Highly Sensitive Beings Part II

Today is the second day of the new year. By all accounts, it would seem that there are many who have boarded the Optimism Train, doing what they do each time a new year rolls 'round. Resolutions are made. Hopes are renewed. Energies rise. Everyone telling everyone else..

"YOU CAN DO IT!"

"THIS is YOUR year!"

"YES YOU CAN!"

All lovely and encouraging and sweet. Also naive and even a little condescending. Not because you can't. Simply because the people posting or texting or speaking these encouragements don't believe you can any more than you do. It's a clear cut case of RAH, RAH, SISSKOOOMBAH from all the mamas in the stands of a blow-out game.

Sound pessimistic?

I suppose, at this point, you might think so. It may even sound a bit cynical. But since this is a space where choosing Joy is the entire reason for my being here, and since I am fully committed to that mission, I would ask you to have a little trust here. I have promised to offer thoughts/ideas/meanderings on the matter of Joy. I shan't recant on that promise.

To that end, I want to offer a more honest bit of encouragement so that, on day nineteen (or thereabouts) of your New Year's Resolutions, when your excuses begin to outweigh your resolve, you will, perhaps, hear this little voice and stick to your guns. Because even though I don't know you personally, I do know that it is possible to become more YOU. It's part of the reason why choosing Joy is so important to me. In my experience, the more you choose Joy and deny suffering, the more authentically you can (and will!) live the Life you came here to live.

Back in September of last year, I wrote a bit about Highly Sensitive Beings.  The piece was intended to encourage those who bear what is often an overwhelming onus. HSBs are aware of the subtle shifts in energy, whether it is planet-wide or in the neighbors down the street. A curse and a gift rolled into one giant ball of nerve endings. The beginning of a new year, along with all these resolutions and promises and individual resolve can be even more overwhelming than the ordinary goings-on for HSBs. There is so much focus by the "general population" that it can feel like rather than having a so-called new beginning, it is, instead, the not-so-yummy icing on an already over-iced cake.

NOT fun.

{Stay with me! I promise I won't let you down!}

And so...

The whole reason for a "Part II" here is to remind all you HSBs  that you don't have to bear that weight. It's not your job to encourage, coddle, or otherwise fake your way through the onslaught of New Year's Resolutions your friends and family and coworkers are tossing around like glittery confetti on New Year's Eve.

Let me say that again:

IT IS NOT YOUR JOB.

Your job is to moderate the energies you choose to share with those who matter to you. Especially your own beautiful Self. Your job is to maintain some semblance of balance while the rest of the world goes on a free-for-all with their short-lived optimism and convictions and mostly foolish promises that may or may not be kept. Your job is to keep that Highly Sensitive Heart wrapped in the arms of Love so that you, too, can continue on whatever journey you have chosen to take, no matter how important it may seem to anyone else.

I said it before and I'll say it again:

The world NEEDS you.

The world is a better place for having you in it.

You are a rare and beautiful Flower whose beauty can heal and nourish and scatter Joy like no other.

And so...

It is utterly and absolutely essential that you keep your Highly Sensitive Being-ness well and hale and

FULL OF JOY.

Here's to MORE ... of whatever you choose.

here we go...AGAIN!

I suppose the first order of business would be to wish you a MARVELOUS New Year. I, for one, am greatly relieved that 2017 is over. I don't suppose I have to get into all that again, right? So then....

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

Now that we got that out of the way, I want to share something with you. You see, every year on the first day of the new year, I do a full-blown desk cleaning. That is to say, I go through my three-tiered file drawers and toss what needs tossing, wipe everything on the desk down, dust and rearrange, and finish with that oh-so satisfying sigh of accomplishment. Not sure when this little tradition began but don't much care. It makes me happy to do it, and more often than not I find a few forgotten treasures along the way.

DELICIOUS!

The following is the result of said cleaning. I can't remember who sent it to me, but I'm pretty sure it was mailed inside a card because it has those folds that would occur if a legal sized piece of paper was put inside a greeting card. So, to whomever sent it to me, I thank you (again!). It's so lovely to be reminded that there are people in my world who care enough to send me stuff like this.

Lest I digress any further...

