We spent Christmas at 9000 feet in the Colorado Rockies.  One morning I got up early and started up a trail that leads to the three beautiful Harvard lakes, about 1000 ft up the mountain. In the summer this hike takes me about an hour, but in the summer there is no snow.  This year had dumped an enormous amount of the white stuff on the trail and I realized that without snowshoes there was probably no possibility of making it to the lakes.  Then a wonderful surprise. Someone with snowshoes had blazed the trail ahead of me.  Their trip had been several days before and the melting and refreezing of the their tracks in the snow had created a crust that I could walk on.  My face stung with the cold and my lungs ached, but my heart soared as I made my way toward the top.  Occasionally the crust would break and I would find myself floundering hip deep in snow.  It only took a few steps like that to leave me weak and gasping for breath.  Just when I was about to give up, my feet would find purchase on the trail made by someone else and I continued on.  It took me about an hour and a half to finally see the first lake.  There the traiblazers tracks stopped and so did my progress.  I got as close as I could to the beautiful slide that exists just above the lake and snapped this picture.

Standing waist deep in snow, I prayed a very sincere prayer of thanks for the trailblazer who made this hike possible.

“The blind side,” a movie based on a true story, moved me deeply on several levels.   Every believer who has ever criticized, boycotted or written a letter to protest a movie, needs to write one more letter.  This one to say thank you to the creators and producers of this film.  Thank you for an inspiring movie.  Thank you for a portrayal of  Christians most of us would have to actually work to live UP to.  No smalchy goop, just an honest film about fallible people who acted out their faith.  Stay for the credits at the end.  Those pictures of the actual people who lived this story had me searching for my sleeve. (I didn’t have a Kleenex)  Please see this film, encourage the people who made it and leave a comment that let’s me know what you think.

Ken was still a teenager when he enlisted in the army. He was one of twelve children, and he recognized his chance to make something of himself. He couldn’t know the United States would be at war within a matter of months.

At eighteen, Ken found himself in the thick of battle defending the Philippines against the onslaught of Japanese attack. One day he lay behind a log and watched as enemy soldiers overran his position by the hundreds. Ken and a companion hid their rifles and surrendered. It marked the beginning of a three-and-a-half year nightmare. Ken became a prisoner of war.

I spent the last couple of days gathering evidence to substantiate the existence of God…….. I couldn’t gather it. There was too much. So I just took pictures. Here are just a few of hundreds of exhibits I found on a single fall weekend.

Evidence from the air!

The feedback from hundreds of our students over the years confirms that speaking with focus and purpose transforms their effectiveness as a communicator. According to Steven Covey, the second habit of highly effective people is “Begin with the end in mind.” As we begin our Dynamic Communicators Workshop in Glorieta NM this week we will be re-enforcing that truth over and over. Many speakers never consider the “end,” the ultimate purpose for which they are giving their talk. Instead they agonize over a list of “things” they want to say and how to organize that list.

Here is a short list for preparing your next speech. Following these procedures will give your speech more focus and power.