Driving in the dark

The best conversations take place in the car in the dark. Two people or an entire family, facing forward staring into the dark with no place to go and nothing better to do.
In the dark and facing forward, not staring at each other it much easier to be honest and open. No one can question facial expressions or body language, that you think you might have just glimpsed. Awkward pauses aren't awkward in the dark. Drives are good for soul bearing experiences and conversations. No one gets distracted by TV , door bells or phones ringing, food in the fridge or household chores. You have no choice but to finish the conversation you start. Silence in the dark when you're driving with a good friend, partner or child is one of the most enjoyable times also. Listening to the radio, each lost in your own thoughts. Again no awkwardness needed, it's not like you're sitting across a table from each other ,looking in each others faces. Silence is totally allowable in a dark car in fact it's a wonderful thing.
Some of my best memories are of road trips taken with the kids when they were small. Hours spent in too close quarters with mom dad, son and daughter and a friend each. 4 twelve or eleven year olds should drive anyone insane. But after the first half hour and the necessary grumbling about space, heat and stinky feet they would all turn into hilarious comics, wonderful philosophers or awesome business planners. We have laughed until we could hardly drive anymore because of one liners that an eleven year can come up with. Rey and I have stared in awe at each other because of something so wise that was said by a twelve year old, that we said when we grow up we want to be just like him or her.
Things like that don't happen that often when your in your living room and there is Wii to play, movies to watch and facebook to check,. They are much more likely to happen when you are driving somewhere in close quarters with nothing for entertainment except each other
I miss the days of loading up the kids and going for a Sunday drive, or going to Edmonton or wherever on the spur of the moment. Life got so busy and hectic and we're all connected to our outside world at all times via cellphones and laptops. Very seldom is there a chance to just sit and listen to each other, and just be entertained by each others company. Life seemed so much simpler without our communication devices, but yet try and live without them. I feel absolutely naked without my iPhone or laptop close to me at all times,
I guess, times they are a changing and I now better understand when my parents speak of the good old simpler days
I wonder what our kids will call the good old simpler days when they are at our age?

Women in Business

We do things different than male business owners, we make things harder than they need to be at times and sometimes we wonder why our male counterparts make things as hard as they do, when us ladies think it's just so easy.
We take things personally too much and will have countless sleepless nights because of something one of our customers says, or because of some business decision we have to make.
We tend to make friends with most of our staff, customers, suppliers and even competition. We see our business as another child we raise. We don't quite trust any of it's babysitters to look after it, no matter how good they prove to be. We after all are it's mother and we know what's best for our baby don't we?: We take constructive critisism as a personal insult, we take unhappy customers or staff as a personal insult.
But at the same time we glow with pride when someone loves "our baby the business" and comments on all the wonderful things it can do. We love talking about our businesses as we love talking about our children.
We nurture and coddle our business, we scold ourselves and get that mother guilt-- I know the moms out there know exactly what that mother guild feels like-- when the business doesn't do something we thought it could do.
Things like staff issures become really tough because we all make friends with our staff and even when we as the owner know that something isn't right we have a horrible time telling our staff member that because now we've connected at a friendship level instead of employee/employer level.
Bankers, accountants,even the friendly voice on the phone that wants to talk to accounts payable, they all became our friends and mentors
That's what women do, we share, we mentor each other, we nurture. But it makes it so hard to deal with such situations as people coming through the door of our place of business asking for sponsorshops and gifts for the about the umptheenth good cause that day. How do you say no to a friend, and it is such a good cause,
Issues like staffing, I've had to make some really tough decsions this summer and I still get sick about it when I think about them. They are my friends, my mentors and I had to be a gasp employer and think of my business baby first instead of my friends.
Do male business owners deal with these same things? From where I'm stitting they keep friends and business relationships nicely seperated, or are they just good at pretending they do?
They say "no" much easier when they get asked for sponsorshops and prizes they see the bottomline much clearer. do we rule with our hearts more than our heads, unlike the guys?
Do they not see their business as their baby, and therefor keep it seperated so much easier?
I don't want to change things, I love working with and for my big network of "friends" but at times of tough decisions, and situations in which I should be saying NO, I'd like to have a little more seperation between heart and head.