Sunday Sunshine: In Common

I read about something called the Three Sisters, meaning corn, beans and squash. When the Three Sisters are planted together, they provide support to each other's growth. 

Instead of competing and crowding each other out, they use their diversity and their differences wisely so that all three can flourish.

What a lesson! We spend so much time focusing on our differences these days. We humans could learn from the Three Sisters and from nature, in general.

When we first seek to find common ground, we can then appreciate our diversity and wisely address our differences.

So, be present. Reach out. Listen respectfully. Engage in conversation. Learn. Grow.

Where might you benefit from finding common ground?

Today, this week: Look for the similarities before the differences. 

Sunday Sunshine: Positive Energy

The chatter can feel deafening. We are constantly bombarded by messages, both positive and negative. But it seems that we dwell most on the negative messages, the disturbing stuff that has become equated with the word news. 

Now is a perfect time to clean your internal house. Remove the gossip, the mean-spirited words and the stressful news from your life as much as possible. 

Fill that newly cleaned space with kindness, love, joy, and positive energy and activities. When you choose to think positive thoughts, your days will blossom with happiness and opportunity.

Don’t keep those good energies to yourself, however. Share that love, kindness and joy with others around you. Cast them far and wide.

Let the good energy flow out of you like the blossoming of a flower or the brilliant transformation of a tree as it turns color in the fall. You have the power to bring light and beauty to yourself and to the world.

Today, this week: Rise above the fray in this world. Bloom with love and kindness to everyone around you.

Sunday Sunshine: Embrace Impermanence

Things are constantly changing and evolving. They may seem to remain constant, but they’re not. Change can happen so slowly that we scarcely recognize it, but change is there all the same.

When we understand that change is happening around us and inside of us all of the time, we can more easily come to a place of acceptance and even anticipation for it. Change can appear more exciting and fun. Change can present new adventures, new perspectives and new ways of being.

When we accept impermanence in our lives, we start to see that now -- this very moment -- is what we have. Each day is filled with “now” moments worthy of our attention.

Rather than being afraid of change, fully embrace it. See the beauty and potential growth in it. Change can be a gift and an opportunity, rather than a crisis to be feared. It’s all in how we choose to see it.

Today, this week: Embrace impermanence and live in the moment.

Sunday Sunshine: Learn, Grow, Become

The new school year provides the perfect time to remind ourselves that learning can take place every day and at every stage of our lives, whether or not we’re in the formal setting of a classroom.

What new thought is calling to you? What would you like to learn?

When you’re curious and you choose to see everything as a teachable moment, you learn new information and expand your perspectives.

How do you plan to stretch your horizons?

Today, this week: Spend time each day learning something new.

Sunday Sunshine: Look to the Rainbows

There are days when it seems as if the old adage of “when it rains, it pours” is so true that there aren’t enough umbrellas and galoshes to protect you from the deluge.

Don’t allow yourself to get swallowed up by the storms in your life. Redirect your focus to rise above the rain. Reach for the rainbows.

When you dedicate energy to seeking the good and seeing the possibilities in each difficult situation, the hold that those sorrows and fears have over you is lessened. It’s easier to flow through the experience until you can see the sunshine again.

Life will have its way of giving us rain every now and again, but don’t dwell there. Seek the light. Be the light. Look to the rainbows.

Today, this week: Reach for the rainbows and they will be there for you.

Sunday Sunshine: Live Joyfully. Live Peacefully. Live Lovingly.

Look in the mirror—not just to brush your teeth or comb your hair. Really look at your reflection. What do you see? Do you see the face of peace? Of love? Of joy?

Smile, for you are all of those good things!

When you reach into the depths of your being to find that eternal fountain of joy, peace and love, they can’t help but radiate from you so that they’re visible on your face.

Love, peace and joy are always there to tap into, even when things feel difficult or challenging.

So, use the gift of today to be loving, joyful and peaceful. Make it your intention to be a reflection to the world of all that is good. Reflect the light.

Today, this week: Live joyfully. Live peacefully. Live lovingly.

Sunday Sunshine: Be a Blessing

As human beings, our wants are often greater than our needs. When we pause and reflect on our blessings, both large and small, grand and everyday, immediate and evergreen, everything changes.

When we're grateful, we often find that what we have is enough. There is peace in knowing that it is all enough. There is no need for more. What we have is already blessing.

And when we feel blessed, we often find that there is enough blessing inside of us to share them with others. That sharing of blessing doesn’t have to be big or grandiose. It can be small, everyday and ordinary, such as purchasing a few extra nonperishable foods for your local food bank, calling a homebound friend for some conversation, opening the door for someone as you both enter a building or writing a note of thanks for a kindness expressed to you.

Those small acts reflect good in the world. That goodness will have a ripple effect, extending goodness again and again and again.

Today, this week: Look for ways each day to be a blessing to others. Reflect all that is good.