Category: Journey of Life

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The Enchanted Stream

It was like liquid ice. I could feel the cool stream forming swirly eddies on my face, bubbling and kissing my cheeks with each frosty splash. As I lowered my head deeper below the surface, I could feel watery fingers tug and pull at my hair. It was floating and waving in the cool liquid bliss. The gentle flow saturated my senses. I could only hear the water. All other sounds were gone. I could only feel the river. The cool flow and majestic rocks pressed up against me. My soul was transported. In that moment, I felt myself flying beyond the glassy surface to a magical portal of serenity and peace.

There’s a quaint little bridge in Sligachan on the Isle of Skye. Below the ancient stone walkway flows a tiny crystal-clear stream. It’s fed by the nearby emerald-green mountains that are continually washed by the highland’s life-giving foggy mist. Nestled deeply in the delightful Scottish scene is a mystical lore and an enchanted legend that welcomes visitors to this very day.

Nobody was quite like Scáthach. She lived on Skye and was known as the greatest warrior in all of Scotland. Her renown spread to Ireland and landed on the ambitious ears of Cú Chulainn, Ireland’s greatest fighter. He challenged Scáthach to a battle to prove his own strength. The epic battle raged for weeks, reshaping Skye, moving mountains, and carving new valleys. Animals and life itself began to leave the Isle.

Scáthach’s daughter was heartbroken and weary of the war. She fled to the stream at Sligachan and began to weep. The fairies of the river heard her and beckoned her to dunk her face into the stream to gain knowledge to end the war. As she did, the fairies blessed her with wisdom. She rose and set on a journey to gather herbs, meats, nuts, and every delicious thing she could. With that she prepared an incredible meal in her home. The scent of the meal covered the land, melting the hearts of the fighting warriors. Scáthach and Cú Chulainn couldn’t resist. They made their way to Scáthach’s home and feasted on an incredible meal. By eating in Scáthach’s home, Cú Chulainn became a welcome guest and in the rules of Celtic hospitality, you can never fight someone who has hosted you for dinner. Ever. The battle ended, but the river of Sligachan would forever be disturbed. As the myth goes, the stream would forever be enchanted and bless all who dip their face in its cool watery portal with endless wisdom and beauty.

As we concluded our tour through the Isle of Skye, we ended up at this charming stream and story of Scáthach. Our guide told us the story and welcomed us to connect with the legend if we desired. It was optional, but I wasn’t going to skip the moment. All fanciful myths aside, the scene was spectacular and the opportunity to immerse myself physically into a fantastic story was too irresistible and refreshing to miss. The cool water. The crisp air. The unbelievable highlands captured our hearts and escorted us into the Scottish tale. My family and I still remember that moment. That beautiful stream we touched let us leave the battlefield of this busy earth and transported us to a vital and cherished peaceful land with the ones we loved.

We don’t need a stream in Sligachan or a story of the famous Scáthach to pause the daily battles and enjoy eternal beauty. We can do it right now. For a moment, dip your face into the serenity of the now. Take a moment and experience the wonders around you. Appreciate the crisp life that is powering your every breath. Soak in the magic of creation and be renewed even today. And don’t worry if you never make it to Skye to see this tiny little stream. I think all of you are already eternally beautiful.

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Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are! Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky.”

Where I grew up, elementary school was grades 1 through 6 and when you graduated from 6th grade, you were promoted to Junior High school. For the first time in your educational career, you were introduced to the responsibility of managing your class schedules, electives, and hallway lockers. Do you recall those days? At thirteen years of age, uncoordinated, unpopular, timid, and slightly attention challenged, it was often a recipe for disaster for me. But I somehow managed. I even signed up for my electives. I picked journalism because they got to use a computer, but beyond that, I had no idea what to pick. I rolled the dice and signed up for band. 

I decided to try the trumpet as my instrument. As with every member, we were given special attention by the instructor. We began practicing on day one and it was a sonic disaster. Squawks, buzzes, squeaks, and raspy rattles were heard across the auditorium. I questioned my decision more than once but kept practicing along with my peers. With our instructors help, we finally began to learn proper posture, embouchure, breathing and finger placement. Like some sort of miracle, after a while, real notes started to appear. We were no way close to competing with Louis Armstrong, but we could really blast “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” like nobody’s business. 

