Just for You!

We’re reflecting on all of the different ways we have explored slowing down this year. Having tea with a friend, sending a written note to a friend and taking a walk were just a few of the ideas we had. One of our all time favorites is taking time to reflect. 

As we enter into hectic December, remember to take some time for yourself amongst all of the preparations. Enjoy the special moments, the memories and the warmth of it all. It is the end of the year, after all. Before you look ahead to 2019, take stock in the many events that took place in your life this year. They all deserve reflection as we make way for a peaceful new year. 

Enjoy your surroundings! Enjoy you!

Warmest holiday wishes to all! 

What Does Growing Mean?

The garden in summer reminds me just how much we focus on growing in our own lives, growing in age, growing in knowledge, growing in our careers, growing our talents, growing our relationships, growing our dreams, growing our families …I can go on and on. We put so much emphasis on growth yet rarely do we talk about how to prepare for and maintain growth in our lives.

Like a garden, our lives grow through seasons. We, too, experience bursts of energy and growth along with other seasons that are slow and almost dormant. In periods of growth, we must remember the role of the gardener and prune the excess and old limbs to make way for new growth, opportunities and thoughts. A strong, rooted foundation withstands unexpected weather or challenges that may come our way as we are growing.

During the seasons of growth in my life, I am often reminded of the biblical parables and historic references to sowing seeds.  When one’s life is rooted, an abundance of joy is present throughout the journey.

How are you growing your life today? Are you stretching and straining with too much noise and busyness? Are you giving yourself time to rest and to ‘just be’ for a season? Are you pruning out the unnecessary old ways to provide for a strong foundation and a next season of growth, while allowing the deep roots of your foundation to be maintained to your beliefs?

Take time to reflect upon the season of life you are growing into now.

'We First' creates a better community

Last month was spent traveling overseas. In amongst all of the sights, I was surprised by the number of billboards and advertisements for "ME." Every ad seems to be taken at selfie length these days. And then, everyone around me was taking a selfie -- with, of course, a notable landmark.
"Look at me now," we all seem to be saying,  rather than, "Look at this!"
On this trip, I was struck by just how much we are resembling each other, culturally. Selfies seem to be all that matter-- across the globe. But are we collectively celebrating individuality?
Instead of saying 'me first' let's all try 'we first.' WE is the mirror image of ME. Think about what you are seeing and sharing.  Is it the best reflection of who you are? Remember we are put on this earth to collectively love one another. "WE FIRST." 

Merry Month of May

To all of my women friends and colleagues,  

Have a merry month of May!

Mothers, sisters and daughters -- you are gifted treasures. 

Celebrate this gifted season of womanhood. 

Reflections: Preparing for a New Year

When the year winds down and you're crossing off the last few days on the calendar, where do you go to reflect? Do you reflect? 

I find that there are so many mixed emotions this time of year. Relief. Dread. Optimism. Excitement. Abundance. Calm. Anxious. Accomplishment. Disappointment.

A windfall of 365 days to fill is a gift. Each one of those days is a gift. 

It's very helpful to try to grasp the year ahead all at once and try to give it a shape, an intention. Yes, an intention.

It's so important to shed the skin of the previous year, whether it was bright or lackluster. 

Mark the transition and give yourself permission to reflect. Sometimes it helps to go to a familiar place at an unfamiliar time. For me, there's nothing quite as comforting for my soul as the beach in winter. It seems to encompass all of me: past, present and future. That expansive horizon line gives me perspective and hope. The beach is ever-shifting but it is always beautiful in its unpredictability. And every tussle in the clouds is followed by glorious, luminous light at sunset. 

Take time to make note of your transition into 2018. This way, you will be ready to embrace with gratitude the unchartered course of the next 365!

Look forward and make this your motto for 2018:

A Mountain of Challenges

Don't let a mountain of challenges block your path. 

Take A Break!

As we rush through our everyday busyness of life, I find myself revisiting and reflecting upon my own "mantra" to stop, breathe and slow down to truly capture the gifted moments. 

With change being a constant and time moving more quickly than ever, I am reminded that I must give myself permission to turn everything off and to just enjoy the experience, my surroundings, and the quiet with no clicks of the camera, streaming of Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook conversations. 

