GROWING AND PRUNING

    Beginnings and transitions are always hard work because so much adjustment is required. We have to assimilate the new without abandoning our daily maintenance routines. We have to make room for the unknown and the unforeseen and be willing to be flexible. At first, it seems impossible that we could absorb anything additional into our already full life, and yet, we can, and we do. Life fills up just a little bit more.
     Life in transition is a growing and expanding phase. But eventually, lest we become tangled in a jungle of suffocating vines and overgrowth, pruning is always required. We have to pare back, and trim down. Though we may pile on more and more and more indefinitely, it's a pace we cannot keep. Eventually, with too much on every front, we burn out, and compromise the quality of our lives.
     Let's be smart. Let's grow at a sustainable pace. Let's live a life of give and take, of exciting forward progress and reflective still motion. Let's regularly pause and clear the air, and our schedules, and our emails, and our minds, so that we can can enjoy the journey, and appreciate every detail of the ride.

I learn to pace myself in life, and know how to pare back when my plate is overfull.

RESPECT

     Respect yourself. Respect others. Respect the environment. This was the motto of my childrens' elementary school, and it makes perfect sense to me. These three statements say it all and apply on every level. But simple as they are, it's hard not to fall short one way or the other. Perhaps we have a tendency to misinterpret respect. I believe it has to do with care and kindness, with live and let live, and maybe more than anything, with gratitude and appreciation.
     It seems so reasonable. Of course we should respect the environment, and yet, we pollute it, both culturally and personally. We take the natural world for granted. And we're able to respect some people, but have little tolerance and lots of judgment for most others. And when it comes to self-respect, we are generally reckless. We easily abuse ourselves with criticizing thoughts; with stress, and food, and extreme behavior.
     Let's improve our levels of respect for all things by raising our awareness. Let's become mindful of what we send out into the world, because it is sure to come back around to us in the end.

I give respect and receive it in kind.

MOVING THROUGH FEAR

     Fear is a lame excuse, and it's at the root of all of our excuses.We are afraid of pain, of difficulty, of failure. We are afraid of the unknown. We are afraid we will look silly, not be able to keep up, over-complicate our lives; that we will experience discomfort. Even when there are things that we want, things that we have wanted for a long time, and have worked particularly hard to achieve- we get close to getting them and we throw in the towel. Never mind, we tell ourselves. Who are we kidding?
     We retreat to what we know, and feel a certain relief, but not really. We have bailed on our hopes and played it safe. We have taken a seat and abandoned the actualizing of our vision. And as a result of our sudden inaction, the fear dissipates, but so does the excitement, and we are left flat. We have flattened ourselves.
     Let's acknowledge our fear, but not let it squash us. Let's push forth and gather up the daily willingness to risk our comfort for our continued evolution. Let's believe in our path, and our dreams, and that we are on course and right on time- even if it's scary, even if we can't see far ahead, and even if we have no idea how it's all going to turn out in the end.

I am willing to stretch. I feel my fear but don't let it stop me. I trust in the calling of my dreams.

THE POSSIBLE

     Sometimes our lessons and inspirations come from the most unlikely places. We project and pre-judge, and write things and people off without clearly understanding what value they might have for us. We live our lives in discount mode. We discount others and we discount ourselves. We are arrogant and think we know everything about everything, or else we are so ruled by fear that we paralyze ourselves and refuse to grow.
     Let's live in the draft of an open mind on all fronts, and be patient. Let's be willing to wait and see and entertain the concept of maybe. We are impulsive. We say yes to this and no to that- without thought, without consideration, and without the element of possibility in the mix. Let's open ourselves to the idea that anything is possible, and that we never know what unlikely event or encounter could positively change the entire course of our lives.

I keep an open mind and do not shut down ideas on impulse. I am willing to experience the possible in all walks of life.

MAGNETS

     Life is magnetic. We are drawn to certain things and people and places, and repulsed from others. I can't help but think that what we are drawn to has a meaning, or a lesson, or a gift for us, and that if we discount the pull, we miss out. I believe we are meant to explore things- sometimes shallowly and sometimes deeply; and that our exploration often takes courage that we are hard-pressed to muster. It seems easier to say that the grapes are sour before we have even spotted the vine.
     But what's our point in being here anyway- in being alive? Is it about safety? Is it about maintaining the status quo? Or is it about trying things and following leads and having the faith to take a risk- and then trusting ourselves enough to know when it's time to turn home?

I trust myself to explore the things I am drawn to, and then to make good decisions as I follow the path.

THE REAL REALITY

     Misconstrue is a good word, and applicable to more of our life experience than we can possibly realize. We misconstrue our responsibilities, and our power to control things. We misconstrue people and outcomes and motives and meanings. We manufacture a personal reality based on our thoughts and our skewed understanding of how people feel, and what we think they want and need. We get all tangled up in strings. In any situation that involves people, we can be sure that there is some kind of misconstruing going on. Something is being misconstrued by someone.
     If we aren't sure and don't know absolutely the how and why and where and when of a life happening, let's call it for what it is, and admit that we don't know. And if we are meant to, we will, and if we are not, we won't. Some things become clear as they unfold, or else we understand them in hindsight, and some things aren't ever going to make logical sense to us. They simply are what they are, and that's the most we will ever get.

Knowing how easily I misconstrue situations, and people, I am willing to make room in my thinking for the fact that I may not understand the real reality.

PRIORITIES

     What are the priorities in our lives? What do we make important? What is disposable and what is absolutely non-negotiable? What's the most important thing, and who's the most important person? Do we make time for the things we love? Are we disposable? Do our needs matter less than the needs of our spouse or our children or our parents or friends? Do we have friends? Do we make them a priority?
     Let's think about it. How do we measure the pieces and the portions of our lives?

I realistically examine my priorities to see what they say about me, and I become willing to move things around in order to honor my truth.