The Definition of Success

"The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it." 

— David Orr, Ecological Literacy 

I thank my friend Tiffany for sharing this quote with me today via Facebook.  This week I am writing from a resort on the western shore of Leech Lake in northern Minnesota.  This summer I have been blessed with the opportunity to engage deeply with two groups of leaders around discussions of intercultural communication and strengths-based leadership.  Last night I began the second retreat in a train-the-trainer program around intercultural effectiveness led by my friend and colleague Okokon Udo.  Our group spent two and a half days together in July and gather again now to continue an ongoing dialogue around the complex cultural realities that both enrich our human experience and challenge our navigation skills.  On Wednesday evening I will reunite with my leadership flock as we begin the second part of our journey together in LeaderImpact, another deep-learning program put on by the Northwest Minnesota Foundation.

Next week I will turn twenty two and I find myself at an exciting crossroads with the privilege to pick my own adventure, to boldly take the next step and open a new page in this chapter of my life each day.  I am joyfully relishing the opportunity to have this week of reflection in the lead up to my birthday. It is an opportunity to evaluate the direction I have set my sails and celebrate the experiences I have lived up until now.

This quote is particularly impactful for me because I have at times subscribed to a definition of success as determined by academic achievement, positional power, and financial stability.  Yet when I ask my inner guru what is the root of deep happiness, the seed of joy and peace in one’s life and the world, the answer is not financial stability or recognition of one’s achievements.  Such a narrow definition of success sets one down a path toward burn out and an early death (of one’s spirit or even one’s physical body). 

I believe we are here to find joy in bringing joy to others. 

So thank you, Tiff.  I will reflect on where I am called to be a peacemaker, restorer, storyteller, and lover of humanity as I prepare for a new year in the Calendar of Anna.

Namasté,

Anna

I am a flexitarian.

What is a flexitarian?  As the name suggests it is a flexible title.  As a practice, it means something different to each person.  For me, being a flexitarian means that I am very picky about what I eat, in keeping with a set of principles about how I believe food should be produced and transported to my fork or my fingers.  This means that I do not eat meat on weekdays but for the rare exception like the free range “happy chicken” I enjoyed with Chelsea’s family on a Wednesday night a couple weeks ago. 

Last night was one such exception.  My family went out to Fogo de Chao to celebrate my mom’s new job.  By now my family is used to my weekday abstention from meat, but this was a special occasion and I wanted to fully partake in the dining experience with my parents and brother.  Fogo de Chao is a Brazilian steakhouse, a veritable homage to animal protein.  The cooks, decked out in heavy gaucho pants, boots, and red cravats, hasten purposefully around the elegant dining room, offering the finest cuts of juicy, pink, perfectly-seasoned meat to the expectant patrons.  I declined the chicken, pork, and lamb, but enjoyed filet mignon wrapped in bacon, bottom sirloin, and the house special picanha.  The beef was cooked to perfection, allowing the marbled succulence of the muscle speak for itself.  As a foodie, I appreciated the unadulterated taste of meat and the exciting dining experience from abundant salad bar to the creamy flan at the end.  I was disappointed, but not surprised, when I learned that Fogo de Chao gets its meat from the distributor U.S. Foods’ Stock Yards brand.  The meat is factory farmed, corn-fed, and was probably shipped a few hundred miles to get to my plate. 

I chose to reduce my meat consumption years ago because of the costs of factory farming.  Meat production in the U.S. consumes an exorbitant amount of grain and degrades precious farmland.  We do not eat happy meat.  The meat we eat in the United States is mostly corn.  Corn-fed cows produce the marbled, fatty cuts of beef that we love.  But cows are not supposed to eat corn – their stomachs are designed to feed on grass and silage.  A diet of cheap commodity corn makes them sick (think too many of those delicious FiberOne bars) which, paired with the close quarters of feed lots, makes for less than hygienic living conditions.  High doses of antibiotics are an effective solution for the unnatural conditions of feed lots.  The same method comes in handy for the chickens we produce, who are unable to move for most of their short lives because their breasts are too big to be supported by tiny chicken legs.

Now is not the time for me to discuss how I feel about corn subsidies as an economist and citizen – that is something for a later date – but I will say that the modern U.S. of American diet is a product of political decisions made in the 1950s supported by consumer demand for cheap food following the Second World War.  For those of you who are interested in learning more about what we eat, I suggest Food Inc, a film by Robert Kenner and Michael Pollan, or King Corn, which will further explain just how corny we’ve all become.  Do you know what you are eating?  Do you know what the meat you are eating ate?

