Tag: inspiration

Not-So-Funday Monday

Yesterday morning, right after I published my blog, I took my dogs outside. My phone rang and I saw that it was our middle son calling. I knew what he was going to say before I even said “hello.” He and my youngest son had gone to a local park to play in a pick-up soccer game. My youngest son had an epileptic seizure on the field, in the middle of the game. I am grateful that my middle son was with my youngest son during this time. My middle son is a student in medical school and he, like the rest of our family, has witnessed many of his little brother’s seizures. In fact, my middle son witnessed my youngest son having his first major seizure, when my middle son was driving them both to their high school, many years ago. He attributes that experience as one of the major reasons why he decided to go into medicine. My middle son knows what to do when a seizure happens. He took good care of his brother, as always. The local EMT crew came. They know us by name now. They took good care of my son, as always. Luckily, since they were on the grass, and his brother was with him, my youngest son wasn’t greatly hurt, just some sore muscles and a scratched up face from some pebbles in the grass. He came home to recover from his seizure. He came home to my waiting arms.

My regular readers know that we have been going through hell this fall with my son’s epilepsy. His seizures are currently not being well-controlled by medicine. In September and October, my son suffered at least one major seizure a week, landing him in the hospital three times. He is currently taking five different anti-seizure medications, as doctors scour for a medication combo and a dosage, that works to keep the seizures controlled. We were cautiously optimistic that we had finally found that holy grail of medications, because this November, our son was almost one-month seizure free. Yesterday ended that streak.

I feel horrible today. I felt horrible yesterday. I feel deflated, dejected and scared out of my mind. But, honestly, I felt wonderful throughout our Thanksgiving break with our family. I felt pretty good the week before Thanksgiving break. I even felt pretty good the week before the week before Thanksgiving break. I sometimes cautioned myself that “I was setting myself up for a big fall,” with all of my hopeful optimism, but I didn’t care. It felt so good to feel good again.

During Thanksgiving break, our family, all six of us, had a great time together. We cooked, we shopped, we went to the movies, we even went boating. My youngest son went to the gym with his brothers, and golfing with his buddies who were home for Thanksgiving break. I won’t pretend that I didn’t have nervous moments. I won’t pretend that I stopped being hyper-aware of any strange noises in the house. I won’t pretend that I didn’t keep my son on a strict medication schedule. But I relaxed, I laughed, I savored. I had so much fun. I felt so much joy.

And today I feel so, so sad, but during the rest of November, I mostly felt ease and comfort and relief, because I let myself feel those better feelings. If I had stayed miserable and fearful and depressed and angry, all of November, yesterday’s seizure would have still happened. Despite what we erroneously believe, worry doesn’t stop any negative experiences from happening. Worry doesn’t help anything at all, and we all know this, but I got a very clear example of this fact, taught to me with this lucid life experience. I am thankful that I let myself enjoy a nice, and hopeful month, because I would have still felt so, so sad today, even if I had fretted and worried and been miserable for the whole month of November.

I say to you this: if you are in a budding new relationship that you are enjoying, savor it. Experience this relationship fully and excitedly, without fretting if and when it is going to end. If you have lost a lot of weight, be proud of yourself. Delight in your triumph. Don’t spend time worrying if you are going to gain all of the weight back. If things are going well in your job, with your family, with your friends, with your health, with your bank account, with your life, soak it all in. Enjoy the good! Facts are, upsetting, negative things happen in life sometimes. That’s just the way of life. No one is immune. Save feeling lousy for those times. Save it up, and rightfully feel miserable when you are in the middle of a rough patch. But don’t let those awful feelings seep into your good times. Let your bad times, make your good times feel that much more amazing and glorious and precious. You are strong enough to handle adversity, and wise enough to know that by feeling happiness in the good times, you are giving yourself something to look forward to, when you are in the middle of experiencing your hard times. Give yourself the gift of savoring life in the moment.

In the bad times choose to grow stronger In the good times choose to enjoy fully

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

All Good

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credit: Think Smarter, Twitter, @WakeupPeople

In the last couple of months, which have been a pretty hairy time for me and my family, because our son’s epileptic seizures had been out of control, I would notice my knee-jerk response to anyone who asked me, “Hi. How are you today?”

