Serenity in the Joy of the Moment

These past couple of weeks have been filled with joy, trepidation, breathing sighs of relief, the wonder of the world that surrounds us and how very very special a new life is.

14 days ago I became a grandmother for the 1st time.  I watched my beautiful daughter and worried son-in-law bring a beautiful baby boy into the world (no I wasn't in the room the whole time, I waited in a waiting room filled with other expectant grandparents and siblings).

I didn't get to see my grandson immediately due to a complication that was known about prior to the birth, but I visited him the next day in the ccvcu.  He's very cute even while hooked up to many monitors, tubes and i.v. lines and no I'm not just saying that because his my grandson, I am saying that because yes he's my grandson, but that's what many of the residents, nurses, p.as. and doctors have said.

As I sat in the unit looking down on my grandson, who just happened to smile up at me (i'm going to believe that until the day I die), I wondered what my parents would have felt if they were still alive, I wondered whether they have the power to intercede on the baby's behave to insure successful outcomes.

There have been times in my life that I have questioned my belief structure, but as I look around at the beauty that surrounds me each and every day I have to believe that there is a reason for joy when we truly need it most.

One of the days as I was walking towards to the hospital I stopped to watch a toddler revelling in the pure joy of playing in the puddles on the sidewalk, he was adorably decked out in rain boots and a yellow slicker with cat ears on top and for 4-5 minutes he just stomped in the puddles with his mother standing off to the side watching her son filled with joy and happiness.  I was amazing that the people round didn't stop to watch this, they were to busy on their phones, or walking with quickend steps wrapped in their own worlds to see the joy in that one simple moment.

In these days of autumn with leaves changing, turbulent times in the world, I am more convinced than ever before that our survival will only be determined by what joy, beauty and serenity we can bring into our daily lives.

So if you come upon a toddler jumping for joy in puddles, stop and find your own joy, jump in a puddle, smile at your children/grandchildren for no particular reason, put down your phone and look out at the sunny day or the clouds or the rain, sigh and smile. 

We need to take time during our turbulent lives to locate our joy, find our smile, this will help locate your serenity.

May our lives be filled with joy and serenity.

Chaotic lives and finding Serenity

So this morning I listened to a news reporter's story about a young single woman who didn't know how to find time in her day for herself and I wondered about all the people who don't take a moment in their daily lives to just stop and take a breath.

In our ever changing and chaotic world of constant inputs we really need to take a moment each and every day to look around us and find a moment of joy, a moment of peace and a moment of serenity.

One of my greatest joys is when there's an late afternoon rainstorm and I rush outside to see if I can find a rainbow and when I do, it's magical and it fills me with beauty, calmness and serenity.  Even if there's no rainbow, the smell of the earth after a rainstorm is also a calming factor.  It's wonderful to just stand in the middle of my street (I do watch for cars) and deep breath the scent of cleaner air.

Our world and our country are under-siege, we have mass shootings, hatred, racial inequality, economic divisions that are overwhelming, climate change that's reeking havoc on our world and 24/7 social media inputs that are not allowing us to find inner serenity.  We must find a way to not become a part of the toxic life that surrounds us.  We must find our inner-strength, our inner-peace and our inner-serenity to bring about change.

Let's start small.  Let's start with ourselves.

Look around your neighborhood, your home, your space and pick out one thing that brings you joy, brings you peace, brings you serenity and focus on that.  It doesn't take long, it can be as short as a few moments or as long as you need, but in that time you will become aware of your breath, aware of your heart rate and aware of the serenity that now fills you.

Let's try keep this moment of serenity throughout the entire day, throughout the entire week and throughout the years to come.

I need to believe that there is a way to bring serenity to our world and I truly want to work to be a part of it.

Find Your Serenity and Perhaps We Can Find a Way to Better Our World.

Serenity and the evening sky

The past few evenings have been truly beautiful, lower temps, light breeze and beautiful sunsets.  I have found myself setting out on the deck after dinner with a glass of white wine, my IPad (reading romance novels) and just enjoying the serenity surrounding me.

It seems to fill me with a sense of peace even if our world is far from it and this to me is why finding serenity in our daily lives is so very necessary.

Yesterday, I strolled around a beautiful local arboretum not far from my home and just admired the joy that surrounded me in this green and colorful oasis, it was filled with young couples pushing strollers, toddlers in wagons and kids running in out of the sculptures and the model trains that are a part of this garden sanctuary and all I kept thinking of was when I would be able to come back with my grandchild (due in September) and show the baby the beauty, the joy and the serenity of nature in it's own way.

Summer is an interesting time to be in touch with the serenity that surrounds us in our daily lives since we tend to be outdoors much more frequently. So when you're sitting on your deck, or strolling on the boardwalk, or wading in the ocean or lake, or hiking, fishing, boating or just sitting on a park bench close your eyes, breath deep and enjoy the sounds, the smells and just feel.

The serenity will surround you and lift your spirits, lift your mood, lift your soul.  The key is to believe in the peacefulness and the joy.

ENJOY THE BEAUTY THAT SURROUNDS YOU!
IT WILL BRING YOU SERENITY ON A DAILY BASIS.

Serenity, Good Health and Finding Joy in Little Things

On my way home from having an Echo Cardiogram & Echo Stress Test I heard someone on the radio say that being pretty isn't being beautiful, that someone who is pretty can also be unkind, but someone who is beautiful is a person who shows their beauty in many ways, not just looks.

