Be grateful for all your real-ationships. Open yourself to the lessons & gifts from each person in your life. Trust that you, too, are a gift in other people’s lives.
A friend recently gave me a new exercycle that he couldn’t use because it was too small for him. I graciously accepted it, anticipating that I would need to get rid of my stair-stepper to make room for it. While I tried to figure out what to do with my stair stepper, I juggled things around in my “office” just to get the exercyle out of the way.
I am a fan of life-long learning. That requires that my experiences serve as lessons to propel me on my journey, not chains that bind me to the past & bog me down. I take to heart what George Santayana reminds us, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
This past week-end a friend shared the following inspiration from C.S. Lewis, “You can’t go back & change the beginning, but you can start where you are & change the ending.”
Both of these quotes really seem relevant as we go through these challenging times- we need to learn from the past; however, we need to own the m”own”ment, & move on even though we may not be sure of our destination or how we’re going to get there.
Actually, I believe that if we all put into practice the following 3 R’s that stem from the Dalai Lama’s teachings the world could & would be a better place: Respect for self…Respect for others…Responsibility for all our actions- that means no finger pointing or blaming others…In turn, these make me think of the song, “Let there be peace on earth & let it begin with me”…
I have to admit how fortunate I feel to be enjoying good health during this pandemic; however, this week I did experience a case of spring fever along with cabin fever. Thus, I decided to prepare a picnic lunch & go hiking in the mountains up by the Provoo River where I rarely see anybody else.
Today, I was fortunate to go for a picnic snowshoe. When I arrived at the trailhead, I pulled out the case where I envisioned my National Parks pass would be. I flipped through the contents & didn’t see it so I resorted to pulling out things from my glove comparment, then the center compartment, the visors, and then back to the little case. As you can imagine by then I was very frustrated; especially, since I pride myself in being organized.
I’m glad to say that I’ve filed my taxes for 2019. The questionnaire that I filled out prior to meeting with the tax preparer included the above questions. I admit, I was in the mode of checking “no” so much that I almost stopped reading the questions.
Yesterday, I was to go to Salt Lake City to celebrate my birthday with my sons & Rachel. Shortly, before I left, it started snowing quite heavily. I didn’t venture far before I pulled over to call my son to check on weather conditions in Salt Lake City. He filled me in that it was snowing quite heavily there as well. Since I’m currently dog sitting, I decided to turn around. I was concerned what the road conditions could be like after a movie & dinner- by then they might be requiring chains or 4 wheel drive (I have neither) and/or possibly shut down the canyon due to an accident.
OK…here’s my dilemma…Was I allowing fear to inter”fear” with living fully or was it wisdom- after all, I’m a year older & hopefully a bit wiser as well…
We do tend to be our own worst critics, don’t we? Maybe I need to cut myself a little slack- it’s only been 7 months since my car was totaled in an accident…(June 21, 2019 blog) In cases like this, I wish I could treat myself more compassionately like I would a friend. Actually, I think this will be my birthday gift to myself as well as my New Year’s resolution.
Best wishes to all of you as we progress through 2020- may our “joy”ney be filled with lots of memorable moments…