Tag: mommy blog

Monday Fun-Day

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Happy Monday! Happy Fun-day from Florida, the capital of lawn flamingoes!! Now before getting on with your day, and on with your week, think of 3-5 things which you are grateful for, right in this moment. Next, think about why you are so thankful for these things, people, happenings, pets, etc., and feel how good you feel. Pause and bask in it. This is the good, warm fuzzy feeling that you are aiming for all week. You are meant to feel this good, all of the time. This good feeling is what being aligned with the Universe is all about. Any time you start getting frazzled or angry or sad, use this activity to get back on track. Have a great week!!

Signs

What are things that you see or you experience in any one day, that make you feel protected and connected and loved and fulfilled, not by just what and who you love here on Earth, but by everyone you have ever loved, and by spiritual forces that don’t even exist on this plane? Here are some of mine:

Butterflies (blue in particular), cardinals, owls, lucky pennies, a flower seemingly blooming out of nowhere, softly tinkling windchimes, finding long lost items, dolphins, coincidences and synchronicities, the right words just at the right time, hawks, realization of living prayers answered, rainbows, constantly noticing 11:11 and 12:16 on the clock, luxurious smells that don’t seem to have a source, white feathers, the right books recommended to me just at the right time . . . .

These are just a few things that came to my mind, off hand. Take today to be on the lookout for your favorite signs and hugs and winks from the Universe. Let that be your scavenger hunt for the day, but don’t try too hard. Let these signs come to you. When you do see one, which I’m sure that you will, your whole day will seem to become even more magical and miraculous than you ever truly realized. Make looking for the signs a habit, and your weeks and your months and eventually, even your years, will become walking meditations of the sublime.

“Slow down, vow to do what’s best for your well-being at every moment of the day. Have a good understanding of where your attention goes.” – Valencia (Twitter)

Quotes about Energy flow (100 quotes)

Faking Adulthood Friday

Hi friends!! It’s Friday!! It’s Favorite Things Friday here at Adulting – Second Half. On Fridays, I forget about going deep. I leave “thought provoking” for the other days of the week. On Fridays, I typically list three favorite things or songs or books or food stuff that I particularly like. I ask you, my dear friends and readers, to share any of your special favorites in my Comments section. Focusing on favorite things is a great way to go into the weekend feeling good!

Here are my favorites for today:

Chick-Fil-A macaroni and cheese – This might be the best macaroni and cheese that I have ever eaten. Thinking that I was buying a large bowl of it the other day, we somehow ended up with a catering tray of it (subconscious “mistake” perhaps?), for just the three of us, at home. No one complained, and the whole tray of it only lasted us a few days. Just when you thought Chick-Fil-A couldn’t get any better, they perfected this delicacy. Eat more chicken (and eat more macaroni).

Delizza Patisserie Belgian Mini Cream Puffs – These cream puffs are divine. They have magnetic pull, they are that good. I haven’t purchased them in a while, and then my daughter talked me into buying them again, at Costco, the other day. I realize now why I try not to buy them, and bring them into the house. I just can’t leave them alone. The cream puffs are available in smaller sized boxes at Target. The cream inside of them is this achingly delicious concoction of just the perfect amount of sweet, sandwiched in flaky, tasty dough.

Philips Sonicare Rechargeable Toothbrushes – When you eat a lot of cream puffs, you need a good tooth brush. My son has been using his Sonicare toothbrush for about a year now and he has always raved about it. My husband and I finally broke down and bought ourselves each a Sonicare toothbrush and I am definitely hooked. It feels like I am polishing my teeth with a dentist’s tool. My teeth definitely feel incredibly clean after brushing. (Hint – don’t turn on the toothbrush until it is in your mouth. It took me a couple of times to get this straight and I ended up with gobs of toothpaste in my sink and on my shirt.)

Have a great weekend, my friends! See you tomorrow.

Witness to My Own Life

Unfortunately, instead of coming together during this pandemic, in some ways, there has been a fair amount of divisiveness and judgment and anger, coming from every angle, towards and against each other. Perhaps this is just a way to release a lot of pent-up angst over this very difficult year and the people around us, are our most easy targets. I know that many people have felt judged for being too carefree with their actions and their responses to the virus, but I also know that at the opposite side of the spectrum, many people feel judged for being too careful or too fearful. This post by C. Joybell C. made a lot of sense to me, for those of us who have felt judged for being cautious, at times.

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The Four Burns

I have been reading about a life management theory called The Four Burner Theory. In this theory, each broad element/major category of our lives is divided into the four major headings shown above, like four burners on a stove. The theory states that in order to be truly masterful, and to absolutely shine in any one particular category in life, you must shut off at least one of the other categories, and most likely, you will need to shut off two of the categories, for maximum results. If you wish to lead a balanced life, you must come to terms with, at best, being above average in each category, keeping each area of attention, at a medium heat and at a roughly equal shared level of focus. When I first read this theory, I found it to be a little bit disheartening, but at almost 50 years of life, I also see it to be true.

A decade ago, my husband was working for a gigantic corporation and he was talking to one of the higher ups (an older man extremely high up the ladder of a very large corporation). He asked the man how he had managed to balance it all. “I didn’t,” he said, being totally frank and honest. The man was on his third marriage and had a lukewarm relationship with his children.

It is interesting to me, to see how important it is to my sons, at this stage of college and at the beginning of their careers, to find a “work/life balance” while approaching their career goals. I don’t even remember that phrase being in existence when I was in college, but it makes me happy to see that it is a major consideration for the generations coming up behind us. If you aren’t conscious as to where all of your time and energy is going, life can pass you by, before you’ve even considered your priorities, and what you want out of this experience which we call Life.

