Happy Thanksgiving

It's that time of year again... a time to reflect on all the things we are thankful for.

Sometimes as we're going from day to day just living our lives, we forget to be grateful for,
or even notice all the wonderful things around us.  It's nice that we have a holiday to cause us to stop and REALLY think about our abundance.

A few of the things I am thankful for are my family, my friends, my health, my home, my job, where I live, the sun, the moon, the stars, clouds, chocolate, and all of you reading this blog.

My wish is that this Thanksgiving is just the beginning of a wonderful holiday season for us all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,  Paula

Autumn Sunsets

Last week I wrote about the beauty of autumn.  It continues...

During this last week we experienced some of the most incredible sunsets ever!  The colors were rich and bold.  In the summer we have gorgeous sunsets, but the colors are lighter, more passive.  This week the colors were vibrant!

Where I live, we use daylight savings time.  In the autumn, we turn the clocks back one hour.  So if it was 6:00 for example, now it would be 5:00.  Consequently it now gets dusky at around 5:00 PM.

In the summer, people go out of their way to go watch the sunsets.  They'll go out to the peninsula just to sit and enjoy the "show".  But this time of year the sunsets happen when people are getting out of work at 5:00.  As they're rushing to get home - or where ever else - I have to wonder if they even see this fantastic free show.

It's so sad.  Again, there is so much beauty all around us.  And it's there for everyone.  It doesn't matter if you only have a dime in your pocket or if you're a millionaire.  Please, please, please open your eyes and hearts.  Look and see the absolute beauty that surrounds us all.  We are so fortunate.  We've been given so much.  My wish is for everyone to open up to see, appreciate and be grateful for all of it.

Love,  Paula

Autumn Gratitude

Fall - Autumn - is my absolute FAVORITE time of year.  In my perfect world, it would be autumn for at least 6 months of the year.  The other 3 seasons would have to split the remaining 6 months.  I LOVE the colors of autumn.  I LOVE the crisp air.  I LOVE the fresh local apples - especially Cortland.  I LOVE the fresh local concord grapes.  I LOVE cider, soups, stews and pumpkin EVERYTHING.  I LOVE Halloween and Thanksgiving.  Most of all, I LOVE the beauty of the changing colors of the leaves.

I strive to always learn from my past experiences.  I'm constantly working on trying to be a better person... trying to remember the lessons I've learned in my life.  In my post "Aware" dated 5/7/13, I talk about how we often go through life in a robotic state.  At that time I almost missed the beautiful flowers of spring.

Well guess what almost happened again?  That's right, I was doing my robotic thing and almost missed AUTUMN!!!  I was driving around not paying any attention to the beauty surrounding me.  Thank goodness something kicked in and woke me up.  All of a sudden, my eyes and heart opened up.  Beauty and gratitude washed over me.  It pierced my heart and touched my soul.  I was instantly so filled with love and gratitude, it made me cry.  I AM so grateful for whatever it was that "woke" me up.  It made me refocus.  I'm not letting this lesson go.  I'm seeing with new eyes and totally enjoying with a grateful heart this, my favorite time of the year.

I hope that this serves as a reminder to all of you to look around and see the beauty right where you are.  You may not live where you can enjoy the beauty of autumn, but there is beauty of all kinds no matter where you live.  See it.  Appreciate it.  Be grateful for the beauty, wonder and magic that is your life.

Love,  Paula

The Power of Love

I often write about love.  The name of my blog site is about love.  Love is, in my opinion, the answer to  everything.  It is everything.  It's the big IT!  It's the most important, most powerful, most creative emotion imaginable.  But, as with anything, there are good ways and things to love; and not so good ways and things to love.

The old B. J. Thomas song says:  "Using things and loving people
                                                        That's the way it's got to be
                                                         Using things and loving people
                                                        Look around and you will see
                                                        That loving things and using people
                                                        Only leads to misery
                                                        Using things and loving people
                                                         That's the way it's got to be."
There's something to be said for that philosophy, but I believe that you should be able to love people AND things.  There's nothing wrong with that as long as you don't use people.  For example, I love all kinds of people... probably every person I come in contact with.  But I also love my home, my car, my furnishings, some of my clothes, trees, butterflies, sunsets... you know, things.  I love things, but I don't use people to get things.  If you truly LOVE people, you would never even be able to use them.  It really just wouldn't be an option.

Jimi Hendrix said, "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace".  I guess that's my "litmus test".  We all need to strive for the Power Of Love, not the Love Of Power.   I work on that every minute of every day.  Please join me.  Let's see how we can change our world.

Love,  Paula