TIME Magazine did a great article on weekday vegetarians and flexitarians in its most recent issue.  It references the Meatless Monday movement, a trend started in 2003 which has now been picked up by some of your neighbors as well as celebrities like Sir Paul McCartney and meat loving chefs like Mario Batali.  The movement’s website provides new meat-free recipes every week for the daring soul who wishes to consciously cut meat out of his or her diet one day a week. 

For the most part my body’s protein cravings are satisfied by PB, black beans, and yogurt but I’m a good German and find it hard to resist the occasional bratwurst at a summer barbeque (with kraut of course) or a Reuben sandwich (again, with copious amounts of kraut).  Not to mention if you put chicken tamales in front of me on any given day, chances are I will happily devour them con salsa picante, por favor.  And the recipe for the best Brussels sprouts I know how to make calls for bacon grease and we all know there is no substitute for that.  So you see the beauty of being a flexitarian is that a foodie like me can consciously and effectively reduce my consumption of meat, contributing to my own health and the health of the planet, without feeling terrible about giving into the occasional carnivorous tendency.  

Would you give up meat one or every day of the week?  What factors determine what you choose to eat?

Until next time,

Anna

Curiosity Finds CoCo

Two days after graduation I began working for the consulting firm that I interned with during junior and senior year of college. Our main office is four hours away so I set up shop from home as the Twin Cities satellite.

Those of you who have worked from home for any period of time are familiar with the awkward dance between guilt and comfort that comes with the knowledge that those on the other end of the conference line have no idea that you are still in your pajamas (until now). Luckily, I grew out of the “pajama professional” phase after a few weeks, but I never managed to settle into a comfortable work space in my house or at a nearby coffee shop. My laptop, chargers, and files amoebaed their way across the various surfaces of our house: kitchen counter, desk in bedroom, desk in basement, sunroom couch, etc, without finding a comfortable or productive home.

About one month ago I put a request out to the Universe to find me an office – one with coworkers and windows. After posting Monday’s blog I indulged my curiosity – as instructed by my horoscope – and got in the car to visit CoCo, a coworking space I had heard about from a former colleague. As chance would have it, CoCo was also featured on the front page of the Business Insider section yesterday in the Star Tribune. My mom had highlighted the article for me and left it on the kitchen counter. I took this convergence as a sign and went to explore.

I parked my car near Mears Park and navigated the construction to the address that Google had texted me. I knew the minute I saw the bright red and yellow “Hello CoCo” sign on the outside of the building that my life was about to get more interesting. I rode the elevator to the fourth floor and when the doors open (queue birdsong) I was greeted by warm sunlight reflected off polished wood floors, the quiet cadence of XM radio, and the steady hum of minds at work. There was something else though, that grabbed my senses and made me feel oddly tranquil…is that falling water? I looked to my left and saw a fountain, or rather an art installment that involves water cascading from small copper tubes hanging from the ceiling into a clear tank filled with rocks and red plastic lobster. This place is magical.

From the elevator I meandered my way through the workspace –an entire wall of windows, score! I was quickly greeted by Don, one of CoCo’s coowners (everything is about collaboration here) who I recognized from the Star Trib article. He gave me the grand tour: conference rooms, quiet area, kitchen, printer and fax, etc. You can work for free the first time you visit CoCo so Don set me up with the Wifi password and I hung out for a couple hours at one of the library-style tables facing the windows. I introduced myself to one of my new coworkers, who kindly moved a few folders so that I could pull up a spot at his table. As I picked up my things to leave he said “see you tomorrow” and I realized what was missing from the domestic professional equation.

Today was my first day as coworking member at CoCo and I loved it. The adventure of working alone from home is over. Someday I will reflect on the lessons it taught me, sitting on one of our comfy couches, sipping the unlimited coffee, tea, or cocoa that comes with my CoCo membership. Until then I will enjoy the tea, the shared smiles that say “Can’t focus today? It’s okay, me too.”, and the plastic lobsters. We are social beings, we need one another.

See you tomorrow,

Anna

Namasté. Start My Day.

