a nice surprise!

Our old neighbours stopped by my work this morning, they live in BC now but they were in town for a doctor’s appointment so they popped by to ask about a fridge and to say hi! 

Big Hugs! 

Big Smiles! 

Man, they are great people! I forgot how nice it was living beside them! They taught us how to play dice, and we had many a game of dice with them.....and many a glass of wine!

It was a great way to start my day and much needed reminder to me that things are not always as you remember them…….

 

I always think of our time in our old neighbourhood as negative and angry, when in fact it was only one person that was that way. It took up way too much of our energy dealing with him and clearly it has taken up permanent residence in my memories too. Thanks to a surprise visit today I was reminded of the good friends we made, the fun card nights we had and the laughs we shared!

From my meeting today I am reminded that we are in charge of how we feel, we are in charge of what we take away from our experiences. Instead of focusing on the negative of that situation I should be focusing on the positive!

We moved out to the country and are living in a beautiful, peaceful setting, and who knows, without that one rotten egg we may never have gotten the push we needed to get out of town!  We were able to keep our house as a rental property, have lucked out with a great renter and have a great excuse to still pop by and see some of our old neighbours that we got along with! We have met and become part of a great community of people that share the country lifestyle with us and are some of the most helpful, kind people we have known!

 

So really, I should be thanking that one bad egg for all of the good things that came as a result of his actions!

I like that!

It feels so much better!

It is so easy to focus on the bad…..why is that?

 

Are there things in your life that can be turned into positives by just taking another look……..

Fall

Fall is such a wonderful time of year! The days are warm, the sun is starting to set earlier, but still stays up long enough to provide some  brilliant sunsets! The mornings..... well, the mornings are a little too dark for my liking, just a reminder that winter is around the corner. 

 

Harvest, a time of gathering and reaping what we sow. Sometimes we have a great year and harvest is bountiful, providing us plenty of reserves for the coming winter. Other years harvest is poor, leaves us wondering how we will make it through another winter. 

 

My mom always had us do a fall and spring clean at our house, I can't say I loved doing it; washing the walls, cleaning out the closets, all the re-organizing....but now that I am older and running my own household, I totally get it! It feels so good to start a new season with a fresh outlook and a clean house! 

So along with harvesting crops and gardens, fall is a good time to take an inventory of some of the things in our lives and not just our winter clothes and the junk piled up in the basement; but also some of our relationships. It is a good time to see how what we have planted in our lives has fared through the summer, if it is going to provide us with what we need to make it through the winter. Who says New Years Eve is the only time we can re-evaluate things? 

It isn't always easy either, like a favourite pair of shoes, we all have relationships that we really liked....but they just don't fit the same anymore, you can still wear them - but they just don't make you feel the same as they did when you first got them. Just like those shoes,  some of the things we "planted" haven't done so well and as much as we wanted them to thrive and even though we have nurtured and cared for these things.....they didn't make it. So you have some choices to make - you can leave them be, let them keep taking up space in your life, you can bag them up and drop them off somewhere, making room for the new, you can give them one more season "mend some fences", see if things turn around or you can just call it a day and let them go.

Whichever way you decide to go, remember, winter is around the corner and you want to be ready - it is going to get cold..... you need to surround yourself with warmth.