Skip to content

Posts from the ‘Everyday’ Category

May 12

Perspective

“Because of the dog’s joyfulness, our own is increased. It is no small gift. It is not the least reason why we should honor as well as love the dog of our own life, and the dog down the street, and all the dogs not yet born. What would the world be like without music or rivers or the green and tender grass? What would this world be like without dogs?” ― Mary Oliver, Dog Songs

“Pray thee, spare, thyself at times: for it becomes a wise man sometimes to relax the high pressure of his attention to work.” – Thomas Aquinas

When we settle in and settle down, allowing relaxation to restore and rejuvenate, we gain new perspective. A shift, a turn of the head and the world becomes new from the inside out. Don’t waste days wallowing, wading and willowing. Rest up, look up and relax. It’s all good and going to be good with the fullness of time. In the meantime, let go and relax.

This public service announcement is brought to you by my life coaches Abby and Sasha – the model fun makers and relaxation queens. Lighten up, it makes the journey so much sweeter.

“We will be more successful in all our endeavors if we can let go of the habit of running all the time, and take little pauses to relax and re-center ourselves. And we’ll also have a lot more joy in living.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

“To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.” – Alan Watts

May 5

Craft

“When a work lifts your spirits and inspires bold and noble thoughts in you, do not look for any other standard to judge by: the work is good, the product of a master craftsman.” – Jean de la Bruyere

In two days, I’ve watched one quiet craftsman tear out linoleum, laminate and carpet and piece together new vinyl plank flooring throughout my first floor. One person in rapt attention, in flow and in craft. An art and science. An ease and flow. It’s informative and directive of how we rebuild, design and craft our future. We may not know the pieces in this moment. Unknowing and mystery are gifts in disguise, revelation, if we enter with new eyes.

Embrace the mystery, allure, fullness and emptiness of this very moment of unknowing and uncertainty to discover how the pieces, the planks, the puzzle fit together. Sense comes from chaos. Order from uncertainty. Wait, hope and hold tight. Craftsmanship – the art and science of building from disparate pieces that create the whole which is always revealed in due time.

“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” – Pablo Picasso

May 4

2 Comments

Before and After

“The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” – Maya Angelou

“The important stuff will still be important by the time you get to it. The unimportant will have made its insignificance obvious (or simply disappear). Then, with stillness rather than needless urgency or exhaustion, you will be able to sit down and give what deserves consideration your full attention.” – Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key

In “before” we prepare, we do the work, we walk the path step by step that gets to “after.” Sometimes it feels like we are stuck in before, circling, lost and then suddenly, after arrives and the work pays off.

I’ve been planning for a first-floor remodel for a few months. Clearing clutter, organizing. Choosing the paint, then painting. Looking at several floor options, then deciding. Moving an entire first floor into my garage. All with help of course. And today is day one of three to get new floors installed – luxury vinyl plank flooring – much better with dogs. Good-bye 15 year-old laminate, linoleum and carpet and hello new floors in 22 easy steps. I haven’t taken a vacation in a long while so this is my “big” trip, creating a new cool space at home, little did I know how much time we’d all be staying at home.

And during this time, especially during this time, it’s good to plan and prepare for the future, even though we are stuck in the murkiness of now, in our before. We are all going to get to our after when before finishes its job, even though we don’t understand why, how or when. Keep planning, do the work, hold tight to trust and faith, savoring the long overdue stillness. After is coming and our before will carry us forward fully prepared for it.

May 1

YES!

“Let a hundred flowers bloom.” – Mao Zedong

“I imagine that yes is the only living thing.” – e. e. cummings

No doing. No planning. No overthinking. No working. No leaning in.

Yes relaxation. Yes wandering. Yes wondering. Yes playing. Yes leaning back.

To being. To sunrise. To sunset. To all the minutes between. To the simple elegant beauty of flowers.

“Always say ‘yes’ to the present moment… Surrender to what is. Say ‘yes’ to life – and see how life starts suddenly to start working for you rather than against you.” – Eckhart Tolle

Apr 22

Signs All Around

“Changing is not just changing the things outside of us. First of all we need the right view that transcends all notions including of being and non-being, creator and creature, mind and spirit. That kind of insight is crucial for transformation and healing.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

“Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone’s face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love? These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come.” – Henri Nouwen

A joyful wandering through Como neighborhoods with friends tonight was energizing, inspiring and healing. Suddenly a STOP sign caught our attention – someone wove a yarn stem around the metal and created an urban, timeless flower with an important prompt and call to inaction. Stop, breathe and see the buds and blooms that are present right now in front of our very eyes, not in the past or future, but available in the ordinariness of today.

We need more joy, energy, inspiration and most of all healing. As we move through uncertainty, we need to hold tight to a knowing, a reverence and confidence in healing. The caterpillar always becomes a butterfly. The sun rises, every morning. Wounds heal. Flowers bloom.

See the blooms, feel the healing and recognize the signs. Stop and take notice. Allow healing and light. It always comes.

