-
Christmas Morning
Tomorrow, we will resume our regular programing, but for today–a poem. Christmas Morning Fallen leaves hushed by frost Collect along the edge of the sidewalk. An old man, formal in a fur-trimmed hat, Echoes “Merry Christmas” from the shelter of his front porch. Leaded glass stars sway a vintage greeting Below the archway of the Grand Dame on the corner. Christmas Day begins with the deep quiet that cloaks reverence Like a velvety blanket of falling snow. Slowly, the brilliant sunshine shortens the shadows And awakens a desperate sparrow’s song.
-
Humanness
“I’ve been around a long time and life still has a whole lot of surprises for me.” –Loretta Lynn We are busy. Our work is important. The household needs managing. We are taking care of our duties and responsibilities–going to the dentist, walking the dog, and saving for retirement. It is in the midst of these mundane activities that our lives unfold. With beauty and grace, life awakens us through moments of shared authenticity. People being authentically themselves do so unabashedly. Whatever the form the authenticity takes, it is done so without thought of an audience’s applause. It is simply one human being living their truth in the presence of others. This humanness is what makes us…
-
No Complaints
“Complaining does not work as a strategy. We all have finite time and energy. Any time we spend whining is unlikely to help us achieve our goals. And it won’t make us happier.” –Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture Nobody likes a whiner. Consider this…most, if not all, of the situations in your life you have had the privilege of creating. Your environs–home and work, the relationships in your life, and even the nature of those relationships are the direct or indirect results of your choices. You’re the chooser. It’s a powerful thing to look around your life and acknowledge that you chose it. At the very least, we choose our response to our situations…if not the situations themselves. Whining for…
-
Messengers
There are times when it seems old friends come out of the woodwork. Your paths cross for some mysterious, karmic reason, and it takes you back in time. Sometimes, it’s not an actual encounter at all–a glimpse of old photograph or a simple turn of phrase, and we become virtual time travelers. Instagram is full of the ubiquitous #TBT. (Does anyone even use hashtags anymore?) Facebook, too, incites rumination with its Year in Review and On This Date functionality. Whatever the trigger, rearview reflections are often useful in considering just how far we’ve come. Or maybe how much farther we’d like to go. At the beginning of 2015, I wrote three goals on my mirror. Run a marathon. Write a book.…
-
Balancing
She walks along the edge of where the ocean meets the sand just like she’s walking on a wire in the circus. – Counting Crows, Round Here People often speak about seeking balance in their lives. Sometimes, they refer to wanting things to be in balance or about achieving balance. But balance isn’t static. It is something we only get to glimpse in passing. Like a sensitive set of scales…as soon as there is the tiniest shift everything is set into motion again. So to, when several plates are spinning, if one is left unattended, it begins to wobble. The trick with balancing is accepting the wobble–shifting the focus from a static sense of balance…
