World Happiness Day and the Spring Equinox

Yesterday was World Happiness Day and it was one of those days that truly lifted my spirit particularly because I felt when I looked random people in the eye and smiled at them, a burst of light and energy went from me to them then boomeranged back to me. Filling my spirit with such joy and delight. I loved every minute of World Happiness Day because I let go of anything that was too heavy for me to bear and instead lived on the light side of my journey. And it was beautiful.

Happiness is infectious because it is so liberating. So freeing. So beautiful. It starts with a small tinge and spreads like wildfire through our beings. Igniting us. Making way for passion to spring forth. Allowing us to be creative because we are so alive to the present moment.  No longer thinking or fearing anything that happened seconds before or that could happen seconds later.

I loved how I felt yesterday because every time I smiled at someone, they smiled back. Every time I told someone it was World Happiness Day, some would take a while for what I said to register. Others questioned what it meant. And where it had come from. Who had declared that yesterday was World Happiness Day? But most were intrigued by its meaning. And lifted by the thought of what it meant even the most cynical.

I discovered that when I added the statement, “make someone smile today”, I would naturally smile while saying it causing whomever I said it to to respond by smiling back. Making my smile grow even more genuine and larger. And anyone within our close proximity would feel the happiness energy and they would smile too.

Teaching me that happiness is truly a state of mind. An ability to surrender to all that is, was and ever will be. Accepting that we are where we are meant to be. That everyone and everything that crosses our path does so for a reason. Because when we smile. When we declare ourselves to be happy, no matter what I going on around us, we feel joy, contentment and peace.

I loved that yesterday was declared World Happiness Day because it fell on the Equinox of Winter and Spring, and the day here in Bermuda could not have been any more beautiful. So all of my senses were awakened to what it means to be happy. To be joyful. To be a bringer and spreader of love and light without expectation. Without preparation. Without understanding. Just by being fully present in the moment. Taking my smile with me wherever I went.

So I have decided that from time to time I will declare days to be World Happiness Days of my random choosing particularly on those days when I don’t feel I have anything to be happy about because that is exactly when I need to make others smile because in making them smile, I smile, others smile, we all smile and discover just how fortunate we all are. Just how blessed we are in this journey called life because we understand happiness is not a state it is a process just as we are. A journey that is neither stagnant nor frozen.

I am so grateful to have experienced my first World Happiness Day and here’s to many more. Allowing good thoughts to radiate from me changing me to be beautiful inside and out and spreading to those who cross my path as well.  

See how long it takes for you to remain unhappy when you listen to the Happy Song by Pharrell Williams. Hum it and feel how easy it is to be happy. Love it. Thank you world Happiness Day for spreading the love by allowing us to tap into the bountiful reservoir of our inner and natural place of happiness particularly on the first day of Spring. Because I'm Happy...

Spring has Sprung, Happy Equinox

Yesterday as I was driving out of my yard, a bird flew right past my windshield and landed on a tree right next to me. Slowing me down enough to see blue out of the corner of my eye. So I stopped and looked to my left to see what bird had come to slow me down.  I was delighted to see it was a blue bird. Sitting proudly on the tree looking back at me. To say I was filled with joy is an understatement. I love blue birds. I think they are some of the most beautiful birds around. And when I saw him I was filled with a knowingness that Spring and lighter days are on their way.

Today is the first day of Spring, the equinox between winter and spring. The ushering in of lighter days. The ushering in of a change of season. I love this time of year when the winds start to die down or are not always as strong as the winds of winter. When the days start to get longer ushering in more light. I love the promise that hangs in the air at this time of the year.

Though we have not had a winter per se this year compared to the wrath of winter others have faced and I am so grateful for that, we still have had the long dark days and I am so ready for the light. For the light that comes from the dark.

This morning when I woke up I realized there was no sound. Only silence.  So silent compared to the nights gone by where the wind had been rattling and banging everything around. At first I could not understand what the sound was or should I say what the lack of sound was. Only after really listening I realised it was the sound of silence. The absence of sound that had captured my attention. Sitting up in bed, I knew and felt it was the sound of Spring coming in silently. Slipping in under the radar. Understated. But present.

And then I remembered my bluebird from the day before flying in front of me. Sitting in the tree next to me waiting for me to see him. To notice him. To feel the spring he was bringing with him. And I jumped out of bed, ready, ready for this new day, for this new Season, for the coming of the longer days of light full of energy and life.

May the sighting of the bluebird by me yesterday represent for me what it represents in spirituality where the bluebird is associated with contentedness and spiritual joy. Often predicting the occurrence of a happy condition or good tidings coming our way. Symbolic of transition or spiritual awakening. I am embracing the symbolism of that little blue bird who was brave enough to stop me in my tracks yesterday. Forcing me to see him, really see him as my omen that I am in transition, on the brink of spiritual awakening as are the seasons.

