Month: March 2021

Spring Is Your Reward


One of the things I love most about spring is that its arrival serves as a tangible reminder that “not now” doesn’t mean “not ever.” 

The sunnier and warmer days of this season are rewards for pressing through the previous months of darkness and cold – a season that was perhaps ordained to be a period of hibernation, rest and regeneration – a time to prepare for our longed-for successes, new opportunities or next level ahead.

As you lean into whatever this season brings for you, remember that most “overnight” successes have toiled in the winter of their own making for years and years – keeping their vision before them, getting up, pressing forward and saying “thank you” in advance, so that when their blessing or victory arrived, they could declare “Welcome! I’ve been waiting for you, with open arms.”

If you aren’t quite there yet, keep going and preparing. The good you do along the way won’t be wasted. It is watering your path, building your legacy and inspiring all you touch.

Twin Opportunities

Our two greatest opportunities in this life are to love unconditionally and to discover our purpose. 

In discovering how we’re meant to move through the world with our gifts and talents, we also discover how we’re meant to serve; and embracing this revelation is also an act of love. 

So live, love and laugh. Look within and keep stretching past your comfort zone. Be a reflection of what you want to add to the world and what you want to receive in return.

Persist and Win

Stop striving for perfection and persist with excellence.

Why? Because we all stumble at some point, in some way. True victory doesn’t come from not ever having fallen, but in having the courage to dust yourself off and get up.

Rinse and repeat, however many times it takes, until you’re standing firm and striding toward your goals. 

Wisdom from Meghan

Regardless of whether you thought Sunday’s bombshell Oprah+Meghan TV interview was worth your time, one of the revelations Meghan Markle shared during the two-hour conversation offered some wisdom:

Have compassion for people. You have no idea what’s going on behind their bright smiles, polished perceptions and fabulous photo ops.

As we pass the one-year milestone of pandemic living, we do indeed know that everyone is going through something, and wherever you find yourself on the pendulum, be intentional about judging less and caring more.

You could be someone’s differencemaker.

50th Plans…And Then Came COVID

Celebrating My 50 While 50 – Update #1

Nearly two months ago, in mid-January, I celebrated the Big 5-0. Like many people do as a milestone birthday approaches, I’d begun pondering months earlier just how I would celebrate.

I was super excited about this birthday, because 2011 – the year I turned 40 – had also been a big year of a big change in my family dynamics. I spent the decade between then and now leaning into my new role as single, co-parenting mom of two adolescents, making sure they had the nurturing, the education and the extracurriculars that would help them thrive and be prepared to discover their purpose. The choices and sacrifices I made during that season were more than worth it; but I was looking forward to launching this new decade with a special trip somewhere in that world that would serve as a kick off for more opportunities to explore never-visited American cities and states, and places around the globe.  

Then came COVID. The world stopped, and along with having to help my son celebrate his high school graduation virtually and my daughter celebrate her college graduation without a formal ceremony, I had to abandon my looming 50th birthday plans. 

Trust me, I know how minor these and a few other very disappointing setbacks were, given the tumult and loss unfolding every single day. I couldn’t complain (then or now), and I continue to seek ways to offer help and encouragement to friends and many others who are in need.

My past 12 months of pandemic living have been graced with many blessings, including a new job filled with meaningful work; settling my son into a college where he gets to run track; watching my daughter practicing “adulting” in a way that has made me proud(er) to be her mom, and everyone in my immediate family remaining healthy.

I know this hasn’t been the case for many people, including some of my closest friends and loved ones, and I don’t take it for granted. So, being the optimistic person I am, I turned my attention to creating a Plan B. For me that is my 50 While 50 List – i.e., a list of 50 things to do while I’m enjoying my 50th year. 

I asked readers of my author newsletter to chime in with suggestions, and boy, did they answer. Between the 30 or so ideas I already had on the list and their wonderful ideas, I’ve now got a lineup of 67 things to do! Lol And if you know me, you know I’ll fit at least 50 things in during 2021 and “carryover” the other 17 into 2022, if necessary.