“Meditation can help us embrace our worries, our fear, our anger; and that is very healing. We let our own natural capacity of healing do the work.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

Apr 21

2 Comments

Empathy and Optimism

“Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee.” – M Michel de Montaigne

“Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” – Romans 12:15

At the start of a meeting yesterday, each person was asked to share two words that described them in that moment. I listened intently and it was a mix. As I thought about my own words, I chose “empathy and optimism.”

When we are empathetic, we can listen and “weep with those who weep” and by harnessing the power and fuel of optimism, we can simultaneously “rejoice with those who rejoice.” Weeping is real, required and will pass with time. Rejoicing is a way to live, even in the midst of weeping moments.

We are a mix of opposites, contradictions, imperfection, resilience and beautiful music. Pursue awareness – self first so you can see yourself in others and genuinely feel empathy rather than judgment and assumptions. Awareness prompts action and necessary change. As Maya Angelo said, “when you know better, you do better.”

We need to both weep and rejoice, with a bias toward rejoicing and optimism. Life is fragile, strong, short, long and no day returns to repeat so seize today, let go of yesterday and hope for tomorrow.

“To live would be an awfully big adventure.” – Peter Pan

Apr 16

Settle Deep Enough

“It is such a struggle – has always been – for each of us to settle deep enough into the wait, into the weight till we discover that there’s nowhere to go. Perhaps the greatest challenge, once fully awake, is to drop all reaching and simply open like a clam waiting in the deep until life in all its guises floods through the half-closed center that is us.

Then God enters like a brilliant stone falling in a lake, and the past ripples behind us, and the future ripples before us, and we are breathing in eternity.” – Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening

When doing comes up short again and again and mere being takes its place, settle deep enough into the waiting, uncover meaning, connection and repose.

If we have learned but one thing, it is the value of a day. Don’t let another day go by without weaving joy, laughter and awe throughout. Breath in eternity.

Apr 15

Sit, Quietly, Rest

“We will be more successful in all our endeavors if we can let go of the habit of running all the time, and take little pauses to relax and re-center ourselves. And we’ll also have a lot more joy in living.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

“Every person needs to take one day away.  A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future.  Jobs, family, employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us, and if our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our absence.  Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.  Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.”― Maya Angelou, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now

We need one large adirondack chair right now. Take a break from nonstop Zoom meetings, the news, from projects, from the urgency and uncertainty of these moments. Book time on your calendar for actual thinking, creativity and reflection – the recipe out of this mess.

Simply rest, relax and ground yourself in ease and no expectations. Release worry, overthinking and predicting. Just laid back and restored to enter tomorrow refreshed and ready for whatever presents itself.

We are bigger and stronger than these circumstances. Stop trying to fill the space and time with more meaningless activity. Listen and enter mere being. Sit, quiet, rest.

Apr 14

Expansive!

“The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.” – William James

No matter where we are in life, we decide whether we will expand or contract. Right now, the obvious, easy and natural response to contract. Do the opposite. Expand into the world. Connect in new ways, love deeper and embrace optimism and hope. It is the only sustainable and joyful path.

Get out in the fresh air and look beyond the horizon, beyond immediate circumstances. Watch the sun slowly set. Walk and run with your best friend. Let go of the leash and dance in the field. Look up, pull your mask off and simply say hello when passing by to acknowledge our shared humanity and experience.

This moment, how we move through, survive and thrive beyond the immediate is our defining moment. Define the moment rather than letting the moment define you.

We are so much bigger and wonderous than this moment. Observe, absorb and expand!

Feb 21

Spilled Milk or Coffee in this Case

Driving into work yesterday, I prepared my mind by listening to a Joyce Meyer podcast on being prisoner of hope and the energy of optimism. I stopped by my regular coffee spot to fill up my coffee mug with some delicious hazelnut vanilla dark roast. Armed with a positive mindset, intent on seizing the day, I bounced in like Tigger to be a bright light.

Twelve minutes later, the day took a detour into a technology “pothole” that needed to be dealt with right away, moving me off my tasks that I intended to conquer as I was seizing the day, being a prisoner of hope. I gathered a few staff into my office for a phone call to resolve it. As we discussed our options, I sat back in my chair and took a big gulp of my cup of deliciousness to fuel my problem-solving super-powers.

The cover was not screwed on all of the way and coffee proceeded to pour down my chin onto my sweater and pants, well beyond the help of a Shout stain remover pad to fix. It was fun to have an audience too. I whispered, “son of a b___” and continued on with the discussion. With one meeting after another, I didn’t have time to go home to change so I spent the morning with a bucket of coffee on me.

“O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.” – Saint Augustine

I went home at lunch to change and on the way back the necklace that I had on broke and fell in my lap. My assessment of the day was that the Holy Spirit was on my ass, challenging me to rise above circumstances and be anchored in light and optimism. The old saying is “don’t cry over spilled milk” or in this case, spilled coffee. While not perfect, I did try to make light of it and not have it ruin my day.

We get to choose each day whether spilled coffee or series of technology mishaps or imperfect people will defeat us. Despite our circumstances, we can actually be a prisoner of hope, filled with optimism that is borne within us, untouched by external distractions, disruptions and detours.

And the final lesson, make sure the cap is screwed on both your coffee mug and your head. See the humor in each day and lighten up. It’s only spilled milk.

Today, I am going into work with a helmet on.

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »