Sausalito is a small community, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.  It bloats  big on the weekends, when the tourists stroll.  This is quieter Monday.  My full workday awaits at my San Francisco office.  This moment, it feels like vacation, as I sit and slurp here.   The Italian caffe is a transplant from North Beach in the City.  The outside tables are full.  Mine is next to Nanny.   She’s from Scandinavia and cares for two young children.    Among the other tables, retirees, cyclists, cop, local tech employees, yoga instructor and Mom’s group congregate.  So do their dogs.

Nanny Facebook friends in Europe, while comparing local nanny listings . On her table sets a well-worn, bookmarked novel and today’s vitamin packet.  These are other signs of LeadingLifeNow:  Physical health, pleasure (reading), spatial environment (organized).

Nanny volunteers some thoughts:  “My boyfriend says he’ll wait for me.  My contract’s up in May.  I hope I can find an American boyfriend; and get married.”  My ears perk on this universal subject of love relationship and love’s broken loyalty. I wonder what’s missing from Nanny’s relationship, besides the endless attractions of the San Francisco Bay area.  Or is it the picturesque fog,  drifting over the Golden Gate bridge  like wispy cotton?”

I ask, “Do you want your Euro-boyfriend or the American boyfriend, and  marriage?”

She sips from the cappuccino cup, looks upward into an early-morning, sun-filled sky.  There’s a deep breath.  She turns to me with her whole body.  Legs easily close the space between our tables.  She touches my hand like an old friend:  “It’s love….it’s love I want.  Unconditional love.  This is the part of my life I find most confusing and not all at the same time.  I’ll just tend to it until it makes some sense.”   We glance at the dogs around us now.  Unconditional love makes sense to them.

“Tend to it”.  That “It” is the “Love Relationship” circle of  LeadLifeNow awareness .  This insightful woman, new to her 20’s birthdays, tends to “It” in her own way. She knows what’s clear and concrete.  She knows what’s confusing and a little crazy.  Bottom line:  She’s aware and action oriented.  She makes goals and plots her path.   I’m impressed! What were many of us doing in our barely-twenties? “When did you start actively pursuing leadership in your life? Who are your teachers?”

“I want to be a whole person. It started in the womb, I guess, during my Mom’s pregnancy.  It’s been my Mom, mostly.   Yeah, she’s my longest teacher.  Yeah, she did yoga on the beach.  She still does.  My Mom’s an individual.  She’s my best teacher, even when she’s telling me not to do something.”

I drift for a second.  The skywriter in my mind writes:  Nanny, Whole Person, Whole Life.

Nanny learns and grows from Mom’s to-do and not-to-do teachings, whether directly or implied.  Do you have some time today to gather the value of your Mom’s teachings?

Meanwhile,  all around Nanny and me are four-legged reminders of unconditional love:  It’s as if the poochclub has come for sniff-n-bark chat after morning exercise at the dog park. We two-leggeds can learn a lot from these furry teachers.   Who mothers whom?