The fire’s warmth keeps the mist and rain lingering around the edges – a refreshing distance from where we gather.  

Please come and join me!

You are welcome to tell a story, sing a song, read awhile or sit in companionable silence.

May your day be filled with bliss.

Terrill

p.s. yes that is Isha’s book Why walk when you can fly? that I am reading:)

best of the season

I am captured by the sight of star anise resting on top of whole allspice, cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods and whole cloves. Mulling Spice! I think of the gallon jug of mulled wine still under the kitchen sink and know that this 100 gram package is not necessary – in fact not even needed but the aroma guides my hand and I purchase the package. I tell myself “I will find a use for it during the upcoming holiday month.” I may simmer it slowly on the stove while I write cards and letters to family and friends.  I may simmer it as I reflect on the past year and the work that we have accomplished to develop women’s leadership.

The new By-Donation approach to services for women leaders has been well received since its launch in late August of this year. We are making a difference.

Canada has slid 13 places to number 31 out of 130 countries on 2008 the global "gender gap index."  The biggest contributor to our slide is the low levels of women’s political participation in public office. I offer a special “thank you” to all the women leaders who have supported the Terrill Welch – A Woman behind Women pledge goal for Joy’s List through the By-Donation approach to leadership services launched in September 2008. We have achieved 118% success, and there is still another $200 to be posted!

The second supported charity, Pedder Bay Residents Society, listed on the By-Donation website page has received over $1,000 in just three months. Though the residents of this community lost their Supreme Court case, their homes, and their community itself – they have made a huge contribution to bringing the issue about how the Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act (“consumer protection legislation”) does not protect homeowners who rent in manufactured home parks. Your donations have helped Pedder Bay Residents pay for the prohibitive costs of bringing this issue to the public’s attention.  

Together we are stretching our wings. This year has seen Terrill Welch- A Woman behind Women receive greater International exposure through Gaia and World Leadership Day. I am honoured to continue as the World Leadership Day Ambassador for Canada and I look forward to celebrating this year’s theme “beyond the surface” on March 20, 2009. I am thankful for the technology that allows me to work with women leaders globally.  

Together we are taking centre stage. Workshops such as Discover How to Lead with Brilliance were over-subscribed, speaking engagements like Ditch the Feminine Super Heroes for Authenticity were well-received and Vision Practice Retreat participants left asking for more of such programs. Already, a request has been made for a provincial presentation -- Untapped ROE – increase women in senior management -- in May 2009. Plus a waitlist is started for those interested in the second vision retreat, to be offered at the end of February. Each time I engage an audience about the strength of women’s leadership I am reminded how we can make a difference.

Together we are preparing to shape our future. Individual leadership coaching clients have their New Year’s brag ready and their January leadership coaching sessions are scheduled. I want share a comment from a senior woman leader that warms my heart more than any mulled wine could ever hope to:

If I haven't told you enough - I am enjoying this process SO much and have found it incredibly helpful in reducing my stress, improving my productivity and raising my self awareness and confidence! What a gift that has been, and I sincerely thank you for bringing that into my life at a very important time. I look forward to what's ahead in our work together.

So in all these ways, I celebrate with you. I celebrate and share a special Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages with you at http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/index.html . Spices have a long global and noble history – just like women’s leadership!

Enjoy!  And thank you for your part in this year’s success. Thank you to those who have purchased services, made donations, provided technical and professional support, spread the word through your networks, and sent notes of appreciations. I truly believe that together we can do anything and I am looking forward to the upcoming year as we find new and creative ways of working together.

Best of the holiday season!

Terrill Welch
Executive Leadership Coach

Elite executive leadership services at a price you can afford.
Find out how it works at http://www.awomanbehindwomen.ca/bydonation.htm

By-Donation makes a difference every time.

Terrill Welch - A Woman behind Women
www.awomanbehindwomen.ca and http://terrill.gaia.com

Mayne Island B.C. 1-250-539-5877
email: tawelch@shaw.ca

© 2008 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

You are welcome to use and share material from this Blog in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link and email link. Please also notify me where the material will appear.

The attribution should read:

"By Terrill Welch founder of Terrill Welch – A Woman behind Women. Terrill Welch is an Executive Coach, providing leadership services designed specifically for women leaders. To learn more, feel free to browse through the www.awomanbehindwomen.ca and http://terrill.gaia.com websites."  

crept into the pale mist

A northern front sashays forth, surf pounding, snow scented air filling space and time. “Om” slips from my lips - all that is. I remember a poem by Mary Oliver…

The Old Poets of China

Wherever I am, the world comes after me.

It offers me its busyness. It does not believe

that I do not want it. Now I understand

why the old poets of China went so far and high

into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.

********

And so I creep.

Grandmother s shortbread

Last night my daughter says “mom, I hope you will bring the shortbread. You have such knack for it.”

So today, I bring out the big mixing bowl and find the recipe that is written on a scrap of paper tucked into an old cookbook where only I know to look. With daylight coming to an end over fresh snow I can see from the window, I preheat the oven to 350 degrees. As the dial turns, I slip back in time to my first experience making shortbread. I remember my Norwegian grandmother sorting her sticks of wood for the cook stove as she instructs me on what to add to the bowl.

 “Take the cup there and put two cups of flour in the bowl.”

“That’s right. Now add one cup of cornstarch and mix it together.”

“That should do.” She said from the sink where she was peeling potatoes for supper.

“Now add one cup of brown sugar –and no tasting or the shortbread won’t turn out! Mix the sugar into the flour and cornstarch.”

The chair I am kneeling on creaks as my body sways with the stirring, while my other hand grips the big bowl so that it won’t slide on the wood surface of the kitchen table.

            “It’s ready for the butter grandma!” I say with six year old confidence.

            She had measured out one and a quarter cups of real butter and it had been resting at room temperature until it was time for me to make the shortbread. I dropped the butter into the middle of the flour, cornstarch and sugar mixture. Rolling up my sleeves – way up my arms as far past my elbows as small hands can manage – I begin to mush the contents of the bowl together.

            “Your cool hands are perfect for mixing the shortbread! Mine are too hot to make good shortbread. It takes cool hands like yours to mix it to perfection.”

            My heart bursting with pride, I mix the shortbread into a crumbly perfection.

            “Now it needs to be pressed into the cookie sheet… not too much handling or it will be tough. Just gently press it down.”

            Careful not to “handle it” too much, I delicately squished it down onto the cookie sheet.

 “Take that fork there now and poke it all over so that it can breathe and will be nice and flakey”

I poke away while my grandmother stands pounding the moose steaks we are going to have for supper with the back of a big knife.

The shortbread is ready for the oven. She puts her hand in to check the temperature, adding another couple of small sticks of wood to the fire. 

            “We will cook it for about 15 minutes but you will be able to smell when it’s ready to come out.”

            Forty-four years later, I now have my shortbread mixed, have poked it with a fork, and have added pecans to the top before placing it into the pre-heated electric oven to bake. Each year, this memory comes forth to guide me through the making of my grandmother’s shortbread. It was her loving care in teaching me all those years ago that is the “knack for making shortbread.”  And cool hands.

© 2008 Terrill Welch

Another story you might like to read about my grandmother... http://terrill.gaia.com/blog/2007/9/monas_work_-_the_beginnings_of_a_new_book