Ahhh... an experience break...it is simple, free and right here, right now...Enjoy! I love looking at these recent photos of a trip to Europe and basking in these moments!

Enjoy the Season!

As we reflect upon this past year, may we welcome in a season of much hope and new beginnings. 

Before the new year arrives, take a moment to enjoy the scenery with friends and family. 

Take a moment to breathe, no matter where you are. Contemplate. Nature is your deepest resource of replenishment and renewal. 

Take time to reflect upon the season's of one's soul and welcome in a new year of hope and unlimited opportunities.

Here's to new beginnings. Let's welcome in 2017 and count each day as a blessing!  

What is Love ?

This morning I woke up with a simple thought about the age old question, "What is love?"  How do we understand  this "thing" called love?  It is not something you can hold onto or describe briefly. It is such an amazing feeling beyond any expression. One can easily and freely have access to love when  our hearts are open to a greater purpose than ourselves. 

I know we all have much to do in our day-to-day lives with challenges that may confound us. I find it is easy to be distracted from this simple expression of love.  So often, I try to remind myself of the things that reflect love for me: sharing with family, saying hello to a friend, reaching out to a neighbor, smiling, singing, gardening, the list goes on and on.  

I also remind myself of one of my favorite verses from the Bible, in 1 Corinthians: 13, that many will recognize  for it is often recited at weddings.  " Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude. It is not self-seeking. It does not anger easily..." and as the verse goes on, I am reminded that this gift of love, always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails...as love is the greatest gift.

As I finished writing these thoughts this morning, I turned to look out the window and  was drawn into the early rising sun dancing across the garden.  I decided to take a break from writing to visit the garden. As I began to walk through the garden, I found myself captured by the beauty of the early morning sunlight, giving me such a warm sense of peace and comfort.   This feeling is a little hard to express-- maybe no differently than how one contemplates describing the essence of love.  

This morning, I found myself maybe one step closer to a better understanding of this age old question, "What is love?" Love is in all of us and is all around us, if we choose to open our hearts more to a greater calling.

Grow Your Creative Heart

On a recent trip to the East Coast,  I spent a wonderful afternoon teaching a class on the joy of creating art from the many inspirational treasures of the spring season.





 Like several of the members in my class, I found myself  taking in the gifted moments of the soft sunlight dancing across the yard creating a glorious blanket of light and a sense of peace after a long gray winter.

During the class time, some of us spoke about how this gentle spring day took us back to memories from some of our earlier years of life, running through the great outdoors and discovering the treasures of this season. 

And though we may not always have the time to wander through the fond memories of our childhood days, I was reminded once again, to take time and enjoy the gifted treasures of today as we prepare for tomorrow.

Oh, how great it is, to just breathe in the fresh air and sit for a moment of time and take in the inspirations of the spring season to grow one's creative heart.

Believe in Your Dreams

Today's Thought is a simple reminder to Believe in Your Dreams.

Simple Moments

Simple Moments 

Lately, I have read several articles about people traveling on amazing journeys, trekking through rivers, lakes, oceans, jungles, glaciers and more in the hopes of finding an experience of a lifetime. 

I, like many, am very thankful to be able to travel in far away places and I have had some amazing experiences of my life. I am often reminded, when I slow down and take a moment to be present and to be more aware of my surroundings, I am able to experience the simple gifts of life. It brings me great joy to watch nature's performance in the garden, share in conversation with family and friends or just take a moment to watch a sunset.

So as we all continue to chart out our next great journey,  may I encourage you to just take a moment and experience the simple gifts of life in front of you.

What is Love?

Today I write about love. I often think about the widely asked question, “What is love? Is it the feeling we get from sharing an experience with someone special, a family member of friend? Or is it something greater from within one’s soul that gives a sense of peace and confidence of hope? Or is it a comfort of joy wrapped around us like a warm blanket?

I found myself pondering this question in the garden where I often gain inspiration for my writings. The garden, for me, reflects the various facets of life, which many refer to as the seasons of life. And like the garden now, I am living in the winter months-- a time of quietness and inward slumber. Everything is resting to prepare for the burst of spring followed by a stretch of uncertainties brought on by the heat of the long summer days. Then,  a deep breathe and a slowing-down welcome in the cool autumn breeze and shorter days to once again retrace the cycle.

