Choices

The photo here was taken today on my balcony (click on photo for larger version). If you scroll down you will see quite a difference from the last ones I posted. We had already experienced a number of 50s and 60s+ days in February but all this past week the forecasters were saying we would get snow late Friday night/early Saturday morning. All week I would hear the grumbling about more snow. Sure enough, Saturday morning I not only awoke to an accumulation but a pretty heavy downfall that did not stop in the morning hours as predicted but continued for a couple of hours into the afternoon. If I had wanted to "rail against" the snow, I could of had a miserable day yesterday and it would be continuing today. I did not choose that path. Instead, I decided to be delighted by what I figure will be our last snowfall of the season. It is the lush, heavy beautiful snow that always has a kind of romantic feel to it.  I didn't even mind going out to grocery shop yesterday morning while it was still snowing but thanked God for my little car that does so well in any weather and my very warm coat with a hood.  I certainly encountered grousers yesterday but I was giving out happiness and thankfulness for the beauty and the much needed moisture. Point is, life is one choice after another in each and every moment--what will I choose in my moments today? What will you?

What We Give

Recently I read about a boy born into a wealthy prominent family who begged for his mother’s attention and barely spoke with his father. This boy was rebellious and independent by nature, was often punished for doing poorly in school and had a speech impediment. Financial security does not counteract wounds to the soul, so you might imagine he would have bouts with the law or perhaps become another badly behaved infamous “rich kid.” And he did, in a manner of speaking. As Prime Minister of Great Britain, Sir Winston Churchill was intimately involved with the law and while to some he may have been “infamous” – he was positively famous.

My research into Churchill was prompted by hearing a quote I liked and “Googling” to find out who said it, which turned out to be Churchill. I admit I had no idea that in addition to being a statesman and orator he had served as an officer in the British Army, was a war correspondent, historian, Nobel Prize-winning writer, and an artist. Somehow Churchill made the choices needed to move beyond the obstacles of his youth. 

“We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give” is the quote that sent me on my search. It not only prompted self-inquiry but also heightened my awareness to what I was experiencing being "given" to me as well as interactions in life around me that I witness.   

The initial impetus for Plane Dames was simply to fulfill something Eva and I weren't finding, which initially was a club for women who like aviation but aren't necessarily pilots and/or married to or girlfriend of one.  Our first shirts came simply because we wanted to identify ourselves like most club members do.  Once we saw how cute they were, it was Eva's idea to use our logo to create a line of cute, flattering women's aviation related apparel because we weren't finding that either.  When Plane Dames becomes a living it will be because others like and appreciate what we are "giving."  We are far from "making a living" via Plane Dames but we both have very rich lives because of what we are giving in our jobs, families, friends and humanity in general.  And since the greatest thing any of us can ever give is ourselves being in the moment with whomever/whatever--true giving is recession proof!  

So if the “news” has you down, turn it off, take a deep breath, relax and "be."  Allow yourself to be still and enjoy each moment because that is when the "nudge, inspiration" for your next "do" will come.  When it does, I'll just bet it will be something that flows with “making a life by what we give.”  But my nudge is to get my grocery shopping done, pay bills, etc.  That's the other thing about "what we give"--it's not just confined to "big moments" but rather those big moments will be defined by what we do in the little ones! 

The New Year

During a slow commute home with lots of alternate routes, I became first in line waiting for a very long freight train to pass. It was a perfect opportunity to pull out my Ipod Nano, hook it into my car stereo system and enjoy my choice of music. Still light, I could see up and down the tracks. As I was relaxing and enjoying the Temptations’ best ever version of “Night and Day” I caught myself alternating between a daydream of a romantic slow dance to jerking back to reality, staring down the tracks looking for a glimpse of the end of the train. This stark flip flop occurred several times before I caught myself doing it. That prompted a mental “conversation” about not relaxing, enjoying the moment and so on.

I also realized I was looking up and down the track (mostly down for the end) but not at what was twenty feet directly before me. I had not been looking at the individual cars at all but the train as one whole that was obstructing my path. This commuters’ thorn in the flesh became a life lesson on how I (and most people) live my life looking at the past or looking to the future while largely missing what is right in front of me. So I seized the moment to look only directly ahead and did not allow myself to look up or down the tracks. I stayed focused on the train car passing and enjoying the wonderful music I was listening to.

