Mary Pierce

TODAY’S LAUGH: I’m watching the morning news, which we’ve recorded on the DVR so we can flip past the ads. I hear the anchor tease the next segment. “Coming up, police release a sketch of the suspect in the (such-and-such) case…” Go to commercial. I hit the “jump forward” on the remote and land on a commercial showing a guy’s fist with a face drawn on it.

I look at this goofy “face” and in my head I’m still hearing “…sketch of the suspect…” And I think, HA! Good luck catching THAT guy. A quick trip to the restroom and he’s gone forever!

TODAY’S ENCOURAGEMENT: Wouldn’t it be great to be able to DVR your life? To flip through the bad stuff and focus on the good? Good news: you CAN! It’s all about choosing to dwell on the things that uplift and encourage, build up and inspire. It is your choice.

TRY IT: Right this moment, close your eyes and “see” something good in your life–a blessing, a loved one, a dream, a success. The way your sweetheart looked when… The day you heard the fabulous news that… The way you felt when you found out something great. Let your mind stay there in that moment, reliving the joy, experiencing again–in full color–how the moment made you feel. Feel the gratitude in your heart. Give thanks. Breathe.

Our mental DVR has recorded all the good stuff. So the next time your mind is bogged down in the negatives, take a moment, close your eyes and flip over to something wonderful. Whatever is good, whatever is right, whatever is excellent, whatever is worthy of praise–let your mind dwell there.

Your choice. Your life.

Now, go be a blessing to someone else today.

P.S. I’m so excited! “When Did My Life Become a Game of Twister?” hits the bookstores NEXT WEEK–a great gift for every woman on your holiday shopping list. (Also available online at Amazon, B&N, etc.) The goal is to sell 10,000 books right out of the chute. WHEW! Can we do it?? I’ll keep you posted. Tell a friend, please? Thanks SO MUCH for your support!

TODAY’S LAUGH (OR ELSE I’LL CRY): As soon as I started promising a new post every Tuesday, I should have known it wouldn’t work out that way. Things conspire to keep us from getting to where we think we want to go. Today (Thursday) I was finishing up a presentation for this weekend and DaMaMa said her 94-year-old hip hurt. So she needed to go to Urgent Care for an x-ray. And the company that promised to provide care for her while I travel this weekend just called to say, “Oops, sorry no can do…” And on the way home from the doctor, we had to stop and get her a walker and I almost had an accident in a construction zone…

So how was your day?

What I expected today–a nice quiet preparation day–turned into quite another kind of day. Expectations and reality often collide, don’t they?

TODAY’S ENCOURAGEMENT: Even if you don’t get where you thought you wanted to go, you will end up somewhere, and it might be somewhere better. As my mom and I drove home, the sun was setting and its last light slanted just so across the tops of the oaks, spotlighting them in amazing and unexpected ways. I slowed down a little so we could take it all in. The oaks were truly showing off tonight. A show just for us, it seemed.

Had the day gone according to my original plan, I would have missed it. Maybe tomorrow I’ll leave a little room in the schedule for the unexpected.

And may the unexpected surprise and delight you, too!

P.S. ANOTHER UNEXPECTED SURPRISE TODAY: My publisher is featuring my new book on the Breakfast Club online book club. You can read the first chapters online, and if you tell a friend, you can get a free book!

TODAY’S LAUGH: I just sat down to check my email this morning and my “news flash alert” window opened. The little box said, “LIFE IS HARDER TODAY, EXPERTS SAY.” Ha!

Do we really need experts to tell us that? Life is hard. Harder today than in days before cells and wireless, before we felt like we HAD to be connected all the time, to everybody and everything, everywhere. Back in the “good old days” when things moved slower…

TODAY’S ENCOURAGEMENT: When California grandkids visited us here in the north woods last week, we took a walk up the road. Slowing down, I was reminded that staghorn sumac seeds feel like furry raspberries. And, through kid eyes, I appreciated again that sumac morphing from green to brilliant burgundy in the fall is nothing short of a miracle. And I saw anew, through kid eyes, that God’s Spirit lives in the dense dark of oak hollows as well as on hilltops. Everywhere. All the time.

So here’s another NEWS FLASH: Life doesn’t have to be so hard. Take a walk this week. Let the little kid in you slow down. Look around. See the glory. You don’t need an “expert” to point it out.

Rejoice in life and breathe, breathe, breathe.

Between the fog in Seattle and then rain and runway construction in Minneapolis causing flight delays and cancellations, it took DaHusband and me 17 hours to get home from last weekend’s speaking gig. After fourteen hours hanging around airports, we finally made it home at 2:30 a.m. Ugh.

And Izzy came home sick from the kennel. (Two meds three times a day. Fun.) And the next day, racing to get DaMaMa to her haircut appointment, my old car started smoking mysteriously. And that afternoon we found out Joey’s mommy has pregnancy worries. And I’m supposed to be reporting for jury duty next week, while kids and grandkids are here for a surprise visit from out of state.

“Hey God,” I said, “I just FINISHED writing the book about life being a game of Twister. So what’s all this–material for the sequel?”

No, said He. (He hardly ever talks out loud, but I recognize His voice). This is life. Welcome to Normal.

Today’s Encouragement: “Normal” life is full of craziness. It’s what we get for loving and caring about others. It’s all part of living and being needed.

Life is full of crazy stuff. I can embrace it, “go with the flow” or I can choose to fight it. The alternative is emptiness.

Sanity is vastly overrated. And lonely. For today, I’m going for “crazy” with all my heart. And taking good notes…