​Last night I was driving on the interstate. I was driving in light traffic, but even then, there were a handful of drivers who passed me, going way over the speed limit and shook my car as they flew by.
 
When this happens, I tell myself they must be rushing for an important reason. Maybe they are rushing to the hospital because a loved one is ill. Maybe someone is having a baby. Maybe they need to find a restroom- NOW!
 
I think the real reason is that in today’s world everyone is rushing. Kids rush to grow up. Young adults rush to get jobs, get married, and have kids. Once that happens the family rush begins. It is a rush to get up in the morning, get kids ready for school and get yourself ready for work. It is a rush through the workday to get everything done. Then the rush home begins. Once home it is a rush to get to events for your kids, events for you, get everyone fed and to bed on time. Life turns into one big rush.
 
I think these drivers rushing by are a byproduct of the rush of life. They zoom by without noticing the speed they are going, the others on the road, or the safety and well-being of anyone. They just rush!
 
Some time ago, a friend of mine pointed out a road sign to me that said, Pass With Care. Few people ever notice road signs, and I doubt many give any thought to this one.
 
But what if we did?
 
What if every car we passed, we didn’t rush by, but we passed with care?
 
What if every event we live through, we didn’t rush, but we savored the experience, felt the emotion of it, and passed through it with care?
 
What if every job we had, we were careful and thoughtful as we worked? We moved to new jobs and positions carefully, leaving the last one better than we found it, and passed it with care to the person who replaces us.
 
What if, with every new candle on our birthday cake, we passed into another year with care, being grateful for the year we just completed and thankfully looking forward to the gift of a new year ahead of us?
 
What if, with every relationship in our lives, no matter how long or short-lived they are, we pass through them with care? Care for the heart of a person in the relationship with us.
 
What if every person we passed in a day, we passed with care? Giving a smile, a kind word, or a thoughtful wave to show we see them and that, yes, we care.
 
Last night I made it to my destination by driving carefully, paying attention to the road signs, and when I needed to pass another vehicle, I passed with care. Care in my driving but mostly care for the other driver and passengers with them. I mentally wished them safe travels and that they would happily reach their destination without feeling rushed – just passing with care as they drove down the road and maneuvered through their life.
 
What if we all stopped rushing and lived our lives passing with care?
                                 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
                                                     Pennie’s Life Lesson:
                                             Don’t rush through your life!
                                                          Pass with care.
                                  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

​YOUR TURN...        
Share your thoughts and experiences relating to this post in a comment below.  And please feel free to email me  at:
 [email protected]. 
                                                                 Thank you!  ​
                                      ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
                                                         All Rights Reserved
                                          Copyright © 2013-2025 Pennie Hunt
                             This was written and produced by Pennie Hunt.
Feel free to forward and share this post.  Please keep the entire message intact, including  contact, logo, and copyright information.
#CornerofSpiritandBrave #LoveYourLifeNoMatterWhat #JourneyThrough #PennieHunt #IAmGoodEnough #grief #Love #Joy #HowToBeHappy #Happiness

I have a tagline. It goes like this:
     Love Your Life – No Matter What!

This tagline is not by accident. I have been through many things in life. Some have been amazing and wonderful. Others have been sad and tragic. It is easy to love life when things are going well, when life is filled with happiness, and when you are on top of the world. But when tragedy strikes, life hits differently.  It can be hard to function, move, or even breathe.

It was during my lowest of times when I was thrown onto my belly in a dark, desperate place that I decided I needed to learn how to love my life, not just in the good times, but all the time. No matter what! I wanted to look at my life from a big-picture viewpoint and understand that life is amazing, even though there will always be​ hard times sprinkled in with the good.

That is when Love Your Life – No Matter What! became my tagline. My motto. My mantra. That is when I began teaching myself tips and techniques to keep my mind positive, my heart happy, and my love extending through all my life- the good days and the bad.

