Author: Eric Lebersfeld

A COVID Positive

One of the positives to come out of the pandemic for us was that we got a few more weeks at home with Hannah. Our beautiful daughter came home for Thanksgiving break from her freshman year and didn’t go back until today.

Interestingly, it was almost harder for Hannah and Susan to say goodbye this time, then it was sending her off to school for the first time. Perhaps, with so much craziness going on in the world, it was comforting to see her smiling face every day. It used to make us nuts how late she would sleep, but at least we knew where she was and that she was safe.

But, she’s back to where she belongs right now. She’ll quickly be busy with school and rush, and that she is there will feel normal soon enough.

I don’t pretend to understand the special mother-daughter bond completely, but I honor it. They can have their secrets and their complex communication they transmit in a glance, and that’s just fine with me. 

I love them both, and I cherish them both, but tonight I’ll only be able to hold one. 

And for that, I am grateful.

The End of an Error

I’m challenging myself to find a good story to tell about the terribly sad day this country suffered yesterday. In trying to explain what was happening to my daughter, I said, “it’s like after you flush the toilet, the most violent and furious activity occurs just before its contents disappear down the drain.” I’m not sure she found that comforting or truly illuminating, yet yesterday is what I hope to be one of the final acts of this challenging chapter in our country’s history.

I’m using all my empathetic skills to feel the “patriots’,” who stormed our nation’s capitol, pain and frustration. Their story’s main narrator will soon be out of power and I’m hopeful they will find a new station to listen to or at least add to their media mix. Their pain and fear are real. We must listen and stive to understand them. They are Americans and we will be stronger together than divided.

I’m not a democrat and I’m not a republican. I’m a fiscally conservative, socially liberal, rational middle, love my country kind of person. I don’t need everyone to agree with my views. I just want them be respected as I promise to do to with theirs. FYI, I don’t plan on writing too many political posts, but as I was starting my blog today, this is what was on my mind.

2021 has begun with a pandemic raging, political conflict and economic uncertainty. I am an optomist. I have faith in the American spirit and our communal wisdom. We have a vaccine rolling out. We have a new administration rolling in. We have each other to hold on to.

Yesterday was a dark day. There will be brighter days ahead that may be even brighter as a reaction to the tragedy of yesterday’s actions. That is a story I look forward to telling. So, to end my first blog post, thank you for reading and may peace be with you.

And Then There Was One

And Then There was One

My rational mind knows that the earth rotates at a constant rate.
However, I can’t help but feel that it must be speeding up.

I imagine I’m 16 years in the past, sitting atop a large vinyl record spinning on a turntable. My young family in a tight circle of warm embrace in the center of the album playing the music of our lives. There is no daylight between us. The player’s going slowly and the harmonic sound is sweet and simple even with many pops and scratches as the early years roll by.

The pace imperceptibly quickens as the kids grow. Centrifugal force begins to pull us all outward. Our hands now firmly grasped yet we can easily stand together as we spin. The melody is more complex, but the smooth rhythm plays on.

The speed unrelentingly building and the outward forces, not unkindly, but without sympathy increase. They learn to drive, their independence blooms. The music becomes more improvisational like jazz with players going on rifts of their own, but still coming back to the melody.

And that’s where we are. Only Hannah having a first day of school and Jack going away in a few weeks.

It’s easy to see into the not too distant future that the speed of the turntable will get to the point where they fly off to be the center of their own album. It’s as it should be.

I hope the music we made always runs through them fondly as a familiar refrain as they create their own symphony.
I can’t wait to hear it.Hannah

Marriage is a Garden

Twenty years ago today, we started our garden.
We had just the semblance of a plan and unbridled enthusiasm.
We grew up seeing many beautiful gardens, but also plenty that were overgrown and desiccating.
We were confident that with love and determination, ours would be the former.

It would not be a perfectly ordered set of rows with packets on stakes clearly marking what lay beneath. Our style was, and continues to be, a bit free form.
With laughter, a sense of adventure and a common desire to be together in real time, we made a nutrient rich soil that saw many easy to grow, cheerful perennials popping up all over.

Our first serious effort was when we planted what we thought was a rose. What germinated was a magnificent yet complex orchid, complete with hidden tunnels and unfamiliar structures. We continue to nurture that beautifully unique flower and be amazed by its colorful emergence.

Our second major endeavor did produce a glorious rose complete with strong roots and early sharp thorns. With great pride and loving guidance, we watch with wonder it as it blooms brightly with a joyous spirit happily opening to the sun.

