I must go see the Arbutus that grow along our shoreline and wait for visitors.

The wind persists until sea boils white against the rocks.



I know the trail. Still I slip on the dry ground and narrowly miss sliding over the edge.



Hiking alone, I remind myself to be careful. To step careful.




My next hour stretches ahead of me.



Alas, I cross over to a protected cove and my beloved arbutus trees. Today is a close-up day... an intimate conversation.



New skin is being kissed by the sun for the first time.



Revealing a naked human-like form - a vulnerability exposed.




Captured by the shedding, I admire the bark as it lifts way from the trunk.




Lack of rain is evident everywhere. Small birds twitter and scrape surfaces for small bites. An arbutus is starting  to drop its leaves during a long dry spell.



New wood grows around damaged. My hands can't resist. I reach out and caress.




Death and middle age overlap in timelessness - as one.



I look over the edge...



Seals float lazily as the tide rises and lifts them off their sun rock.



The flapping of a sail being pulled up beats time for the shoreline, the arbutus and my heart.




Mayne Island, British Columbia.

Terrill Welch
Executive Leadership Coach
 
Terrill Welch - A Woman behind Women
web: http://www.awomanbehindwomen.ca
blog: http://terrill.gaia.com
twitter: https://twitter.com/terrillwelch
facebook: Terrill Welch
email: tawelch@shaw.ca phone: 1-250-539-5877
 
Ambassador World Leadership Day Canada
March 20, 2010 http://worldleadershipdaycanada.ning.com
 
A vision not lived remains only a dream.

"I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life'." Maya Angelou

© 2009 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." 

Last light sillohettes Vancouver's mountain backdrop.




But it is not the sunset that is calling me. I have come to see the moon. I want to capture her as she is courted by Georgeson Island.



The pinks and mauves turn to blue. I move just a little closer to the water's edge.



Then it is time for me to wind my way back along the shore trail using the moon as my guide. I come to the beach and find myself unable to leave - just yet.



Meditation has never been so easy.

Mayne Island, B.C. Canada

With gratitude,

Terrill Welch
Executive Leadership Coach
 
Terrill Welch - A Woman behind Women
web: http://www.awomanbehindwomen.ca
blog: http://terrill.gaia.com
twitter: https://twitter.com/terrillwelch

email: tawelch@shaw.ca phone: 1-250-539-5877
 
A vision not lived remains only a dream.

"I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life'." Maya Angelou

© 2009 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." 

Moonlight dance me round
Alone we shall disappear
Sun rises again

Inspired by photo taken last evening and then rendered in oils.

enjoy

Terrill Welch
Executive Leadership Coach
 
Terrill Welch - A Woman behind Women
web: http://www.awomanbehindwomen.ca
blog: http://terrill.gaia.com
twitter: https://twitter.com/terrillwelch

email: tawelch@shaw.ca phone: 1-250-539-5877
 
A vision not lived remains only a dream.

"I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life'." Maya Angelou

© 2009 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." 

Women's leadership includes developing a refined ability to celebrate. The art of celebrating can be described as the art of successful transition.

In anthropology, the liminal state is where the core experiences of transition take place. It is the state of being neither here nor there.

Celebrating is a way of easing the transition when we are neither here nor there.

In our lives, liminality is often a right of passage which may be accompanied by ritual observances.

Your Business is in a liminal state between the time when you announce that you are moving locations and the doors are open at the new site.

Your career is in a liminal state when you have received and accepted an offer for a new position but have yet to be shown to your new office.

An organization is in a liminal state when a structural change has been approved but has yet to be implemented.

Nurturing and refining our persistent efforts to reach our vision requires the ability to celebrate significant points of transition.

Celebrate large and small milestones as you move along your vision path.

What are you celebrating today?

Note: The photo above was taken of Shakeria Wynde when she co-hosted Internation Women's Day celebrations with me at la casa de inspiration this on March 8th.

In gratitude,

Terrill Welch
Executive Leadership Coach
 
Terrill Welch - A Woman behind Women
web: http://www.awomanbehindwomen.ca
blog: http://terrill.gaia.com
twitter: https://twitter.com/terrillwelch

email: tawelch@shaw.ca phone: 1-250-539-5877
 
A vision not lived remains only a dream.

"I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life'." Maya Angelou

© 2009 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." 

Well, I couldn't resist posting this... I think every woman leader should have at least one woman in their circle of friends who knows a thing or two about horses - and cows.



And here is a blog related to the video http://thelonecowgirl.blogspot.com
Enjoy! Terrill

Yesterday in the middle of a quiet afternoon... I rediscovered a love poem.




