As I write these words for you, I’m sitting in my living room breathing in the scent of banana bread that is baking in my oven. I’m stopping to breathe in the deliciousness, being present to the scent- simply because it brings joy to me to do so.

And you gotta believe my friend, that this moment is not going to be missed.

Sitting outside in 35° weather listening to the birds as they wake up and greet the day. I love listening to them chirp and sing, knowing that in just a short period of time there will be many more voices in the tree to welcome in the day ahead.

For now, I appreciate my feathered neighbors who fly from the tree to my water dish frolicking in the cold water, taking a sip and then going back to their perch.

These are only two of the many moments of my day that are treasured, places of quiet moments that come and go, and are experienced and valued before they leave.

I’m present to them – I experienced joy – and I am nourished. And boy do I need nourishment these days.

Do you need that too?

Our world is reeling, you don’t need me to tell you that.

So much discord, disharmony, and pressure. It feels as if there is a level of fog over the entire planet. The current administration’s crackdown and disrespect of democracy and the people’s rights. Misinformation is everywhere, and people are often feeling unsafe and uneasy, just doing everyday tasks.

Is this truly a time to choose joy?

ABSOLUTELY!

Last Spring Beloved, I shared with you a message that Spirit delivered to me.

They told me the times ahead would continue to be difficult and constrictive, and that it was very important for us to show up with our boots on the ground – protesting, speaking truth to power or placing ourselves as lights on the hill – staying in touch with the Divine within 24/7 and being a beacon of light for those whose boots are on the ground.

AND…

They also shared that this is a time where it is so important for all of us to create joy, to invite others into the energy of joy and to bring moments of delight into our day.

During times that are difficult and stressful, joy is the antidote that we need and yet for so many people joy feels so far away, and that is exactly what we cannot afford.

We can’t take the chance of allowing only the energies of difficulty to be present.

We must respond to them with the energy of the light – which is kindness and patience, which is gratitude and grace, which is delight and joy and happiness and peace.

If the energy of joy feels too far away, aim for kindness or the energy of peace. What is it that you can do right now that would bring more peace into your life?

What steps can you take to extend more kindness to you and to others?

Begin to be open to the moments of delight that are always available to you, moments that you just might be missing.

If you’re driving home and the sun is setting in front of you and it’s an absolutely gorgeous sky, find a moment to safely pull over and stop and watch the colors and be present as the sky explodes.

Go for a walk, without music – without friends, and practice being present to what you see, what you hear and what you smell. If your attention wanders, bring it back to what is right in front of your eyes, your ears and your nose.

Or maybe you walk and just allow your gaze to be taken by whatever appears. The tired leaf drifting down, the busy squirrel scurrying up a tree, the cloud covering the sun. At the completion of your walk, notice how your body feels, is it sore or have your muscles relaxed a bit ? Are you feeling calm and filled, does the world seem a bit quieter?

Sit in quiet and allow the Divine to show you all the goodness in your life. This is not a thinking exercise; this is the time to ask to be shown all that you have to be grateful for and to allow each piece of gratitude to land one at a time.

As each piece of goodness shows up, drop down into your heart center and hold it there relishing and being grateful for this gift. Continue until you feel complete and then once again notice how you feel, in your body, in your mind, in your heart.

You might have noticed that none of the suggestions I’ve made cost you anything other than your willingness to stop and to choose joy. I’ve only listed a few possibilities here for you. I am certain that you can find a great many more that have personal meaning for you.

These moments can take as little or as long as you’d like, and they cost you absolutely no money all. What they do ask for is your participation, and your willingness to end your suffering and sit in the energy of peace.

Your choice to end your suffering, to stop the worrying, to give up anxiety and fear is perhaps the most difficult part of this process.

For those energies or the very frequencies that you grew up with and are presented to you every single day. Our society values stress and challenge. People are rewarded and heralded when they’ve worked hard and achieved their goals, many times overcoming major obstacles.

While celebrating people who have worked hard is important, the idea that we always have to get past an obstacle to be valuable is a message that doesn’t always serve.

Life can be very difficult, but we don’t need to dive into that difficulty or extend it beyond the moment that it arrives.

That my friend is where your choice lies.

When difficulty arrives notice it, take whatever measures are needed in the third dimensional world to mitigate the situation, and then go to gratitude for your skills, for your wisdom, for your ability to know what to do, and then move on to a moment of joy.

Moving to joy after stress created more energetic balance within your Lifestream. The great teacher Osho spoke about balance in a way that I’ve always loved.

He said:

“You westerners amuse me because you believe that balance is a noun, a place to land, something to achieve. Balance is a verb, it’s an active practice.

If you look at a tightrope walker in order to achieve balance, they don’t stand still in the middle of the wire. They are always moving to the left, moving to the right, moving to the left moving to the right. For that’s what keeps them in the flow of balance.”

As we are living in a world of great shift and change and difficulty is indeed a fact of life for many, actively creating joy and moments of delight in your life, is part of the balance of energy that you get to choose to bring into your world.

There is no one Beloved who can do this for you. This is your gift to create, to activate, to covet, to appreciate, and to bring into your world and ours.

I invite you to activate that gift today!