I recall how we all thought we had move up into the major leagues when we hit almost every note and occasionally even had the timing right. Some notes were extra special. They require a bit more skill to hit so when you finally did, you liked to hold it a bit longer, perhaps too long. With a help of a metronome, we eventually moved past the “finally got it so hold it” tendency. The trumpet concerto finally had those stars twinkling. 

The band teacher assembled everyone together. We had been practicing and performing separately but now it was time to play together. Our trumpet section joined the flutes, clarinets, trombones, saxophones, and percussion. The entire band came together and was ready to perform.

Have you ever been in a car accident? There is a weird feeling where all control is pulled away from you and the world boils in chaos all around you. Well, that is how it was when we first started playing together. It was awful! We were all blindly playing through the notes on the sheet music in front of us, unaware of being out of sync and out of tune with everyone else. 

“Stop! Stop! Stop!” the instructor tried to wrangle the stampede. “Let’s start slow. Hold each note until I tell you to move on. Watch me!” The conductor raised his baton, and, on the downstroke, the room erupted in the “Mary” note. It started rough but as we held it, something amazing happened. We finally heard each other for the first time. It was actually quite remarkable. The instructor smiled. Seeing us each awaken to this new connection he moved on to the next stroke, “had”, then “a” and the double beat “little.” When we finally reached “go” there was a bit of awe in the room, and we were even a bit emotional. We had done it! It was no Concerto Magnifico, but it had unlocked a key lesson in life. Paying attention and listening to each other would allow us to make beautiful music together. 

We all have a part to play. We carry different instruments in life. We each have unique abilities, talents, passions, and perspective. Something incredible happens when we come together, listen to each other, and focus on a common outcome. Our individual notes become a chorus, resonating, and amplifying each other into something that we could never achieve on our own. Individually, we are all amazing wonders, but together, we are magnificent, like a diamond in the sky!

Play your notes with all your heart! But listen. Connect. Feel the majesty of what we can be together. Let’s keep playing!

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Joy

Joy. It’s a great thing! But do you feel it right now? Has it been in short supply? Well, I confess, there are times when life seems rather joyless and barren. But maybe it’s time for a change. What do you say, ready to find some joy?

Joy is an amazing emotion. It gives us a sense of happiness, contentment, well-being, and wonder. It has a positive healing effect, connecting us to optimistic outcomes, bridging us over stressful difficulties, binding us to each other and unleashing wells of creative potential hidden deep within us.

Joy is highly contagious. Just watch when a joyful person enters the room. A sense of lightness and fun starts to emerge. A smile might even sneak its way across your face and onto others in the room. Eyes will start to beam with glee and hope. Joy arrives and profoundly motivates us. It gives us a sense of flow, meaning and awe. Studies have even shown that joy is linked to improved physical and mental health. It can help lower blood pressure, boost our immune system, and reduce anxiety and depression. We need joy.

Good news! Joy is close at hand. But it is a choice, our choice. How do we choose? It has been my experience that joy is released when I celebrate gratitude and reflect on the myriads of good things that illuminate my day, no matter how small. Joy visits when I take time to pursue my passions or surround myself with true and positive friends. It surges into my soul when I grab hold of the present moment, breathe in the atmosphere, and feel the magnificent earth pushing up and supporting me. Worry, problems and despair take their seats in the back of the room as joy makes its brilliant presence known. It is light. It rescues us from the darkness and transports us a land of hopeful delight.

It’s time to get some joy. Take matters into your own hands. Tune in. Like and subscribe to joy. You will be glad you did. 