I have an image of your face. I came across it in a dream
the way you might find photos in a bureau drawer inside a haunted house...

Is it a negative? It shows the opposite of what the world could ever seem.
Nothing in the world could be so two-dimensionally luminous.

Is it a window? Endless space is etched out in the background scene.
Ice crystals melt upon the foreground glass as it reflects your warm essence.

I analyzed this solitary still... as I once studied sequences in streams
of long pi decimals, where every point is crucial and mysterious.

I believed in music waiting just outside the daily lockstep prison of my life.
These dots might be the stencilled notes a spinet box could play.

Or could this be your aura, passing through someone's eyes of trouble and strife -
prisms in reverse that cast your sillhouette in dreams by night, or images by day.

Eventually the scattered tiles of metaphors turned sidways like a knife,
and cut one vibrant moment from my life... your name your face is what I finally could hear, see, say.

by DLC, February 14, 2003

Feed Your Leadership Spirit

Particularly as women leaders we need to feed our leadership spirit.

Some questions that may be helpful...

When do/will you take time to visit the treasures you are keeping shut away?

What gifts have others given to you that feed your leadership spirit today?

With whom in your life can you be most vulnerable?

Bonus: Link to another love story by The Lone Cowgirl Blog - Hog Eyes, the little horse who saved a soul.

with warmth,

Terrill Welch
Executive Leadership Coach
 
Terrill Welch - A Woman behind Women
web: http://www.awomanbehindwomen.ca
blog: http://terrill.gaia.com
twitter: https://twitter.com/terrillwelch

email: tawelch@shaw.ca phone: 1-250-539-5877
 
A vision not lived remains only a dream.

"I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life'." Maya Angelou

© 2009 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." 

I received an interesting request from far away (Africa) this morning to provide some possible choices for a film that meets the criteria of exploring "the different strategies Canadian women have used to transform mindsets, situations and structures in order to attain fundamental liberties in every social, political and economic sphere of life. While the film should have all the attributes of a good cinema, it should show some analysis of the women or women featured. Production date is irrelevant, but the film must have a woman in the lead role and obviously be Canadian."

When I was finished fulfilling the request, I decided you might also enjoy browsing through my suggestions and research...

Finding films that met the criteria was not an easy task as there were a few great movies I wanted to recommend such as those films of Deepa Mehta (Earth, Fire and Water) but they are not Canadian women content. So keeping in mind the criteria, here are my suggestions (and I also included my research links for further exploration).

My first pick:

"Away from Her" (2006) Powerful movie about a woman "falling into the fog of alzheimers" and her relationship with husband. Canadian film by woman director (actress Sarah Polley - her debut film as director) based on Canadian short story by Alice Munro. Many strong dynamic women in the film.
Trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct7eXP-ivAk

Runners up include:

"Marion Bridge" (2007) Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuhKbRnWKhc

"New Waterford Girl" (1999) http://www.northernstars.ca/titles/1999/newwaterford.html

"The Snow Walker" Possible choice - male lead but young Inuit woman is a strong central character http://www.zip.ca/browse/reviews/index.aspx?f=titleId(115294)&r...


Research that might be valuable to find further choices:

Twelve great Canadian Films http://www.sarahfobes.com/movies/12-great-canadian-films

Great Canadian Films 10 essentials http://www.canada.com/entertainment/movie-guide/story.html?id=1435230

Canadian Movies - Northern Star http://www.northernstars.ca/best_films_by_title.html

Canadian women in film http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/women/002026-700-e.html

Films about women in Canadian History http://www.heroines.ca/resources/films.html

Films Canadian women, gender and sexuality http://www.cha-shc.ca/ccwh-cchf/english/site/site/films.html

French Canadian director Anne Claire Poirier's work looks interesting http://www.filmreferencelibrary.ca/index.asp?layid=46&csid1=57&...

Key Canadian films by women http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/movie_review/key-canadian-fi...

African Canadian Online women's issues http://www.yorku.ca/aconline/film/9598.html


If anyone has any other suggestions, I would be delighted!

Terrill Welch
Executive Leadership Coach

Terrill Welch - A Woman behind Women
web: http://www.awomanbehindwomen.ca

A vision not lived remains only a dream.

"I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life'." Maya Angelou

© 2009 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Executive Coach Terrill Welch

Yes me!

 Lisa Gates with Craving Balance surprised me today by posting an article based on her interview of me.

I knew the article was "in the works" as we say but I had know idea that it was going to be released today or what she would choose to write... Please celebrate with me and in my appreciation of Lisa for honouring my work in this way...