The piece is titled "Sunscreen Speech"; it was written by the Chicago Tribune's Mary Schmich and then the director/writer/producer, Baz Luhrmann did a take-off. It is also important to note that even though many credit Mr. Luhrmann with authoring the piece, he properly credited Ms. Schmich as the original author. (Gee! Imagine that! A man of integrity!)

Anywayz....it goes like this:

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of '97...Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me...in 20 years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.You're not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4PM on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts; don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind...the race is long and in the end it's only with yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what to do with your life...the most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives; some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the Funky Chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance...even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines; they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents; you'll never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography in lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths; prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time it's 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia; dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts, and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But...trust me on the sunscreen."

Can You SEE It?

A new year is upon us. And, for those of you who've been here for any length of time, you already know how I feel about "resolutions". I've given you every kind of angle from which to see, and then decide if you're going to set yourself up, or find a different way to march onward into your sparkly new year.

{For your convenience, here are a few of my past meanderings on the topic:

"A Bucket List...Instead"

"And So It Begins"

"First Tuesday"

...and if you want more, you can scroll down to the bottom of the page, click on the "Blog Archives" button, and search for yourself. But this really ought to paint the picture...}

Anywayz....

I thought that this year, instead of repeating myself yet again, I would, instead, offer up this beautifully said sentiment by the glorious Paramahansa Yogananda. He is one of my very favorite "gurus" and I have, for many years, kept his desk calendar beside me to begin each day with his splendid perspectives (not to mention some stunning photography!) Oh...and now, another bonus: my dear and talented friend, Ken Archer, has, for the past TWO years, had his photos included in these beautiful calendars. He has, in all his generous Spirit, sent me one for Christmas these past two years. How cool is that?! But...I digress (some things never change!)

On the very first page of this very new year, this is the thought that Paramahansa shares:

"Behold,, through the gates of the New Year, the distant variegated decorations of future achievements glimmering at you and daringly luring you to give pursuit."

I'm quite certain I couldn't have said it better myself.

So then...can you SEE what you want? Can you close your eyes and be there? Is it so important to you that you dwell on it, every single day, to the point of obsession? How do you feel when you see it? Do.You.BELIEVE?

I have seen, with my own Life, that these are the questions that bring the most fruitful results. When I set myself up in this way, I am, more often than not, rewarded with the realization of these dreams. In other words: it works. For ME. Of course, you're not me and I'm not you and nobody can tell you what's going to work. All I know is: once I began to look at my "new year" through these eyes, I also began to see my dreams fulfilled. It is a grand and glorious way to begin.

Your choice.

Wishing you joyful, fulfilling, glorious pursuits for this shiny new year!

P-O-O-F! Gone in a flash...

It seems impossible that two weeks have passed. Actually, 16 days. That is, since I was last here. I know, I know. Not the most consistent Being in the world. What can I tell ya? I am what I am...and sometimes that includes straying from the routine. Keeps things fresh, doncha think?

So I shan't apologize or make excuses. Yes, I've had some stuff going on; some of it great fun, some not so much. But that's got nothing to do with the lapse. Again...no excuses. Point is, sometimes it is good for this Being to step away and do other stuff. And so...I have.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's move on to the day's meanderings, shall we?

So there has been a whole lot of energy moving at what seems to me to be a very high speed. Like today, when I went downstairs to brew my coffee, and got a glimpse of the calendar and saw it was Thursday...I stopped to think about what might've happened to Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. WHUT THE....???? After regaining my footing, I carried on with the brewing and looked outside to see 2 magnificent Red Tails (hawks) riding the currents just outside the window. A smile crept onto my mugg as I thought, "bet they don't give a rip about what day it is." Just then, Bruzer came flying through the door, slid his way into the kitchen and looked up as if to say, "it is FABULOUS out there today! Did ya get a load of those ginormous birds?!" More smiling...and a big ol' belly laugh. Guess he doesn't give a rip about what day it is either.

