![]() My dog turned 8 today. She is a beautiful copper and white fluffy face of love. She is pampered and spoiled to the point of diva status. Her name is Gracie. If you follow the modern calculation of dog years to human years, each of the first two years of a dog’s life equals 10.5 in human years - 21 years. The next 6 years of a dog’s life each equals 4 human years - 24 years. For my 8-year-old Shih Tzu this is the equivalent of 45 human years. The expected life span of a Shih Tzu is 10-16 dog years. The charts are quick to point out that all of this is an estimate and individual dogs may vary depending on size, genetics, and overall health. I would guess Gracie has a glorious second half of life ahead of her. You might say she won the lottery of humans when she came to live with us at 9 weeks old. Gracie never goes hungry or thirsty and has regular checkups and veterinary care. She visits a groomer once a month and halfway through the month enjoys a home spa day that consists of special shampoo, warmed towels, and a luxury blow dry and brush out by her humans (that’s us). She enjoys freshly cooked chicken in her meals and when winter is fierce, she has a custom artificial turf area in the garage to keep her safe from the dangerous cold and blizzard conditions. Yes, pampered and spoiled may be an understatement. More than all of that, Gracie knows a few things about life and how to take care of herself. When she wakes up in the morning, or even after a nap, she always does a few yoga stretches and slowly eases her body into the movement of the day. She never eats unless she is hungry, but when she is hungry, she eats with the excitement of it being the most delicious food she has ever tasted. She enjoys it as if it is the only meal she has ever had. When she is full, she stops- even if there is still food in her bowl. Gracie is content with what she has and enjoys the simple pleasure of a belly rub and believes there is always time for laying in the sunshine and feeling the warmth of it on her back. She is always friendly and kind to other animals and to all humans. She is enthusiastic when she meets someone new and is sad when they leave. She understands the meaning of trust and the expectation of loyalty. She gives both freely. She is the guardian of her humans, rarely leaving us alone without her supervision…I mean protection. She knows if we are stressed or not feeling well. She lays next to us aware that her snuggles will calm us and rubbing her ears will be the soothing medicine we need. Gracie is a master teacher. Most importantly, Gracie teaches us that the number one essential thing in life is love. She gives it without condition and is grateful when it is given to her. It is her purpose in life and the mission of her heart – to love. I wonder what dogs think. I am pretty sure they don’t think about how old they are or how many calories are in a birthday cake. I don’t think they wish for a bigger house or a faster car or worry if the dog next door has fancier squeaky toys. They are too busy being content with what they have. It’s not fair that dogs don’t live longer. The speed of years takes them away from us way too quickly. Maybe it is because it takes humans much longer to learn what dogs inherently know when they arrive in this life. Dogs live life with gusto and don’t waste a moment. When they are happy, they express it with every part of their being, dancing on happy paws, and wiggling every inch of their bodies in joy. They don’t waste time being upset or holding grudges. They are too busy loving. No matter how many more years of life Gracie has, it won’t be long enough. It won’t be long enough for me to give her all that she deserves. It won’t be long enough for me to learn all the lessons she was sent here to teach. It won’t be long enough for me to show her how deeply I love her. My sweet girl is 8 today. Yes, she is pampered and spoiled. It is the way a white fluffy-faced soul that is pure love should be treated. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson- or should I say, Gracie’s Life Lesson: When all you know how to give is love, you will be loved in return. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #JourneyThrough #PennieHunt #IAmGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2024 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.
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![]() Do you think about the value of the things in your life? When is the value the highest? When is the value the lowest? Do you value your life? Look at your home. When you were a young adult, you probably wanted to buy a house. You imagined your dream home. You could see the back yard. You could smell meals cooking in the kitchen. Nothing held more value to you than buying a home of your own. Then the day came, and you were handed the keys. You became used to living in it. It was comfortable and familiar, but maybe the value of it wasn’t as exciting to you as when you were wanting it. After 25 years, you find yourself an empty nester and the home feels too big. So you sell it. After downsizing the furniture and loads of donations are gone, you walk through the house for the last time, and then you drive away. You didn’t expect the tears and emotions that you feel. Yes, you may have a big equity check in your bank account, but suddenly when the home is no longer yours, you understand the value of it. You realize the value of the home was in the love that was felt within the walls and the memories you made there. You can play this scenario through your mind about many things. Relationships… you want one. Your life would be perfect if you just had that perfect relationship. You dream about falling in love and you place great value on love. Then the arrow hits and the hearts fly. You fall in love. Over the years it is wonderful- until it isn’t. Whether it is a divorce or an unfortunate passing of life, the relationship ends. Now you long for love, companionship, and a relationship. The value of what you had becomes very clear. Do you see the pattern? The value of something you want before you have it is high. When you have it in your life the value of that something levels off. When you no longer have it the value takes a rapid jump upward. We place a higher value on something when we are wanting it and after we have lost it, than the value we place on it when we actually have it. The saddest example of this may be when we think of time. When we are kids we run and play as if there is all the time in the world. Then we move into rushing. We can’t wait to grow up, be finished with school, have a car, a job, and an adult life. We are too busy to think about time. The responsibilities and pressure of being an adult makes us rush even faster. We can’t wait to retire. Suddenly we are 70, 80, and if we are lucky 90 or older. Now time seems important. All of those years of wanting to rush through life without enjoying it are a blur. Now, every day holds a high value to us. We want time to slow down. We want to spend time with our children, grandchildren, and friends. Yes, friends. Now many of our friends are gone. We look back at memories of them and we realize what a value they were to our lives. We want to do the things we didn’t have time to do when we were younger, but now our health doesn’t allow us to-- because we didn’t value our health and take care of it when we had it. Now health is of high value. Wherever you are in this timeline of life, you can change the pattern. You can learn to place a value- a high value- on what you have now. The life you have now. Love your family. Nurture your friendships. Take care of your health. And be grateful for time. Place a high value on this one beautiful life you are given- every minute of it. Do you see the value of your life…now? ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: Value what you have in this life. Enjoy and cherish every minute of it. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #JourneyThrough #PennieHunt #IAmGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2024 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. ![]() I finally get it. It took me a while, but now I am ready to take out the trash! I should explain. It all began with a frigid blast of winter that kept me in the house for three days. I decided to do something productive – clean out and declutter my file drawers. No, that doesn’t sound fun and to be honest, it wasn’t, but it was something I had been avoiding for a long time. It needed to be done. Being trapped inside when it was a -35 degree chill factor outside was the perfect time, so I jumped into the mountain of files. Attacking the first drawer, I put all the files on my dining room table. This drawer contained house information, warranties on appliances, receipts, and information about house maintenance, etc. I decided to get fancy and color code each drawer. If it hadn’t been so cold I would have gone to the office store to buy the prettiest new colors, but I decided that using all the green hanging folders I had in the first drawer would be fine. The files I put inside would be a variety of colors- just to make it pretty. Two hours into this project I had divided all the paperwork into mini mountains. I decided that I needed a few more categories to organize than what I had. I needed one to put in all the decorating ideas that I had clipped from magazines and one for the paint color chips I had saved. Soon I felt like I had more files and papers to put back into the drawer than what I started with. That is when it hit me. I wasn’t decluttering at all. I was just organizing the chaos of papers and files to look good. The revelation that there is a big difference between organizing and decluttering hit me on many levels. Suddenly I thought of all the times I went shopping for new bins, baskets, hangers, and holders just to clean and color coordinate drawers, closets, and my life - under the pretense of decluttering. All I was doing was organizing the chaos. Oh, I have been successful at times. A few months ago, I did declutter my clothes closet, which, by the way, remains clutter-free and is one of my proud accomplishments. But habits are hard to break and what I was doing with the file drawers was slipping back into my old pattern. Luckily, I caught myself. I didn’t want to just organize all the stuff so it looked good. I wanted to clean out and declutter – which meant it was time to take out the trash! I began ruthlessly throwing papers into two new mountains – recycle and shred. I didn’t need receipts from the upgrades that we made on the last house we owned. I didn’t need to save paint samples when I had no plans to paint. And I certainly didn’t need 5 years of receipts of veterinary visits for my dogs. As I write this, I am taking a break from drawer number 3. The end is in sight. My files look amazing, and yes, they are color-coded and a visual work of art. My bag of shredding is overflowing. And my recycle bin will be proudly rolled to the curb to be picked up with tomorrow’s trash. I feel cleansed in a way, and ready to move on to the next decluttering project. As I look around my home, I am critiquing how many of my closets and corners that I have beautifully organized the chaos but what I need to do is declutter. I wonder…how many areas of my life have I done the same. I might just need to take out more trash. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: In your life don’t just organize the chaos - it might be time to take out the trash! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #JourneyThrough #PennieHunt #IAmGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2024 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. ![]() I can visualize him sitting on a stool, playing his guitar, and singing in his quiet voice as the crowd sits in awed silence watching him on stage. He could have been a rock star. But he wasn’t. I can see him picking his beautiful girl up from school and chatting with her about life. He could have been a great dad to his teenage daughter. But he wasn’t. I can hear him laugh as he blows out 39 candles and happily eats the first piece of cake. I smile at the hint of gray showing up in his beard. He could have grown to be a great man. But he didn’t. He wasn’t a lot of things that he didn’t have the chance to be, but I can tell you who he was. He was more than a young 22-year-old whose life ended in a tragic way. He was a prankster and a comedian. He was serious and introspective. He was little-boy-adorable and grown-man handsome. He was immature and young. He was spirit-old and wise beyond this time. He was infuriating and comforting. He was reckless and protective. He was a brother, father, uncle, and grandson. He was the friend who gave you his shirt and the student who studied life. He was my son. When he left this life, I searched every photograph I had and looked intensely into his eyes. I wanted to know him deeper than I had ever known him before. I gathered his belongings and held them as if I were holding him. I listened to stories and fantasized about how it would be if he was still here. I played the ‘what-if’ game. Trying to rewrite the ending to the story and pretending that I could make a magical deal with time, and he would come back. But he didn’t. I can remember the person I was when he was here. The mom I was. I wish I could be that same mom now. But I can’t. I live a little bit there and a little bit here, in the blur of then and now. I began as a warrior who fought between regret and gratitude. I have become the dancer who sways to the magical music of memories. Now I am the mom who struggles to keep some part of him alive. I am the mom who continues to tell you who he was. I write stories about him on his birthday and share memories on the anniversary of his passing. I say his name and when my eyes close, I imagine his beard brushing my face. For as long as I can remember him, I will remind you not to forget, because when he is forgotten it will be his second death. Now he is the guitar leaning in the corner and the hoodies in a plastic tub. But, more than that, he is the whisper in my ears and the messages to my soul. He is the sunrise in the morning and a star in the night sky. He is the tattoo on my heart and the twinkle in his daughter’s eyes. He is the laughter from his sister and the hugs from his brother. He is the breeze when the window is down and a song plays loudly through the car stereo. Today there would be 39 candles on his cake. He could have been a rock star. But he wasn’t. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: Don’t leave this life with could-have-beens. Be all you can be now. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #JourneyThrough #PennieHunt #IAmGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2024 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. ![]() I woke up this morning and it was a new day, a new week, and a new year. My New Year’s Eve wasn’t a big celebration. In fact, I was asleep by 10, and enjoying that until the sound of fireworks jarred me awake. Finding my earplugs and snuggling back into my covers I slumbered until I woke up in a new year and with a bigger number on the calendar. Over the years I have enjoyed quiet family New Years Eve celebrations at home when my kids were young, and I’ve also danced at private parties in Reno with Huey Lewis singing on the stage. But this year I didn’t need or want to dress in sparkles and be in a crowd. I didn’t need or want a huge meal or a table full of snacks. I didn’t need or want to take a trip and be somewhere new to watch the year change. For me this year, watching a little television and being asleep by 10 felt right. This morning as I took down the Christmas tree, and boxed up all the decorations from the holidays, I thought of the year behind me. The things I accomplished. The experiences. The sadness. The joy. With every box I closed I also closed a little more of the year I had just lived. I pondered the new year ahead. Instead of aggressively running through all the determined goals I want to accomplish, I held a calmness about the new year. Knowing that, the year will be more of a peaceful sightseeing journey than a planned drive towards a controlled destination. I pick a word every year to guide my thoughts and actions. My word for this year is ‘Create.’ Just that word nudges me to a peaceful vision. Like a brush stroke slowly moving across a canvas, as the colors blend shading and highlighting all there is to see in the painting. There is a calmness in that vision. An inspired intention to create beauty. This year I hope to create more of this calm beauty in myself, my life, and my world. I will do this by making time for things I love doing. Time for painting more, sewing more, cooking more, reading more, writing more, and speaking more. All the things that put me in that space of creative calmness. I do have a few things in mind that I plan to create this year that I expect to be fabulous. But I won’t be pushed by a list of goals or an outline of projects and steps to completion. I will be guided by the gentle journey of creating. Will you join me? Maybe you think you are not artistic, but I believe you are. We all are. There is an art to creating in any fashion. We can all create better, or new, relationships. We can all create a beautiful space in our home and work environment. We can all create more love, more joy, and more happiness in our life and the lives of others. It isn’t that difficult. Don’t make it into stress or another pressure in your life. Creating doesn’t have to be big and bold like noisy fireworks in the sky. Creating can be a quiet, peaceful sightseeing journey. Every day look at your life and surroundings in a new way. Life is a thing of beauty. Life is an artful creation. You can find beauty in the simple things. And you can create this year to be filled with the simple beauty you deserve. I plan to create a wonderful year! Will you? ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: We all have the ability to create beauty in life. Start creating now! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #JourneyThrough #PennieHunt #IAmGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2023 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. ![]() Typically for this last column of the year I review the word I chose as a guide for this year and reveal my word for the new year ahead. I will do that soon, but for today I have an idea for you. At the beginning of this year, in addition to my word for the year, I decided to track ideas. I opened a new note tab on my phone and titled it, as you can guess IDEAS. Every time I had an idea that I wanted to remember, I wrote it down. If I heard a word I liked, I wrote it down. If I heard a quote I liked, I wrote it down. I wrote down ideas I had for writing my column or concepts I wanted to put in my next book. I wrote down songs I heard. I wrote down ideas for gift-giving. I wrote down dreams and memories. I wrote down everything I thought was important to remember. As of this writing, I have 220 ideas on my list. That sounds pretty good for my first year. But- I researched it and the people who study this type of thing have a wide range of opinions on how many thoughts we have in a day. The studies and reports ranged from claiming the average person has between 6,000 and 80,000 thoughts per day. That’s a big range. So, let’s go with a number somewhere in the middle. Let’s say we have 37,000 thoughts a day. That equates to 13,505,000 thoughts in a year. That makes my accomplishment look weak. Out of my 13 and a half million thoughts, why did I only write down 220 of them? Did I only have 220 thoughts that were of value? Less than .0017% of my thoughts made the list. Where are the rest of them? Did they float right by me unnoticed like butterflies going by so fast that my net wasn’t quick enough to catch them? Didn’t I hear them? Wasn’t I listening? Maybe I was too critical and rejected too many as being silly, a waste of time, embarrassing, or impossible to follow through on. The point is how many ideas slip away from us? How many could have become reality if we had written them down and spent more time thinking about them? How many dreams could come true? Looking through my list I see some interesting stuff. Many of the ideas I used as topics for my columns. Many of them I researched and learned more about the subject. Many were things new to me that I learned about for the first time. As I close out this year reviewing my ideas, I find myself even more excited for my 2024 list. My goal is to capture more than 220 ideas. I plan to write down the silly ones, the embarrassing ones, the possible and the impossible ones. And even the ones that I think are a waste of time just to write down are going on the list. Can you join me in this? Use your note tab in your phone, your journal, or an old-fashioned spiral notebook. It doesn’t matter how you track them- but track them. Number them. Record them. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks of your ideas. No one needs to see them except you. They are yours and yours alone to do with as you wish. As I write this, we are turning the corner and heading smack into the new year. You have time to pick that notebook and write the simple title on the first page, IDEAS. Just doing that is your first idea. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: Don’t let ideas slip away from you. You never know which ones will become reality. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #JourneyThrough #PennieHunt #IAmGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2023 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. ![]() “I notice you have a bouquet of flowers on your table. Are they for something special or do you just like flowers?” The question made me smile as I answered my friend. “Yes, they are for December 14th and yes, that is a special holiday.” I went on to explain that it isn’t a holiday to anyone except me and my husband. To everyone else December 14th slides right by as another busy day in the holiday season, but to us it is much more. It is a holiday. Our holiday. It is the Beginning of Forever Day. Years ago, before we were married, we had what we now refer to as The Hiatus. It was a space of time in our relationship that we took a pause from each other- well, at the time we thought it was a permanent breakup. It lasted a substantial amount of time. No phone calls, no seeing each other, no communication of any kind. And then, he made the phone call that changed everything. On December 14th he called me, and we began talking. It was the beginning of our forever together. Others may not understand this, but after all these years of being married, we continue to celebrate our little holiday. A little holiday with a big meaning for us. A little holiday that isn’t on anyone’s calendar except ours. December 14th is a holiday we always celebrate. It usually includes flowers and dinner out. It is special because without that phone call, we would not have ended the hiatus. We would not be married. And our Forever would have never begun. What holiday is on your calendar that no one else knows about? That no one else would care about? That no one else would understand the meaning of? We all have them. It may be the day you received the call offering you the job of your dreams. It may be the day you walked into the first home you purchased. It may be the day you were handed the keys to your first car. The day you bumped into someone in the post office that became your spouse. It may be the birthday of someone who is no longer with you, but you continue to celebrate them on that day. Some days on your calendar may be remembrances of a less-than-happy time. The day your divorce was final. The day you were told cancer had become part of your life or the day of your last chemotherapy. The day someone you love became an angel in your heart. If you do know about someone’s special date acknowledge it – if you think it is appropriate. Some personal dates of celebration or sadness are best left private in the hearts of the holder. But if it is one you feel is appropriate to acknowledge, do so with compassion. If it is a date of celebration, tell them that you remember and celebrate with them. If it is a date of sadness quietly acknowledge it with a hug or a thinking-of-you card or text. All of these very personal markers of life become embedded in our hearts and written on our calendars. Others may not understand them, remember them, or even know about them. But we do. What holiday is on your calendar that no one else knows about? ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: We all have personal dates we remember, celebrate, and grieve. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #JourneyThrough #PennieHunt #IAmGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2023 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. ![]() Today I hit 600 days of meditating daily. No missed days. I have been meditating for almost 20 years, but this is the longest consecutive number of days for me. Or maybe I have, but now I track it daily, so I know for sure. Meditating is something I do. Something I make time for. Something I prioritize. I found a little app that I put on my phone called, Don’t Break the Chain. I’m not promoting this app – there are many to choose from, I just use this one as an example. It gives you the option of making calendars for things you want to track. I have a meditation one and a workout one. It is so simple. Every day that I meditate I mark an “X” on that day. Each added “X” creates a chain. I have not broken the chain for 600 days. (I will disclose that my workout chain seems to be broken often.) I like the app because it is simple, easy, and quick. It is one click to mark an “X.” When the chain becomes long, I don’t want to break it. It is a visual that works for me. It is private and no one sees my chains. Here is why I believe it works – Because I am not competing against anyone else. I am not comparing myself to anyone else. I am just tracking my actions. If I cross 5 workouts this week, that is better than the four I crossed last week. If I only cross 3 on a busy week, I will push to be better the next. And once I see a long stretch of “X’s” I want to keep going. I don’t want to break my chain. The mistake we often make is comparing our goals, dreams, and accomplishments to an unreasonable standard. If I cut out photos of the top female bodybuilders or models and put them on my vision board with the expectation of reaching the same physical success that they have- I will fail. They are probably 5” taller than me, have trainers, have a different body structure, are younger, have different lifestyles, and have different time commitments. Trying to compare and compete with them is not going to work. Did you read the first paragraph of this writing and decide that you need to keep up and meditate for the next 600 days like me? You may have a different way of dealing with stress and creating peace in your life. You may not have the time and commitment to meditation that I do. Trying to compare and compete with me and what works for me might not work for you. Here is something that might work – compare your progress to your past self. How well did you do last month, last week, or even yesterday with your workout program, your meditation, or whatever you want to improve on? If you made progress that is great. If you did a small backslide, try to do better than you did yesterday. No one should expect to reach a point of perfection. The kind of perfection we see on photoshopped magazine covers and television advertisements is unattainable. Being envious of someone else’s perfect body, perfect habits, and perfect life is a waste of energy. Use that energy on yourself. Forget pursuing perfection and begin improving a little at a time. Can tomorrow be better than today? Can we mark another “X” on our progress? Can we keep the chain going? I believe the answer is, YES! Whether you begin tracking your meditation, your workout, or how much you read, it doesn’t matter. Become a person who makes crossing that “X” important. Make it something you do. Something you make time for. Something you prioritize. With every “X” the chain becomes stronger and so do you. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: Don’t try to be perfect, just try to be a little better than the person you were yesterday. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #JourneyThrough #PennieHunt #IAmGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2023 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. ![]() Are you bored with your life? Bored with your home, your job, your partner, your car, your - fill in the blank? Do things that you used to love and adore seem mundane, uninteresting, and unfulfilling? Hmmm, maybe you need a change or maybe you need to think about this differently. Have you heard of the Law of Familiarity? This Gestalt principle suggests that we group things of similar nature together. How does this relate to being bored? Well, you have a home, job, partner, car, etc. You circle these together in a big group and call that your life. You get up every day in your home, kiss your partner, get in your car to leave for your job, spend 8-10 there, then get back in your car, return to your home, kiss your partner goodnight and it starts again the next day. It is your life. It is all very familiar. Familiarity leads to comfort. Comfort leads to complacency and complacency can lead to boredom. Now step back for a minute. Remember when you met your partner? The butterflies in your stomach, the dates, the romance, the anticipation of your future together? Remember when you received your job offer? You were so excited to put those years of schooling to work. Excited to have your own office. Excited to put on that suit every morning and go to your job. Remember when you purchased your new car? That new car smell. The power of pride you felt when you drove it to show your family and friends. Remember buying your home? It was perfect! Remember when you and your partner were given the keys and unlocked the door for the first time? Walking into home ownership was a feeling like none other! And now… The butterflies have long ago flown away. The dates and romance are memories and the future you hoped for has become a routine. The schedule of jobs and the kid’s school and activities form a familiar pattern – day after day. The job has become years of deadlines, expectations, evaluations, and responsibilities. The obligations of work have taken over the space that was once filled with romance and dates with your partner. The clocking of time has stretched from 40 hours to a very familiar 50 or 60 hours a week. You slide into that same car every morning. The seat is positioned in the perfect way that fits your back and legs. The radio stations are set where you like them. It is comfortable. But the new smell is gone. When you come home at night and walk into your home, you automatically hang up your coat, take your shoes off, and head to your favorite chair. You turn the television on without really watching what is on the screen. You exhale, close your eyes, and rest for a few minutes. Later, you kiss your partner goodnight, roll over on your side, go to sleep, and it starts again the next day. It is your life. It is all very familiar. It is comfortable. And it becomes a little boring. Why? Because familiarity leads to comfort. Comfort leads to complacency and complacency can lead to boredom. So how do you change this? The first step is to become aware of the situation. I believe after reading this you may have gained some awareness. Next, realize that when your life becomes so comfortable you will sink into complacency. You begin taking everything you have for granted. When you take things for granted you stop being grateful. To regain a feeling of gratitude, step back into that space of remembering how much you wanted what you have now. How much you wanted the future you have now with your partner. How much you wanted the house, the car, and the job. Be grateful for all of it. Until you are grateful for what you have now, you will never have more. Maybe you do need to change something. For example, maybe your job isn’t fulfilling your desire to advance, so exploring new opportunities could be a good thing. But remember, just because you have grouped everything that is familiar in your life into one package, that doesn’t mean everything needs to change. Not everything is boring. Comfort and familiarity can be wonderful things – never lose gratitude for what you have. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: Be grateful for everything in your life. Until you are grateful for what you have now, you will never have more. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt #YouAreGoodEnough #IAmGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2023 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. ![]() In the last month we have had our master bedroom painted and new carpeting installed. This was the last room in our home that we needed to refresh since we purchased our home eight years ago. For some reason we kept putting this one off. But it was time. Synchronizing the furniture moving, the painters, the carpeting and the furniture movers again doesn’t sound difficult, but for us it was a lot. Mostly because of the closets. We have two walk-in closets in our bedroom. His and Hers. They both needed to be emptied, but more than that, they needed to be cleaned out and de-cluttered. About a month before the project was to begin, we started seriously looking at our closets. The words, “keep – throw away – donate,” became embedded in our minds. We would take out a pair of shoes here and a sweater there. Then my husband decided to take out 10 items a day. I watched him do this for a few days. As his closet began dwindling down, my guilt for not doing it and the fear of not being ready increased. Every year I pick a word for the year. This year my word was a phrase. I wanted to, “Release to Find Peace.” I wanted to release many things in my life this year, but mostly I wanted to live in a clutter-free environment that feels peaceful. I wanted to be at peace with my relationships, my health, and my body. From my closets to my heart and mind, I wanted plenty of space for peace. I remembered this phrase as I looked into my closet. I tried to do the 10 items a day. I admit to struggling a bit. Then one day I put 12 pairs of shoes into a garbage bag and tied it up to donate. I was so proud of myself, but it really didn’t seem to make a dent in giving me more peace. The closet still held more shoes than I needed and enough clothes for me to wear something different every day for a couple of years. (Don’t judge.) Every day I took out more and more items. I made more and more trips to donate my filled bags. It seemed to get easier for a while – until it wasn’t. I began feeling like I was purging things just to say I did. Things I might need someday. When those thoughts crept in, I repeated to myself that phrase, “Release to find Peace.” Finally, the process began. Furniture was moved and all the items that were left in the closets were laid over couches and chairs around the house. The painting turned out perfect and the new carpet was soft and cushy to my bare feet. When the furniture was back in place, we began putting our closets back together – adding a few more items to our donation bags as we worked. The bedroom is now a calm and restful space. Just standing in the doorway and looking at it makes me happy. And the closets? All the trips to drop off the donations of clothes were worth it. I think all together I ‘released’ 25 pairs of shoes. (Again, don’t judge, some of them were just flip-flops.) I lost count of how many bags full of clothes we donated, but I did take a photo of the basket of empty hangers so I would remember how much we ‘released.’ My husband’s closet looks like a display in a fine men’s clothing store. To be honest, my closet still holds too much, but the improvement is drastic. I can see what I have, and I know where everything is. I am no longer overwhelmed and frustrated with the visual noise of my closet. Now my closet brings me a sense of quiet calmness. When I picked my word for this year, I asked myself a big question. Why? Why is releasing important to me? Why do I want to release these things? The answer was loud and clear - to create peace. I can’t think of one item that I got rid of from my closet that I miss or regret letting go of. But I can think of one thing I am happy to have found space for. My closet now has the space to hold peace. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: When you release, you open space for peace. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt #YouAreGoodEnough #IAmGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2023 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. ![]() Are you always chasing problems, cleaning up life messes, and repairing troubled relationships? If so, I bet you are exhausted! We all have problems, life messes, and a relationship that isn’t perfect. That doesn’t mean you should spend all your time on these negative areas. What if you looked at this differently? What if instead of working so hard to take the bad things out of your life, you tried adding more good? You know how when you fill a tub full of water that is too hot and then you add a little cold water it cools down quickly, but if you have a tub of cold water no matter how much hot water you add it never really gets hot? Think of the hot water as all the good stuff available to you in this life. Think of the cold water as the bad problems, messes, and troubles. If you have a tub that is a stable environment and full of happy times, and good relationships, (the hot water), then a few drips of problems, messes, and relationship trouble, (cold water) will never change the warmth of your life. What do you want? Of course, you want your life to be boiling over with good stuff. The stuff that makes you happy. The people that lift you up. The experiences that bring you joy. When the temperature of your life is hot with all good things, one little bad thing here and there will never cool it down. You want the pot of goodness to pop the bad bubbles right out like a drip that isn’t allowed to disturb your simmering happiness. So, isn’t it logical that you should spend more time increasing and nurturing the good? More time adding to the hot water? When you meet someone who is positive and passionate about life, intentionally work to add them to your life. People who encourage you to succeed, lift your spirit, and increase your happiness will add warmth to your life. Seek out these types of people. Work to build these friendships and add them to your life circle. What experiences bring you joy? When you are hiking do you lose yourself in the wonder of nature? When you are painting does time slip away as you immerse yourself in the creation of art? When you are sailing does the ocean air fill your lungs and your life with energy? Look for the experiences that bring joy to your life. The experiences that you can’t wait to do again. Do them over and over. Every time your heart will open wider, and your spirit will feel alive. Yes, all of this will add more heat to your life. And don’t forget to try new things. You never know what experience will open a new meaning of joy for you. Keep adding to the hot water. On the other side of this, you can’t totally ignore the problems and issues in your life. You will always have big and small messes that need attention. They will rotate in and out of importance. That is how life works. When they occur, keep an eye on them, do what you can to solve the problem, and encourage solutions. At the same time, continue to spend time on adding the good stuff. Always have your tub full of good hot water so you never allow the occasional drips of cold to freeze you into exhaustion. Keep adding the good. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: Spend more time adding the good things to your life than you do trying to get rid of the bad. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt #YouAreGoodEnough #IAmGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2023 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. ![]() I don’t like roller coasters. Some people love them. They get off the ride enthusiastically saying things like, “That was the best! So Cool! Let’s do it again!!!” Not me. If you ever get me on a roller coaster, I get off saying, “I am glad that is over! Never again!” I am uneasy with the clattering sound the track makes as my body is jolted and shifted from side to side and I am shaken in a way no body is meant to be shaken. I don’t enjoy the open-air insecurity. I clutch the safety handle (I use that term loosely) as the coaster moves on a slow ride up --knowing the entire time that soon I will be drastically dropped. The feeling of pending fear does not blend well with me. After a devastating accident in 2018, a Highway Patrolman sat next to my emergency room bed. I don’t remember much about those chaotic moments, but I do remember him saying, “You have just experienced the most horrifying roller coaster ride you will ever be on.” He had no idea how much I disliked roller coasters or how true that statement was. By all accounts, reports, and eyewitnesses, (including my own) it was a miracle that I survived. This ride included all the sounds and feelings I mentioned above - magnified a thousand times. We all have ups and downs in life. Joyful times and tragedy. We all have events and circumstances we love and we all dislike a few. That is normal and it is normal to experience some jolts and fear in life. But I don’t like roller coasters. I like a steady life of peace, security, and calm simplicity. (Que Disneyland’s It’s a Small World song – if you know you know.) I like a life of certainty. I like knowing that over the years I have created a solid standard for myself and my personal mission statement is firmly engrained in my heart. These create a sturdy and steady foundation for my life. Life would be boring if there were no surprises thrown in, so I do enjoy those. What I don’t enjoy is drama and chaos. I don’t enjoy fear. I don’t enjoy pain. Some people seem to love living life on a roller coaster of drama. Their continual moodiness and ups and downs of problems feed them. Their internal dichotomies of hate and love, joy and despair, are aired externally on a constant rotation. It is as if they require the drama in their lives and enjoy the attention it brings. They enjoy the jolts and shakes. The uncertain painful climbs and drastic drops become certain to occur in their lives. They expect it, so it continues. Which one are you? Do you jump in line for the biggest roller coaster or are you happy to walk by the crazy ride? If you step back and see yourself living life in constant drama and chaos it could be time to change. The jolts and pain wear on your body and your soul. How much of it is real and how much of it is embellished catastrophizing on your part? Do you enjoy exaggerating and expanding a story so that it is exciting to tell it over and over? Do you enjoy the attention it brings to you? The first step is realizing that you are doing this. Look at yourself, your life, and your stories from an outside perspective. Be the person that watches and listens to you – what are they thinking and seeing? It takes a deep objective look to see the truth, but once you do you will have the power to slow it down and be realistic about what is worthy of drama and what isn’t. You can get off the crazy ride. I don’t like roller coasters. Do you? ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: Don’t live in a constant state of drama. Get off the roller coaster. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt #YouAreGoodEnough #IAmGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2023 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. ![]() My phone flashes up a reminder to me every morning telling me how much screen time I had the day before. It gives me a bar chart of my screen time for the entire week and the average time per day I spend on my phone. Then it breaks it down between social media sites, photos, messages, and surfing the web. It also tells me how much time I spent listening to my newest audiobook, writing emails, and meditating – yes, I have apps for guided meditations and meditative music. It is then calculated by categories. My top three are typically Social, Creativity, and Information/Reading. I love to dabble in photography and enjoy editing my photographs. I also do a fair amount of research and reading on my phone, but Social will probably always be the category that receives the most attention on my screen time chart. I post daily thoughts and updates on my social media accounts pertaining to my work and occasionally post photos of my cute Shih Tzus. I will admit that I “follow” and “like” more than a few Influencers. In case you do not log hours every week on your screen time chart, an Influencer is a person with the ability to influence potential buyers by promoting or recommending a product or service on social media. I follow people who share my love of writing and speaking. I follow people who share decorating ideas and wonderful recipes. And yes, I follow a few Shih Tzu lovers. I will admit that I have been influenced to purchase several items and have tried many recipes posted by influencers. Sometimes I am surprised by the amount of screen time I have built up, but I love my new latte maker, (recommended by my favorite influencer), and my husband will attest to the delicious meals I have made from recipes I have found on social media. Here is the truth- we are all influencers, and we have all been influenced. When I post my motivational thoughts and quotes, I hope to influence my followers to have a happy day and a more joyful life. My goal is to touch hearts. But influencing goes deeper and broader than that. We influence and are influenced in every moment of every day. Babies watch us and are influenced to talk the way we do, walk the way we do, and eat the way we do. They watch how much time we spend on the phone and reach for the hypnotizing machine. Teenagers influence and are influenced by their peers. They see someone wearing the newest and coolest shoes and clothes and immediately they want the same ones. We see commercials on television and ads in magazines and are influenced to buy products. We watch what books are on the New York Times best-seller list and are influenced to read them. Watch couples when they are out to dinner. If one is looking at their phone, the other will do one of two things… stare at the person in hopes of them putting down the phone, or they will mirror the other person and pick up their own phone. When you mirror someone you have been influenced. We are even influenced by our language. When two people are in a conversation, and one is cursing, many times the other person is influenced to curse more than they typically do. Social media is the playground for Influencers. Social Media is where photos and filters have become the new smoke and mirrors that create a fictional world that we all want a piece of. We think we must be missing out if we don’t have those perfect shoes, eat at that amazing restaurant, or decorate our home exactly like Martha! Be very careful how you allow yourself to be influenced. And watch how you use your own power to influence others. Be cautious with your actions and words…someone is watching. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: We are all influencers, and we are all being influenced. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt #YouAreGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2023 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. ![]() It happened in the buffet line. I heard a whisper from behind me say, “You must think you are pretty darn special, to control everything.” I dropped the spoon back into the bowl of Caesar Salad and spun around to see a woman from the group I was with. I knew her, but not well. We had never had a one-on-one conversation. I am sure the expression on my face and the speed at which I turned was surprising to her, but she didn’t show it. She looked at me with an emotionless expression and softly repeated, “You must think you are pretty darn special to control everything.” I couldn’t respond. My brain was quickly trying to process what she meant and what to say in return. I wasn’t fast enough. Before I could speak, she went on with, “No one has the kind of power you think you have - to control everything. You are not responsible for everything. And you cannot control other people. Stop believing you have that much power.” With that, she stepped around me in line and continued to fill her plate. I froze looking around to see if anyone else heard the lesson I had just received. Stepping out of line I took my plate with one small spoonful of salad and sat down at a table. We were at a three-day meeting with a group we met with once a month. That morning we had broken into small group sessions. During my session, I shared what was happening in my personal life. I teetered on a downpour of tears as I told how I felt like a failure because I couldn’t control the situation and felt like it was my fault that my loved one was struggling. Moments after I told my story we broke for the buffet line. Staring at my plate I felt the hot tears building again. Yes, I blamed myself for the life circumstance my loved one was in. Yes, I felt like a failure that I couldn’t turn it around and create a happy-ever-after ending to the situation. Yes, I felt like I should have the power to fix it. In that brief moment, everything changed. With a soft whisper, the words I needed to hear gently flowed into my mind and made their way down seeing into my heart. In a buffet line, I received a message that changed my beliefs, my outlook, and the way I was living my life. I changed. Life-changing words don’t need to be shouted to be heard. It was in the soft whisper of truth that I received the message I needed. I realized there was only one life I could control and that was mine. I could guide and support others, but not control them, their path, or the outcome of their choices. I was not responsible for the decisions they made. As much as I thought I was a superwoman with a magic cape and all the answers to give - I could not ‘fix’ anything. I didn’t have a magic wand or special glitter to sprinkle that would turn a pumpkin into a white coach or someone’s mess into a perfect life— my vision of a perfect life. It was as if in that moment I was filled with understanding. I was able to accept the reality of the situation and release control of the outcome. It was in a buffet line moment that the weight lifted from my heart, and I understood that we all walk our own paths in life. No one else can walk it for us and no one else can control the direction we go or navigate our journey. No one has that much power- not even me. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: Life-changing words don’t need to be shouted to be heard. It is in the soft whispers of truth that messages are sent, and lives are changed. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt #YouAreGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2023 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. ![]() Do you watch a movie all the way until the credits end, or do you click off your remote the minute they start? Do you sit in the movie theater and read the credits or jump up and leave to be the first one out the door when the drama ends? I will admit I was never a stay-to-the-last-word kind of person… until recently. I am not sure why I began reading them, but now I find them fascinating. I watch the list of the main actors. Then the cast of names roll by of everyone in the movie even if they had the tiniest part. Sometimes I see names I recognize, and I didn’t catch their face during the film. After that, I like to see the music that is played in the background – the title, the composer, the singer. Many times it is meaningful music that I find later and add to my own life’s playlist. The writers of the words, the directors of the motion, the designers of the costumes, choreographers, sound experts, set designers, stunt people, catering people, assistants, and assistants to the assistants. No one is left off the list of credits. Even the animals in the film and those who take care of them are listed. It takes more than a village to create a motion picture that imitates life. What about our life? The real moment-by-moment adventures of our life create the drama, tragedy, love story, and comedy that folds together into the movie of us. Who would be on our list of credits at the end? Can you imagine how big the cast would be? At first the stars of the show were our parents and us. The cast was much bigger. There was a team of doctors and nurses that brought us into this world. As we grew the list of cast members grew. Siblings, babysitters, teachers, coaches, friends, and pets filled the big screen of our lives. Soon girlfriends, boyfriends, spouses, partners, employers, and employees were added. Our life was choreographed as we danced to our drums and sang with our hearts. And when events were celebrated or tragedy knocked us down, remember those who celebrated with us and picked us up when we fell. Remember the doors of family, churches, and places of support that opened and invited us in. Over the years, there were service people who sold us the items we use every day and the people who served us meals. Writers, editors, and publishers who created the books, newspapers, and magazines we read. The computer wizards that gave us the ability to access information at the touch of a keyboard and helped us work in this world. If you pull back the curtain and look behind the scenes, you would see the contractors that built our homes, the farmers that grew our food, and the companies that produce the electricity and gas that powered our lives. If you really think about it, would our list ever end? Everything we use, touch, and see in life is here because of someone other than ourselves. They don’t show up in our daily routine, but they deserve mentioning on our roll of credits. Maybe when our lives end, we should roll our credits. All of these people should be on it. It isn’t just us in this life. There is much more than a village that is responsible for all that happens in our life story- from the first cry to the last breath. When our life is over, I hope that someone will honor me by acknowledging all the people who made my life possible. After the tears, the speeches, and the goodbyes, I wonder who would stay until the last credit rolled. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: It takes more than a village to create the life we live. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt #YouAreGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2023 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. ![]() When I was a child, my friendships were created by walking together to school, sitting next to each other in the cafeteria, and being chosen for the kickball team at recess. Later in my life, I remember having coffee with my friends as our babies played nearby. I wouldn’t think of going a day without talking to my friends on the phone. I made friends sitting next to other moms as our children played soccer and baseball. I have had coworkers who became close confidants and soul connections. Now in our fast-paced world do we know what having a close friend is? Do we confuse friendship with acquaintance? Is friendship defined by a blue thumbs-up on social media? Do these cartoon thumbs really represent a person that touches our hearts or are many of them there for self-acknowledgment – the more the better. I asked the question- “What is your definition of a Friend?” to a progression of ages. A 6-year-old answered, “They are nice and funny.” A 9-year-old responded with, “They are nice and they like who you are, not for how you look but for who you are.” A 12-year-old reacted with, “Best pal, your forever buddy, someone who will be there if times get tough.” Another 12-year-old replied, “Friendship is a bond that can’t easily be broken. Friends know what you’re going to say/do before you do it. They know what you are feeling.” A 17-year-old reacted with, “Friends are people that are loyal to each other.” A 47-year-old answered, “Friends are people who make your problems their problems so you don’t have to go through it alone.” A 69-year-old said, “Someone I am always there for and they are always there for me.” An 86-year-old said thoughtfully, “I tend to like people I have always been friends with. If you live to be old and can count your friends on the fingers of one hand- great! If you have more, that’s a bonus!” An 87-year-old answered – “Somebody that you can rely on to ask personal questions and she won’t tell anyone else, and you do things together.” I would agree with all these definitions. My definition would be someone that I hold mutual support, encouragement, and trust with. Someone I can laugh with and cry with. Someone, the first one, I would call at 2 AM to tell good news or bad. Friendship morphs, grows, stagnates, or disintegrates during different stages and circumstances in life. There are many reasons for the ebb and flow, closeness, or detachment of a friendship. Location plays a huge role. As a child moving across town changes the dynamic of friendship. For me, growing up in a military family, moves across the country plunked me into new schools and new populations. I learned how to make friends on the playground or stand alone. Divorce will create a situation of dividing property, belongings, and yes, friends. As we age, death and illness become a reality of life. Friends may pass away before us or become physically or mentally unable to participate in a friendship. I have lived in many places and I have had many friendships. Some are lasting like my oldest friend in life – shout out to Kristi. Some have faded due to relocation. Some have been shattered by broken trust. Some have been lost through the division of divorce and separation of death. I wonder if, as our friend circle shrinks, should we be trying to make new friends? Or is my small inner circle of trusted friends enough? No matter where you are in this cycle of life or what your definition of a friend is, my hope for you is that you have at least one. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson “When you find a friend hold them close to your heart. A true friendship should be valued and honored.” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt #YouAreGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2023 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. ![]() It happened quickly. I was leaving the store and passed a mom with her small son. They were followed by a young girl walking a few steps behind them. It wasn’t an unordinary sight except for one thing. The sadness in the girl’s face and the single tear rolling down her cheek. On the way to my car, my mind painted many scenarios. Maybe she was fighting with her brother and scolded by her mom. Maybe she wanted to buy a toy and was told no. Maybe she wanted to spend the night at a friend’s house and her family had other plans. Maybe she fell in the parking lot and skinned her knee. Maybe it was a small incident that hurt her heart and caused her pain. Maybe it was bigger. I have raised my children and spent enough time with my grandchildren to know that on any given day children can cry many times, for many reasons. I am sure I was in several stores when my children were young and they had tears on their faces for the scenarios I imagined about this little girl. But on this day, this girl was giving me a bigger message. How many times do I rush through life walking right by people without giving any thought to the pain they carry? We all do it. The barista at your favorite coffee shop, the clerk who brings groceries to your car for curbside pickup, the barber who cuts your hair, the server who brings your food, your teacher, your student, your employee, your boss... do you know what pain they carry? We all carry pain. It isn’t always carried with a sad face and a tear. Sometimes it is the people with the biggest smile and the loudest laugh that carry the most pain. How do we know? What can we do? It just takes the one thing everyone seems to have the least of. Time. We are all busy and rushing so we don’t notice. We don’t have to notice. We don’t want to notice. It just takes a second to smile at someone and let them feel seen. It just takes a minute to be kind, friendly, and wish someone a happy day. To make them feel like you care. It just takes a little time to ask someone how they are and not just as you walk away but ask and wait for the answer. The real answer. We have all created a habit of being busy. A habit of rushing. A habit of avoidance. Think about what we are missing. We are missing connection. Communication. Caring. It just takes a little time to care enough to connect. To communicate and learn about others. To show interest in their feelings and share in their happiness - and their pain. I tried to make quick eye contact with the girl that day and smile at her. I don’t think she noticed. If she had stopped crying and wiped her tears two minutes before I walked by, I would not have noticed her. I would have never spent time wondering about her sadness. Wondering about her pain. I would not have received the message. The message is that we all carry pain. We don’t get through life without hurt, loss, or tragedy. We don’t get through life without pain that we carry deep in our hearts. The tears and the scar tissue may not be visible, but it is there. Once we experience this type of pain and learn the lessons that accompany it, we become more aware of the pain others carry. Hopefully, we share some of our time to wipe a tear or two, give a smile, or have a conversation when it is needed. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: We never know the pain others carry in their hearts. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt #YouAreGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2023 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. ![]() This is my birthday week and I find myself being introspective about my life and the lessons I have learned along the way. It has taken me years to learn some of them. Some of them were learned through painful experiences. All of them are important. I am sharing these lessons with you today in the hope of you learning them sooner than I did. 1. Don’t wish your life away! I couldn’t wait to be thirteen. My Mom said, “Don’t wish your life away.” Now, all these quick years later I understand the wisdom in that statement. Time goes fast! 2. I love Brussels sprouts! I hated Brussels sprouts for over 50 years. The truth is I had never tried one. When I did, I fell in love and have been making up for lost time ever since. You can’t hate what you haven’t tried and you can’t judge what you haven’t lived. Let that statement simmer for a minute. 3. Don’t tell anyone you are on a diet! If you need to make a life change like losing weight or changing jobs you may need a support group or career coach, but don’t tell anyone else. People will scrutinize every pound you lose (and gain), every job you apply for, and every rejection letter you receive. If they don’t know, when you have setbacks and disappointments, they won’t magnify your defeat. When you have good news to share let them celebrate the victory with you. 4. Know when to say NO and when to say YES! After years of saying “Yes” to every request for my energy and time, I suffered a few stress-induced illnesses. I learned that I couldn’t do it all and I wasn’t Wonder Woman. I learned how to say, “No” when I needed to and “Yes” to myself. 5. Not everyone likes me! What is not to like about me? I was the people-pleasing cocker spaniel that when I got kicked wanted to jump up and lick the face of the kicker to prove that I was sweet, kind, and deserving of love. The reality is – not everyone likes cocker spaniels. I learned to spend my time liking and loving the ones who do. Don’t waste your time trying to prove yourself to anyone. 6. Do What You Love! Don’t waste a precious moment doing work you hate. Do what brings you joy. If you can’t do it full-time, do it as a hobby, but do what you love! 7. Know when to risk and know when to let go! I owned Apple stock when it was $22 a share and sold it at $24. Big mistake! This is an example of doing this wrong. Knowing when to hold something and when to let it go is an intuitive skill that grows with listening to your inner voice when it tells you to run down the street after them yelling, “I love you!” or to turn and walk away as the sun sets and the credits roll. 8. Take care of yourself! Being healthy matters. Take care of the body that carries your soul. Think about your health when you’re 28- don’t wait until you are 88. 9. Be quiet and listen. Sit alone and in silence. Listen to your heart. Listen to the silence. You will be amazed at what you hear! 10. We are all one phone call away from our knees. When the phone rings and the message of loss is delivered, you will be on your knees. With the aid of love and grace, we will stand back up stronger than before. Once this hard lesson has been learned your heart will expand with the love required to support others when they fall. 11. Learn to accept and adapt to change! The happiest, healthiest people are the ones who can accept and adapt to change. The good and the bad. 12. How you define age is how you define your outlook on life. Is age the number on your birthday cake? Are you old when your children grow up and leave the house? Did you feel old when you became a grandparent? Aging does bring quirky pains and irritating limitations that don’t seem quite fair. But it also brings lessons and wisdom. The ability to look forward with hope and optimism is the outlook I want in life – from whatever age I’m standing in now. 13. Be grateful and love your life- NO MATTER WHAT! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie's Life Lesson Learn YOUR own lessons well. Happy Living. Love and Blessings, Pennie ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt #YouAreGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2023 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. ![]() I am not sure how it happened. We did some landscaping. We added some rock work and a few trees and plants to our yard. A year later a single branch sprouted from the rocks. Then a second one stretched out of the ground. I wasn’t exactly sure what it was but for two years I watched it grow slowly. Last year it looked like a bush. I thought it was quite lovely as the leaves rustled in the wind. The green added a lovely touch to the corner of our driveway. My neighbor asked me what it was and said it was the most beautiful thing on our street. A strong compliment for something that grew by accident. The mystery sprout became a tree, so this year I snipped off all the lower branches and it grew with a power I never expected. Taller than me. Much taller than me and well on its way to becoming a large strong tree. How many times has something happened in life that caused us to unintentionally grow? We didn’t plan it. We may not have wanted it to happen, but it did and caused a growth spurt that we never expected. We grew in strength. Grew in experience. Grew mentally, emotionally, or spiritually. In school you may have let your grades slip and the consequences were painful. You may not have been able to participate in sports or you may have enjoyed a little summer school time. Learning to be more responsible in the future with your schoolwork and appreciating the benefit of playing your favorite sport was the unintentional growth you gained. You may have lost someone you love. The pain of grief can be unbearable. Living through, and with, this kind of pain can create growth in powerful ways. Your empathy and compassion for others grows. Your kindness and attention to the simple things in life grows. Your love for the time spent with family and friends grows. With deep pain comes deep (unintentional) growth. You may have been laid off from a job. The panic of this type of situation causes stress, worry, and loss of confidence. As you search for a new job you begin to realize that you can find success elsewhere. In the future you plan your savings in case this happens again. You learn to be prepared for the unexpected. The learning and growth that comes from a stressful situation leads to confidence and strength. With time you realize it may have been the best thing that ever happened to you. What seemed to be the end of the world opened the door for a new beginning. The most difficult of times can cause the most dramatic growth. I am not sure how our new tree happened to find us. Maybe a seed was dormant in one of the plants we intentionally planted and with the water and attention it decided to burst into its glory. Maybe it was a seed that blew from a neighbor’s tree swirling and dancing until it nestled into the safety of our rocks. How ever it came to live with us, its accidental growth has been a magical process to watch. In the same way, our own unintentional growth can be a magical process to experience. We may not understand why it happens to us. It may take years before we fully realize the growth we have experienced because of it. The process may be painful, but as it expands our hearts it can become a beautiful benefit to our lives. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: The most difficult of times can cause the most dramatic growth. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt #YouAreGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2023 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. ![]() Fear is a big word. A big bad four-letter word. How many times does this word stop you? Probably more often than you realize. It stops you from taking a risk. It stops you from moving forward. It stops you from reaching for your dreams. Try these 7 suggestions to help you be in control of fear: 1. Discover your hidden emotions. We have many emotions in our lifetime. Guilt, shame, anger, grief, love, joy, serenity, and so many more. Many times, we hide these in the deepest part of our being. We hide guilt and shame because we are afraid others will find out about our past. We carry grief in secret spots of our hearts. We may not want to seem too happy, too joyful, or too serene because we are afraid we will look a little wacky. We may be afraid to tell people we love them, so we hide our emotions. Dig deep into what emotions you are hiding and why. Step over the fear and share them. You will soon realize how bringing emotions into the light helps you connect with others and lessens fear. When we share our hidden emotions, we realize just how similar we all are. 2. Love. Allow yourself to love and be loved. I believe this is the reason we are here in this life. When you show love and accept love you will live in a loving way. When love is your guiding light, it outshines the darkness of fear. 3. Failure is part of life. Accept that you will fail and stop fearing failure. Don’t fear making mistakes or taking a risk. Some will work out. Some won’t. But, with every failure you learn. With every step back you open space to see a new path forward. With time, you will realize that every failure comes with a reason why. 4. Accept change. One absolute in life is change. Babies grow up. Our bodies age. Loved ones pass away. Warm summer days will turn into the cold blizzards of winter. We may not like the change we experience, but we cannot stop most of it. Learn to control the controllable and learn to accept the uncontrollable changes in life. 5. Be grateful. Gratitude and fear are not compatible. When you feel the negativity of fear creeping in, be grateful for all you have. Start with the smallest of things and continue building your courage through the positivity of gratitude. The more gratitude you feel the less space you have for fear. 6. Live your own dream. Everyone has an idea about how you should live your life, but no one except you will actually live it. Don’t live your life for someone else’s dream. Don’t allow others to fill you with their opinions about your life. Be smart. Do your research. Create a plan. Look at all the angles. A mentor is helpful, but don’t allow negative voices to create fear. Don’t allow the opinions of others to stop your dreams. 7. Align your dreams, desires, intentions, and actions. When you do everything you can do to mold these together you will hold a belief that it will happen. Release the fear of how it will happen or if it will happen. Remember this quote: “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” ― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist Yes, FEAR is a big word and disguises itself in many ways. It holds you back from your full potential. It creates anger, hate, depression, isolation, shame, guilt and so many versions of negativity. You will never be 100% free of fear, but you can control and minimize your fear. Fear can become a small word that holds very little power over you. You can replace Fear with words like Love, Acceptance, Gratitude, and Dreams. Now, those are big words! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: Don’t allow fear to block your dreams. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt #YouAreGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2023 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. ![]() I hated them. He loved them. The small, knitted beanies were always on his head. He had them in a variety of styles and colors. In the early 2000’s they were not all that common. I thought they looked funny and much preferred him wearing a baseball cap, but beanies were his thing. After he passed in 2007 photographs became important. In almost all the photographs taken of him during his last few years, he was wearing his beanies. The brown one he wore most of the time. The baby blue one that a friend gave him. A light brown wool one that he never wanted me to wash because it would shrink. And the striped Guinness one he was wearing the day his daughter was born. I realized the beanies were part of his personality. He never cared what people thought. He played his own drum and walked to his own beat. The beanies were packed away with his special belongings. Carefully stored in a Rubbermaid tub full of memories. Now, 16 years later everyone wears beanies. When I see a young man wearing one, I think of my son and how he was ahead of his time. Ahead of the fashion curve. This summer when my granddaughter, (his daughter) came to my house wearing a beanie I smiled and said, “You know your dad always wore beanies.” Her excitement was obvious when she responded with, “Do you still have any of them?” Yes, yes, I did. I thought about it for a few weeks and then I knew exactly which one I needed to give to her. The one he was wearing the day she was born. I wasn’t sure it was appropriate to give a 16-year-old a beer beanie, but it was the right one. I washed it. I bought a pill shaver and spent a couple of hours carefully shaving off the tiny dots of fuzz that accumulate on knitwear over time. My granddaughter and I were out for dinner when I gave it to her. I told her it was a special beanie and showed her the photo of him wearing it and holding her just hours after she was born. She was only 9 months old when he passed and has no memories of him. Over the years I have told her stories about him not to overwhelm her, but to keep him alive in a small way. To help her understand who her dad was. And to allow his memory to dance in my heart with every story I told. As she accepted the beanie, I told her the story of her birth and how proud he was holding her in that photograph. I told her what a special time that Christmas Eve morning was when she arrived. She held it, looked it over, and laid it on her coat next to her. We finished our dinner, put our coats on, and walked to our cars to go home. With the beanie in her hand, we hugged goodbye, and I said, “You know, I am going to need a photo of you wearing that beanie.” She smiled and said, “I love you” and ran through the wind to her car as I was reciprocating the feeling. The wind carried my words away. “I love you too, sweet girl!” Driving home I thought about the beanie and the journey it had been on. I thought about how years ago I hated it. Now I felt like I had just given one of my most precious possessions to one of my most precious people. When I arrived home, I sat quietly drinking hot tea and hoping she loved it like I did. Beeeep. It was the sound of a text message. I saw her name flash on the screen and opened the message. There were no words. Just a photo of her wearing the beanie. The beanie’s journey was complete. It landed right where it was meant to be. And I couldn’t love it more! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: Sometimes it takes a journey to understand the connected threads of love. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt #YouAreGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2023 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. ![]() Do you know what your core values are? Do you even know what that means? Many companies and organizations have a list of core values that guide their business and mission. They hold their employees and partners to the standards set by the core values. When employee evaluations are conducted the demonstration of the core values is assessed. Have you thought of what your personal core values are? If core values are important in a work and organizational setting, shouldn’t they be important in our personal life? Core values are what you value in life. What is important to you. What you stand for. What you stand by when you make life decisions. They are nonnegotiable and you don’t waver from them. I believe I have had core values but have never officially written them down – until now. I thought I would share them with you. Love- I believe this is the main reason we are in this life- to love and be loved. I value love highly in my relationships and interactions with others. I try to be loving and push love to others- even if it is a silent wish for a stranger that I walk by. Kindness- This isn’t difficult –be kind to humans, animals, and our world. Compassion- Being empathetic, forgiving, and compassionate to others and to myself. We all struggle. We have all failed. We all have burdens and heartaches. None of us are perfect. Show compassion for the imperfections we all carry. Communication/Connection- I crave connection. I have an intense inner desire to communicate with others. Family and friendships hold a deep space in my heart. Helping, holding, and harmonizing with others is as natural to me as breathing. Without it, I become less than who I am meant to be. Happiness- Happiness is my choice. My moment-by-moment choice. Why would I choose any negative state when happiness is an option? Why would I waste one precious moment of my life unhappy? I choose to be happy. Trust- Acting consistently in a way that promotes honesty, reliability, and safety. Creativity- I am a creator in the deepest core of my being. I must decorate. I must paint. I must put words together to form writings that touch others. My mind is constantly thinking in a creative way. What can I do next? How can I do it? How can I experience and add beauty to this life? Spirituality- I am a believer. I believe there is more to this existence than what we can see and touch. I believe the love of the generations before us surrounds us now. I believe what we do ripples across this life and beyond - touching many. The mystical magic of spirituality is deeply engrained in my beliefs. Peace- I dislike conflict. I really, really dislike it. I want everyone to get along, be nice, be kind, and respect each other. I spend a great deal of time navigating life to temper conflict, repair conflict, and avoid conflict. My intention is to create as much peace as I can for myself and for others. Gratitude- Gratitude is not last on this list because it is the least important. It is last on this list because it is intertwined with all the other values. If I am struggling in any area of life, I ask myself if I am coming from a place of gratitude for my life and all the people in it. Do I show and express gratitude for every moment I am given? During times of deepest grief and despair, gratitude has saved my life. There you have it. My Ten Personal Core Values. If you read my books or columns, you may have guessed some of these. I am not always perfect with each one of these expectations for myself, but I try. Now that I have them written down, I will try harder. You may think 10 is a lot. Maybe it is You may have 3-5. My challenge to you is if you don’t know what your core values are, make your list now. If you have them written down review them and see if you are living in line with those values. I would love to hear from you – share your core values with me! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: Create a list of core values that guide your life. Review them often. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt #YouAreGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2023 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. ![]() Have you ever run away? Run away from a place? Run away from a person or a relationship? Run away from a job? I remember as a little girl being mad at my parents and wishing I could run away from home. As a teenager, I couldn’t wait to be done with school and I just wanted to run away after graduation and not think about school again. I have had jobs I hated and situations I didn’t like and wished I could run away to something better. Some place better. I call it the Goldilocks Syndrome- constantly thinking one bed is too hard, one is too soft and searching for the one that will be just right. Then when you think you have found it you expect everything to be perfect. After time passes you realize everything isn’t perfect, so you are convinced that the porridge is too hot, or too cold, so you begin your search again. You run away to something new. When you run away you forget one thing -- wherever you go you take you with you. Maybe it isn’t the place where you live, the job, or the relationship that is the problem. Maybe there is something in you that needs to be addressed. Moving to a new location, finding a new job, or starting a new relationship all have one thing in common—you are still searching for happiness and perfection that will be given to you from the outside. You run away from what isn’t perfect in the hope of finding perfection somewhere else. You will never enjoy happiness if you always believe it is somewhere else. Before you run away, learn to have peace where you are. Learn to find happiness within you. Learn to be happy with yourself. You forget that joy and happiness come from the simple things. And the simple things are the important things. You can find them everywhere. You don’t have to chase them. The smell of lilacs, the taste of a chocolate chip cookie, the sunrise, the night stars- these are everywhere. Find the good in people where you are now. They are right where you are. Stop looking for happiness in other places. Until you are grateful for what you have now, you will never have more. Maybe you were planted somewhere for a reason. Maybe there are lessons you need to learn and experiences you need to have for you to grow. If you continually run away every time something isn’t just right, you will never learn the lessons. You will never grow. You can’t run away but you can move towards something. There are times when a job promotion requires you to relocate. A long-distance relationship may become permanent, and you move to be with that person. You must know when it is the right time to say yes. When it is the right YES for you. Learn to tell the difference between the right time and just another race to run away from your perceived disappointment to your perceived perfection. The right movement comes when you begin enjoying and being grateful for the simple things you have now. It comes from appreciating the experiences and the lessons in each moment. It comes from understanding that the porridge is not always going to be the perfect temperature but enjoying the flavor anyway. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: Don’t run away every time you think life isn’t perfect. Take a good look at yourself. Remember, every time you run, you take YOU with you. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt #YouAreGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2023 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. ![]() When my kids were small, I would tell them the worst thing they could do was lie to me. I explained that we could get through any mistake they made, problem they had, or whatever happened in life, if they told the truth. If they had problems at school, didn’t finish their homework, or started an argument with their sibling we could work it out if they told the truth. Lying about what happened was the worst offense and they knew it. Now my kids are grown and are doing an amazing job of parenting their own children. Recently as I was sharing this lesson with my grandchildren, I realized that lying to me wouldn’t be the worst offense they could do. Lying to themselves could be more harmful. The most dangerous and damaging lies are the ones we tell ourselves. Our mind can be a powerful manipulator. It tries to feed us negative thoughts constantly. Thoughts that stifle our self-confidence and smother our dreams. This part of our mind is an internal bully that beats us up. It punches us by saying things like - you are not attractive enough, smart enough, or worthy enough. We start to believe that we aren’t qualified enough for that job promotion, we aren’t smart enough to express our opinions, and we aren’t interesting or appealing enough to have the relationship of our dreams. We miss opportunities because we fear the lies are true. Is any of it true? No. It is the fictitious imagination of our brain bully. The brain bully tells us to do things because after all what harm is there? We listen to the bully in our head that insists that what we do isn’t hurting anyone. So, we make bad choices. We do things that we know are not right. If no one knows we are doing it, we aren’t hurting anyone. But is that true? No, we are hurting a very important person…ourselves. Our brain bully tells us lies that sound like the truth. This type of negative self-talk works so well because the lies are massaged and molded into a convincing narrative. It is repeated and repeated until we believe it. We pull back from our dreams. We accept what we are given in life and believe we are not deserving of more. We believe the lies we tell ourselves. The brain bully is part of us. An ugly, unreliable, untrustworthy, controlling part of us. Call it your brain bully or give it a name- Fred, Marsha, Anabell… whatever you want to call the bully that feeds you negative thoughts. Start listening to your thoughts and soon you will recognize the truth from the brain bully’s ridiculous rhetoric. You will begin to catch the thoughts that don’t pass the does-this-make-sense test. You will begin to reject the lies that are disguised as the truth. The more you push back your brain bully the quieter it will become. The more you ignore it and move forward with your dreams the less power it will have. It will no longer hold you hostage to its nonsensical banter. Your fear will disappear, and your confidence muscle will grow. Without the constant lies your self-esteem will increase and life will become a clear and clean place for you to explore. Lies are harmful things, but the most dangerous and damaging lies are the ones we tell ourselves. We believe and trust ourselves more than any other person. So, when we hear our mind talk we want to believe that it is telling us the truth. We don’t want to believe it would lie to us, but that brain bully does. Now take a minute and think… what was the biggest lie you have told yourself? ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: Don’t listen to negative self-talk. The most dangerous and damaging lies are the ones we tell ourselves. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt #YouAreGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2023 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. ![]() “What are you up to today, Mom?” I asked. “Weeelll, I have the vacuum cleaner out. I need to vacuum the living room.” I don’t know the number of times those two sentences were included in a phone conversation with my mom. I lived five hours away from her. Many times when I visited her I would walk in her house and see the vacuum cleaner sitting in the middle of her living room. She would tell me she planned to vacuum before I arrived, but just didn’t get it done. I would vacuum for her and put the vacuum cleaner in the closet. At first, I thought she hated to vacuum, and she knew I would do it for her when I arrived. I am not sure when the clarity came to me that explained the real reason she never seemed to do the vacuuming. She was in her 80’s and living alone. Daily tasks were becoming more than she could handle on her own and the thought of vacuuming had become an overwhelming chore. One she could no longer manage. I think she looked at it. I think she wanted to vacuum and clean the dirt from her life. But she couldn’t. Mom spent her last few years in an assisted living community. Her apartment was cleaned for her. She stopped talking about the need to vacuum the living room. The vacuum stayed in the closet. She never mentioned it again. I still think of that vacuum cleaner sitting in the middle of her living room. I wonder how many of us have one in the middle of our room. In the middle of our life. It may not look like a vacuum, but the meaning is the same. A task that seems overwhelming. A project that we feel like we will never accomplish. A skill we are certain we cannot master. A hurt from our past that we don’t want to deal with. And so the vacuum sits there. We think about it. We know it needs to be done. We want to do it. But the size and scope of it overwhelms us. The idea becomes a large frightening monster that we hope someone else will handle. Or we give up on ever having the ability to accomplish it. We feel inadequate. We don’t believe we will ever be good enough to do the job. Our fear and insecurity grow. The project sits there right in the middle of the room. We walk around it. We throw a blanket over it to hide it. We ignore it and wish our desire to accomplish it will diminish. But it is there. We trip over it. We stub our toe on it. We move it around to keep it out of our way. But it never leaves. Fill in the blank with what your desire is. A new job. A new relationship. A college degree. Painting your house. Or is it something personal like rebuilding a bridge from your past? Apologizing or clearing out some internal trauma. What do you want to accomplish that you feel you aren’t good enough to do? If you stare at the vacuum in the middle of the room long enough without trying, soon years will go by. There will come a time when you can’t physically or mentally do it. Don’t wait. Stop tip-toeing around the issue. Do one thing today that puts you one step closer to moving that vacuum. Make one phone call. Research one class. Create a budget and begin saving for that trip. Write a letter of apology. Schedule an appointment. Do one thing that sets a plan in motion. As for me, what am I up to today, you might ask… I have some vacuuming to do. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: Open your eyes to see the vacuum in the middle of your life. Take one step that puts you on the path of dealing with it. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #CornerofSpiritandBrave #loveyourlifenomatterwhat #journeythrough #PennieHunt #YouAreGoodEnough
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 © 2013-2023 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. |
AuthorThere is a certain magic about where I live both physically and spiritually – on the crossroads of Spirit and Brave. Archives
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