Spring has Sprung everyone. Happy Spring Equinox to one and all. May this Spring bring with it all the blessings and joy it represents. The light from the darkness. Namaste

Girlfriends, True girlfriends

Girlfriends

True girlfriends

Are the best

They come

To share

To help

To lift up

Girlfriends

True ones

Fill us with

Inspiration

Aspiration

And faith

They laugh with us

Deep guttural laughs

That make our whole beings shake

And vibrate

At the same frequency

The frequency of pure abandon

Enabling us to let go

Surrender

In the comfort of the grasp of our girlfriends

True girlfriends

Giving each other permission

To not worry about 

What we look like

Or what we say

Dropping the guards

We put up

Stripping off the armour

We put on

Because there is no need

To hide behind the shield

No need to be other than who we are

Springing forth conversations

Without judgement

Without fear

Deep and open conversations

Exposing our vulnerabilities

Revealing them

Peeling them back

Allowing us to nurture them

Rather than using our vulnerabilities as weapons

Against us

Girlfriends

True girlfriends

Stand by us through thick and thin

Never using any of our vices

As their victories

To tread on us

To make them feel more superior

Girlfriends 

True girlfriends

Honour our feelings

Help to balance us

As we do them

Girlfriends

True girlfriends

Understand 

There is a time and place

For everything and everyone

That sometimes we will be

On the same page

And other times we will not

That sometimes we will be

Physically present in each other’s lives

And other times we will not

Girlfriends

True girlfriends

Know when the time is right

There will be no distance between us

That the mental connection always remains

Such that when we are meant to be together

Time stands still

Reconnecting us

As if we had been together all along

Because we have

Being in the presence of girlfriends

True girlfriends

Is one of the most liberating

And awakening experiences

Because being in their presence

Opens our eyes to who we are

As it opens their eyes to who they are

Reflections of each other

Shadows of each other

Mirrors to each other

Girlfriends

True girlfriends

Are like the most precious jewels

Never to be taken for granted

Always to be treasured

Grateful for

And loved

Girlfriends

True girlfriends

What a breath of fresh air

Love my girlfriends

My true girlfriends

So grateful for having you in my life

This blog is dedicated to you

My girlfriends

True girlfriends

You know who you are

Scattered near and far

Physically

But always

Always

Present in my heart

With gratitude and love

Honour and respect

Namaste

Trusting our intuition

Trust your intuition

Your heart does not lie

Trust your intuition

Your heart does not lie

Trust your intuition

Your heart does not lie

You may ask why I have repeated this over and over again

You may ask whether I have lost my mind

You may ask what is she trying to say

I am trying to remind myself

Of the power of my inner voice

The power of my intuition

The power of my heart

The power of letting go

Of that which no longer resonates with me

The power of feeling the hairs stand up on my back

In the presence of those who need not remain

Or be invited into my life

I am reminding myself of the power I have

The power we all have

Over the darkness that comes into our lives

We always know the presence of the darkness

We always know the threat before it becomes a visible threat

We can feel it

Smell it

Sense it

Taste it

From a place deep deep within

That place that never leads us astray

That place that seeks to protect us

Shelter us from harm

But we over turn it

Over look it

Betray it

Push it aside

When we cast our eye too far

When all we see is the prize

The one that wants to lure us into its tangled web

To keep us in the dark

To keep us searching

To knock us off side

Keeping us from accepting

We are the masters of our Universe

Our own voice in the dark

But when we accept

We are the masters of our destinies

The queens of our throne

The kings of our kingdoms

We will never distrust again

The power of our intuition

The power of our hearts

Because they always know

Always warn us

Of the threat before it becomes a visible threat

We always know

Always know

When we are in the best place for us

With the best people for us

Doing what is best for us

All we need to get there

To ground ourselves

Is to accept and believe

To trust our intuition

Because

Our heart

Does not lie

Never lies

Just we do

And when we do

We end up

Lost

Stumbling in the dark

Rather than

Trusting our intuition

And accepting

Our heart does not lie

A weekend of regret leads to an awakening

I woke up this morning with lots of thoughts going through my mind. Regrets somewhat that I spent all day in bed Saturday with what I thought was a 24 hour flu bug that now seems like a day to hibernate and vegetate my thoughts. To really listen to them. To sleep. To dream. To not have the energy to do anything else but to rest.  To allow the cold that was in me to stream out as if it was streaming out thoughts and things that were not meant to be in me. The only bad feeling I have was that it was my son’s 15th birthday but he seemed okay with it. Okay that he was allowed to do whatever he wanted for his birthday.

