Nothing Insipid about our Peace Speakers Meeting!

The mission of a Toastmasters club is to provide a mutually supportive and positive learning environment in which every individual member has the opportunity to develop oral communication and leadership skills, which in turn foster self-confidence and personal growth.

Tanja, our invocation leader today, shares a gayatri mantra to open up our Peace Speakers meeting:

“OM BUHR, BHUVA, SWAHA 
OM TAT SAVITUR VARENYAM 
BHARGO DEVASYA DHEEMAHI 
DHIYO YONAHA PRACHODAYAT”

We meditate on the glory of the Creator;
Who has created the Universe;
Who is worthy of Worship;
Who is the embodiment of Knowledge and Light;
Who is the remover of Sin and Ignorance;
May He open our hearts and enlighten our Intellect.

Tanja notes the short version of this mantra's meaning: "We meditate on the glory of that being who has produced this universe. May He enlighten our mind."

With such a soothing opening to our meeting this afternoon, the blogger notes that the Word of the Day for this Peace Speakers meeting is insipid, meaning dull,  uninteresting or unstimulating.  Hence, the reference in my post title to insipid means that our meetings are anything but that.  For this I am full of gratitude! Not only do I come to Toastmasters for the practice and the growth, but I come here for the fun and enjoyment.  I think I can safely say that all other members of Peace Speakers would agree.

Speaking of fun, our Joke Master for the day, Kerri, shared several pieces of humor that relate to Holy Week:

Our daughter, an ROTC cadet, was ordered to Fort Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvania for field exercises. Since it was the Easter season, she requested permission to attend church services on Palm Sunday. The troops were in the field at the time, so the commanding officer agreed only if there happened to be a church in the vicinity of their maneuvers. When a small country church was seen along the road, our daughter entered quietly, hoping to be unnoticed in spite of her leaf-and-branch camouflage. But all eyes turned upon her as a small child cried in amazement, "Look, somebody came as a palm!" — Contributed by Elizabeth Marvin 

Every Easter our church stages an elaborate pageant. Last year the man who played Pontius Pilate had to work on the night of the dress rehearsal, and a chorus member substituted for him. As we began rehearsing Pilate’s solo, the conductor stopped the orchestra. "Pilate, I don’t hear you," he called out. "You’re not loud enough." "Pilate is at work," a voice on the stage shouted back. "We’ve got our co-Pilate tonight." — Contributed by Bill Dyson 

Our Toastmaster, Ada, makes reference to a colorful image she used on top of our agenda today.  In it are so many reminders of the Lenten Easter season, like the cross, the palm, and the Easter Lilly.  Our Toastmasters get to choose whatever speaks to them image-wise, and Holy Week spoke strongly to Ada.

Ada introduces our first prepared speaker of the day, Connie.  She tells us that she practices alternative medicine, does Reiki and Tai Chi, and looks for different strategies to support her clients.  Connie is a new member who is giving her 2nd speech.  It's Project #2, which focuses on organization from the Competent Communication Manual.  Her speech is called "Dealing with Stress?  Let's Talk about Suggestions".  

 First Prepared Speaker for the Day

            

As the blogger, what I notice about Connie right away is she never stands behind the podium while giving a speech.  She has notes but rarely refers to them.  I think she's a natural born speaker.

            

Now Connie's speech will not be shared verbatim.  She admits that she trashed it afterwards, thinking she needs to use a different strategy next time.  So here's a quick synopsis of what she shared:

Are you dealing with stress?  Let's talk about an alternative.  Meditation has been a useful strategy for reducing stress.  When Connie was introduced to meditation, she had two main resistances.  First of all, she did not believe that just "breathing and being" would help her find a solution, resolve a problem, or reduce her stress.  However, neurosciences have demonstrated that meditation increases communication in the areas of awareness and emotions.  This process helps clear our mind and reduce the level of stress.  Connie's second resistance was the amount of time that meditation required.  But she learned that is not how long one meditates but the quality of the process.  Then Connie invited the audience to meditate for 30 peaceful seconds.  She concluded by inviting us to look at meditation for our own lives, reminding us that it helps us be in the moment - not in the past or the future.

