Savor the Moment

Sunset by Per Ola Wiberg (former ponanwi and Powi)

When is the last time you had a romantic candlelit dinner with wine and roses? Have you seen the first snowflakes of the season - for many people they have already appeared? While driving did you notice the sun shimmering on the orange and red leaves so that they seemed on fire? Have you heard the crickets serenading at night or birds singing in the morning? If not, you are depriving yourself of some of life’s greatest beauties.

Beautiful moments happen every day. Sometimes, in our rush to get to work, home, the store, wash the dishes or dust the house, we miss out on simple pleasures that could lighten our day and bring wonder and bliss to our lives. We fool ourselves into thinking that we can enjoy it tomorrow or the next day, not realizing that we’re cheating ourselves in the process.

Appreciating and being aware of small joys not only changes our mood, making us smile and laugh more, it changes our perspective as well. When we have 10 minutes of silence before beginning our day of work, we notice that our day starts off more relaxed and peaceful. Our interactions with others are calmer and more productive so we accomplish more.

Scheduling time for ourselves helps keep us balanced. When we make time for Saturday morning golf game, or a trip to the mall with girlfriends, the satisfaction we receive stays with us all week. Putting aside an hour a day to spend time with family, read a book, join a fitness club or take a cooking class adds fulfillment to each day. It’s a small goal that can make a huge difference in how you feel day to day.

Utilize the senses. Take a moment to inhale the fresh clean air outside. Listen to the sound of your child laughing, your cat purring or music you love. Feel the soft cuddly texture of the sweater you’re wearing. Luxuriate in the warmth of a hot, steamy shower. Taste the velvety smoothness of your favorite chocolate, the silky smooth chill of ice cream or succulent flavor of a juicy steak.

Lastly, the best reason to savor the moment is because time is so fleeting. Unexpected difficulties like illness, financial problems or auto and home repairs can hit without warning. Take the time today to relish your good health, happy relationship and positive cashflow. Don’t enjoy tomorrow what you could enjoy today.

Here are a few things to savor:

• Hearing your child saying you’re the best mommy in the universe.
• Seeing the sparkle of frost in the early morning twilight.
• Sitting alone for 10 minutes with only silence for company.
• Attending a music concert. Feeling the vibrations flow through you.
• The flavor and aroma at your favorite Italian restaurant.
• Admiring your reflection in the mirror when you look good.
• Enjoying a Sunday afternoon nap.
• A rainbow after the storm.
• Freshly laundered clothes warm from the dryer.
• Having a job and getting a steady paycheck.
• Low gas prices.
• Adorable costumes and trick-or-treaters on Halloween.

Halloween Spirit

A Boston Terrier Halloween by d70focus

Do you love Halloween as much as I do? For years I’ve been enthralled with the imagination, creativity, and excitement that surround the holiday. Not to mention the idea of free chocolate and a chance for a party. What’s not to like?

Inspiration comes to life in the many unique and colorful costumes created by visionary people everywhere. Fairies, Egyptian kings, and disco queens from decades past mingle with nurses and sheriffs, aliens and even Mickey Mouse. Go to any Halloween party where they’re awarding gifts for the most original, funniest or scariest costumes and see for yourself.

Some of the most inventive and cute ideas in recent years include the “cereal killer,” “smarty-pants,” the ½ angel ½ devil costumes, an early snowman, a milk carton missing kid and more. I’m always impressed with the attention to detail and innovative ideas that go into costumes. Plus it’s just fun.

Thrills have their place too. Jack o’lanterns glow with an otherworldly light, flickering in the darkness. Like gargoyles of old, they are sentinels, guarding our homes from harm. Their fearsome faces terrorize anyone who wanders near. Skeletal scarecrows watch from their post, silent sentries to trick-or-treaters young and old.

From candy corn lights to cackling witches, to motorized hands that grab as you take a treat, the unexpected lurks in every corner. Open a creaking door and walk across squeaking floors into a dimly lit room of shadowy figures. Suddenly all those household repairs you didn’t get around to are now part of the ambiance. How cool is that?

The colors of Halloween are diabolically clever. Midnight black, pumpkin orange, blood red, and gruesome green grab your attention with their vivid colors. There is something compelling and somewhat forbidden about eating food colored in such strange and unusual combinations.

We get a chance to reinvent ourselves on this playful and fun-filled holiday. Always wanted to be an astronaut? Now’s your chance! Want to be an elegant ballerina or a hard-core rock star? You can. Now is the time. You can be a lawyer, nurse or sheriff, or an alien space explorer. The only limit is your imagination.

No matter witch way you slice it, Halloween is a fun, light-hearted and creative holiday wrapped in a unique and mysterious package. So get out there and celebrate. Give in to your fear of looking silly and have a little fun. Use the excuse to let go of your problems and worries for a night. You’ll be glad you did.