I thought about this statement as I drove the rest of the way home and while I was awaiting the email about the results.  I wondered how many times of thought someone was pretty but didn't really know if they were beautiful because I didn't really know them and then I thought about all the people in my life who I would classify as beautiful.  Pretty is a statement of one's outward appearance where beauty is conceptual thought process.  It's not just how we look at a person but how we see them in total.

I'm going to make it point in my life to look at things with beauty in mind, look at the whole picture and the surroundings at the moment.  Is this true beauty or is it just pretty,

I have written about finding your serenity by looking at the beauty and joy that surrounds us and yes I'm fine, my heart is strong, but if I'm honest about this I would also tell you that I was a little scared last night and this morning while driving to the exam, but while I laid on the table and watched my heart beating away and listen to sound of my blood flowing through the chambers I was remembering when I had my ultrasounds while I was pregnant and the joy that followed through me when I heard that baby's heartbeat each and every time.

I'm thrilled that I'm healthy and I filled with joy that I have these reminders of what brings beauty into our lives.  Find the joy and you will find the beauty and by finding the beauty you will bring yourself serenity.

Happy May - fill it with JOY, BEAUTY & SERENITY

Serenity, Beauty, Earth Day and Continuation

I know it's been a very long while since I lasted posted and for that I'm very sorry, but that being said serenity is never far from my being.

Today I awoke to an absolutely magnificent day, a day that has blue skies, green grass, flowers blooming and budding, warmer temps and a peacefulness in the air.  How can you not be filled with serenity when that world surrounds you?

In the past few months, joy has abounded for me.  I have traveled to Netherlands and Belgium to celebrate a wedding anniversary, the trip was filled with many new faces, incredible architecture, history that was as horrifying as it was astounding and of course it was filled with millions of blooming tulips, creating fields of color and richness. 

The trip started off with the news that we would soon be grandparents for the 1st time.  I was overjoyed and also filled with concern for my children.  Parenting is hard and babies are a lot of work, but they are also filled with beauty of wonder at each new step.  It will be an amazing time for all of us but especially the soon to be new parents.

But while I can each day find my serenity, it seems that our world has become more and more anger filled, more and more hatred, more and more divided.  We need to stop and just take a look at what we've become and attempt to find some inner peace.  It starts with one individual and then it can spread.  I'm absolutely convinced that this can be done, because it has already happened in small microcosm.  Last week there was a horrific fire in a magnificent cathedral in Paris and for several hours we grieved over the destruction of centuries of beauty, but within hours post fire the world came together to fund raise, plan and renew commitments to rebuild.

This is what we need to do every single day.  Stop, look up, look around, take a deep, deep breath and renew our commitment to having a better, more beautiful, more serene world.  This week was Earth Day, what could be a more fitting testament to our world then filling it with beauty of the soul, beauty of the world free from pollution, beauty of people who have enough to eat, education, happy homes, no violence and freedom to chose joy over hatred.

Each day find joy, find beauty, and that will help you find serenity.

Serenity, The End of the Year and the New Year

It's been a while since I've posted and I want to apologize for that, but now it's time to look back and also look forward.

With so much uncertainty and derision throughout our country and our entire planet there are some days it's difficult to easily find our serenity but it's exactly those days that we must look hard with ourselves to find some measure of serenity.

I know that over the past few months it has become necessary for me to disconnect not only from media but also from people who are so wrapped up in the negativity that they effect (not physical but mental) those around with their attitude.  I've learned to not engage but instead change the subject or simply walk away, take a really deep deep breath and find serenity.

As we look toward the new year we will have to work on finding serenity on a daily basis perhaps this is the way forward to bring civility back into our world.  We need to work to end the constant flow of hatred that surrounds us, we need to talk to each other and more importantly we need to listen to each other.  We need to bring back respect, civility, compassion and humor to the daily discussions.

My new year's resolution is to work more diligently to be more compassionate, more civil and bring humor to my daily living and I do believe that by working towards this goal I will also find the daily serenity that I need each and every day.

Have a HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR and may it be filled with joy, laughter and serenity.

Serenity, Hatred and Horror

How can we possibly find serenity today,  on a day/week that has been filled with hatred and horror?  I find it heartbreaking that in past year we have witnessed so very many acts of pure hatred, but today it hit too close to home.

Pittsburgh was once my home and the community of Squirrel Hill was a major part of my life.  When I lived there we had a hate crime happen in the community where I lived and our children were placed in lock down while the shooter was on the loose in the area that person randomly targeted a few individuals, what happened today was just out and out horrific.

This blog focuses on how to find serenity in times of distress, but at certain times in our lives it might actually be almost impossible to find our serenity.  On days like today we struggle to find any moment of joy in our lives, but it's necessary to do just that.

While the news plays in the background reporting on this horrible news day, I'm working to focus on my family who've I've been in contact with today, all of whom have ended their conversations with the words "love you" and that's what we must do.  Call, text, reach out to your family, your friends, your colleagues and tell them how much they mean to you.  This may be the only way in these days that are filled with hatred that we can bring servility and serenity back into our conversations, into our day to day interactions and back into this world.

I beg you to look inward and look forward and find your serenity by reaching out to your community with a positive conversation.

As tough as it might be today, take a deep deep deep breath and locate your serenity.