We raise the shades so we can see out into the backyard.

The birds seem to have synchronized their feeding times with ours. A few minutes after we start meal time, they begin coming in to visit our feeder, which is positioned just off our back deck – eight feet away of course, to keep the squirrels from leaping onto it.

I knew it was going to be a great day when I glanced over and saw that Dina had made muffins in the shape of dragonflies, butterflies and ladybugs. Some people don’t cook. Some people cook food that is neither healthy nor tasty. Some people do somewhat better by cooking food that is at least healthy even though its not that tasty. Dina rides above them all because she makes creations that are both healthy and delicious – and I don’t know how she does it. No one else seems to either.

There they were, these ladybug and dragonfly shaped muffins fresh from the oven sitting on a cooling rack.

After breakfast, we went out back and worked in the garden some. Little Ralph and I changed out the hummingbird feeder, thinned the radishes and watered the pumpkins (they need lots of water).

Then we noticed a tunnel that something had dug under our very healthy oregano plants. It was lined with fur. I’d heard some birds like to put fur in their nest. What had done this? A towhee? A wren? A vole? It seemed too small for a rabbit.

I decided to set up my motion detector camera. Whatever it was, we’d get a picture of it.

We continued planning flowers and puttering around in the garden – showing up on the motion cam quite a few times.

Around noon we all got in the car together and headed over to Evos for lunch. Our plan was to have lunch then go to the “Touch a Truck” event. More on this in a few lines. We were having lunch together at Evos, when Dina asked if if my parents gardened. It brought back a flood of memories.

When I was a kid, my parents devoted the back third of our modest backyard to a garden that did very well year after year. I remember cabbage, corn, tomatoes. I remember sitting snipping beans together in chairs by the kitchen door – which was blocked by a large square baby blue metal “portable” fan. Portable was a relative term in those days. The thing wasn’t safe. It had a wire grill that you could easily stick your fingers and most of your hand hand through. And a metal blade that could keep a medium sized plane airborne. But without that fan we definitely would have suffocated on one of those hot South Carolina evenings.

Gardening was a big part of our lives then, and Dina’s question made me remember a gardening story from when I was probably about 4 years old. My parents planned the garden meticulously. They rented a tiller and tilled the ground early on.

They also asked around about the best fertilizer.

Some fellow told them about “rabbit pellets” being good fertilizer. Apparently he had a source of copious amounts of rabbit poop and was eager to monetize it.

My parents cautiously asked the fellow what exactly they would do with the “rabbit pellets”.

“Well!” he exclaims, “You just put em’ in the ground and pretty soon everything comes up real good!”

I honestly can’t remember whether my parents actually used the “rabbit pellets” or not.

What I do remember was my extreme excitement, based on what I’d heard the grown ups talking about. I’d heard and focused on the phrase “rabbit pellet”. I didn’t know what a pellet was, but I associated it with the word “seed”. When the fellow said “everything comes up real good”, I got this vivid mental picture of me and my family out in the garden, planting some sort of small brown oval shaped seed-like things (the “rabbit pellets”) and then watching in amazement as two ears, a little furry head and finally a full bunny slowly emerged from the ground. I imagined a huge crops of rabbits in all color variations.

It made so much sense!

Over time the truth settled in, and I had to concede – after being made fun of a few years later in school – that no, rabbits and other animals could NOT be raised from seeds.

I told this story to the kids and Dina and it made them laugh.

From there we went over to the University Mall where the town of Chapel Hill was having its annual “Touch a Truck” day. This can’t-miss celebration lets kids climb into firetrucks, dump trucks, even highway patrol cars, and honk the horns, try the sirens and yank the wheel. Its great fun. The climax of the event is the landing and subsequent takeoff of the rescue helicopters (One from UNC and one from Duke of course). The pilot of one of them was telling us how she recently flew up into Virginia to pick up some people who were in a very bad accident.

“He can’t actually start this thing up can he?” Dina asked suddenly in a worried tone.

We were next in line to get into the helicopter cockpit. The kid in front of us was alone…not sure where his parent’s were. He looked to be six years old, sunglasses and a flattop. He had climbed up into the cockpit while the pilot was temporarily focused on telling us the story about the flight to Virginia. The kid was furiously working some knobs or something – I couldn’t see – when Dina asked whether the kid could accidentally start the helicopter.

The pilot began to answer Dina, “Well yeah technically you could if you knew what …” Then she stopped in mid sentence and jumped up into the cockpit.