“Fine, thank you. How are you?” or even sometimes, “Great! How’s your day going?” were my pat responses, and always said in overly chirpy and in overly zealous, zippy tones. The worst I ever said was, “Pretty good.”

Now, of course, this is what we all do. The clerk at my grocery store does not honestly want a play-by-play of my sh*tshow of a day/week/month/year, and I don’t want to have an emotional collapse, in public, while purchasing some milk, bread and broccoli, in front of a bunch of hungry strangers. But still, at those times, I was honestly feeling really rotten. For the first time in a long time, I noticed my answers to those socially polite questions, and I noticed how false my fake answers rang out to me. I was lying through my teeth. Yet, just like Think Smarter states above, maybe my answers held some truth. “Fake it, ’til you make it.” Who knows how things in our lives on Earth are going to turn out, until the very end? And even then, the collective belief seems to be that after our lives on Earth, most (if not all) of us will all transition to an even better place. How many terrible, rotten, no-good experiences, in retrospect, after bringing you to your knees, brought you to new heights in your life, in ways that you could never have imagined? We all have had our rising-from-the-ashes Phoenix moments, oftentimes more than once.

So, with that in mind, how are things for you?

“It’s all good,” at my corner of the Earth. “It’s all good.”


Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Where You Belong

So, on a random tweet which I read last month, from an account I don’t even follow, a book was recommended as a life-changer. It is an obscure, out-of-print book written back in the early 1990s, but somehow I was able to obtain a used copy from a seller on Amazon. I’ve looked every day on Amazon since I purchased the book (including today), and it is always listed “Currently Unavailable.” I truly believe that this book came to me right at the moment that I needed it. The copy was reserved for me.

I’m not going to even mention the title of the book. How many times have you had a book, or a movie, or a podcast, or a sermon, or a lecture, or a workshop, or a comedy skit, make such a profound difference in your own life that you decide you have to get everyone you love and care about to experience the same depth and download of knowledge and insight and pleasure, and so you enthusiastically recommend such book/movie/podcast/sermon/lecture/workshop/skit, and you are surprised with the lackluster “meh” you get from many of the others to whom you made such recommendation? In fact, those of you who like to read my blog regularly, have probably recommended my blog to others, and you have probably heard “meh” about my blog, and that’s okay. It’s not for everybody.

My bigger point here is that enlightenment is personal. Enlightenment is a journey. Enlightenment is pretty simple, really. It means to embody and to be the light that is in yourself (and is in everybody else, too, even in your awful neighbor). Enlightenment means to notice the light in everything and everyone else (even your awful neighbor). Enlightenment means to stay in the present moment, and to experience life, just as it is, without judgment, but in peace and in serenity and in faith and in gratitude. It’s hard to stay in an enlightened state of being. Most of us just get glimpses of it, here and there, as we trudge along living our lives, and sit angrily and fearfully, in our struggles. That’s why I love the reminders that the Universe sends my way, in the forms of people, and books, and movies and podcasts and sermons and lectures and workshops and comedy skits (when I am willing to notice these reminders). I get my own unique “wake-up” call from the Universe reminding me that everything that I need, is right there for me, right inside of my heart and in my deepest knowing intuition. The reminders are subtle, but they hit deep. Peace and serenity are quiet, tranquil entities. They aren’t forceful nor loud nor controlling nor shaming. Peace and serenity are patient. Peace and serenity wait for us to come calling (We usually do this after a major biggie life event that has brought us exhausted, and to our knees, finally making us willing to surrender completely. We humans are stubborn this way.) and then peace and serenity calmly and sweetly and knowingly say to us, “We’re glad you’re home. Sit with us. Stay a while. In fact, never leave. This is where You belong. In fact, honestly, we never left you, and You never left you.”

Peace And Serenity Quotes & Sayings | Peace And Serenity Picture Quotes

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

The Bougainvillea

bougainvillea | plant genus | Britannica

The first time I saw a bougainvillea flowering bush, I was visiting Puerta Vallarta, Mexico. My husband had just finished a grueling MBA program, which he worked on obtaining, at night, for three years, after working all day at his regular job. We were celebrating his graduation, and our growing family. We had our two-year-old son with us, and I was very pregnant with our second son. Our eldest son has curly, red hair and the older Mexican women were convinced that his rare hair meant good luck. They made a point of coming over to us to pat his head for the transfer of good luck, wherever we went – the beach, the stores, the restaurants, the pool, the bus. My son loved the attention, and we found it amusing and endearing. I’ll never forget it.

Back to the bougainvillea – I became as entranced with the plant, as the women were with my son’s silky red curls. The bougainvillea was everywhere I looked. It was so robust and beautiful and apologetically flowing. I had never seen such a bright, vibrant, cascading waterfall of flowers. I honestly fell in love with a plant, for the first time in my life.

Now I grew up in Pennsylvania, and that is where we were living at the time. We had a townhouse with a large window on the second floor, directly above our front door. Despite the fact, that Pennsylvania does not at all have a climate that suits a bougainvillea, I decided, against all odds, that we would have one. I found a lovely wrought iron window box and somehow, somewhere in Pennsylvania, I was able to obtain a small, hopeful twig of a bougainvillea plant. I proudly planted it, in that showy window box, as an homage to all of the gorgeous window boxes, filled with bougainvilleas, everywhere I looked in Mexico. I couldn’t wait for the window box to overflow with flowers.

My bougainvillea plant did okay. It half-heartedly made it through the summer, with a couple of sparse blooms. It tried its best. The bougainvillea inherently knew that it’s a naturally, hardy plant, so it soldiered on, but honestly, the plant just wasn’t “at home”, at all, in the northern state. It’s a tropical plant. Before the first snow, the bougainvillea was nothing more than a few leafless sticks, sitting like a plant cemetery, unwelcomingly on top of our front door. Here was another lesson in life, learned by me, the hard way.

In retrospect, this was one of the many times in my life, when I didn’t let what was coming to me, come at its own accord, and in its own divine timing. I impatiently tried to push my own agenda, before it was time. It’s a lesson in which I have had to repeat again and again and again, many, many times in my life. It sometimes seems impossible for me, to learn to surrender to the higher forces in my life. I am still trying to learn to trust that what is meant for me, will arrive for me, when the timing is right, and it will be even more wonderful than I ever imagined. (I should trust this fact. It has been proven to me, again and again and again.) If I am honest with myself, at the ripe old age of 50, I am still learning to trust the process of Life. I am still learning to trust God/Universe to provide for me in all of the ways in which I have imagined. The Higher Forces do so much better for me, than I do for myself, but alas, I’m a stubborn fool (again and again and again).

Today, we live in Florida. When we purchased our home, one of the first things we did, was to go to the local nursery, which is filled with inexpensive, overpowering, over-flowering bougainvilleas. Bougainvilleas are so common here, that I think that some people may consider them to be giant, overbearing weeds. We purchased two small potted bougainvilleas, and we planted them on either side of an arch, which leads to our front door. In less than a year, the two small potted plants, furiously grew and came together at the top of the arch, becoming one with each other. The plant has flourished ever since. Our bougainvillea is so healthy and happy, that it has survived over-zealous tree trimmers, being split in two during a hurricane, and being roughly pushed around by painters and plaster repair people. In fact, we have to give our gorgeous bougainvillea “a haircut” more often than we get our own haircuts. This plant is the bougainvillea that I always dreamed about since the minute I laid eyes on bougainvilleas in Mexico. It is perfect. I knew that I would have this beautiful bougainvillea to gaze upon whenever I need a shot of inspirational vigor and exuberance. I just had to wait for my bougainvillea to arrive in the perfect way, at the perfect time, just as my deepest self knew that it always would. When will I learn?

Lovely quote on perfect timing. | Inspirational quotes motivation, Words quotes, Words

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Happy, Peaceful People

credit: wise connector, Twitter

These are the hard truths which we don’t always like to accept: We decide to feel happy or not, and no one can make us feel happy, nor can we make anyone else feel happy. Happiness is an inside job. We can all name people we know, who based on their great luck and fortune, and high income, and their families and their “things”, and their health, and their opportunities etc. , should be among the happiest people on the face of the Earth and yet, these people are instead, utterly miserable. And then we all have met people who have experienced some of the most tragic of circumstances imaginable, who still have the brightest, shiniest smiles on their faces, and we wonder, how can this possibly be?