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Wind the Clock

TransAsia Airways Flight 235 had just departed from Taipei Songshan Airport in Taiwan on its way to Kinmen Airport in China. Moments after takeoff, an alarm sent a wave of panic through the cockpit. Engine number-2 had failed. At only 1,630 feet, there was very little room to act. Panic mode hit the crew. In a rush to react to the crisis, the pilot made a fatal mistake. Instead of adjusting the controls to remedy the failed number-2 engine, he accidently reduced power and subsequently shut down the operative engine number-1. Stall warnings filled the cockpit. He was unaware of his mistake and continue to try to regain control. But the loss of power from both engines was unrecoverable. The aircraft rolled and barely missed hitting an apartment building but struck a taxicab with the tip of its wing. The outboard section of the wing was torn off when it struck a concrete guardrail. It continued its roll and eventually struck the water upside down, breaking into two main pieces. Sadly, most of the passengers and crew would be lost. 

“In an emergency situation, first, wind the clock.” James Tatum, an SRE leader on my team, pointed me to this sage advice used in military flight training. While a lot of the controls are now digital, it used to be the case that that in the array of displays, switches and buttons, there would be a manual clock timer in the cockpit. As the pilot was trained through many emergency situations, they were given the advice to “wind the clock.” It didn’t do anything or remedy the problem. Instead, it was to fix the pilot so they could fix the problem. The idea was to say, take a moment. Pause. Relax. Gain situational awareness and formulate a plan before acting. If the crew of Flight 235 had followed that advice, there is a possibility that they would have avoided the fatal error and could have recovered the situation, saving the lives of their passengers and fellow crew members.

Emergency! Panic! Our world is full of that. We are all going to face emergencies, crisis situations and crucial moments where our decisions must be immediate and correct.

As SREs on-call, my team is intimately familiar with demands of the job to restore services, react quickly to incidents and remedy failures. How do we react to alarms? When the call comes in, the pager siren rings or the dashboard goes red, what do we do? Before acting rashly, pause for a moment. Assess the situation. What is really broken? What is the best course of action? Proceed with thoughtful and calm determination.

Life is going to throw problems at you. You will need to react, and your actions will matter. But before you do… wind the clock.

Dashboard cam footage clips of Flight 235 hitting a taxicab and crashing in the water.
Clips from Dashboard Cam that captures the crash of Flight 235 – https://x.com/AirlineReporter/status/562823846290808835
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The Blue Screen of Summer

This weekend I heard, “This week has been the longest year ever!” I think we can all appreciate that sentiment!

First, thank you all for your tireless efforts to help mitigate the impacts of the global CrowdStrike related Microsoft system outages last week. As technology first responders, many of you were on the case, triaging the incident and looking for cures, even before many of us were even aware. I saw my teams swarm the incidents, creatively look for mitigation steps, and support each other to ensure we had the fastest path to resolution. I know many of you were on till wee hours of the morning getting our highest priority systems running and some are still working other impacts, even today. Thank you!

Second, in addition to globally impacting events and news that hit this week, we are starting to see an uptick in COVID cases and other illnesses. If that includes you, please take the time to rest and recover! For all of us, this is a good reminder that we should take care of ourselves. Make sure to prioritize your health and well-being.

The dog days of summer are upon us! What are you doing about it? My family and I have been taking walks around our neighborhood just after dusk, just when the heat of the day has lifted, and the cool night sky starts to appear. It is so refreshing and renewing. I encourage all of you to find something like that to do each day. It can be so helpful to ground you and recharge your spirit. Of course, make sure you are getting enough sleep, plenty of water and eating well. The stress of life and the heat of the season can wear on you, often with little or no warning.

I have a challenge for you. Stand up and stretch. Take a breath and if you can, grab a cool glass of water and gaze outside. Notice the summer glistening sun and those tiny details painted across the terrain. Exhale. You are part of this summer celebration. Appreciate this moment, the refreshing pause and connection with all creation in all the seasons. Take another deep breath, taste the life-giving oxygen, and savor the prospect of our glorious future.

We are here to make a difference. Take care of yourself and each other!

