“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” – Milton Berle

I’ve always been fascinated with Thomas Edison. When I was a kid, my family and I would visit the Edison & Ford Winter Estates, where we would explore all his inventions, a huge 13 acre garden and my favorite part, his lab. An interesting story that I recall from one of the visits is that Edison’s lab had burnt down in 1914, destroying years’ worth of his work. Most people could have easily described this as the worst thing to happen to Edison, but he chose to see it as an energizing opportunity that forced him to re-examine much of his work. Edison reportedly said at the time “Thank goodness all our mistakes were burnt up. Now we can start again fresh.”

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My focus for 2014 is to build and improve relationships with friends and family. Studies have linked strong social connectedness with measures as varied and dramatic as motor skill retention, cancer survival, general immune function, memory function preservation, and overall longevity.  In contrast, social isolation has been connected with a higher risk for Alzheimer’s disease and heart disease. So, I decided to kick-off the New Year a little differently…

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