easy and blissful?
Sometimes!
For me today, it feels
Complex,
Nuanced, and
Layered.
 
Love for my sister, my former spouse,
my two boys driving 1,000 miles away. 

However this day of gratitude for LOVE touches you,
remember to: 

Dig deep for the layer of
LOVE for YOUR
SELF

"“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."   Rumi
 

We are encouraged to pursue happiness,
yet that fabulous feeling is fleeting. 
(say that 10 x very fast )
We all know that emotions comes and goes,
We're up * We're down
Happy * Not happy.

So what is the secret to sustainable happiness ?
Contentment !
Contentment is to feel gratitude and acceptance with one's body and mind,
and find satisfaction in present circumstances.
It is not Complacency.
Complacency is being unsatisfied with how your life is in the moment
but still being unwilling to make changes to improve your situation.

May cultivating contentment
offer you more happiness in 2021

"If you strive for contentment 
instead of the high of happiness,
you free your mind to focus on living a more meaningful life,
not a life in pursuit."   Messy Minimalist

"Contentment comes from our relationship to what is going on around us,
rather than our reaction to it.
It is the peaceful realization that we are whole and complete just as we are,
despite the anger, sadness, joy, frustration, and excitement that may come in and out from time to time.”
 Dan Cordaro, PhD.

Take a hot shower lately?

Did you have to walk to the river and port a jug of water on your head and then build a fire to heat it up ? 
Or dig a well with a shovel and pull up the bucket?

On this day of expressing gratitude,
I am thankful for indoor plumbing and hot water heaters.
 Could our great-grandmothers have possibly imagined we would have such a wonderful luxury without having married into royalty?

We have the convenience and the sweet health-giving sensations of clean, hot water, whenever we open the tap.

I'm currently in the Arizona desert under gorgeous blue skies on arid desert land. 
 I am astonished that people have lawns and use water as if it will always flow abundantly. I hope it does.

Let us be grateful, and not wasteful.
I'm very lucky to have an indoor hot shower whenever I want one! 


 

Balance
We've just passed the fall equinox when day and night are equal.
Such a tidy balance of dark and light only happens twice a year. 
Finding balance during these pandemic days is a huge challenge. 
Like
sitting at the computer too long and
remembering to reserve a swim lane at my neighborhood pool.
Like
spending too much time alone and
wanting to connect with people in person, but the Covid risk is too great,
Like
wanting to believe civilization will survive and wondering how we will slow climate change?

I heard Joanna Macy speak on zoom recently and she said this: 

"Don't let fear obscure
your gratitude for being alive"

It reminds me to focus on the smallest of gratitudes
to keep my fear at bay.

 Finding Balance through Gratitude?
... a worthy pursuit!
I've been offering hour long art journeys over zoom!  If you'd like to join, at no cost, email me to find a time.

Embrace Nature.

I went to the Yuba River in Nevada City, California for 3 days. 
The air was hot and the water was
wild, cool and refreshing.

I outfitted myself as a 60+ y. o. mermaid,
emboldened with earplugs, goggles, water shoes to kick out of powerful whirlpools,
and webbed gloves made of neoprene for traction to pull myself up onto the hot boulders. 
As a local told me,
"the rocks are unforgiving and they don't say 'sorry'."

I swam against the current for a great work out and then let the river propel me.
It was dreamy.

Listening to the river and watching the sparkles of light reflect the sun rays,
I felt nourished and grounded on this awesome planet.

 Now more than ever... Embrace Nature.