Eclipsibrating!

    There's nothing like a celestial event (especially one we haven't seen here in the US in almost 40 years) to get folks of all ages so excited. It was a Monday, a workday this time around but that didn't seem to stop viewers from making special plans or to figure out a way to view, to connect with this very cool event & each other. At my work, our west coast office shared their pics & funny insights early in the morning, raising the level of anticipation for our office.

    I feel fortunate that with mostly sunny skies that viewing was great in my neck of the woods. Fashion be damned! Those viewing glasses were awesome. Just sensing that millions of viewers were putting on those glasses & simultaneously going, "wow" is pretty damn cool. Of course, knowing this blogger you must sense a message in all this & there definitely is.

   What I loved about the eclipse is how it made everyone slow down, even if just for a few minutes. Then you had to think of what a small, but critically important piece we all are and how we are connected not just by our circle of friends, family & coworkers, community & county, but world & then universe!! So amazing having one common feeling. A celestial event such as this is not meant to make you feel insignificant in this great universe, hell no! We are all so important in how the universe unfolds second to second, day by day.

   I also found myself having more than a hello conversation with my toll takers yesterday, there was talk about the eclipse of course! A universal way to connect that doesn't come around often. This should remind us that we should connect more & more to everyone that crosses our path in the course of a day. We need each other on a daily basis! It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by Mother Teresa, "not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love." Simply connecting with a smile & a few words is a very important 'small' thing.

    So don't stop eclipsibrating! Carry that feeling forward every day until, well, forever and you will be happier & the universe will feel more & more like home! 

Finding Your Way Back to that Cabin in the Woods...

    How many times have you (in these nice but more complicated years) found yourself reminiscing about those simpler times. The ones we have seen our kids experience but, for us, have gone by the way of jobs, commitments, responsibility... Do you wonder "how do I get that back even for a short time?"

    I've been fortunate over the years to have the best and oldest (sorry, Rockers) and dearest friends beside me for almost all the decades of my life. There is nothing like a weekend away with the besties to help get you back to simple & strip you down to that authentic self of yours. I mean, remember when fun and music and dancing and laughter were an everyday occurrence... in simpler times? When music was literally the soundtrack that ran parallel to our lives?

   Fortunate & blessed is how I feel about this past weekend away with my besties. This time a few new, old friends, but those we haven’t seen in decades, were thrown into the mix by way of a reunion - one over 35 years overdue. We simply took it back to the simple cabin in the woods, back to the beach by the lake and as one of our reunioners reminded us, our lives then & weekend now paralleled to the Kid Rock song – All Summer Long (and a great dance song to boot!). What was authentic was that it felt like no time had passed. The quality friends, beach, cabin, old photographs & great stories of yesteryear were still there as the framework, but it was the ease with which everyone just let the music transport them back. The old stories brought back laughter and the new memories made involved uncontrollable laughter.

    So, how can this transportation happen for you? Well, if there was a secret potion I’d bottle it. But you, too, can experience feeling seventeen again. The secret starts with the fantastic friends who are generous with their time (and frequent flier miles?!) & a willingness to find their way back to their authentic selves - a simpler time, even if just for a weekend. Find the special retro location & then just start by unplugging technology, put responsibilities on the back burner, cue up some great old tunes, share photos (recreate old photos - hilarious!), swap stories, and begin remembering who you really are (the tricky part - yes, peel the onion back that gets you to your authentic self!) It helps to have an anchor, that special cabin or beach house. Drive around and soak it all in. Visit old restaurants, ice cream places, beaches, people, have retro candy & old photos handy, have a campfire, a sense of humor & always, always have the music cued. Most of all, enjoy each other then & now and laugh... laugh... laugh.

Thanks for the inspiration Rockers & Wreckers!