This speech reminds me to get back to my daily meditations, which I loved and practiced faithfully for a full month recently.  I've known for over 30 years that meditation is key to wellness and peace, and yet I've resisted it, thinking I need to be "productive" all of the time.  Hey kids, MEDITATION IS PRODUCTIVE!  It's one of the kindest things you can do for yourself and the planet.  Get to it, friends!  Keep trying different meditation strategies until you find something that works.  You're worth it!!!!!

Our Toastmaster, Ada, introduces our second prepared speaker for the day, Eva. Eva is one of the founding members of our Peace Speakers club.  She is an artist, does freelance work, and is an editor.  Her speech today is from the Advanced Communication Series, Project # 4 from the Entertaining Speaker.  The title of her speech is "Traumatic Trips", and I have shared her speech verbatim.

 Second Prepared Speaker for the Day

I love to travel, but I like my trips to go smoothly. When they don’t, however—which is more frequently than I’d like—at least I end up with some entertaining stories to tell my friends. Today I’m going to share with you a couple of stories about travel glitches that I did not find at all fun at the time, but that made the trips more memorable.

In December a couple of years ago, my husband, Jerry, and I and our son and daughter, who live in Chicago, were looking forward to a family vacation in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Cabo is at the tip of Baja Peninsula, a thousand miles south of San Diego, California. So getting there can be an adventure.

We had reserved seats for Luke and Rachel on a flight from Chicago that would get them to Cabo about the same time Jerry and I were scheduled to arrive from Louisville. At least that was the plan.

It was cold and gray with a few flurries the morning of our departure. But we were Mexico bound! I was already picturing the blue skies and sparkling turquoise water and feeling the warm sand between my toes. I thought about Luke and Rachel and how exciting it would be when we all met up at the airport in sunny Cabo.

Jerry and I arrived at the terminal exactly an hour before the take-off time on our reservations. Right on schedule. As we strode up to the Delta counter with our luggage, I marveled, “Wow, no line! This trip is starting out great!”

We smiled at the agent behind the counter, who asked, “Where are you headed this morning?” “We’re on the 7:30 flight to Atlanta, and then on to Mexico,” Jerry responded.

The agent’s brow furrowed. Our jaws dropped when he said, “I’m sorry. That flight has already departed.” Turns out, sometime in the months since we made our reservations, the departure time for our flight had been moved up to 6:00 am, and either we missed the email or no one had bothered to inform us.

“So-o-o what are our options?” we asked, trying to stem the rising panic. The agent, still with furrowed brow, began tapping on keys, his eyes locked on the screen of his computer. “We’ve got a flight leaving in ten minutes,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s overbooked. I could put you on a later flight, but you’ll miss your connection.”

My visions of sun and sand and margaritas were quickly dissolving into worst-case scenarios: Jerry and I grounded in Louisville for another day. Rachel and Luke stranded overnight at the Cabo airport, 20 miles from the resort where our timeshare is located.

Suddenly, I had an idea. “Our son and daughter are booked on a direct flight from Chicago to Cabo this morning,” I told the agent. “Is there a later flight from Chicago that all four of us could take—and can you reroute Jerry and me to Chicago in time to catch it?”

The agent clicked away on his keyboard, and before long, to everyone’s relief, we had a solution. Despite being delayed in Chicago by heavy snow, we arrived in Cabo before sunset and only lost a few precious hours of vacation. And we all agreed that it was more fun to fly there together.

   

My other story of travel trauma also involves a stop in Chicago. This time Jerry and I had driven to Chicago for a meeting. We stayed at a hotel near the airport so we could leave our red Toyota Prius parked there while we flew on to Seattle and Alaska. 

After a fun-filled week out west, we got on a plane in Seattle to fly back to Chicago via Salt Lake City. Our flight plan had us arriving in Chicago early enough that we could make the five-hour drive to Louisville and be home before midnight. 

The Seattle flight took off as scheduled. So far, so good. We boarded our plane in Salt Lake City right on time. I relaxed into my seat feeling a nap coming on. Just then, an announcement came over the plane’s PA system: Take-off would be delayed due to the dreaded “mechanical difficulties.” As a short delay stretched into half an hour, we fidgeted in our seats. Finally, passengers were asked to disembark and wait inside the terminal while another plane, without mechanical issues, was located.

