Is it your birthday?

How do you celebrate the day you came to life? Presents? Special foods? Perhaps you spoil yourself just a bit.  You let people wish you well. Smiles abound. These are ways that people acknowledge what a great gift it is to be alive.
What if you lived every day as if it were your birthday? In other words, what if each day you watched for people to say something nice, you smiled more, and you expected to find some present before the 24 hours was up?
Another way I like to celebrate when it's my birthday is to do some kindness for another person. That way, I can feel that I myself am the gift to another person's life.
if your mom is alive, call her, and thank her for going to all the trouble to give birth to you.
And may your birthday become a birthyear of celebrations.

Great expectations

The Dickens novel by this title includes some colorful characters, including an orphan who aspires to be a gentleman. What expectations govern your week?
Do expectations interfere with what reasonably can be accomplished thanks to the interruptions, errands, and obligations of today?
People like me who find themselves too busy frequently expect that they can fit more deeds into a day than is humanly possible. We have great expectations.
Count the hours in the day, and count the tasks on the list. Revise, edit, and see if you can let go of that "too busy" feeling" by giving yourself permission to have reasonable expectations instead  of great ones. You just may find that this allows you to do one thing great.

Make time for someone

Isn't that a strange expression we hear all the time?
"George, can you make some time to review this report?"
George walks into the back room at work and prints up some time on the Time Manufacturing Counterfeiting Equipment, right? If only!
We call it making time, but really we are clearing away the clutter in the moment to move an item up our priority list.
Time dissipates, and we never seem to have as much as we want of it. Like greedy trick or treaters, who long to grab a handful of candy out of the proffered bucket, we cry for more. Since too much time on our hands is not a frequent occurrence for most people in this culture, we need to corral time to make it work for us.
And perhaps the most important way of making time work for us is to allow another person to take some time out of our "treat bag."
When I make time to help someone out, the reward is beyond measuring. And some day, when I need someone to make time for me in my "time of need", hopefully someone will return the favor.

Down with UGH.

Old habits die hard, they say, but what about archaic language? How long did it take to eradicate thee and thou from our vocabulary?

I thot about it at length. My thots lead to other thots

Why do we allow our thots to be invaded by negative impulses? Ugh. Don’t you think the word thot looks much prettier without it?We have to watch out where our thots drift into ugh.

Just think of all the keystrokes we would save if everyone stopped putting negative thoughts into their thots? Maybe we could change the planet! Maybe we can start a new word ecology. Think of the ink saved on all the printouts throughout the world.  Might we even save paper, and thus trees? 

If we start small with our thots, that will change actions. Often thots lead to actions.

Of course, the whole written language could use an overhaul. We have wasted letters everywhere. But it would be hard to get everyone to agree to pitching ughs and other hangers-on wherever they appear. I am just advocating starting small.

(I for one am grateful for people who text message are helping move to a more streamlined language. Some would call it a revolution.)

Perhaps we could easily do the same thing with through.  Who needs an ugh when they think something thru? Especially in thru traffic, it would be nice to eliminate one of the ughs during rush hour.

 I love taking UGH out of thought. I am hoping it goes viral. Don't we have enough ugh in our life without adding it to our thots? We are already overwrought, for too long have fought, too much have we bought and too often have sought. Plenty of extra ughs there.

You better be happy!

Life deals us certain circumstances that we cannot sidestep. True, some of our busy days are the result of poor choices on our part. But we live in a busy world, surrounded by busy people, and this reality will not change overnight. So we need to not only make the best of it, but choose to be happy within it. How we approach the busy world with its inevitable pressures determines whether we are happy or not. Do you get angry at the bird strike on your car, or do you smile that the old car is able to get you where you need to go? Do you watch your blood pressure rise as you play "beat the clock", or do you take a deep breath and enjoy the roller coaster ride?
Find the happiness within the frenetic.  It is there. You may have to hunt for it. Between the hectic and the chaos, you will find it. Ah! There it is! The glimmer of delight! The reason for joy!
We cannot control life. We can determine to see the beauty. The tree with branches just beginning to bud. A cloud  shaped like a rabbit slowly edging across the sky. Leaves emerging from tulip bulbs hidden for months.
What you focus on will grow. Sort of like when you buy a new car, and suddenly you see that specific make and model everywhere you go.  Choose to notice beauty, smiles, joy, nature, and reasons to give thanks.

Are you happy being busy? You better be! Because all you have is what you have.
 Don't be too busy to see what can make you happy in the very trials of today.

Marching into March

Have I been too busy to post some news here? Or have I just forgotten my priorities?  Oops.
A new month began yesterday- March is the third month, which means the year is one quarter gone. What??!!? Didn't I just say Happy New Year?
Admittedly, I am rushing things here; after all, March has just begun to march. But I recognize my pattern in life; the days march past and before I know it, I will be saying Happy New Year again.
I take a deep breath. Join me in that. Another deep breath. Let us appreciate the breadth of our lives and the joy in this moment.
Perhaps now is the time to look backwards at my future plan. Am I living the vision I hold up for my life?

Are you living the 200 year plan?

Are you living as if you will be on this planet another 200 years? Many of us live today as if we had an unlimited future here.  At my quilters group, someone brought in all the unfinished projects of a woman who had passed away. Lots of beautiful scraps lay on the table, and I began to pick up greedily a pile of beautiful fabrics and lone quilt squares. An 80-year-old woman in our group, a woman of charming wisdom, said, "I would have to live another 200 years to finish the projects I  already have in my sewing room at home! I certainly can't take on any more of these projects."
She caused me to pause. I, too, have a sewing cupboard full of ideas, patterns, fabrics, and inspirations. With all I already have, I would need to live perhaps another 100 years to complete most of them. And so I edited the pile of scraps in my hand to a select few, but the words of my wise quilter friend repeated themselves in my mind all week long.
What if each of us lived as if we only had another 200 days on the earth? What changes would you make to what you will do today? What if you were only to live another 20 days? What would you have wanted to do today?  What if 20 hours from now you get hit by a bus? What would you have wanted to do in the next 20 hours?
I think about my daughter going through my sewing stash, tossing scraps with a shake of her head. "What in the world was mother thinking when she saved this?" I can see her opening a drawer and saying, "What did mother have in mind when she held on to these?"  If I were present, I would tell her that those labels are going to make a fabulous postage stamp quilt some day.  But will some day ever arrive?
I suspect that busy people like me overestimate what they can accomplish, making lists where half the items carry over, undone, onto tomorrow's list.
What do you have stuffed into a drawer, collecting dust in a corner, or waiting in a closet for your attention? Think about my wise quilter friend, and do something important today! 
What do you feel is important? A kind word to a stranger that pays itself forward in other kindnesses will transform the world over time. A smile instead of a self centered, stressed out comment can brighten someone's entire day.
None of us will be here 200 years from now. So make today a day of looking for the beauty, seeking out the sweetness hidden somewhere within the next 200 seconds.