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Your imperfect offering.

Posted on by Shari Swanson

 

offeringPerfection can be the enemy of progress. When we need to move forward, we often wait until we come up with a perfect solution, sometimes so long that the opportunity to make our contribution passes. It is not only ok to be fallible, it is all we’ve got to work with: Our imperfect, fallible, often short-sighted selves doing our best to make the world a better place right here, right now, with what is right in front of us.

Take a minute to watch this lovely video of Leonard Cohen singing a reminder that perfection isn’t an option; we must do our best now.

Thank your teachers.

Posted on by Shari Swanson

onepen

We are each born helpless. How we got from there to where we are now depended on the generosity of many people. Among those are our teachers, those people who devoted their time to making sure we understood the world around us and how to negotiate the ups and downs of the road ahead. Those teachers who went beyond the lesson plan to help us learn not just facts, but how to think and analyze, how to care and feel, and how to reach out to others deserve our unending gratitude.

Keep on.

Posted on by Shari Swanson

ringbells

Maybe you’re older, or weaker, or not quite as sharp as you used to be. Maybe your energy is fading, or you’ve gotten depressed and overwhelmed. Maybe all your ducks aren’t in a row, and all your bells don’t ring. Maybe you don’t think you can make a difference.

It is in just such times that you must press on. Your gifts are needed. The world doesn’t need you to be perfect; it needs you to show up.

Ring your bell.

Plant your seeds.

Posted on by Shari Swanson

harvest

Doing the right thing, the kind thing, the compassionate thing is an act of faith. You may never see the results of your action. You may never know that your courage in doing the right thing inspired someone else who, without that example, may have chosen the expedient thing, or the self-serving thing, or the popular thing. You may never know that the kind words you said gave someone an affirmation they desperately needed. You may never know that your kind thing spread exponentially outward into a billion kind things. You may feel that doing the right thing cost you somehow or was foolish or self-destructive. But you know it is the right thing, so you do it because you have faith that it will make a difference.

Those seeds of kindness that you sow take on a life of their own. They couple with other kind things and spread, though that may be largely invisible to you. Take heart from this video of a seed sprouting. Have faith that what you do makes a difference.

And remember, as stated by Cynthia Occe, “For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out, and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.”

 

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Tend your garden.

Posted on by Shari Swanson

gardens

If our bodies are gardens, what’s growing there? Is your garden body overcome by weeds and neglect, or is it a colorful explosion of bloom and fragrance? Is it a barren landscape or carefully and lovingly tended?

Self-care isn’t selfish; its vital. Time spent caring for your own body and soul will flower into every aspect of your life.

Today, consider giving your future self a gift. Maybe you can start a gratitude jar where you jot down little things you’re grateful for as you go through the day to toss into the jar. Your future self can pour out the jar a month or year from now and be blessed again by all those memories. Or change your sheets and give them a spritz of fragrance. Your future self will smile tonight when they tuck into the crisp linens. Or set aside a bit of money each day for a week for a future splurge down the road. Or, perhaps, start today something future you will thank you for later.

There are so many things you can do for future you if you take a minute to think about it.  Taking the time now to do something for the you later reminds you that, even as you pour yourself out in caring for others, you matter, too.

Savor the scent

Posted on by Shari Swanson

smell

Smells can shortcut the synapses and connections in our brain or body and take us straight back to the past. A certain perfume, the ground wet after a gentle rain, cherry tobacco in a pipe, a campfire in the woods, whatever it may be, and our mind flashes to a different time we smelled that smell. Sometimes it takes us right to a time when someone we lost was still with us. Sometimes the smell can calm us or give us courage. Sometimes that smell takes us to a place where we can remember something or someone we once loved. When this happens, we can pause and be grateful for that person or thing. If the smell takes us back to an unpleasant memory, we can pause and be grateful that we survived that particular obstacle and moved on, and we can celebrate our strength.

For a lovely instance of a mother’s smell calming a crying baby, take a look at this video:

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Pleasantries.

Posted on by Shari Swanson

honeycomb

Are pleasantries a thing of the past? Asking after someone’s health and family? Really listening to their answer? Showing concern? Waiting your turn to talk? Making sure your words don’t wound?

For most of us, we can identify moments in our past where we were lifted up or shoved down, and often both of those extremes were a result of someone’s words. What we say has power, and we would do well to wield that power wisely.

 

Thank you, God, for most this amazing day.

Posted on by Shari Swanson

amazingday

Today is a gift. Soak in the beauty all around you. Treasure the people in your life. Hold on to gratitude that you are able to be here, now, with all that there is.

In the words of e.e. cummings

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

e.e. cummings

And then take just a moment to watch this beautiful video. Happy Today!

Starting again.

Posted on by Shari Swanson

 

startoverSometimes we start down a path that feels, after a while, like a wrong turn. We think of turning back and taking a different path at the fork, but it’s a long way back, and we’ve made good time on the path we’re on. So we keep pushing forward. We still think we’re on the wrong path, but the fork in the road is even farther back and we’ve learned to get along on the path we’re on. Sometimes we make a mess of the path we’re on, or it becomes impenetrable. And yet we hesitate to start again. So we keep messing up or butting our heads against immovable objects. Because starting over sometimes feels like defeat rather than victory. But is it?

More from F. Scott Fitzgerald:

For what it’s worth…it’s never too late, or in my case too early, to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit. Start whenever you want. You can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you’ve never felt before. I hope you meet people who have a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start over again.

Isn’t that a lovely benediction?

Making the best of our lives, seeing things that startle us, feeling things we’ve never felt, meeting people with a different point of view, and having the courage to start again if we find ourselves on the wrong path. Yes, please. That.

Role models.

Posted on by Shari Swanson

rolemodel

Children are always watching. And listening. They will learn to be great, kind, strong, brave, and generous by emulating their role models, When those role models are other children, they will learn that they are capable of changing the world with their actions. They don’t have to wait until they ‘grow up’ to make a difference in someone else’s life; they can do it right now, right where they are, with whatever tools they already have,

Check out this remarkable partnership between Nickelodeon and KidsRights to shine a spotlight on the stories of some remarkable kids from around the globe. It is inspiring to see how these kids looked at their circumstances, evaluated what was lacking, and then worked to make things better.

We could all learn from these kids!

http://www.dailygood.org/story/1996/kidscan-children-changing-the-world-shari-swanson/