Rabbit Rabbit December First!

Well my dear friends, it’s December First which means it’s time to say Rabbit Rabbit, White Rabbit, White Rabbit!  Did you remember?  Well, if you didn’t, you can say it now!

The holiday season is here and with it comes all of the traditions that we’ve built up over the years.  Do you have holiday traditions at your home too?  What are they?

For us, it’s always been that we go to ‘our place’ to choose a live cut Christmas tree and then we bring it home, water it, let it acclimate to our home temperature and then decorate it the next day.  But we’ve changed it up this year.  Yes, I bought my first artificial tree for Christmas.  Me!  Whose tradition was a cut tree because I love the smell of balsam!  Me – who’s never thought artificial trees looked real enough.

But guess what?  I decided to go with the flow and I’m so happy I have!  Change is good!

Do you have an artificial tree or a real one?  I’ll admit it’s a new experience for my children as we all loved the live cut tree, but this new one is a great substitute.  It was really easy to set up and it’s full!  I bought some of those balsam scentsicles so that the tree smells real even though we know it’s not.  It’s pre-set with lights and even though I’ve always been a white light girl only, I’m enjoying the twinkling colored lights as well.

Sometimes I think we get bogged down with the limiting thought that the holidays have to be a certain way because “it’s tradition.”  Sometimes people have difficulty with not getting their way when it comes to holiday traditions.  But life is ever expanding and changing.  Traditions are lovely, but they’re not set in stone.  Life is fluid.  We have to go with the flow and change with the new situations as they arrive.  I know it’s not easy to expand our thinking especially when we strongly feel that we’ve always done it this way, so that’s the way it has to be.  But it really doesn’t.  Besides, traditions can be stifling over time and changing it up can add a breath of fresh air!  You never know, you may even enjoy the change like we have with the colored lights and an artificial tree!

As I sit here relaxing with the colored lights on, I’m smiling.  As it gets darker outside, I will push the new tree light remote and change the lights to white because I like them in the dark.  I always feel like white light is healing when it shines into the darkness.

Happy December First to you!  Whatever you’re doing, keep shining your heartlights!  Go with the flow and expand your thinking.  You may find unexpected happiness when you allow new traditions to emerge from the old ways!

Shine On!

xo

Another Belated Rabbit Rabbit

Well my friends, it’s another belated Rabbit Rabbit post.  I have been so busy lately that I haven’t had time to tend to my blog, nor to check in on my sweet blogging friends.  I hope that all of you are doing well!  One of these days I will be able to have some time to catch up, but in the meantime, please know that I still am saying Rabbit Rabbit every first of the month and I hope you are too!

What I’ve learned recently (and I’ve known for quite some time) is that change is inevitable and it pushes us out of our comfort zones in ways in which we would never have learned those life lessons.  Even when we are in the midst of an upheaval, life goes on.  Daily life continues with all of its responsibilities.  Onward marching as the days go by and we are just a blip in this big Universe.

To those who are close with us, we are not just a blip, but an integral part in the world that we’ve created.  A microcosm in our soul family unit.  Our place in that small portion of the Universe is important and for that, I’m grateful.

Situations challenge us to learn those soul lessons of forgiveness, empathy, compassion, kindness and loving acceptance even when the struggles to find them are real.  Holding onto the poison of the past helps no one, especially those of us who find that allowing and letting go are the keys to health, peace and love in our daily lives.  Counting our blessings and appreciating all that we have spiritually helps beyond measure in healing.  Expanding our hearts to hold the heartlights of those who have taught us these life lessons is key to moving forward in our soul journey towards the light.

Allow me to embrace you all as we continue to shine our heartlights!  I hope that what’s left of June continues with peace and love for you.  If you’re having some challenges, remember that change is inevitable and can many times be helpful even when we can’t see how or why at the present moment.

Shine On!

xo

 

Picking Up The Pieces

When life throws you a curve ball, you have to re-evaluate your position in life.  You have to pick up the pieces from what’s changed and put them back together in a new way.  You may even have to release some parts of your prior life in order to make room for the new chapter that’s beginning.  We have to embrace the change in order to incorporate it into our lives and not be stymied by the upheaval.

There are many defining moments in life that create change.  What we forget in times of fluidity and peace is that change is inevitable.  Few of us get out of this life alive without challenges, for those are what make this life school a life-long learning process.  If we were only to enjoy smooth sailing for a lifetime then we wouldn’t have a chance to grow.  By enduring these challenges, we experience change.  Life school allows us to connect with others who have endured similar situations in ways that we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.  Nobody can understand how devastating a cancer diagnosis is if you haven’t experienced it yourself.  Nobody understands the all-encompassing grief that comes with losing a loved one if you haven’t been through it.  Empathy comes when you’ve walked a similar path with compassion.

I confess that I would have preferred to not have endured many of the challenges presented to me.  I could have done without the trying times that threatened to drown me.  But I persevered and through faith, love and friendship, I am still here.

I’ve been through a plethora of life changes as I am sure you have too.  Some have been good changes, while others defined me in ways I never thought possible.  Breast cancer, deaths of friends, family and loved ones, divorce, financial difficulties, Alzheimer’s in loved ones, just to name a few of the big ones.  Through these defining moments of upheaval and life changing events, I have learned one thing for sure:  I can survive and remain who I am innately and even be improved by having endured the changes.  Challenges, failures and triumphs sprinkled with love, hope, faith and kindness make all the difference.

