Over the past couple of months I’ve had a small plumbing problem in my shower. Nothing huge or in need of immediate repair, but frustrating none the less. I kept putting off calling the plumber due to all sorts of reasons and excuses, but I finally got him out here the other day and got it taken care of. What a blessing. I didn’t realize how great it is to not worry everytime I turn off the faucet about it leaking. I also didn’t realize how much it affected my water pressure until I got in the shower after it was repaired. It was like a whole new experience.

I bring this up because it reminded me of all the tolerations we deal with on a day to day basis. They’re usually little things like my faucet, or a closet that needs to be cleaned out, or the oil change for the car. But, here’s the thing…….these small seemingly insignificant things are huge energy drainers. It’s astounding actually, just how much energy we use up dealing with the little things that are easily taken care of. We don’t realize it at the time. It’s only after they are no longer a worry that we see how much time and energy we wasted thinking about them or putting up with them. How nice it is to free up that energy for other things and not have them cluttering up your mind and your time. It’s so much easier to just do it and be done instead of putting it off.

So I pose this question to you today……what tolerations are you living with every day that take up your time and energy? It’s time, I think, to just do it.

This past month has been a particularly difficult one. It seems that everyone I know including me, has had problems and major life issues to deal with. But in the midst of all the turmoil, there is still beauty and blessings abounding. The trick is to recognize those blessings. When things are so hard and the sky is so dark, we have to remember that the sun is still shining even though we may not be able to see it at the time. In times of our deepest dispair it’s hard to remember that we still have the choice to recognize what’s right with the world. And somehow, remembering to notice the good parts makes the worst parts a little easier to deal with. I don’t advocate that you should ignore the fear, the sadness, the confusion, or that you shouldn’t ask why this is happening. It’s important to honor these feelings and give yourself permission to feel them freely. It’s also important to reach out for help and to accept the hands that are offered. I do advocate, however, that you try to remember and be grateful for the good things life has to offer you. Be grateful for the time you’ve had with the person or special furry friend you’ve lost and the lessons you learned from knowing them. Be grateful for the changing of the weather from rain to sun or sun to rain, whichever it is that you’ve been needing. Be grateful the help and support you receive and the people who offer them. Even when your heart is breaking, be grateful that you can feel the emotion so intensely. Because you cannot recoginze true joy if you have nothing to compare it to. It’s all about learning to walk in balance and beauty. Sometimes it’s a difficult journey, but in the end we are blessed to have experienced it. It’s what life on this plane of existance is all about.

I’ve spent the last few years cleaning out stuff. It’s amazing how much we accumulate over the years. Not just the stuff in our homes, although that can be overwhelming when we really start to look around. There’s also the stuff in our heads. All the useless information and beliefs that we’ve developed throughout our lives. We seem to pick up ideas and beliefs without even realizing that so many of them aren’t ours to begin with. It’s interesting when you sit down and really look at what you believe and why you believe it. Some of it resonates deep within us and we know it to be part of our truth. Some of is is quite surprising and we look around and say where did that come from and why do I accept such a truth? I don’t think many of us take time to complete an inventory of our thoughts and clear out the old antiquated ideas that we’re hardly conscience of. But if we don’t continously look for them and clean them out they become so ingrained in our thinking that we hardly recognize ourselves anymore. How can we expect to improve ourselves and move forward when we have so much junk in the way? How can we be inspired by new and wonderous realizations, when all that old stuff is there blocking our view? So lets get rid of all that dusty old stuff in our heads and make room for our core beliefs to shine through to the world. And let’s make room for the new beliefs that inspire us to walk in balance and beauty and show our true selves to the world.

I was thinking today about how life evolves. In remembering some of the places I’ve lived and people I’ve known I realize that each and every one has added to the fabric of my life. Places and people have come and gone, each one contributing their own uniqueness and memories. Some of these transitions have not been easy, while others were barely given a thought. But each one built somehow on the other, propeling me forward to greater places and things. Old friends dropped away and new friends entered. Jobs came and went. Homes were enjoyed, then left for someone else to make a life in. And for each place, each person, there are memories of times both grand and terrible. But in truth, letting go of these things when they no longer served or were outgrown was beauty in and of itself. There is something about letting go that allows us to breath in the freshness of the unknown and continue to move onward toward newer and better things. Nothing remains static and to hold onto these things serves no useful purpose. Fond memories and gratitude for the road traveled are enough. So treasure each and every memory, good or bad. Realize that you are who you are today because of them. Bless them and let go. Focus on the miracles in your life today and on the memories you’re making right now. Tomorrow, look back, smile, let go and keep moving forward.

