"It's Scary but It's Fun!"

This weekend I got to spend my time with a remarkably wise 5-year-old. 

His ability to simplify his own or our shared experience moved me several times. Moment to moment, life is just so clear with him. As he and I get to know one another, I've discovered and recognized his talents, humor and vulnerabilities the way people do with new friends. And, I marvel at how brave and focused he can be.

For many reasons, I've made a promise to myself to start recording my observations of him in some way, or the things he says. I know I am not the first person to find wisdom in a child's innocence, but I also know that there is a reason why he and I have crossed paths. And, where I can, I will answer his brave and open heart with the same.

One of his holiday gifts was a game called Topple. The colorful box had energy, but the three of us had no idea how fun it would be. He and his dad started playing the game and I held back. Just watching. 

The game is essentially a lesson in balance. 

Players have plastic chips and the die assigns the level on which the player must place a chip on the teetering platform. The more chips are added, the more tentative the platform's balance becomes. As the tension built so did the excitement! At one point, my small friend shouted out, "It's scary, but it's fun!" So true! 

I joined in on the second round. Throughout the round, in careful harmony, the three of us ran out of chips, but never toppled. We were careful. We were excited, scared and considerate. We laughed. We had fun.

And, as I adjust to being a part of their lives in whatever way I will be, I realized that each of the three of us have already taken a careful oath of sincerity. 

It will be a lesson in balance. It will be scary sometimes, but fun.

Good. Cold. Fun.

It's -3 degrees in Chicago today -- and a bitter -29 degrees with wind chill! 

But, this harsh weather has been our partner in a truly perfect day: no plans, just moving through hour to hour with lazy ease. And, it has been simply delightful. 

In fact, today's serene and joyful calm has actually inspired my 2009 New Year's resolution: 

In 2009 I want to have a lot more FUN! 

This year, "to do lists" aside, I will make room for fun to flow instead of allowing only pockets. What I learned today is that fun needs room to breath -- make room for it and enjoy yourself and others deeply! What a lesson today has given me! I am incredibly grateful!

Resolutions themselves have been anything but fun for me for years -- in fact, my graveyard of past resolutions is a list of maddening cliches. But, no more cartoon-like self deprecation! 

Rather, hello good times!

And, all of this will likely mean, hello health, too! Here's to taking care of the spirit, body and mind with one resolution.  

"If you have health, you probably will be happy, and if you have health and happiness, you have all the wealth you need, even if it is not all you want." -Elbert Hubbard (20th century American writer)

Instead of focusing what isn't in 2009, instead I'll feel a step ahead of all the possibilities! My new personal policy of "mandatory fun" will take no form, and have no rules. In fact, it won't be a resolution as much as a pledge, a religion, a meditation. I don't think I've ever had a resolution I wanted to start right away, but today I do, and that makes me think it really will be a new year!

The year's perfect gift -- it's free but in demand!

Instead of mindlessly wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays or Happy New Year, starting right now, I am going to BE the happy. 

With new research suggesting that our happiness is contagious, I want to spread joy. Isn't that the best gift we can give one another? Our joy reinvested in their lives?

I am not talking about an elfin insincerity, or a happiness competition. No, this shift is subtle. Maybe we let the bad news of the economy go to the background and the holiday spirit (if you will) take center stage for a while? I am talking about a moment-by-moment embracing of the good. 

For me, I will take a few extra seconds to share some goods news, to enjoy my best friend's lovingly decorated Christmas tree, to bake cookies with the special little ones in my life and enjoy the white lights up and down my street. Just a small shift in perspective in every little moment. Oh, and it makes me pretty happy to say I've let myself off the hook on sending holiday cards this year -- I'd rather connect one-to-one instead.

Here's a few things that already have made my season brighter, I hope they do the same for you:

This "tough guy" coach is personally investing in teens trapped in cycles of violence, and said on 60 Minutes last night that he lives every day expecting something really good is just about to happen.

Here's a Web site dedicated entirely to good news.

And, if all else fails, we may be another year older, another year wiser and according to this research from the University of Chicago, another year happier, so we can be happy to look ahead.

Cheers to a very HAPPY holiday season.

30 Seconds for Reflection? Hurry and Contemplate.

CNN asks viewers to post comments and videos on their Web site reflecting on this momentous year -- and their own lives in the last year, all in just 30 seconds. Can you summarize your year in just 30 seconds? If so, would you go about it with highs and lows? Month by month? A theme into which you might force a personal historic review?

It really was quite a year. And, with or without gimmick, we should take the time to reflect. Yes, this 30-second review is a typical American approach, like saying: Here's your sound-bite approach to the world and to your life. 

Is it a sign of our busy lives, our culture, times? Or, is it that we prefer life in highs and lows, mostly feeling an aversion to the grey of an ordinary day, or an ordinary year? The good news for us is that a series or ordinary days didn't, this time, make an ordinary year. An historic election. A war continues. A complex and seemingly powerful recession. And, the fascinating ways our own stories overlap day after day. 

I know I sometimes struggle with looking back and reflecting -- taking responsibility not so much for what I did, but what I didn't do in the 365 previous days. So, I took the challenge, and what I found was less a refrain on my own shortcomings, and more a grateful review of a complex year in my life. I also invited my friends to do the same and will share my own and their summaries in the days ahead.  Until then, happy reflection....

We owe you, Daniel Burnham!

2009 is the 100th anniversary of the Burnham plan for Chicago. 

And, all I can say is "THANK YOU" Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett. These two architects created "The Chicago Plan" which preserved the lakefront, prioritized green communal spaces and outlined land use policies that I believe ultimately made the city of Chicago a community. Millennium Park continues that gift. And, initiatives such as Cool Globes, rooftop gardens on civic buildings and bike-friendly policies continue this tradition of thinking big and thinking green.

Here in Chicago we have the poetic meeting of industry and nature; architecture and science; academia and adventure; and art and world-class food. But the contrast that still mesmerizes me is the visual convergence of the divine and diverse palette of Lake Michigan's waters with the ever-changing skyline. We are lucky that something that is so much bigger than all of us can also be mine, yours, ours.

I am grateful to call Chicago home and what an exciting time it is to do so, with Obama's ties and the promise of his administration, the potential to host the 2016 Olympics and the many efforts this city makes towards greening itself and teaching its citizens to green their own lives. And, what can be more democratic than 1,000 free arts programs a year? Yes, to anyone, every day at the Chicago Cultural Center? 

We are lucky. And, no I don't work for the city, but I am a Chicago fan. And, I am a world-class dreamer and idea collector. I tip my hat to Burnham with the name of this blog, and acknowledge his gift and the power of his words. I am sure we all could share a year or more of entries inspired by this one quote (below) -- I think it's that good. And, I hope the content of this blog can in turn, be a place to share the things that stir our own souls. Cheers!

Here's that famous quote -- 

"Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty. Think big." Daniel Burnham, Chicago architect, 1864-1912.