This is not to say that we must deny or suppress our other feelings. It is not healthy nor is it realistic, to not feel the wide spectrum of human emotions. We were designed to feel our feelings, and to use them as a compass, and as a way to guide and to heal ourselves, throughout our lives. You can still be a happy, peaceful person and feel great sadness about a loss. Happy people still shed tears. You can still be a happy, peaceful person and process your anger about an unfair situation. Happy people learn to be assertive when their boundaries are trampled upon, which is noticed when we feel the burning alert of righteous anger. You can still be a happy, peaceful person and feel the worrisome rush of fear when encountering a circumstance in life, in which you have very little control. Happy people know that fear can be helpful to remind us to move with caution, but also happy people know that fear can be overcome. In fact, to truly be a happy, peaceful person, you must allow yourself to feel all of your feelings without judgment. Feelings just are. Happy, peaceful people know this. They don’t allow any of their feelings to stay stuck inside of them. Happy, peaceful people observe the thoughts and the stories which they are telling themselves, which are helping to create these feelings, and they make course corrections, as necessary. Happy, peaceful people feel their feelings, and then they let them go. Happy peaceful people stay in their core. They stay in a pleasant state of presence and awareness, just observing and experiencing life and emotion, as it happens and unfolds.

Years ago, I worked for a woman who owned an insurance business. During this time, her brother whom she was very close to, died of throat cancer. She became depressed after he died and she would call me every single day, for many weeks, to say that she wouldn’t be coming in to the office that day. My employer told me that she sat on the same spot of her couch for hours at a time, day after day, to the point that the pillow of her couch became permanently indented. Then, one day, out of seemingly nowhere, she bustled into the office, her usual energetic, optimistic self, full of new ideas and directions in which she wanted to take her career. When I looked astonished to see her almost miraculous recovery, I remember her saying to me, that it was quite simple. She was sick of feeling sad.

Happy, peaceful people are typically full of acceptance. They accept reality as it is, not how they would like it to be. They accept the people in their lives, as they are, not how they would want them to be. They create healthy boundaries, in their relationships and in their circumstances, because they deeply value themselves, and the one life in which they have any bit of control over, their own life. I read something recently that made sense to me. You don’t need to care for other people, in order to care about them. In fact, other than in emergencies, most adults should be perfectly capable to care for themselves. It is disrespectful to not allow other adults, to have their own autonomy. Happy, peaceful people respect themselves, and they respect others. Happy, peaceful people trust Life.

Amazon.com: It's sad when you can't make everyone happy... - Stephenie Meyer quotes fridge magnet, Black: Home & Kitchen

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Unbreakable

Yesterday, I received the terrible news that my cousin’s wife died. They have two very young daughters. Honestly, friends, I am a little overloaded with the feeling of sadness these days. It’s getting to me, and “glum” is so not my “go-to” state in life. I think most people would describe me as cheerful, upbeat and optimistic. I would describe myself that way. I still am cheerful, upbeat and optimistic. It’s just that lately, I feel like I am clinging to these states of being with white knuckles and angry, indignant frustration, added to the mix of my stubborn peace and happiness.

In all truthfulness, my life is mostly amazing. But I have also gone through my fair load of sh*t in life, just like everyone else. I could list some of my worst experiences and you would say to me, “Yikes. That’s really, really crumby.” But on a much bigger list, I could list all of my life’s blessings and miracles and wonderful experiences and you would say, “Wow, you are so damn lucky!” I suspect most human lives would fall along these lines. In most of our lives, the good still outweighs the bad.

My college friends recently bought me a beautiful pendant. It is a Celtic knot and it holds the word “UNBREAKABLE”. It means a lot to me, that my friends see my strength, and know that I will survive whatever life has in store for me. And I will thrive through the thrilling times, too. I wish that I didn’t have to focus so much on my steely, “unbreakable” side these days, but this part of me is what is forcibly carrying me to the softer, kinder times, surely to be close around the bend. Sometimes being strong and unbreakable, means remaining cheerful, upbeat and optimistic, no matter what!

