August 14--FUN!

Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to play and to look at the stars.  --Henry Van Dyke

    Can you read that quote without smiling? Check out my August 12 post regarding looking at the stars. 

    I've had a lifetime of love. Despite the dysfunctional chaos of my first couple of decades, I do believe my parents loved me very much. Having much older brothers, I have had nieces and nephews from the time I was eight years old, and we have close, loving relationships to this day. Having survived the rocky teenage and college years with our two sons, we now are very close. I still adore my husband of 34 years. My husband's and my extended families are great. I have been blessed with many friends as I have made my way through life. I have had an extraordinary chance to love, and to be a presence of love on planet Earth.

    I've had a lifetime of play. One of my favorite memories of childhood was going on adventures with my dad. If I wasn't in school, I was in the lumber truck with him making deliveries around central Pennsylvania. The big treat of all those adventures was that we always "happened" to end the day at an ice cream stand. Getting to help care for the aforementioned nephews and nieces gave me the opportunity to play a lot. College and grad school were crazy fun, and yes, I did get my degrees. Two of my favorite "play" activities that I passed on to my sons are the love of reading and golf. I read aloud to the boys nearly every night until, in their deep, changed voices, they said, "Mom, please stop reading to us." (I'm only partially joking there.) I also got them going on golf, and for all of us, it is one of life's favorites for us to play together. We laugh a lot! Once we became empty-nesters, I had to learn new forms of play. Learning, becoming an instructor of Melt Method and yoga, assorted crafts, lots more golf, and travel have fit the bill. 

    I am VERY glad of life!
        Leta

August 13--No Such Thing

There is no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day.
--Alexander Woollcott

    I need this reminder daily. Today there is very little on my calendar. I tend to look on a day like this as one I'll muddle through, maybe even trying to get myself to do the dreaded--house-cleaning. I don't have to be "on" (teaching, coaching, etc.) today, so I will enjoy my down-time, but the little voice in my head will be urging me to be productive in some way. While I have painting, crocheting and reading to occupy me, I'm still likely to have spots of boredom. I'll play with Barney. I'll enjoy meals with my husband. I'll swim. What leads me to think this day may be unimportant? I'm alive and healthy, and I get one more day to enjoy being here and being me. So what if life in 2020 is unlike any other time in history? It does not make routine days unimportant. 
     Another day in paradise,
             Leta

August 12--Quiet

 The quieter you become, the more you can hear. --Ram Dass

    My husband, dog and I live toward the northwest corner of Wichita. Getting slightly (or extremely) stir-crazy these pandemic days, we decided to adventure out last night to see the Perseid meteor shower. We drove west to Cheney Lake to get away from city lights and into glorious darkness. There were very few clouds. We set up our chairs and settled in to observe the sky. We talked a bit, but I think we both realized that it was a much cooler experience in silence. Just the sounds of nature and occasional vehicles surrounded us. Looking at the sky, we were in awe at the immensity, knowing that some of the star light we saw was coming from stars that no longer exist, that some of those things that appear to be stars are actually whole galaxies. It's mind boggling. We did see a few shooting stars. The peace and quiet of nature and the vastness of the sky made both of us sleepy, and made for a good night's sleep. 

    It is an odd paradox that looking at the sky is such a grounding experience. I come away from sky-gazing experiences with a sense of divine order. If the One Life can handle the universe, it can certainly take care of me and everyone and everything else on our tiny/huge planet. We can rest easy.

     Looking up, at peace,
        Leta

August 11--Beliefs Rule

What you believe has more power than what you dream or wish or hope for. You become what you believe.  --Oprah Winfrey

    Dreams, wishes and hopes are all well and good, but if you don't actually believe that you can attain them, you don't stand a chance.  The former is "talking the talk," the latter, enacting beliefs, is "walking the walk."

