Wait for the Wildflowers

“In the depth of winter, I finally learned within me that there lay an invincible summer.”  -Albert Camus

Wildflowers come every spring.  They arrive after winter without failure.  Some years there are not as many  because of lack of rain or sun or drop in temperature.  But they always come, blossoming up the roadsides and hills.  We go out and take pictures in the wildflowers.  Every year people journey to the hill country not only to see the wildflowers but walk in them, lie in them, sit in them and let the wildflowers totally encompass them.   Wildflowers are a sign for us that winter is over and we can begin to feel the sunshine and warmth of summer again.

What is the winter season in your life?  Maybe you are sick, or without a job, or going through a divorce, or maybe you finally realized after 15 years, that you haven’t been living and experiencing life the way you should. You have been following someone else’s dream instead of your own.  Whatever your reason, remember that winter is just a season.  And this is true…  In winter, we learn our strength. If there was no hardship in life, we would stay weak and stupid.  Winter either breaks us or makes us.  It is our choice.   It weeds out the weaklings.  Stay grounded and strong during winter.  Read and rest and take care of yourself.  Work hard and pray.  Think and do accordingly.  Then wait for the Wildflowers.  They always bloom.  They will bloom in your life.  Wait for the wildflowers.

Plan your day

“Do or do not, there is no try”  -Yoda

Basically this is what we need to tell ourselves everyday.  I make lists.  It is the only way that I can get anything done.  If something makes it on my list then there is a strong possibility that I will accomplish it that day.  If it does not make it on my list, the only way it happens is if it is embedded in my being.

Put what you hate at the top of your list.  Make yourself do it.  Finish it first and then put easier stuff after that.  That way you don’t have to look at what you hate to do all day and dread it.  You will feel proud of yourself that you accomplished something and will go on to the next thing.  Then do the next thing on your list.  It gets easier and easier!

Remember to add your goals to your list and not just your daily tasks.  Put the important things first.  Watch and see as your dreams get closer and closer to reality.  Do this daily.  Take Sunday off.  Rest then.  Live.  Enjoy your life.

A true friend

“A true friend protects you when you are oblivious of your own stupidity.”  -Author Unknown

I once heard it said that if you can count your true friends on one hand by the time you die, you are blessed.  A true saying.

What makes a true friend?  It is someone that thinks for your  benefit and shares a part of your heart.  Someone that understands you before you even understand yourself.  A true friend  knows what makes you tick and speaks your “language”.  Somehow,  a true friend just gets you.

Where would we be without a true friend?  Take a minute and think about your true friend or friends.  What  have they meant to you. Be grateful.  Recognize that your true friends have helped to shape you and create who you are.

“A man of many friends may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer then a brother.”  Proverbs 18:24

That is a true friend.  A true friend tells you the truth even when it hurts.  Even when you have been a complete and utter fool.  A true friend looks out for you no matter what.  A true friend wants you to succeed and to become the person that you are meant to become.

Anna’s advice

“Sometimes a scream is better then a thesis.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson

I was sitting on the bed the other day with my 14 year old daughter, Anna.  We were talking, and she said that she had a stomachache.  I said maybe she was too stressed.  “Maybe”, she said, “but I don’t really have anything to get stressed about.  I don’t get stressed anymore.”  And then she went on to say this…

“I decided that I am not going to get stressed out anymore.  I mean I used too all the time, but it didn’t do anything for me.  So I just decided that it wasn’t worth it.  If I stress about something or if I don’t stress about something, the outcome is always the same, so I shouldn’t stress.  So now I don’t.  It’s actually pretty great.”

I just sat there, staring at her with my mouth open like I was catching flies.  I reminded myself that she is only 14.    How does she do it?  How does she just determine in her mind to not worry about something, and then she doesn’t.  I decided to try it.

Anna says if you try your hardest and you do your best then there is nothing you can do about the outcome.  You just let what happens happen.

My 14 year old is brilliant.

Believe in Magic

“Chance is always powerful. Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish.”  -Ovid

It’s a magical day.  I like to think that way.  I mean it’s true.  Everyday has magic in it.  We grow up and we stop believing in magic.  Why?  Why do we teach our kids that magic is real if we don’t believe it ourselves?  Do we not know what the Universe is capable of?  In fairy tales you have to believe in order for the magic to happen to you.  The same is true in real life.  Now I’m not saying that you just sit around and wait.  That would be foolish.  But the point is that we limit ourselves and the outcomes of our lives if we don’t believe in possibility and actually a little bit of impossibility.

Our job is to work.  To do what we are called to do.  And the Universe’s job is outcome.  We just keep on working.  Listening within.  Work hard.  Don’t stop doing what you are called to do.  You can’t give up. The answer will come when and where you least expect it.

I guess it’s like this:  I remember my college professor telling me that you can search and search for the answer to your  question.  You can look for a month, a year, five years even, and not find it.  And then one day, when you have completely exhausted yourself from the search, and you are sitting around doing nothing, thinking of nothing, biting into an apple, the answer comes.

Trust instinct.  Trust the Universe.  Work hard.  And always leave a little room for magic.