While I waited for the coffee, I stepped outside and let the mist of the morning tickle my skin. I felt the dew under my bare feet and heard another chorus of birds doing their morning thang. I walked over to my favorite rose bush and saw 4 new buds about to burst. Made my way over to the veggie garden and almost jumped for joy at the sight of new tomatoes on the vine. Oh how I love home-grown tomatoes. I got lost in a world of smells and sounds and imagined tastes...and then I smelled the coffee. Literally. Coffee was ready to pour and puppies wanted to be fed. Back to the kitchen...and little tasks.

Before long I realized that I'd begun my day with a start. I was a bit unnerved by some ickiness that'd been bugging me for a while. Couldn't seem to shake that crap, no matter what I tried. Then, without warning, by mere virtue of being in the moment...and watching those birds and my dog and all the other splendors of a new day, I had inadvertently let go of that ick. It poofed into the dew and disappeared with the sun's warmth. Gone. Gone. Gone.

Ain't Life a T-R-I-P?

small accomplishments?

There is no such thing as a small accomplishment. Not in my world. I have seen, over and over, just how powerful these "small accomplishment"s can be. Baby steps. Little by little. One step at a time. Call it what you will. Near as I can tell, there is no such thing as a "small accomplishment".

Consider the infant.

First, mama gets all excited when baby rolls over for the first time. Like it's some kind of major feat. OH! LOOK! SHE ROLLED OVER!!! I remember the first time I heard a new mom screech these words as I watched that baby roll over. I'm tellin' ya, you'd have thought the baby had climbed Mt. Everest. I thought it was hysterical. She thought her baby was a superstar.

Next comes the crawling. Now that baby can roll over, she can begin to figure out the motor skills needed to propel herself from here to there. Another monumental feat. Crawling. From here to there. WOW!

And then one day, after she's got her motor skills dialed in, she figures out that she can pull herself UP off the floor by grabbing hold of the crib. Up she goes. Wobbling on chubby legs, she stands there for a few seconds before plopping down on her diapered butt. She sits there for a minute and tries again. Up, up, up she goes. Mama is, of course, thrilled to her pretty little toes. MY BABY IS STANDING UP!

Before too long that little tyke is putting one foot in front of the other, taking ... you guessed it...BABY STEPS. {where do ya think the term came from? you silly goose.} And, BOYHOWDY, the excitement that tore through the house that first time baby took her first steps. HOLY MOLY!

Pretty soon that little human is cruisin' all over the place. Faster than her mama can keep up. She's toddling here and there, to and fro, up and down. Til poor mama is all tuckered out and can't wait for the little scamp to go off to school so she can get some rest. Funny how that works, huh?

Well my Sweet, that's precisely how everything else works too. Small accomplishments turn into more accomplishments. Maybe you want to get stronger. Or drop a few pounds. Or write that book you always said you'd write. No matter what the desired destination, you just gotta start. Somewhere. Anywhere. Just so long as you start. Because those muscles aren't going to be 'stronger' the first time you pick up a dumbbell. Nor is the weight going to drop off overnight {did you put those pounds ON overnight? Me thinks NOT.}Nor is that book going to write itself. Page one is page one. Start there.

Regardless of what it is you'd like to change, gain, lose, attain, perfect, or otherwise see in your world, you just gotta do the 'small thing' first. Before you know it, you'll be picking up a 20 lb. sack of groceries like it was a little toy dog. You'll be looking in the mirror and see that fabulously svelte body of yours staring back. You'll walk into your office (or wherever it is you write) and see a tall stack of papers sitting beside your computer waiting to be edited.

Like I said, there is no such thing as a small accomplishment.

Now. GET TO IT!

The Soul Will Not Be Denied

It never ceases to amaze me; this aversion to change that we, as puny humans, have. Why is that? Why do we fight so hard to remain where and who and how we are? What is it that makes change so danged scary? 

Just think about it. We 'start out' as a smear of body fluids. Two different fluids that come together to create 'new life'. Then, as these fluids converge and incubate, they become a mass of actual tissue. And then...a 'being' with toes and fingers and organs and such. Without 'change', those fluids could never become the physical beings that come forth into the world. And from conception to birth...and beyond...change is the only constant. The alternative? DEATH.