Looking for the Good

You can’t see me by Piez

Some days it’s hard to find something to smile about. Perhaps like me, you’ve been sick for several weeks, hacking, coughing and sneezing, full of aches and pains, and you just don’t feel like yourself.

Maybe the news about the economy, housing market or inflation has you down. Maybe you know friends or family who have lost money or are struggling, and you feel frustrated and angry.

Now is when your attitude is more important than ever. Positive thinking is not an attempt to sugar-coat the negative events in our life, but rather a life boat that lifts us out of troubled water and gives us the time and space needed to access our situation.

Looking for the good takes effort. It takes work and thought to find the positive stories and happy information in your daily news. You must actively participate while you watch TV or read the newspaper. For instance, just yesterday I was pleased to see that 6-year old Cole Puffinburger was returned alive and uninjured after being abducted at gunpoint from his home. That is something to celebrate!

There are other things too. In my local paper there has been news of public library expansions, donations to build new playgrounds, and openings of new businesses and restaurants in the area. The weather report is sunny and cool - great for outdoor trips. Even the return of a favorite TV show can make you smile. There’s always something good if you look for it.

Many experts from Sarah Ban Breathnach to Oprah have praised the far-reaching benefits of a gratitude journal. From helping you count your blessings, to relieving past pleasurable experiences, a gratitude journal is a great tool in the search for the positive and uplifting. If used daily it can focus your attention on the various accomplishments, fun experiences and happiness of everyday life. It can improve your feelings of satisfaction and fulfillment and give you a written record of the good things that surround you.

Looking for the good is worth the effort. If you practice it enough, it becomes a habit, one that will bring you joy and comfort for many years to come. Positive thinking is a skill that allows your mind to break free of the negativity and find peace and serenity in the midst of turmoil.

Like the old saying “this too, shall pass.” Remembering that will help you to savor joys while they last, and give hope when things look bleak. There is always beauty to be found, but we must open our eyes to see it.

Fall is here!

Loose-Leaf by Nicholas_T

Ahh, fall. Those crisp, cool mornings where stars glimmer and shine in a crystal clear sky. The day begins to wind down a little bit sooner as night falls earlier each evening. Trees begin their brilliant fashion show as they change into vibrant reds, oranges and yellows, dazzling us as take our daily walk. Homemade soup and hot cocoa fill the air as families gather together for a bit of warmth.

As I’ve moved from MD to FL and back north again to TN, I am in love once again with the passing seasons. I am captivated by the noticeable changes in the days. How the cool weather brings thick white fog, that envelopes us in a soft cocoon, muting the harsh noises of traffic. Or the first frost, when plants and grass are coated in a thin layer of white that sparkle in the streetlights overhead.

Fall brings to mind family and friends. Holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, when we get together and eat, frolic and enjoy one another’s company. A time to give thanks for all the joys and happy moments we’ve experienced through the year. Fall brings us back together as we shelter from the cold.

Two of my favorite fall activities are decorating a bright orange pumpkin for Halloween (and even Thanksgiving), and going on a hike to see the gleaming colors of the Maples, Ash, Sweet gum, Birch and Oak trees. I love listening the crackle of fallen leaves as they crunch underfoot. The cool air is invigorating and lures me outside day after day.

Some more favorites of mine are; eating Halloween (black and orange) Oreos, visiting family and feasting at Thanksgiving, going to Haunted houses, eating crisp fall apples, the first pot of homemade soup, hot tea on a cold morning, and seeing the first Christmas decorations go up. What are you favorite fall activities?

5 Minute Daily Review.

Pencils and Moleskins 04 by Paul Worthington

Ever feel like the days rush by so fast you don’t have a chance to slow down enough to enjoy them? At the end of the day do you feel like you’ve missed something important, some genius idea or perfect solution to a problem that you couldn’t take the time to investigate?

Start your own 5 minute daily review. At the end of the day as you lay in bed, relaxing your body for sleep, think of the high and low points of your day. What did you love about today? What made you feel great? What would you change or improve if you could do it again?

Your daily review is best done in silence, in a darkened room with few distractions. No one demanding your attention, nothing that needs to be done for those few minutes. When you remember situations that make you feel uncomfortable or ashamed, replay those incidents in your mind, but with the changes you would have made if you could go back.

It would also be a good idea to keep a notebook and pen by your bed. When you get a brilliant idea on how to make amends for a mistake, or a new strategy for dealing with a problem, you can jot them down for action.

Don’t feel tied to doing your review at a certain time or only once a day. Experiment and play with it. Perhaps you would do better taking 10 minutes after work, but before dinner, reviewing the majority of your day while it’s still fresh in your mind. Maybe you want to do two sessions – one in the morning to see what stands out from the day before, and one at night, and comparing the results of both.