Up to the point I made that decision, I could not have told you what that train was moving. When I began really looking, I saw it was made up of coal cars. Before I knew it the three engines on the end passed, it was gone and I could motor on down the road. I did, however, continue to ponder my life lesson. It brought me up short to think about how much I miss by not being in the present moment. Not to say that enjoying memories or having plans for the future is inherently bad but certainly dwelling on the past or fearing the future is a complete waste of time and energy.  I made myself a promise to do my best to focus in the moment and prayed for reminders to do just that.  When I really focus in the moment not only does it take on a richness and fullness that I would have otherwise missed but problems shrink to a manageable size.  Life shifts from dreading the daily drudgery to being "Christmas morning!"

Happy really New Year!                              Photo: Taken at the Henry Plant Museum, Tampa, Florida

Hope

I love fall! The weather, the leaves, the angle of the sun all comes together in the last celebration of the growth and activity of spring and summer. Fall eases us into our season of reflection, planning and drawing close to one another-winter. As the leaves drop, it reminds me to check for any "dead" habits, areas in my life that need to let fall away.

One bad habit that seems to have affected a large portion of the population in any given situation is choosing to see the glass "half-empty." Here's great news for all of us-that choice is like walking into a pizza place and ordering a #5 Chinese Dinner combo-it doesn't exist! I will explain. When reading "The Art of Possibility" by Zander & Zander I learned (but often forget) "half-empty" (emptiness, lack) is an abstraction of the mind, whereas "half-full" is a measure of the physical reality under discussion. An optimist is very often not regarded as being a "realist."  Interesting, in light of the fact that an optimist, in this example, is describing the REALITY of what is in the glass versus the unmeasureable what is not!

However, the optimistic view of the glass "half-full" is more than a reality, it is a way of thinking tied to hope--which is as necessary to sustain intangible happiness and joy as water in that half-full glass is to our physical life.  Sometimes though, hope gets a boost.

The photo here is another shot taken on my balcony just a couple of weeks ago.  There had been a heavy rain and looking out my window I happened to notice the beads of water on the strawberries.  It was a shot too good to miss.  When I shared it via an online album one of my friends commented, "Strawberries, in Kansas in October?!"  Funny, I hadn't even thought about that reality.  I can honestly say when I planted the basket in June I did not anticipate having strawberries in October!  However, now when I plant next spring I will remember this and my "reality" will be changed.  It will be easy to have the "hope" of strawberries long past the normal season.  Now I will also challenge myself to remember not to expect the norm in any aspect of my life! Ephesians 3:20

Pursuing Passion

It is late, I hear a commercial plane overhead and through my open balcony door I also hear the soothing burble of water—the new this summer installation of my downstairs neighbors’ little water garden.  A year ago my balcony door was rarely open because the former tenant had turned the once lovely garden/patio area into an over-sized “litter box” for her large dog.  A litter box she rarely cleaned—you get the “drift” as you can well imagine I did.  For two summers I seldom spent time on my balcony but at the end of March that tenant left and new neighbors moved in. 

One weekend early in May I heard voices outside coming from the yard below and saw four people raking, pruning, etc.--very admirable particularly since all they had to work with was dirt, weeds and a few remaining perennials.  The next weekend the activity really ramped up to include them laying sod and putting down landscaping bark.  A week later the flowers came in everything from hanging pots to eye-catching little brightly painted pots.  The water garden container soon followed. 

I was enticed to go back out on my balcony and in so doing met Dan and Katie, my new neighbors.  I complimented them on what a fantastic job they had done and learned that Katie was actually painting those little pots that had been showing up.  I told them how much it was blessing me to look down on their yard and what a great inspiration they were for me to do my balcony.  And I did.  We probably have the prettiest combined area in our complex.  I have a restful, beautiful little spot I am enjoying tremendously all because two virtual strangers had a vision and executed it with passion, energy and sweat.  Even though they didn’t do it for me, their hard work became a blessing in the visible transformation of their yard and even more so in the action it inspired in me. 

What I gained has been much more than a restful spot.  It is a powerful reminder of how pursuing your passion will not only affect your own life but the lives of others; and very likely in ways you could/would have never anticipated.  It's not even so much what you are doing but how you are doing it.  Each moment I have the choice to "phone it in" as they say, or LIVE it!  Time for my morning coffee which always boosts my LIVE IT attitude!