All my life I’ve been in love with horses. I begged and begged as a child, but to no avail. I was actually in my 50’s before I got my first horse. A series of synchronistic events as well as a dear friend got me to volunteer as a side walker for a therapeutic horseback riding center. I was in heaven. I couldn’t imagine anything better than being at the barn. Because I’ve worked for the last 25 years with people with disabilities it was a perfect match for me. I didn’t want to be anywhere else, but sadly, bills have to be paid so I continued to work at my “real” job. A few years later my friend and I started our own center and we’ve been so blessed to be successful. However, it’s a not for profit center and nobody gets paid right now, so I continue to work for somebody else and spend my weekends at the barn. When I got my coaching certification I had the brilliant idea to incorporate the horses into my coaching practice. I had no idea how to do this, but diligently researched and studied. I found a couple of well respected teachers who offered programs, then the gremlin reared it’s ugly head. “You’re too old” it said. “You can’t afford it, how stupid to even consider such a thing.” Hummm. “ You’re not good enough” he told me. “You’ll never make it work. You’ll look like a fool. No one will be interested in your brilliant idea.” After a short struggle I finally managed to shut him up and enrolled in one of the courses. It starts this week and I’m so thrilled and excited. I know that I will have all the support I need to be successful and finally realize one of my biggest dreams. I mention this because I want you to understand that you’re never too old to do what you want to do. That gremlin in your head is a trickster who definitely doesn’t have your best interest at heart. It’s OK to be afraid. The point is to push through the fear and do it anyway. It’s OK to be old. Old is just a number and nothing more. It’s OK to ask for help when you can’t figure it out for yourself. People love to help. Gets the serotonin flowing. So what is it you’ve always wanted to do and what’s your excuse for not doing it? Are you doing to make that dream come true or spend whatever time you have left full of regrets? Take it from me….it’s so much more fun to just go for it. Besides, life’s about the adventure of the journey, not your destination.

Has anyone told you today how wonderful and amazing you are? It’s true in spite of what the little gremlin in your head might want you to believe. You are a magnificent manifestation of spirit right here, right now, just the way you are. You are beautiful beyond belief. A star shining brightly. A lantern in the night leading the way home for some weary traveler. A jewel gleeming brilliantly. A flower with it’s face to the sun. Forget the little gremlin, forget the mirror that allows you to see only imperfections (which are beautiful too, by the way), forget the grumpy boss, the dissatisfied co-worker, the guy next door who makes you feel small, less, not good enough. It’s not true. You are better than good enough. You are GREAT! Celebrate your astounding self. There is no one else like you. There is no one else with your thoughts, feelings, ideas. There has never been and never will be anyone just like you. You are one of a kind. A delight. A treasure. Thank you for being you. And in case no one else has told you lately, allow me to say that you are beautiful, wonderful, and amazing just the way you are. You are loved and cherished. I love you just because you’re you.

How often do you express gratitude. I don’t mean just saying a polite thank you, I mean real gratitude, from your heart. Do you ever think about it really, how many things you have to be grateful for? We take so many things for granted. We walk in a room and flip on the light without ever thinking about the miracle of electricity. We run to the store and fill our carts without ever considering what it took to get the food there in the first place. We hop in our cars, on a bus, or on a train and never give it a second thought. And what about flying. Good grief! How crazy is it that we can sit in a chair, two or three miles in the air and go 500 miles an hour? Television is still in it’s infancy compared to transportation, yet we can sit in our living rooms holding a small box in our hands and watch hundreds of channels. Do you ever think about how many people it takes for these things to happen? It’s astounding when you start to break it down and look at the multitudes of people and skills needed for just one of these things. We tend to forget, I think, that all of these miracles don’t just appear. There are lots of people working hard, doing their part every day. There is a lot of new technology available, but somebody had to think of it first. Then it had to be developed and delivered. So next time you flip a switch, hop in your car, channel surf, or buy groceries, say thank you. Thank you for all the wonderous things available to you each and every day and all the people that make it possible for you to live so well. And while you’re at it, don’t forget to say thank you to all the people in your life, your family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers for doing their jobs and making your life better.

