This was a memory from yesterday’s date, a few years ago. This week, I am seeing all kinds of signs that are urgently pointing to our need for empathy, with ourselves, with others, locally, and worldwide. There is an urgency for healing, for clarity, for releasing the old things, because we are all going to need room for the new. We are building to a new time in our lives, and truly, empathy is going to play a huge part. This possibly sounds deranged or desperate, but I assure you, it is not, it is urgent in our growth and rebirth for our next leg of the journey.

May we find our sense of empathy for ourselves, for all. May we be courageous in our rise from the past, in to the present for our future. May we remember to feel our emotions, live with purpose and love in our hearts, for ourselves and for all.

Drop me a line and let me know if you are seeing signs and getting messages in small or large forms, I would truly love to know!

There’s a lot to be said about becoming a mature adult, and adversely being an immature adult, but we aren’t really going to talk about that today. Nope, we are going to instead clarify how embracing your inner child, is essential to your life. This isn’t to say you need to be immature to be childlike, but you can embrace the child you in your grounded, adult mature self! I mean, it’s great knowing how to act in public and all, but sometimes you really need to be silly, for yourself and others!

Let’s not lie to ourselves, this world beats the innocence right out of you. It forces you to grow up, making you face tough, unpleasant and hard situations. This brings about a hardened exterior, and sometimes takes our gooey insides and whips them to the point of stiffness. We lose a bit of ourselves, and most people would say, that’s life, that’s how it goes, that’s just the way of it, I am here to tell you yeah, but no. This becomes a choice to lose our inner child, possibly to the point of tyranny or assholiness. We stop having fun or finding magic, and in turn, it can even turn us in to immature adults. You know the ones, they are brats parading as grown adults, but really, they lost their inner child and just act out of childishness.

When we embrace our inner child, maintain our playful selves, we benefit more than not. This inner child is creative, curious, imaginative, fearless, and yes, silly. The inner child knows the adult you can handle whatever comes your way, it trusts that you are in the state of adult so that it can roam and run free as the inner child. The inner child recognizes other people it can have fun with and be around, and it trusts those adults to have good boundaries so that it can be playful freely, and safely. This is not saying that anither is responsible for your boundaries, or that the inner child won’t get hurt, but more so that the self outer adult will do it’s best to maintain a safe and free environment, and is wise enough and experienced enough to recognize when it is time to move away from others, or situations that are not good for the adult and the child.

We can foster our inner child through free play, structured play, crafts, hobbies, exercise, car trips, vacations, playing with our pets, doing childlike activities, so on and so forth. We just have to be willing to not place restrictions or a lockdown on our child self so as to squelch it. Again, disciplined self makes good choices, allowing the child to be free to play. So, let me ask you, how healthy is your inner child? How healthy is your inner child and outer adult self relationship? What kind of play do you engage in for your inner child? When was the last time you did let your inner child play?

Drop me a line, let me know what your thoughts are, how you have engaged yourself, child and adult, I would love to know!

Nothing cool happening over here today, unless you count giving lessons on talking to spooked animals and inflammatory people. That might be the exact same conversation, but the skill translates, trust me. Honestly, this was a lesson for me many years ago, and it has served me well!

Growing up on a farm, having 4-H animals too, you learn how to approach animals, and how to talk to them to get them used to your voice. You learn how to speak with a soft even tone to soothe their concerns, and to build trust. You build rapport so you can work with the animal, become a better team, and it helps you learn to interpret subtle signals from each other. It requires patience and respect, time and effort, self discipline and a forward thinking plan. This all applies to inflammatory folks as well!

We don’t always know someone’s back story, or what their life is like, but if we approach with the same methods we approach a spooked animal, we are certain to accomplish at least one thing, observation. We must observe animals and people to ascertain the best approach to communicate with them. If we are loud and expressive, it could feel intrusive to people, more so to inflammatory folks. Who knows, maybe they will walk away from us, just like our four legged friends would do? Perhaps they will have a louder voice, bigger gestures and expressions? Maybe you trip a trigger and you receive an explosion after that? Have you had that happen, or been witness to someone do that? Did you wonder what happened or what caused it? Did you question if a differing approach would have been better? I can tell you, staying calm, rational and reasonable can get you further with an inflammatory person, maybe even resulting in a clear communicative conversation. Perhaps it gets you nowhere, but by staying in this approach, it helps you walk away feeling better and less inflamed, yourself!