Live for what is Important

“If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the Universe against me.”  -Ralph Waldo Emerson

It’s a great new day.  A day for adventure into life….again.  You may think it’s boring by now…life.  But it never is.  It always is new.  It always has something for you.  You awake and think.  More of the same.  Maybe so, but look underneath the same.  Is there anything else there?  Is there a shred of evidence that the Universe is taking care of you?  Is there a shred that something magnificent is about to happen?  Look closer.  Maybe you don’t have trust.  Maybe this world has worn you down.  Think Alice in Wonderland style.  All things are possible.  All things.  Don’t give up.  Keep trying.  Remember that the only failures are there because we ultimately give up.  But  look past the obvious.  Look past the everyday and look into your soul.  Read it.  Why are you here?  I mean it’s not just to wake up, make money, live in a nice house, go on vacation, retire and die.  No.  There has to be another reason.  Many reasons.  What are yours?  Think about what you want your life to say.  How do you want to be remembered?  And live for what is important to you.  The children.  The needy.  The suffering.  People.  Animals.  The planet.  The World.  Think on how you can give back.   Live joyously.  Live outrageously.  Live thankfully.  Your life is a gift.

One Way

“It’s not about you, it’s about your art.”  -Danny Barnes, musician

When I read about the careers in the arts they all say the same thing.  “Don’t do it, unless there is nothing else in the world that you can do that will make you happy.”   Don’t be an actor unless it is the only way you can be happy.  Don’t be a musician unless it is the only way you can happy.  Don’t be an artist unless it is the only way you can be happy.  And this is true about anything in life that you pour your heart and soul into.  Because real life is hard.  It’s easier to just get a job doing.  Doing something else.  Avoiding your calling.  Doing anything besides using your soul and your passions and your gifts.  But if you are called to something.  If you have drive in your being that will not rest until you say it, until you show it, until you write about it.  Then, you must do it.  You must listen.  You are responsible to the Universe.  Remember, it’s not about you, it’s about your art.  There is only one way and it is the way of the heart.  The answer is the one way sign right in front of your face.  Go that way.  This is living the art of life:  Discovering yourself and your path, and then going for it.

That courage stuff.

“Courage is the ladder on which all other virtues mount.”  -Clare Booth Luce

Sometimes when I get scared I tell myself, “well at least I won’t to jail over this”.  I mean whatever happens, it’s just stuff.  You always have the people in your life that love you and that you love back.  People (and pets of course) are all that really matters.  Our stuff is cool, but it’s still just “stuff”.  Where we vacation wouldn’t be what it is without the people we love.  Traveling and seeing the world wouldn’t be all that it’s cracked up to be if we couldn’t tell anyone about it.   Everything that exists in our house, might be really fantastic to look at or sit on or use, but it’s still just “stuff”.

So I pull myself up by and have a talking with myself.  Why are you afraid?  What are you going to do about it?  I can sit and do nothing or I can go forward into the mess of fear.  At least then something happens.  If I freeze up and don’t do anything, then nothing happens.  So move.  Get up and go forward.  Figure out how to get through the web of difficulty that you are entangled in.  I guarantee you that if you do, something will happen.  It has too.  That is just the way  the Universe works.  You have to get the ball rolling.  That is all that you are responsible for.  Just doing  your part.  And then let the Universe do the rest.

Travel your path

“This time like all times is a good one if we but know what to do with it.”  -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Travel the path before you.  You may only be able to see just 2 feet in front of you.  You cannot see where the path ultimately leads. But trust it.  You have to walk it.  There is no other path for you.  It might be difficult.  You might not understand.  Maybe you made some bad decisions along the way.  But now those decisions are webbed within your path.  The Universe takes them and makes them a part of your life, and then uses them for good.  Mistakes are bittersweet.   They are a part of the journey.  Somehow they perfect you and make you better.  Just like the ocean refining the rocks and making them smoother, so life’s mistakes and trials refine your soul.  Be strong.  Keep on.  Chin up.  This is a time to be steady in the midst of an unsteady environment.

Breathing time.

“Real freedom lies in wildness, not in civilization.”  -Charles Lindbergh

Breathe.  Breathe.  Breathe.  This is the second year, or actually maybe the third year that I said I would take up yoga.  I know I should.  I go too fast.  Yoga is about breathing.  Just slowing down and understanding yourself.  Listening to what you already know within.  I read an article yesterday about an Australian woman.  She had 3 kids, ages 6, 4 and a newborn.  She made a comment like, “Australian woman don’t work an 80 hour work week and then come home and stay up half the night cooking cupcakes for their daughters school class just to feel like a successful mother.”  They breathe.  They take time.  A day might consist of running errands in the morning and then making crafts in the backyard together.  What I say?  Bliss.  That is what that sounds like to me.  I find myself running ragged.  How do these women do this?  Are they just overwhelmingly rich?  Because I don’t see a way otherwise.  I thought I prided myself in not over-doing.  But I justify my crazy life by saying I have to.  I have to work, I have to take care of the kids, I have to exercise, I have to play, I have to cook, I have to clean, I have to….I have to…..

Stop for a minute and re-evaluate.  Remember you only have a little time here on this earth.  I wish I lived a care-free life.  But I don’t.  But, how can I start to have a more carefree way of thinking?   I mean, I do to myself.  We all do.  We all have a choice.   I’m not sitting on a million dollars, that’s for sure, but somehow I still have choices. I still can breathe.  I still can say no to things.  I can still take 10 minutes at the beginning of every day to think and sort and plan.  I can stop for a minute and smell the flowers.  I can take my daughter to the park.  I can throw the ball for my dog.  I can say no to the laundry pile.  No to the perfectness that I can’t ever perfect.  I just need a little quietness of spirit here and there.  Yes, I think we all just need a little breathing time.