Celebrating What's Right With Our World

(IF YOU DON'T FEEL LIKE READING, SKIP DOWN AND WATCH THE VIDEO IT'S AWESOME)
In searching for my zen garden, I have found moments of complete peace, usually in the mountains or walking on an uncrowded beach. Enjoying the moment and just being in the moment. I know it's the simple things in life that bring true joy. I know that, but those moments seem so few and far between sometimes. And then their are all the times I was just too busy to notice the beauty that was there all the time.

I love nature and if I could I would spend all my days in a small house with a beautiful garden where I could walk or ride a bike to every place I needed to go. Preferably in the mountains or near the ocean. I like to dream about that place. I know it's not in Vegas. Vegas is too fast paced, too chaotic. But Vegas is where my kids and grandkids live and there is the rub. But even without being in Vegas there is this incredible super fast world pace that keeps many of us too busy to slow down, to notice the world around us, or even our family and neighbors. We are just too busy.

The fast pace of our world makes it incredibly difficult to find our own individual Nirvan where one could live with less and to quiet the constant chaos of our minds. We hear a lot these days about how to "Simplify" our lives, but what does that mean really? To me it means:

** A way to live lightly on the earth, leaving a very small footprint on our earthly mother.
** A slower-paced way of living and living in the moment.
** A way to live with less but creating more choices in life, more than just working and sleeping, enjoying the living.
** Finding what's right and working in every situation.

It may seem difficult to give up many of what we consider luxuries, but maybe the path to simplify our lives starts with a first small step. Along with that thought I want to comment on living in the moment as that step. We pride ourselves on being multi-taskers. I am the epitome of a multi-tasker and have climbed the professional ladder by being just such a go-getter. But, is that truly the best way to be? I truly think not. I think I want to change and be a mono-tasker! Let me share with you why.

I watched a motivational film a while back by a National Geographic photographer, Dewitt Jones, who was sent to Scotland to take pictures of this very old lady who was a national treasurer as an accomplished weaver. She lived very simply and humbly and when he asked her what she thought about when she was weaving she answered, "I wonder if I'll run out of thread." Not exactly the answer he was expecting from this wonderful sage. She continued, "when I weave, I weave."

I highly, highly recommend you watch this inspirational video Celebrate What's Right With The World


This video talks about seeing what is right, appreciating the moments we are given, living in the moment. To truly be in the moment, to have our full attention in the moment requires a slowing down, it requires respect to the importance of all that we do, who we are with and where we are at any given moment. It's listening with an attentive ear instead of thinking of a response. It's seeing what is right. It's believing you will see what what is right and good, instead of always looking for what is wrong or not working.

My mind is usually going 1000 miles an hour, jumping from one idea to another, thinking of what next needs to be accomplished instead of doing my best with whatever I am doing at the moment.

But for today, I will try and slow my thoughts, slow my pace, seize the moment, celebrate what's right in my world, with gratitude and grace, simply and with out ego. Now how simple is that?