Fall Down Seven Times Get Up Eight

Today's word is benchmark.

A benchmark is something you use to gage your progress when you say you want something.

A benchmark can help keep you on track. Your goal...your benchmark.

They are kinda like mileage signs on the highway of getting where you want to go.  Heh I like that! :)

Today's word is because.

Because means..."for the reason that".

So let's use it in a sentence shall we?

Do it because you can...like nobody else.   :)

The holiday afterglow can warm your heart!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I did.  I love the afterglow of a holiday...the next day when you reflect on how the day went.

I spent time with my niece and her family and then my brother and his family.  Simply lovely.

There is nothing like the pure delight you feel when you get out of the car and a little head pops out the door and yells, "Hi Aunt Jeanne!" Priceless... 

From watching the Packer game to listening to Joey read a chapter in his book to meeting the family's only surving hamster Mr. Twiggy.  The food was wonderful but that was way down the list of delights ...simply sharing a meal with people you love is enough. 

Getting to do that twice in one day...truly a gift.

And now I am enjoying the afterglow...the warm feeling of contentment and connection. That beats getting up and fighting Black Friday shoppers any day.

Thanksgiving is a mindset..not just a holiday.

How thankful are you?  Just asking...

Today is thanksgiving and I suppose that more people today take time to be thankful which is a good thing but really in my mind thanksgiving is a mindset.  Not just a holiday. Don't get me wrong...it's  great holiday but when you have a mindset of thanksgiving it's even better!  :)

A mindset of thanksgiving says that you are thankful every day.  That does not mean your life is perfect...but guess what...I don't think it is suppose to be.  It's in the ups and downs of life that you feel it....really feel it.  And I think that is the point.

To feel it.  All of it.  Not to walk through life unaffected.  What would be the point of that? 

So today be thankful. Be thankful for who is in your life.  Be thankful for all you have and all you experienced.  Then tomorrow...be thankful again. 

Prepare to be grateful...

That's the phrase that has been stuck in my head since I woke up this morning...prepare to be grateful...the day before Thanksgiving.  It's curious because I believe I am so grateful every day.

But yet there is that phrase that doesn't appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. :)

So here is my "takeaway" from it this morning.  One (me) needs to be watchful...watchful and aware and alert to what life presents.  The people we meet along the way.  The experiences we have and be prepared ahead of time to be grateful as they unfold.

I have been the poster child this last year for heartbreak, upheaval and chaos.  I am also the poster child for friends, family, faith and moving forward in spite of it all...or maybe it is because of it.

But the fact is when you are looking at something face to face, nose to nose it is hard to feel space for gratitude. It's really hard when you seem just to be struggling to breathe. 

I have said many times I want the" long view" so I can understand how it all fits together...because I do believe it does. Most of us don't have the luxury of that. That's where faith comes in. 

 Faith in believing that everything does happen for a reason even when you can't see or feel the reason. And gratitude for every experience...because it's those experiences that shape us. Help make us who we are.

So...because life continues to unfold in amazing ways each and every day...I need to prepare to be grateful each and every day. For everyone and everything.  There is a challenge in there but one I choose to accept with as much as grace as I can muster.

I get that...now maybe that phrase that has been stuck in my head for several hours can take up residency someplace else. Like maybe your head!!  LOL

It's time for a gratitude review.

That's right...it's time.  For all of us to take a time out and just review and acknowledge to ourselves what we are grateful for.

Thanksgiving week is the perfect week for this eye opening experience.  Maybe take an area of your life each day this week.  By the end of the week you and I will have a pile of things we may take for granted that may make us realize..."I am blessed."

We have a choice every day to look for the good.  Laser focus this week may help us all realise how truly good it is. 

No...that is not enough.

I went to get change on Saturday.  I needed three rolls of quarters. The young woman at the bank said, " Would you settle for two?"  I thought what the heck?  Quarter shortage?

I said..."No that is not enough".  She responded that she would have to go to the vault and it would take awhile. With my best smile I said, "I'll wait".

I clocked it...three freaking minutes it took her,  Three!  Okay it's a small bank but for some reason this young woman did not want to make any extra effort.

I could have settled.  I could have said oh yes...let me scramble and stop some place else for one more roll.  I did NOT settle.  I asked for what I need and then it appeared when I held fast.

Life lesson #4013.  :)

 

Today's word is step.

A step is the single action of the leg in motion.  Single.  Motion.  Not a thousand motions. A single one.

So today...Step in. Step out. Step to the left. Step to the right. Step ahead. Step up. Step back. Step around. Step through.

You decide which one. Just step.

Today is the day to leave judgement city.

That's right pack up and more on out.  Don't think you live there?  Well maybe you don't but I at the very least have an apartment there!  LOL

We judge.  We judge people, food, relationships...we judge all the time.  Sometimes that is a good thing.  Sometimes not so good.

It is not so good when it causes us to put up barriers so high that we cannot get around them.  Those barriers can stop us from fully engaging with people, to go deeper than surface level.  If you judge by appearances...you may never get to know someone who could make a profound difference in your life.

If you judge something by one encounter ...you could be shutting the door on the possibility it could be different the next time.

Maybe instead of judging which can be harsh..we want to evaluate.  That opens the possiblity of a softer look...and that softer look may just give us a different outcome.  Just maybe...

 

Forever may not mean forever.

Yesterday I wrote about friends being the frosting on the cupcake of life!  :)  I want to chat a bit more about friends.

Have you ever had a friend and said or at least thought that you would be friends forever?  Most of us have. But the facts are that forever may not mean forever...

We change...which is a good thing.  They change which may also be a good thing.  The thing is we may not be changing in the same direction.  That's okay because that's just life.

But if you continue to try to hold on to things as they were... you really tie your hands to fully experience things as they are now. Get that?  You sometimes need to let go...let things just float away.

Sometimes that can mean friends.  People in your life who were very much part of your life at one time and now are not. 

I read a wonderful book about death years ago.  It talked about everything...simply everything has a beginning and an end. And no one knows how long what is in the middle will last. The point is to enjoy it fully when you are in the middle.

Then when the end arrives you bless it for what it has brought to you and let it go.  With grace and appreciation.

I have friends like that.  They have added so much to my life at one point in time. I am ever so grateful that our paths crossed.  And while my memories of those friends are still with me...they are no longer part of my life.

Forever may not mean forever.  It may mean for just a little while...  :)