{and that's a whole 'nother story. but we don't need to go there right now.}

Anyway, the whole 'change' thing is really the mystery here. Or rather, why so many folks are averse to it. Without change all the world would cease. Without change, we would never experience all the loveliness and excitement and bliss of growth. Even when it seems so painful, change is essential to our ongoing evolution. We MUST change if we are to live. Really live. Change is the yeast required for expansion. Change is the only constant. Change is....L-I-F-E.

Maybe the reason we resist change so much has more to do with attitude than anything else. Were we to see change through our child's eye instead of our stodgy curmudgeon's eye we might not be so frightened. Tell a child about some new adventure they're about to begin, and they get all kinds of excited. Tell an "adult" the same thing, and they cringe in their skin. 

NO! NO NEW ADVENTURES! DON'T MAKE ME DO IT! I LIKE IT WHERE I AM!

Funny thing is, even when we don't like where we are, we're still averse to change. We'd rather stay in the familiar ickiness than explore the unknown.

How's that again?

Seems to me there's something very disturbing about this aversion to change. It is unnatural to want to 'stay' where we are. It is simply not the way things work. Change is essential to evolution. On all kinds of levels. Change is not something that need be feared, but embraced. It is the Life Force in action. It is what allows us to become who we came here to become. In short, it is the Soul's way of telling us that It will not be confined. The Soul speaks of change as the Sun speaks of warmth. The Soul knows that it must expand, continually, else it returns to the Ethers from whence it came. The Soul will not be denied.

There is a marvelous surge of powerful energy that comes when one opts to not merely accept change but to actually invite it. To say out loud: YES! It is time for a change. Let's get to it!

When one approaches change from this perspective, everything becomes more alive, more exciting, more MORE. And the beautiful thing about this perspective is that it allows one to address the emotional pieces beforehand. It allows for the child's emergence. It makes the whole experience an adventure rather than a dreaded 'task'. It is, to this Changeling, the thrill of the ride we came here for. 

So why fight it? Why be afraid? Change is what Life is all about. I say, seize the chance to change! It's really the funnest thing of all!

2010....WOWZA!

A brandy new year...and the start of a new decade. Funny how just one second can make all the difference, huh? I've always thought the whole New Year's Eve thing was kind of goofy. I mean..it's just one second. But somehow it seems to matter. To a whole lotta folks. It's the dawning of a new year, which must mean that all manner of new things can occur. And for some, it does.

On the other hand...why must we wait until this one second interval to make anything new? Why must we hold off until the start of a new year to make whatever changes we wish to make? Why do we not do this every single morning?

It seems to me that every morning we awaken is a new beginning. There is an adage:

"With every new day, a new story begins."

I LOVE that.

I keep posted on my bathroom mirror. Every morning, when I walk in there to brush my teeth...there it is. And it ALWAYS makes me smile. Because, for me, it's absolutely true. Every single day, a new story begins. And it's up to me to write that story. Starting with the moment I open my eyes...until I lay myself down to rest. And if I've managed to touch the life of even one person in the smallest way, I have lived a good story for that day.

I realize that there are many who find this sort of thing a bit...annoying. How in the world can anyone be so danged cheerful all the time? Is she on crack, or whut?

Nope. Not on crack. I just made the choice to be happy, regardless of what's going on. Regardless of bumps in the road (which are inevitable), regardless of financial distress or physical impairments or boneheaded fools. Regardless of whatever is going on, it's my choice to either be happy...or not. Even when things seems to be impossibly, ridiculously challenging. Even when somebody gets on my last nerve. Even when the pain is so intense it seems I won't be able to breath. No matter. I get to choose:

Will I let this make me miserable or will I breath my way through it, trusting that this, too, shall pass?

I offer this up, yet again, as this new year begins because I think it's essential to live one's convictions. I believe, with all my Being, that we are here to live joyous, exhilarating lives. I believe we ALL have tremendous, marvelous gifts that can change the world...one person at a time.

So whether you just let someone step ahead in line at the grocery store, or you open a door for someone about to walk in at the same moment, or you simply smile at a stranger...just cuz....you have NO IDEA how much of an impact that little gesture may have on a person's day. Don't underestimate this. It matters.

And so do YOU.

I wish you the most bountiful, healthy, prosperous, happy, incredibly splendid year of your life.

Really.