“Oh honey! Don’t press that!” She says and then gingerly guides the kid out of cockpit back down to the ground. You know, with that special ’this-isn’t-my-kid-but-I’ve-got-to-get-him-away-from-this’ kind of method. You hope you never have to use it.

Accidental takeoff averted, we got our turn to climb into the helicopter. Then we proceeded to look at the rest of the vehicles. After lots of sirens and horn honking, as well as the required session in the bouncy castle, the kids asked for their organic lollipops (Evos gives them away) and said they were ready to go home.

As we were walking back to the car, my sister called to tell me that Mom was home from the hospital, and I got to talk to them all for a bit. I talked to Mom about the gardening too. It was great news that she was better. We’d been pretty worried at the beginning of the week.

After a while, I came in from planting the zucchinis and Sophia was sitting at the kitchen table working on a secret code that she was planning to send to her friend.

“Hey have you heard of cut out ciphers?” I asked. No, she had not and she wanted to know what that was. So I sat down and wrote several words on one piece of paper. Then held another up over it and traced a box around each word. Then I got the original paper and finished writing a long windy note which incorporated each of the orginal few words I’d first written. After this was done, I took the 2nd sheet – the one I’d traced boxes on – and cut the boxes out. I handed Sophia the first sheet with the windy note, and she read it aloud.

“My Dear Sirs” it began, and then proceeded over the next 10 lines to issue a vague invitation to meet at “headquarters”. It closed with no signature, only a line that read “Your most loyal agent’. Sophia reads it with interest, but at the end says, “I have no idea what you’re trying to tell me, Dad. WHAT is this???”

Then I hand her the 2nd sheet with the cutouts and showed her how to place it over the 1st page with the note. She did. Now only a few words showed up through the cutouts. The rest of the windy invitation to headquarters was covered up. She read the words:

my

dear

daughter

I

love

you

very

much

By now advice was flooding in from the web and facebook. This litter of bunnies probably means our garden is doomed. Calls to animal control are in order, and strange rodent remedies from Home Depot. Its the beginning of the end they tell me. Prepare for the bunny-pocalypse.

But I’m not so sure. After all this isn’t the first time bunnies have succeeded in reproducing.

That night the motion detector camera caught several glimpses of the bunnies tumbling around in our garden. Then at 3am a CAT shows up on the cam.

The next night the motion detector cam again catches the cat BUT this time walking away with something that looks suspiciously like a small bunny in its mouth. We were all crushed. Sure we expected nature to balance things out or whatever you call it. But not the very next day. This was just rude!

We said mean things about cats. And kept watching for the bunnies. But they were gone. All gone. A few days later we saw what might have been the mother – by herself. We said more mean things about cats.

The hole under the oregano plants had been closed up as if nothing had ever happened. No more fur – nothing. Covered over with that sad sort of tidiness that settles into a kid’s room when they go off to college.

A few weeks went by. One afternoon we were pulling up into our driveway, when a small bunny came hopping up near our roses. A little fella about half grown.

He hopped across our front yard, in a not particularly hurried way, then went across the neighbor’s yard over to the other side of the cul-de-sac. Under another neighbors mail box – in some bushes – was another half grown rabbit. The two bunnies met up and then hopped over to another yard.

“That’s our bunnies,” The kids exclaimed, “They survived! Hooray!”

Dina and I added some grown up theories about how the mother must have moved them out of harms way, and now look at them, just about all grown up!

So we’re happy that the bunnies seem to be ok – at least most of them.

And, to top it off, the garden isn’t doing too bad either.

A network of forest trails converge in a wide sunlit clearing surrounded by tall oaks. There in center of this island Teddy Roosevelt is memorialized by a larger than life statue flanked by giant marble tablets engraved with some of his most notable sayings.

One saying grabbed my attention

“The nation behaves well when it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased and not impaired in value.”

This resonates with my recent thinking and writing about what it would mean to engineer and perpetuate a truly wealthy world. Until now the achievement of individual wealth has been accepted as the highest measure of success. That definition of success does not take into consideration how one’s pursuit of individual wealth may have impacted the wealth of the planet. Instead of continuing to be content to perpetuate wealthy individuals, we have the opportunity to begin to learn and work toward a wealthy world. A more accurate definition of wealth is needed along with a revised definition of success. Those would be great starting points.

