Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Aloha - We're just back from Hawai'i


Hello sportsfans... Leslie & I have just returned from our recent trip to the Big Island of Hawai'i. To say we had a blast is a major understatement. We've been on 21 trips with our business since we started in March 2003 & I'll be the 1st to share this with you: This conference completely blew me away. In Hawaii I got crystal clear on how powerful I am in creating everything into my life.

Day 1 consisted of flying over from Honolulu to the Big Island. We were met at the airport by a limo & chaffeur. On the drive in it looked like we had landed on the moon. There was black lava rock as far as the eye could see. One very noticeable contrast was the white coral that tourist have collected and used to write messages & symbols throughout the island. We got to the resort, checked into our suite, unpacked our luggage & went exploring. We met up with friends & family on the beach & then went to dinner with some of our team mates.

Day 2 Leslie & I enjoyed ourselves at the pool right in front of the most magnificant ocean lagoon. We walked along the seaside, watched the dolphins swim,

When we got to the Big Island I decided that I wanted to visit & look through the telescopes on Mauna Kea, not knowing that the public is not allowed to visit the Summit, which is just under 14,000' in elevation. I shared this with intention with Brent, my brother-in-law. He is the one who kindly informed me that it was just not possible. Then he let me in on his little secret, he arranged with a small donation (more than the average American earns all year) to allow us to visit @ night & look into deep space the next evening. These telescopes can see 13.5 billion light years, which almost at the beginning of our 14 billion year old galaxy. Pretty crazy huh? I think so. More about this later.

We started day 2 with some round robin tennis. It is really fun, as we have a number of friend's within the business who also play tennis & the numbers are growing. We had roughly 14 or so people show up for tennis in the morning. After about 4 hours of tennis, we joined Bob & Lisa for lunch @ the boat landing pavillion for some lunch & watched some football (the night games were on before lunch in Hawaii). From here we cleaned up & met up with the rest of the EMC where we were chaffuered off to a private helicopter airport. We received a flight briefing and then we were off to our choppers. Now I couldn't help but think of one of my childhood favorite's - T.C. the helicopter pilot on Magnum PI, as we headed out to the flightdeck. Our helicopters were practically brand new. The locals call them the "Black Beauties".

I also got the opportunity to take on one of my fears & crush it. I have a fear of singing in
front of people. I would not even sing in front of Leslie... well, I sung in front of Leslie, not to mention 2200+ people. That is not a typo. Two Thousand two hundred plus people heard me sing (if you want to call it that.) Now I had to get over the fear of looking good/looking bad & quickly. One of our keynote speakers was speaking on the topic of the rhythm of life. She asked for volunteers to join her on stage & immediately Leslie & I jump out of our seats and run up. Who is this guy in my body doing this? She has us dancing & playing drums... all 2200+ of us are doing it. Next thing I know she hands the microphone to Leslie & she's now leading all of us. After several minutes, Leslie turns and hands the microphone to Mr. Tone Deaf (Me) & the world stopped spinning on it's axis for what seemed like a century. Bump , Bump, - Bump, my heart went... what will all these people think when I start singing? I tried to stall... I asked Leslie what are the words? And then I just started singing. Now, I'm not saying it was pleasant to the ears. I SUNG! It felt great & once I started I realized that I can do this.

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