Enjoy the Little Things - Now

Enjoy the little things in life…for one day you’ll look back and realize they were the big things. (Robert Brault)

I can truly echo this statement, for through my own experiences I have learned the importance of looking for and enjoying the little things as they happen.  We cannot recapture the moments and time moves forward whether we want it to or not.  What we do not appreciate and enjoy now can only be remembered later. 

Even when we know we should be enjoying the little things we do not always do so.  We may be so focused on something else in the moment that we barely react.  A mother, busy tying a shoe for a toddler may offer her cheek for a goodbye kiss from a spouse or another child as they leave, accepting the action as something small and routine for each of them.  The underlying steady love, appreciation and support may not fully be appreciated until later, when the children or spouse are no longer willing or present to share their love on a daily basis.

In our busy, active lives we schedule the activities and appointments that demand our attention or we are afraid may be forgotten.  While these places to be and things to do seem of the most importance, it is really the small things, unwritten, occurring between the lines that end up being the big things, the things remembered. .  Making sure you get the child to the game on time is important, right now, but what he will remember isn’t whether you made it early or late, but rather the talks that occurred during those rides or the ice cream after a loss.   Your daughter won’t remember whether you were late for a parent-teacher conference or a dance lesson but she will remember hearing you express your pride in her for the talents and skills you know she has. 

Sometimes it is our perceptions that hamper us from enjoying the little things.  As a mother, you pick up the crayons and torn crumpled piece of paper with what to your adult eyes appears to be nothing more than scribbles of lines and shapes with no meaning.  To you it is simply another piece of paper to be thrown away, until the little boy comes running in.  He is excited you found his drawing and boisterously explains what the lines, spaces, shapes and colors represent. A small piece of paper changes, with understanding, into his masterpiece for the day, a true work of art to be cherished.

 As our lives change we realize some of the small things we may have taken for granted in the past.   A frazzled mother, surrounded by screaming toddlers racing past her, looks back to a time when they slept peacefully for hours at a time, or forward a few hours to the hope of the quiet after bedtime.  The father who reluctantly played catch with a little boy one night now stands surrounded by the trophies the gift of a few minutes resulted in.  An aging grandparent reminisces about days of cookie covered tables, paper creations and chocolate covered faces as she listens on the phone to a grandchild tell her about his latest school project. 

At times we simply do not appreciate the little things until we recognize that the small things we take for granted are or would be the big things to someone else.  A father complains about how expensive it is to feed and clothe a child until the childless couple next door asks if  he will allow them to be a Secret Friend because they just want to share their love with the children they know and care about.   A mother apologizes for the crayon and sticky fingerprints on the wall  and the toys on the floor until  the visitor she thought she needed to impress begins crying and explains she lost a child to illness and wishes she could experience the wonder of wall art, growth prints and learning objects again. 

Whether small or big, I encourage us all to experience these things now.  Enjoy the moments of your life now, and reflect joyfully on them later.   

Starting the Next Chapter

"You can't start the next chapter in your life if you keep re-reading the last one." Unknown

There are so many ways of interpreting this, but today is a good day to think about what it could mean for you. 

Picture attribution: Pixaby free images

Life is all about growing, learning and changing.  Each of these words imply a sense of moving.  Generally it involves moving toward something new, something different or something unexpected.  Occasionally it may mean repeating something in order to make a better decision or find a better solution to a situation.  One thing about life is for sure, it goes on, with or without your permission, all around you.  The next day, the next chapter, or the next experience is waiting for you.

The last chapter of your life happened. You may have laughed or you may have cried. You may have been alone or had someone important to you supporting or loving you through. You may have failed or you may have succeeded.  You may have found some rest or worked your hardest.  You may have forgotten or you may have remembered something or someone that made a difference for you.  You may have learned something new or remembered you already knew what you needed to make it through this chapter.  Whatever happened or wherever you ended up, you finished.  Congratulations.

