New Year's Eve, Eve

I don't know about you, but, for me, 2015 has flown by.  This is the first year in a while where I can say there has been more light than darkness for me.  This is not to say that there haven't been some struggles, but I have found, with the love of friends and family, a few classes, and sheer will, I am able to shine the light.  I must include being able to share with you as a major contributor to this. Thank you for coming with me from all over the world.  I feel as if we are all holding hands and sharing our love and commitment to making this world a better place one step at a time EACH DAY.  The darkness cannot live in the light.  So keep your hearts open, pay attention to what is going on, and if it doesn't feel right CHANGE IT!  Do not go along out of angst, or misplaced anger.  We have the power, together to make this world safe, and equitable for all people with love, not violence. JOIN ME in making this happen.  Think about it EVERY DAY and DO YOUR PART!  This next year will be a shining example of who we really are. 

Today is

my 900th post.  That is a lot of thinking and writing!  It has not been hard because I love to write and there is a lot to talk about. I want to thank all of you who have stuck with me all this time, and I look forward to all the new people who join us.  All I ever wanted was for us to think about the ways to become healthy and to share love and peace.  I know life can be hard, but there are ways to make it better.  Continue to hang with me, and share this with your friends.  Together we can make a ripple and make the world a better place.

Watch

your feelings come and go.  No one says that we have to stay mad.  No one says that we have to say sad.  No one says that we have to constantly worry.  And yet, sometimes these places are where we live.  It is not a good place to be.  I have, for some time, given myself a few minutes a day to get mad or feel upset about something.  If I can wait until the allotted time, I usually forget what I was upset about.  I have a little more problem with worrying about stuff.  I am working on a meditation where I imagine it is a partly sunny day, the sky is blue with fluffy clouds and a little breeze.  If I can put my worry on one of those clouds, and watch it float away, that seems to help.  What I am saying is that we can, with some practice, let the feelings come and go.  It is unhealthy to do otherwise, and we make things worse for ourselves if we don't.  So try my meditation, it may help you, too.

So I am thinking about

this past year.  I always take time to do this reflection between Christmas and the New Year.  Some of the choices I have made have been good ones.  In particular, I have tried to expect and give goodness.  Some of the choices I have made have allowed me to be sort of "stuck."  I guess we all do this.  As I look out into the mountains of snow, I see the beauty of all that has built up, but I also remember what I didn't get to take care of before it arrived.  I guess life is like that.  Stuff gets buried beneath other stuff.  Well, not being a fan of "resolutions," I have just decided to dig below the "stuff" 
 and see what is there that I can use, or lose.  I would like to start the New Year, "New,"  just for a change.

What's your's is mine,

what's mine is mine. Someone in this house is a bit of a pig cat.  Every time a new blanket arrives, it belongs to him.  Every new pillow, his.  For Christmas I got my daughter a stuffed bear.  (We have no age limits to getting stuffed bears in our house) can you guess WHO has a new stuffed bear?  That would be C@boy.  At nearly 20 years old, no one ever argues with his proclivity toward thinking every thing and everyone is his, so why try.  He is really happy with his new blankets, which he sometimes shares, and with his new bear.  I figure if he is 136 years old, he can have WHATEVER he wants.

Welcome Sweden

We are so glad to see you!  Please come back and visit!

Left over gifts

It is my fervent wish that you had a heart-warming Christmas.  But what about the left-over gifts?  We can share baked goodies we won't eat with our neighbors.  It will contribute to all of us exercising.  Sometimes, though, we forget that gifts can be given every day.  There is the gift of a smile for a stranger, the opening of a door, or even a kind word.  These gifts can be given every day of the year.  The food bank always needs contributions, sadly people are hungry all the time.  The good news is that these people can take a few dollars and turn them into several meals for a family.  If we live where it is snowy, we can shovel someone else's snow.  We can spend some time cleaning out our closets and giving away things we no longer use.  Let the gift giving become a daily habit. Give someone some joy, shine the light on them.  All these things cost nothing but a little energy on our part and we have no idea what they send out into the world.

A male perspective: Joy to the World

In the SPIRIT of the season, let's all remember the "TRUE MEANING" of Christmas.  Joy and Peace be with you.

Be your own

best cheerleader!  I heard someone say this yesterday.  It really made sense to me.  Who can bolster us more than ourselves?  I know for a fact, I can make myself feel awfully bad, so the opposite is definitely true. This is a tough season for so many people, so lets give our self the gift of staying in the moment, and thinking about all the goodness we hold. Now, who wants to come shovel for me?!  My back is still sore from my last stint out there and it is still snowing :(  22 inches and counting. 

