Walk the Red Carpet

"The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate." - Oprah Winfrey

Roll out the red carpet.

Let trumpets blare your arrival.

Crowds cheer from the left and right while paparazzi clamor for your attention.

Could all of this really be for you?

Accomplishment whether large or small are worth celebrating, if only taking simple pleasure in feeling you have done a good job. Every little thing you do can be deemed a success. Every time you cause another to smile, to laugh or ease even their smallest burden is worth celebrating.

Many believe it takes the grandest of accomplishments such as raising millions of dollars for a charity.

Many believe it takes solving world hunger or any one of a number of human needs to garner celebration.

Most of what you do each day are worthy of celebration. By holding the door open for someone carrying a package, you have something worth celebrating. It could be offering a bit of encouragement to someone down on their luck. Showing up at your child's school to have lunch with them, to hold the hand of a friend in tough times and dropping a few coins in a street person's cup without questioning.

It may seem prideful or pretentious for us to declare the small accomplishments in grandeur. Others may consider it "putting on airs" (pretend to be grander and more important than they really are). Yet that is far from my point. I want you to feel good about the good you do. We spend way too much time beating ourselves up over the minor infractions. We should spend some time lifting ourselves up instead.

Life is worth celebrating. The good however small or seemingly insignificant should be celebrated. We should walk the red carpet once in a while.

Stay inspired my friends.

Roar with Delight

by Sandra Metzbauer

“An injured lion still wants to roar.” ― Randy Pausch

As the sun rises over the horizon of a new day, the lion rises and stretches in the warming glow. It is another day, another chance, another opportunity to roar.

Rise my friend and roar with delight of the day!

Ride the River

Carolyn Derstine

“Life is like the river, sometimes it sweeps you gently along and sometimes the rapids come out of nowhere.” ― Emma Smith

Life feels very melancholy these days as a good friend battles most bravely against illness. The strength of his faith is an inspiration to me and is an example for many to learn from.

With no promise and no guarantee of what your outcome will be, faith is very powerful.

Faith helps ease the many transitions we go through in life. It gets us through the harsh river rapids of circumstance we each go through. Some might call faith a way for the heart to trick our intellect into submission.

I believe it is our heart and intellect coming into agreement, allowing us to float more peacefully down the river.

Floatin' down that old river boy, leaves me feelin' good inside,
Floatin' down that old river boy, tryin' to get to the other side.
"Ride The River" - JJ Cale

Stay inspired my friends.

Shifting Breeze

“In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things, does the heart find its morning and is refreshed.”
― Khalil Gibran

The wind shifts and the season begins to change. The cool winds of fall are beginning to find their way across our exposed faces. It marks a shift in time as change makes us adjust to a new normal. The change is not something we necessarily want to go through.

Our heart hangs onto the hope of a continued warm summer wind. Of walking with friends along the warm beaches; of feeling free and happy in the company of those that share our summer. As the cool breeze presses down, the heart wants to push it away. The heart hopes for the change not to happen, but it does.

It is in our intellect that reminds us the seasons change, that everything changes over time. The earth moves in rhythm to time bringing the cold and causing the leaves on a tree to die but not before they explode in spectacular color. Everything has a perfect cycle to it, motion of the earth, the seasons, and time itself.

This is how time holds us in it's grasp. A battle between our heart and intellect, to want things to remain as they always were but always changing in perfect manner. We find acceptance eventually and the heart pulls the memories inside keeping them warm and safe. The warm winds will return, new leaves will bud in the spring and life will continue to flourish.

Yet what the heart contains will always remain. Time can not steal that from us. The cool winds can not blow it away. We get to keep it for eternity.

Stay inspired my friends.