Ray of Sunshine: Reach Out with Love

Reach out with love. Extend a hand. Dry a tear. We are here to lift each other up.

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

Ray of Sunshine: Try this Recipe

Recipe for Living Well

Equal parts of the following: Spread joy. Be loving and kind. Give generously. Give thanks. Embrace your inner wisdom. Seek to understand. Come from a place of respect. 

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

Ray of Sunshine: Lift a Hand

Lift a hand. Show kindness. Display compassion. During times of difficulty, love is the beacon to see us through.

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

Ray of Sunshine: Fill Your Heart with Love

Fill your mind and heart with love. The fruits of your efforts will make this world a better, kinder place.

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

Ray of Sunshine: Spread Love

Breathe love. Spread love. Love is stronger than hate, stronger than fear. Be the good you wish to see in the world.

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

Sunday Sunshine: Be the Light.

At this time of darkness,

Light a candle of peace.

Light a candle of joy.

Light a candle of love.

Light a candle of hope.

Light a candle of respect.

Light a candle of compassion.

Light a candle to illuminate the way.

Light a candle.

Be the light.

Today, this week: Be the Light.

Sunday Sunshine: Angels Among Us

There are angels among us everywhere. They don’t all have wings and halos or play harps or wear white robes. Angels come in the form of those who don’t make a lot of fanfare but whose actions demonstrate love. Angels can be found in our everyday encounters:

The person who sits with an elderly woman, holding her hand in times of fear

The person who patiently sits with a young child, encouraging him to read aloud when reading comes difficult

The person who delivers a hot meal to a homebound neighbor

The person who extends a hand in welcome to a stranger

The person who knits a prayer shawl for a hospital patient

Be one of those angels among us. Be an angel in someone’s life.

Be kind, be loving, be inclusive, be generous, be patient.

Today, this week: Watch for the angels around you. Take their cue and be one, too.

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: 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: Sow Seeds of Love, Abundance and Joy

As farm fields become dense with growth and gardens yield summer produce and flowers, consider the seeds that you plant.

Do you sow seeds of love, abundance and joy? Do you create an atmosphere that is fertile for kindness, encouragement and goodwill? Do you care and feed your own internal "garden" to maximize personal growth and enrichment?

Plant the seeds today that will produce bright tomorrows.

Today, this week: Sow seeds of love, abundance and joy wherever you go.

Sunday Sunshine: Love Works

In a world that often seems to be filled with fear, worry, division and differences, love is the answer. Love works. Love is the greatest gift that we can give each other.

Love builds bridges, offers compassion, displays kindness, shows patience, is gracious, is generous, values others. When unsure just what to do or say, come from a place of love.

Today, this week: Spread love. Love works.

Sunday Sunshine: Be Kind. Be Loving.

You hold tremendous power -- more power than you realize.

You have the capacity to fill the world with your love, kindness, and compassion. That's right -- to fill the world! 

As that good energy goes out into the universe, it gets passed on and on and on.

Be kind. Be compassionate. Be loving. 

Today, this week: Let your thoughts, words and actions be expressions of love and kindness. 

Sunday Sunshine: YOU Are Sunshine!

During a string of rainy days, I got to the point where I felt as if the sunshine was never going to return again. Although I don't think of myself as being negatively affected by the weather for very long, I have to admit that the day-after-day experience of slate skies and downpours was affecting my happiness.

The rainy days will come--perhaps as just one day of drizzle or perhaps as an extended period of torrents--in your life. But, no matter the weather, no matter the circumstances in your life, you have the ability, you hold the power to rise above the rain to a place of blue skies. 

You hold those blue skies inside of you at all times. You hold a place of sunshine inside of you always. You are light. You can bring that light to yourself at any time. And you can share it with others and be the light for them, too.

Today, this week: Spread sunshine, no matter the weather. Be light.

Sunday Sunshine: Build a Bridge, Be a Bridge

While hiking in a verdant, natural area, we suddenly encountered a bright yellow sign emblazoned with the word "bridge" in bold, black capital letters.