Nature needs no magic, and our garden is no Eden.
We plant together, yet just as importantly, plant seeds of our own. We tend to each other’s efforts and no individual patch grows too tall to cast stifling shadows.
Our cacophony of flora needs constant attention to make sure the weeds get plucked early, the weevils are kept at bay and unnecessary fertilizer is washed away quickly.

Thank you, Susan, for getting your hands dirty, digging deep, hitting rocks yet moving on, for growing older yet never growing up.
Our garden will continue to be the focus of my life.
I love you madly. Happy Anniversary.

 20 years

Totality

Totality
My brother Ken and I took a short trip last week to hopefully see the total eclipse of the sun. The decision was made only a few days before during a conversation with our good friend Rick Seidman, CEO of one of our most favorite vendors, Quoizel Lighting. Rick was inviting us to Charleston to see his operation sometime in the next few months. A little light (no pun intended) went off above my head and I said, “Charleston, huh. You’re in the path of totality, right?”
Fast forward and we were the very happy guests of Rick and his wonderful wife Karen. We toured the factory, had meaningful conversations about our changing industry and our dynamic 50 year partnership. At about 1:00 pm, we boarded the small boat of his friend, Captain Dave, who piloted our craft only a few hundred yards from the aircraft carrier Yorktown.
I knew that the difference between seeing a partial eclipse, even one that is 99% total, and seeing the total eclipse is vast. One can be fascinating, but the other was said to be remarkable.
It’s similar to the difference one degree makes when heating water. As the motivational speaker, S.L. Parker, says, “water at 211 degrees is hot, but water at 212 boils. And with boiling water comes steam, and with steam, you can power a train.”
That extra degree to make water boil, that extra percent to get to totality, makes all the difference.
As the great event neared, the weather was not cooperating at all. There were powerful storms complete with long bolts of lightning and booming thunder all around. There were patches of light blue, but mostly the sky was thick with clouds.
With our eclipse glasses on, we could intermittently see the sun being slowly swallowed up by the moon. Bit by bit, it was disappearing and that was cool. When the sun was completely covered by the moon, we saw nothing, just clouds. We figured, well that was that. I was, of course, disappointed there may be nothing more, but was content with what we did see and that we had made the call to go. When deciding whether or not to do something that will require some effort or take the easy way out, I hear in my head the Lee Ann Womack song, “when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance.”
So I was consoling myself that the gray sky had obscured the corona’s appearance and I’d just have to be happy with just really hot water when I looked up and saw it.
A ring of fire in the sky. I yelped in surprise and delight at one of the most amazing natural spectacles ever seen on planet Earth. I settled in to watch with jaw dropped wonder. A pulsing crown of flame made possible by the improbable confluence of a moon 400 times smaller than a sun 400 times further away.
I was in awe. I was John Snow reaching my hand out to touch the face of a dragon.
OK, I’m a bit of a nerd, noted, but it was truly magical.
The moon and sun made the music and I joyously danced to their short, but incredible, sweet song.

Don’t Blame the Wind

Don’t blame the wind for it blows with no care.
Don’t blame the rocks for the flesh they would tear.
Don’t blame your wings for the strength they must find.
Don’t blame the sun for the eyes it does blind.

Don’t see the course as too long or too sheer.
Don’t see the drop as penance to fear.
Don’t see the ridge as the end of the road.
Don’t see the flowers as a jealousy to goad.

Look to the wind for the lift it provides.
Look to the rocks for the boundary to glide.
Look to your wings for the power they possess.
Look to the sun for the warmth it begets.

Do see the course for a path to reveal.
Do see the drop for motivating appeal.
Do see the ridge as a link in the chain.
Do see the flowers as friends on the way.

Some loops bring you forward
Some swerves set you back.
The journey’s rarely straight lines
We must be ready to tack.

So drink in the sun
Make the toil delight.
Keep beating your wings
And your life will take flight.

Hunger Games

Yom-Kippur-Fasting-3I’m often selfish, impatient, callous, dense, unappreciative, clumsy, lazy, short sighted, narcissistic, narrow minded and incurious.
However, forgiveness is a gift I give to myself as I strive to fail forward and do better next time.
Forgiveness is the antidote to the poison of tightly held anger.
It moves one past the futility of self flagellation.
It allows focus on acceptance as opposed to the unhappy path of judgement.
Forgiveness, atonement, self reflection, denial.
Yom Kippur is a powerful day, but it will not be the only day I ask the many whom I have wronged by my mistakes to forgive me and, ideally, it is only one of 365 where I will ask myself.
And… I could really go for a huge slice of pizza right about now.

