Life is a mystery.

Some days we’re on top of a mountain and others we’re making our way through the valley.

This past month I was able to take an amazing vacation with my family, sail on a racing catamaran with Olympic medalists, and participate in a weekend retreat in the mountains.

And then there was yesterday.  When things just kept happening that I couldn’t anticipate or plan for.  And all I could do was be in the moment.  Can you relate?

7:00 a.m. – Wake up. Get my son off to school.  Have some quiet time over breakfast.

8:00 a.m. – Plan to meditate.  Phone rings. It’s my mom.  She has something she wants to share and it’s good to catch up. Yet, despite our mutual love and caring for each other I realize that we are becoming further and further apart politically.  Hmmm…should I care?  Nah!

9:00 a.m. – Catch up on e-mails.

10:00 a.m. – Receive a text from a friend saying both of our high school campuses are on lock-down. Spend the next hour texting back and forth with others trying to determine what’s going on and praying it’s not real.  Finally learn it was a false alarm.  This is the world we live in.

11:00 a.m. – Go for a bike ride.

11:30 a.m. – Receive a text from another friend.  She says she just passed by my house on the way home from a funeral.  A very close friend of hers and her husband’s died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism.  He was our age.

12:00 p.m. – Have lunch while on a virtual call with my Synergy group…amazing women from around the world who support and encourage each other in stepping into our truth and sharing our gifts and talents in the world.

1:30 p.m. – Finish writing my signature talk on when I discovered my calling to empower women and how I guide them to make their AWE-thentic Impact.

3:00 p.m. – Lay down on the couch.

3:30 p.m. – Take a call from a man who my husband has mentored since he was in high school.  He’s African-American, partially disabled from an accident, and out of work.  He shared with me that he’d like to move out of his mom’s place where he’s been living since he lost his job.  But the only places he can afford are in neighborhoods that are more violent than where he currently lives.  So he asks, “Should I leave one bad place for another that is worse?”

4:00 p.m. – Realize I forgot to purchase fresh chicken for the crock-pot dish I was planning to make for dinner, so I decide to chance it and  use the frozen chicken from the freezer.  Livin’ life on the edge!

5:00 p.m. – My son arrives home to announce that the event for Best Buddies and his soccer team that he planned for the following day fell through.  It was partially his fault but also a result of mis-communication amongst other leaders.  He’s heart-broken and embarrassed.  He then sits down at the table – close to tears – and tells me he’s so stressed out from everything.   School, college applications, activities.  There’s no time to just chill out.

6:00 p.m. – Have dinner with my husband and son.

7:00 p.m. – Go for a full moon walk with my husband.

8:00 p.m. – Listen to the news channels debate the upcoming Kavanaugh hearings.  Ugghh!!

9:00 p.m. – Read something positive to shift the energy.

10:00 p.m. – Contemplate the day I just had.

This is not a typical day for me.  Or at least it hasn’t been.  I’m usually much more rigid with my schedule.  Carving out plenty of time for my business and leaving the personal for off-hours.

But I’m trying to learn how to be more in the “flow” of life.  Watching events unfold and being present to them.  Trying to understand what they have to teach me.

Yesterday it was this…

Joy

Peace

Division

Fear

Freedom

Grief

Inspiration

Creativity

Rest

Frustration

Concern

Gratitude

Awe

Disbelief

Inspiration

Contemplation

 

A day filled with light and dark – interwoven together seamlessly.

So how do we stay in the light when the darkness seems so close and keeps trying to overtake us?

Radical self-care and soul-care.  Recognizing that we’re not the savior of the world.  Not everything is ours to do or fix.  We can listen, we can support, we can love.

And we can find the way to make our AWE-thentic Impact.  That place where we are called to serve, bringing our unique gifts and talents and sharing our magnificence.  And trusting others from our giving tribe to do their part as well.

What’s the other option?  Overwhelm.  Burn-out.  Fatigue.

Giving up or giving in to what we can’t comprehend, control, or change.

That’s not what the world needs right now.  The world needs you to be you.  In all your magnificence.  In whatever way that happens for you.

You don’t need to prove anything.  You don’t need to change anything.  You don’t need to fix anything.

Just love yourself fully. Love others as best you can.  And trust that the Universe is evolving in exactly the way it should and you are part of that evolution.

Just be you!