I like to think that that when someone close to us passes on, that we can pick from among their good traits to inherit. Recently, my father in law, Dr. Van Kirke Nelson passed on at the age of 83. He was an Ob/Gyn, but also a business person, philanthropist, and art collector.

I studied the stages of grief in medical school just like everyone else, but I'm not sure where I am in the official stages. However, I can say that I am in a stage of deliberate inheritance. I am remembering all of his wonderful traits: diplomacy, devotion, optimism, energy for endless projects, cleverness at crafting the win-win solution, and above all enthusiasm.

There are several of these traits on which I have dibs. I am hoping to inherit quite a bit of his diplomacy. I have always been short there. Then there's the optimism. I am the cup half empty girl, and to some extent I own that. I am always trying to figure out what could go wrong so I can keep it from happening. I guess that is written into my job description. So I would like more optimism. Not the blind unreasonable kind. Not the kind that says things are always going to work out fine. Instead, I'd like the kind that says we can almost always find a solution. And even though I'm pretty darn enthusiastic, I'd like some more of that. You can't have enough of that. Grandpa, as I called him, was a great inspiration to be enthusiastic, and that is not going to end.

In that spirit of enthusiasm, I'd like to share with you some simpler sources of enthusiasm. I have started work on our links page. There is already enough inspiring material on there to keep you awake all night. But take a page from Grandpa's playbook: Read about cool things other people are doing.. and then do some of your own.

Check out our inspiring links HERE.