It was also heartening for me to realize that at different stages of your life, you can choose to put a different burner on high heat, and pour your focus into what is cooking in a different pot, a pot you never really focused on previously. My Family burner was on high heat for most of my adult life. While I’ll never choose to shut that burner entirely off, I now have more time to focus on my Work burner (writing), as my Family is now more self sufficient than ever.

Finally, I think this theory is a good one to have in the back of my mind, because it clear to me, from my life’s experiences, that if you try to keep all four burners at high heat for any extended amount of time, a short is bound to happen. Then, you’ll be lucky to have any burners going at all. At that time, if you are lucky, you will only have one burner to focus on, and that one is Health, and there will be no choice in the matter, as to where you have to put all of your concentration.

Sadhguru Quotes on Balance | Quotes for Work Life Balance

Soul Sunday

Good morning, friends and readers. My regular readers know that Sundays are devoted to poetry. I either write a poem or share a poem by a different author and I ask you to do the same, in my Comments section. Visualize this space as a very peaceful (and socially distanced) hip café, where we have gathered together to do a poetry workshop, a free-for-all of release. Our souls are thanking us for this experience. Our spirits like to release themselves without the rigidity and the structure and the tattered stories that are so much a part of our regular lives. My poem for today (by me):

An Autumn Morning

Why do I love this morning so?

Rested body, last night’s sound sleep, deeply resonating.

Trickling, comfortably purring pond water,

background music as I write.

Sunshine illuminating the good side of the yard.

Dogs playing joyfully, underneath a perfectly constructed spider’s web,

(Note to self: I will leave that industrious little one’s masterpiece untouched).

As the day melds on into the week, and then into weeks,

I must listen to my inner voice,

the quiet voice which will ask me to bring myself back to this very moment.

How do I store this moment in an easily accessible memory bank?

A picture, a video, not even a gallery masterpiece will do this moment justice,

to the overall calming (yet at the same time equally energizing) sensation,

which this tranquil morning has gifted to me.

Perhaps if I bathe in the moment, lather in every sensation.

The residue of right now, won’t wash away and it will stay for keeps,

Like a layer of protection, a security blanket,

To soften any blows that may come my way,

when I inevitably forget that life can be, and often is,

as peaceful as a beautiful, softly decaying Autumn morn.

The Game

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Sometimes, when I am bored, I think of crazy scenarios in my head, and then I tell myself, “Someone has done, or will do, exactly the insane storyline that I have playing in my head,” and then I crack myself up. It’s like my own little sit-com, playing in my brain. So when I saw this meme this morning, I giggled to myself, realizing that I am not alone in my fun little game. But then I thought, someone else is thinking, “Someone out there is weird enough to think of crazy things which people could do, and then thinking that someone probably has already done the said crazy antic.” Remember, I write this blog from Florida, home of “Florida Man.” Nothing is too crazy for Florida Man.

Let it Flow

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Thank you, Think Smarter (Twitter), for the above meme. The very young and the very old really have so much to teach us about “just being.”

We all know the wisdom of being in the now. There are whole industries and book stores filled with the importance of living for the moment. How do we get to, and stay in, that state of “just being in the moment”, though? It isn’t easy, is it? A friend, years ago, told me that she visualizes the flow of life/God/spirit coming into her, at the very top of her head and flowing in and all around her. When she finds herself to be angry or fearful or controlling, she knows that it is time to unkink her proverbial hose, so that “the flow” can come easily in and through her, once again.

When my kids were little and cranky, wanting to know when we were going to leave the grocery store or to get to a vacation spot, I used to say (in my calmest, wisest Mom voice that I could muster), “Go with the flow.” Sometimes that worked and sometimes it just annoyed the crap out of them. They still remember it, though. My mostly adult children still like to say “Go with the flow”, in a weird moony voice, when they are teasing me about their childhood years.

What if we looked at negative emotional states as a short in our system? What if, when we are feeling mad, sad, or scared (and all of the little nuanced feelings that fall under those big categories), we saw those emotions as “Check Engine” lights? What if, in those moments of unrest, we pulled over to the curb, for a pause and unkinked some hoses, with prayer, or with positive thoughts of gratitude, or a visualization of handing over our worries to bigger, more capable hands. Unless we are master mechanics, most of us don’t know how to fix our cars when the “Check Engine” light appears. But we take our cars to service stations which we trust, to fix them. We take our bodies to doctors and healers, when we get physically hurt or sick. We take our minds to classrooms and read books, to learn and to grow our knowledge and the reasonings of our minds. Where do we take our souls to get fixed? Whatever feeds your soul, whether it be at church, or at a temple, or listening to music, or communing with nature, or communicating in prayer and in meditation, (only You know what that is, as it is a highly personal thing for your Spirit to commune with what makes it whole), make sure that you are giving yourself those maintenance appointments for your Soul. Make sure that your hoses are unkinked and your electric starters are firing on all cylinders. Make sure that the energy you are burning is sustainable and not likely to burn you out. Take those much needed time-outs, so that you are able to “go with the flow” in order to live a purposeful and meaningful and peaceful life. The flow is the only way your Spirit knows how to travel.

Flow is the nature of energy; flow is another name of life | Picture Quotes
Lao Tzu Quote: “Those who flow as life flows know they need no other force.” (23 wallpapers) - Quotefancy