For many who live in a neutral 

climate, my winter season does not always give the rest that others may have in different regions of the country. For instance, the last two winters our weather has been unseasonably warm. And, much like our garden, we never really had the chance to rest and reflect upon the year’s activities. So for me, this winter, has been such a gift with cooler weather, gray skies, and yes, some wonderful rain.  This year I have had time to clean out some areas of the garden and refresh the plants for the next season. It has been a time to regenerate the soul, to prune the branches of old thoughts and to welcome in a season of newness and hope.  

So as I continued to walk through the winter garden, I reminded myself that my heart’s desire was to create a garden that would be filled with gifted moments of nature to reflect God’s love for us. Like the different seasons in the garden, the seasons of our lives are gifted bouquets of tears, much laughter and great joy.  I now realize more and more that through God’s Love for us, He created these flowers, bushes, trees and birds to surround us all the time, for our enjoyment. 

 And as I have and will continue to spend many hours walking through the garden and through the many different seasons of life, I am always in awe of God’s endless and forever love—and I realize that this Love is for us, to help guide us through our journey of life. And although  our growth in our faith may be slow in  understanding this Amazing Love, I am continually reminded that God's love is abundantly there for us always. I am reminded that this sacred Love will grow and flourish as we allow the garden of our hearts to be pruned of the old ways as we  make room for regeneration of life throughout all seasons. As I finish my walk for today, I come to a peaceful conclusion to this on-going question of “ What is love? ” As I rest on my thoughts, I am thankful for the understanding that “love” is simply the greatest gift from God.
God’s Love Endures Forever…

Working in the garden teaches me some lessons of life...

When working in the garden I find myself often reflecting upon stories, biblical studies or Sunday service messages.  

I find as my mind wonders through these various thoughts it makes the garden chores seem more effortless and joyous.  

Though it is the beginning of the winter months of the garden, where some of our plants will take a rest, while others slow down their growth process, there still quite a bit of work that needs to be done during this time. As I muddled my way begin to cleaning some of the flower beds and start pruning the roses and fruit trees for their winter rest, I found that these moments working in the garden is a peaceful time for reflection of one's soul.

Today, after a richly filled Sunday service I went into the garden to begin another section of work I had on my "to do" list.  As I was cutting, pruning and cleaning this section of the garden, I found myself reflecting upon the Sunday message about keeping our hearts clean from the various webs of negative thoughts of self-doubts, anger, gossip and so on...  

I began to realize that like a garden, our hearts need to be cleaned and pruned during all seasons.  I found myself lost in thought as I was clearing out a flower bed of some old leaves and branches, thinking, that like a garden, the soil of our hearts need to continue to be maintained and nurtured for to prepare us for another season of life.

As I close my afternoon of work in the garden, I take a deep breathe of gratitude for these gifted moments to refresh my soul and spirit to prepare for another rich heartfelt birth of love and joy...

Peaceful Hope From Morning Sunrises

This morning , like many mornings, I was awoken by the beautiful creativity of God's amazing work painting an early sunrise with a palette of soft pastel colors of pinks, blues yellows and purples brushed across the sky and softly draping over the tips of the crashing waves giving one's soul a peaceful hope to carry forth through the day...

As I reflected upon this peaceful moment I found myself captured by som other majestic scenes created from Above for our enjoyment...

I am so thankful for these peaceful moments to reflect upon the glory of Hope...

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A Simple Black Dress Holiday Story...

As the holiday season is quickly approaching I started writing a short piece for this blog to share how I think this year, once again, a basic black dress is an essential piece to have in your wardrobe for upcoming festivities and gatherings. I continue to write how a basic black dress with a few accessory accents; such as jewelry, scarves, festive jackets, boots, shoes etc can create a variety of looks from day to evening throughout the season...I thought , wow, I have figured out a  great way to make this holiday season more at ease and simplicit.  

As I began to reflect more about this piece, I realized it really isn't about a basic black dress for the season, it is really more about how to enjoy the gifted moments of the season, through all the noise and busyness of our everyday lives.  

