July 31--Miracles?!?!?

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.  --Albert Einstein

    I tend to go with "everything is a miracle." Just look at the human conception, gestation and birth process for starters. 

    But I digress... I'm writing this the afternoon of July 30 after the MLB trade deadline has passed. Being a die-hard Cubs fan, I must say, there IS crying in baseball. My three favorite players, along with several others, have been shipped off elsewhere, so that I'm wondering if they can even field a team for tonight's game. Of course it's good for their minor league players. But I would suggest that Jed Hoyer, the GM who is responsible for all this, should probably not show his face around Wrigley Field for a couple of weeks. The Cubs winning the 2016 World Series WAS a miracle, but all hopes of that happening again soon are now completely dashed--a first-world problem, I realize. It's back to the long-time Cubs' saying, "Wait till next year!"

    Bummed Cubs fan,

        Leta

 

July 30--See the World!

Stuff your eyes with wonder; live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. 
--Ray Bradbury

    Bradbury is directing us away from stuff ("any dream made or paid for in factories") and into experience. Life isn't made by the amount of things we accumulate, but rather by the experiences we have. "See the world" is excellent advice. I often marvel that in our solar system of rocky, uninhabited planets, there is this one jewel with water, mountains, beaches, jungles, and nearly infinite life forms--our magnificent mother Earth. The natural beauty is staggering, and humans have created even more to enjoy. It is easy to "stuff your eyes with wonder" with very little effort. 

    Wandering and wondering,

        Leta

July 29--More Please

Stay hungry. Stay foolish.  --Steve Jobs

    Hungry for life. Hungry for experiences. Hungry to love. Hungry to be loved. Hungry to learn. Hungry for wellness. Hungry to use your talents. Hungry for challenges. Hungry for triumphs. 

    Stay foolish. Don't take yourself too seriously. My older son and I talk about playing "goldfish boring golf." Boring golf means that we strive to avoid getting into trouble like deep rough, trees and sand traps. Goldfish means that we have the memory of a goldfish--forget the last shot, good or bad, and focus on the present one. It's a foolish way to remind ourselves that golf is a game. Such is true for all of life, really. 

    Light-hearted,

        Leta

What are the chances!?!?? 
(Credit: LupiArts on Twitter)

July 28--Are You Dancing?

Life calls the tune, we dance.  --John Galsworthy

    This conjures up a fairly joyful life, wherein we comfortably move with whatever life's tune may be at the moment. Then there are times of resistance, when we refuse to dance with life, and those tend to cause us some form of distress. The older I get, the more I'm convinced that a successful life requires us to keep moving, i.e., keep dancing. 

    Nice footwork,

        Leta

July 27--Open Soul

The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience. 
--Emily Dickinson

    I have had the occasional "ecstatic experience," and they have always come when I was really paying attention, present in the moment, very aware of myself and my surroundings. Instead of moving through life on autopilot (very easy to do), we stop, breathe and become aware. A mountaintop is not required. As Ms. Dickinson states, just keep the soul open. 

    Grateful for Life,

        Leta

Alan Seeger Natural Area, central PA

July 26--Beauty Within Us

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.  --Ralph Waldo Emerson

    If we don't have beauty within us, we can't see it. I believe we all have the capacity to know beauty, but life may have buried it deep within us. 

    Barney and I are safely back in Wichita, after a beautiful week in Colorado. I have traveled to many parts of the world, and I've enjoyed seeing the beauty of the ultra-rich, such as Hearst Castle, the Crown Jewels of England and fine art at many museums. Equal in beauty, however, were the orphans and their "mother" for whom our mission team built a home in the Watoto's Suubi village in Uganda. It was a simple home to us, but a palace to them. 

    I saw a vehicle decal this week while driving around Colorado. It said, "We Choose Joy." The joy exuding from a human heart is a special kind of beauty. Joys of the week included lots of golfing with my sons, wedding planning discussions, walking the dogs, enjoying the mountains, summertime flowers, napping, shared meals. A beauty overload, for which I am ever so grateful!

        Leta

Some of the beauty at Cheyenne's Airport Golf Club

July 25--All-In

Be bold... When you embark for strange places, don't leave any of yourself safely on shore.  --Alan Alda

    You can't go sailing if you don't untie the boat. You've seen the comical routine many times where one foot is on the boat, one on the dock, the boat floats out, and the would-be sailor splashes into the water. All-in or all-out, halfway doesn't work. 

    I'm going to approach this from the standpoint of people-pleasing. It is a nasty habit so many of us practice. It is a very common symptom of addiction, particularly codependency. We don't want to rock the boat, we want to keep everyone happy, we want everyone to like us all the time, i.e., stay "safely on shore." My son and his fiancee are planning an October wedding. Questions abound regarding who to invite and how. Concerns about irritating people arise. It is an excellent time for the reminders of a) the bride and groom must do what pleases them and not worry about any one else; and b) they have no control over how folks react to their choices. They need to just go for it--embark into the strange new world of wedding planning--without the added burden of trying to please everyone all the time. 

    Standing up for oneself, doing what it takes to fulfill one's needs and desires, fully going for it, may be the boldest thing anyone ever does. 

    While it is not a strange place, Barney and I are today embarking for Wichita and returning home. Thanks, Colorado, for an excellent vacation! We will be back!

        Leta

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