Lessons from a pumpkin

Yes, it is true!  I get lessons from EVERYTHING, even my daughter's mini-pumpkin.  Every year, since my daughter was very young, I have gotten her a mini-pumpkin for Halloween.  It has become a long tradition.  Even though she is grown, she still looks forward to it.  Some years, we decorate it.  Many years, we have not.  This year, we found a tiny white one.  It was the smallest one in the basket.  I knew I had to rescue it.  When a pumpkin is no more that 2 inches by maybe 1, it is the cutest little thing.  They usually last until they start to rot, then are ceremoniously sent to the garbage.  This year, however, we decided to just let "Punky" live out her life another way.  She is still with us, much smaller, shrunken and wrinkled, but still giving us joy that we didn't dispose of her.  There is a lesson in this and I leave it up to you to find it!

It's O.K. to ask

 questions about things.  It is O.K. to get the information you need for a multitude of things.  I grew up thinking that if I had to ask questions about things, I hadn't been listening, or I was stupid for not knowing.  NOT!  What I I have found out, a little late, is that asking questions is smart.  Questioning things is smart.  Years ago, I had a rehab on my house.  I was working, going to school, and had a family to take care of.  The rehab was happening through all of this.  It was all I could do to just keep everyone and thing going.  I did not ask very many questions, nor did I pay really good attention to what was going on. BIG MISTAKE!  I have since learned that even when that small voice tells me "you should know that,"  I can ask, ask, ask.  Things will turn out much better and it will allow the person you are questioning to know you are "ON IT!"  So the next time you wonder about something, get some answers.  You will be all the better for it.

Did you wake up this morning?

celebrate that!  Can you see? Celebrate that!  Are you able to move around, think, hug your pet?  Celebrate that!  Do you have snow? Can you shovel it? Celebrate that!  Do you have a warm house and food?  Celebrate that!  I guess, by now, you get my drift.  Celebrate that!  The truth is, many of us have less than we want, many of us struggle at times, but there is ALWAYS someone who is worse off!  That is what those RED KETTLES are for.  That is what the FOOD BANKS are for.  So, no matter what you have, there is always change in your pocket, give it!  And don't forget to celebrate all the goodness in the world, even though it sometimes gets buried under minutia.  Perhaps if we thought MORE about the goodness and how to spread it, than getting caught up in the fear-mongering, the light would shine a little more brightly.  Today is the Winter Solstice, Celebrate that!  One more minute of light will be with us every day now.  We could sure use it!

Welcome Netherlands!

We are so happy to see you! Please come back!

Remember...

Every second of every minute of every day, we have the choice to bring, allow goodness into our lives.  No one's life is perfect.  Face it, life can be a real struggle at times.  One way I have found to mitigate this is to allow myself a little time each day to feel bad if I choose.  I limit it to just a few minutes to blow off steam.  The rest of the time I say to myself,  "self, what is your choice?"  It just takes a minute and can turn everything around on a dime.  Take a breath, ask yourself the question when things seem dark.  We ALWAYS have the choice to look at it with our hearts.  The darkness cannot live in the light. Let's remember that!

Welcome Taiwan

We are so glad to see you!  Please come back and visit!

Sorry about that!

I don't know if you missed "A male perspective," on Friday.  Life got whipped around a little, and we did, too.  Please know he is already working on a Christmas post.  He will see you Friday, I will see you tomorrow. Going to take a nap now.

Be who you are

We are all worthy.  We are all good.  We all have something to contribute.  Sometimes we fall in the pit, and if we are lucky, we seek someone to lend us a hand and help us out.  The fact is that we all have something special no one else has.  In this season of mixed emotions, lets give some thought to what our special gifts are.  This is not something we are taught to do.   Let's be our own best teachers.  If we need help, we can ask for it whether through meditation or the asking from someone else.  We cannot change the world if we are unwilling to change ourselves.  We can do it!

I read it this morning...

"Deal with overpowering ill will by generating loving thoughts."  Let's try that.

Lessons from the scraper

I wrote about the beauty of our first snow.  What came before it was freezing rain.  So when I went out to just "brush off" my car, I found a thick layer of the ice from the rain, invisibly hiding under the snow.  HRMPH!  As I was cussing under my breath, I started thinking about how this related to life.  It is always something, isn't it ?!? Then I thought, there was so much beauty over it!   My point is that there is always goodness.  It may be right in front of us, or it might be the thing hidden under it.  How much energy do we want to use to remove the minutia?  I know it is hard, but it is worth digging and scraping it out and off.  What matters is that we accept it is there and try to put good intentions on it, even if it goes against our habit.  Life is a work in progress.  Our part of it is progressing.

