All of us have vampires in our lives, people who suck our energy. Sometimes these vampires are very clever about stealing our energy before we even know it. Usually where there are strong obligations, there are strong vampires. The “what I must do” is often bullied by a strong vampire making sure that is so.
Sometimes vampires operate at very high levels with smiles on their faces, leaders of the pack. I was leading a team that happened to be all women on a project that took months to complete. Everyone was a volunteer from different companies, and most of these women were vampires. One in particular ruled them all. Skillful vampires can shut you down with the look of an eye, and they can zap you of your energy before you even know they’ve taken a bite!
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We are all asked to do things we don’t like to do, at work and in life. We’re also put in situations to deal with people we prefer not to be around. It is our nature to go to war. We are not trained to be luvvers. It is only in our essence, which must be developed, that we learn to luvv what we don’t like. 
We are not aware of how transparent we really are. We seem to think that if we sugar coat a message or just tell it like it is, others won’t notice the dagger in our hand, or that they just had all their energy sucked out of their being in the midst of a rough conversation. 
My nephew recently said he wished he could bottle up my outlook on life and have it at his disposal when he needed it. So do I! I wish it was that easy. It made me think about what I do to keep that energy flowing through me.
Lulu says hello. Lulu passed away and left her body. Her spirit lives on.
Ride the roller coaster of change.
Never before have I been more aware of the importance of developing trust. Yet, it’s scary how easy it is to get stuck in patterns that don’t work: neurotic fretting, rigidity, skepticism and depression. People recognize that they can’t trust the government, the federal reserve, their employer or even their family to keep things the same, safe and secure. No one is exempt. Everything is changing. The individual within each of us is being called forward. What will we individually do to rise to the levels of change that are all around? 
Being happy is your essence. Working happy is your purpose. Keeping happy is the adventure of a lifetime. We have so many illusions of happiness and of work, yet there is an undeniable attraction to both. The formula we sell is – work leads to success and success leads to happy. We are incorrect on both counts. What we call work is labor, slave labor. And it has a high personal and general cost. It is a key component of the American dream, which we see crumbling around us. Now is a wonderful time to learn about work and happy—what they are and what they are not.
When old time mariners needed to know about the weather, they had no internet or TV to clue them in. They relied on their powers of observation, their logic, and their experience. They would look at the sky, feel the wind on their faces, observe the surface of the sea. Some even swore they could smell any coming changes in the weather. The more sophisticated sailors would consult a barometer. All of them knew what to expect for their part of the world during certain times of the year.
My husband, Jerome, was talking to a friend the other night about the economic climate and changing times. Jerome began talking about me and boldly proclaimed that I was “recession proof.” I looked at him quizzically, wondering what he meant by that. Jerome said, “You will weather this downturn and it won’t affect your spirit and your business. I just know it.” I was deeply touched by his sureness, and it made me explore my own feelings–how did I see it?