spent!
- Check your website, social media, blog page,etc. to make sure everything is functioning, updated, accurate and interactive so that your marketing has an overlapping reach combined with a unified and consistent message and an easy flow of information. If you discover a problem, you don’t have to stay and fix it right then, but you put it on your “to do list” and take care of it tomorrow!
~And don’t forget to listen to your own voicemail message and change it from time to time, be clever, but not childish. It’s all marketing and needs to be freshened up regularly!
Okay, that took 15 minutes, and now you’re ready to turn out the lights and move on to this other thing called “your life”! See ya tomorrow!
Meet IRMA!
14 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
*This idea originated as a way to help my college age sons get on track for preparing for life- then as a concept to guide and motivate my REALTOR friends is times when it is very easy to get discouraged and sidetracked. But this concept- I think- works for everybody!
O
kay Ladies, before you get upset with me, IRMA was a character I invented as a way to help my boys in college to get organized and stay focused- so naturally she’s a beautiful! I’ve been thinking that IRMA can also be very helpful in getting our members through this tough economic speed bump and into prosperous times! So, let me tell you about IRMA!
IRMAis an acronym for the fundamental requirements for a successful business, relationship, personal endeavor or life~! We all know that hard work is basis for a good success story, but that is so broad and general. Hardly a roadmap for making it in this world today! What we need is a checklist of sorts- a way to know if we’re doing the right things or doing enough. So here it is, the back to basics roadmap to a good life! If you do all these things everyday…you’ll be golden!!!
I~ gather INFORMATION everyday! Information from your Broker, from the MLS, from a newspaper article, a book, a class or just exploring your computer and the internet looking for new ways of getting customers or making presentations, etc. Learning is lifelong and it must be done everyday. Make a conscious effort everyday to gather information.
R~ make RELATIONSHIPS a priority in your day starting at home and continuing throughout the day. Every person you meet has the potential to make a difference in your life. Maybe not today or tomorrow- but someday! Start new relationships, make new contacts and pay attention to the people you meet! Maintain your current relationships- a past customer is easier and cheaper to keep than it is to find new ones, so- stay in touch! Nurture those essential relationships- husbands, wives, kids, bosses, co-workers, neighbors- those people you see and share your life with daily! Get help or advice from other people when you need it- find a mentor, be a mentor!
M~ develop a MAP of where you are and where you want to go with your business. Sometimes I find it incredible when I see people in business who don’t know where they stand in their business and have no idea where they see themselves down the road. Without a map or plan you find yourself reacting to the conditions rather than creating a plan that sets up conditions that favor your ideas. Always be ready for roadblocks, have alternative routes and allow some flexibility to seize an unexpected opportunity when it comes along. The great thing about mapping your future is that it requires you to look at where you’ve been and where you are today!
A~ take ACTION to put your plans into motion. Make that call, order that program, sign up for that class, write that letter, launch that new marketing campaign! A great idea, never put into action, is a crime! If you have I-R-M and you don’t do A… well, that’s just wrong! Let go of fear, doubt, laziness, procrastination and excuses! Take action on some part of your plan everyday!
So there she is~ IRMA! How do you like her? If you work with her everyday, she’ll make you rich!
Howdy Neighbor!
23 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
What would you think about a neighborhood where all the neighbors knew who should a
nd shouldn’t be going in and out of your house? And if a stranger walked up to your door they would either call or “drop by” to find out who the stranger was? When I think about the neighborhood I grew up in, back in the 60′s- I get such warm and safe feelings about all the families who felt a kinship that was unmistakable! In “Henrytown” we kids were kids were kinda like “free-range kids” . In the summertime, we got up early and got ourselves dressed for whatever adventure we were going to get into that day, and we set out, down the street, picking up another kid or two along the way.
I can see us now, heading to the swimming pool, about 15 of us, ages 5- 14 or 15. We were there waiting in line for when the gates opened and intended to stay til the gates closed at about 5. Our parents knew where we were, and I don’t think they ever checked on us- it’s just what we did. Sometimes we would head down to the reservoir to explore the creeks, look in the couple of caves down there or just hang out telling stories or planning our next adventure. And when we got home (usually by the 6:00 whistle) we all ate at our different houses, and were out into our backyard to finish the night up with kickball or hide and seek. All the while, our parents sat on the front porch drinking sweet iced tea listening to us scream and laugh and play as the last remnants of daylight slipped away.