What is the tagline for your life? Your motto? Your mantra? You don’t have to wait for a dark time in your life to create one. Do it today. Make it positive, meaningful, personal, and motivational.

Maybe​, you want your tagline to reflect your mission in life. Maybe ​it will encourage you to find joy. Maybe ​it will be something about your work, your faith, or how you see the world.

Once you have the perfect tagline that fits your beliefs, write it on Post-it notes and stick them around your home or office, so you see it all the time. Make it the screensaver on your computer. Add it as a reminder on your phone so it pops up on your screen a couple of times a day. Share it with others. Say it out loud several times a day until it is so ingrained in you that it feels like part of your DNA.

If this sounds silly to you, think again. The repetition of seeing something embeds it into your thought process. What you are doing is marketing to yourself.​ Reinforcing the importance of your belief and giving yourself an intention for your life.

Taglines work. Do you know what Nike’s tagline is? Of course you do – Just Do It! How about M&M’s? It is, Melts in your mouth, not in your hands! Those taglines pop into your head because you have seen and heard them repeatedly. They are embedded in your memory. This is what I want you to do with your tagline.

I have had my tagline for years. It is so ingrained in my thinking that even when I do have a no-good-rotten-day, I remember my tagline and my mind begins searching for things that were good about the day. I can always find something good even on a bad day. I can always love my life – No Matter What!
                               ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
                                                  Pennie’s Life Lesson:
                                          Create a tagline for your life.
                    Make it positive, meaningful, personal, and motivational.
​                                  And then, repeat it, repeat it, repeat it! 
                                    ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

​YOUR TURN...        
Share your thoughts and experiences relating to this post in a comment below.  And please feel free to email me  at:
 [email protected]. 
                                                                 Thank you!  ​
                                      ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
                                                         All Rights Reserved
                                          Copyright © 2013-2025 Pennie Hunt
                             This was written and produced by Pennie Hunt.
Feel free to forward and share this post.  Please keep the entire message intact, including  contact, logo, and copyright information.
#CornerofSpiritandBrave #LoveYourLifeNoMatterWhat #JourneyThrough #PennieHunt #IAmGoodEnough #grief #Love #Joy #HowToBeHappy #Happiness

I keep kicking the box that is under my desk. Every time I sit down to check emails or write, I kick it. It is an annoyance that is always in my way. I created it. I put it there. I am responsible for it, and it irritates me.

I am not even sure how long it has been there, but I do remember the day. I was tidying up my office​ in preparation to speak for a virtual event. I needed the background of what the viewers would see to be a tidy office. So, I grabbed a box and began filling it up. I threw in papers. I threw in notes and greeting cards. I threw in photos and knick-knacks. Then I put it on the floor and used both feet to push it under my desk out of view. 

It has lived there ever since. No one sees it, but every day I kick it, and I am reminded that I need to take care of it.

I remember visiting my mom in her last years and finding similar boxes hidden in her closets. I would ask her about them, and she would brush it off with nonchalant comments like, “Oh, I will get to that later.” When I dug into her boxes, I would find unpaid bills, important documents, and information that should have been responded to months before.

Yikes! Could I be turning into my mother?

In my defense, I know that my box does not contain anything important. All my bills are paid, and important documents are neatly organized in my very colorful filing system.

The truth is that my box could probably be put out for the garbage pick-up tomorrow, and I wouldn’t need or miss one thing. It is just stuff. The truth is also that I could fill up a few more boxes in my house and either slide them under my desk for safekeeping or throw them all out in the garbage tomorrow.

But here are the haunting questions I am asking myself. Why did I have all of that cluttering my office when I didn’t need it? And why do I feel the need to keep it hidden out of sight, so no one sees it?

My mom struggled with dementia for several years before she passed. I believe she hid her boxes of stuff so no one would scold her for not paying bills and keeping on top of tasks. She felt overwhelmed by the thought of organizing it. She also forgot how to pay bills and no longer understood the reason for any of it.