Surely, the sign informed hikers and cross-country skiers of an upcoming bridge, but the sign also made me think about the ways we can be bridges, too.

When we choose to be a bridge of love and understanding, we create a safe place for respectful conversation. We serve as a sign to others of a safe crossing for differing ideas and perspectives. We invite others who may think, speak or live differently than we do to be our teachers. We encourage the expansion of our own knowledge and understanding.

Choose to listen with an open mind and heart and invite others to respectfully share their thoughts, their perspectives, their experiences and their talents. Soon the chasms of misunderstanding and fear will be gone. In their place, we will find bridges forming in all directions.

Today, this week: Listen with an open mind and heart. Build bridges of love, respect and understanding. 

Sunday Sunshine: Choose Kindness

How many times have you said something and wished you could scoop those words back up and swallow them? 

How many times have you done something (or not done something) and thought afterward that you could have acted differently and made the day better for someone else?

Our days are made up of myriad moments that present possibilities for our thoughtful words and actions.

No matter how difficult those moments, no matter how badly our patience is tested, there is always room for kindness.

When you choose to be kind, your kindness serves as a magnet. It finds ways to come back to you multi-fold. 

Kindness is an energy that our world so badly needs.

That doesn't mean that you shouldn't create healthy boundaries for yourself. It means that when you have an opportunity to lift up or tear down, always choose to lift up. Always.

Today, this week: In your every encounter, choose to be kind.

Sunday Sunshine: Spring Clean Your Internal House

The chatter can feel deafening. We are constantly bombarded by messages, both positive and negative. It seems, though, that we tend to dwell most on the negative messages. 

It's spring, the perfect season 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. Then, share that love, kindness and joy with others around you. 

Let the good energy flow out of you like unfurling petals of a bright spring flower. You have the power to bring such 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: Draw from a Place of Love

It's easy in this age of 24/7 news and polarizing perspectives to believe that we can do nothing to positively affect the world. We can easily forget that one of the most powerful things we can do every single day is to spread love. What better way to build a bridge during a time of so many great divides?

When we step back a moment from the things that appear to separate us and focus instead on how we might be kind, respectful, compassionate and loving, we take positive action that sends ripples of positivity in all directions. 

We benefit when we live with our whole hearts -- hearts of love, kindness and decency.

Today, this week: Draw from a place of love in all you think, say and do.

Fresh Thoughts for Your Monday: Give Joy!

If you could package up something lovely to give to another person (or for yourself), what might it be? 

Many of us exchange gifts at this time of year. It’s the season of gift giving after all: A good book, a new tie, some warm socks, the latest toy. 

But what about those intangible gifts, those gifts that you can’t quite put a bow on?

What if your gift-giving ideas included giving joy, peace and love—not just to those on your list, but to as many people as you possibly can?

The holidays are joyful for many people, but for many others, they’re a reminder of losses, tense relationships, loneliness, a shortage of cash, a difficult health diagnosis.

Today, this week: Give the gifts of joy, peace and love wherever you go.

Fresh Thoughts for Your Monday: Be the Light in the Darkness

The days are short, the nights long. At times, it feels as if you get up in the dark, go to work in the dark, come home in the dark, go to sleep in the dark.

For some of us, life itself can feel dark with grief, sadness, loss, tragedy, uncertainty. We crave light—just a little ray of light—in all of that darkness.

Be the light where there’s darkness. Be love where there’s hate. Be kindness where there’s cruelty. Be hopeful where there’s uncertainty.

Today, this week: Cast your light into a dark world.

Fresh Thoughts for Your Monday: Spread Love

In a world that often seems to be filled with fear, worry, division and differences, love is the answer. Love works. 

Love is the greatest gift that we can give each other. 

Love builds bridges, offers compassion, displays kindness, shows patience, is gracious, is generous, values others. 

When unsure just what to do or say, come from a place of love.

Today, this week: Spread love.