My friend and colleague — my company’s Creative Director, Penny Carnathan — writes a gardening column for the Tampa Bay Times. She’s been a newspaper editor, reporter and columnist for more than 30 years, and she’s been at EMSI for one year this month. While she works for us, she’s never been able to abandon newspapers and I love that! I‘m all about following your passion!

Reading the newspaper this morning, I was reminded of a conversation I had in Seattle last week with a highly respected fundraising consultant. Our discussion covered many areas, and soon the topic turned to non-profits – he shared a story about a woman who was the head of an organization he supports in Africa.

As I go through life experiencing its ups and downs, I’ve been fortunate to come through the “downs” with enough “ups” to make me realize that life can be good… in spite of it all.