The Pricelss Moment of Ah Ha!

Some moments in our lives are priceless. I could go into a long diatribe and expound on a variety of these precious glimpses of supernal joy, but today I want to share only two that occurred this week. They are precious and priceless for me and for those who were part of them, and they will be priceless value for those whom receive the effects of those moments of pure insight and understanding and then form them into duplicative moments for you and others.

The first moment actually spawned the second moment. It came after meeting with a group of our top Heritage Makers leaders and discussed at length the vision mission and values of the company. We were focused on developing a more effective languaging and a presentation sequence for consultants to pass heritage making story on to clients. We had talked about the four cornerstone storybooks that every child needs to establish the foundations of their heritage.

We had concluded the the first four most important storybooks included teh child's roots, that is a storybook of each of their grandparents - maternal and paternal. Those were the first two root books. Then they needed a storybook of their parents lives, before meeting each other, their love story, marriage and anticipation of establishing a family with a rich heritage of values and traditions. The fourth cornerstone storybook needed to be a book about the child - anticipation of his or her birth, childhood, talents and how much they were and loved and how they add to the family. These were the storybooks that would help the parents build self-esteem, a sense of belonging and begin to define the child's story.

Everyone was excited and agreed that these storybooks would make huge differences in the way children and on to young adults would view their lives, and family life. Then we talked about the other storybooks that would follow that largely would chronicle the important events and relationships of the child's and family's life. The metaphor of the building of family heritage continued with these additional self-published family library books. Then came teh discussion around what was the Keystone storybook for the family heritage building. What would be the single most import and influential storybook for the entire family and each child in it. What book would recall, capture and create the heritage, traditions and values, and transfer them to generations to come.

The answer was the storybook called "What it Means to Be a _________ (the family name). This would be a book that told the family story collectively with just a taste of the heritage past (progenitors) and heritage present (members of the family - mom, dad and kids (their vita and special gifts and place in the family). It would articulate and celebrate the traditions, values and priorities of the family. It would celebrate the family members, individually and collective. This storybook would be the story of the family and would give structured meaning and agreement on what it means to be a member of that unique family.

It was a lively and exciting discussion as each of us realized that that strorybooks as indeed the Keystone of heritage development within the family. It was blueprint for moms to define and project a framework for how members of their families live and a basis for her children to evaluate and make choices consistent with who they are because of their heritage -story. Now if this notion resonates with you, you too may have just had one of these amazing moments of "ah ha". You may have discovered the answer to the age old question of "how can I be there to make the right choices, when I an not there". The answer is even when you are not there you can give them their heritage that, like a shadow, will always follow and influence their choices.

One of the leaders in our group, Heidi A, who has been with us literally from the beginning and has been through all of the development of the vision, mission, values, systems programs, incentives, tools etc of the business had a powerful ah ha from this experience.

Shortly after our discussion about the cornerstone and keystone books Heidi had a discussion with her four year old son about what it means to be a member of their family. As they discussed things that were happening around them and in the world she ask Jace "would you do that?" " No, mom!" was the replay. "Why?" she asked him. "Because I am an A___ and we don't do that!"

It is one thing to theorize and conceptualize with the group. But, when the proof of the concept comes back from the mouth of your babes in a priceless precious moment of "ah ha!" you are moved with the reality and truth of the theory. You know the power of the concept and you increase in passion and commitment to the principle and its proliferation.

The second ah ha came in a meeting at the office that was centered around some of the same discussion of cornerstone and keystone books and how to incoporate this message in our website and communications. After about an hour of dialog and word smithing efforts of the team I shared Heidi's experience and email to me about it. It was then that Justin, another of those great souls who has been with Heritage makers from the beginning and has had the most to do with the development of our storybooking technology strategy, had the ah ha moment. I watch it as he said "Now, for the first time I get it! It makes perfect sense!" the it was the whole focus around Heritage Making, rather than just storybooking. He understood an a new, deeper, more profound level, why we are called Heritage Makers not just storybooers, or digital scrap bookers. It was for me a priceless moment for our home office team and those who were present to witness the ah ha.

Now what do ah ahs do? They shape or reshape the way we think about something. They change our priorities and understanding and actions. The make a difference in th eway we do things and thereby in the outcome of our efforts.

Get it? The ah ha is that we, Heritage Makers are trying to communicate the message of heritage making with the power of story and storybooks in such a way that we create an "AH HA" for everyone mom and dad who hears the message. This is our mission and it is what will create a conversation, a brand and a business (thousands of independent businesses). These are businesses that will leverage these ah ah moments I have shared and will spawn other ah ha moments that will establish the principle of heritage making and will make a difference for their family, their neighborhood, their community, the world.

If you are not a heritage maker, yet, I sincerely invite you to consider it. I hope this is an ah ah moment for you.

Onward and Upward

Love Doug