Here are some closer views:

And here is the little architect:

Juniper Creek is choked with fallen logs and overgrown brush. Friends had warned us we probably would expect a tough time. And it was tough in places. But as we went further up the creek we realized we had gotten lucky. The recent rain had pushed the water levels higher and made it easier for us to get further up the creek than we’d ever anticipated.

We stopped for lunch at the confluence where Honey Island Swamp Creek merges with Juniper Creek. We stood in a sunny clearing and eating lasagna sandwiches and drying off a little in the February sunlight.  After a few bites of lunch, we wandered north following the east side of Honey Island Swamp Creek, crunching through dry leaves. It was a forest made up primarily of species of oak and sweetgum maybe 50-75 years old. Many of the trees appeared diseased.

We saw what we think was bear poop.  

Suddenly John said, Look up there! What is that???

There was a large reddish brown ball up in the tree.

It was a raccoon, sound asleep. No matter how many pictures I snapped, or how much we talked, he never stirred.

Then we began to notice them. Massive cypress stumps, frequently taller than we were. Here was one. Then another there, and there and there. Everywhere. Here is one of them.

In this photo I’m smiling. That’s because this was only the first one we saw.

Large cypress knees – now orphaned – were everywhere we looked.

These cypress stumps and their orphaned knees gave silent evidence that this was once a very different forest. A forest where cypress giants stood rooted – not in dry leaves – but in water. A quick glance at any good topo map showed canal lines criss crossing the region.

Someone had drained this swampland, then made a killing, cutting down these huge trees and turning them into boards.

Finally I found a comfortable spot, got situated, set up the tripod and scope and began scanning the tops of the tall oaks that stood at the edge of the frosty field. By now the morning sun was just starting to brighten the highest branches. A couple of bluejays flew in and sat sunning themselves contentedly.

Somewhere behind me a Pileated Woodpecker gave the forest a wake up call. I also saw some dark colored birds in the tall dead grass around me…maybe indigo buntings?

Looking through the scope, I caught sight of a Chickadee in a Sweetgum pretty far down in the forest. I was amazed at the detail of what I could see. I also learned something. The Chickadee was moving around the branches picking seeds out of the prickly balls that Sweetgums are known for. I didn’t know that they picked the seeds out of those. After a while it was time to pack up my scope and head back. As I stood up I startled a deer that had apparently wandered in fairly close to where I was.

We stopped at a cabinet that seemed no different than the others. Our host opened the door, and then slid a large flat drawer out. Immediately my eyes went to the Ivory Billed Woodpecker lying next to two Pileated Woodpeckers in the lower left quadrant of the drawer.

Seeing the two species lying there side by side, I couldn’t help but notice the huge difference between the size of the bills and the size of the feet.

The Ivory Billed Woodpecker’s bill appears to be more than twice as long, in addition to its pale color:

The Ivory Billed Woodpecker’s feet were also much bigger…like something you’d expect to see on an eagle.

Another key differentiator that is clear here is the color. The Ivory Bill plumage appears black next to the lighter brown colored feathers of the Pileated Woodpecker.

This same drawer had several other interesting specimens:

Lower left quadrant: A male Ivory Billed Woodpecker specimen next to a male and female pileated (for comparison).

Upper left quadrant: a single Carolina Parakeet specimen.

The lower right quadrant of the drawer contained several passenger pigeons.

The box in the top right quadrant contains several small extinct birds – warblers I believe – which were collected by John James Audobon. The ornithologist told me that the tags on their feet were actually labeled by Audobon himself(!). Here is a close up:

I’d already written the non-fiction book America 2076 trying to make sense of American politics, and as part of that writing effort had done quite a bit of research into lobbying and influence.

And I’d lived and worked in the DC area long enough to realize that – while there were a few bad apples – lobbyists like most residents see themselves as honest people trying to pay their mortgages, take care of their families, and provide representatives with sound advice to help them create good legislation.

But Abramoff was taking things to a whole new level. The Vanity Fair article provided compelling evidence that he systematically funneled money from his clients to a lengthy list of both Democrats and Republicans. But in every case the recipients of this largess confidently denied ties to Abramoff. Here is only one of many examples cited in the article:

“The newly elected House majority leader, John Boehner, Republican of Ohio, also doesn’t know Abramoff, but Abramoff’s clients gave him $30,000 over the past few years, and ate many meals at Signatures.”

How was it that these elected representatives could confidently deny any ties or even knowledge of someone who was in effect a significant contributor?