Hearts will never be practical until they are made unbreakable | Mood quotes, Love quotes, Words quotes

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

In My Hole

When I’m feeling particularly lowly, I dig a big old deep introverted rabbit hole and I go down to the bottom of it and I hang out there. It makes me feel safe. Luckily, I like my own company – even the frowny version. Mercifully, the people whom I love the most, get that about me. They don’t force me to crawl back up, before it’s time. Occasionally, I hear some shouts from the top of my rabbit hole, and a long rope, with a bucket attached to it, is lowered down, and the people who love me most attach little notes and texts, telling me that I can stay down here, as long as I need to, but in the meantime, here are some cards and gifts and reminders that when I decide to crawl back up towards the light of the sunshine, there will be people waiting for me, who care about me, up at the top. If that’s not hope and love, I don’t know what is. Thank you. I love you. I’m just recharging down here. It’s all going to be okay. I’ll be back up soon!

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Collenchyma

“Wanting to be liked can get in the way of the truth.” – Delia Ephron

I really liked this quote when I read it. In today’s “cancel culture”, I think that it applies more than ever. I think what I worry the most about all of this cancelling, is that it will stop fruitful conversation. It will stop people from earnestly trying to get to the core of pure truth, with honest and open conversation. The people whom I trust the most in the world, aren’t always my favorite people. The people whom I trust most in this world, don’t hide their truths. They say things exactly as they see it. They live their truths. They don’t apologize for being themselves. There is nothing sneaky, or manipulative or covert about these types of people. You can trust this “what you see is what you get” quality about them. It’s a solid way to be. It’s a brave way to be.

Now my truly favorite people in the world are the people who I described above, who also have a big heaping spoonful of open-mindedness to go along with their honest suredness. Though they feel comfortable and solid with their own point of views on things, they are curious about others’ views. They start “touchy” conversations, not with an intention of stirring the pot, nor to stuff their own opinions down other people’s throats, but with a real desire to learn and to understand where the other person is coming from. They are open enough to test their own “truths”, by exploring other people’s ideas and perspectives. Seeking truth is a lifetime activity for these people. They aren’t afraid to be “wrong” about something. These people are strong, but pliable. The strongest, most hardy plants in the world have many cells called collenchyma. Collenchyma cells are what allows plants to be flexible and strong, all at the same time, in order to withstand winds and storms. I wonder if my most favorite people in the word, have their own secret store of collenchyma cells, helping them to be strong, rooted, open and pliable, all at the same time.

What worries me most about our current “cancel culture”, is that it will make people “too careful”, and too “under the cuff”. I think that we may end up losing a lot of authenticity and variety in our society, if we make people too afraid to be themselves. We will lose real understanding and progression, because we won’t know exactly what we are really dealing with at the base of anyone, anymore. What anyone thinks about anything will be kept under a cloak of secrecy, in order to be accepted and liked. Crimes and meanness need to have big consequences, of course, but lesser crimes and misunderstandings sometimes just need a gentle nudge in a different direction. These nudges won’t happen if everyone is operating under invisible cloaks. Cloaks need to be opened in order to let the light of wisdom and understanding stream into anyone’s consciousness.

I’d much rather have a wide variety of choice in my own one precious life, as to what to read, what to watch, where to go and what to experience, what to wear, what to hear, what to buy, than to have all of these choices whittled down to some “acceptable”, bland sameness. I trust my own choices. I don’t want my choices to be made for me. I don’t want your choices to be made for you. I want to know YOU, not the surfacey mask and cloak that you wear. I want to grow and learn from YOU, not what has been programmed into you, at any particular stage of your life by polite society. Most importantly, I don’t want to lose ME. I think any individual life’s purpose is to fully explore that deep core beingness, of our own selves. Cloaks off. We are strong enough to handle discernment, tolerance, vulnerability, variety and authenticity. We are strong enough to handle Truth. Maybe the Truth is that we are all just really made of the same stuff – Love. Let’s try to look through the lens of that Love in all of our interactions. Love can’t be destroyed. Love can’t be cancelled.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Friday Nightbirde

Happy Friday Everyone friday happy friday tgif friday quotes friday quote funny friday quotes quotes about f… | Its friday quotes, Funny quotes, Friday quotes funny

Hi friends! Welcome to Favorite Things Friday. On Fridays, I typically keep things “light” and I list three favorite things or songs or TV shows or books, etc. that have added sparkle and excitement to my world. Please check out previous Friday postings for loads of my favorite things. Today, however, I only have one favorite to share. Lately, while trying to get my son’s epileptic seizures under control, and yet also trying to keep things as “normal” and as “sane” as they can be at this time for myself and for my family, my mind hasn’t been focused on the fluff and stuff of life. We are keeping a simple, quiet, uncluttered routine here in my realm, lately. We are taking things ODAT here (One Day at a Time, Sweet Jesus). ODAT is what always works for me best in any crisis period.

