How often do you take the time to REALLY tune into your environment? I mean put everything aside and just listen to life? All the sights and sounds of life that normally get completely missed. Even though I’m constantly working on being in the here and now, it doesn’t always happen.

Whenever my children ask me what I want for my birthday, I can never think of a single thing. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of items I’d like, I just can’t think of any when expected to answer on the fly. Since my house backs up to a busy road in my community and I don’t have a fence, they thought planting bushes in between the trees already lining my property would help with privacy during the winter months when the trees were free of leaves. Planting evergreen bushes was the perfect gift and solution!

Last week I had quite the experience ….. several days of procrastination and fear. Fear of something that sounded rather ridiculous, albeit real. So ridiculous I’m rather embarrassed to bust myself out, but I’m guessing many can relate. Let me start at the beginning of my story which began a week ago, Tuesday.

Here in the midwest, this year’s summer weather has been exceptional. I can’t remember a year when the weather was this nice starting at the beginning of June. Actually, I believe it began sometime in May. Usually, June is a cool month with one or two warmer days, but this year it was a fantastic month; followed by a great July and August.

It seems like there is an abundance of people, including me, feeling stress, strain and struggle in 2020. In fact, most people I’ve talk to have felt anxious and uncertain at times about the state of the world with COVID19, and recent violence. A world where many haven’t experienced anything like it before. Because of this, most don’t know how to navigate in the moment or moving forward.

Boundaries are the limits you set with yourself around what you will or will not tolerate. Simply said, what’s OK and what’s not. You have the right to your feelings. If you haven’t set boundaries in the past it could be for fear of conflict, being a people pleaser, making sure everyone else is OK, or even doing things out of obligation. However, setting healthy boundaries is taking back the power in your life. Instead of abandoning your needs, depleting yourself and holding back, it’s OK to put you first with self-love, while prioritizing your well-being and what’s best for you.

Last week, I found myself singing in the shower; a song that popped into my head that I probably hadn’t heard or sung in a long while. Out of nowhere I was belting out This little light of mine. As I was singing, I wondered why that particular song came forward. After reflecting, I determined it must have been either my higher self reminding me of my purpose or I was meant to share the message through my writings that someone was meant to hear.

Recently, my Mom mentioned that her dear friend had dropped off pages from old photo albums of skiing trips they had taken together over the years. As I was looking through the yellowed pages covered in plastic, I began to reflect about my Mom’s love of traveling and her independent spirit. She was fierce, in the best possible way.

When you think of the phrase, I am enough, what does that bring up for you? Does it make you feel inspired, uplifted and joyful, or does it bring up feelings of doubt, fear and unworthiness? If the phrase makes you feel happy and worthy you are 100% right, however, if it makes you sad and unworthy, then there’s work to be done.

Do you have people in your life that you depend on no matter what? They support you through both the good times and bad, hard times and sad. For me that was always my Dad. He loved me unconditionally; he was my rock. A few weeks ago I was at my brother and sister-in-law’s cabin and the first thing that’s noticed is a beautiful and very large sedimentary rock that is known as “Chuck’s rock.”

This past week I learned about the comet named “NEOWISE” which was just discovered this year. Astronomers stumbled upon it while looking through the NEOWISE space telescope, is one of the brightest comets seen since 1997, and is visible to the naked eye in the northern hemisphere. Since comet sightings are rare I wanted to catch a glimpse before it was gone. It wouldn’t be seen again for another 6,800 years…..HA!

Growing up on a farm the saying, “knee-high by the fourth of July,” meant the farmer could measure the success of the crops, and the odds for a high crop yield were good. Although now, according to some, the saying doesn’t resonate much any more due to the advancement in agriculture and growing techniques. However, it still does to this farm girl. Each year my brother Jeff and I start taking bets on whether the sweet corn is gonna reach knee-high by July fourth.

The past weekend for three nights and four days, I dog-sat for my son and daughter-in-law while they were out of town. Normally, my weeks fly, however, those four days seemed like forever … haha! My initial thought when asked if I would watch Barley was “ugh” …. I really wanted to say no since I had flashbacks of last year’s stay when she was very young.

State by state, the country’s been slowly opening back up from Covid19, but along the way there have been a lot of disappointment, people have experienced. For me personally, a few events, several get togethers, four airplane trips, one weekend getaway, lots of anticipated adventures, and many other calendar dates have all been cancelled through the end of the year. Although, I understand the reasoning behind the cancellations, it’s not always easy to swallow.

As a young child, birthdays were everything! It was your day to be celebrated without having to share it with anyone, well, at least in my case it was. I remember one particular birthday of my brother’s, I was sad it wasn’t my birthday, which completely showed in the photos of my older siblings lined up with big smiles on their faces and then mine; standing a foot shorter, looking miserable in my pigtails and tears. I didn’t understand I had to wait three months before it was my turn.

Last weekend happened to be the 9th annual “Friendship Flower Pot” celebration. My high school girls and I gather each year to celebrate the beginning of the summer season, friendship and flowers. Each person brings enough plants and flowers to share with everyone.

Like many of you, I’m guessing over the last few months your normally scheduled appointments had been cancelled, postponed or rescheduled which left most frustrated over the state of their hair, nails, body, etc.

I’ve been thinking about the question “Now what?” As the home isolation orders are slowly transitioning into being, “I’m free……I’m free at last”…..now what? Like most, I have no idea how I’ll begin to navigate the new normal. In my mind, I want to leap feet first back into my life. The life I’ve known since…….well, since forever.