It seemed to me that that some kind of refraction mechanism was at work. A financial intermediary that allowed corporate or special interest groups to basically buy favors, yet maintain complete deniability of the fact. If so, how did this refraction work? And once you figured out how it worked, how could you explain or demonstrate it in an easy to understand way so that most citizens would begin to clearly understand what was going on?

What would be the best way to explain to others how this “stuff happens” in DC?

These were the kinds of questions percolating in my head when I had the thought that perhaps a novel could serve as a sort of “lab” where you’d put a group of people together, insert some environmental factors – like money, technology, competition, secrecy, and then see what happens. In a work of fiction, I could tell a story showing the players in action, rather than trying to describe them in a non-fiction work.

This coincided with a personal itch I’d wanted to indulge for a long time, to write my own version of the ultimate spy novel. I had several unfinished novels – big sprawling epics started years before, languishing on my portable hard drives because I ran out of reasons to finish them. No matter what else I wrote, I kept coming back to this spy novel idea. I envisioned a thriller set in DC, laced with high tech eavesdropping and ruthless well-established power players pitted against a small band of impish hackers. I felt it could be a good first novel – something I’d stay motivated enough to complete.

So I started writing. As I wrote, I started seeing the laboratory aspect come to life as I used the novel to try to model out the interactions and behaviors of groups of people to understand why “stuff happens.” I continued researching, reading books, cold calling firms on K Street, talking with people in a variety of roles. I put together realistic money trails, project structures, budgets and funding mechanisms, and inserted realistic technology and cybersecurity details.

I kept on writing and four years later had a mass of text. It didn’t add up to a story, it was more like several stories. By this time I had moved literally halfway around the world and my entire life had changed. But I kept working on the manuscript, and entered the writing phase where I was doing more subtraction and concentration than adding and elaborating.

In fact to get the Ringtone Game ready for publication I had to whack quite a bit of content. Some of the excised content was the kind of tedium that might have intrigued a few but for most would have just bogged the story down. I excised quite a bit of other stuff because I realized that it belonged in a separate story. What remained told a fast paced tale that sizzled at the convergence of power, money and technology in Washington DC.

I finally got the draft out to my reviewers and waited for their input.

They came back with some of the core things I’d been hoping to achieve. They said things like “we couldn’t put it down, we had to see what would happen next.”. But they had some very good advice – which I gratefully incorporated – about how to make the book even better. This lead to another 6 month rewrite, but the results were worth it.

Wrapping these thorny issues in the flesh and blood of characters not only helps depict pivotal factors at play but also gives the reader a roller coaster ride as the characters angle to evade detection, indictment or other fates.

When we lived in Hawaii, Dina and I loved going out to Kaena Point, a desolate arrow-shaped beach jutting into the turbulent north shore surf. Its amazing to stand there. It feels like it’s the edge of the world. The ancient Hawaiians believed that this beautiful place was a sacred “jumping off” point where the souls of the dead went to leap from this world to the next.

Laysan Albatrosses nested there and we often saw them riding the winds.

One of my favorite pictures of my Dad, from his years out West.

According to my Father, he had someone take this picture of him sitting on a log holding a saddle. They were at a camp up in the Idaho mountains on a roundup.

The caption reads:

“R.W. Perrine Indian Creek camp 1954 Wyoming / Idaho border S. of Tetons”

He kept this photo in a small black album, which contained a collection of photos that he took during the 1950′s when he was a young man, working in various ranches out West. I recorded this using a digital camera, while visiting my father in Oct 2003. I had  remembered seeing it when I was a kid, and as an adult hoped we could find it so I could get a copy of it. To me it was always my favorite most memorable photo of my father’s days out west. He had a number of other photos in the same book, I recall some with barren landscapes and pronghorn antelopes.

Looking at online terrain and satellite views, I learned that there is an Indian Creek that forks on the Idaho side of the Idaho / Wyoming border. On the actual border, there is a North Fork Indian Creek and a South Fork Indian Creek. There are a number of trails (like the very ones he traveled) in the area, and in recent years hikers have posted photos, as well as location points on Google Maps.

I have found drawing to be indispensable to good planning and good collaboration – the top two critical skills for success in life. Drawing – not just the artistic kind, but the doodling kind that we all know how to do – helps you think and get clarity.

In 12 Drawings I share how you can learn and use 12 drawings I have used in my adventures in business and technology, as well as in my own personal contemplation and planning of my life.

I have used these drawings to help teams and individuals gain clarity and insight to companies, project teams, and individuals, including myself. These drawings are thinking exercises that help you focus on what is pivotal in the projects you are planning.

