We originally started this site because we wanted to fulfill our dreams of traveling the country on a motorcycle and this was a place for our loved ones to keep up with our travels and our lives. As we began constructing the site, we realized it would also be a great place to archive the articles Lisa writes as well as blog about other things on our hearts and minds besides motorcycle riding.
The name PigletPaper comes from the motorcycle, Pulchritude (pul kri tyood), with whom this all started. She is a Sporster and not big enough to be a HOG, so we call her a PIGLET. Her name, Pulchritude, means “amazing beauty”. So that makes her an Amazingly Beautiful Piglet!
So who are WE? We are Ronn and Lisa. By day, Ronn works in the financial services industry and Lisa is the owner of The Entrepreneur’s Source, a coaching and consulting firm helping people to explore, and ultimately fulfill, their dream of owning their own business. Lisa is an Entrepreneur Coach. She provides a safe environment for people to figure out whether they want to own their own business, and if so, what business is right for them.
Rather than use this space to go into fancy bio’s and a laundry list of accomplishments, we thought this space could be better used by sharing with you our hearts desires and the things that make us tick.
Both of us like the look, feel and smell of a new car, but neither of us like car payments. We both believe in driving cars until the wheels fall off. Both of us like the idea of being free from the bondage of material possessions, because we know that really, they possess you, rather than you owning them.
We don’t believe in keeping up with the Jones’ and believe that urge is a mental condition with no known cure, although both of us are prone to go there occasionally. We recognize that drumming to our own beat is uncool, but we don’t care. We figure it’s better to be happy, free and full of joy about the small things in life, than to be living our lives for the viewing pleasure of others. We sometimes don’t know where that invisible line is between happy and over-indulgent but we get closer to discovering that each day we allow ourselves the experience of life.
We know that everything is temporary and that if good times didn’t pass, we would never have bad and if bad times didn’t pass, we would never have good. We do our best to meet the people we love where they are, even when they are not where we would like them to be. We believe in the power of Willingness and know from experience that leads to a much richer life than trying to figure everything out before you try it.
We have both visited the depths of insanity by doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results. We have both tried to rely on reason and logic to solve life’s challenges, believed in everyone but ourselves, believed in no one but ourselves, tried to push people where WE wanted them to be, manipulated under the disguise of helping, tried to be perfect, volunteered unsolicited advice and answered unasked questions, just to name a few, but all were to no avail. We have learned that life really is simple and that it is us that makes it complicated.
We believe in letting people make idiots of themselves, but sometimes we are idiots. We have learned that relationships are not easy, but we have also learned why—because being vulnerable to another is the seed of strong relationships. We loathe the self-righteousness of double standards, but are not immune to practicing them on occasion. We have learned that if we want to change someone else, we have to change ourselves first. We believe that change leads to growth and comfort leads to sloth. And we know the only way to have a relationship is to experience it.
We both know you can’t give away what you don’t have, but we both still try on occasion. We both believe in being nice even when we don’t feel like it, although diplomacy comes more naturally for Ronn than it does for Lisa. We have both learned that there is a fine line between having faith and ignoring the problem. We have learned, but sometimes have to relearn, that the secret to power is humility.
We have observed that life is a paradox and figured out that the secret to serenity lies in the balance of paradox. We have learned that just because something “seems” to be a certain way doesn’t necessarily make it so—that our reality is not necessarily someone else’s reality. We believe in first things first, although what to do first is not always obvious. Both being coaches, we believe in the power of coaching, not because we are biased, but because we know the view always looks different from the outside than from the inside.
Ronn believes in being early, Lisa would like to be early, but is always late. Ronn believes in getting up early and smelling the morning air before it’s polluted with noise and Lisa is working on seeing the value in that. Lisa loves rock-n-roll; Ronn loves smooth jazz. Lisa plays the drums; Ronn plays the guitar. Ronn loves background noise; Lisa finds it a distraction. Lisa loves Milk Duds and Ronn loves Whoppers. We both love going to the movies, but only to the dollar movie. We both love reading and have had to work to overcome the compulsion to read every word front to back, in order, and never write or highlight in a book. Ronn can usually read regardless of what is going on around him, but Lisa needs silence.
Lisa loves shoes and Ronn indulges her in shoe shopping. Ronn is a romantic at heart and full of style; Lisa loves to be romanced but believes it can be overkill. We both believe in fairy tales, even though the world tells us there are none. We know that respect is earned, not demanded. We know that change is hard because it doesn’t feel right. But we also know the only way to grow is to be temporarily uncomfortable. We both believe in progress, not perfection, but occasionally we still demand perfection from each other. It usually results in a fight. We believe in forgiveness, because we know that not forgiving hurts us more than the person we don’t want to forgive.
We both believe in working a spiritual program, but have come to realize that each must do it differently. We try not to mind the others spiritual program, but sometimes we still fall prey, Lisa more so than Ronn.
And we both try to practice these beliefs with daily vigilance. Thank God it really is about progress, not perfection. Geez, where we would be if it wasn’t!