“There’s a spirit in anything, I think, into which we weave our soul.”
– Richard Bach
We’ve been given the gift of a New Year! If we look carefully and pay attention, we will find it overflowing with new opportunities to embrace life, new ways to elevate our consciousness and deepen our inner peace, and new paths toward invigorating the health of our minds, bodies, and spirits. Each new year, each new season, each new day is a true gift – because it is the gift of Life. Cherish it!
“We shall find peace. We shall hear angels. We shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.”
– Anton Chekhov
It’s Christmas! What a wonderful opportunity to share love, joy, and positive energy with our friends, family, and loved ones. The holidays are a perfect time to remind ourselves to savor the simple pleasures in life, to cherish the special people around us, and to cultivate compassion and gratitude in our hearts, every day.
“Life is a travelling to the edge of knowledge, and then a leap taken.”
– D. H. Lawrence
It is good to be prepared. It is important to gather as much knowledge and information about any given situation as is reasonably practical. But then, when the time comes, it is just as important to be ready and willing to take the leap. We must come to peace with the fact that, in this life, we will almost always be acting upon imperfect knowledge. This is inevitable; it is simply part of the human experience. But don’t let this keep you from taking action. Jump into life with enthusiasm. Engage with the present moment fully. And whether, at any given moment, you happen to be facing a challenge or a triumph, a conservation of energy or a state of full exertion, always seek to find a way to cherish this particular, individual step the journey. Strive to live your best life, every day. Endeavor to embrace each moment with optimism, creativity, gratitude, and joy. To do this the most pure expression of appreciation toward the universe, and toward God, that we could ever hope to make. To do this is an act of faith. To do this is an act of courage. To do this is an act of love.
The great 19th century German author and poet Goethe once suggested that we “must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.” Perhaps we should also, then, ask turtles (and flowers, as well), how it feels to savor the warmth of sunshine washing over one’s body and face. When I look at these sweet turtles, so pure in their enjoyment of the sunlight, stretching their necks out as far as they possibly can in the hopes of getting even a few inches closer to the source of their ecstasy, I am reminded again of what a pleasure it truly is to feel the warmth of sunshine on one’s face.
“The mystic chords of memory, stretching… from every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
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