Santa's sending previews during the next six days...

Annapolis Creed: Enduring Classic Recipes---Coming Soon

Cooking is Therapy

I can’t wait to unwind during the weekends and holidays after the morning walk with my favorite food taster my dog “Tommie.”
 
At the end of a long workday, one of my favorite ways to unwind is by slicing and dicing vegetables for dinner. The steady chop, chop, chop of my knife against the cutting board quiets my mind and soothes my soul. Cooking is meditation with the promise of a good meal afterward.

Avid cooks have long recognized the therapeutic power of kitchen time. “Preparing a meal is unlike anything else I do in the course of a day because it is a nourishing personal event which focuses upon getting me to slow down.
 
Culinary therapy is being used as part of treatments for a wide range of mental and behavioral conditions but I use it to quiet my mind and soothe my soul.  Three years ago a recent graduate from our high school struggled with math and through helping her overcome her fears about mathematics we jointly discovered different ways to solve problems about area and perimeter using relevant connections to the student’s favorite meals.  Even today I still anchor learning to something within a student’s life.  Cooking for family brings me joy.  Over the past four decades I have perfected some classic recipes and finally I have the opportunity to put them into print to pass down to friends and family.  Each recipe has a short story attached and lesson's learned about our cooking experiences, reading, and teaching.  My wife Joyce is co-author on this next book in the making.

Happy Holiday's
~Annapolis Creed
​~ Jordan

Visionary leaders are the builders of a new dawn, working with imagination, insight, and boldness. They present a challenge that calls forth the best in people and brings them together around a shared sense of purpose. They work with the power of intentional alignment with a higher purpose. Their eyes are on the horizon, not just on the near at hand. They are social innovators and change agents, seeing the big picture and thinking strategically. 

There are profound interconnections between the leader and the whole, and true visionary leaders serve the good of the whole. They recognize that there is some truth on both sides of most polarized issues in our society today. They search for solutions that transcend the usual adversarial approaches and address the causal level of problems. They find a higher synthesis of the best of both sides of an issue and address the systemic root causes of problems to create real breakthroughs.

Visionary leadership is closely related to the transformational leadership style. The major difference is between the two involves the focus on the future.Visionary leaders live more in the future and they often use a vision of the future as a way to mobilize followers.

Visionaries who are successful at manifesting their visions base their leadership on an inspirational, positive picture of the future, as well as a clear sense of direction as to how to get there. Vision is a field that brings energy into form. Effective leaders broadcast a coherent message by themselves embodying their vision.

The best visionary leaders move energy to a higher level by offering a clear vision of what is possible. They inspire people to be better than they already are and help them identify with what Lincoln called  “the angels of their better nature.”  This was the power of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. The creative power of lighted, inspired words can sound a certain inner note that people recognize and respond to.  This then creates dramatic social change. Like King, visionary leaders have the ability to sense the deeper spiritual needs of followers and link their current demands to these deeper, often unspoken, need for purpose and meaning. 

Visionary leaders often have the ability to see higher spiritual forces at work behind the scenes of events, and they align with the vision of these redemptive forces.  Both George Washington and Winston Churchill spoke about the help they received from a “guiding hand.”  Churchill said, “...we have a guardian because we serve a great cause, and we shall have that guardian as long as we serve that cause faithfully.” 

Sojourner Truth, a former slave, was guided by an inner spiritual experience to preach the emancipation of slaves and women’s rights all over the country during the Civil War.  President Anwar Sadat of Egypt had a vision of Mohammed who told him to create peace in the Middle East.  This vision is the hidden story behind the Camp David Peace Treaty between Arabs and Israelis.

A visionary may dream wonderful visions of the future and articulate them with great inspiration. A visionary is good with words.  But a visionary leader is good with actions as well as words, and so can bring his/her vision into being in the world, thus transforming it in some way. More than words are needed for a vision to take form in today’s world.  It requires leadership and heartfelt commitment.

A visionary leader is effective in manifesting his or her vision because s/he creates specific, achievable goals, initiates action and enlists the participation of others. 

What are the qualities and abilities of true visionary leaders?   What is the mysterious inner process within leaders that enables them to work their magic and radiate the charisma that mobilizes others for a higher purpose?  

Visionary leadership is based on a balanced expression of the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical dimensions.  It requires core values, clear vision, empowering relationships, and innovative action.  When one or more of these dimensions are missing, leadership cannot manifest a vision.

Reference

 Corinne McLaughlin  (2001). The Center for Visionary Leadership

Click here to see more.. Choose Christmas Rugs from the Drop down menu