Through the lace curtain

I am NOT a fan of winter. Cold, slippery, icy, coats and hats, and crazy drivers are not near the top of my list!  But this morning, looking out through my lace curtain, with the sun and pale blue sky, I was taken aback, just as I am at the first real snow every season.  It is breathtakingly beautiful!  The tree branches with their little coats, are a welcome relief from the ugly mess we had from the wind storm just weeks ago.  We got enough to cover all the things I didn't get done from our storm.  I still know it is there, but, there is always spring!  I take pictures every season from the lace curtain.  They are all beautiful. (Maybe it is the curtain?!)  but it has become a seasonal habit for the past few years.  So, this year, I am going to celebrate the beauty of a season that I relish from my warm house, through the lace curtain.

Leave the door open...

even if it is just a crack.  This is the time of year when people get depressed.  It could come from the lack of light, lack of family, lack of self, or past experiences.  I have a friend who is really down.  She is in a place where she can't find the light at all.  It seems as if she doesn't think there is any light anywhere.  I have been there more than once.  It is a horrible place to be.  I was talking to my friend for a long time last night, listening to a dear friend, so enclosed in the darkness.  I don't know if she wants to or can get out.  I have been there.  My dearest sister and friend alternately listened and kicked my butt, so I will do that for my friend when she is ready.  All I asked her to do was to leave the door open, even if it is just a crack.  If that is what you need to do, take a page.  It will be o.k., I promise!

Welcome Japan!

We are so glad to see you!  Please come back soon!

Do you know...

how smart you really are? We have something we sometimes overlook.  It is our intuition.  I don't know why it gets overlooked.  It is not like it is something "woo woo."  It is our innate truth and the smartest part of us. It is what we feel in our gut.  Have you ever had a feeling about something?  Did you go against the feeling?  How did that work for you?  Just sayin! 

Fear, Oh Dear, revisited

I have written about this before.  It seems to pop up a lot. Certain people of a political party want to rule us with fear.  Lets look at how that works.  First, our heart races, then we want to retreat, or we get mad and think of ways to protect ourselves.  Hello NRA!  This is THEIR plan!  It does not help anyone but them.  Gun sales are off the charts.  Please answer this:  When does a normal citizen EVER need an assault rifle?  The second amendment called for an "armed militia."  These people used MUSKETS.  If you can find anything about everyone getting an assault rifle, please show that part to me.  I can't find it.  The point is that fear plays into the hands of many evil people.  It is much more insidious than anything.  You can't tell me that we make rational decisions out of fear, but that is just what they want.  It makes us weak, and irrational.  This spreads and spreads.  What kind of people are we?  Is this how we want to live?  I certainly don't !!!

Everything we do

and how we do it, matters.  If we feel in a hurry, or do something haphazardly, that is what comes back to us.  It is hard to stay in the moment, and do things with intention.  But with a little practice, it will come.  So, for today, and ongoing, I will practice doing things with the best of intentions.  That means thinking about what I am creating.  That means, thinking about what effect it will have.  If I do something in a big rush, it will not be my best effort.  If I do something when I am harried, it will not be my best effort.  I am going to practice breathing before I do something, because it creates balance.  That is the ripple I want to send through the world.  Please join me.

Bring your own

sunshine.  I know many of us are in the dark winter weather.  I also know that many of us get Seasonal Effective Disorder.  There are several solutions:  One is a full-spectrum light.  It has all the colors of the spectrum and if you sit near it so you can get that light, you end up feeling better.  The other way is to bring your own sunshine with you wherever you go.  It may come in the form of constant gratitude, it may come in learning a new joke every day.  It may come from (C@boys idea)  petting your favorite animal and letting everything else go.  Whatever it takes, do it!  

There just isn't enough

laughter in the world.  Have you noticed?  When is the last time you laughed and laughed?  When is the last time you were with people who found humor in most everything?  I was at one of my classes last night with this woman who had the best laugh in the world.  When she laughed, her whole body and soul was there with it.  It was so wonderful.  It made me feel so good and it made me laugh.  I let go of everything, it was pure joy.  If you have the opportunity to be in the company of this type of person, grab it!  Humor heals all sorts of maladies.  Find a way to get lots of humor in your life.  I will make sure I do the same!

Why worry?

I will admit it!  I am a worrier.  It is not a good thing, but it is something that I have a lot of trouble with.  This week, I was worried about several things.  I am told by friends and family that worrying does not change things, it often makes things worse.  I know it affects my health.  Two of the things I have been worried about this week, have turned out to be O.K.  I don't know if you have this problem, but I am going to try to mitigate it.  We can do things to make situations better, and we have times where we can do nothing.  We don't need to worry ourselves sick.  Join me in letting go of what I cannot change.  All I can do is shine the light on it, then let it go. 