I promised my newsletter readers that I’d be sharing periodic updates on my progress in this space and this is my first 50 While 50 installment. 

I’ve spent January, February and some of March keeping promises that are fun, practical, fulfilling and maybe a bit uncomfortable enough to stretch me, including:

  • Treating myself to a few favorite “non-everyday” foods whenever the whim hits me, including calamari and German chocolate cake. I haven’t gone overboard, but I’ve enjoyed leaning into those “why not today?” urges when they’ve randomly occurred.
  • Getting a colonoscopy. Not a fun task, but not a necessary one! It was uneventful, and it gave me peace of mind to check this off my list of responsible things to do.
  • Sitting in silence more than usual. As a writer, I often ponder and create in silence; but these particular quiet times have been filled with more intentional journaling, meditating, letting my thoughts roam free, praying, and envisioning some of my goals and dreams as reality. The process has helped me refine my goals and know myself even better.
  • Buying two instead of one. I’ve bought myself a bouquet of fresh flowers every two weeks, just because, for years. Since January, I’ve sometimes made it two – one bouquet graces a vase on my dining room table and the other is placed where I choose – my living room or family room or bedroom.
  • Taking time away. I spent a few days on the Chesapeake Bay, leaning into long walks, prayer time and socially distant meals and laughter with two of my closest sisterfriends. The experience was fun and gave me the clarity and courage to say yes to a few new things. 
  • Spa-ing. I treated myself to a mid-week facial with a fun millennial esthetician, whose chatty style and excellent work left me refreshed and renewed.
  • I sat in on a virtual masterclass about the book-to-movie process, with goals of learning how to someday see my novels on the big screen.
  • I secured three sessions with a life coach to help me refine my short-term goals and to create an accountability plan. This has been a worthwhile investment!

These are just a few things, and it’s only mid-March. I’m enjoying this process and along the way asking myself a question that a professional acquaintance posed to me in a recent conversation: What will you do differently? 

I’ve been leaning into that query in every area of my life, to ensure that I’m not just going through the motions or simply checking things off the list to say I’ve gotten them done. Either I am leaning into doing things the same as always because there’s a reason this way is best, or doing them differently because making slight changes will get me closer to the joy, the journey and the results that I want to be most impactful and lasting.

What about you? How’s your start to 2021? What are you leaning into? What are you willing to do differently? Regardless of whether this is a milestone birthday year for you, this can be a year that you set and reach new milestones, just because you’re worth it.

Share your plans in the comment section, and thanks for reading and cheering me on. As we all move forward and evolve as best we can, may we also remember our simple and significant blessings and pay them forward as best we can.

When Not To Shift

Happy first day of March! As we prepare for more sunlight and warmer temps (in most parts of the U.S.), the promise of spring brings an opportunity to shift from how we ‘ve been living or to stay the course, in various ways.

We still find ourselves on a treadmill of not-quite-normal, pandemic-fueled living; and even with vaccines being distributed as quickly as possible, decisions have to be made about where to go or not, what to attend or avoid, and how to stay safe, day-to-day.

What remains certain amidst it all are our opportunities to be steadfast in never shifting from hope.

We can give in to impatience – who would have thought 12 months ago around this time that we’d soon be forced into mass quarantine and that masks would become the new fashion staple? And who would have thought that a year later, in March 2021, that we’d still be living this way? Or we can resolve to make hope our secret weapon – using it as a tool to help us win with class, fall with grace, work collaboratively, expect the best from others, give the best to others and lead with a servant’s heart.

The choice is ultimately up to us – to you.

Will you allow the promise of springtime to birth in you renewed motivation to hope more deeply and act on what you’re hoping for? Will you join me in embracing the shift into a higher gear of intentionality?

Let’s go for it, because…why not? When we become more consistent and persistent, what no longer serves us will inevitably fall away, leaving in its wake our stubborn hope.

In this way, we will honor the essence of who we are, so that our lives can continually yield light, render joy and dispense some measure of good, in the season to come and in the many seasons beyond.

 

“Springtime in Syria” by CharlesFred is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

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