Nancy Pelosi's book, Know Your Power details her journey from the city of Baltimore to San Francisco and then to Washington D.C.

When I attended a recent local event at which she was interviewed about her life and motivations, I didn't really know all that much about her except that she came from Baltimore and her father was the mayor there. But as I learned more, in particular about her attitude toward service to others, I was struck by how fortunate we are to have her as the Speaker.

Because of my own interest in life stories and how different we all are, it is always interesting to me to learn about the lives of others and how they evolved over time. Often I am finding that people may never have expected to be doing some of things that they have done, and the path to get there is always fascinating.

In the book, her life and journey in politics unfold. It provides perspective from the time of the death of Sala Burton, who was well-loved in Northern California, and Sala's endorsement of Nancy on her deathbed to Nancy Pelosi's rise to Speaker of the House. 

Like her father, Nancy Pelosi never took winning an election for granted. She was always extremely organized. She learned from other organizers, such as her father first of all and the farm workers as well. And she credits raising five children for providing her with organizational skills that were very important.

A remark that a friend of Nancy Pelosi's made was, "I knew she was going places when I would go to her house and see those little children folding their own laundry and organizing it in stacks!"

Continuously in the book, she credits her experience raising five children as, not only an asset as a training ground for politics, but as a motivation and driving force for change to help children in the U.S. to climb from poverty to realize their gifts and talents.

When she first thought about running for congress, after Sala Burton endorsed her, she wanted to find out what her family thought of it. At that time she had only one daughter left at home, a senior in high school. She had a talk with her daughter and said that she would be fine with whatever her daughter wanted, if she wanted her to be at home for her last year. Her daughter's response, "Mom, get a life!"

And so she ran for congress.

At the end of the book, she quotes Eleanor Roosevelt, "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

The book is a testament to how far women have come and it also provides encouragement for women to step up to the table and be counted because they are more than welcome there by the women who have gone before and made a place.

I recently interviewed Olga Murray, after reading a front page article in the San Francisco Chronicle. Olga was turning 60 over 20 years ago and went to Nepal to do some hiking. What she found there led her on an amazing journey in which she has helped thousands of Nepalese children.

Listen in and hear her amazing story,

Download | Duration: 00:34:13

I had the recent good fortune to attend an event that was an interview with Madame Speaker, Nancy Pelosi about her new book, Know Your Power.

As she spoke about her life, what struck me the most was that her life has been one of service from the time that she was young in Baltimore. When her father was the mayor, the children were all taught to know the numbers of the social service agencies so that they could pass along the information to those in need who would call their home. Her mother always was setting an extra plate at the table for those less fortunate.

This continued as she moved across the country with her husband to her adopted city, San Francisco when she went door-to-door campaigning with her children in tow in strollers.

What I am learning most through my interest in people's life stories and the work that I am doing on this website, is that we all have and share such different paths. In my experience hearing Madame Speaker and in my interview that you can listen to on this blog with Olga Murray who founded the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation (www.nyof.org), I am finding that a common ground that infuses lives with enthusiasm and energy is helping others.

Nancy Pelosi talks about the "one in five" in her book, that one in five children in America lives in poverty. She said, "what motivates me every day in my political and personal life is the fact that one in five children in America lives in poverty. I think of them every morning when I wake up, about how they may have gone to sleep hungry the night before. When my colleagues are having a frustrating day and they ask me, 'why should we do this?' I say, 'remember it's for the one in five.'"

In a response to whether she can share some inspiring words for others at the end of our interview, Olga Murray says that she has friends who say, my children don't need me any more and my grand children are all grown and they don't need me anymore either. And Olga tells them, go out and do something for someone else and see how  it makes them feel. She said she feels more happiness in the last 20 years from the work that she has done helping Nepalese children, than she has felt at any other time.

She also says, you don't need to go all the way to Nepal to find a way to help others!

In my newsletter, I was writing about my group of friends who get together periodically to share stories. We met at a company that we worked at nearly 10 years ago. One of the women is of Iranian descent. She was telling us that she was hearing the recent news and wanted to do something about it.

She created this video about peace. Please take a look,

Voices for Peace

To begin, there is an inspiring piece in Natalie Goldberg's book, Old Friend from Far Away, that is in the chapter titled "Ordinary."

She says: "I've said this in subtle ways, but yesterday after a book reading, an old student sidled up, not looking at me and said, 'My childhood wasn't so bad. I mean, well, I was brought up in Illinois.' "

"You mean, what if I had an uneventful, ordinary life, can I still write a memoir?" Natalie cut in.

The student nodded shyly.

"You know the answer," said Natalie. "What did Mies van der Rohe say? God hides in the details. Slow down and give them to us. We need to read about regular childhoods, otherwise, we won't know what they are..."

'A tremendous relief flushed across the student's face.'

"We need you," Natalie continues, "the ones who had a cough and your mother or grandfather was there to administer the syrup. Even if you had only one year when you were three when you tasted peace, let us know about that. The experience probably gave your fragile life a foundation. Share that ground with us. The important thing is to go below the clichés to touch the texture of your experience. Your mind is hungry to be alive."

Download | Duration: 00:07:13

While I was in Wisconsin, I had an opportunity to spend some time with my Mom and my sister. I got to participate in the flower-shopping extravaganza...

This is a Story Lesson to jog your memory about a particular summertime afternoon you might remember when you spent some time with a special friend or some family members.

Download | Duration: 00:06:57

While spending a month in Wisconsin with my family, I had an opportunity to settle into a different pace...

This is a Story Lesson Podcast that provides an example of writing about an experience of a time when your life was just a bit different than your usual routine.

