THE LIMITS OF GRABBING

     When we stop grabbing at life, everything that we have been grabbing for seems to come to us. We cannot receive by force, but only by grace. It is not for us to make up our minds about things and then expect them to play out exactly as we plan. When I sought to make a fortune, I went bankrupt. When I decided to wait a year to have children, I found myself pregnant with twins. When I was absolutely at peace with being by myself, and didn't "need" a relationship, I met my husband.
     We have to come to the place where we know we are enough- that we are ok, no matter what. We have to accept that we don't require anything in particular to be happy and feel fulfilled; not a certain amount of money, or some particular position at work; not the perfect relationship or the perfect family or the perfect past; not an ideal weight, or some specific amount of intelligence or artistic sensibility. We won't ever be happy if only this, or if only that or the other thing happens in our lives.
     If we are happy simply to be, then we will attract happiness and happy situations to us, without effort, without struggle, and without grab.

I surrender my agenda and open to the fountain of happiness within me. I have everything I need.

SAVORING MOMENTS

     There is a certain comfort in the impermanence of things. That nothing remains constant is actually a blessing if we look at it in the right way. It keeps life interesting, and we are sure to never get completely and irretrievably stuck.
     Everything is variable. Our pain is acute, then dull and aching, then un-noticeable, and then it moves elsewhere. Our moods are light, dark; our energy jazzed, mellow, dried-up. We are talkative. We are quiet. We feel like dancing. We feel like sleeping. We laugh, cry, talk with enthusiasm, whisper. We are king of the world, victim, overdone, undone, fresh, weepy, and passionate. We are punchy. We are frantic and edgy. And we can be all of these things in the course of a single day, and often are. Sometimes our vision is fuzzy and sometimes we see like hawks. Our perfect moments do not come to stay, but neither does our trauma.
     Wherever we are, let's enjoy it, knowing that it will not remain. It is exactly because each experience is fleeting that it is so incredibly beautiful.

I savor my moments. I appreciate what's happening right in front of me right now knowing that it will change faster than I realize, and never be the same again.

LET GO OF MY EGO

     Our egos spew their grandiosity all over the world. Ego in action is a power trip. We push our weight around because we can. We do it with a certain arrogance, smaller in some and larger in others.
     But the true test of evolution and grace, it seems to me, is to have the option, and even the legitimacy, to say, "I told you so," or to exert our expert opinion, and to choose silence instead- to remain quiet, to send love, and to not insist upon making others smaller so that we can feel bigger. If we are spiritually fit, we know that we are big enough already, and that there is no real percentage in squashing people down.
     We don't have to be greater-than. We don't have to be mean and nasty. We don't have to be righteous. We can be forgiving. We can be right-sized. We can be comfortably human.

I recognize when my ego wants to take over and I keep it in check. I smile, breathe deeply, relax, and remember that I have nothing to prove.

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.