Painting everything with

ONE BRUSH is not the way to go, and yet, so many of us do this very thing.  I consider myself to be pretty open minded and yet, as I had a discussion with a friend of mine, yesterday, I find that I do just this on occasion without even thinking about it. We were discussing my post about the all color Santa's.  My thought was that if we are all exposed to Santa, he should represent us all.  Her thought was that Santa is white and other cultures have their own representation to celebrate.  Who is right?  Probably both of us in our own way, but there I was with my one brush.  Bears thinking about, don't you think?

What color is he?

Don't get me wrong, I think the holidays should be celebrated for what they represent.  I also have a child who was excited about "Santa."  She knew the meaning of the holiday, but was also a child in a world where all this effort is made to sell things.  This morning on the "View," Woopie had a sweater on with a Black Santa.  I was so thrilled!  I can't imaging what it would be like for any child of color to be seeing only a "white" Santa.  What kind of message is that?!?  If we are going to push "Santa,"  we should at least allow our children to see someone who represents them.  So, thanks, Woopie!  If I wore those seasonal sweaters,  I would buy the Rainbow Santa, the Black Santa, the Brown, Tan, Female,  whatever Santa who would represent us ALL! HO, HO, HO!!!!!!!

Look for the light!

In many places it is winter.  We are just getting started on it, and because of global warming, we have had quite the mix.  We have had some snow, very cold temperatures, accompanied with sun, and a pretty bad windstorm.  So far, we have managed to get through it, but it makes me wonder why we don't pay more attention to OUR part of helping the environment. I know recycling helps, and using our cars less, but I guess I don't know enough.  So today, I will check out what more I can do to help.  Maybe we could all take a minute and find one thing we could consistently do that we don't do already.  C@boy wants to remind us that we can make our own sunshine during these long dark months by petting and giving extra care to our beloved pets.  They give light freely!

Three wonderful stores

Every year, the time to shop is getting earlier.  This year, many stores opened in the afternoon of Thanksgiving day.  It is all about the dollar, you know.  This year, three stores in our town did not open on Thanksgiving!  These stores realize that family comes first not dollars.  They say, there is another four letter word more important than "shop."  The word is "love!"  How about that!  The stores are "Marshalls," " T.J. Max," and "Home Goods."  I applaud these stores for not looking at their bottom lines BEFORE what is really important.  I will shop at these stores much more than I used to because of the new respect I have found for them.  They have good prices ALL YEAR LONG.  Join me in giving them YOUR dollars, too.  They are making a ripple that will help change the world.

A male perspective; Blah, Blah, Blah....

When they discover the center of the universe, there will be some politicians who discover they are NOT the middle of it.  "ALL HAT, NO CATTLE" as they say in the wilds of Idaho.

Try something new

Sometimes life can get boring.  The mind is caught up on the EYE, which is full of bad-to-worse news.  We may be working a mundane job which does not stimulate us.  Go out and get a good book to read. Yes, I said a BOOK!  I just read one that I loved, "A Walk in the Woods."  Take a class, I am taking two at the moment, one to help me finish and publish my book about C@boy.  I know we are all busy, and it is time to hibernate, but it never hurts to add a little "juice" to our lives.  Yes, I know there are other ways to "juice" it up!  Pick your poison!

The only way to have

peace in your life is to invite it. Peace starts with us, each and every one making that choice.  How do we do this?  I can only tell you what I am starting to do.  First, I watch much less news as that riles me up and makes me feel angry and helpless.  Second, I speak much less about all the chaos, because it hurts my heart that so many bad things happen with no consequences. Then, I take as many deep breaths as it takes to calm myself.  I think about all the good things and feel gratitude.  I wrap everything in light.  The darkness cannot live in the light.  Lastly, I imaging everything working out in the best way.  This gives me ideas of what my part is in making the changes needed to send a ripple of love through the world.  The answer is to let myself get quiet and calm.  Peace comes from quiet reflection. Peace comes from looking to our hearts for the only REAL thing, love.  Join me, each day in reflecting on this.  We can change the world, together.

Rosa Parks

Love and honor you!

O ringy ding, O ringy ding

I know I speak of gratitude a lot.  One way we can show our gratitude for all we have is to put money into those red kettles with the wonderful people who ring the bells.  That money, however small, goes directly to those in need for food, clothing, and shelter.  I personally, cannot go past even one of them without putting something in.  Some times it is change, and sometimes dollars, but I always remember that there is someone else who has far less than I do and being able to give them something makes me feel like a part of the solution.  So the next time you hear that bell, don't head for the other door into the store, go to that little red kettle and do your part to spread the joy.  I personally wish they had them all year long.