Friday’s Focus—Simply Put

Introduce your soul to a happier body.

Have a good weekend!

Keeping it light and singing LiLoLa [Live, Love, Laugh] all the way…

Friday’s Focus—Let It Go!

Since we made the decision to donate our oldest truck to charity (they’re picking it up today), we found ourselves in a much easier space of letting go of a bunch of other things we’ve been meaning to for months but just somehow never got around to.

This morning I’ve already re-organized my desk and either filed or recycled all those pieces of paper that were under a “One Day” mental paper weight.

For a while we were doing the, get rid of 5 things (no limit on how big or small) per day, or if something comes into the house, something must go out, but they’ve only lasted so long or the time to part with something just wasn’t right.

This time though, we’re ready. File cabinets are getting filled and the recycling bin is overflowing; clothes are in bags for donating, and books are stacked to send in to Amazon’s Book Trade. This time is right and there’s no holding us back. Who knew the truck would have been just the thing to start the ball rolling?

Riding the wave of letting go, I offer today’s focus of taking a look around and make some time this weekend to let go of some things you’ve been meaning to but haven’t (yet).

Not sure where to start or too intimated by how much to do? How about that junk drawer? We all have one (okay, so I have two!), but once you’ve cleared the inertia hump of “One day I will…” is, you’ll be happy you did.

Have a good weekend!

Keeping it light and singing LiLoLa [Live, Love, Laugh] all the way…

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The Waiting Is the Hardest Part

Another morning and another blank page.

Another night I didn’t sleep well, with snatches of cat-nap dreams toying with my mind. Where does the dream and my conscious thought begin and end?

I think back to this time last year and I can’t help but feel haunted by the then, as-yet-year-filled challenges of doctors, estate disbursement from my father-in-law’s death, and family phone calls of drama and neediness on top of the normal hustle of just life.

To say I’m a little gun shy is an understatement as my husband is still not feeling well despite a clean bill of health. But chemicals are still chemicals and the re-introducement of them into his system from the preventative treatment drips has created an undercurrent of constant feelings of unwellness and in his words, feeling poisoned.

As the date of my husband’s first chemo anniversary approaches fast, I am facing my own health situation, the results of which I should know in another week or two. Looking at the possibility of a whole new round of health issues this Winter is weighing more heavily on me right now than I care to admit—or deal with. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

One way or another, I am confident that things will work out fine and these are just the ramblings of someone who needs to find the space to be the caregiver to the caregiver, whatever the results may be.

—  — —

I gaze at the stars and wish upon each one.

I watch the smoke rise from the fire and imagine that my prayers reach the ears of not just my God, but all that there is in the Highest Good.

I watch you sleep and I feel my heart swell with so much love I think it’s going to burst. I wanted to take away your pain, but I know that this is your road that you need to travel. This is your story to tell.

My road and my story are still being built and I can feel the pen on the paper and the bricks being laid one by one. I can’t see around the bend right now or what’s on the next page, so I sit in stillness and bide my time until the words and the landscape reveal themselves to me.

Friday’s Focus—Keeping It Real Beyond the Holidays

The holidays of 2014 are in full swing with less than 2 weeks to Thanksgiving, 5 weeks until Hanukkah begins, then Christmas the week after, and finally New Year’s coming in with a blink of an eye only a week after that. Whew!

Barring natural disasters, there is no other time of the year that so much attention is given to the importance of family, friends, and loved ones and extending helping hands and kindness to strangers and those in need than during the holidays of November and December.

Volunteering suddenly goes up; donations to food kitchens rise; coat drives pop up; angel cards appear in town centers stapled to green-painted plywood trees, each denoting the age, sex and suggested gift for a child or senior in a shelter or a home; Toys for Tots bins sit ready and waiting in any given location throughout the city.

This is all wonderful and great and endearing, and it’s exactly these types of acts that help make the holidays feel special—showing and experiencing the kindness and generosity of the human heart and spirit; The way we should be with each other all year long and not just in November and December.

Let’s break through the amnesia that comes in January and continue to do something nice and thoughtful for the next person after the holidays. The calendar should not dictate when we need to offer a helping hand. Needing help doesn’t end after December and being nice, thoughtful, and considerate of the next person shouldn’t either.

Let the generosity of your spirit and depth of kindness for each other continue all year round. Coats may not be needed in June but food still is and basic necessities. Soup kitchens and shelters don’t close after April. Offering help and acts of kindness can take many forms regardless of the time of year.

Let’s take 2015 and make it the year of keeping it real. Keeping the real feelings of love, patience, tolerance, and kindness that we make such an effort to show during the Holiday Season and extend it to wherever it’s needed, to whomever it’s needed, regardless of the time of year.

Have a good weekend!

Keeping it light and singing LiLoLa [Live, Love, Laugh] all the way…

Friday’s Focus—Creating From Your Inner Twitch

There is a feeling inside all of us that makes our fingers twitch, our toes tap, and our voices hum, and if you tell me you’ve never felt it, I won’t believe you. We ALL experience this at some point in our lives.

You may not know what that urge is or that inkling or feeling is, but I’m going to let you in on a secret—it’s your creativity calling out, begging to be seen and heard.

It’s like a deep itch that nothing quite yet has scratched. You feel like there is something inside that is so full, so ready to burst but you don’t know what to do with it, like the energy before a storm except you feel it all within you.

Today’s focus is on releasing that creativity and letting it out to be seen and heard. Listen to your creativity today instead of the critics and let it go!

Paint, draw, doodle, take photos, compose a tune using the drums or keyboard on Garageband; sing in the shower or in your car, create a meal with whatever’s in the fridge; dance even if you look like Elaine from that episode of Seinfeld.

Let it out and use today’s focus to create from your inner twitch!

Have a great weekend!

Keeping it light and singing LiLoLa [Live, Love, Laugh] all the way…

All I’m Asking

Smile

That’s it.

I’m not asking you to do anything else.

You don’t need to ponder the mysteries of the Universe or what you’re making for dinner.

The weekend plans will wait.
The kids will wait.
The laundry will wait.
The bills will wait.

Life won’t.
It keeps moving forward.

Don’t worry about trying to catch up.
Don’t worry about what will happen if…
Don’t worry about what won’t happen if…

Life doesn’t.
It keeps moving forward.

When you smile, your body’s aches and pains may still hurt, but in time, not so much.
When you smile, your breaking heart may still hurt, but soon, it won’t seem to hurt as much.
When you smile, your deepest spaces may still be dark, but eventually, it won’t seem as dark so much.

All sorts of things happen,
when
you
smile.

I’m not suggesting you read something, write something, or watch something.
It’s not magic or rocket science or some newfound healing.

It’s just a smile.

It starts with your lips and your cheeks, eventually rising as you bring the smile to your eyes.

Then, with your eyes smiling and your cheeks smiling and your lips smiling, other smiles will come back to you, and then….your heart
smiles.

Life even smiles.
It smiles in its sunrises and rainbows and laughs through its birdsongs and windy melodies.

When you’re mad, bad, sad, angry or afraid, Life still smiles.

Even when you may not want to…

smile, and let Life’s smiles touch yours, and see the sparks fly.

I’m not asking you to fight, flight, or forgive.
I’m not asking you to scale a mountain or swim a river.
I’m not asking anything other than to do this, try this, and to see that…

all I’m saying is

to
just
Smile…..