Unloading The Wheelbarrow

It is easy to treat our mind like a mental wheelbarrow. One that we fill to the brim with issues, and our thoughts and feelings about those issues, all of which require precious mental and emotional energy as we carry them with us wherever we go. Rather than taking the time to actually do something about the contents of the wheelbarrow, we just keep wheeling them through our days.

If you’re like me, almost anything is fair game to pile into the cart. On any given day my cart might be piled high with relationship issues, conversations past, present and future, financial concerns, heartaches, challenges to those we love, health issues, politics, global warming, aging skin, unfinished projects, the NFL Playoffs, and the holidays. Just to name a few.

One of the best practices we can develop is to lighten our own mental load. To stop pushing the wheelbarrow, take out one thing, and deal with it. Find out about it. Understand the truth about it, and with that understanding do what we can to take care of it.

To lighten your mental load, what is one thing you can take out of your wheelbarrow?

Photo by Johannes Plenio from Pexels

Giving Up On Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving there are so many moving parts that it is impossible to nail down an exact plan.

Who’s coming when? We tried to come up with an exact schedule, and then gave up.

Will there be enough beds for everyone? We tried to come up with an exact schematic, and then gave up.

Enough cribs for the littles? We tried to figure it out exactly, and then gave up.

How many people to plan on for dinner? We tried to come up with an exact count, and then gave up.

All we know is that people we love will show up when they can, everyone will have some sort of place to lay their head, babies will be tucked in at night, and there will be plenty of food for everyone. Because we’ve given up on having it be exactly as we want it, we are free to give thanks that it is turning out exactly as it is.

Which might just be exactly the best way to do it.

Risky Business

At the ripe young age of about 21, somehow I knew this to be true:

To love is to risk.

To love is to embark on an adventure with no assurance of how it will all work out.

And.

To love is an adventure worth taking.

In other words, Love is high risk adventure.

In the 1970s, I asked my cousin, a calligrapher in his early years, to capture this idea in a piece of art that would hang on a wall to remind us of this truth about love.

He did.

It has become a historical family picture that has moved from house to house and family to family ever since.

May the adventure continue.

#wakeupappreciaterepeat*

As a wise soul has taught me, how we start the day can make all the difference in how we end it.

Wake up.

Appreciate.

Repeat.

*With gratitude to Lauren Giles for leading the way. And for her photo of morning coffee + fall mornings.

#showup

Life becomes a matter of showing up and saying yes.

Richard Rohr

Showing up means doing the right thing even when it is hard.

Showing up means doing the right thing even when it hurts.

Showing up means doing the right thing even if no one notices.

Showing up means doing the right thing even when no one else does.

#showup

Photo: Samuel Kambu -pexels.com

Bookends

Our story unfolds day by day. The book that is our life is written in, added to, and edited a day at a time.

The way in which we begin and end each day can impact the story that we tell. The mindset that we choose as we open our eyes in the morning, and as we drift off to sleep at night, informs the words that will show up on our pages. Like bookends, our state of mind at each end of the day props up the story we hope to tell through the life we live.

These days the bookends I am choosing to use to hold my living narrative together and in place are made of two small daily rituals of gratitude. A simple practice of giving voice about that for which I am grateful. Even when, and perhaps especially when, the going gets rough, bookends of gratitude are helping me to write with my life the tale I hope to share with the world.

pexels.com

Given What We Have

Given the present situation, who do I want to be?

Given the present reality, how can I show up and bring the best of who I am to what is before me?

Given the present options, which one will best reflect the person I am meant to be?

When it comes to dealing well with what life brings our way, it seems to boil down to a few simple questions with answers that are often anything but easy to live out.

Given what we have, what will we choose to do?

Photo by Felipe Cespedes from Pexels

The Road Less Traveled

There is nothing quite as inspiring to me as watching someone choose to take the road less traveled.

The road less traveled is the one that when facing the difficult and painful challenges that life throws in every one of our paths at one time or another, leads them through the difficulty rather than skirting around it.

The road less traveled is the one that while every step may be painful, is the only one that leads to healing and transformation.

The road less traveled is the one that calls upon our courage to keep going in spite of our fear.

Tempting thought it may be to take the well-worn easier route, the road less traveled is always worth the trip.

Always.

Pixabay

Yes Or No?

Sometimes it takes more courage to say no than to say yes.

Photo by Matt Hardy from Pexels

Beginner’s Luck

Getting onto the boat, I might have looked like I knew what I was doing, decked out in my Field and Stream waders and King’s Camo fleece. But as we all know, looks can be deceiving. Floating down the river after a few basic instructions about fly fishing, it was obvious that I was a beginner. I looked like one and felt like one, because I was one. Our guide was a wonderful teacher, and when I told him that I didn’t know the first thing about casting or landing the ever-illusive Steelhead, he said Being a beginner is the best. That’s when you learn the most in the shortest amount of time.

The older I get the easier it is to forget how to be a beginner. I’ve learned a lot in my 66 years and hopefully put much of what I’ve gleaned to good use, but it is good to remember that it is never too late to be a beginner. To admit that we don’t know the first thing about something, but are ready to learn. To be willing to look silly, make mistakes, laugh at ourselves, and keep trying.

While I didn’t catch a fish, I was lucky enough to spend two days on the river remembering how good it feels to be a beginner.

Lucky to be a beginner on the Klickitat River with The Evening Hatch Fly Fishing Guide Service