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Wiring for Outcomes

“Come back in half an hour,” the host at Brix Italian Restaurant in Belleville, New Jersey, said with a sympathetic smile. The catering order for the wedding rehearsal dinner for about 100 people was not quite ready. When I had been sent to pick it up, what I didn’t know was that the restaurant was waiting to make a call back or see a “real person” show up for the order before starting on the final preparation. My daughter and I fancied a trip to Starbucks while we waited. I know, those of you who know me, are shocked to hear that. When we returned, tins full of food and utensils were waiting for us. We packed up the food and delivered it to the dining hall just in time to discover that there was an error with the order. Several, actually. My brother-in-law started on a list of “Oh no! Where is this?” questions. Critical items were missing, demanding a journey back to Brix. Arriving back at the restaurant, I learned that there had been several miscommunications between the person ordering and the host. Both sides misunderstood things. A few calls and transactions later, and another trip to Starbucks (of course), and we were ready for final delivery back to the venue. Urgent text and calls were coming in. We were late. We carried in the last dishes as the first guests started to arrive. It worked out, eventually.

Two weeks ago, my family and I made a trip to New Jersey to attend my niece’s wedding. My wife had helped her sister plan the event. As you can see from the story above, I had the audacious task of being the gopher, picking up supplies and orders. I wasn’t involved in the planning or decisions; I was just following orders. I didn’t mind. I got to spend time with my kids, even if it was just doing errands around the city. And yes, on many occasions it involved a coffee stop. But during this whole experience, I couldn’t help but see the inefficiencies and problems with this system. I was getting instructions to do things without any context as to why. Blindly following orders often means information gaps, inefficiencies, and lower quality, suboptimal outcomes. I saw that play out a dozen times. 

Information is gold, but if you don’t have access to it, it is no different than any other rock in the mine. Empowering the person doing the work with the information they need to do the work is critical. For example, if I had understood the dietary plans for the rehearsal dinner or had been given insight into the rest of the menu, I would have been able to make decisions and double check the order before even leaving the restaurant. We were not operating as a team, but as siloed functions. The same thing happens in organizations. We often create towers of expertise and create transactional methods between those groups to get the work done. But sadly, there is often catastrophic context loss between those silos that results in a lack of clarity, misunderstandings, and errors. Tickets bounce back and forth between groups like ping pong balls. Multiple meetings are scheduled to close the gaps. Deliveries are delayed. Estimates are breached. Service is reduced. Teams are frustrated and outcomes are barely adequate. Sound familiar?

I’m a big proponent of aligning full-stack teams around outcomes. Enable low latency collaboration through proximity. Embed expertise close to the problem and enrich those team members with the greater context. In my example, if I had been embedded in the planning team, I would have understood the nuances needed to ensure alignment with the goals. When supply issues at the restaurant resulted in the need to pivot away from the written requirements, I could have easily and quickly made the changes that would have aligned with the menu goals because I was part of those plans. The same applies to our engineering teams. Don’t just understand the tasks in the user story you pull off the backlog, understand the why. When the technical or demand landscape changes, the engineer is empowered to apply problem solving skills that are relevant and contribute to the final outcome. By being embedded in the product team, each team member, regardless of their functional expertise, understands the goals, the common purposes, and each is able to quickly adapt and solve for unexpected complexities and changes. Gene Kim and Dr. Steven Spear call this “wiring for a winning organization.”

“Part of wiring an organization to win is to ensure that leaders at all levels are able to create conditions in which people can give the fullest expression to their problem-solving potential, both individually and through collective action toward a common purpose.” 
- Gene Kim and Steven J. Spear, Wiring the Winning Organization

I’m a big fan of embedding engineers into business and product teams. It promotes proximity powered empathy engineering, unlocking information flow and enabling all the engineers and the rest of the product team to move fast. With context powered agility, team members can react to complex and problematic occurrences with elegance and innovation. I’m also fully aware that we all still have work to do. There are gaps we can close and other things we can do to make things better. If you find yourself driving around New Jersey blindly delivering wrong things at the wrong time, I can relate. Let’s collaborate! Let’s rewire and make it better. Oh, and of course, let’s stop by Starbucks on the way.

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Movies!

