All that mattered

It really is all that matters. Looking back at memories with people who are no longer with us what is it you remember? I don't remember things, but I do remember situations, happenings, emotions. With each person there are always 'general' feelings and memories but also specific things. 

Does it change how you treat those around you now? For me, yes, mostly. There are exceptions and moments that I just don't have anything left and want to be left alone to regroup. Something that I don't often have a lot of. Alone time. That will change, eventually. In the meantime all I can do is the best I can so those memories are good on both sides...

Peace within yourself

Finding true peace is often difficult. All around  us is noise, activity, with people and things literally "calling us" demanding our attention. If we need silence to hear the voice within, it is a far cry finding it in these times. 

I often seek 'peace'. I am not just looking for quiet, but that feeling of peace within. I think that when we find it at first, we have to go about the same routine to find it again. After a while I believe that we are able to carry it with us 'most' of the time, but not all. I am not to that point yet unfortunately. I am still trying to achieve it at times. 

I also think that peace comes after healing. Healing from past hurts, wrongs, grief... not a quick fix by any means. Don't stop healing, don't stop searching for peace. You never know when it is just around the corner.  

My wish for you this evening: may you find the peace you seek within yourself.

Celebrate life

I often wonder if anyone's life is exactly how they want it to be. Mine is not. Anyone I know and have asked, it is not. Always something they would change. 

I think the key is not to focus on what is not, but to focus on what is how you want it to be. Focus on the positives you have in your life. This is a daily, sometimes several times a day reminder that there are good things in your life. The more you remember to do it and find those positive the better things get. That said, the more you focus on the negatives the more you are unhappy about what is not good. Like complaining. The more you complain the more you seem to find to complain about. I am called to look at that when someone I come in contact with does nothing but complain. I realize how I would sound if I did that. 

Take a bit of time and think about what is good in your life. Find as many positives around you that you can. Keep your eyes and heart open for more in the coming days. Maybe make a list that you can look at for a reminder. Focus on the good and celebrate the fact that you are alive... make today count!

Beauty in life

Wow. How often does your day go as planned, let alone your life? Mine, rarely. I get up and make a general overview for the day but often it gets changed. Sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for hours. I guess we don't live in a bubble. If I did I could plan and have it work the way I wanted. 

Our life is more like a weaving...and each person is a thread. Perhaps I should say each living thing could be a thread in that weaving. Lets carry that even further. Each thing, living or otherwise that we come in contact with somehow each day could be a thread of a different color. Imagine what your weaving would look like. If we took out all of the other threads but people, the weaving would look much different. 

There is a memorial service tonight for a very old friend who passed away. She was a thread in my weaving that showed up at different times over the last 30+ years. Sometimes she was there very predominantly, sometimes that thread was missing for months, even years. I know her life never went as planned. I am not sure how much beauty she found in life at the end. I know before she found it in things all around her, but not later. 

I think the key is to find beauty in your life each day, go one day at a time and make the best of things. We are not in control of things, we may as well make the best of what we have and enjoy the life we have! 

Happy Thought

It is so peaceful. 

I see the wind chimes all moving in the breeze, sun is shining in the window, music is playing softly and the cockatiel is singing his song in the background. Is all right with the world? No, but I am grateful for what is. 

Home

This tends to go with the "Bloom Where You Are Planted" theme as well. It is true. I think you carry your home in your heart. It is where you are. There are places you have lived, the place where you are actually from, places you visited, but home? Wherever you choose to 'nest' is the place you can be calling home. 

Understanding life

I certainly do not consider that I understand life. I used to plan, plan, plan. I spent 15 years in France, planning for retirement and being back in Michigan. The move, all we would see before leaving Europe... and my husband died and all of those plans went up in smoke. 

It made me realize you can only deal with one day at a time. The day we are in. You can do some things to plan ahead as well as keep focused, out of debt (as much as possible), be positive, and I could just keep going. But understanding life? This post has it right as far as I am concerned. Talk to a 2, 3, 4, even a 5 year old. Get the idea. Then just do the best you can with the info you have been given and enjoy life a day at a time.