Is it possible to be as sad as one can be and filled with joy at the same time? Yes. In fact, it is possible that the heartbreak I felt to be celebrating my niece's wedding without my brother (her dad) amplified the joy I felt for her and her new husband. Her wedding proved to me that if we don’t let ourselves fully feel the sorrows of life, we simply cannot fully experience its joys.
Am I breaking up with To Do lists? Maybe? I'm definitely breaking up with the idea that my self-worth can come from getting everything on my list checked off. Life is more than a series of things that need to get done. Life is hiding in the little details and moments that happen as you do the things on your list.
I've been feeling a little overstimulated lately as autumn and it's busyness starts to ramp up. Can you relate? When we're feeling out of whack, it's rarely dramatic change that is needed to get ourselves back in balance. Mostly, a subtle adjustment will do the trick. It's also good to remember that balance is a verb. Rather than being something we find and maintain, it's something we're always working on.
Crunching into a pile of leaves on the sidewalk on a gorgeous summer morning was a reminder that - whether I like it or not - change is coming. In fact, it's been coming all the while. But just because I've acknowledged that fall is coming, doesn't mean I need to rush into it. I can take this change as slowly as it is happening.
It's easy to think that we have to be extraordinary or impressive in this world, isn't it? Thankfully, a bald eagle reminded me that this is not the case at all. I watched her for a week and didn’t see her doing anything spectacular. No dive bombing from impossible heights. No flying with an enormous fish in her talons. I’d just observed her doing the little “normal” things that all mothers need do and the awe I felt seems meaningful. She helped me remember that the wonder and beauty of simply living your one, little life is plenty.
When you keep secret all the ways that you are a mess inside, you're not protecting your friends. You're preventing them from really knowing you. Share your stories - the sad ones and the mad ones and the super funny ones. Knowing you (warts and all) is, in the end, all that your true friends want.
Over the last 29 years I've had to learn and relearn that my children are my teachers -- and that they're teaching me the most important lessons and challenging lessons of my life.
This summer, I have spent hours watering, feeding, pruning, harvesting fruit and simply enjoying my garden. It's not surprising at all to realize that I'm tending to more than my plants out there. I am also taking gentle care of myself.
In Scotland, where the weather can be moody, you learn how relaxing it is to go with the flow. You learn the beauty of savoring what you get to do and not worrying at all about what you don't. I am trying to bring a "wee bit" of this is a mindset home with me.