So tell me, have you tried the spooked animal approach? Did it work? If you haven’t tried it, would you be willing to? Drop me a line, let me know if you have tried this approach, how it went, or if there is someone you can give it a go with! I would love to know!

Howdy howdy! Look at what part of my day consisted of today:

Oh yes y’all! I have begun my calligraphy journey!!!🤣🤣🤣 I quickly realized round letters are not my strong suit…I clearly struggle with those…but I also clearly struggle with the letter V as well! I honestly enjoyed my efforts today, enjoyed laughing my ass off at some of my executions, like killing the letter S, oh that is soooo bad!🤣🤣🤣 I am enjoying trying, failing, laughing, and then trying again! I will keep practicing, it is bound to get better and my methodology will start to take shape at some point!

If I am being transparent and honest, with us both, I lacked some patience at times, not intentionally, but more so out of habit of writing cursive. My brain felt this should be a fluid and quick motion, but really it is a bit slow and choppy. I think this will be great for my brain in the long run, as it will make me more intentional, and really specific, a bit disciplined. Eventually, hopefully, I will get proficient! Time will tell!

In between laundry, CoCo asked me to take her picture and send it to Avery. Avery was thrilled! Sonny, not so much!

🤣🤣🤣LOL!!! Some days I just can’t with these dogs, they are so funny with their wants and needs, and emotions!

Ahhh! Some days you will miss all of the little joyful things, and other days the gifts and gems are just overly abundant! So glad today was pretty abundant! I hope you experienced a similar-ish day! Drop me a line and let me know what sorts of gems and joys you had today, I would love to know!

Today, I know a lot of people that are experiencing changes, or seeing new opportunities, and they are embracing those things with joy, laughter or happiness. I feel overjoyed for these people I love and care about, and it makes me happy that they are having these things happen as I think it is an abundance of positivity for their future lives. I truly love to see others succeed, be happy, have new experiences and to laugh and have fun as they are doing it!

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While I am sharing this with you, ironically, I felt excellent paying my sales tax today. It reminded me that I love doing business with others, that I want to do business with others, and that I want those people to be happy too! Life really is a positive circle if you let it be, it doesn’t mean there won’t be hard times or struggles, but it can be really happy and positive.

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How’s this for a Monday post?? We are laughing, having fun, sending sales tax, being positive, and keeping good outlooks on challenges in life! Whew! Tell me, what is good in your life, or the lives of those close to you, today? Drop me a line and we’ll add it to the circle of positivity!!

Hello all! Today I am in Nelsonville!! Who wants to know what I am doing?? We’ll come on, All Aboard!!

Bill has told me that he wants to take a train ride, probably at least 10 times since we have been married, suffice it to say, we have not taken that train ride, yet. Shortly before Christmas, he mentioned to me again that he would like to go on a train ride. The very next week, my cousin Stephanie messaged me and asked if I would be interested in going on a train ride. I immediately said yes! I proceeded to tell her that Bill has been wanting to go forever, and just mentioned it again. She suggested we get tickets for Bill and her husband Jason, for Christmas, which I thought was a terrific idea. So, here we are today, in Nelsonville, about to board a train for an evening ride!

It was a great time, a good meal, enjoyable company and we will definitely do it again!

Yesterday I headed to Wellston and spent some time with my good friend, Joe. I checked out his new hair salon(that shoot will be another day), the building he is in, the businesses in the building, and we stopped at a few shops in town as well. Check it out:

We had lunch at Happenings Bistro, great food, super friendly staff, and a nice atmosphere! Joe’s cousin works there and she is a doll, love her! I will definitely go back for the food and service!

We stopped at several shops in town, but the only one I took photos in was Yesterdays Antiques. They had a really nice selection of items and good prices, as well as friendly folks ready to assist you! Going to hit that up again next time I am in town, for sure!

There were so many cool things to look at , I will have to go repeatedly for the full experience. Joe and I can entertain ourselves pretty much anywhere, but it truly was a nice day to enjoy the little town of Wellston and her offerings. If you haven’t been, I would suggest going, and I am sure I will have more places to suggest to you in the warmer months, my next time, and the time after that! I am looking forward to warmer months when we can hit my favorite place, Lake Alma.

Drop me a line, let me know if there is a small town not far from you that you absolutely adore, and would highly recommend for a visit! I love going new places and seeing new things!