A gasp and then silence fell across the room. Jenna, a young and wide-eyed girl behind me said with a soft and nervous voice, “Mommy, are they okay?” Boom! The environment exploded with electrifying sound and brilliant flashes of light. Silhouettes of nearby friends illuminated all around us, projecting living shadows across the room. A melody of “oohs” and “aahs” rose from the crowd. All eyes were fixed on the glowing white screen in front of us. It was grabbing us and pulling us toward an irresistible climax. A rising sound, then a chorus of anticipation filled our ears. Then sweeping notes of joy flooded many of our eyes with tears. The protagonist on the screen had stepped into our souls. We feel how she felt. We see what she saw. We heard what she heard. The moment had stitched us into the story. We had arrived. And yes, Jenna, things are going to be okay. 

Movies tell stories. But they also connect us. They walk us through our own emotions, our own dreams, and our own fears. They scare us. They inspire us. They take us on a fanciful journey. They stir our imagination, transport us to new realities and ultimately entertain, delight, and stir our souls. The art of storytelling through the medium of cinema is an amazing experience. It is needed. Through it we can step outside of our own troubles and into new possibilities. Our human souls yearn for those stories and imagination to take us on journeys we would never venture alone. They can be healing, providing relief and therapeutic inspiration. They can be fun.

As filmmakers, we have the incredible privilege of helping bring this experience to the world. Directors, producers, actors, cinematographers, designers, composers, editors, artists, and other cast members all assemble to bring these stories and experiences to life through visual and auditory means. It is an art-form and craft that ministers the magic of storytelling, delight, and joy to our planet.

This Friday, Inside Out 2 shows up in theaters. Be sure to take your friends and family to see it and encourage others to do the same. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see it, hear it, and of course… feel it too.

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A Feast of Words

“Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.”– Proverbs

I love coffee. Before sitting down to write this, I had to get up and get a fresh cup. They say, “You are what you eat and drink.” Now, I must confess, my “coffee” is as much milk as it is caffeine. It is like a bolt of energy swimming in a caramel pool of cream. If I am what I eat and drink, I guess I would say I’m a venti iced caffe latte. I’m one cool guy, slightly frothy.

All joking aside, it is true. What you take in becomes part of you. It gets metabolized, converted to energy. When we eat or drink, the nutrients are absorbed by our bloodstream and transported to our cells to fuel us, build our bodies, and repair tissue. We are literally becoming what we consume.

Just as coffee is fuel for the body, so are words to the mind. Words. Those tiny chunks of thought and concepts stream together to form knowledge, wisdom, and instruction. As we consume them, they metabolize into the neural fabric of our mind. New connections are formed in the brain. Electrical impulses dance across the mesmerizing network of living cells, attuning to the cascade of meaning and intelligence, absorbing the nutrients and literally growing new thoughts, concepts, and perceptions. We are becoming what we hear and read.

What are you becoming? What new words are you feeding on today? Did you sip on some tweets, snack on a podcast or feast on a novel? What words are shaping you? Is it a good diet? I confess, it is often easier to go with handy pre-processed words. They taste good and take less time. But they don’t cause you to think deeply or leave a lasting impact. They can even come with unhealthy side effects like misconceptions, biases, and fabrications. I find a healthy diet includes novels, scientific reviews, research papers, and well-informed articles. Be careful what you read.

Words are fuel. They power our life, our worldviews, our capacities to solve problems and our ability to make an impact. Go grab some prose. Stock up on paragraphs and phrases. Chow down on a satisfying dish of poetry. Feast on a nourishing buffet of knowledge and become what you eat. Oh, and feel free to enjoy some coffee while you are at it.

Thanks for reading my words today.

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Richard Sherman

I was running late. The previous session had run over. I needed to run! I jogged across the campus to make it to my next meeting. It was in the presentation room at Imagineering HQ. After a quick sprint down the John Hench Graffiti Hallway, I quietly ducked into the venue. Thankfully, I wasn’t alone. I followed in a few other late arrivals. The person in front of me and I took a seat on one of the couches in the back. The meeting hadn’t yet started. I let out a sigh of relief and the person next to me smiled and nodded a sympathetic, “Well, at least we made it.” We managed to find some water bottles, a nice treat after a mad dash between meetings. We chitchatted about the water, the sprawling creative campus and the new modernized presentation room.