Until recently I thought I was a night owl. I was convinced that I was most productive and most creative after 10pm. I have never had a normal sleeping pattern. As a child I stayed up past my bed time and read under the covers, wrote lists, and invented little contraptions which I would hang out my bedroom window. In high school this insomnia produced more lists as well as lengthy written commentary on issues of social justice and the human condition. My nightly obsessing turned out really great homework during my junior year (Junior Anna) but at the cost of waking up late without time to shower before rushing out the door. In college I was rarely nervous about finishing my homework because if need be I could pull an all-nighter and set five alarms to wake myself for class the next day. My roommates will tell you that after a week of this late night mania I could easily sleep until 1 or 2pm, a gift I don’t really think I’m proud of.

Last March my family spent 9 days in Italy: Lake Como, Florence, and Rome. Every morning my dad would wake up quite early and go out for his cappuccino. Being the inquisitive social being that he is he befriended the local café owners and would return to our apartment every morning with a bag of pastries and the napkins where his friends had scrawled the sumptuous Italian words they taught him that morning. Ci vediamo dopo, amici –see you later, friends. I envied the authenticity of my dad’s morning wanderings and so on the second to last day of our trip I told him to wake me up when he went out. Luckily, he was kind enough to try waking me a few times, as is often necessary, and waited around until I did emerge from bed a bit before 9am.

My dad and I bought a cappuccino and espresso and some pastries at the café across the street. We sat outside the café and watched the city wake up. Now, I find the sleepy bustle of early morning enchanting in general but the beauty of this ritual in Rome is something to behold. My Dad asked me about my love of the Italian language and my dreams of perhaps joining the Foreign Service and what I wanted to study. After another cappuccino we bought a few slices of the delicious buttery pound cake on the counter for my mom and brother, and strolled through the market in Campo di Fiori. That morning was one of my favorite memories from our trip to Italy and a very special memory with my dad.

Despite the beauty of that day I still stay up too late and find it difficult to get out of bed in the morning as a result. Like the cultivation of patience, this is a spiritual exercise for me. This morning I woke up at 8:45am and decided not to press the snooze button. I came downstairs and turned on the burner under the teapot. Then I went and sat in the sunroom. “You will meditate until the water boils.” I am now enjoying a delicious cup of English breakfast tea in my San Francisco mug and writing this blog. I am a morning person.

My horoscope tells me that my curiosity is not of the cat-killing kind today. I am to explore. What I find will make my life more interesting. We shall see.

Until next time,

Anna

The First of Many

My identity is defined by the physical places that have built my soul, those that enchant me and call me out into the world, and a spiritual sense that we are all deeply connected despite the better efforts of borders, language, culture, and ideology. If you and I were to sit in a circle of strangers, I would introduce myself as one who manifests her dreams, a pusher – a restless spirit with an insatiable thirst for life and new experience. I have undertaken the cultivation of patience as a spiritual exercise because I know that today at this time in St. Paul, MN holds just as much adventure to offer as tomorrow noon in Bali or Bombay if I'm willing to get up and find it.

I recently graduated from college where I studied Economics. I love economics because it is the study of the choices we make in the face of scarcity. The recent years provided ample evidence for my economic studies and exploration. Next year I will study in Delhi on scholarship through the Rotary Foundation. There my pen and paper will pursue graduate classes in regional planning and economic development. Meanwhile my mouth will pursue studies in the Hindi language (and India’s other twenty some official languages) as well as curry, chai, and hopefully lots of naan. Between now and then I am working for a consulting company doing work in the areas of higher education, rural economic development, and leadership. You can expect much more on my work and my upcoming travels as this blog continues.

The first place to capture my heart was Minnesota which is my home. As a Minnesotan I have more to say about the weather than most normal human beings. I believe that government has an important (but not primary) role in creating healthy and prosperous communities. My nature also tells me to be politically correct, do my best not to offend and if the need to express any strong opinion should arise that the word “interesting”—spoken in that lingering and indecipherable way that only a true Minnesotan can pronounce—will cover all of the bases. I enjoy the outdoors and camping and can tell you what time of year it is by the texture of the light and the weight of the air.

My wanderlust has been fed by many travel experiences. I was blessed with two wonderful parents who showed my brother and me the beauty of the United States when we were very young. I never learned the “Fifty Nifty United States” song in grade school but I have visited nearly half of them. My other travels include Canada, Spain, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, and Italy. You can read the blog I kept during my semester abroad in Vina del Mar, Chile for more about that adventure. I am always planning a trip or new experience. The process of dreaming up an adventure is almost as fun as putting your feet on the ground to explore a new place. My "Always Dreamin'" list will keep you in the loop with my 'current life plans'.

Until next time,

Anna