Dear Reader:

Speaking for all human beings… don’t we wish that an operating manual came attached to newborns? …Instructions on how (not) to just survive the first year…but our whole lives?

Instructions like “Turn here, take a right, avoid congestion on third street, take a drive in the country, stop and smell the roses, don’t respond, remain calm,  laugh more, pray more, love more, be still.”

Some days I truly wish I came with directions because I feel that I am just spinning around and around instead of moving forward down my path. Ever had one of those days?

It is during times like this that I have to remind myself…that I am the book I so desperately seek. God is the author and every minute I breathe another sentence is being written in it.

As the main character in my own story…I can take the plot in a lot of different directions…depending on the choices I make.

Yesterday I came across a short message on remembering  what is most important in our personal stories… while editing the rest out of our life’s legacy as empty baggage.

“Things to Remember”

I find what I look for in people. If I look for God, I find God. If I look for bad qualities, I find them. I, in a sense, select what I expect, and I receive it.

A life without challenges would be like going to school without lessons to learn. Challenges come not to depress or get me down, but to help me master, grow, unfold and bloom thereby.

In the Father’s wise and loving plan for me, no burden can fall upon me, no emergency can arise, no grief can overtake me, before I am given the grace and strength to meet them.

I have also come to the realization that it is not enough to simply live our stories…but we must also share them. As Ira Glass has said, ” Great stories happen to those who tell them.”

Think of all the books we have read about other people’s lives throughout our life and what an inspiration and impact they have had on it. Everyone’s story has the same potential to help others…if we just tell it. Familiarity doesn’t breed contempt…I think… it brings connection. Let’s connect through telling our stories!

So until tomorrow…We must all learn to connect our lives through sharing our stories with each other…it is still the only resource humanity has for binding ourselves with humanity.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*An early morning walk in the garden, with the scent of freshly blooming gardenias, has me feeling so lucky and happy to be alive on such a beautiful morning!

*And a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our Loveable YA LIBBY! WE LOVE YOU!

(Libby is the second to the right…beautiful inside and out!)