So without further adieu, my favorite for today, comes from a post on Nightbirde’s Instagram. I have listed Nightbirde on a previous Friday Favorites blog post. Nightbirde is the insanely gifted and inspirational singer who is currently struggling to survive her third bout with cancer. While Nightbirde is a wonderful and talented singer and songwriter, I believe that her prose writing skills are devastatingly good. This post of hers is one of my most favorite pieces of writing that I have read in a long time. Enjoy:

A journalism professor in a long gray sweater taught me the difference between a story worth writing and a public relations stunt. A real story still has meaning even if no one ever hears it; a PR stunt only matters if people are watching.

And that became a new item on the list of promises to myself: That I would never let my life become a public relations stunt. My life would have meaning, even if no one ever knew it. I wanted to write a story I was proud of, even if nobody read it.

I used to dream that I’d grow up and dazzle the world. But time and disappointment chipped away at me until only the real stuff was left, and it wasn’t very dazzling. I just had some sad stories and a sack of regrets, and a new reverence for the pieces of me that survived.

All of these shipwrecks have stranded me in desolate places where I stared at my hands and realized that I couldn’t offer the world what I had hoped to. Dreams shatter, and eyelashes fall out, and lungs aren’t big enough to carry the song sometimes.

But I still wake up in the morning and draw my hopes on the sidewalk. And every time so far, they’ve been trampled over, or hosed off, or the rain rolled all of it over the curb.

But I pick more flowers, write more stories, dream more dreams. After all that’s been destroyed, maybe it’s foolish to still be speaking this way, but at least I’m a fool with a soul alive. I swing open the doors on my chest and I offer to the world the only thing that I can: myself. I get it now.

We are not all we wish we were, but we are here, and we are trying, and we are awake. We are not public relations stunts. We are stories worth hearing, even with no crowd in the stands for us. We are the heroes. We are the poem, we are the song, we are the gift.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Cute Baby and Wise Words

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

These are the tweets that spoke to me today (the adorable baby Starbucks is easily my favorite, how do I order one???):

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(Credit: @ClaudetteGGibs1 – Twitter)

“Your essence is never gone, regardless of how many times the world breaks you. It’s what distinguishes you from the rest. That foundation will always bring you back to life. Every single time.” – @TheDragonflySky – Twitter

“You are driving on your own journey, which is the challenge for a comedian. You have a hard time making trains because you don’t want to be with the crowd. You are a lone voice of insight, humor and grace. The train people reflect a cacophony of chaos, noise, and unoriginality.” – @davidkrell – Twitter (addressing the brilliant comedian, Erica Rhodes)

” . . . You have to be strong here, you need yourself more than ever now. Don’t get down on yourself, don’t be hard on yourself. This is a hard time in your life right now and we have to figure out a way to get through this. Feel free to reach out. I can’t do much, but I do understand. Sorry this is happening to my friend. WE will find a way to get through this.” – Statechain1, r/Epilepsy

Yesterday, I had to tell my fifth-grade mentee that we would have to meet online again for a while via Zoom, until we can straighten out my son’s epilepsy medications. My husband was working from home yesterday, while I met with my mentee, but he does need to go back to his office, so I will need to be home with my son, for safety reasons right now. My mentee and I met online all of 2020, so we were thrilled to be back “in person” with each other this year. My mentee was understanding of my situation, of course, but she was also understandably sad. We both were sad. It was interesting to me that after we talked about the change, my mentee didn’t stay in her seat. She got up and wiggled around a lot. She distracted herself with bouncing her stress ball and she crawled around on the floor looking for crumbs which we may have dropped. It struck me that her little kid body, knew to keep moving. Sadness can really bring us to a stand still. The wisdom of her body, told her to get back up on her feet and to keep moving. Keep moving . . . . Keep moving. Just keep moving.