Happy Valentine's Day - What Is Love? Why Are We Celebrating?

Happy Valentine's Day!! Today is one of my most favorite days of the whole year because it is one day designated solely to the celebration of love. Where so many people go wrong is either by having a narrow minded view of love or by buying into the commercial hype and excitement and forgetting about the real meaning of the day. When people talk about Hallmark Holidays or how they don't like holidays because they are just made up by companies to make more money I just feel sorry for them. They are already missing the whole point of not just that day but every holiday. The days of our lives are what we make them and the meaning our lives have come from the meaning that we give them. These holidays, such as today, are opportunities for us to take a moment and celebrate something in our lives. We only live once and we only get one shot at each day. Sure, you don't have to do anything today. You can sit at home and ignore your phone and watch movies to distract youself all day or find some other form of self-isolation to pass the time. Of course all that's going to do it isolate you further and make you feel miserable. That's you making yourself miserable, no one and nothing else. 

Or on the flip side you can decide to do something, even if you do stay in. Send a message to your brother or sister on Facebook. Call up your mom or dad. Text a picture to your best friend of both of you from when you first met and tell them how glad you are to have them. Thank the coworker who covers for you when you are late. Buy a coffee for the neighbor girl who leaves for work at the same time, or pay for the persons drink behind you in line and don't say anything. Love takes many shapes and forms, that's why it is universal and what makes it so beautiful. Today isn't about buying cards or candy or going out to dinner or getting laid, it's about celebrating the thing that connects us all - love. Love is joy shown outward. When you engage in the world and become a part of it, and when you learn to find your own personal joy, you can learn to share it by loving others unselfishly and wholeheartedly. We are all leaves on the tree of life, it's time we start acknowledging the fact that we are all connected. Connected in all kinds of different ways.There are many forms of love, today we celebrate them all. Happy Valentine's! 😘❤️🌎

Rule #1

Life Is Never Balck & White

Lizards In The Garden

As spring begins the world has begun to come alive all around me. I love it, I love the smell and I love the feeling in the air. That crispness I sense as I breathe in is so refreshing and invigorating. This is why I am always going outside. It's why I'm always pushing myself to get up and get out. When I get really depressed all I want to do is stay in. Whether it's lying in bed, sitting at the desk or sitting on the edge of the bed I don't care. I just don't want to get out and interact with people. And I definitely don't want to talk on the phone. I can get stuck like this, stuck in this terrible self-perpetuating cycle of misery and despair. We all can, it's an easy trap to fall in to. The best way I found to get out of it is to get up and just go outside. I do it by myself if I need to, but I still go outside and breathe in the fresh air. It brings me back to life. When it's time to come back inside I always feel at least a little more optimistic about life. It somehow helps me realign my perspective and puts a little more fuel in my tank. I don't know what it is but it works every time. It helps me calm down enough to take a deep breathe and put all my problems in relative perspective. I push myself to realize that some things just aren't worth t, like whether or not what I did at work made someone mad or not. If it did then oh well it's already happened and I can't change that. If not then I have nothing to worry about anyway. It's simple, some things aren't worth wasting time worrying over. The past is the past and all we can do is adapt and move forward as best we can. Sometimes we need something to force us to slow down, to take that breath. Use nature, it's all around you and already at your fingertips. It costs nothing and returns everything. It can be simple like walking to the store just down the street instead of driving to it or taking a fifteen minute walk through the park with your headphones on. Do something you want, it is supposed to be fun too. 

One of the things I love is seeing the flowers budding and the green growth stemming from all the tree branches around me. A raw example of life and the power of nature, it's beauty on display for all to see. Roses are my favorite, red roses particularly. But I do love all roses, and I love that I get to see them everyday walking in my neighborhood. The old saying about stopping to smell the roses always comes to mind, but then again it is true. I love to just stop and close my eyes and smell a beautiful rose. It's five seconds of pure bliss. Everything melts away and afterwards that rose stays on my glasses to keep me looking at things just a little bit brighter. The next time you are out take a moment and smell a rose, or any beautiful flower you happen to come across. Savor the moment and take in the healing energy Mother Nature is giving you. 

Now that the warm weather is here and the sun is out to warm the stones and grass lizards are almost everywhere. I love it, I used to have a pet lizard. He didn't last too long but I loved him for every second. At least I think it was a him. I wouldn't know. I've always loved lizards, just not snakes. There are lizards out sunbathing on the walkways at work and on the stones lining our daily hiking trail. There are so many, I love just watching them. They are so adaptable, I have always been amazed that they can grow back a tail that gets severed. Amazing. They can climb almost anything too, any surface or terrain. When I see a lizard I tell myself to be a little more lizard like. Take time to bask in the healing sunlight, pause and breathe in this beautiful world around you and learn to adapt to trying and tolling situations with dignity. You know you're able to. We all have it inside of us, it's how we're made and born. Lastly, don't be afraid to go anywhere, even when you're scared out of your mind. Don't be afraid to tackle any surface or brave any terrain. Look at the lizard, another example of the universe showing us that we really can make it. Slow down enough to get the message and see just how much it will change your life. Take a second and go look through the window into the garden. It's beautiful isn't it? Wouldn't you feel better outside? Just five minutes of that fresh air is worth a days problems if you let it empower you. Harness the joy around you and take flight, what is there to wait for? Nothing more rewarding. 

Brush Yourself Off

I made it through today; a small yet noble victory for me. With our licensing survey finishing at work, potential clients visiting, investigations, appointments and so much more I thought I was going to lose it today. On this ten hour day I really believed my nerves were going to just burn themselves out. Of course I had my partner coaching me along through iMessage all day long. I made a decision on my own though to throw it all out the window. I literally took all day today minute by minute. I only made sure all the paperwork was done and then just started in with no hesitations, look backs or flash forwards. It was like every minute hit the restart button. I have been trying to do this for years and I have never been able to truly master it before now. Maybe it was because of the stress, my support, my situation or a combination of all three. Whatever it was, I took it and ran. I used that fuel to keep me going today when all I wanted to do was give up and collapse in the corner. I know it will still be difficult but now I know that I can do it. No excuses. 

I don't know how it happened. I just know that it worked. You have to just push those thoughts and worries out of your mind. You already know they aren't realistic anyway, it's just too hard to push them away. So take it one minute at a time. Literally. Just focus on what you have to do right now and don't think about anything else. I realized today that by doing that you not only prevent yourself from a lot of pain and anguish but you also allow yourself to truly live. Live life in the moment the way it is meant to be lived and enjoyed. In life spiderwebs are everywhere, in the corners, the bushes or the trees. They spring up overnight and can tangle us up without us even seeing what's happening. Those twisted traps are made sticky, so as to cling on and suck the life right from us. It's up to us to admit when we are caught and have the integrity and courage to brush ourselves off and keep going like normal. Because it is normal. Life is normal, because there isn't such thing as normal. Life is random and crazy and wild and unpredictable. We have to keep our eyes open and guard up so that when those problems blindly try to tear us down we can see them for what they are and move on. There will always be spiderwebs. Everyday a new one, or maybe two new ones. The more we let things bother us the more those cobwebs build up until we have wrapped ourselves in our own cocoon of misery. Stop it before it happens, stop it when you feel it starting and get rid of the cobwebs caught up in your hair and on your leg and everywhere else. Brush it off and keep going. There isn't any other choice except misery. Do you have any cobwebs stuck to you, demons you are carrying around? Take a second and really think. You can make your life better, easier, more productive and more joyful. The choice is yours.