So here it is Monday morning and I feel like lots of things I was meant to do were left undone because of my lost Saturday until I saw my first sign that I was put into a prone potion for a while to allow me space to be grateful for waking up this morning in better health both mentally and physically than I did on Friday and Saturday. That I gave myself permission to be and to get rid of the guilt that was threatening to take over.

To think about how yesterday morning I was still not feeling 100% but what I thought was vanity that got me out of bed thinking I really needed to have my hair but it was not I now realize.  But what I realise is it was not vanity that got me out of bed; it was something else willing me to get up. It started first with the call of my pied piper as I like to call him, my cardinal, my red bird, singing at the top of his lungs at about 5 am yesterday morning. His song arousing me out of bed. Putting a smile on my face. Allowing me to hear the sound of the waking morning. The song of promise. The song of more to come.

I got up and looked for him but did not see him. When I walked out of the hairdresser, the morning had truly broken, and the day was glorious. The air fresh. The skies clears. The storms and cold of the days before had given way to a perfect day. Almost like what had happened inside of me. The day and I were mirroring each other.

After eating breakfast with my family on our porch and they all had gone back inside, I sat and watched nature doing its thing all around me. Feeling so blessed to be a part of it all. Feeling so grateful to be contributing to it just by my presence. Hearing my red bird song again. Louder than anything else. Still hiding for me by sight but making his presence known by his song.  Realising looking for him as he sang allowed me to see blue birds flitting around my yard. In and out of the blue bird box filling me with joy that they have come back to us. Hope that spring has sprung. A white butterfly catching my eye. All in silence to the song of the red bird.

I watched the trees swaying in the gentle breeze. My body still chilled and not yet well. I got up and walked to the other side of the house. The east side of the house where the sun was at its peak and sat with my eyes closed facing it. Allowing the heat of the sun to radiate my being, to warm me. To take away the remnants of my ailments. And I knew it was working its magic because behind my eyelids the colour red spread. Exploding behind my lids like that of a nuclear explosion. An explosion of energy filling me up. I inhaled it deeply and exhaled slowly. Thanking the Universe for enrapturing me in its magic. Thanking myself for taking the time to be.

So this morning when I woke up and realized it was Monday and thought I had missed a weekend, I realized I had not. Because what I had done even more than hurrying about was take the time to reconnect with nature, to reconnect with me. To accept that life sometimes will take us places we did not dream but each one of those places is a stepping stone to help us to get back to us. Clear our thoughts of everyone else’s dreams and allow us space to hear, see and feel our dreams again. And that’s why sometimes we are forced to stop by illness because it is the only way we will listen. The only way we will realise we are fighting a battle that is not ours and our bodies break down to make us stop, to redirect us to get back on our own path, to our own dreams as happened to me over the weekend.

And that’s why today I will enjoy every minute of whatever I am doing accepting that somehow whatever I am doing I am meant to be doing because I am being led every step I take to where I am and where I am meant to be. Happy Monday every one. Blessed week to us all. Every step of the way.

Happy Birthday to two special people in my life

Difficult starting this morning because I am feeling so ill. No thoughts are coming to my head except to go back to bed. Everything on me feels run down. Congested. Sore. Achy. The typical cold symptoms and I feel bad for feeling ill on this special day - on the day my son came into our lives 15 years ago. The Ides of March.

So I think this blog will be short and sweet to commemorate my son and my mother-in-law as they share this special day together. But at the same time to honour me by allowing myself to go back to bed. And what is so good about this is that my son has reached the age where it doesn’t matter whether his parents plan a special celebration for him, he and his friends have plans to go out today and hang out anyway so he will be fine while I am in bed.

My young man who is broody, moody but has a heart of gold still. Still very sensitive to wanting everyone and everything around him to be okay but yet keeps himself slightly distant. Slightly aloof from the rest of us. But with his eye always on us. The yin and yang of boy on the cusp of manhood.

And it is also my mother in-law’s 88^th birthday today. So special that her only grandson and she share the same date. So special that two people that could

be so very different came into this world on the same date. She some73 years before our son.  He in Bermuda. She in England.  Both a connection obviously beyond our comprehension.

She at the ends of her days. He at the beginning. Showing the dichotomy of life. There are always beginnings and endings and journeys in between. Though he is at the beginning and she at the end. Both are still journeying. Both are still experiencing life just at different stages. He with his eyes still wide open. Mind still absorbing like a sponge. Still developing his thoughts. Still trying to find his way. Trying to understand his purpose and where he fits in in this world.

