Don't Forget to Find the Good

Find the Good Brand

As the warmer weather slowly forces its way in through the seemingly never-ending coldness of winter, if I am not in a lunch meeting and Joey is not out in the community with his helpers, we always make sure we take a walk together at lunch time.

Joey's thoughts often have him spinning into different lands, directions, anything other than the path that we walk on a regular basis.

Like many of us, his thoughts lead him astray to anywhere and everything other than the present moment.

To help bring him back from his own thoughts, I ask him questions about what he sees, and he responds with:

"I see that nice mailbox number 57."
"I see the yellow flowers."
"I see the withered white fence that protects the forest."

We are looking for the good in the here and now, focusing on not getting lost in our own thoughts.

Away from the what-ifs and what could have beens and the will-it-evers.

As an official over-thinker in recovery, I know how challenging this is.

​Yesterday on our walk we stepped out into the breezy crisp air, but the sun was shining.

"Ahhhh, Mom, feel that sunshine."
Suddenly, we weren't just looking for the good in the present moment, we were feeling it.

These past few months have been exhilarating in ways I never imagined.

Book events, speaking events, anthology and contest submissions and even a new course I'm developing (wink, wink stay tuned...) not to mention the countless new friends and contacts I have met has been just incredible.

BUT

I have also felt bombarded with people saying:

"have you done this or that?"
"are you going to start coaching?"
"are you maximizing your website contact information?"
"are you, are you, are you..."

And honestly it started to feel overwhelming. And the old repetitive thoughts of "you aren't doing enough, being enough, trying enough, fighting enough" started to fill the pit of my stomach.

I didn't write my story to make millions. I am not focused on boosting my SEO.

I wrote it to heal, and I wrote it to give hope to others who had found themselves asking questions like:

"Is this it?"
"Is there another way, I feel like I have more inside of me."

I wrote it so that I would be reminded of the silver lining of love in every lesson and blessing of chaos that life inevitably throws at us.

I wrote it to remind others to look at life through a lens of gratitude and hope.
​
And as we walked along our usual path yesterday, something happened....

Joey stopped to smell the hyacinth. (A little too early for roses).

I mean he stopped, sat down on the sidewalk and breathed in their delicious scent.

My children humble me more often than I can count, and this was one of those moments.

When we got back home, I paused to reflect in my journal before returning to my day job.

I reflected on all of the blessings that are surrounding us every day.

I reflected on how liberated I felt in sharing my story and my authentic voice with at least a small corner of the world.

I reflected on how I know I am on the precipice of stepping out into a phase of life where the choices I make, the words I write, the people, companies, and organizations I engage with may not always be the best to "maximize my growth and potential" but they resonate with the core of my value and my beliefs.

I reflected on how I trust myself and trust the gift that this life is more than I have ever before.

In the past twelve months life has been anything BUT ordinary, nor has it been the path we had expected to be on.

Yet, there we were, on a cool Thursday in spring, sitting down to smell the flowers that have courageously fought through the soil and swinging temperatures and dared to shine their beautiful colors.

And all I could think was "Life is SO Good."

I hope that as nature comes back to life around us as we continue to creep into spring, that you don't just witness it, but that you become part of it.

That you feel it.

That you learn to ride the waves (or the spring breeze) and allow it to move you to where you can truly flourish from the center of your heart.

That you fall in love with all of the good that surrounds us.

That you stay present in a state of gratitude.

​Because it is there - everywhere - we just have to Look for the Good.

Please be sure to check out Find the Good to soak yourself in reminders of gratitude of this life we live AND to support Mental Health America. Enter code: SE111 for an extra 10% off.

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