Those neighbor boys and girls were like family- to this day when we get together it’s like we never left “Henrytown”! I wonder what my kids’ memories of growing up will be? I know we’ve had some wonderful neighbors, and I hope they’ll think of those people with the same fondness as I do my old neighbors. But, let’s face it- neighborhoods have changed. For one thing- you can’t just pile 15 kids into a station wagon and head to the drive-in movies! Or you would be unfit if you let your 8 year old go down to the fishing pond by himself and stay til dark. And kids today don’t like to walk anywhere.
I kinda like the idea of “free-range kids”. Kids learn to be friends with the neighbor kids because they won’t want to walk across town to see the kids they “really want to play with”. They find ways to be creative with their time and come up with fun things to do. They can maybe pick on the kid down the block, but they won’t let anyone else pick on them. They take their dog (not on a leash) all around town, and if he wandered away, they didn’t worry, because everybody knew he was their dog and where they lived.
I know times have changed and the world has changed, but unfortunately, I’m afraid that recent generations of kids will miss out on the connected-ness (is that a word?) of old- time neighborhoods. Families really didn’t mind when they got into each other’s “business”, they expected them to. But, I have to believe that they’ll be connected in different ways- ways just as important to them, and someday, just as nostalgic! All I know is, in my little neighborhood of Henrytown, growing up was so happy, life was simple and I was blessed!
p.s. for those who don’t know, Henrytown is a neighborhood in Bardstown Ky. Between Third Street and the reservoir, between the graveyard and the railroad tracks.
I Did It! A Bucket List
29 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
- Write a book– and have it published
- Go on a road trip with no itinerary
- Open a friendly neighborhood coffeeshop (that gives real estate advice)
- Create a photojournal of all the towns/cities I’ve visited in Kentucky
- Get all dressed up and attend the wedding of someone who is a total stranger to me
- Meet a president of the United States
- Throw a surprise birthday party for someone who never gets surprised with good things
- Ride in a helicopter
- Fall in love again
- Throw a huge party and invite all the people who mean something to me
- Achieve an ideal weight
- Get a full body tan, and spend a whole day without vitiligo
- Take a mediterranian cruise
- Meet the pope
- Witness the birth of a child
- See all my children graduate college and happily married
- Pay 1 month of bills for a single mother
- Make IRMA world famous
- Host a reunion for my son’s war buddies
- Take the whole family to see UL in a bowl game/ big east bball tournament
- Have lunch with Diane Sawyer, Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton, and nancy Reagan
- Invent something
- Go somewhere remote and take a sabbatical from civilization
- Go to the Olympics
- Drive the pacific coast highway from top to bottom in a cool red convertible
- Change the world
- Feel respected by my children
- Whole family at the nutcracker together
- Finally be in a place in my life where I don’t worry about money
- Start a “grammie camp”
- Walk where JESUS walked
- See james taylor in concert
- Rent a cottage on a beach for a summer
- Retire someday
- Get together with my mom’s family (with all my kids)
Okay, there’s more- and a couple of things I’ve already done, and some I know I’ll never do, but putting it down and seeing it, seems like a nice way to wake up my spirit of adventure, or my need to reconnect with loved ones…and myself!
“Get your motor runnin’, head out on the highway, lookin for adventure, and whatever comes our way”
~Born To Be Wild
Everybody- listen up…..
22 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
Well, I have to say that I’ve always lived by the philosophies of ”what goes up, must come down”; “life always balances out”; “what goes around, comes around”. But I feel the breezes of change that were in the air a few years ago in the local and national real estate market have changed into “tropical storms”! Not quite hurricanes! And what do we do as the winds pick up? We take cover, and lay low until the storm passes. I really get the feeling that a lot of homebuyers are waiting out the storm while low interest rates and the great home prices blow right past them!!
The path is clear- get off the fence and get going!
I challenge anyone to name a time when you could get a 30 year fixed rate mortgage without a rate buy down for less than 5%. And when could you ever find such a good inventory of homes that are priced as reasonably as they are now? Like a perfect storm, these chances don’t come along very often. When they do, homebuyers must ask themselves if they want to wait until everything goes back to normal before they engage and find their home? Or do they want to act now and reap the benefits.
I know one thing, when I see good, long-time employees being laid off from their jobs due to downsizing, and companies asking their employees to take voluntary lay-off and furloughs- I think the world is off its rocker- it’s out of balance. People are needing to change the way they work and play, the way they spend and save- and the way they buy and sell. If people are still living now the way they were a few years ago, they might want to look around, it could be time to tighten up-OR time to act upon an opportunity.