She, on the other hand, has come to terms with lots of things in her life. Has said goodbye to many and just lives out each day as she says grateful when her eyes open in the morning and she is still here. What a lovely thought that there is more gratitude simply from waking up in the morning. If only we can remember this each day when we awake. How much of a miracle it is when we awake each day that we do.

So with that I am accepting my illness, my soreness, my achiness with gratitude because I did wake up this morning grateful for my son, for my mother-in-law and for my family for all they bring into my life. And now I am giving myself permission to go back to bed so I can be here for more days to enjoy them even more when I am feeling 100%.

Happy birthday to my handsome and beautiful son, our dark star who chose us as his parents 15 years ago to help to guide him through his mortal journey. We love him to infinity and beyond. We love watching who he is becoming – both the challenging and the loving.

Happy birthday to my mother-in-law who brought her son into this world for me to love. Showing us both that age is but a number as she still is as feisty and as together she ever. We love her to infinity and beyond.

A special day shared by two special people in my life. Grateful beyond words for them both. With love, honour and respect Happy birthday to you both for including me in your lives. Namaste.

There is no Vermont @ScandalABC

Spoiler Alert – this blog is dedicated to my addiction Scandal so indulge me for a minute as Liv and Fitz like to say. Just one minute. So here we go…

OMG! OMG ! OMG!

To all the @Gladiators out there, we all know what that means. To the nonGladiators, you missed an awesome show last night. Shonda  Rhimes and her team of writers are the best writers on the planet in my opinion. There is nothing that can top ABC’s Scandal – not even close. I can say that because I am totally biased and I don’t really watch anything else on TV because it is this show that keeps me coming back every single week to get my Scandal Fix.

Just when my interest was starting to wane. Just when my faith in where the show was going was starting to slip away, last night I was transported to a whole new level on my favourite show ABC Scandal. I am literally obsessed with this show and last night there were so many OMG moments that I lost count. OMG! OMG!OMG! No one is safe on this show. Nothing is out of bounds. My heart is still racing. Palms are still sweating and it’s the next morning already. Totally awesome show.

As I  told one of my fellow Gladiators during the intense tweeting and Facebooking session last night, my little Samsung tablet could not keep up with the pace that the tweets and posts were streaming so it kept freezing. I swear there was steam coming out of its top as it froze several times. Frustrating me to no end particularly when I felt I had something so profound to say. But then again I was so transfixed by the show that I didn’t mind not posting because I didn’t want to miss a word. How many negative can you count in that sentence. Hopefully they cancel out to mean something positive but whatever - it is Scandal after all!

I am an #Olitz fan all the way but last night I was on the fence for the first time thinking that #Olake may not be such a bad option until Liv turned her back on Jake sending him off the edge. Giving him what little nudge he needed to assume his whole Command persona and go in my opinion “Postal”. The monologue he started and sorted ended with showing that he has some deeply disturbing issues going on in his background that can make him become as cold as ice and as calculating as a fox. Remember power corrupts. And Jake is about to become so corrupted with so many scores he wants and needs to settle that it is firghtening. Chilling thought really.

And then Liv turns back to Fitz and says to him, “Let’s just stop pretending. Let’s just be here.” At first I thought she needed to add, “Be here right now in this moment. With me. You and me together.” But I guess she didn’t need to because when she grabbed his face and took command of their situation for the first time, her actions spoke louder than any words ever could.  The pain in both their faces. The kiss nearly melted my heart. Liv just brought everything back to the present moment. Insulating them from the past and the future that may never be. The reality that is them rather than the fantasy that may never happen for them. “There is no Vermont.” I nearly cried. Sealing their moment with that hungry kiss made me weak. So once again I was strongly an #Olitz fan but with #Olake not too far in the background. Quiver. Quiver.

And then just when I thought I could not be stunned anymore or there could not possibly be anything else that could be done. Jake turns up looking as fine as ever in his black turtle neck and pea jacket, as we called them back in the day, and appeared to shoot people he should not be shooting.  I mean after all isn’t he Command and doesn’t he know that he has been elevated to have people that do that sort of stuff for him. Or was he just trying to show that he is not just a pretty face but a cold and calculating murderer too so he can recruit those who never knew they were capable of being recruited into the elusive B613 into his fold. And whomever he recruited knows not to mess with him.

I don’t know but all I can say is hats off to Shonda Rhimes, her writers and the Scandal team for hurling me back into my addictive state of not being able to wait until the next episode of Scandal. How much more time until next Thursday… 6 days, 137 hours, 8220 seconds – but hey whose counting…

Bring it on @KerryWashington, @TonyGoldwyn, @ScottKFoley, @ ShondaRhimes, @ScandalABC.  Can’t wait to see what happens next. Next Thursday can’t come fast enough…