“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

—President Barack Obama

Gwen is my mother-in-law. She is both funny and wise, with twinkly blue eyes, a beautiful smile, and the emotional resiliency of Yoda. She has lived so much life in her eighty-five years, and I often find comfort in her wisdom.

“The next message you need is always right where you are.”

-- Ram Dass

Every morning this week I’ve started the day with ten or fifteen minutes of meditation, even before heading to my espresso machine for my two (ok, sometimes three) beloved daily cups of Americano joy. For those who know me, this is quite a feat, as my attempts to meditate have come in fits and starts over the past two years. I’m grateful to Dan Harris of 10% Happier for sharing his personal story about turning to meditation, as his journey was a vulnerable and human one that I could somehow relate to more deeply than others.

“To change your life, you need to change your priorities.”

– Mark Twain

Spring is finally showing her face here in Vermont, which means I embrace every possible opportunity to enjoy being outside. To the left our front deck, we have a large garden bed, about twelve feet long by six feet wide. When we moved in three years ago, the bed had a handful of beautiful, early-spring wildflowers such as trillium, bloodroot, and bleeding heart, yet few flowers that bloomed throughout the summer. It also had an abundance of stubborn, hard to remove weeds and ferns, ferns, and more ferns.

“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

— Albert Einstein

I sat in the meeting -- a monthly assembly of operational leaders from across campus -- drawing tiny infinite loops of doodles along the margins of my notebook. Many of our discussions seemed to focus on small issues instead of bigger challenges and questions that might unlock more meaningful changes and improvements to our efforts. Despite my efforts (as well as a few others) to try to push our discussions up a level to pursue more strategic opportunities for improvement and change, our meetings typically settled deeply “into the weeds.” I felt my spirit and energy drain each time we gathered.

But on this day, seemingly out of nowhere, a new voice at the table piped in, challenging us to think bigger, more broadly -- he challenged us to explore beyond our current thinking and to imagine a more creative and dynamic way forward.