Life's Storms

"Into every life some rain must fall." Longfellow

Poets and mystics have known it.  Every life has challenges, times of loss, sorrow.  Does it serve a purpose?  I think it must.  What if the purpose of life's challenges is to prepare our souls to become more fully who we were intended to be?  It doesn't seem like we are likely to have personal growth during times of complacency.  It seems to take a challenge to rock us off our center, so that we can become even more fully human than we were.

Where Are the Answers?

"Look not for revelations from without, but to awakening of truth that lies within." Ernest Holmes

It's easy to go through life thinking we can get our answers from a teacher or someone wiser than ourselves, but all great thinkers -- those who have blazed trails for us -- have gotten their truth from within.  Einstein, Buddha, Jesus, Joan of Arc, Abigail Adams -- all have sought their answers from the truth that lives within us all.

Alone

"The body knows things a long time before the mind catches up to them." Sue Monk Kidd

There will be times in life and as a caregiver when we will feel very alone.  It is part of our perception as humans to think we are separate from one another, and there will be times when it seems we have been abandoned by even those closest to us.  Dementia, by its very nature, is a type of abandoning.  We who love the person with dementia are abandoned as the person is caught ever increasingly in the clutches of the disease.  There are decisions that only we can make.  To help offset this feeling of aloneness, let us be sure to have good support systems in place.

Happiness

"Happiness isn't a destination; it's a realization that things couldn't possibly get any better than having the freedom to perceive as you please." Mike Tully

Are you susceptible to the human tendency to think you will be happy when?  When you have more money, when someone in your life isn't aggravating you, when you are feeling better?  While that is a normal human tendency, it is not optimal.  It is far better for look for reasons to be happy now and to choose to be happy now.  Just as things are.  Right now.  Let's choose to be happy.

Beautiful Inside

"Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart." Kahlil Gibran

How true.  My granddaughter and I were discussing why the wicked queen in Snow White is not as beautiful as Snow White, and we decided it was because she was mean inside.  How we are inside does shine through.  It seems to me that one is better off if one spends time grooming the inside, versus the outside.  Not that appearance does not have some importance, but true beauty comes with being beautiful as a person.  It comes from the heart.  

Choosing Our Thoughts

"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind.  To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again.  To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives."
Henry David Thoreau

Since researchers now say that over 90% of our thoughts are negative and redundant, it is obvious our lives could be improved by following Thoreau's advice.  To change our chronic way of thinking, we must choose to think over and over the kind of thoughts which bless our lives.  A technique I use is to think thoughts of gratitude -- chronically.  Looking for and seeing what there is in my life for which to be grateful.  Today I am grateful for a neighbor who is helping repair a broken door.  

Knowing Our Worth

"May I know my true worth and navigate with the certainty of wild geese.""Reflection"

In western culture it seems we are culturized to not think well of ourselves.  I have heard the Dalai Lama say that self hatred is unnatural.  What is needed is healthy self love.  Not thinking we are better than someone else, but knowing we are as good as anyone.