Serenity is Mine to Keep: Can you find Serenity in Playing Power Ball?

Serenity is Mine to Keep: Can you find Serenity in Playing Power Ball?: Okay, I'll admit it I played Power Ball last night, I mean it was $330 million why not and of course I was disappointed that I didn't win. ...

Can you find Serenity in Playing Power Ball?

Okay, I'll admit it I played Power Ball last night, I mean it was $330 million why not and of course I was disappointed that I didn't win.  I truly thought I had a chance and I certainly had a plan for the money.  After paying off my kids student loans and my car payment, I was planning to pay it forward with a portion of the winnings.  I am positive that I would be able to maintain my serenity as a millionaire and I still have hopes that one day it will happen, but sadly it wasn't today.  I always wonder about the people who win these lotteries and it changes your life.  I'd like to think that inwardly I wouldn't change that much, but that kind of money has to change things and would it be difficult to maintain peace and serenity in your life when everyone wants a piece of you?

After many years of writing grants to foundations, I have always had a dream in my head, of course, to have my own foundation, distributing funds to organizations that show promise and purpose, but I digress this blog is about serenity not about power and money.

This past weekend has finally brought my mother home from her rehabilitation center to improve her walking and stability.  She has a lovely woman helping her with household tasks and is receiving physical therapy and occupational therapy.  After the past month of rehab and hospital it is a welcome relief.  Once the broken clavicle has completely healed, I am positive that she will be stronger then she has been in quite a while.  Today was a day of complete calmness for me and a step towards the return of serenity.

I spent the day relaxing, watching Downton Abby and making a very larger pot of 17 bean soup.  I did no work, no housecleaning only a 2.5 mile walk on the treadmill this morning.  It was an absolutely fabulous Sunday.  I have finishing eating a bowl of my soup and am very content and serene surrounded by sleeping cats, posting on my blog and awaiting for the Grammys to begin.

The week begins with a new second job, a mother who is on her way to good health and serenity each and ever day.

Finding Serenity During a Crisis

The past week has been very trying for me personally and it has been difficult to locate serenity.

On Wednesday my 84 year mother fell down a flight of steps as I was standing next to her.  She misstepped and landed head first at the bottom of the steps.  This amazing woman never lost consciousness and kept right on talking with the doctor (she fell outside her doctor's office), the nurses, staff and eventually the EMS.  She was not happy when they had to cut-off her coat to place her in a brace and on a backboard.  Even on the ambulance ride she kept right on conversing with the EMS attendants.  CAT Scans, X-Rays, multiple tests later she has a bruised left side, 2 staples in the back of her head, and a broken right clavicle.

We had hoped that she would be released on Friday, but some complications have set in, i.e., elevated counts on enzymes and 2 days of altered state where she doesn't know where she is, what day or year it is or who we are.  It seems to happen in reaction to dosing with the pain killers.

I know in my mind that there was nothing I could have done to prevent the fall but I still feel guilty that somehow I should have done something more to stabilize her on the steps.  So with the guilt it is difficult to find serenity.

Tomorrow I will try to do my part for the Martin Luther King Day of Caring buy taking her place at the Annual Blood Drive at her synagogue (she is in charge of the blood drive and has been for several years).  Tomorrow she will be moved to a rehabilitation step down facility to help get her walking with steadier steps, so that she can return to her home(my childhood home).  She is a truly amazing woman.  I don't know if she finds serenity each day but I am sure that her constant dedication to others around help her find peace each day.

I can only hope that some day I will have earned one half the respect she has for the world and people around her.  Perhaps as this week goes on and she begins to improve quickly I will once again find my daily serenity, but as this week begins I think that I have learned an important life lesson -  sometimes you may temporarily misplace your serenity due to an unforeseen circumstance, the key is to know that it is only a temporary setback and that shortly serenity will return.

Serenity is never lost completely, it's just misplaced for a little bit.

Look for Serenity All Around You in 2012

Well it's a new year and people keep asking me what are my new year resolutions?   I have decided that it's best to look for new ways to find serenity in each day - that is my resolution.

By locating serenity in the day I hope that it will also bring clarity, a healthy existence and I am positive that it certainly will bring the day to a happy close.

No I am not a person who is over the top optimistic or one of those obnoxiously happy people - I am a realist who believes that I can find a moment of serenity in each day.