I am not there. My box is more of a byproduct of my busy life and not taking the time to do the save-donate-keep method that the professional organizers do on television shows. My box came to be in a rush to be ready and prepared for my virtual event. It was my throw-and-hide method. 

If I'm honest, I have used this method for other things. I am an emotional stuffer and have a few things hidden and stuffed deep in my heart from past hurts and events. It is mingled with guilt caused by mistakes I have made.

I have an imaginary box hiding in the corner of my head that I have stuffed a couple of people inside, whom I struggle to forgive. It is easier to hide that box.
 I have tidy, cared-for plastic tubs of memories stuffed full of items that belonged to people I loved who are no longer here.

I am wondering if I am alone in this stuffing and hiding method. I doubt it. I bet you join me in this. Now, together, let’s all go kick, clean out, organize, or throw away one box of stuff!
                                     ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
                                                       Pennie’s Life lesson:
                 It is easy to hide the physical and emotional stuff in our lives.
​                             Until we clean it out, we will continue to kick it.  
                                    ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

​YOUR TURN...        
Share your thoughts and experiences relating to this post in a comment below.  And please feel free to email me  at:
 [email protected]. 
                                                                 Thank you!  ​
                                      ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
                                                         All Rights Reserved
                                          Copyright © 2013-2025 Pennie Hunt
                             This was written and produced by Pennie Hunt.
Feel free to forward and share this post.  Please keep the entire message intact, including  contact, logo, and copyright information.
#CornerofSpiritandBrave #LoveYourLifeNoMatterWhat #JourneyThrough #PennieHunt #IAmGoodEnough #grief #Love #Joy #HowToBeHappy #Happiness

What does love look like to you today?
​
Love can look different every day. It looks different on the good days and the bad. During the hard stuff and the easy moments. Love shows up in many forms and dances with different rhythms depending on the love that is required.

When I was around 5 or 6, I received a Chatty Cathy doll for Christmas. I wanted that doll so badly. I talked about it all the time. I circled it in the JCPenney’s Christmas Catalog. I dreamt of it. When I opened my gift, I was the happiest I thought I could ever be in life. On that day, I believed love looked like a Chatty Cathy doll.

I remember when my babies were born. Holding them for the first time, I counted their toes as they wrapped their tiny hands around my finger and held on tightly. They somehow knew that I would protect them, care for them, and love them. Those days of birthing my children were the most love-filled days of my life. Love can look different every day, but on those days, love looked like a white blanket cocooned around a squeaky baby.  

One of my favorite photographs from my wedding was a close-up of my husband’s hand holding mine as we said our vows. He was promising to hold my hand through anything that came into our lives, good or bad – he would be there. Love can look different every day, but on that day, it looked like his hand holding mine.

In the years before my mother passed, when I visited her, she would smile like my visit was the best thing in her life. And when I left, she would smile through her tears. Love can look different every day, but on those days, it looked like my mom’s smile.

Love has been disguised during some of the most difficult days of my life. During those days, I had to remind myself that this is what love looks like today. Love looked like massaging my dad’s feet, helping him walk, and caring for him as he was dying. Love looked like my friends holding me up when I couldn’t breathe after my son passed. Love looked like bringing home a black and white puppy, loving her for 16 years, and holding her so she wasn’t alone when we said goodbye.

On the days it showed itself as wide-open full-throttle joy, love looked like celebrating weddings, welcoming grandchildren, and laughter around a holiday table. And love can look simple, like a phone call from a grandchild, happy dancing paws on the floor when I come home, a card I receive from a friend just to say hi, or my husband’s hand still holding mine.

Over the years, love has danced around me and looked different depending on the day, the circumstance, and the need.
Today, love looks like my life.
                                 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 
                                                  Pennie’s Life Lesson:
   Remember, love looks different every day, but today, this is what love looks like. 
                                  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~