Are you too busy to take care of yourself? Most of us say we are. We have too many responsibilities, too many things on our to do list, too many people who are counting on us. Hmmm……let’s think about this for a minute It’s like saying you’re too busy to stop and get gas for your car. You know you have to have gas or you can’t go anywhere, right? What happens when your car runs out of fuel? You are forced to stop and make that embarassing call for help or take a hike to the gas station. It probably takes longer to do that than to have stopped to fill up in the first place. Same thing happens in life. When your physical or emotional fuel gage runs low, you have to refuel. If you don’t you are forced to stop and ask for help or wallow miserably in the bed for a few days. Or even end up in the hospital. How does this serve you or anyone else for that matter? If you think you’re too busy to refuel, then you probably really, really need to do just that. Whether you choose to meditate regularly, hit the gym several times a week, walk in the park, read a book, or take a long soak in the tub without distractions, it’s time to take care of yourself and refuel. You don’t have to do it all. You can learn to say no to some of the stuff that’s not that important. You can learn to say yes to you. Because you need it. You deserve it. And keeping your physical and emotional fuel gauge filled allows you to do the things that need doing without risking having to stop just when you’re needed most. So the next time you find yourself saying you’re too busy to take care of you, think about what happens if you don’t. Make some time to honor yourself exquisite and wonderful self and fill up your tank on a regular basis.

What if? How many times do you say this to yourself? If you’re dreaming of possibilities and ready to move forward to a better place then by all means, keep saying it. By that I mean something like what if I could start my own business, go back to school, learn to do something new, be a better person, help more people etc. etc. Now…get up and start doing something about it. But, if like most people you’re spending your time thinking about what if things had been different or what if I had done this or that or said this or that instead, or what if I lose my house, spouse, friends, money, whatever, then it’s time to change your thinking. I saw a quote the other day that said “ you are not your past, but who you choose to be right now.” I love this quote. While it’s true that our past shaped us into who we are today by our experiences, too many of us get stuck in who we were or who we thought we wanted to be. Stuck in the what if things had been different mode. Or afraid to change because what if something bad happens or because we might fail, or because someone else won’t approve. The simple truth is that none of us are who we were yesterday. Each day our experiences shape us into who we are today. And today we as always, we have a choice about who we are and what we do with our lives. We have a choice about how we respond to people and situations. We have a choice to change things that aren’t working. So what if instead of dwelling on something you can’t change or worring about something that may never happen, you start thinking about possibilities? What if you let go of regret, shame, guilt and fear and start chosing who you are right now? What if today you decide to just accept those things you can’t change and enjoy the way things are or change the things you don’t like? What if?

The first time I got a senior discount was both exciting and discouraging. The clerk just assumed that I was entitled to one and my friend that I was having lunch with had to pay full price. She is 17 years younger than me, but that’s beside the point. At first we didn’t understand why we were charged different prices until the clerk explained. Hmmmm……I thought, do I really look that old or is the girl behind the counter just that young? I always assumed that I’d eventually have to ask for the senior discount not just automatically get one. On the other hand, I do love to save money. Should I feel happy or sad? Not sure. Have to think about this for awhile. I’ve come to the conclusion that age is subjective and definitely all about what’s in your head rather than your calendar years. I remember when I was a teenager, my parents were old and uninformed about the modern world. My grandparents were just ancient. I’m sure, at the time, they still saw me as a child although I was fast approaching adulthood and pretty sure I knew everything important I needed to know. During the old hippie days you couldn’t trust anyone over 30. Really? When my Dad had to go into a nursing home due to his health, he grumbled that he didn’t want to be there with all those “old people”. Never mind that he was 86 at the time. It’s interesting looking back on how we saw the world during different phases of our lives and noticing how we see it now. So the next time your kids or grandkids annoy you take a minute to think about how you used to feel at their age. The next time your parents or grandparents complain or grumble, just remember that they are probably frustrated or maybe even frightened when they realize they are unable to do the things they used to do. Shift your perspective and try to look at things through their eyes. I’m pretty sure you’ll gain a whole new insight into the issue and maybe even find something to laugh about. And when someone gives you a senior discount…smile, say thanks and celebrate your savings. And remember that some day they’ll get the discount too.

How many times to you do or not do something because you’re worried about what someone else thinks? We are all guilty of this at some time and some of us are guilty of it all the time. I want to tell you a secret today. No one else is thinking about you. Not really. Not in the way you think they are. Most people are far more worried about a slight headache they have than they are about what you’re doing. While you may be a passing thought in their mind, you are not the focus of their thoughts. What is happening to them in their life is where they focus their attention. And so what if they don’t approve? Who cares? It’s not their life…it’s yours. The only oppinion that should matter is your own. You are the only one who knows what’s best for you. It’s nice that other people want to help you by giving you advice, but you have a choice to listen or not. We each have our own unique path to walk and what’s right for someone else is not necessarily right for you. If you spend all your time trying to please everyone else or do things their way, you are not being true to yourself. You are not honoring your needs. You are not acknowledging your own wisdom. You are not appreciating the unique and wonderful being that you are. And you’re not able to fully share your gifts with the world. So just for today, do what you want and forget about everyone else. Follow your instincts and intuition. Follow your heart. Do what ever it is that brings you joy and fills your life with color and meaning. Trust yourself to know what’s best for you. By doing so you can release the fear and step out in the world as your authentic self. I promise you that the people who love and care about you will appreciate you all the more for your courage. And for those who don’t, who cares what they think?