Walking the Talk and the Triple Bottom Line with Executive Coach Terrill Welch at

http://www.cravingbalance.com/craving-balance/2009/7/17/walking-the-talk-and-the-triple-bottom-line-with-executive-c.html

Thank you Lisa... warm [[[hug]]]

Living with a spirit of abundance.

Terrill Welch
Executive Leadership Coach

Terrill Welch - A Woman behind Women
web: http://www.awomanbehindwomen.ca

A vision not lived remains only a dream.

"I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life'." Maya Angelou

© 2009 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

Dusk brings a still point to my day.

As the waves roll over the rocks, I think of the many women I work with who lead with such brilliance. I pause and reflect on how the world is a better place because they do what they do.

Women leaders can leverage their understanding of their contextual environment to enhance their leadership success.

In what contextual environment are you leading? (personally, organizationally, globally, and historically) A leader’s understanding of these areas holds the most potential to leverage success as a leader. Hint: gender, ideology, economics, class, purpose, crisis, stability, demographics…

Strategies for incorporating contextual environment into your leadership:

Learn your organization’s view of services and mandate. For example, does it work from a feminist perspective, a mainstream perspective, a corporate perspective? What are the ideologies influencing the organization within the larger community?

Learn to lead while setting your ego aside. For example, get beyond that whatever is happening “is all about me.” Read current research, trends and studies about leadership and women’s leadership practice. Discover what factors in your context may be influencing your leadership and how your leadership is received. This perspective allows us to lead with curiosity and discovery.

Learn to lead with boldness. Step up to an act of leadership boldly, and with clarity about the environment where you as leader are engaging. Think about what it will take to achieve your leadership goal within the current context.

Vision, Persistence, Success - Lead with brilliance

Terrill Welch
Executive Leadership Coach

Terrill Welch - A Woman behind Women
web: http://www.awomanbehindwomen.ca

A vision not lived remains only a dream.

"I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life'." Maya Angelou

© 2009 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

 

 

Sweat is sending a rivulet down my spine. No rain for over a month. Light cloud has crept over the sun while I napped. The fan for the dehumidifier is running endlessly in the bathroom. Everything is close. Damp. Hot. Wilting.

Coming down the stairs I haphazardly grumble “feels like rain but will likely take a week for it to build.” My partner doesn’t look up from the eggs he has prepared for a light supper. He had read the forecast to me earlier. No rain in the near future. We chat lazily while munching on cheese, mango, and fried eggs. I sip my coffee as we discuss the history of the word “dwell”, the failed U.S. health care bill, and houses we lived in as children.

Then it happened…. Just a few drops at first – I go out to see, reporting back “great big drops - evaporating before they hit the ground.” Suddenly, luminous flashes – followed immediately by many chariots rolling across the sky as Thor thunders past directly overhead. We grin. We are about to have the most incredible thunderstorm. The rain intensifies, finally amounting to enough to make a dew worm smile. 

To our amazement the clouds part for the sun’s setting. Everything is gold then orange as if the sky catches fire. I run for the camera. No time for the tripod. It is too dark. I cannot hold steady enough for the long shots.

 

 

Still I try, thinking maybe I can capture something.

 

Finally I give in and watch the orange soaked glow fad to grey … as darkness carries the rain into rivulets running down earth’s spine.

Live each moment of each day to your fullest.

Terrill Welch
Executive Leadership Coach

Terrill Welch - A Woman behind Women
web: http://www.awomanbehindwomen.ca

twitter: https://twitter.com/terrillwelch

A vision not lived remains only a dream.

"I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life'." Maya Angelou

© 2009 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

 

Wrote you this
I hope you got it safe
It's been so long
I don't know what to say
I've travelled 'round
Through deserts on my horse
But jokes aside
I want to come back home

You know that night
I said I had to go
You said you'd meet me
On the sunny road

It's time, meet me on the sunny road
it's time, meet me on the sunny road

I never married
Never had those kids
I loved too many
Now heaven's closed its gates

I know I'm bad
To jump on you like this
Some things don't change
My middle name's still 'Risk'

I know that night
So long, long time ago
Will you still meet me
On the sunny road

It's time, meet me on the sunny road
It's time, meet me on the sunny road

Well, this is it
I'm running out of space
And here's my address
And number just in case

This time as one
We'll find which way to go
Now come and meet me
On the sunny road

Best of the day to you - and may we meet on a sunny road some day.

Terrill

because I know she will love it... and so will the rest of us



Enjoy mimi!

Terrill