Happy Winter!

 

#Justfortoday...

My PR Manager, Sherri McLendon, is always inspiring me to create anew!  She told me recently to do something each day to experience my joy.  Just for today... I'm going to order the Outlander Kitchen Cookbook and start my journey with a little taste of Scotland.  Just for today...perhaps that will pacify my Outlander cravings for now.  Just for today...

Fresh

A few weeks ago, I did an exercise meant to help me get in touch with my core values. Right there, alongside "adventurous spirit" and "commitment to family and community" were lots of words about lifestyle: elegant, mannered, inspired, creative and ...gracious. Or, as my friends might say, Grace-ish.

A lot of us yearn for a world that respects dignity, values politeness, and behaves decently. Lately, we've seen less of that in our day to day lives. We may feel it's time for a change, an adventure, a new vista. Something fresh that renews our spirits, like white daisies in a field, or clothes dancing on a line.

We need a break, but we "put off" taking one, thinking of what we need to do, rather than what we're here to experience. Every time we choose to ignore that voice inside that tells us we need to make a change, we're missing the opportunity to fully live the meaningful life we're here to explore.

Just for today, notice the times that you push away the things you desire most in order to spend more time with the things that mean least. Then multiply that by the number of days, weeks, and years that lie ahead. 

Think you can wait that long to live your life?

Grace

You are a Star...

If your life were a movie, how would it play out? 

You already do it.  You recreate your day every night while you try to drift into sleep.  Sometimes it’s even hard to turn the movie off.  Do you like what you see?  More often than not, you are very critical of your performance of the day. 

Perhaps you should approach this differently.  What if you started your day with a movie of how you want your day to go?  What if you remembered that you have a clean slate and the world you live in is your very own?  What if you decided every nuance of your day before it happens?  What would it be like?

As always, you have to know where you are going.  You have to know what it is you want to accomplish.  Now, open your thoughts to the unlimited potential in creating your day.  You are the star of your life.  Look for and act upon the opportunities that will unfold as you play out your day.

Will it be perfect?  Probably not in the beginning and you may never reach perfection.  But I would say, striving for perfection is pretty good stuff.  You may need to do several retakes to get it right.  But that’s ok.  The beauty is, you get to!  You are a Star!

Grace

As a child....

I love to hear the trains rumbling over the tracks as it breaks through the still of the night.  And then the horn blares loudly in warning as it approaches a crossing road.  It comforts me.  It reminds me, as a little girl, I could hear the sound of the railroad cars rolling through our town, less than a mile away

as a crow flies.

Being a child...how wonderful...how wonderful to have everything as a possibility, when your biggest challenge was, "which one," or better yet, "I want it all," having not yet been convinced of the world's "can't dos", starting out with a clean slate, no baggage.  Baggage.  That's the culprit.  That's what trips us up as adults.

So here's the thing.  Everyday truly is a clean slate.  In fact, every moment of every day is a clean slate.  That's your starting point.  Right now.  Forget about last week when you didn't live up to, not only your own expectations, but also the ones others placed on you.  Forget about yesterday when you decided to do nothing constructive on a Sunday afternoon and now you feel guilty.  Forget about ten minutes ago when you realized you hadn't made a plan for your day, much less your week.  Let it go.

Frankly, the guilt of not living up to your expectations and those you "think" others have are holding you back.  Focus on right now.  What can you do right now?  "Give every man more in use value than you take from him in cash value; then you are adding to the life of the world by every business transaction," Wallace Wattles, The Science of Getting Rich.  Start there.  When you screw up, and you will, let it go and move on.  The worry over of what you didn't do or what you haven't done will only keep you down.

Focus on this moment and what you are doing right now.  Decide what you want.  Believe.  Believe as a child that you can do it!  You are going to get so many things right!  Now get out there and do something!

Grace