Life travels at such lightening speed. Isn’t it great that we have created the pomp and circumstance that surrounds life’s milestones? Pausing to recognize and honor our successes, accomplishments and momentous occasions may likely be the only way to ensure that we remain present in the beauty and joy of those moments. Celebrations are life’s way of making sure the laser imprint of our magnificence sticks.
What if the darkest times, the largest struggles, and the greatest grief were treated as gold, jewels, and trinkets? A treasure box shoved deep down underneath brings richness, bright and full of promise when opened. Shadows that no longer remain hidden sparkle with hope, prosperity, and joy when realized as buried treasure.
a painting by Susan Kerr
Instead of calling it work and begrudging it, what if today you call it play. Approach the to-do list with curiosity and wonder as if something new and exciting were about to unfold. Carry a smile in your pocket and wish genuine happiness to all those around you. Treat your space of work as a playground. Let your mind play tag with creativity. Flow through tasks and conversations as if gliding across the monkey bars. Delight in small accomplishments with the same flutter in your belly as when you first learned to swing. Invite play into your day. Feel big, free, and happy.
Artwork by Susan Kerr (www.susankerrinspiration.com)
Root down in humility.
Let love shower over you like a soft spring rain,
The warm rays of peace and ease fill you.
So full, whole and content
That love and joy have no option
But to penetrate existing boundaries,
Bursting, springing, popping out into the world.
Allow self love to bud and peace and joy blossom.
The dark of night gives way to the brilliance of the morning sun.
Shadows peel back to reveal the light and then at times the light yields to the shadows.
They dance, taking turns at center stage, spotlighting each other’s beauty, celebrating each other’s gifts.
Both always there, bowing to one another, essential to each other’s greatness.
Thankful for the contrast.
Ease comes with contentment. When the heart is content, the flow of life is more easeful. Contentment takes practice. It come through the effort of letting go of expectations and judgment, of feeling whole and complete, and knowing that things are just as they should be – not always good, not always pleasant, but right the way they are. Contentment needs no story, no plan, no solution, simply a willingness to let life unfold with all its imperfections… and in that willingness resides the space of ease.
To receive it on the outside, achieve it on the inside.
Clouds of anger, judgment, and doubt that swirl within
Block the rays of love, acceptance and trust that shine without.
Peace on the inside…Peace on the outside.
There is just one of me – one body, one mind, one world.
Yet, when I am in the left side of my mind, my world is lined up in neat little rows of describers and stories that define all of my experiences, forming memories of the past and predictions for the future, a space of story-telling, label-making, and structure.
In the right side of my mind, I am larger, brighter, made of colors, shapes, and lacking concrete boundaries. When I step to the right, I feel free and open, joyful and full of peace. My world is expansive, allowing, and in so many ways limitless. In the right side of my mind, I am present and full of wonder, curiosity, and enjoyment.
I move back and forth from side to side, creating the dance that is me…but I do think I would be better off if I took a step to the right more often.
Love and joy are always there, just like the water and the air.
Sometimes it seems as if they only have a time or season,
As if waiting to blossom, like the first buds of spring.
Though, when my heart is open, I see they are always there,
Ebbing, flowing, budding, blossoming, no matter when or where.
The morning after a big snow storm so often arrives with visions of beauty, inspires feeling of hope, and brings a sense of aliveness, courage, serenity.
The true challenge comes in experiencing those things during the storm.
Monday Mindfulness 