Like the student who just graduated, you are at a new starting point.  You have been coached, taught and encouraged. You have been presented with a myriad of lessons and experiences which assisted you in learning the skills, gaining the knowledge or improving your abilities needed to begin the next chapter or next phase of life. You have been prepared.  Just like the student you may feel uneasy about what the future holds.  Like the student, you may want to just remain as you are.  You like who you are at this moment.  Facing the unknown holds the possibility of events or experiences which may change you.  Like the student, you may want to hold tightly to the relationships of friends and teachers and the security of structured/planned days.  Instead of moving on you try to keep what you have, or re-read the last chapter hoping to find all the answers instead of turning the page.

Today is the beginning of your next chapter.  It might be only a new day or it may be a new month. Perhaps you are at a crossroad, ready to make a choice of which new path to take.  Perhaps you have experienced a recent life event such as marriage, the birth of a new child and you now have someone new to share joys and sorrows with.  You may have just experience the loss of a companion through divorce or death and now must move forward without the thought of including them in decisions.  Are you the one starting a new job or a facing an opportunity you thought would never come your way?   Whoever you are, what ever your circumstances and wherever you are at this moment, now is your time to turn the page.  It is time to start a new chapter only you can write.  

Nothing is Impossible

shutterstock.com/impossible

Nothing is impossible - the word itself says "I'm Possible."

How many times have you or I found ourselves looking at a project, idea, task or offer and said "That is impossible!"  How many times have you then tried anyway and proved it was indeed possible?  Or seen someone else succeed at what you perceived as impossible to accomplish? 

Many times it is not the idea or task that seems impossible, it is the way we initially expect or envision it happening, and perhaps we could be right.  However, in almost everything, there is more than one way to try, act or accomplish it.  Many years ago I sat in a room with about seventy-five others and were challenged to cross a room.  The only rule was that you could not do it exactly the same as anyone before you.  The idea seemed impossible, after all there are only so many ways to walk, run or skip, or so we believed.  As the challenge proceeded, imagination and thought grew among the group.  Not everyone walked, or ran, or skipped or used shoes or feet or held their arms or hands or feet the same.  We found surprisingly that not only were there 75 different ways to cross a room, but also many more we did not have time to attempt. The experience was one of the best I have ever had in helping me understand that if something looks or sounds impossible, I need to take a second look and remember the way may just be something I haven't thought of or tried yet. 

What looks or feels impossible to you right now?  Now say to you yourself, this is possible.  Take another look and try something different. Remember too, what seems impossible for one person may be absolutely possible for someone else only because they did or thought of something the other person had not explored yet.  Remember you are the one that may be perfect, have the knowledge, will, determination, experiences or imagination to do what someone else also thought impossible. 

Take a chance. Look for the IM POSSIBLE ways in everything you see or try.






I Can Handle Everything...

These are the first few words of a quote a friend gave me one day at the office on a day we were both handling a number of unusual client and administrative requests.

“I can handle everything life throws at me. I can either handle it well or handle it bad; either way I have to handle it. “

I can’t see anything but truth in this thought. It is really a very empowering statement for anyone. As life comes along, whether it drags or seems to be speeding along, we each get to handle it. What we receive may be something big, demanding our highest level of attention and efforts or so small we handle it so quickly we hardly notice it was there.

We may not even handle similar life events or recurring situations the same way each time, yet somehow we handle it each time. Sometimes we handle what life gives us with a smile, sometimes with a groan and occasionally with deep emotion, but we handle it. Most times we walk away with the knowledge we were at our best and successful while occasionally we walk away wishing we could have done more or found a better way to handle the moments. No matter how it is measured on the spectrum, we did handle it. We handled it, made it through and stood ready for the next thing life was preparing.

Thankfully, we do not always have to handle life alone. Along with everything life throws us to handle, life also throws us friends, family and teachers that can aid us. We may still handle the majority of things life throws us on our own terms, in our own way, based on our our own experiences but we are better armed than we might have otherwise been because of the people life put in place for us to reach out to, lean on or on a rare occasion even hand the problem to and trust they can handle it for us.

I encourage everyone to realize that no matter what life throws at us, whether it is something we look forward to and prepare for something that takes us completely by surprise, we can handles. We are naturally armed with everything we need.  The only variable is whether we handle it well, alright or less than perfectly.  In the end we will handle it in some way.