Okay, I admit it. I’m more of a seeing the glass as half full kind of gal than seeing it as half empty. I’m like this partly because if I allowed myself to think about the glass being half empty then my mind would pile on so many implications and complications, such as why do we even have to put water in a glass or why are we even measuring water in the first place,  that it is just better for me to see the beauty and possibility of all things rather than the negative aspects.  Similarly, on days like today when the temps are not cold but also not warm and it is raining–which is a good thing in a place prone to drought– but it’s a drenching constant rain which can get really monotonous over an extended period of time, that causes me to want to find something positive to focus my perspective.  For example, witnessing how beautiful Wisteria is during that brief but special time period in Texas when it grows rampant and lush.  I especially enjoy spotting naturally blooming Wisteria in unexpected places such as growing all over a dead tree’s branches in the middle of a semi-dry creek bed.

Thought for the Day: What special snapshot of life will you keep your mind open for so that you can allow yourself to stumble upon and notice today?

Helpful Hint for Being Human: The way I see our thinking process and minds is that the more aware we become in regards to our thoughts, the more we can direct our thoughts to places that bring us peace. I mean there’s plenty of opportunity for life to torture us as it is without us contributing to it with reckless thinking!

Oh I know, there are so many people out there in the world right now who are speaking, yelling, showing, all about doom and gloom. And it is out there. There is some real pain out here. There is lot’s of sadness; there are many people, places, things and ideas to support all levels of fear for sure. And my inspiration of hope for you is to exercise the inner light muscle that we all have inside of us and think peace, think about gratitude, think about love. Keep walking through the mud and focus on peace. Keep batting off the bugs and fill yourself with gratitude. Keep turning away from darkness and falling into love.

I do believe in what I’ve heard many people say over the last twenty years that humanity is on the verge of a great spiritual evolution. Spiritual to me means a level of consciousness, a level of love and caring; a level of awareness. Spirituality is not to be confused with religion; although someone who is spiritual can be religious and someone who is religious may not be spiritual.

When it comes to finding the words to share with you what I “see” as the possibilities for mankind (and woman kind too!) I am limited by words so I fall back on some of the favorite tag lines such as “it is always darkest before the dawn”. Right now is such an incredible time to be alive because there are so many of us that are “waking” up to the world around us at the same time. Is it all rainbows and lollipops? Absolutely not. Are there still many of us who are very unconscious of who we are and how we interact with the world around us? You bet. What I am saying is that there is tremendous strength in those of us who are conscious focusing on what is good, focusing on what we can be grateful about and focusing on where we can find and give love. The challenge is to not allow ourselves to be seduced by sometimes well-intentioned naysayers of the world.

It’s time to focus on solutions. It is time to focus on what is working. It is time to consider that there is always more than three options to any one challenge and to let go of the cycle of duality thinking.

Of course, as one of my favorite Zen Proverb’s says, “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood, carry water”.

As one of the greatest prophets of all times said, “it all begins with your thoughts”.

What will you be thinking about today?

Ever wonder what you think about all day or even if you think about anything in between all the things that you seem to be busy doing all the time? Well, fear not. You do think a lot. I know there are statistics out there on this but it’s almost past my bedtime so I’ll leave it to you to Google and explore them on your own.

In the meantime, I thought it might be an interesting exercise to write down ten things I’ve thought about today (create your own list!):

1.) How grateful I am to be healthy because really if I wasn’t healthy it wouldn’t matter if I had all the money in the world. I’ve had times of really feeling sick and/or hurting in my life and when I did it took up all my attention and energy. God bless all my friends and people that I don’t know who are sick or hurt, please help them to heal or release them from their pain.

2.) How grateful I am to be married, still in love and respect my husband. I never thought that I would be able to sustain a healthy relationship for very long. I had no idea how to climb inside of intimacy.

3.) Wondered if there was a heaven and if there was then surely the days must be like the day we had today in Austin. Gorgeous;

4.) Now that I’ve focused the direction of school towards an MSW, wonder what scholarships/grants are available out there and wonder if there are people who could help me dig for those scholarships and grants and wonder what their fee would be;

5. ) Need to start categorizing all my blogs in my word press files so that I can start putting together a book and if I put a manuscript together loosely with a title, chapters and content if I could interest a literary agent;

6.) Love my dogs and cats more each day. Paul-Paul taught me a new trick tonight with his Kong, I hold it up and he jumps up to get it from a sit. Need to invest in some frisbees and see if we can learn the art of throwing and catching frisbees together;

7.) Need to look up the botanical names of the flowers that are blooming this time of year that look like little purple daisies and big yellow daisies. How magnificent!

8.) What is the deal with the abundance of movie theaters in this town? I mean, it’s a great thing don’t get me wrong…I like pretending like I’m at my own private screening but really what is the deal with this? How can theaters continue to operate?

9.) Our home really is a nice comfortable place to live. I can’t believe we’ve lived here almost 15 years this December. That’s just insane. Time is really a bizarre concept and what’s even weirder is 15 years doesn’t seem like what I thought 15 years would feel like. It doesn’t even feel as long as the four years I spent in high school felt.

10.) I’m grateful that my body is feeling good after my long runs and that I’ll be able to go on another run tomorrow. Still feeling a bit sluggish when I’m running but after the first mile or so my body seems to kick in and get into the groove of it. I wonder if I keep growing my hair long if I’ll feel the weight of it when I run.

Seeee, I’m definitely not a rocket scientist with my thoughts don’t let me kid you but it is kind of fun to reflect back on them. Maybe I’ll pan out some gold one of these times when I do a list of ten things I’ve thought about today.

What are ten things you’ve thought about today?