Get a grip

The other day I read an article about how to create a paradise and daily balance within our homes (for free!). The steps listed in the piece revolve around applying a vacation mindset to our everyday lives (instead of waiting until we’re actually on holiday). This includes removing clutter from our surroundings, retaining only those things that bring us happiness, establishing rituals in our home that invoke peace and tuning in to whatever makes us excited to jump out of bed each day. I feel like I already live in a paradise of sorts, but there are so many areas I want to transform both internally and externally that I don’t know where to begin. Instead, I do nothing and then wonder why I’m in a funk… again. I know all about the take the first step, make one change today mentality. But I feel like I’m wearing waders and I need to get a grip before I sink.

What one thing makes your home a daily paradise?

[Image courtesy of Feelart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.]

A new year for change … and butterflies

Not to sound like a Debbie Downer, but wow, talk about feeling lower than low.  Ever take one of those good long looks in the mirror and you didn’t like what you saw?  What about when you see yourself through someone else’s eyes?  For me, the answer is change.  And change is hard.  But I suppose if it didn’t hurt sometimes, the results might go under-appreciated.  While 2012 was a year to stretch beyond my comfort zone, 2013 looks like it’s going to be a year of some painful changes.  One change, although without discomfort, is that I’m doing away with my daily blogs.  I’ll check in from time to time, ramble here and there, spout off rhetoric, but for the most part I’m going to work on changing.  Another word for change is transform.  It’s what the caterpillar does when it breaks free from its cocoon.  That’s me.  And I’ll emerge not unscathed, but I will be a beautiful butterfly.

What does 2013 look like for you?

Beauty for ashes

[Image credit: Danilo Rizzuti]

Just when the caterpillar thought the world
was over, it became a butterfly. ~ Proverb

My daughter knows how much I love butterflies.  Not necessarily the winged insect (although I think they are beautiful, delicate creatures), but rather what they mean to me in the bigger scheme of things: fortitude and new life.  This proverb is scrawled on the side of a mug I received for Mother’s Day, one of several hand-picked gifts for the special occasion.  It sits on my desk at work now, and each time I glance at it, I’m reminded that this new season of my life is actually filled with layers, not unlike a cocoon.  Currently, my health issues are one such layer.  But instead of getting stuck in this season, I realize that whatever is going on with my body is simply a necessary part of the growth process in order to thrive with wings intact — just like all of the other challenges life throws our way.  Sometimes it’s just growing pains, and other times it’s the real deal.  But the world is not over.  And as the lyrics of one popular song promise: I’m counting on beauty for ashes.

Are you a butterfly living in all its glory, or a caterpillar endeavoring to transform itself?