This story was adapted from one told by a friend of mine about a trip that she took. It is changed and altered but I ran across it the other day in my journal and wanted to share it.

Priscilla always wanted to go to Africa. She loves African music. She tried to find a tour to take her to the villages to hear music. But she couldn’t find one. Someone hooked her up with an expert on African tours who said “what you want doesn’t exist.”

So she just decided to sign up for what she called the “old geezer trip” and go and see the animals even though she isn’t that interested in animals. She finally found one that sounded like it could work. Her tour guide said, “You will meet Decatur, he is the best in Kenya. You’ll like him, you both have the same sense of humor.” Priscilla was skeptical.

Priscilla was on the bus and Decatur was the bus driver. He invited her to sit up front with him and he shared his vast knowledge about all the plants and scenery and animals. And he wasn’t short, he was well over 6’ tall. She felt an attraction. He held out his hand to shake hers. She thought he had a nice butt. She said, “nice grip.”

They traveled for a week, he leading the group. Then her tour was going where he didn’t go. He said in a private moment, “may I kiss you?” She said “yes.” He kissed her. She had to sit down on the car bumper. He said, “oh shit, shit, shit, I am in love with a white woman.” He told her, “a shock went through my heart when I shook your hand.”

Priscilla said, “Damn.”

He called by radio every night while she was on the tour. He said, "this is very expensive. 'I love you, can you say that?'" "No I can’t" she said, "I can say that I miss you and I think about you a lot.”

At the airport, he said, “you are so white, your arm looks like a plucked chicken.”

She returned to California. She thought, “Should I just go home and say, 'nice vacation?' Or what?” They continued to communicate. The first time she want back to Africa, she was nervous to go by herself with this man into the bush country and the night before, she left one of her sons and her mother called her and begged her not to go.

But she arrived and he met her in Nairobi and took her to his village and they had a 3-day celebration and killed a goat. Everyone there speaks at least three languages. Decatur speaks 9 and was learning French. The first time he came to America, he had never been on a plane or been out of Kenya. His children wrote her and said “please don’t let them shoot my father.”

He and Priscilla went to a tony party in a lavish home, dinner for 10. Normally, when Priscilla arrived at this home, the husband said, “oh good, you can cook.” The hostess made risotto and had a bone and Priscilla said, "where is the sauce," and the hostess said, “it didn’t turn out.”

There was golden cutlery and beautiful flowers. Other guests brought hors d’oeuvres and dessert and the hostess put a bowl on the table with partially cooked rice and a bone and it was supposed to be osso buco.

Decatur later said “that house, it was so beautiful and the table, it was so beautiful and the people, they were so nice, but the food, it was shit. I could not feed that food to my goat, the rice, crunch, crunch.”

He came to America 5 times. They bought property together in Kenya. He built them a home. Mt. Kilmanjaro is always in the fog. It is said that the only time you can see it is when you are in love. They could see it.

Living in Wisconsin for the month of June. What a treat spending time with my family before my niece's wedding. I met my high school friend Ardyth for lunch on Saturday and we sat out on a patio and chatted most of the afternoon away. As we were getting up to leave, it looked very overcast. I continued on with my errands to Ace Hardware. I was bent on getting my brother's kitchen in order. I guess I have some of my sister Carol's genes. She recently started a home cleaning service.

On Monday I received a note from Ardyth. "Apparently I was right about it looking like rain when we left the restaurant! I had a message from Todd asking me to call him before leaving. Of course I was almost to the Interstate, but something in his tone told me to call right away.  So for the first time ever I pulled off the road to make a call.  He told me not to come home - stay put.  Tornados were spotted and I would have run into them head-on.  Since the mall was convenient I decided to get some shopping in while waiting out the storm.

"Just as I was ready to leave the store, a voice came over the load speaker telling us that the area was in a tornado watch and to, 'Follow your sales associate to our designated safe area.  If you need to leave the store, do it now.'  The designated safe area included the shoe department, so those chairs were available for folks. Others were sitting on clothing displays, leaning against any available wall space, and sitting on the floor.  I mainly wandered, sometimes venturing too close to the door where I was told by a very strict and authoritative woman to, 'Please back away from the door. It's for your own safety.'"

"Several announcements were made over the next hour. When my incarceration was finally over I drove through some torrential downpours on the way home. During a walk on Sunday between storms, other than a few limbs down and small debris on the sidewalks everything seemed to be OK.  I walk on a boardwalk over a local wetlands for several hundred yards and that water had risen quite a bit; bubbling up through the planks."

My question to my friend was, "was your shopping successful?" Then I told her how I spent my Saturday night putting new shelf paper all over my brother's kitchen. She replied that she was successful in her shopping. Then she said, "Can you come clean my kitchen or should I call Carol!"

You might want to write a travel story about some adventure that you had or, you might write about an adventure of a family member. It might be an adventure that lives large in your family memory.

I was rummaging through my old journals, looking for stories and found this one from a trip that I took in 2004 with my niece Katie.

She was just graduated from the University and it was a rare time as she was yet young and unmarried with other commitments that would demand her attention. I knew that it was an opportunity and was happy for the chance to spend a week in Florence, Italy with her. We explored the city. When we saw Michaelangelo's David, we were both awestruck. Katie remarked, "it must be one of the seven wonders of the world!"

Indeed, when you looked at it from one angle, there he was, seemingly invincible. But then you angled over to another view and you could see the fear in his eyes. It was magical.

This StoryLesson travel podcast might spark some ideas for your own travel stories.

Download | Duration: 00:09:30