It requires patience and carving out a few moments to reflect and detox from the day that surrounded us.
I recommend that everyone who reads this post start out the new year by spending a few moments at the end of each day in a dark, quiet spot with soft music, I prefer meditation music to just breath deeply, relax your muscles and slow down your brain activity and find your inner peace.  I am fairly sure you will sleep better and wake up looking forward to the new day.

I consider myself lucky to have the ability to do this each and every day, even when I traveled to NYC for New Year's eve at the NY Philharmonic and then toasting the New Year with champagne, my husband and friends I went to bed feeling happy with my earbuds, iPhone and music setup to Musical Massage and drifted off to an excellent night's sleep and awoke to a brand new year full of possibilities and hopefully filled with happiness and serenity.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  May you have a joyous and serene 2012.

Finding Serenity in the Little Things Each Day Brings

The other day a friend posted an article on Facebook that struck a note with me.  The article was called-"30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself" http://www.marcandangel.com/2011/12/11/30-things-to-stop-doing-to-yourself.  While I probably fit into the category of most of the 30 the one that gave me cause to think was:

 "#22 -Stop overlooking the beauty of small moments. – Enjoy the little things, because one day you may look back and discover they were the big things.  The best portion of your life will be the small, nameless moments you spend smiling with someone who matters to you."


After reading this statement I started wondering about each and every day of my life how much has passed me by and although there is absolutely nothing I can do to change the past there is a lot that can be done to change the future.


In the past few months I have been on a journey to discover my happy place and the serenity in my life.  This journey has given me the ability to look at the things, people and places around me and stop the constant negativity.  When I confront negativity from the people around me-I try not to react, but listen and offer positive responses.  I find that this is disarming to the negativity.  But, no matter what there are always a few souls who seem to relish the negativity and there is little any one can do to change them, so in those cases it's best to walk away and leave them to their own negativity.  


Each day I wake up to a home filled with sunlight, 2 cats who I am pretty sure love me, a husband who I know loves me(although he can be one of the negative people in my circle) and a new look on how I can make the most of this day.  Even as I sit writing this blog in front of me are windows allowing sunshine to fill the room making me happy, my plants happy, Sammy & Hercules (the cats) very happy and very sleepy.  This is how you find serenity in the little things in your life - you must create the happiness around you.  Think positive, be positive and happiness and serenity will be a part of your life each and every day.

Serenity is Mine to Keep: Maintaining Serenity in the midst of Holiday Chaos...

Serenity is Mine to Keep: Maintaining Serenity in the midst of Holiday Chaos...: Well Thanksgiving is over and now we rush headlong into what has become "The Holiday Season". Can someone please explain to me how we as a ...

Maintaining Serenity in the midst of Holiday Chaos

Well Thanksgiving is over and now we rush headlong into what has become "The Holiday Season".  Can someone please explain to me how we as a society have lost all control over our ability to be nice.  Maybe it's because I don't celebrate Christmas (I am Jewish), I really don't have a concept of the need to be rude and mean to the employees and other customers in the store or driving or in the parking lot.

This is supposed to be a season of giving, giving from the heart and giving from the soul.  I thought it was about sharing and showing people how we feel about them.  If you are rude and mean in order to get that "special gift or toy or perfume or clothing" does it really feel good inside to be rude in order to get what you want.

I have a new job working to raise funds to put solar panels on a remote hospital in The Gambia.  All my life I have taken electricity for granted even when we have power failures for a few days we just find someplace nearby that has power, but in The Gambia hospitals do not have power unless they have installed solar panels and have training on how to maintain them.  The solar panels allow the hospitals to refrigerate vaccines and plug in the incubators.  Do we even think about what our lives would be like without our local hospital having electricity?

As I walked through a parking lot at a local shopping center this evening watching people yelling at their kids, trying to outrun someone for a parking spot that's 2 feet closer to the store, I couldn't help but wonder what their lives would be like without electricity and also do they have any ability to find serenity and joy in their daily lives.

I have a novel idea - let's bring joy, peace, sharing, giving from the heart and love back to our lives.  Not just for this season but for each and every day.

I truly believe that finding a little joy each day will bring serenity into your life.  It has brought it into mine.  And joy can be as simple as a small piece of dark chocolate or snuggling with the cats or a kiss from my husband - this is joy and this is serenity.