Weathering the Storms

Ma, Thanksgiving 2011

Life is full of challenges for all of us.  Each of us has some struggle that goes unknown to most people.   Often I forget this fact when I am swimming in self-pity, worrying about things that I can not control or change.

Have you ever sat on a park bench and "people watched?"  

Wondering about someone's life, looking at them and imagining their untold story has always been a favorite past time of mine.  This activity seems to connect me to the individual in my sight.  I feel more compassionate toward strangers; shifting my focus away from myself opens my heart.

Visiting the nursing home, I have met many folks; all of them with a life that is just as special as mine.  All of them experienced love at one time in their lives.  Success, failures, heartaches, loss... every one of the people I see sitting in wheelchairs in the lobby of the home have experienced life.

Compassion flows through my veins, it's the essence of my spiritual life.  I believe that we are all connected and we all need each other to remind us about the importance of love.  Why do we forget in the first place?

Ignorance is bliss. 

Like you, I too have been ignorant to your thoughts and feelings.  I was bathing myself in sadness, bringing with it more sadness.  Pulling the shades of my heart, I shut you out.  I cried.  It felt wrong.  I began to visualize us all together, happy and sharing our lives.  The good times and the not so good times.  I sucked it up and opened my heart to you.  Like magic, healing began with a single hug... Thank you.  No one ever said that weathering the storm would be easy!

Thanksgiving 2011

How Many Months?

Life is short.  

We all get only so much time to experience the living aspect of life.  Reaching the mid-century mark of my existence on Earth, I realize how much more living I have to do.  

Time goes by quickly.  No longer are the days drawn out like those from my childhood.  Drawn out days which felt like eternity; especially when I was waiting for a specific date to arrive like my birthday, Christmas or a school field trip.  

Time.  We can't see it but we can experience it.  The beauty of living is we have choice, we have free-will; we can spend our time any way we chose.

Have you ever wondered how much time you have to do all that you want to do?  Have you ever thought of your life in months?  If you multiply 12 by the number of years you are, you will be able to determine the  approximate number of  months you have lived on Earth as the person you are right now.

Me?  I'm about 614 months old at the writing of this post.  614 is not a very big number, especially if you look at it in the form of currency... $614 USD is not much money; it's not much time to make your life count.

My mom, she's lived about 986 months.  

How many months are you?