A Tale of Two Kiddies

A Tale of Two Kiddies
“It was the best of times. it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…” Dicken’s opening line in A Tale of Two Cities.

Even though I found that story quite long and a bit boring when I was forced to read it in 8th grade English, I always loved the beginning. It touched my inner sense of symmetry while powerfully expressing the universe’s penchance for irony.
Raising children also follows this dichotomy and can feel like a ride on a perpetually fickle pendulum. A sad child easily pushes a parent into despair. A joyful child swings us with hope for a brighter future. So for us, like most parents, it’s always a “tale of two kiddies.“
Our 11 year old daughter Hannah is a wonderful soul. She has grown so much this past year in part due to her discovery of cheerleading. She has found a group where she excels by working surprisingly hard at something she loves. The program at Boca Extreme Cheer Company is exceptionally supportive and she is surrounded by focused young girls who share her passion. We still have our unavoidable struggles and sometimes raise our voices in frustration, but how sweet would success be if not for the toil. At least that what we tell ourselves many times when we close our exhausted eyes at the end of the night.
So too has it been with our 13 year old son Jack. A unique being from the start, we know he has much to add to this world, but we’ve worked hard with him to find the spark to set his mind free. This year we are trying something very new. He is enrolled in an innovative program in Delray calledspace of mind.It is a socialized home schooling environment run by a remarkable woman named Ali Kaufman. In the three years since she founded SOM, Ali has assembled a great team of teachers and coaches to create individual programs for every child. For Jack, they will strive to create a curriculum that will draw upon his interests and strengths. For history, he may research the emergence of electronic dance music or video game theory. The day begins with Yoga. It’s definitely a new age program, but I think I have a new age kid.

Thank you all for your support and encouragement over the years. Stay tuned as our story unfolds.
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“Why” Oh “Why” – Thoughts on Our Why at Capitol Lighting

Ribbon Cutting

Howdy. As you all know, we have embarked on upping our game and have laid out our WOW Customer Service plan. To fully implement WOW, perhaps we should start with asking “WHY”. Why “start with why” you ask? Everything we do should start with “why.” I’m going to specifically talk about Capitol Lighting, but really everything you spend your precious time and energy doing, you should understand “why” you’re doing it.

Not only does knowing why you’re doing something give meaning and purpose to your actions, but you’ll ultimately be happier doing it. Conversely, if you don’t know why you’re doing something, your actions will be less energized, less productive and ultimately give you less joy.
“Why are we here?” Big question. I’ll make it smaller, “Why are we here at Capitol Lighting?” Why did Capitol Lighting come about in the first place? We all know “what” we do. We sell lighting and home furnishings. We know “how” we do it. We have stores, we have people, and we have customers we serve. But “why” do we do it? Can you answer that question easily?
I truly believe we are here to make lives brighter, both literally and figuratively. Not just our customers lives, but also the lives of everyone who works here. Yes, we sell lighting, but what will that lighting ultimately do for our customers? Yes, we work here, but will that help us achieve our goals and will we have fun doing it?
When that customer that purchased that fixture flips the switch and sees her dining room on Thanksgiving light up to a spectacular scene, that’s Capitol’s why. When a person comes home late at night and sees their home lit beautifully with landscape lighting we sold them, and they are filled with a great sense of comfort and pride, that’s Capitol’s why. We’re here to make sure our customers’ homes are places of refuge and reflection and celebration. When we’re taking merchandise to their car, we’re not carrying a box. We’re carrying a little piece of wonder that will, when installed, make their lives brighter.
Why are you here? Is it to get a paycheck? Is it to feel productive? Is it to be part of a team? Sure, all those things are important. Yet for this to be the best, most energetic and fun place to work, understanding the “why” of Capitol Lighting and the role each of you play in accomplishing our “why” should also be at the top of your list. If you have the desire to make peoples’ lives brighter (your own included!), our “whys” are aligned and there will be no stopping this company.
People can buy lighting anywhere. Why would they choose to buy from us? We have to inspire them with confidence we know what we’re talking about. We have to dazzle them with beautiful showrooms. We have to WOW them with our customer service. We have to make it absolutely clear we know our “why.” We have to have fun doing it! When all these things happen, why would they ever buy anywhere else?