“There is no tomorrow, only a string of todays.” 
-Mark Nepo,  The Book of Awakening 

For those who dread another birthday, I’d like to offer instead a conciliation of reflections of stringing together todays.  Take time and think of several memories during the past year of becoming one year older and recall the story surrounding it. After all, every life is a sequence of stories of todays. Please indulge me on this my birthday month while I share a few of my heart-felt memories of ‘todays’ wrapped in the magic of remembering the past year. 

I find it challenging to always remember that things work out. One moment I can feel as if I’m in complete control of my life; writing gratitude lists, making plans, living brave, wearing my confident clothes and extra make- up and brighter lipstick with certainty that no matter what comes my way, I can handle it. And in an instant, as I’m cruising along the freeway of self-confidence, something unexpected hits my windshield and POW!  I go into a tail spin of uncertainly. This POW could be physical distress or an unexpected emotional event of a significant nature or anything in-between the highway of life.  Never-the-less, the shift from “go” to “yield” can come about quickly. The thoughts of doubt permeate and getting back on track can become an arduous shift.

As a writer, I depend on information. As a business owner and manager, I appreciate systems, and as a stylist, I welcome education.  Every year Eufora International, our preferred product line of hair care and color in our salon, produces a conference guaranteed to inform, teach systems and educate. Twenty years ago, the product line and the concept of educating the stylist to educate the client came into my salon life. Their products and technical advanced trainings in cutting, color formulation, and styling are designed to continually spring us ahead into our profession and to assist us in giving the clients informed options of using organically based products. 

​Two years ago, Mary Beth and I wrote and published Living Brave…In Love, Stories of Intimacy Lost & Found. It is a collection of heart-felt tales of how people come to fall in love and for a variety of reasons become unfastened from the love they thought was secure.  As the stories develop and unfold each person eventually finds their way back to falling in love again. Not always in a romantic partnership, love shows up again and blossoms from the seeds we were born to grow, and mature into loving connections yet again. Love cannot be stopped from being part of who we are as a species and love is how we keep the human race blooming. After all, according to Dr. Amy Banks, author and love researcher in the neuroscience of relationships, our brain is naturally wired to have genuine connections with others.  

​At our recent December staff meeting each one of us shared the three most memorable moments of the past year and two goals for the coming year. As we went around the room sharing, one of the stylists declared her unforgettable goal. “I want to be more loving.” Her statement was felt sincerely by all of us as we sat quietly and took in what the statement meant to each of us. It also made me reconsider my own desires for the coming year. How indeed can I be more loving? 

This morning preparing to write the January Snippets, my friend and Patterns of Potential Star Advisor, Arlene Hougland, sent my weekly email inspiration “You Mail” which she personalizes for each person receiving her words of wisdom. It confirmed my best goal I could possibly have for the coming year: to be more loving. It also made me think of what better way to be more loving then to experience all of life as sacred.

This is what Arlene wrote about the meaning of life as sacred: 
In our busy, hustle and bustle world, it is easy to lose sight of the sacred things in our life...

​"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why  
we call it the present." - Bill Keane

I appreciate the quote from Bill Keane, an American cartoonist most noted for his work on the newspaper comic, The Family Circus. It seemed like such a small gift he gave the readers on a weekly basis, a family with 4 children going through the trials and joys of family life. Continually, the message was based on the gift of listening. Usually the mom and dad in the cartoon listened and the children asked questions or discovered something new in their lives needing clarification only a parent could give. Yet the message was certainly insightful and has remained current 60 years later. The gift of listening and being present reminds us of the true meaning of the Holiday Season, the gift of giving of ourselves.

​The "H" in Hope.  I had never heard the term before until my client Robin, while speaking of how things were getting better in her life said, "I have the 'H' in hope again." It made me consider how often in our lives just the "H" is present, but it can keep us going until the rest of the word shows up.    Life is not meant to have only ups and never downs. Even nature appears to have its downs: hurricanes, earthquakes, snowstorms and too much rain in Arizona. The news is rarely up and mostly down and people still struggle in relationships. Although much has been discovered on the benefits of being happy and cultivating a positive attitude, we tend to turn our cloudy days into hurricanes, shaky conversations into earthquakes, and low blood sugar into snowstorms and too much rain. The "H" drops out of our hope. 

Make a Daily List of What is Good in Your Present Life.  Here is my list: ...

​Repeatedly I am reminded there are no accidents. Instead our lives are always unfolding and evolving. As a business owner for many years, the changes occurring in the daily lives of running a business, including solving problems, staff and customer adjustments and the high-speed development of technology are constant reminders nothing stays the same. Good will probably come from the changes and pathways will open we may not have imagined.

In her article in the Science of Mind Magazine, No Accidents, Rev. Sally Robins wrote this: "Brothers and soap manufacturers Cleo and Noah McVicker invented a product to clean wall paper in the 1930's. Twenty years later, Cleo's son Joe heard from another family member, Kay Zufall, that the children in her nursery school loved playing with the product. They revamped it and sold it as Play-Doh.

​Growing up with traditional Mexican customs in a small Arizona mining town without television or radio, our connections to the supernatural were the stories that were told by the women in our neighborhood. After dinner, sitting in our back yards with only the lights of the stars and moon, the women regaled us with tales of witches, ghosts, the devil and those terrifying monsters that were sure to come and pluck us from our mother’s arms if we did not behave. We enjoyed the stories, the feeling of being scared and begged for more until exhausted by our imaginations and fear. We would run inside the house for cover…until the next time the stories were told.

​Many years ago on television there was a comedian named Flip Wilson who had a variety show. He dressed flashy and talked like a very sassy and naughty woman of the night named Geraldine.  Her confident character and direct language were brassy and full of mischief and her favorite saying as she placed one hand on her tilted hip and the other hand holding her purse slung back behind her shoulder, throwing her head back while a mange of curled hair tussled on her shoulders, was “What you see is what you get!”  Television viewers laughed and borrowed Geraldine’s slogan and in my youth I thought that was the truth about people. I thought, “What you see is what you get!”