enjoy this fall by having at least one "fulfilling and new" experience in October, November and December

I wasn’t as impressed with myself as I was on Monday but I was much more comfortable this time, so that in and of itself made it very fulfilling !

I had a chance to speak at Toastmasters on Saturday and I owned the room! It was definitely a fulfilling and new experience!

My speaking project was speaking off the cuff. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to speak about so I had everyone in the room write down a speech topic on a slip of paper and I would choose my speech from them. There were so many great topics given that I decided to include them all in one speech. (I had topics like “melting ice cubes” “global warming” “daydreaming” and “which came first, the chicken or the egg”)

It was a fun speech and really helped me get my groove back. The comments from my evaluator and the written notes passed on to me by other members of the club were all fantastic.

Then to make it even better I was voted “Best Table Topics” (Table Topics is a portion of the Toastmasters meeting whereby members have to answer a question within one minute)

What a fantastic way to start December!

By far reading the names of those who died in Iraq as a part of Veteran’s Day was most new and fulfilling experience of the month.

Starting out the names were clear and recognizable, but with so many names they became harder and harder to distinguish. Once in a while the branch of service, or country from which they came stood out. British Navy, Thai Army, Italian Army. Over time even those distinctions became blurred into a set of syllables. As the service continued the names of those who died were almost like a continuous beating of a drum.

These names were Americas, and the world’s babies. Young men and woman so dedicated to their country and leadership that they served without question.

I left feeling so much anger. There is so much more that these men and women could have done had they not been called to Mr Bush’s war.

(The picture is of the Honor Guard at the start of the Veteran’s Day service outside Grace Church in Nutley)

New experiences, and in some carse re-”newed” experience as I am doing things I haven’t done in a while, are becoming a regular thing in November.

I’m getting more active in both of my Toastmasters groups. The Saturday group rocks. I’ve taken on lots of functionary roles and get such a charge out of getting in front of a group of people.

My involvement in my church has grown exponentially. Suddenly I found myself on the welcoming committee in addition to all the other things I do there.

On Veterans Day my church will have a day long service where the major part will be a reading of the names of the nearly 3500 who died in Iraq and Afghanistan. The names will be read over the course of nearly 5 hours by clergy from all denominations as well as local officials. I have been chosen to be an alternate reader should there be an opening. THIS is by far the most important thing I will be doing this month.

Here’s your chance to do something really great with 43Things : Join our team on the goal “Give The Needy Food They Would Actually Like.” With American Thanksgiving, Christmas, and a slew of other holidays coming up, now is a great time to adopt this goal and join the team!

http://www.43things.com/things/view/972067

My churched screened An Inconveniant Truth this past Wednesday, and while much of what was in the film was, for me anyway, preaching to the choir, it did raise my own personal environmental awareness just a bit more.

The film documents Al Gore’s work in reaching out and spreading the word about Global Warming.

An Inconvenient Truth is being released on DVD in mid November (so all of you Netflix types out there can add it to your queu now)

Do I do one new and intriguing thing in the next three months, or one thing in each of the months?

Between letting things Fall away and this goal, I can see that I will eventually have a completely different life by this time next year.