By the time we finally landed in Chicago, it was after 10 pm—11 pm Louisville time. On the short cab ride to the hotel where we had stashed our car, we wondered, “Should we spend the night and drive home when we’re more rested?” But then the desk clerk informed us there were no rooms available. So much for that plan.

When we spotted our Prius in the hotel parking garage, I breathed a sigh of relief. At least no one had stolen our car. I clicked the remote to unlock the car—and nothing happened. I tried again. Still nothing. We had a dead battery.

Now the thing about Priuses is, they are hybrids and there’s no ignition key. To start the car, you just press a button. The battery under the hood is different too, so jump-starting the car is a bit complicated. It took Jerry, Triple A, the hotel desk clerk and security guy, and the Prius operating manual from our glove compartment, to figure out how to unlock the car and get it running again. 

At least one good thing about driving home in the wee hours was that the freeway was practically empty. We made excellent time. We pulled into our garage around 6 am, just as our next-door neighbors were getting ready to go to work. ‘Welcome home!” they called cheerily across the fence. “How was your trip?”

“Well,” we responded, “we’ll need to get back to you on that. After we’ve had some sleep.”

Oh my, Eva, those travel debacles reminded me of the dicey instances I flew and was peppered with unexpected problems.  You're right, that's part of the adventure of traveling.  It isn't funny at the time, but it sure does make for a good story afterwards.  Your traumatic trips are not insipid accounts!

Evaluators Share Their Opinions

Catherine, Connie's evaluator, shares that she found her speech on stress and meditation to have a wonderful flow.  She notes how comfortable she was during the delivery and the fact that no notes were used.  She liked that she gave us a full body aide by walking around during her talk.  She appreciated that Connie took us on her journey with meditation.  The only suggestion she gave was that it might have worked better to use a guided meditation at first for those who might be unfamiliar with the practice.  

Perry, Eva's evaluator, shares that he enjoyed hearing about her travel ups and downs.  He found it to be a metaphor for life in general.  He appreciated that Eva used a lot of visual imagery in her talk.  She painted great pictures of things like the beach and showed change of mood throughout. The stories had good build-up to their conclusions. The only suggestion he made was a little more vocal variety or volume might have been nice.  

Ada's faith inspired her to use this closing poem at the end of her Toastmaster duties today:

Where have the forty days of Lent gone?

We've had forty days to remember who Jesus is,

Forty days to find out who Jesus is,

Forty days to look and to listen to this man from Nazareth,

This man who walked into the hearts of the people,

This man who "stirred their imagination,"

This man who is still walking into the hearts of his people,

Still stirring the imagination of the people.

Holy Week is upon us.

We will raise our palms in joyful recognition!

We do know him.

Surely we do know him.

There's no question that Jesus taught us so many lessons of the heart, so many lessons about love and acceptance, and so many lessons about compassion.  Surely, he is worth knowing!

Our meeting today was cut short due to scheduling snafus in the building that were no fault of our own, so we didn't get to enjoy a round of Table Topics.  I'm looking forward to the prompts that Megan had in store for us at our next meeting, perhaps!

So if you're a visitor to this blog, don't stay a stranger.  Join us some Wednesday and try us on for size.  Maybe our Toastmasters club will resonate with you.  We are a warm and kind club, and we welcome guests enthusiastically.  

We are an open Toastmasters club, 

so please pay us a visit!

OUR NEXT FEW 2015 MEETINGS:

  Apr. 15 - Conference Room 5000

  May 6 - Open House!
"Toasting Tips" 
Our meeting will be held in the cafeteria.
Refreshments will be provided.

Peace Speakers Toastmasters Club

1st and 3rd Wednesdays (usually)

1:00 - 2:00 p.m.

100 Witherspoon Street

Downtown Louisville, KY

Respectfully submitted,

Kay Chambers

Blogger for Peace Speakers

To access our previous blogs, here are the links: 

http://peacespeakerslouisvilletoastmasters.blogspot.com/  

 http://peacespeakerstoastmasters.blogspot.com/ 

(We kept running out of space and needed to start new ones!)