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The Hopeful and Humorous
April 29, 2008
As Ritch noted in his blog, perhaps we all need a bit more of the “hopeful and humorous” in our lives. I’ve just spent the past two weeks going from hosting the Miss U.S.A. pageant to doing speeches at a company annual meeting in Salt Lake, a Woman’s Expo in Phoenix and a yearly event in Ft. Wayne.
I’ve met thousands of people in the last 14 days and I can tell you one thing they all had in common: a willingness to connect on a real level.
When I met Miss U.S.A. 2007, Rachel Smith, at the 6 a.m. satellite tour, I told her that I was pretty certain they had asked me to host because she and I both had “hit the deck” on national TV. in the past year. She took a spill on the Miss Universe runway and I fainted on “Dancing With the Stars.”
At first Rachel looked startled that I would bring up our most vulnerable moments, but then she tipped her head back and laughed along. Someone in the organization told me that she had not allowed herself to look at that experience in a humorous way until that time. By the end of the morning, we were exchanging jokes like: “Yeah, pageant winners don’t do drugs, but they do take trips.”
Rachel Smith is a young woman, full of vitality, intelligence and curiosity. I’m glad to have met her.
I also met women and men who are self-motivated and eager to succeed in business. They know that life is very different from their parents’ generation and they are trying to figure out how to balance a career and raising children and still find spare time to help through volunteering. Truly…. whenever I hear that people are “self-absorbed” I meet person after person who prove to be otherwise; people willing to help out, to share.
And, over 1400 women in Ft. Wayne, Indiana attended a one-day event where I spoke. As I looked out at the faces of these women: the mothers, the daughters, sisters, friends, I felt like I was in the presence of the heart of hundreds of homes and even many workplaces. Shaking their hands and posing for pictures with them was my honor, knowing that these women support and encourage, problem-solve and nourish many people every single day…. and, are still willing to smile at life’s challenges.
One woman told me, with a shrug, that she “never got my shape back after having my kids.” So, I told the story of getting ready to go back on stage after giving birth to my youngest son and my skin was still so stretched out I could have put it in a Scrunchie. Pretty image, isn’t it???
I guess that’s just me. I’m willing to talk about it all: the good, the bad and the ugly. And, I’m meeting thousands of people who are relieved and ready to laugh about all that life tosses on our plates. Optimism is really our only option, isn’t it?
Marie Osmond
Posted by Sponsored Content: Marie Osmond on April 29, 2008 | Comments (0)