The meeting finally got underway. The emcee stood at the front of the room on a small riser and addressed the crowd. They had wheeled in a digital piano and a stand mic. The host welcomed everyone and informed us that we were in for a special treat. A renowned guest had joined us today and would be talking to us about their career at Disney as a songwriter and musician. This special guest, he informed us, was a Disney legend and had worked directly with Walt Disney himself. There were some oohs and ahhs across the room as the announcer concluded, “Please join me in welcoming Richard Sherman to the stage.”

We began to clap. My new friend next to me stood up and started walking toward the front of the room. I was stunned! He turned around and looked at me and grinned. I’m pretty sure my face was red. All this time I hadn’t recognized that the friendly soul sitting next to me was none another than one of the most prolific composer-lyricists in the history of family entertainment, Richard Sherman. 

Richard took his seat at the keyboard and began telling us his story. He talked about his time working with Walt Disney. He told how he and his brother, Robert, had composed songs like “Chim Chim Cheree”, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” “I Wanna Be Like You,” “The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room”, “A Spoonful of Sugar,” “Feed the Birds”, “Winnie the Pooh,” and of course, “It’s A Small World (After All).” He used the keyboard to tell the stories and punctuate each stage of his career with melody and rhyme. He sang to us. He taught us. He inspired us. He entertained us. Richard was simply amazing.

This past weekend, Richard composed his final outro. The narrative of his 95 years had reached its end. While his story may have ended, his songs never will. His words, his choruses and his melodies will live on forever. Like him, they sing to our souls. They teach us to smile, optimistically and cheerfully embrace the future, our work and each other. They entertain and delight us. Richard tickled the keys of the human spirit. He will be missed, but his words will continue across the planet for years to come. 

And finally, just a reminder, don’t hesitate to greet those you sit next to, even if you are late to the meeting. You never know who you might accidentally meet. But then again, I guess it does make sense, it is A Small World, after all.

“No matter what you do, give it everything you’ve got.” – Richard M. Sherman

Watch “The Boys: The Sherman Brothers’ Story” on Disney Plus: https://www.disneyplus.com/movies/the-boys-the-sherman-brothers-story/lAccl79EUlcX

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Be a Leader

What is leadership? It must be important. Everyone’s looking for it. We have a never-ending supply of books, articles, and conferences on the subject. But is there a simple answer? I confess, I don’t have one. I won’t pretend to be the expert in leadership, but I am a student of it, and it is amazing what you learn on your trips around the sun. I think we sometimes equate leadership to popularity or fame. The loudest voice may be identified as a leader, but is it, really? Some say leadership is in your DNA. You are born with it. Some say, it is thrust upon you by your circumstances or perhaps your training. I don’t dismiss that, but I also think it is bigger and broader than that.

I believe anyone can be a leader. Leadership is not about rank or a journey to the top. It’s not about power. It’s not about entitlement, position, or authority. No, instead, leadership is about caring for others. It is about stewardship, it is about nurturing, supporting, and shepherding the world’s greatest treasure: human beings. Our family. People. The most important thing on planet earth.

While people are brilliant, creative, and passionate, we are also complex and messy. We make mistakes. We trip, we stumble, we sometimes lose hope. We need humble leaders to inspire, encourage, and coach us. They help us see beyond ourselves. They help us look over the horizon and face the unknown. They nudge, empower, care for, and benefit us more than themselves. We model them, respect them, trust them, and follow them. They are true guides, true servants, and true leaders. The world needs more leaders. 

Now it’s your turn. Be a leader. I believe in everyone is a spark, an empathetic guide inside seeking to emerge and help our fellow travelers along the way. Let it out. Look for souls that need help. Dream into their lives as much as your own. Take them to the places they always wanted to go, but never had the ambition to try. Challenge them. Care for them. Encourage them. Be a leader.