Alana Sheeren, words + energy

Mantra Monday: Finding your way

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Tree Joy

Every year when we decorate our Christmas tree I have a moment. A moment where I think, Gosh wouldn’t it be nice to have a designer tree where everything was color coordinated and matchy matchy?

This year that moment lasted longer than normal. Partly because I let my daughter talk me into the multi-colored lights and partly because I was tired and opening that last box of mostly-handmade ornaments about did me in.

But as we hung the last of the glass and tin icicles I remembered who I am.

I am the little girl who made ornaments with her mom and hung them on the tree every year into my twenties, remembering only bits and pieces of those creative, happy moments as I grew older but holding their specialness in my heart.

I am the heart-on-my-sleeve woman who gets teary hanging the painted egg that came from Norway when I was an infant and the tin Scottie that reminds me of my childhood pups and the glass ball from our honeymoon in St. Lucia and the two hand-painted gifts from other baby loss moms the year Benjamin died.

I am the mama who delights in her daughter’s pride as she places her handiwork carefully on gently drooping branches and stretches on her daddy’s shoulders to add the yellow construction paper and glitter glue star on top.

This is our tree. This is our way.

Whether it’s your holiday decorating or the clothes you wear or your path to peace, or success, or joy, forget what everyone else says to do and find your way. YOUR way.

In this moment, what is right for me?
In this moment, what is my way?
In this moment, how do I want to feel?
In this moment, who am I?

Ask the questions and listen closely for the answers. Then turn your face in the direction you want to go and walk, even if it’s against the crowd.

Tree topper

P.S. Changing direction is always allowed if you’re following your heart.

P.P.S. Remember to be kind in the process. To yourself. To your loved ones. To those walking another way.

P.P.P.S. There’s a lot of talk of joy as we enter the holiday season. If you’re not feeling it, give yourself permission to be okay with that. Find your way through the holidays, even if it’s not pretty and shiny and bright.

 

Mantra Monday: I am willing to see with new eyes

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I am willing to see...

I spent this past weekend with my family, throwing an extended birthday party for my mom. It was really a family reunion and I hadn’t seen my aunts, uncle, cousins and their children in six years.

A lot changes in six years. More kids. More gray silver hair. More life lived.

I’ve changed immeasurably during this time. As we readied my grandparents’ old home for the weekend I began to see this house where I’d spent many happy hours in a new way. Childhood memories and assumptions flooded to the surface and I examined them from a 42-year old perspective, feeling deeply changed and at the same time, hugely comforted. I pulled my iPhone out of my pocket and looking through the lens of its camera, began to see familiar objects with new eyes.

I found myself wanting to let go of old patterns and ways of interacting, of old ways of thinking about these people who were an integral part of my growing up but who I rarely see as an adult. Not that those ways were bad, necessarily. It was more that I wanted to stand firmly in the person I am now, rather than being pulled back into the girl I used to be.

Family is good at tugging invisible strings that can make us feel like a tattered marionette, even if they don’t mean to. Family can also envelop us in gifts and warmth, forgiveness and love.

I had a wonderful time this weekend. I feel very lucky to have the family I do. I adore my cousins and gosh, they have cute kids, several of whom I’d never met. And I feel lighter somehow, as though I’ve shed layers of old skin that were unknowingly weighing me down.

As I move into this week of traveling home and preparing for Ada to start second grade, I want to continue to see the world around me, and the world within me, in new ways, with fresh eyes.

I’d love for you to join me.

Is there anything you’ve been able to look at from a different perspective lately? Do you have any specific tools that help you see with new eyes? Please share below if you do!

P.S. There’s something about being around children that helps me see the world from a different perspective. Here’s a photo of Ada and her cousin making shoes out of Jenga pieces that makes me smile.

Girls' shoes

Mantra Monday: Look for the magic.

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Look for the magic.
The proof that life is on your side is everywhere. Look for it. Be willing to see it. Even if your day is crap and the only beauty you find is in the fluttering wings of a butterfly.

The more you look for the magic, the more you see. The more you see, the more amazing life becomes (even when it’s not easy).

 

Mantra Monday: Grandmother’s Wisdom

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madewithOver(4)

On this day of jet lag and child with the stomach flu, of forgetting it was Monday because Sunday was 33 hours long, of laundry and prepping to get on another plane Thursday, these words of my grandmother’s are ringing in my ears.

This week I will do my best. And it will be enough.

It always is.

The same is true for you.

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