Tag: life

what you do matters…

This is an excerpt from the last newsletter I sent out, back in December. (I’m not current doing newsletters.) The message is one I want to share again – a reminder that what you do matters and makes a difference… more than you know.

So often, in various ways, I’ve talked about how you make a difference, more than you realize, even in simply going about your day and in seemingly small ways.

Smiling at someone. Holding an elevator door long enough for someone to get in without having to wait for the next time. Sending a text to ask how things are going. Responding to a text, to let the other person know you heard, you care, you like being in touch. Giving someone four quarters in exchange for a dollar bill so they can get out of a parking garage.

These are a tiny, tiny fraction of examples – and they’re examples from my own life, small acts of kindness given to me during very stressful times at hospitals and surgery centers these past months.

And I can’t even begin to tell you how much small things like these helped me during those times, and how I’m so very grateful to everyone (many of them people I don’t know and will never see again) who helped in any small (or big) way or showed any small (or big) kindness. (And really, I don’t believe any kindness is too small – I believe all kindness counts, and I believe the world could benefit very much from more kindness.)

These kinds of things matter. What you do, how you go about your day, your acts of kindness, your words, your smile, your prayers, your thoughtfulness – it all matters, it all makes a difference.

And you never know when your small touch of kindness, or one sentence, or one smile, will be the thing that helps someone hold on a little longer, or will ease their fear or struggle even just for a while.

Of course, doing “bigger things” out in the world or with your work can make a difference and matter too. But so often these days, I think we hear so many messages of “going big” or “changing thousands of lives” that we can forget how even our ordinary days, even touching the life of one person, matters… and can matter more than we ever know.

So please remember that what you do, in your ordinary everyday life, does matter – and you create ripples in other lives you often never even know about.

You make a difference.

♥

 

life challenges and changes…

As winter begins here in the hemisphere where I live, my little household has been dealing with health challenges that have forced us to slow down… but these challenges have also brought reminders of blessings, and support (seen and unseen), and priorities, and creative solutions.

As I recover from an illness at the same time my husband recovers from surgery, we’re taking this time to rest, to be together, to be grateful for what we have, and to think about our next steps.

Before I got sick in November, I had been working regularly on fiction – and I’ll be back to that very soon.

Fiction writing has been a through-line in my life for as long as I’ve been able to form letters into words. There have been some bumps in the road resulting in times not writing, but over and over I continue to get reminders that it’s one of my purposes in this life… And I’m looking forward to getting back to work on my current project.

And although I haven’t felt up to writing during this time of my own sickness and my husband’s health issues and surgery, I did make it to canvas a few times. Only for short spurts now and then, but even that much helps me stay connected to creativity and the painting flow.

This has been a time of taking it easy. Resting. Replenishing. Nourishing body and soul and spirit.

It has been a time of finding creative solutions to deal with limitations of sickness and surgery… but we’re doing it.

It has been a time of connecting even more strongly to my spiritual faith, trust, and knowing all will be well (no matter what).

It has been a time of love – love between me and my husband, love given and received to family and friends, reconnecting with people, and our cute Chloe bringing her usual joy and loving presence into our household.

And it has been a time of becoming more clear about how I’m being guided to live and spend my time, what I’m being guided to do, and what I’m being guided to let go of.

This feels like the right time for these shifts… I became another year older last weekend, the wheel of the year has just made another turn with the Solstice and we’re about to shift into days lengthening but in winter’s grip for a few months, and one year is about to end and another begin.

One thing I’m letting go of is doing work as Subtle Harmony.

Since 2010, my Subtle Harmony shop has been on Etsy with my crafts, creations, and offerings, and then a couple of years later it expanded to be my own Subtle Harmony website in addition to my Etsy shop.

But it’s time to let go of doing my work under that name, and it’s time to let go of doing certain work completely. Whether some of what I once did with Subtle Harmony will return one day… I honestly don’t know the answer to that right now. Even if it does, it won’t be with that name.

What I do know right now is that I’m being guided to focus on writing, especially fiction.

I’m being guided to continue to create – and at some point I may offer those creations again, just not with the Subtle Harmony name.

And I’m being guided to continue to focus on self care, soul nourishment, connection to joy, and living true.

What I do might look a bit different now…

But it feels very right.

♥