Ray of Sunshine: Say Yes

Be open. Say yes. Embrace change. You never know which new opportunities will bring brilliant color to your life.

Blessings for your day and week. Spread sunshine. Be the light.

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: Flow with the Winds of Change

Change - that annoying, exhilarating thing that always seems to be present in our lives. Even when we think that nothing much is new or is changing very much, change is still happening--be it slow, subtle or even outside of our direct notice. 

Sometimes change is fun. We've instigated it so we feel the fruits of our labors when things happen. 

At other times, change is exciting because it comes as a pleasant, unexpected surprise--a gift to disrupt the humdrum predictability of life.

And then, there are those times when change is so unwelcome that we'd like to swiftly close the door on it and prevent it from happening.

It's during those rough spots with change that we need to re-frame our thinking. When we flow with the winds of change, even those winds that feel like a gale or a tornado or a hurricane, we can maneuver the change with greater ease. You may end up somewhere new--perhaps not geographically, but through the way you see things or through the people you meet.

Think about how you respond to change and how you might alter your ways to navigate change's winds more positively.

Today, this week: Flow with the winds of change. They may very well take you to great, new places.

Sunday Sunshine: Stay Grounded

Just when you get used to something, it seems to change! Small things. Big things. It's easy to slip and slide as the sands of change shift underfoot.

In the whirling, twirling experience of change, stay grounded.

Be resilient in a changing world by always living your values, always listening to your heart, and always looking for the good.

Change loses its fear-inducing sting when you hang tight to your values, when you listen to the wisdom you hold within, and when you keep an open mind and look for the good things that can come out of change.

You can't stop change. It's going to happen, but you can control your response.

Today, this week: Roll with the waves of change by staying grounded to what's truly important to you.

Rites of Passage

The end of the school year. Perhaps it's the passing from one grade into another. Perhaps it's graduation from kindergarten, from eighth grade, from high school, from college, from grad school. The moving from one educational experience into another or into the work world or into summer vacation is a rite of passage, at least of sorts. 

The handing out of your final grades for the year, the shelving of your school supplies for the summer are all signs that you're moving from one chapter into another.

Report cards served as my final reminder that the school year was over and summer vacation was here.

I can recall the mixed emotions of ending a school year, for I loved school and I loved learning. To say goodbye to my beloved teachers and professors and to close another chapter in my life book was bittersweet, but the anticipation of a new time in my life, especially summer vacation during my elementary school years, was even more exciting.

Back in that day, summer was a seemingly endless experience. Each day brought relaxation and creative play. There were good books to read and some chores to do, such as helping my mom with housework or learning how to ride the tractor lawn mower. Our meals were prepared more often on the charcoal grill. The evenings were spent at The Panoramic Resort with a soft drink or swimming in the welcoming, cool waters of nearby Devil's Lake.

It was during the summer when I was introduced to Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie mysteries. It was during the summer when I learned about the Euphrates River in Vacation Bible School. It was during the summer when I took swimming lessons from lifeguards Mary Anne and Ginger. It was during the summer when we'd picnic with friends Vi and Glenn at their campsite. Glorious, endless, magnificent summer!

The end of the school year meant saying goodbye to my favorite books in the classroom's library
in exchange for new reading adventures of Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie mysteries.

Perhaps it's not the end of a school year anymore for you, but the changes of season and those rites of passage will continue to enter your life. You just need to be open to receiving them and considering thoughtfully what you want to do with them. 

I read a lovely book a few months ago called Looking for Me by Beth Hoffman (Just the title drew me in.) (2012, Viking, ISBN #1-4104-5693-5). In the book, the main character identifies that we may each be "offered a rite of passage many times throughout our lives, if only we are awake to see it." 

Are you awake? Are you aware and ready for those rites of passage to enter your life?  How will you know when those rites of passage are there and that they are real?

Smiles and kisses around. My mom and me at my high school graduation.

At the same time that I was reading Looking for Me, I received my weekly email of wonderful words of wisdom from Maria Shriver, called Sunday Paper. In that weekly post, she wrote about the necessity for spiritual breaks, those times of our own design or that are thrust upon us when we can ponder the deeper, bigger questions about our purpose, our bliss. She writes of the wisdom of the mystic Rumi, a favorite of mine as well: "What you are looking for is looking for you."

Think about that for a moment. "What you are looking for is looking for you." How wonderful is that?! 

Be awake. Be aware. Identify with those passions and pursuits that keep tugging at you. Examine those epic moments in your life when your foundation shakes and you are called to see things with new eyes because the old no longer exists as you once thought it did. Think of the smaller nudges that call you to a new insight or direction.

The end of the school year is a wonderful reminder that rites of passage are brought into your life for good reason. They're doors opening for you. You can walk through those doors into a new time in your life.

What doors are opening for you right now?

