Sunday Sunshine: Look to Nature for Nurture

So much in life is bright and beautiful, just as the season of spring shows us through nature’s magnificent palette. The loveliness found in a spring day refreshes and renews.

Look to nature for nurture. Get outside. Breathe in the spring air. Watch the loveliness of the season unfold around you. Then, carry that beauty of spring with you in your heart.

When you fill your mind and heart with spring-like thoughts and feelings of the bright and beautiful, you invite them to feed your spirit and positively affect your mood and outlook.

When you choose to experience the bright and beautiful in your day, your eyes will begin to focus on those moments more and more until they naturally become what you view.

Today, this week: Enjoy these lovely spring days and carry them in your heart.

Fresh Thoughts for Your Monday: Spend Time in Nature

When the summer sun is warm and the days long, spend as much time as you can outdoors communing with nature.

Many of us tend to spend much of our time indoors, particularly during the workday. When we seek out nature, we benefit from its gifts of renewal and wellness. We feel a connection to others and to every living thing. The chatter in our busy brains quiets and we reconnect with ourselves.

Today, this week: Spend time in nature. Your mind, body and spirit will thank you.

Playing Outside

When I was a child, I loved to play outside.  That's where the swing was that my dad had made and the sandbox he had crafted.  That's where the weeping willows were, my favorite childhood trees, where I could while away the hours, my imagination taking me to faraway places.  That's where the snow forts could be built or the "houses" made of fall leaves.  To this day, I love to be outside.  So, on a recent Sunday, when my chore list was longer than my arm, I resisted and took to the outdoors instead.  Fortunately, some of my chores were outside jobs: trimming the dead wood from the French lilac, raking the leaves from between the evergreen shrubs and erecting cages to save the burning bushes from becoming deer appetizers in the winter.  But, it was also the perfect afternoon for a walk in town, followed by a walk with Larry at Devil's Lake.  Everyone seemed to be out that afternoon, either doing yard work or taking walks themselves.  Many of them were wearing shorts just one more time.  I'm so grateful for the opportunity to get outside, breathe deeply the fresh air and revel in the warm, sunny autumn sky.

Ah! Fresh Air

I've been trying to adjust once again to the time change, when all around me is darkness.  My internal clock continues to get me up early, so I've been going into work at 7:00 a.m. instead of the normal 8:00.  By the time I leave work at 5:00 p.m., all is dark again.  My weeknight walks have been curtailed for a few months until daylight returns.  At this time of year, I try my hardest to adjust to exercising indoors, but it is so hard.  As someone said recently, exercising outdoors is so much more fun.  The time flies (is even non-existent, in fact).  When I exercise indoors, I have one eye to the clock all the while, hoping that my exercise time will be over soon.  There is nothing like getting your heart pumping while being out in nature, filling your lungs with fresh air.  For now, though, it's time to head inside.