Did you know that delight is contagious? The delight we feel when we see someone being delighted can be even more delightful than our own delight. "Second hand" delight is free and easy. So pay attention - if you're lucky, you'll "catch" someone else's happy moment.
Can you remember your first real friend? I recently found a picture of mine and the memories that had been tucked away with that lost photo filled with me joy. Friendship is one of the greatest gifts of life. If our friendships bring us so much joy, just imagine how good it could be to become our own friend! Plus when we figure out how to befriend ourselves, we're able to be an even better friend to our friends. It's a win-win!
At endings such as graduations we feel like we have to know what's next. The reality is that the only thing we can be certain about is that the future is never certain. Rather than being daunting, this can inspire us to live with a sense of curiosity and wonder about all the twists and turns the marvelous story that is our lives could take!
This season of giving and receiving gifts is a good time to ask yourself - what if joy was something we didn’t have to wait to receive? What if joy was something that we could seek and even create for ourselves? If we were more joyful people, wouldn’t we also, as a matter of course, be more generous and caring? Take a moment and ponder what you could do right now that would give you a little joy. Now, give yourself the joy of doing it!
When our guide on an Alaskan Fjords tour asked us what we'd like to see, it would have felt pretty audacious to ask to see a pod of 16 humpback whales bubble net feeding - especially as, before I saw it I had no idea what that even was. Because we had no expectations of what we'd see that day, we left ourselves open to surprise. We disembarked from the boat awash in gratitude for gift of seeing both expected and unexpected wonders.
I have a secret for you that poets, philosophers, and mystics have been pointing to for millennia - we are all part of an unimaginably huge whole. Knowing and even believing this truth pales in comparison to feeling it. I believe it is possible for any and all of us to feel this wholeness - even if for just a moment - when we learn to slow down and pay attention to what is going on around us and within us.
A blessing shared at the beginning of a yoga class - May you be filled with loving-kindness. May you be well. May you be peaceful and at ease. May you be happy. - has the power to deepen our sense of connection to the world around us, even in the most tumultuous times.
It's taken me years to learn that when creating a garden, what the space needs is way more important than any ideas or opinions I may have of what I want to plant there. In gardens, as in life, you have to work with the hand you’re dealt. You can't always get what you want, but you find that what you need can be even better.
For a while now I’ve been noodling over a little piece of advice that I found on Instagram: "Do it from love, not for love." The idea feels huge. Like freedom and generosity and happiness and wisdom all rolled up into one well-crafted little sentence. What does it look like? Where does the love that inspires these gestures come from? Read on ...