I found myself coming to a "peaceful feeling" as I thought or better to say, gave myself permission, to slow down the holiday cycle--with taking the first step of turning off the noise and turning my focus back to what this season truly means.  

As I sat quietly, I began to write a list of thoughts about what the season means to me...such as a season of thankfulness, a season of joy, a season of love and blessings, a season of family and friends, a season to reflect upon the year, a season to pepare to welcome in a new year....and so on....

I continued to write my list over the next few days and began to realize that the reason the simple black dress seemed more important to me this year, was not about the dress or my holiday wardrobe, but about the simple things in life and that for me, is what I was reminded through all the busyness and noise, is truly what makes a more joyous holiday season.  

So as we begin to prepare for the celebration of this Holiday Season I would like to encourage all of us to take a moment, turn off all the outside noise, sit quietly, read a book, write a holiday note to family member of friend, call a friend just to say "hello", turn on some quiet holiday music, spend time with family, bake some cookies to share with family and friends , create some holiday crafts and remember to take a breathe to just be...to be present and  take in the gifted moments of this Holiday Season... with so much going on today, it is a nice reminder for all of us to be thankful for the basic and simple gifts of life....

The Season of Patience

After a long unseasonably hot summer challenged with a few years of a historic drought, I was reminded this past week, after our first real and wonderful full day of rain, that like my garden, I am living in a season to learn patience through a greater trust in my faith.

I found myself, after a hectic start this morning, that I needed to find that space of patience. I realized that I needed  to breathe and let go of the many uncertainties.

With many different thoughts dancing through my head, I found my feet leading me outside into our garden. I sat down on a bench  and  began to take in the fresh air from the first blush of an autumn morning.  As I quietly sat, I began to look around to take in the captured beauty of the garden, I found my thoughts becoming more clear and my heart beginning to find a peace. 

As this peaceful feeling wash over me I began to realize that I needed to have a greater trust in my faith.   And like a garden patiently waiting for rain, I too must be patient and realize that not everything is in my timing. I must be willing to be patient in my faith to allow the Will of His Grace to be revealed to me in  His Timing.  I must choose to freely trust in knowing  this is a just a season.  And for me this a season to embrace  patience and to  continue to grow my faith more through my heart. 

Aging-Living a Joyous Life

I have lately been thinking about aging. What it means and how it impacts our lives. If you really think about aging you realize that it is a natural progression in one’s life that one really cannot avoid.  I am not saying we should all go around feeling sorry for ourselves because we are aging moment by moment in our  human habitat. I actually am trying to encourage us to embrace aging in a beautiful way.  I do believe we should live good healthy lives, exercise, eat well and embrace a positive outlook on life.  These are some of the basic life principles that were passed onto me from some of dear friends who were in their twilight years.  I was so blessed to have these wise women as mentors and friends throughout my life.  We would spend countless hours sharing in conversations about life, history and scared experiences that you would never see on tv or the internet or read about in a newspaper or book today.

They taught me so much about preparing for “aging” or maybe better said about life, and how to live a life filled with joy through all things as oppose to letting life take over one’s destiny.

I recently found myself revisiting the aging topic as I was combing through the newspaper and watching the morning news, I started to notice how a majority of featured articles and  advertisements were about age defiance. They featured miracle potions, drinks and creams that would take years off of your life within minutes.   Amazing, I thought, nothing has changed throughout time, as we are still searching for the fountain of youth to solve the challenges of our daily lives. I began to hear the voices of my mentors from some of our wonderful conversations and realized that many of our discussions concluded with the same theme, that how you live life is your choice.  I was taught that you can choose to live a joyous life from the heart and strive to “look up” and “look on the bright side” to guide you through your daily journey or you can allow the muddiness of life take over.  This is why I have chosen to live life through my heart and not allow the day-to-day worldly life take over.  

I know some may say this way of living is too simple or silly and that I may not understand their challenges.  I agree, that I will never be able to walk in someone else’s footsteps, but I have learn from my own life experiences, that by choosing to “look up” and trust my heart I have been living a joyful journey beyond my imagination.  It’s a choice. 








And I thank my very special mentors and friends for sharing their wisdom on aging which has been a joyous treasure of life for me.