Everyone’s situation is individual, everyone should know whether their lifestyle has a tolerance for risk, or a need to seek security. Opportunities abound for the prepared buyer, the economy is a little out of balance, and the situation- once everything gets “fixed” will most assuredly bring with it higher interest rates AND inflated housing prices! So now, while the world is off its rocker- get something done! Buy a House!!
“Use your imagination not to scare yourself to death but to inspire yourself to life.”
~Adele Brookman
Change…life is full of it!
26 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in Bardstown, Real Estate Tags: Association Executive, Bardstown, career, change, Nelson County, Old Ky Home, Peggy Smith, real, real estate broker, Realtors, Springfield
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens. [Ecclesiastes 3:1]”
Four years ago this month, I made a decision that would change my life! I was offered a chance to help open and manage a new real estate office that would shoot to the top of the market like a rocket! It was an opportunity that I’ll thank Harold for, for years to come! The challenges were many, but the rewards of working with such an energetic, smart and great team of real estate professionals was priceless! But honestly, I believe that I have been blessed in every company I have worked for. There have been 3 Real Estate Brokers who have mentored me since I came into the business. Each with a different style of working and who taught me different things about the business and myself. Tony O’Daniel, Louise Smith and Pat Hagan were all amazing to me and helped me to become a good broker!
I’ve done everything there is to do in this business; I’ve been an agent, a broker, a director, a delegate, RPAC chairman, President of the Board of Realtors, served on Professional Standards, helped organize and launch our board’s first MLS system, and now…
I am happy to announce that I will be taking the position as the Association Executive for the Old Ky Home Board of REALTORS! http://okhrealtors.com/ I get to stay deeply involved in the profession I love and know so well, I get to challenge myself in new ways, and I will finally get to move from a commission based job to one with a consistent income and more normal working hours! At this time in my life- I like that…alot!
Having to stop working with buyers and sellers will be the hardest thing to adjust to. Helping people find homes, understand the process of buying and selling and advising them as they make life-changing decisions is so rewarding that I know that I’ll have a few regrets about leaving that all behind. So, to all my past clients… thanks for letting me into your lives- if only for a short time to be a part of those big moments!
To my co-workers at GOLDMARK REALTORS, don’t be strangers, come visit!
And to all the REALTORS in the Old Ky Home Board of REALTORS, I am so excited about working for all of you to help make real estate easier, more efficient and more profitable as we go forward!
“Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become.” unknown
Derby/Mother’s Day….2011
12 May 2011 Leave a Comment
Ahh, last weekend was a great weekend, but, I must confess- I’m glad it’s over! My boys came to town to visit, for a graduation party, a derby party, mother’s day.
Derby Atlanta+ Derby Bardstown= Together in Spirit!!
We enjoyed a fun day at Gabe and Carla’s watching all the races, placing a few bets, grilling, laughing and a little drinking! As much fun as it was, we sure missed Aimee and Mark (in Atlanta)! Gabe and Carla cooked up some yummy cheese stuffed burgers, and they grilled some spicy chicken sausages that were really good and I plan to have them again someday soon! After the Derby was over, everybody was showing signs winding down, so I headed home and everyone scattered in different directions for the night.
Sunday morning… Alex and Amanda took me to Mammy’s Kitchen for a delicious Mother’s Day breakfast- out back on the patio! It was a beautiful morning- Halleluiah!! After all the rain and cold days it was wonderful to have a nice day! And the french toast was nice too!
Sunday afternoon…Carla, Gabe and a very sleepy Aidan stopped by for a mother’s day visit before we headed to Meg’s graduation party. My son Andy’s girlfriend of 4 +years graduated from UK that morning in Lexington and was having a party at her mother’s home in Bardstown that afternoon. Wow, a lot to do to get ready, but I’m pretty sure her mother Kim felt extremely proud and happy to be celebrating her daughter’s accomplishment on Mother’s Day!!
After wrapping up what I thought was a great weekend with my boys and their sweeties, I felt blessed! I need to keep reminding myself all the time how lucky I am to have such wonderful kids that I really like…all of them!! Life seems tough sometimes, then I get a call from one of my kids and I realize that I get to be the mother to the most wonderful kids on the planet!!! And now, the Grammie to the most adorable little boy in the UNIVERSE!!!
Love you all so much!! THANK YOU GOD!!
ALL MY CHILDREN, Happy Mothers Day To Me!!!
