"The mind is everything. What you think you become." -- Buddha

All the photos above are shot from the New York University (NYU) law school campus.

Four days in the great city of New York last week validated for me how right it was to want to form a company that would allow me to travel and to continue to learn. I was invited to join 74 other public and private sector leaders at NYU for a global summit on the topic of preparedness. We worked roughly 12 hour days on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday, we toured two remarkable emergency operations centers, and then were dropped in the downtown financial district for lunch. I chose to walk over to the site of the emerging World Trade Center.



Though it's been nearly nine years since 9/11, the buildings are only now coming up out of the ground.

I could not get close enough to shoot down into what had previously been a hole. The energy crackles now from the site, approachable only as close as across the street.

I walked across to peer through one of these viewing holes, but was waved off by construction workers.

Scale is everything in New York, both grand and intimate.

On the way back into Manhattan from Jersey City, we passed a restored St. Paul's Church, one of two iconic symbols of 9/11. This is the other, Trinity Church, the oldest Church of England building in America. At lunchtime, its adjoining graveyard converts into a remarkable park/lunch area for Wall Street workers.

It's peaceful and lively at the same time.

This is my last shot as I left New York, amazed and energized by both the landscape and the resilence that is the city. Everything is possible.

Travel is exhilarating.

Though it took a full day to get to Providence, I'm thrilled that I made the trip. The Shared Assessments Summit, sponsored by BITS/The Financial Services Roundtable, was a 1.5 day content rich networking experience. The financial firms that usually attend were joined this time by healthcare risk managers, so that truly enhanced the dialogue. The panel that Dave Cullinane from eBay and Niall Browne from Live Ops and myself did on cloud computing provoked many questions and lively debate.

I am sitting now in the Providence airport, on my way to Baltimore and Annapolis, then will fly back to Seattle late tomorrow. Getting out of the office for four days has reconfirmed the rightness of the work I do, and provided some additional clarity on how to explain it.

There are overlaps between what the shared assessments program and ASA do, at least in the areas of vendor assurance and around infosec, business continuity and privacy controls. It's given me some ideas about how to push the envelope a bit further.

Now it's on to Annapolis meetings tomorrow morning.

Mother's Day.

My husband feels that both Mother's Day and Father's Day are commercial ventures, so it was no surprise that he forgot to get me a present. My son, on the other hand, sent me an anthology of contemporary Irish verse. He's been good at presents from the time he was young. Once, he got me a t-shirt that read "Girls Kick Ass" when he was about ten. Often he gave me the newest Rolling Stones CD. I repaid him when he was eleven or so by taking him to the very last Stones concert in the Kingdome for his birthday. Over the years and on his travels, he finds unique l presents to fit my interests as well as his own, often books or music. This book reminds me of how much he remembers, including a trip back to Ireland the two of us took when he graduated from high school. I am still his biggest fan.

Phoenix visit, Seattle gardens.

We had a great time last weekend in Phoenix. In addition to spending time with family and hearing Cassandra's Phoenix Chorale concert, I was able to have lunch with two of my high school chums, Nancy (left) and Beverly (right). We've done this often enough now that we are plotting perhaps to set up an annual weekend at a spa if we could locate the three other members of our girls sextet.


Here's our grandson, Alex Porter, on the way to pick up his girlfriend for their high school prom. He's bound for Columbia this fall, and she'll be right across the way at Barnard College.

I have no good photos of the concert itself, only this one taken from holding my iPhone high. The concert was sold out and full of encores.

The weather was remarkably at around 80 degrees with sun. Though my allergies kicked up, we did sit outside for a tasty Sunday brunch at Sabrina's. She and her family live around an regulation-sized water ski lake, which you may see in the background of some of these next photos. That's the boathouse over Leroy's shoulder.

Here's Reed, William and Sabrina around one table. In the background is their swimming pool, though, not the lake.

Alex and Reed Porter.
Sabrina, Cassandra and her daughter, Rachel Ewer, looking at the new yearbook.

And here is Richard Ewer added into that picture. That is the lake behind him.

Another version of the three ladies. After brunch, and on the way to the airport, we were able to attend a recital where Alex played one of his own compositions and sang a classical piece.

I could not resist taking a few photos of changes to my garden when I got back from working out this morning. Here's the last of the purple azaleas...

And the beginning of a host of day lilies, in another part of the garden.

Can't see it so well here but here comes the lavender!

Tomorrow is a 5k/10k walk/run to support the Kindred Spirits fund raising efforts, called "Inspiring Hope." It will be great to see most of the 100+ person team, and another 160 or so additional folks who, like me, are able still to walk or run this distance. I'll post some photos from the walk over the weekend. My firm, ASA, is one of the sponsors of the walk!

Risky Business.

It's hard to watch the congressional financial commission hearings, especially the testimony of former Washington Mutual executives yesterday. What's clear is that the risk management function was marginalized, and that executives went ahead and did exactly what they thought would drive the greatest profits.

Many of us who worked at WaMu thought that mis-deeds by folks in the home loans group were cause for termination. We were reminded fairly often of the ethical code of conduct that was supposed to drive the company.

Things were not as they seemed.

The challenge now is to create guard rails so that this sort of thing cannot happen without a spotlight being shined upon it.

Seattle shows its finest face.

We've had a wonderful time during the visit of Cassandra and her family. At the second evening's Phoenix Chorale concert at St. Mark's Cathedral, here are her son Jeremy, daughter Rachel, husband Richard and father Leroy. It was a stunning concert.

Here we are earlier in a set of photos by Leroy at Olympic Sculpture Park, including Cassandra, who is second from the left.

Jeremy and Rachel.

Everyone's favorite Calder.

Rachel.

The edges of two of the ensemble pieces in the Richard Serra sculpture.

Leroy and Richard disappear into the Serra sculpture.

In the cafe. Jeremy's jacket fits right in.

On My Birthday, Here Are My Top Ten.

As I look back on the past year, I've started to construct my own Top Ten Best Decisions.

1. The decision to leave the bank that took over Washington Mutual.

2. Taking time to both get away (the time on the train ride around the country) and spend time with some of my best friends and relatives (stops I made along the way). It really helped me sort out what I was most interested in doing next.

3. Investing in the "Rebooting Your Life" weekend that Cathy Allen and her three colleagues, who've authored a book on sabbaticals, offered at Cathy's home in Santa Fe. Combined with the quiet time on the train, I got a double shot of retrospection and energy to go forward.

4. Moving my personal training from a downtown jock shop to the University Family YMCA. I am accomplishing more. I have my son to thank for pointing out what a diverse environment the Y offers, and explaining that you can book a personal trainer there, too. Without these several mornings a week, I would not be in such good fighting shape.

5. Accepting, finally, the fact that I won't be walking in any more 3 Day Walks. The only way I could have walked this year would have been to have had bunion surgery last fall. I think I'm clear now that I'll be a supporter, but not a walker.

6. Clearing a lot of mental garbage out so that now I am able to sleep a full eight hours every night. I even remember my dreams.

7. Retooling my diet over the past years. I became a vegetarian in 1996, when I stopped drinking coffee as well. Until the last several months, I've not been able to get rid of processed sugar in my diet.

8. Having the time and mental space to keep up with and better understand my husband's work.

9. Imagining what I would truly enjoy professionally and, with Lauren's help, launching Annie Searle & Associates LLC, Risk Consultants.

10. Shaping my life and my work so that it integrates well with other goals, including those around giving back (UW teaching), around service (Seattle Public Library Foundation board), and around personal pleasures (travel, photography, reading and gardening). I'm finally getting the balance almost right.