These simple drawings can be drawn by hand. To help you learn them, they are shown as line drawings. But they are designed to be quickly drawn by hand – by anyone. Even if you can’t draw a straight line. Think of it as doodling your way to enlightenment!

Drawing #1: Balancing your LIfe

What this drawing teaches

Life seems to follow a cycle of taking in, processing, and giving out: Inhale, process, exhale.

Inhaling means taking in things that hopefully nurture, inspire or educate you.

Processing means thinking, prioritizing, deciding what things mean, and coming to your own conclusions.

Exhaling is output. What you produce, write, create. Your work, your contributions. It seems that these three activities – inhaling, processing, exhaling – have to remain in balance with each other. When these elements get out of balance life becomes frustrating. If you are taking in all the time but never giving out, or there’s giving with no taking in, or no time to process life – all of these are examples of being out of balance.

When to use it

When you need to regain your equilibrium and plan a more balanced life.

How to draw it

• Draw two vertical lines that divide the sheet into 3 sections. Label the sections “INHALE”, “PROCESS”, and “EXHALE.”
• Under INHALE, list the things you take in…what nurtures and re-energizes you. Good books, certain people, sunsets, etc. What teaches you and gives you oxygen.
• Under PROCESS, list the activities that let you think, gain clarity and process things.
• Under EXHALE, list what you produce, give out – the things that “take it out of you.”
• Are these 3 activities in balance? If not, what needs to change?

Drawing #2: The Critical Path

What it does

The Critical Path drawing helps you think through a sequence of important items you must navigate through in order to reach an objective. Do this exercise with a group to spot risks or issues ahead of time. It is a great tool for discussing likely scenarios or decisions that may become necessary. The Critical Path always frames the discussion in the context of a set of long term objectives. This helps keep your thinking process on track.

When to use it

Use the Critical Path drawing regularly to plan (and track) your path toward personal or business objectives. Revisit earlier Critical Path drawings to measure your progress and compare your plans with what actually took place.

How to draw it

• Draw a straight or wavy line that illustrates the path to your objective.
• Along this path, draw ovals at the points where specific tasks or decisions are necessary. Write the name of the task or decision inside each oval.
• Draw rectangles along the path which represent issues you might have to deal with. What issues are likely to arise, given the nature of the task, the people we are working with, etc.?
• At certain points you may want to draw a large “V” to represent a Visibility Threshold – a point where you gain insight or knowledge you previously did not have. This new knowledge may require you to change direction, or it may allow you to make a more informed decision.

Drawing #3: The Bright Core

What it does

The Bright Core drawing helps you think about your “playing field.” Where you are in relation to competitors, vs. where you want to be. But it doesn’t just apply to business. It can help in assessing any situation where there are competitors and opportunities to improve your game. This drawing uses the analogy of a solar system to categorize the players in your playing field. In the bright core, there are the best and brightest. The best competitors, best customers, best vendors, and the best rewards. The average players live in the middle zone. The weakest players languish out in the dark fringe.

When to use it

Use the Bright Core drawing to plan your path to excellence. It will help you select employers, clients and partners, and determine who you want to learn from and emulate.

How to draw it

• Draw a circle in the middle of the paper. Inside this circle write the names of the best and brightest.
• Draw a larger circle around the inner circle. Put the average players in this circle. List below average players outside this circle.
• Draw a line from the outside to the innermost circle. On this line, mark your current position, and your desired position.
• Key Questions: Is my social network, or my business development network in good alignment with my interests or my goals for excelling in my field? What do I need to do, to move toward the Bright Core?

These drawings are excerpted from the monthly calendar 12 Drawings that will change your Life, a 12 month calendar by Ralph Perrine. Each month the calendar presents you with a new drawing. It shows you how to draw it and what you gain from it. By the end of the year you will have a new vocabulary – a visual vocabulary that empowers you to think, plan and navigate through life on a whole new level. Some of these drawings have practical applications in business. Some will help you communicate and present your ideas more effectively. All of them will help you gain personal clarity and direction for your life. They may look like ordinary doodles, but they are actually navigation tools.

These drawings are powerful because they are more than drawings…they are mental exercises. They teach you new ways to think about your life. It is not a stretch to say that the mastery and constant practice of these simple drawings will take you to the life you want to have.

Ralph Perrine is the author of America 2076: Pop Technology and the New Future of Democracy and other works.