Keeping the mind open. 

What does that look and feel like exactly? 

It begins with letting go of precise plans, and yes, that means, letting go of expectations. It means having clarity about ourselves, and what brings us peace and how we bring peace to ourselves. It also means keeping our eyes up engaging with the world and our hearts open. And it also means taking a breath, not rushing ahead even if we are nudged to do so, but sitting still observing what crosses our paths, what introduces itself to us and to what we introduce ourselves. Instead of instantly engaging, keeping an open mind is finding comfort in remaining present and taking it all in and letting ourselves move through the feelings that arise, because they are fluid. 

While it initially can feel misguided to let go of expectations, to not have set specific goals, when we pair doing so with slowing down, responding rather than reacting, we remain in the driver's seat and begin to experience far more amazing opportunities than we could have ever imagined. 

Some of the experiences that unfold as we travel through our days with an open mind may be in the arena of what we had hoped for, what we had put out into the universe as a dream, but contrastly, others may not have, and that is just as magical as the former. We need not compare these two differing outcomes, but instead realizing both can be quite awesome so long as we keep our hearts and minds open and our eyes up as we travel forward and toward our experiences rather than running away from our past. 

After all, our past brought us to this moment. We have so many life experiences, and all of them packaged together make us each unique - a unique perspective, a unique outlook, a unique [fill-in-the-blank]. We are not more or better than anyone else, but we do have something unique and awesome to share with the world, and once we figure out what that is, our world opens up. We become more grounded and humbly confident in how we travel even though we do not know where we will end up or what will be part of our journey. 

I was once quite scared of this life truth, but now as I have finally found out how to hold myself in steady contentment, having and honed and continuing to hone the necessary skills to know how to hold myself in this state of calm and responsiveness as well as active participation with life, I am excited, and most importantly, I savor every single day of the life I have the good fortune to live. To the outside world, my life is slow paced, steady and uneventful, but in reality, it is exactly as eventful as I prefer, and I smile throughout my day with glee and appreciation, Norman often right there by my side. 

The above image captures the blossoms of my cherry trees this year, and it was taken just after a day of snow. When the sun shines through such as it did on this day, I often situate myself in this favorite outdoor writing chair and Norman and I while away many minutes and hours. The below image is a moment captured as the morning sun begins to shine on my front porch and cottage garden, and I love to just sit in my porch swing, sipping my tea or hot lemon water and watching and listening to the neighborhood wake up. Doing both of these everyday activities is a sweet and oh so very eventful moments in my life, and I am grateful to have such moments to savor. More of these moments, yep, that would be a lovely life indeed.