Spring!

Well, spring has sprung here in beautiful Boulder. Temps in the 60's and 70's with daffodils and crocus blooming around town. I have to admit - I'm ready. That's not to say we won't get any more snow...in fact we NEED more snow. It has been an incredibly dry winter, and with the wildfires that we have already had this year, we really need the moisture.

None of that is really my point. In fact, I just like to talk about how beautiful it is in order to drive my friends and family back in Minnesota absolutely nuts. No, my real point is that spring is a time of renewal. Revival. Rebirth. It is a time to trim away the dead remains of winter and start fresh. Days are longer and the sun is brighter; casting light into the darker corners of our lives. Most people who decide to make changes in their lives and habits do it in January...we call them New Year's Resolutions. Me? I do 'em in spring. January is dark and cold and not all together inspiring. Spring on the other hand...

Get outside. Go for a bike ride. Plant pansies. There is nothing like the great outdoors to center yourself and focus on what is important - whatever that is to you. Peek into the dusty corners and clean them out. I mean that literally as well as figuratively. Spring cleaning is a great exercise: both for your home and your soul.

For those of you still locked in the frozen throes of winter...sorry about that. For the rest of us, its time. Get out and love it.

Upside down and sideways...

I am out of sorts. Not bad really - just sort of off-balance. Everything feels a bit muted. Things that should make me REALLY happy make me sort of happy - and things that should REALLY tick me off, sort of tick me off. I'm really not at all sure why. In fact, I don't even have any good theories right now. So that leads me to this: how important is it for us to understand "why?" I enjoy self-indulgent navel-gazing as much as the next person, but in situations like this, maybe it makes a lot more sense to just notice how I am feeling and accept it. One of the single biggest things that I think that we can do for ourselves is to learn to be comfortable in our own skins. Take the good moods with the bad. Learn to take a look at how we are feeling without judgment and simply say "this is how I'm feeling...isn't that interesting" Try to suspend all of the ego assumptions that we attach to "how we are feeling today." Each and every part of you is just that PART OF YOU. It isn't good. It isn't bad. It does not have to be dissected into its smallest - and often least logical - state. It just IS.

I'm certainly not using this as an excuse not to change or grow - indeed quite the opposite. I think that acceptance leads to peace of knowing - and I think that it is in this state of peace where the most exciting and transformational changes can happen.