Do you ever take the time to notice your environment? I don’t mean THE environment. I mean your personal evironment. We all have multiple environments. There is our home environment, our work environment, our community environment. We even have environments for our health, relationships, spirit, and finances. Most of us never think about any of this much less take the necessary time to tend to each one making sure that they are healthy and functioning at an optimal level. It’s important to understand this concept and be vigilent of how each of our environments is serving us. Is your home cluttered causing you to spend extra time looking for items you need? How about your financial environment? Do you just allow your money to come and go and never know what happened to it or where you spent it all? Do you tend your relationships with care or take them for granted? When our environments are messy and untended so are our lives. It makes it hard to focus, plan, set goals and see things to fruition. As a result we often feel overwhelmed and further ignore the problem by numbing ourselves in front of the television, overeating, or otherwise trying to find solace in something that makes us forget for awhile why we’re really here and who we really are. If any of your environments is out of whack and not serving you it can cause an imbalance in your life that can have a domino effect on all the other areas. I’m not saying that you have to be perfect. None of us are. But being aware of your environments and how they’re affecting your life allows you to make the necessary adjustments that help your life flow smoothly. Take an honest look at your environments this week and see where you can tidy up a bit. I think you’ll find when you do that life gets easier and you free yourself up to have more time and enjoyment in your life. I think you’ll also find that clearing out the clutter opens up space for more of the good stuff to come in.

I was thinking today about inspiration. Maybe because when I sat down to write, I was feeling a little uninspired and didn’t know what I wanted to write about. Then I realized that inspiration comes naturally when you just look around or sit quietly and allow your mind to wander. You have to get out of your head and into your heart. The ego is always trying to trick us into thinking that we’re not good enough or that things around us are keeping us from connecting and doing what we want to do. But the truth is that we are always connected. We just have to stop. Stop the inumerable dramas that we allow ourselves to get sucked into all the time. Stop the constant chatter in our heads. Stop trying to distract ourselves with gadgets like television, the computer, our endless to-do lists. In today’s busy world we think we have to be doing and going all the time. It’s not true. Think about those moments when you’re not doing all those things. Maybe you’re taking a walk or relaxing in the tub letting your mind wander. Perhaps you’re just sitting on the porch or patio and enjoying the day with friends. Maybe you spend time each day in meditation or have an exercise routine that allows you to stop the chatter in your head. Or perhaps you’re spending time with nature. It’s in those moments, when we allow ourselves to stop the endless self conversations, that we are truly connected and most likely to be inspired. When we drop the caring about what everyone else thinks of us or what we imagine they want us to be or do, or all the things we think we have to do we allow ourselves to really connect. And to be connected is to be inspired. So I urge you today to take some time to stop. See what pops up. Allow yourself to be inspired and then follow that inspiration wherever it takes you.

A lot of people complained this week about all the news coverage of the royal wedding. They weren’t able to wake up and start their day with the usual news of war, economic decline, auto accidents, murders, and chaos. They felt that all the pomp and circumstance was a waste of time and cut into their daily dose of misery. Even a veteran news caster commented that the television networks shouldn’t be spending so much money on something so trivial when there are so many stories of disaster in the world that are news worthy. But I ask you, what’s wrong with starting your day with a dose of love instead? Do you realize that for a few hours, millions of people around the world were focused on one thing…..love. How great is that? Millions and millions of people were thinking about love and possibilities and romance. What if we started every day that way? What if the leading news story was always about love or unity or celebration? Do you see how this could change our world? With that many people focused on something positive instead of on fear based stories of doom and distruction we could literally change our lives. How great would it be to turn on the television or radio and hear the newscaster say “in today’s breaking news 100,000 street kids now have permanent, loving homes, 1 million people started new jobs and there have been no new forclosures on homes for the last six months, 200 species have been removed from the endangered list, and 1 billion people performed random acts of kindness. In related stories, hundreds of thousands are no longer homeless and hungry because of an amazing grass roots movement spanning the globe. And we’ll bring you updates throughout the day about how people are changing our world with those random acts of kindness.” How great would it be if the majority of news stories were about the good things people do instead of the bad things? How great would it be if news stories inspired us and highlighted our connectedness instead of our differences? Do you think this would change our collective consciousness and focus? I do. While I admit I’m not a fan of the royals and wouldn’t have cared if the wedding was televised or not, still it was refreshing to see everyone focused on and thinking about a positive event instead of something terrible. Perhaps we should take this as an invitation to spend more time thinking about the good things life has to offer. And perhaps we should ask our media to give us more inspiring stories each day. We all benefit from inspiration and hope. And what better way to start or end your day than hearing about something good and inspiring happening in the world?

