This morning I took a long walk in the rain. I was up early (as usual) and spontaneously decided that I was going to take this opportunity while the kids and hubby were asleep to take a nice long walk by myself. I have been working a lot on my meditation and breath work these days and was looking out the window wondering to myself why it is we always see things black and white, good or bad. What makes a rainy day a bad day? What makes a sunny day a better day? I realized that this day is just as beautiful as any other and I didn’t want to miss it.

I actually really enjoy walking in the rain. It is such an awakening experience and it really helps me to embrace all of life. I suppose most people wouldn’t actually enjoy or choose to get all wet and rained on, but I do. I think it is a very cleansing, spiritual experience for me. It helps me to know how much I have changed from who I used to be because I used to think that rainy days were bad days, meant to be spent inside being lazy. I would have used to hate getting wet, but now I just walk through the puddles and let the rain fall on me.

While out on my walk I saw many birds, perhaps even more than usual and thought the birds don’t decide to stay out of the rain and try and stay dry, they just go about their day like any other. That is what I want to be like. I am tired of seeing everything as black or white, good or bad, all of life just is and all parts are necessary.  I want to start practicing seeing life as it is, one continuation of moments and enjoy them all so that I don’t miss a thing. I really want to live.

I started out with a mini battle in my mind telling me that I was crazy and that I would get cold and wet and people would think that I was crazy, but I knew it was something that I wanted to do. So, I laced up my shoes and off I went. I spent the first while practicing gratitude and holding my thoughts in a grateful state, then I took a while to meditate on my breath and my feet hitting the ground. On the way home I practiced affirmations and by the time I got home I knew that this was going to be a wonderful day! 🙂

In fact it is a wonderful day!

So for all you beautiful, awesome people who are connected to me and read this, I wanted to remind you to let go of that black and white mentality, thinking that life is good or bad or situations are better or worse. It all just is. No matter what you are going through in your life, you are right where you are supposed to be to learn the lessons that you need to learn to grow into who you are meant to be. Remember that each day you choose how you are going to live your life. You can blame anyone and everyone else for your unhappiness or you can just choose to see things differently, know that you are right where you are supposed to be and BE HAPPY!

I know that I have the tendency to look back on the past and dwell on what I could have done differently or what I should have done an hour ago, yesterday, months or even years ago. Another favorite thing my mind likes to do is worry and steal so many precious moments from me. I read in Larry Rosenberg’s book, Breath by Breath, The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation (my new favorite book) something that I wanted to share with you too. He says; Most of us respect some things and not others. We pay attention to an important business meeting but not to our children when they are talking to us. We watch the latest Hollywood blockbuster but don’t listen to the birds in the trees. We exult in our good moods and try not to notice the bad ones. We’re riveted to our tennis game but don’t notice our footsteps as we take out the garbage. Our practice constantly reminds us that everything is worthy of attention. The ant walking across the floor. The piece of fruit you’re eating. Each breath. These things are our lives, our moment by moment. If we don’t notice them, we don’t make contact with the full vividness of life.

Today, take time to remember that you choose your thoughts and that your thoughts design your life.  We are always co-creating our lives, moment by moment, with each thought that we have, so choose good ones! Take some time today to just be and let everything and everyone just be. There is no place that we need to get to, we are all just living and learning with each experience and everyone we meet aiding us in finding ourselves and our true nature.

Much Love!