Here are a few tips to get the most from your daily review:

• Find a spot where you feel comfortably relaxed and unhurried.
• Set a timer and stay with your review for the fully allotted time.
• Keep paper and a pen nearby to write down your insights.
• Close your eyes and take a 5-10 deep breaths, imagining your muscles unwinding and stress flowing away like water down a drain.
• Be sure to end your session with a positive memory (even if it’s one you have changed to improve it.)

Above all, stay loose. This shouldn’t be a chore. With a positive attitude and a little flexibility this little exercise can give you creative solutions to problems you thought unsolvable, give you awareness of things you want to change, and best of all it can be a wonderful video replay of the happiest moments from your day.

Elderly Jokes

The old lady and the birds by soylentgreen23

Even in my youth (I’m only 36), I feel the aches and pain of old age creeping up. My knee is tweaked, my foot aches, and I’m tired more often. So when my “older” friends send me these jokes, they really make me laugh. I hope you will enjoy them too. Life is nothing without laughter!

Just before the funeral services, the undertaker came up to the very elderly widow and asked,
'How old was your husband?' '98,' she replied.
'Two years older than me'
'So you're 96,' the undertaker commented.
She responded, 'Hardly worth going home, is it?

Reporters interviewing a 104-year-old woman:
'And what do you think is the best thing
about being 104?' the reporter asked.
She simply replied, 'No peer pressure.'

The nice thing about being senile is
you can hide your own Easter eggs.

I've sure gotten old!
I've had two bypass surgeries, a hip replacement,
new knees, fought prostate cancer and diabetes
I'm half blind,
can't hear anything quieter than a jet engine,
take 40 different medications that
make me dizzy, winded, and subject to blackouts.
Have bouts with dementia.
Have poor circulation;
hardly feel my hands and feet anymore.
Can't remember if I'm 85 or 92.
Have lost all my friends. But, thank God,
I still have my driver's license.

I feel like my body has gotten totally out of shape,
so I got my doctor's permission to
join a fitness club and start exercising.
I decided to take an aerobics class for seniors.
I bent, twisted, gyrated, jumped up and down, and perspired for an hour. But, by the time I got my leotards on,
the class was over.

An elderly woman decided to prepare her will and
told her preacher she had two final requests.
First, she wanted to be cremated, and second,
she wanted her ashes scattered over Wal-Mart.
'Wal-Mart?' the preacher exclaimed.
'Why Wal-Mart?'
'Then I'll be sure my daughters visit me twice a week'

My memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.

Know how to prevent sagging?
Just eat till the wrinkles fill out.

It's scary when you start making the same noises
as your coffee maker.

These days about half the stuff
in my shopping cart says,
'For fast relief.'

THE SENILITY PRAYER :
Grant me the senility to forget the people
I never liked anyway,
the good fortune to run into the ones I do, and
the eyesight to tell the difference.

Do Your Thing!

As Light as Air by aussiegall

What’s your thing? Do you tell great jokes and make everyone laugh? Are you a gardener whose delicious fruits and vegetables look like works of art and taste like the finest dining? Have you become the #1 collector of vintage GI Joe figures or Strawberry Shortcake dolls?

We all have passions, loves and favorite subjects. Sometimes there are tons of other people who enjoy the same thing. Other times you may be the chief authority on the best fishing lures or the only collectors of heart-shaped keychains. The great thing is; this is what makes us all unique and interesting. It’s part of our personal style. It’s our thing.

If you’re one of the lucky ones, you get to work at your obsession every day. Maybe you love dogs and you work as a pet sitter, cuddling fluffy kittens and playing ball with energetic dogs every day. Or you could love flour, cakes and frosting and have your own bakery. Maybe you love helping others and you work as a nurse, doctor, counselor or therapist.

Meeting someone who loves their work gives us a jolt to make our own passions and joys part of our daily life. How many grumpy, zombie-like, half-asleep people do you know? Probably lots. How many alert, excited, and happy people do you know? I’ll bet you can count them on one hand. Become one of these people. Even if you can’t do the work you love, you can work to love what you do.

So put your bowling trophy on your desk at work. Enter your flowers in the fair and meet other budding enthusiasts. Be a mentor and teach a child how to golf or play basketball. Buy that Darth Vader lamp shade for your bedroom – it’s your room isn’t it?

Don’t be afraid to live a little. So often we give in to that pressure to fit in and “be normal.” What is normal? What’s normal for Americans is strange to the Chinese. The Germans don’t eat the same foods as the Italians. India dresses differently from Russia. Embrace the differences – your own and others. They make the world a more interesting place. Variety adds fun and an element of surprise to each day.

Wear white after Labor Day – you’ll match the ice and snow. Cook a five-course meal for two – who says you need a crowd? Read comic books instead of novels. Play hide and go seek with your husband. Have fun and live well. Do your thing and enjoy life!