Janet

Who is Janet?

I am happier than I’ve ever been, even though life continues to have its ups and downs. I’m more Zen about it now. Maybe that’s age. Appreciating what we have, noticing the beauty wherever we can find it, loving, loving, loving as much and as often as we can…that’s what I’m learning. It’s true that age takes away choices, but it also gives clarity and perspective. Meditating daily helps tremendously. I know, I heard about meditating for years and practiced it in fits and starts, but once I committed to meditating daily, something changed. I developed an ability to sense the big picture and not resent, resist or otherwise bog down in the flotsam and jetsam that are always a part of life.

I have lived almost half my life with my husband in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area. Our son is having the best of times away at college, but our nest isn’t empty. The dog and cat are still here keeping us company and reminding us that simply existing is cause for celebration. We take day trips and hike and love entertaining family and friends. The dog has gotten me into a pretty good walking schedule, and I’ve finally started doing yoga regularly, keeping this aging body in working order.

And yes, there are down sides to my life. Sometimes my husband can’t speak to me because he has a vocal cord disorder. That can get lonely, and we’ve come up with a variety of creative solutions. Other beloved family members struggle with maladies as well, some pretty serious. I can make myself nuts thinking that if we create our own reality, why can’t I help them create a different one? But my relationships with family members are not the same as my relationship with clients. They can’t be. So I quietly love and affirm and connect to the power of the Universe, and I allow myself to believe in spite of appearances. I pray the prayer of positivity.

What I have learned over the years is that nothing that happens can truly affect our happiness unless we let it. Sure, life can knock us for a loop, but then what do we do when we get back up? How do we view it and talk to ourselves about it? I could say to myself “See, I can’t be happy because that person whom I love is suffering.” But when we give someone or something the power to take away our happiness, we’re sunk.

When we know that internally we can maintain our feelings of hope and remain charitable in our thinking, come what may, we can maintain our happiness. We can retain a sense that in the big picture, things are working together for good. Michael Bernard Beckwith says that the cosmos is working together for its good, always seeking to reveal itself. This I believe. Once you start believing that, you start seeing it, and yes, you can see it in the most dire of circumstances. Good happens. God happens. It is happening everywhere, all the time. When we project that awareness onto our external circumstances, our external circumstances reflect that awareness back to us. I’ve seen the evidence of this in my own life, my truly happy life.