I am sure it will come as no surprise to any of you that life can be hard.  That said, I hope that each of us can identify, at least, one person that makes it easier.  That person that is able to shine the light in the dark places for us, when we cannot find them ourselves.
 
We all deserve that, and I have even given sessions on that very topic to session participants on how to identify and “collect” those people for our kids and our families.  Yet, sometimes, in seeking the light for others, we can let it slip our minds, that we have the opportunity to be that light for others as well.
 
Who is it in your life that could use a little light shined in the dark spaces?  How can we shine our own lights, however dim they may feel, in a way that allows it to brighten the day of someone who may not need it, even if we don’t know who that person is.
 
The good news is- I don’t think there is anything we actually need to do.  By living our authentic selves, and living our lives as big as we feel comfortable living it and having opportunities to do that, we shine.  And what shines attracts others and they will find the light they need, maybe without us even knowing it.  And that is a beautiful thing. 
 
Keep shining, my friends.  The world needs your light as much as we sometimes need it from others.

All around me there is excitement about a “return to normal”.  It could be easy to get caught up in the excitement that this crazy experiment, the first in our life-time of its kind, might be nearing an end.  Yet- I find myself hesitating.
 
How can that be?- A return to “normal”, means a possible return to time alone? A return to “normal”, means a possible return to time for self- care!  A return to “normal”, means a possible return to time for things that have been on my To—Do list for over a year!  A return to “normal”, means a possible return to having time for even thinking about what I could do with more time!!  Yet- I hesitate. 
 
I have been thinking a lot about that hesitation lately and I think it comes to this:  I might want a “closer to normal” but I am not sure I want to go back to just what we had before.  Going “Back to Normal” feels like going backwards.  It makes it feel like the past year+ hasn’t actually happened and though it has been hard, and not what I ever would have wished for, there were some things that were pretty great. 
 
A few years ago we had a chance to move back to the place we had left to live in to Northern California.  We had loved living there.  Yet- we hesitated.  In the end we decided not to make that move because it felt as though it would have been too easy to revert back to a life that we had lived 5 years before. 
 
Though it was tempting, we couldn’t ignore that those 5 years changed us.  We learned, we grew, we matured (I hope we did at least- but not too much!), we were not the same version of ourselves that had left the city we loved.  We acknowledged that there were things that we missed- things we hoped to regain- but a complete reversal was not what we wanted.  So we chose a different location, close to, but not in the same path as before.
 
Similarly this last year+ has offered many unexpected things.  Some of those have not been so great but, if I am honest, some of them have been unexpectedly wonderful, or at least unexpectedly insightful, and I am not sure that I am willing to lose those in a quest for perceived normalcy. For we learned, we grew, we matured (I hope we did at least- but not too much!), we are not the same version of ourselves that started this different version of the life we are living. 
 
With that in mind, instead of wishing you a “Return to Normal” I wish you all chances to find your “Chosen Tomorrow” and options to find ways to bring the unexpected beauties, of the recent past, into the new version of the furture we all have the chance to create.