LIFE | LOVE | LOSS 

“You can’t stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you.  You have to go to them sometimes.”   

Winnie The Pooh 

CONNECTIONS  

“Meaningful connection is formed when we bravely share our truth.” 

-Michelle Maros 

We are meant to connect.  Our five senses allow us the opportunity to see, hear, feel, touch, and taste our way through life.  Our lives are always moving, shifting, changes in small and subtle and sometimes big ways.  Through all the ups and downs, highs and lows it is connection that is a stabilizing force.  

Have you ever left a gathering or even time with a trusted friend and felt better or lighter?  Have you given or received a long hug that made your body sigh and relax with inside another’s embrace?  Have you looked deeply into someone’s eyes connecting without any words?  Have you sat with someone in their dark time and just let them be exactly where they are without trying to hide, fade or fix their circumstance? 

All these situations are powerful ways to connect with others.  They can restore calm to a troubled mind or sooth an aching heart.  What are some other ways you like to connect with those around you?  I like to wink at grandpas!  I know this is abstract and silly.  I get a lot of double takes and some smirks.  It is a simple way or letting someone know they were seen even if just for a moment in time.  I also like to thank a service person by name.  I do this at the grocery store, on the phone with a customer support person or at a restaurant.  My husband and I have made lasting friendships with some of the wait staff where we like to eat! 

Meaningful connections can be made anywhere at any time.  They do not have to be big, deep, or complex.  I invite you this month to deeper your connections. 

Deepen your connection with someone in your current life and add a few causal connected moments when out and about.   

Explore your connection to the earth as the planet enters a new season and time of rest.  Add a new connection to history or explore your current city or state finding something new!   

I know that through connections we can give and receive strength, clarity, and peace of mind and heart! 

TODAY 

“Today love others for who they are. 

See the beauty in the journey. 

Hold your head high and be brave. 

Extend a hand, give back and 

Believe in the power of simply being kind.” 

-Rochel Martin 

So, when we strip life down completely all that remains is today!  We are all hearing the term ‘mindfulness’ more and more.  Simply put it is being fully present and engaged in NOW.  I have a busy overactive mind, so I struggle to keep my thoughts on the present moment and not one hundred other little things from days gone by or days yet to come.  My mind often spins on comments from conversations.  I get in loops thinking and over thinking my emotions or reactions to things and why I felt the way I did.  Is any of this sounding familiar to any of you? 

Today is the only place we have true power.  We will never get this exact moment EVER again.  This makes time one of the most precious resources we have.  I have a close friend who always says life is long.  Every time he says this, I think the opposite that life is short, and time is fleeting.  Perhaps my perspective comes from losing a child to suicide when I didn’t even know they were struggling.  I know that whenever we suffer a loss what we want more than anything is MORE time.  More todays with the person who is no longer with us. 

This type of longing can shatter a mind and wreck a heart.  We can lose people in our life through divorce or other circumstances where grieving what could have been mirrors the grief of a loss of life itself.  Some relationships end in trauma and upset where again you have to find a way to move forward through the pain. 

So, back to today!  Let us make time in each new day to love.  Love with pure acceptance of who others are and who they aren’t.  Include yourself.   

Let us make time to see beauty, even in the messes of life! 

Let us be brave, speak our truth even with shaky voices, sweating hands or trembling knees.  Have enough courage to be honest with yourself and honest with others! 

Find a way to give.  That could be a smile, a long hug, pay if forward in some way.  Reach out to someone you haven’t connected with in some time. 

I know there is great power in kindness for ourselves and others.  My son Joey was kind.  He looked for ways to help those around him.  He was a beautiful example of someone who paid attention today!  October is his birthday month and so I will let my mind and heart wander down the ‘what-if’ lane.  I will spend time thinking about who he could be today.  What would he look like, who would he love?  What would he be doing and where would he be doing it?  So many unanswered questions in a mother’s heart.  When it aches, I let it.  When the pain of him being gone is excruciating threating to tear me in two, I feel it. I breath.  I find connections that are a balm to me.  Then I remember today is the most precious thing I have with those I love.  I kiss my husband again, just because I can.  I call my kids and see what they are making for dinner.  I try each day to reach out or check on a friend.  Social media makes this easy! 

Let us be mindful of the gift of each new day. 

I wish you everything good.  

All my best, 

Genna