Are you Living Your Life Like Punxsutawney Phil?

Alas! must it ever be so?
Do we stand in our own light, wherever we go,
And fight our own shadows forever? ~Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton
Well Happy Groundhog Day! This is the day each year that we gaze towards a nervous rodent in a hole to predict the future. According to Wikipedia, the holiday began as a Pennsylvania German custom in southeastern and central Pennsylvania in the 18th and 19th centuries. But before that it has origins in ancient European weather lore, wherein a badger or sacred bear is the prognosticator as opposed to a groundhog.
Can I go back to bed now?

If you haven’t already heard, here’s the news that Punxsutawney Phil delivered this morning….

More Winter?  The Groundhog says….

I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure if I buy into the weather prediction by rodent approach. But the more I think about it, how can I deny the puffy prophet his credit when sometimes, we all live our lives like Punxsutawney Phil?
Life gets cold, and we retreat into our little havens, where we feel safe and can control our circumstances, because we have limited many of the pressures of the outside world. Then, when we finally decide to venture outside, and leave our comfort zone, the first sign of a shadow, and we retreat, retreat, retreat. We run back into our safe place, to sit and wait out what we perceive to be the ongoing and extended winter in our life.
But what if we’re wrong? What if it is only our shadow? What would happen if we stretched ourselves a little, stayed out in the less than perfect weather? Would we find ourselves stuck in a storm or would we find that we could happily survive outside of our cave living a happy life even if the weather was not completely sunny?
It’s hard to say, but the way I see it, if there is a higher power watching us today as we are watching Punxsutawney Phil, I think he would hope that we see the upcoming spring. There’s life to live, and we only have today once, no matter what the weather.
Phil decided it was six more weeks of winter for us. How about you?  What are you deciding?
I will leave you with a proverb that I just love.
Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you. ~Maori Proverb
Have a shadow free kind of day,
Kelly

Happy New Year JOLT’ers!

Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true.

~Alfred, Lord Tennyson ~

Well, here we are.  The last day of 2011.  It has been a year filled with one little things.  Many blessings, with one of the biggest…. connecting with so many fellow JOLT’ers who, like me, want to forge a life of gratitude in this messy, imperfectly beautiful world of ours.

I wanted to take a moment to say thank for joining me on the journey.  Each day, I ask a simple question.

What’s your one little thing today?

And, I can honestly say that I learn from each of your answers. You never disappoint.  Some answers are funny, some serious, all are 100% honest.

You are all teaching me, and in more ways than you can every understand, you help me continue on the path of happiness.  Your shared wisdom  confirms that we are all on a similar path, and we are all connected.

So, thank you for both your participation and your friendship.  I hope that 2012 brings you an abundance of one little things, and we continue to refocus our lives on gratitude in our

ever-growing Just One Little Thing community.

I will leave you with a cute song I just love….

Happy New Year!

Kelly

More Measures of Love From JOLT’ers…

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. ~Mark Twain ~

Do more than belong: participate. Do more than care: help. Do more than believe: practice. Do more than be fair: be kind. Do more than forgive: forget. Do more than dream: work. ~William Arthur Ward~ Measures of Love.  So many measures of love from JOLTer’s all over this big beautiful planet of ours.  Here’s just [...]

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Libby’s Measure of Love…

Terry's-Dark-Chocolate-Orange-737720

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. ~Lao Tzu~ If you’ve been following along, you know that I have asked all of you to “Share your Measure of Love.” I will be sharing some of the responses this week from JOLT’ers just like you who decided to [...]

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The Beautiful Rough Edges…

All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything. ~Swami Vivekananda~

Practice wanting for others what you want for yourself by being Christlike rather than Christian, Mohammed-like rather than a Muslim, and Buddha-like rather than a Buddhist. ~Wayne Dyer~ Happy Boxing Day…..or, if that’s not your thing, Happy Monday.  Could be that I should be saying any number of things to you in December.  This is [...]

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Nester the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey-A Lesson for Life…

Nester

I wrote this last year, but wanted to share it again.  As we look around our own lives and find that person to “Share Our Measure of Love” with this season, I think Nester can teach us a thing or two.  Enjoy!  K. Whatever else be lost among the years, Let us keep Christmas still [...]

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