    I was raised to go to college. It was a belief instilled in me from early on, and I not only achieved a B.S. degree, but also an M.B.A. degree. I figure I was raised with the belief that I'd live a fairly typical life--college, work, courtship, marriage, children (still awaiting grandchildren)--and that has been the case. I've never not had enough in terms of money. I believe there is something bigger than us caring for us, and that has been the case. I guess I've dreamed of being a millionaire, but extreme wealth just isn't in my belief system. A comfortable life, yes, but extreme wealth, no. I guess if I believed in extreme wealth for me, I would buy lottery tickets. 

    I've had great success in the many jobs I've had in this lifetime. I believed I could do them; otherwise it wouldn't have worked out for me to get the job in the first place. Our family has always held a strong belief in our good health. As a result, none of us becomes ill very often. When the kids were younger, they did not bring home every illness that was rampant in school. Our reinforced belief in good health kept those illnesses away. 

    What do you believe about yourself? How is that playing out in your life? 

    Believing in good,
        Leta

August 10--Choice

 We can always choose to perceive things differently. We can focus on what's wrong in our life, or we can focus on what's right.  --Marianne Williamson

    Pretty much everything in my life is right, except...
    There's the pandemic, political corruption is rampant, our magnificent Earth is being abused, the U.S. President is a global embarrassment (and proud of it). I can't travel as I had planned, events are cancelled, and I miss my kids more than I can say. I miss my friends. I'm bored and sick of life that's so routine, I have to look at my phone to figure out what day it is. Last night I had another of my infrequent "I'm tired of all this" soul-rinsing meltdowns. 
    Enough! The previous paragraph describes mental quicksand that could suffocate me. There's no "win" in any of it. Back to what's right in my life...
    We are healthy and well. We are not stressed by job loss or home-schooling. Our kids are working and self-sufficient. We have air conditioning and a comfortable home. I'm able to go out and buy the things I need for activities to keep me engaged (painting, crocheting). I can play golf and swim. I have a wonderful husband and angel doggie, Barney, both of whom remind me regularly how blessed I am. I have useful work that I enjoy. I have a Zoom subscription that keeps me in contact with lots of folks. I've learned so much during stay-at-home in the time I would have spent watching baseball and basketball. And we have Netflix. 
    Thanks, I needed that. 
              Leta

August 9--The Lows Enable the Highs

Only if you have been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.  --Richard M. Nixon 

    Intense sorrow makes for intense joy. It's part of the play of opposites in earthly life. While I don't for a second believe we are here to suffer, it happens. Pain makes us really celebrate the absence of it. Losing a loved one makes us more appreciative of those remaining.
    I've lost both of my parents, my mother to cancer when I was 23, my father to a long decline into dementia when I was 44. It's a game-changer, losing a parent. I remember walking around in a fog afterwards, realizing that no one I encountered as I went about daily life had any idea of how much I was hurting. It gave me great empathy for others. How many other folks were in mourning? Recently experienced some trauma? It's a cause for living with great kindness, for we don't know what's going on in other folks' lives.
    I completed Forrest Yoga teacher training in 2011. For assorted reasons, there were some deep valleys involved in that experience. Being horribly homesick (I was away for a month), I called my husband every day at our 11 am break. As he will confirm, I was either gloriously happy or I sobbed the whole time. Bless him for surviving that! Completion of that 28-day intensive training definitely put me on the "highest mountain." I was tempted to stop folks on the street to give them my autograph, 'cause I felt like a rock star.
    I suggest that we don't deny ourselves the valleys of life, for they make the mountaintop joys all the better.
    Both valleys and mountaintops are beautiful,
        Leta

August 8--No Problem!

 Most problems, if you give them enough time and space, will eventually wear themselves out. --Buddha

    This is comforting. Focusing on a problem adds vibrational energy to it, keeps it hanging around, and even makes it grow. Withdrawing attention from it allows it to dissipate--wear itself out. This is not to say that we should simply ignore problems, but rather to focus on the solution instead. As Einstein stated, "No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it."
    Happy Saturday!
        Leta