I was working on a teambuilding exercise for my coaching practice the other day. It occurred to me that most people who participate in team building retreats or exercises don’t really carry anything useful away from the process. Why? Because they don’t know how to relate what they’re learning into real life. Some team building exercises are fun. Some are boring and border on the ridiculous. But the bottom line is that most teambuilding facilitators neglect to explain how building a container out of popcicle sticks to protect an egg when it is dropped from a certain height relates to our jobs or to our lives for that matter. It seems obvious that if we can’t carry back what we learn and apply it then we’re effectively wasting our time. If we don’t understand where we fit in and how to recognize and promote our strengths in the group then what’s the point? And does anyone ever bother to talk about our teams in relation to our lives outside of work? What about the global team, the community team, our family team, and countless others? We are all a part of something bigger than ourselves and finding out where we fit in is critical to our success. Each of us has unique talents, skills, and abilities that we’re meant to share. There is no one else on this earth that is exactly like you. There is no one else on earth that can offer exactly what you can offer. Take some time to think about your teams and what you have to contribute. Celebrate your uniqueness. Celebrate your talents, skills and abilities and don’t be afraid to share them with your teams and with the world.

We’re all so busy these days. We run around all day long from one thing to the next and it seems there is never enough time to get everything done. But why do we feel we have to do it all? We weren’t designed to be super people who can do it all with a smile and just keep on going like the energizer bunny. Our bodies and our minds need time to rest and reflect. Most of today’s technology was designed to make our lives easier, but somehow things seem to be more complicated. We continue to get caught up in the latest and greatest and we’re afraid if we can’t keep up people will think less of us or believe us to be lazy. There is nothing wrong with working hard or playing hard, but we just can’t continue to push and push without consequences. We have to allow ourselves time to literally do nothing or risk crashing and burning. Our bodies will force us to stop if we don’t listen by manifesting illness or accidents. Most of us think down time is catching our favorite tv program or watching a movie. Maybe going out to dinner or to a bar. But that’s not really what it’s all about. While it may be fun and relaxing, we’re still activily participating. When is the last time you gave yourself permission to just sit quietly and observe what’s going on around you or daydream, just letting your mind wander not really thinking about anything in particular? I challenge you to take time every day to simply sit and enjoy. Even if it’s only for five or ten minutes. Quiet your mind. Forget about your to do list. Just sit, relax, be. It may take practice, but things worthwhile sometimes do. So give it a try and let me know how it works out for you.

My parents grew up during the great depression in this country, then had to contend with WWII right on it’s heels. What an amazing generation they were. They learned so many lessons about survival, persistance, adaptability, and creativity. We would be wise to learn from them the power of those traits. However, they also grew up with an attitude of lack and fear and for a lot of us we were taught those attitudes as well. My Mom, for instance, never threw anything away that might come in handy in the future. She had bags full of rubberbands and twisties from bread wrappers. In fact, she even kept the bread wrappers neatly rolled up in the kitchen drawer to use instead of ziplocks. She could repair anything with those rubberbands and twisties. She refinished and reupholstered furniture and made a lot of our clothes. But she did believe that somehow everything she needed would be provided. The problem of course, is that for many of us, we learned that we couldn’t have it all. We learned to be thrifty and prepared just in case. There is nothing wrong with this, but somehow we missed the part about the universe providing us with everything we need. We grew up to belive that we have to work hard for everything we have and we have to always be prepared for a rainy day. As a result, we’ve forgotten that we have everything we need already and we’re always afraid of losing what we have. This attitude of fear and lack serves no useful purpose that I can see. The laws of the universe dictate that we draw to us what we focus on the most. Therefore, if we focus on fear and lack, guess what? Instead, doesn’t it make more sense to persistently focus on adaptability, creativity, abundance and the things we do want in our lives and to show gratitude for everything we already have?

