Fresh Thoughts for Your Monday: See the Light. Be the Light.

We are quickly approaching the longest day of the year. Yet, there is darkness all around us. The storms of grief, the shadows of worry, the clouds of concern can prevent us from seeing the light that is also all around us--the light that is beaming brightly within us.

Instead of focusing on your cares and worries, redirect your view to your blessings, to the sources of your joy and gratitude.

Then, cast that light outward to others so that they, too, feel the light. The weight and intensity of their storms, shadows and clouds will lessen.

When you see the light, you become the light.

Fresh Thoughts for Your Monday: Grow!

It’s a new day and a new week! A time for growth and possibility!

Look to nature for nurture. The loveliness found in a summer day refreshes and renews.

Find that same powerful renewal in yourself. 

Today, this week: Give yourself the gift of fresh views and fresh thoughts. When you see the ordinary through the eyes of the extraordinary, everything seems possible.

Fresh Thoughts for Your Monday: Bloom!

This is the season of tilling and planting, greening and growing, blossoming and flourishing.

Take a cue from nature and bloom where you’re planted.

Today, this week: Make the world a better place today through the beauty of your talents, generosity and kindness.

Whatever the Weather

At this time of year in Wisconsin, the weather is fickle. One day, we need sweaters and contemplate putting that extra blanket back on the bed. The next day, the temperatures soar and I'm wondering if it's time to close up all of the windows and succumb to air conditioning.

A few months ago, my husband and I attended an interesting lecture about climate change delivered by a university professor who specializes in atmospheric and oceanic sciences. He showed us diagrams and charts that helped confirm that the warmer temperatures we thought we’d been experiencing for years have actually been happening. Compared to the days of my childhood, we have indeed experienced more days that have been warmer than the norm, including during the winter months.

In this month when we anticipate summer’s official arrival, we can experience some hot, hot, hot days—blistering hot days with temperatures in the 90s and high humidity. By contrast, we can also experience cold, dreary, rainy days that make you contemplate turning back on the furnace.

We wait so long to be able to open windows in the northern Midwest that I sometimes let myself sweat for as long as I can before forcing myself to close the windows and turn on the air conditioning. I sit quietly, down lots of water and let the warm breezes blow in. Eventually, the air conditioning gets turned on—especially if we want to sleep with any degree of comfort.

I think back to the days when I was a child. Our homes and cars didn't have central air back then. We didn’t even know what that was. We didn’t have a window air conditioning unit at our house either. We planted trees. We bought box fans and we drank lemonade. We went swimming. We ate picnic-style meals that didn’t require turning on the oven. We simply adjusted our activity to the weather and accepted that hot, humid days and nights were part of summer.

I’ve become a softy as I’ve gotten older, relying on the increasing creature comforts to become my standard. But, for this month, I’m going to revert to my childhood and revel as long as I can in those warm days of old, when welcoming breezes through open windows were some of the loveliest signs of the season.

Affirming Words: I Feed My Creative Spirit

Consider adopting these Affirming Words for this month. 

Say them often to yourself -- whenever you see yourself in a mirror, when you get out of bed to start the day, whenever you need a little pick-me-up:

I feed my creative spirit by engaging in activities that allow me to express myself.

Fresh Thoughts for Your Monday: Cultivate Peace

You have the capacity to be a peacemaker. We need peacemakers in our world.

You are a peacemaker when you seek to better understand another person’s perspective, listen with your full attention, consider your response carefully, measure your words and show respect.

It doesn’t mean that you have to be in full agreement with the other person, but it does mean that you honor the light in that individual and you give him or her the respect to hold his or her own opinions, even if they are different from yours.

Doing so can help you look through the clutter and distraction of differences in order to find the light of common ground. That light will help you forge a path through differences to a place of compromise and respect.

Today, this week: Cultivate goodwill. Cultivate peace. Cultivate understanding. Be a peacemaker and brighten the world.

Fresh Thoughts for Your Monday: Bright Desires

Spring is that glorious time of year when we witness new beginnings as the earth springs forth with growth and beauty. We tend to our gardens and we watch the plants grow.

Now is also a glorious time to look at what needs to spring forth in your own life and to cultivate and grow those desires and dreams.

What hidden, bright desire do you want to bring forth into your life? Perhaps it’s a new hobby, a new relationship, a new community, a new job, a new book to read, a new hill to climb.

Spring into action! Your season is here!

Today, this week: Be your true, best self. Don’t waste time or energy on regret. You can make great things happen!