The Secret of Life

I find it is important for my inner woman to make quiet time for myself.  The inner woman is all about achieving personal peace and developing emotional resilience.

For me, the road to personal peace is found when I seek to quiet my mind and spirit.  Usually ten to fifteen minutes every day is enough for me to gather my thoughts and try to figure out  my daily goal; or at least try and figure out what direction I think I would like for my day to take.  Sometimes my goal is serious, such as finishing a project at work, and sometimes my goal is silly, such as trying to see if I can go without cursing for one hour.  You may think I'm kidding but I'm not!

Every day we are bombarded with different messages from the internet, television, radio and the telephone and our brains are basically tied up being information traffic cops telling us what to pay attention to and what to ignore.  You can't go from one activity to the next or try to do multiple activies and not begin to feel the effects of that constant switching.

No wonder we feel stressed.  We need to take a break.  We need to take out regular time during the day to soothe our minds.  There's nothing wrong with doing something mindless once in a while, right?  Isn't that what Star and People magazine are for?

Seriously, our inner voices are trying to tell us what we need to do to refresh and restore our inner selves but we need to create quiet to hear it.  How do you tune in to your inner self?

The Secret of Life

Author Unknown

As the Lord God was creating the world

he called upon his archangels.

The Lord asked his archangels to help

him decide where to put the Secret of Life.

"Bury it in the ground," one angel replied.

"Put it on the bottom of the sea," said another.

"Hide it in the mountains," another suggested.

The Lord replied, "If I see to do any of those

only a few will find the Secret of Life.

The Secret of Life must be accessible to

EVERYONE!"

One angel replied, "I know: put it in each

man's heart.

Nobody will think to look there."

"Yes!" said the Lord.  "Within each man's heart."

And so it was --

The SECRET TO LIFE lies within all of us.

Summer's Journey

Usually by this time of the year, I have committed to the dates for taking a vacation with my son.  But this year is different.

Now that my son has graduated from college and started his new paying job (love to be able to say paying job), we both are pretty sure that the rest of the summer will be different from other summers.  Since he isn't living at home and his job requires him to work on Saturdays, it's a pretty good bet that our usual August vacation isn't going to happen.

But we are trying hard to make some variation of past vacations happen this year.  So right now there is a lot of negotiation going on about the when and where and that's okay.  Every family reaches this fork in the road when their children don't spend the whole vacation or any vacation time with them and it's not the end of the world.  I knew this day would arrive, I just didn't think about it very much.

For me, it is one more step in building a life that is different from the one that I had when my husband was alive.  Vacations were automatic.  Setting up our annual vacation followed the same timetable every year and it fell into a comfortable pattern.

Now, once again, endings become beginnings and I am learning the value of moving on and doing something different.  It's part of rebuilding your life and when you face it positively, good and unexpected things can happen.

I do believe there is a certain rhythm to life and that certain changes present themselves at certain times.  Life doesn't happen the way we always want it to happen to us but that's life.  It's the beginning of a new chapter, a chapter in which I think staying flexible and having faith is key.

It can be a bit of a tricky place but trying to take one day at a time has always served me well.

Right now, vacation is my priority.  I need a vacation and we'll figure this out.  I don't want to vacate (as in vay-kay, road trip) by myself but I definitely want some time with others at the beach.  It's possible that my son may be able join me for a few days but not the whole week.   Between my wonderful son and my great friends,  I will figure out a some well needed time off from work.

I also remind myself that I am lucky to be able to take a vacation and I am grateful to be in a position to take some time off and relax among people I love.  As Greg Anderson, the founder and president of the American Wellness Project, says, social wellness means more than simply belonging.  It means getting along with others. . . and cultivating caring, supportive relationships. 
   

Are we there yet?