Month: December 2022 (Page 3 of 3)

When we’re kids, it’s always time to play.

Due to the lack of responsibility we had, and the care our parents provided us – such as eating, clothing, shelter, etc., we didn’t have to worry about those things.

So, every moment of the day was an opportunity to play, explore, learn, laugh, dance and much more.

As we get older, the responsibilities begin to grow and somehow our perspective of life shifts as well. This is common and most necessary as we acquire the skills to become an adult and all that comes with it.

But, it doesn’t mean we can or should stop playing – whatever that means us. Maybe it’s sports. Or playing music. Maybe it’s playing with kids. It doesn’t matter. Play!

If you’ve forgotten how to do it, go watch some kids on a playground for 30 minutes. Or instead of sitting inside on the next family get-together with the adults, go in the backyard with the kids and watch them. They know what their doing.

It’s Playtime.

Often times we can stray from our buoy of stability and feel like we’re floating in space or even freefalling when times get chaotic.

These are the moments when grounding ourselves and re-connecting with . . . what brings you home can help so much.

There are no rules, except the ones that make sense to you.

For some people, it’s a walk on the beach or a swim in the ocean in order to re-connect. For others it can be meditation or listening to relaxing music as they gaze at the sky.

It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as we know what brings us back to ground 0 – to our home.

Resetting and beginning again can make all the difference for us when we get a bit frazzled or out of sorts.

I know it does for me.

What say you?

Ever since I was young there was a certain “doom and gloom” at our house when Monday morning came around. Not so much by me, but I could sense it in my father. I could tell he wasn’t thrilled to go back to work after the weekend.

As I got to junior high and high school, it was pretty evident to me he was just flat out miserable. I could see it in his face when he came home at night and hear it in his voice when he would come into my bedroom in the mornings to say goodbye.

I had a wonderful childhood and had more than I could ever ask for as a kid growing up. My father provided us with private educations and sent 5 kids through college. That’s a fact!

It’s also a fact that he wasn’t happy with work and struggled to find a way to bring love to it as well.

I vowed to be different.

Why can’t Monday be as wonderful as Friday? It can. It’s all perspective.

What does that mean!?

Often times we have a tendency to make too much of something that comes up in our day rather than letting it come and go like a ticker tape across our TV screens. And once it’s gone it’s forgotten.

We can sabotage our entire day because something goes sideways in the morning and from that point on we decide to “have a bad day” or determine, “nothing is going right for me today.” Why do we do this? I believe it’s because it’s the path of least resistance. Let’s be honest; it’s a whole lot easier being negative than it is positive. Don’t believe me?

Try this experiment: This is going to take a bit of effort and awareness, but it’s worth it. Decide to carry a small notebook in your pocket with a pencil or pen all day. Make a mental note that you’re going to write down every time you take part in a conversation with someone else and you’re negative. It could be as simple as: “Man, the weather is miserable today.” Or “Traffic was terrible coming in to work.” Or “People are so stupid out on the road” (I personally get this one a lot). Maybe, “This world is in shambles, I feel sorry for the kids today.” I think you get the idea.

At the end of the day count up how many times something negative came out of your mouth. You may be surprised.

A result – traffic, your hairstyle, your bosses attitude, etc. – isn’t good or bad. It just is. Another words, a spade is a spade.

Good luck!

There was a time in my younger years when getting my hands into other people’s business was a big part of my life. It also spilled over into other interests as I entered college.

I went to school in New Mexico and landed there completely naive to the desert landscape, the cuisine, the culture as well as the popular hobby of hunting. As a young man with a large ego, I had a strong desire to place my heavy fingerprint in the world. I’m not proud to say, but it came at a cost of other living creatures and to myself.

Maybe it was due to the lack of development of my frontal lobe as a young male or some sort of deep teenage angst, nevertheless, it was a time where I just wasn’t able to live and let live.

Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t cruel in any way, but over the years my perspective changed and to this day I will catch a fly in my hand and set it free outside before I will choose to end it’s life.

No judgement. All good. Just saying, right now, I choose to live and let live.

That’s all.