Keep shining your heartlights!

Shine On!

xo

A Particular Wind

Menacing skies with clacking electrical lines

A particular wind is blowing today at more than 30 miles an hour through the farmland.   Inside we can hear the wind howling through the fireplace and outside the house, the wind is audibly howling as well.  The trees are bending and the electrical power lines are clacking together noisily (that’s a new one for me by the way).  It’s almost a little eery like yesterday, but there’s a blue sky behind the clouds which are moving away at a fast pace.

Can you see how the leaves are upturned by the wind? It’s really blowing here!

On the cusp of the atmospheric changes, this wind feels like it is blowing away all the debris (quite literally) mentally, emotionally and physically in order to pave the way for the new phase in our lives.  Thank goodness, right?

A little while later, the sun came out and the winds have moved the clouds a bit. This is the farmland where the geese hang out! No geese today!

The windy conditions helped the birds in flight! This hawk soared effortlessly for quite awhile above me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are you having crazy winds where you live today too?  How do they make you feel?

I feel lifted and (pun intended) blown away by the powers that be.  Grateful for the change of the season and for the gradual beneficial changes in my life.  I hope you had a lovely weekend as well!

Shine On!

xo

 

Accept Change

The secret of a happy life is to accept change gracefully.

~ Jimmy Stewart

Change happens.  That’s a fact.  Some changes we embrace wholeheartedly, some we tolerate and some we outright object to with disdain.  But either way, change happens.

Change can give us a little comfort time when things are quiet so we can rest.  Change can rev us up to motivate us.  Change can push us far out of our comfort zone in order to learn life lessons and be stronger, better, and more at peace after the storms.

I love this quote from Jimmy Stewart.  I hope that it gives you a little peace in knowing that it’s a choice in how you view the changes in your life.  Embrace them and accept them.  Divine Timing happens for a reason.

Shine On!

xo

 

In the Middle of Every Difficulty

“In the middle of every difficulty comes opportunity.”
~ Albert Einstein

It’s been a long few months for me.  I’ve taken on a lot of responsibility which isn’t mine to bear, but someone had to do it.  It hasn’t been easy, but it has certainly been a great opportunity for me to learn about myself.  I have learned that I can do more than I thought I could.  I have learned that I have infinite inner strength.  I have learned, I need to rely on myself.  I have learned to not take things at face value.  I have had my rose-colored glasses lifted.  I have learned to ask for help and feel gratitude when receiving it.  I have learned to let go and to allow people to do whatever they wish and not try to make it better for them.  I have learned to give myself permission let go of what I can’t control and not try to be responsible for everyone else ~ just for myself.  I have learned that I need to take off the blinders which had previously blinded me to the role that I had been given as a child and believed was my destiny.  With situations that aren’t of my doing, I have let go of the outcome and simply tried to do my best with the situation.  I continue to try to be a good person, but I am human.  I make mistakes, but those have lead me to grow in ways I couldn’t possibly have grown without the difficulties I’ve endured.

I have learned to allow others to be themselves, to act as they wish without judgement.  I have wrestled with the inability of some to help themselves, but I am learning to be with it.  I offer help, but I do not force change even when I believe that seeing a situation in a different light would be beneficial.  In short, I’ve stopped trying to do everything for everyone else and help God.  I am responsible for me.  I am responsible for my children.  I am responsible for being the best person I can be, to be helpful when needed and to remember that I can’t save others from themselves.

Big lesson for me, let me tell you.  For I was always a ‘fixer’ as my familial role given to me as a child.  Be the peace-maker.  Be the good one.  Be the responsible one ~ not that the others in my life didn’t have those traits because they did.  It was just I felt that my assigned role seemed to encumber all that and more.

But I am growing up and learning that nothing is set in stone.  That roles may change and that change can be good.  Change forces us to expand out of our comfort zones and to grow in ways that prior to now, we never even dreamed were possible.  It comes at a price for sure, but the payoff is peace within which for me, is priceless.

I am my brother’s helper but not his keeper.  Decisions that others have made in their lives are their decisions.  The decisions I’ve made in my life, are my own now.  The past role is not longer mine to own.  My responsibility rests in doing the best I can each and every day of my life and to be able to put my head on my pillow at night peacefully, knowing that I tried and hopefully I succeeded.  To help others, but to not hold onto the guilt when they choose whatever their choice is and to not judge their decisions.  It’s a handful of lessons that spill over into many forms in my life.

I hold peace within and pray for peace for others, no matter how battered their psyche.  I own the responsibility for my own actions, but not for the actions of others, nor do I try to change them.  I simply find peace within no matter the chaos around me.  I try not to engage in the swirling mindless chatter of those who aren’t well.  I limit my engagements with them, so to protect myself and my own heart.

I am a work in progress.  I am not perfect.  I will fall and get back up again and again.  I will be myself, wear my heart proudly knowing that as I love, I am loved.  I look to the positivity in my life.  I look up to the Heavens for support, guidance and the ability to find peace.  I look within myself, in the nooks and crannies of my heart for forgiveness of others and of myself.  I am learning to be free of the shackles which bound me and freedom in this moment, feels delicious.

Have the sweetest day, dear friends.

Shine On!

xo