What is your rite of passage right now? Are you being called to a new place, a new experience? Are you fulfilling what you believe to be your purpose? Are your passions pulling you to a new way? Look, and you might find that it's looking for you, too.

Sunday Sunshine: Time for Change

Change is in the air. A new season is about to begin. Spring is on its way!

As much as we may believe that some things are unchanging, we truly live in a state of impermanence. Things are always changing (including us), even if that change takes place slowly.

At other times, change comes suddenly and rapidly and feels as turbulent as a spring storm.

Using nature as our guide and the advent of spring coming upon us just days away, consider how you might be changing. Consider what you'd like to change in your life.

Change can reveal beautiful, new opportunities--whether it happens slowly or swiftly. A new season invites new ways of thinking and new opportunities. 

Today, this week: Embrace change with anticipation.

Fresh Thoughts for Your Monday: Embrace Impermanence

The last day of the year is upon us! It’s a great day to reflect on the blessings and experiences you’ve had over the past 12 months.

It’s also a great day to anticipate the good that will come in the new year that begins tomorrow.

With each day, each month, each year, we see that things are constantly changing and evolving. Things don’t stay the same. They may appear to remain constant, but they’re not. Change can happen so slowly that we scarcely recognize it as such.

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. We start to see that now, this very moment, is what we have. Each day is filled with “now” moments worthy of our attention.

So, on this final day of 2018: Embrace impermanence and live in the moment.

Fresh Thoughts for Your Monday: Embrace Abundance

With the changing of the trees to beautiful autumn color, think blessing. Just as you see the change in the trees, change your way of thinking to recognize all of the abundance in your life.

As you embrace that abundance, the lens through which you see the world will change so that even more abundance will seem to naturally come to you. 

Blessing begets blessing when you direct your focus there. Being in a grateful state sets the stage for more and more for which to be grateful.

Today, this week: Use the autumnal changes to the landscape as a prompt to shift your thinking and your energy. Embrace your abundance and give thanks.

Fresh Thoughts for Your Monday: The Call of the Heart

We all have seasons in our lives—not the seasons of the year necessarily, but those times when we can feel that a shift is happening, a change is needed and a time of newness is calling to us.

We would be wise to listen to those nudges. Is it time for you to consider new experiences, new places, new insights, new people, new opportunities?

As summer gives way to autumn, in what direction is your heart calling you?

Even a slight change can reinvigorate your life.

Today, this week: Listen carefully to the call of your heart.

La Resistance

If I had my way, life's changes would happen more slowly and subtly.  I spend useless time trying to resist change when it seems to come at too fast of a pace or with too hard of a knock.  I was thinking about my reaction to change when I picked up the latest edition of Natural Awakenings magazine.  Tucked inside was a short article by Renee Peterson Trudeau that featured ways to "navigate the challenges of just being human."  One of her tips was to cultivate stillness through meditation, prayer and contemplation.  Another was to be present to what is happening now.  She suggested that if we even temporarily curb our tendencies to change things, we find that we're exactly where we're supposed to be.  I'm taking her words to heart.  Change will be change, but flow is far less taxing than resistance.

Wanna Dance?

At my workplace, a new version of our Intranet is being rolled out this summer.  To help us get ready for the changes, we're learning about it through a series of clever and humorous, digitally animated videos.  On the first video, animated characters did the "dance of resistance" and the "dance of acceptance."  While chuckling at the humor behind the two characters and their respective dances, I couldn't help but think of those times when I might be standing completely still, yet I'm doing the "dance of resistance."  We always hear phrases such as "change is the only constant," but in this technologically advancing world, change is happening ever faster.  It's not always easy to have to adapt so quickly. Yet, to be able to adapt to change with some humor and a sense of adventure is indeed a dance -- a happy dance, if you will. When I go with the flow without worry or fear, I move with greater ease.  So, the next time I start to dig in my heels with resistance, I'll cue myself to think more broadly and with greater acceptance by asking myself, "Wanna dance?"!

Bend But Don't Break

I recently read a quote attributed to Hal Borland (1900-1978), the celebrated American author and journalist:  "The earth has its own pulse and rhythm, and the wise and fortunate man leans with the wind."  The evening before reading that sentence, I had had a conversation with an acquaintance about potentially changing circumstances in her work setting.  She stated calmly and with a smile that she would simply need to adapt, that she had found adaptability to be a necessity in both her personal and professional lives.  It was a brief conversation but her comments stuck with me. She had learned the invaluable ability to lean with the wind.  It got me to thinking about those times when I've adapted in a nearly effortless fashion, how other times I've had to really work at it, and yet other times I found that bending seemed harder than just simply breaking from the wind gusts.  Change requires adaptability and today's life is filled with escalating change.  How does one survive it all and perhaps even thrive?  I do believe that the answer's in the wind, leaning with it, that is.