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Posts from the ‘Golden Retriever’ Category

Apr 19

11 Comments

Delightful Discovery

“Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed.” -Joseph Addison

“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.” - e. e. cummings

“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.” – e. e. cummings

Discover what’s new and delightful today. Not in searching in far off places, but in opening your eyes with curiosity, awe and innocence. Choose wonder over worldly, joy over jaded, delight over despair, light over dark. Look, breathe, hear anew, right where you are now in this very moment.

Mar 23

21 Comments

Serious Play

“I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition.” – Martha Washington

Lighten up and get serious about enjoying your life today, not someday. Negative thoughts, circumstances and people cloud and distort our view. Look a bit longer and deeper, there’s always something to be grateful for, to celebrate. Our happiness is found in our thoughts, imagination and giving ourselves to others.

To Lily, a puddle is a playground. To Molly, a snowstorm is the chance to run in the Iditarod and I’m her sled. For me, a five mile run is the finish of the Boston marathon. Actively participate, play and embrace each day and open its many gifts.

If misery loves company, it’s time for optimism and delight to throw a party. Get down to some serious play today, tomorrow and the next. Seriously.

“Don't brood. Get on with living and loving. You don't have forever.” – Leo Buscaglia

“Don’t brood. Get on with living and loving. You don’t have forever.” – Leo Buscaglia

Mar 8

9 Comments

Joy Filled Days

“When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.” – Tecumseh

“Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.” - Mother Teresa

“Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.” – Mother Teresa

It’s Lily’s 3rd birthday today, reminding me that time moves briskly and there’s no time to waste. Each day, even the tough ones, have a deep capacity for joy, if we seek it fervently.

Lily and Molly give me joy each day, more than I give them. Dogs (four legged family) give and take joy from each moment without delay, getting more out of their short time here than many do in a life six times as long.

Pursue and find the joy in each day. Hold tight to the goodness and let go of the rest. The three F’s – faith, family, friends mixed with health (running), laughter, hobbies, work (most days) create intense light that overpowers any shadow that the world can cast. Joy filled days indeed.

Feb 26

9 Comments

Worry Less

“The burden of self is lightened when I laugh at myself.” - Rabindranath Tagore

“The burden of self is lightened when I laugh at myself.” – Rabindranath Tagore

“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.” – Corrie Ten Boom

How much of your day is filled with worry? What may come? What has gone by? Worry steals way too much of our life, our daily capacity for joy. Caring does not equate to or require worry. Put in the effort and work, then let go of the results, of what may come. Worry less and free your spirit. There is depth in light. Go easy, lighten up.

“Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” - Hans Christian Andersen

“Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” – Hans Christian Andersen

Feb 15

5 Comments

Friendship

“In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.” – Khalil Gibran

Be kind and considerate to each person you meet. There is a reason for their presence on your path, either for a moment or a lifetime. Some will become true friends. Others a brief encounter, a smile. Call an old friend, make a new one, heal a broken friendship. The journey is a short one and we need not travel it alone. Be grateful for the friends you have and mindful of the friend you can be.

“A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world.” - Leo Buscaglia

“A single rose can be my garden… a single friend, my world.” – Leo Buscaglia

Feb 5

23 Comments

Shake It Off

“You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call “failure” is not the falling down, but the staying down.” – Mary Pickford

Monday lived up to its reputation, rather, I let it. Weighing myself down thinking about a very busy week ahead and letting predictable little things get to me. Today was different because I changed my thoughts, my expectations.

What we take on and release determines the tone of each day. Joy or angst is found in the same detail viewed from different angles. Some moments, some days, we need to simply shake it off and start a new. Carry what matters and discard the rest.

“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.” - Buddha

“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.” – Buddha

Feb 2

3 Comments

Your Window

“One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.” – Dale Carnegie

Today is it. Look for the good in your garden of people, place and spirit. Lighten your spirit and lift the burdens from your heart. Tend to your garden so each day is filled joy, delight, and beauty.

There are beautiful roses, even in the midst of winter. Right outside your window.

“I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things... I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind.” - Leo Buscaglia

“I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things… I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind.” – Leo Buscaglia

Jan 27

7 Comments

A New View

“I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.” – J. B. Priestley

“From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere.” - Dr. Seuss

“From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere.” – Dr. Seuss

Search for delight this week. Pull the weeds of anxiety that you plant in your thoughts. “Schedule” some fun into each day, lighten up and put that smile to work. A new week, a new view.

“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!” – Dr. Seuss

Jan 19

9 Comments

Make Your Day

“With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” - Walt Disney

“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” – Walt Disney

Take your day back. Slow down. Play. Explore. Discover. Have fun. All right in the middle of daily pressures and deadlines, many self-imposed. Put your heart and time into what’s truly important. We too easily surrender control of our day. Transform the noise of busyness into music of meaning. Molly and Lily remind me everyday to lighten up, party a little, laugh alot and keep buying toys they can shred. Now go make your day, your tomorrow, your life.

Jan 5

9 Comments

Keep Pulling

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle

One week into the new year, keep the resolve in your resolutions, the promises to yourself. While I wasn’t a 100% successful in each resolution this week, I did well in some areas and there’s more work to do in other areas.

Day in, day out, shifting, readjusting, getting back up. Each day we keep promises to ourselves and others, we form habits and new mindsets. So instead of pushing, we are pulled by the habits that we build through repetition and consistency. True fulfillment is found in the work to achieve the goal, not in finding a shortcut. Create the pull every day, a step at a time.

“Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.” - Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

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