There is a time, very early in the morning, before the sun comes up, when the earth is still and quiet. The stars still twinkle overhead, but start to slowly fade from view. There is no wind, not even a breeze. And there is silence. And then, softly, almost imperceptably, a small breeze may appear. A bird may start to sing in a tree nearby. The sun is still below the horizon, but everything starts to stir and a prepare for the new day ahead. The stars wink out one by one. This is the most magical time of the day. It is a time of possibilities, a new beginning. A gift offered to us once every 24 hours. Sadly, most of us miss this enchanting time. Even if we’ve crawled from the warmth and security of our beds, we’re already busy planning our day, listening to the news, and any number of other things that we do to distract ourselves and disconnect with the natural cycle of the planet. Our minds are racing ahead to the day itself and everything on our to do list. We rarely if ever, even notice what’s going out just outside our window. I challenge you to wake up a few minutes early tomorrow and go outside. Go out before you turn on the tv or hop in the shower. Just spend a few minutes in silence. Celebrate the new day, this gift that you’ve been given. Breath deeply and feel the world around you as it awakens from slumber. If the sun is already peeking over the horizon, turn you face to it and say thank you for it’s warmth and light. Thank you for another day. Thank you for my life and all my many blessings. Thank you for this beautiful planet upon which I’m so lucky to live. Let me know what happens.

The last couple of years have been full of sad news from around the world. Most recently the events in New Zealand and now Japan have made us all aware of how vunerable we are. We tend to forget that we’re always at the mercy of Mother Nature in all her amazing forms. But as horrifying as these things are they make us realize how resilient and strong people are. While we can’t and never will be able to control nature, we can control our response to catastrophe. In the midst of all the devastation we find ways to reach out to each other. Our human spirit grieves the losses and rallies at the cries for help. We find ways to overcome even the most horrible events and carry on. Strangers reach out to each other with love and hope and together we are able to rebuild our lives and our world. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we did this every day and not just when things are chaotic and our minds reel to understand? What if we nurtured this spirit of oneness and forgot about our differences and our fear? Can you even imagine how our lives would change? If we all do our part, no matter how small, to create a sustainable planet and learn to embrace each other with love and acceptance each and every day, we can create a unified world that no longer feeds off war, fear, hunger, disease and seperateness. As John Lennon so eloquently put it “ Imagine all the people sharing sharing all the world”. Let’s don’t let times of disaster be the only times we reach out to each other and show our compassion and love. And lets strive to enjoy and protect our magnificent planet. Whether we realize it or not, we are all connected…..to each other and to the earth and all of her creatures.

Today we moved the clocks forward for another season of daylight savings time. I find this idea ridiculous. How can you save daylight? Is this man’s inherent need to control what can’t be controlled? Daylight just is what it is. It comes and it goes according to the seasons. You can’t put it in the bank or tuck it away somewhere to save for later. Once it’s gone, it’s gone and you can’t get it back. Does it really matter if you get up earlier every day so you can enjoy sunlight for another hour every evening? What about enjoying getting up with the sun and hearing the birds singing outside your window instead of driving to work in the dark and missing out on a beautiful sunrise. Are we so focused on doing more and more that we think we have to have that extra hour of light when we get home in the evening? Our bodies are made to flow with the turn of the earth and the seasons. For some mysterious reason, we seem to have forgotten that to be in harmony with nature is really the best thing for us. It’s no wonder that so many people are stressed out and unhappy. We’re always trying to do more, be more, control what can’t be controlled. And what are we saving by doing this? Time? Daylight? I don’t think so. All we’re really doing is stressing ourselve further and disconnecting with the natural harmony that sustains us. We’re already sleep deprived and spend time rushing headlong into our futures instead of enjoying our now. In the end, we’re not saving anything and we may actually be losing precious moments of our lives. Are you a fan of daylight savings time?

My friend at work was telling me recently about her experience at church. She said she and her husband always sit in the same pew with the same people both in front of them and behind them. One Sunday, they impulsively decided to sit somewhere else. As a result, the people they were sitting next to thought they were new members even thought they’d been attending the same church for years. The people they usually sat next to, thought they just weren’t there. She met a lot of new people and got a whole new perspective which excited her because it was such a positive experience. It got me to thinking about how we are such creatures of habit and what we miss out on because of it. For me, I’ve learned that shaking things up once in awhile is a really good thing. Something as simple as taking a different route to work can completely change my outlook on the day as well as help get my creative juices flowing more freely. Why is it that we are so often afraid to move outside our comfort zone? Moving around and getting a different perspective makes things so much more interesting and you never know who you might meet or what adventure you might have. I highly recommend it. Life is just too short. Keeping your head in the sand serves no purpose but to make you blind to the amazing possibilitie all around you. Move on out of that comfort zone and enjoy everything life has to offer. You never know what you may be missing.

I’ve always been a cup half full person and I find it difficult to understand people who are cup half empty people. When you look for the good stuff it’s amazing how much of it you notice. Same is true with the bad stuff. Why would you focus on the negative things around you instead of the positive? That’s not to say that I don’t get down now and then. I think we all do. It’s just human nature. Things aren’t always perfect, and it would be boring if they were, but there are so many wonderful things to be grateful for in our world. What is it that negative people get out of being negative? Some will tell you that it’s genetic and others will say that they are a product of their environment. I say hogwash! We have a choice every day when we wake up to either be optimistic and grateful for what we have or to wallow in misery and self pity. Every day ordinary people overcome hugh obstacles, lives of poverty or abuse, war and fear to become beings of light who have the power to effect the world. Some are famous, some are not, but they all chose to focus on the positive and find ways to appriciate what they have and the courage to change what doesn’t work. It’s all about attitude. It’s about seeing the good things in life and being grateful for what we have. I challenge you to write down 5 things every day that you’re grateful for. If you do, you can change your life and you’ll find yourself being happier without even realizing when it happened. What are you grateful for today?

The great thing about living in West Texas is the sky. It goes on forever and we have spectacular sunrises and sunsets. The land is flat, flat, flat, and you can see for miles. Sometimes it feels as if you might float right off the earth because there’s no anchor. When you’re driving things can be a bit boring, but suddenly, the road drops off into a beautiful canyon filled with reds and browns, golds and yellows, and subtle shades of green. You don’t see them coming, they’re just there unexpectedly and they take your breath away. Life is a lot like that. You go about your business everyday and think how boring things are then suddenly something happens. Maybe you fall in love or perhaps you reconnect with an old friend. Your kids or grandkids do something silly and you dissolve into gales of laughter. You might receive a compliment or gift that lifts your spirits. Whatever it is, it’s always something unexpected that catches you off guard and fills your life with color and delight. Sometimes it’s something huge like the West Texas sky and sometimes it’s just a small unassuming thing, but it suddenly takes your breath away in its unexpectedness. They are there all around us, these unexpected moments, all the time if we just pay attention. These are the moments that make life so wonderful and beautiful. They create a rich and beautiful landscape just waiting for us to notice. It’s important to recognize and appreciate the beauty they bring and to celebrate each and every one.

Do you ever notice how children and pets are able to express pure joy and delight over the most ordinary things? To them everything is an adventure filled with possibilities. Every day presents new opportunities to discover and explore. They embrace every moment and express their feelings good or bad. When did we start to learn that it’s not OK to look at the world through those child eyes? Did we suddenly develop amnesia at a certain age? Did our parents teach us that to be grown up means not finding the beauty in every moment or did we just become afraid of what others might think because somebody judged us for our exuberance?  Does being an adult mean we’ve lost our ability to be awed by the simple things? It’s too bad most of us have forgotten how to play. We spend so much time taking ourselves seriously that we don’t remember how to have fun each and every day. Who cares what anyone else thinks? If they want to be serious that’s OK. But for me, I’m going to try and remember the world when everything was new and exciting and act accordingly. Sometimes a different perspective can literally change your life. And besides, who doesn’t want to have fun? What do you do just for the pure joy of it?

Someone said to me the other day they must be doing too much multitasking because they couldn’t get out the sentence they wanted to say. It was all jumbled up and they had to stop and refocus in order to get it out. We laughed about it, but it’s really true. When we get too many things going on, it’s impossible to fully give your attention to the task at hand. I know I’m guilty of doing the same thing. I may be working on a project while my mind is elsewhere. The tv or radio is probably on, the phone is ringing, I’m thinking about my to do list or what I’m going to have for dinner, the dog wants out, etc. Or I’ll get an idea for the blog, but forget about it almost as quickly as I thought it because I’m distracted with something else. As much as I love technology, it does make it difficult to stay focused on one thing at a time. While I may not be able to do much about it at work, I’ve taken the bull by the horns at home. Sometimes I don’t even turn on the tv or radio. I just focus on the task at hand, whatever it might be. I find that life is so much simpler that way and I usually get a lot more done. It also gives me a certain sense of peace and freedom that I otherwise don’t feel. Maybe I’m just getting old and simple minded, but I don’t think so. I think staying focused is the key to successfully completing those projects both big and small and eliminating a lot of the stress in our lives.

I’ve learned that the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am. -Andy Rooney
I ran across this quote the other day and realized how true it is. Thinking back, most of the important lessons I’ve learned are not the ones I learned in school. True, my teachers were smarter than I was and I certainly learned a lot from them. But it was those people outside of school that I learned the most from. People like my parents, my friends, co-workers and bosses, boyfriends and even people I didn’t like very much. Some of those people weren’t smarter than me, but boy oh boy did they teach me some things. Some of those lessons weren’t necessarily easy to learn, but learn them I did. However, most of the people that have really made a difference in my life were a lot smarter than me and thank goodness I had the good sense to listen and learn. I am forever grateful for all those lessons and I plan to continue to stretch and grow and surround myself with people who are smarter than me. After all, you can teach an old dog new tricks, but only if the dog is willing to shut up and pay attention.

I picked up my watch the other day and realized that the battery was dead. It had probably been dead for a couple of days and I just didn’t notice. It got me thinking about time and how much we are slaves to it these days. There is a clock in my truck, a clock on my television, a clock on my phone, a clock on my computer, a clock on the wall of my office. In fact, they seem to be everywhere (except in casinos and the great outdoors). Sure it’s important to be on time when we have appointments and obligations, but why do we place so much emphasis on time?  Have you ever been in “the zone” when you lost all track of time? It’s really a great feeling. Being totally focused on the task at hand and not thinking about the past or the future is the perfect place to be. We should all strive to stay in the now and let go of those worrisome thoughts about what we can’t change or what we’re going to do tomorrow or next week or next year. When we do that, we’re effectively giving up this moment and since our moments are short, I’m thinking personally that I want to enjoy each one as it comes. So, I decided to try an experiment and forego wearing a watch for now, just to see if I notice any difference. It feels a bit strange to not have one on my arm, but other than that, I don’t really think I’ll miss it. I’m thinking it must not have been terribly important in my day-to-day activities if I didn’t even notice the battery was dead. Besides, I’m choosing to focus on right now.

Technology is such a wonderful thing. I’m in love with my computer and all the possibilities it opens up in my life. I meet so many great people I would otherwise never have known. No matter that I haven’t been to their home or might not even recognize them if I passed them on the street. They have become a part of my life through the use of the technology called the Internet.  When I was a kid we still had party lines on the phone. For those of you who don’t know, that meant that the line was shared with someone in another household. If you picked up the phone and heard someone talking you politely hung up and waited for them to finish their conversation before you attempted to make a call. Now we not only carry our phone around with us, but we can access the whole world with the touch of our finger from wherever we are (dead zones excluded). Computers used to take up whole rooms and information was input into them by use of a punch card system by typing little holes into flexible cards that were then physically put into the computer. I realize here that I’m showing my age, but it’s important to realize how far we’ve come in such a short time. Although it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the enormous volume of information we’re inundated with on a daily basis, I for one consider myself lucky to have access to this amazing ability to communicate across oceans with people from different backgrounds and cultures. I’m grateful for new friends in places I’ve never been. As our world continues to shrink, we see more and more that we are not so different after all. Perhaps one day, this will lead us to embracing our diversity and creating a more peaceful world.

Do you ever put things away in a place you know you’ll remember, only to never see them again? Is this a sign of getting old or are we just too distracted in today’s world to pay attention to the important things? Are we so overwhelmed and bombarded with information that we only use part of our attention, therefore, not remembering? I remember my mother doing just that years ago. I laughed and said how can you not remember or find something that’s got to be there. It didn’t just get up and walk away by itself. Mom found it amusing at the time too. I always think about that incident when I can’t find something I’ve put away in a place I won’t forget. Lucky for me I’m a fairly organized person so I’m not prone to losing things often, but geez…when it happens it is a little disconcerting. Good thing for me I inherited Mom’s ability laugh about it. I have ultimate faith that it will eventually show up. So, being ever optimistic and always young in heart and mind, I vote for the distraction theory not the old age one. How about you?

I find it curious that the mind doesn’t age as fast as the body. At least it doesn’t seem that way to me. When I was younger I never imagined that old people didn’t feel old in their heads. For me, although my body continues to age and on occasion betrays me, in my mind I’m still 30. Why 30? I have no idea, but maybe it has something to do with coming of age. I still believe I can do all the same things I could then. It never occurs to me that my body disagrees until I try it, then I usually pay for it with aches and pains for a couple of days. When did I start to think that 9:00 or even 10:00 is a normal and reasonable bedtime? Shouldn’t I be able to stay up till all hours and function on minimal sleep? What happened to all that energy I used to have? I’m certainly wiser than I was at 30. At least I like to think so. I like to believe that I’ve learned a lot since then and am better for my past mistakes. They say age is just a state of mind and I agree. Now if I could just get my body to get on board with that statement...............

My father died last week. He would have been 90 years old on the 18^th of this month. I suddenly realized that since my Mom passed away in 2001 I have become an orphan. It doesn’t matter that I’m almost 60 years old.  I’m still parentless. When we lose our parents our world changes regardless of our age. A part of our living history is gone forever. We can’t call or drop by and reminisce or ask about great aunt so and so. If we don’t have the information now, it could be lost forever. What we do have, however, is a treasure trove of memories. Fond recollections of pieces of our past and a profound gratitude for the life we have been given. Even if your parents weren’t perfect, and I don’t think any of them are, two people have given you a most precious gift. Because they lived, you live. Celebrate your life and the lives of your parents. Make it count.