One of my joys in life is walking  along the boardwalk at Green Cay Wetlands shortly before sunset and beyond. The joyful, uplifting part of the walks are the frequent beautiful sunset… the puffy white clouds and the pinks they absorb and reflect in the sky above and the water below.

Recently, as I entered the boardwalk and looked around, I was disappointed when I saw a cloudless sky.

I took the one photo you see above, then put the phone in my pocket, not expecting to see anything interesting that afternoon/evening. Rather, I decided to simply walk to solely get steps in toward fulfilling my goal of reaching a minimum of 5000 daily steps.

Then, 14 minutes later, as the boardwalk made a 90 degree angle, the view above emerged. Out came my phone camera as I started being present to, and taking pictures of, all the variations of what I excitedly started seeing in the sky and the water as I continued moving forward along the boardwalk..

In addition to sharing the beautiful scene above, the point to this story is that I could have stayed in my initial disappointment, no longer expecting to see anything of interest. That’s likely what would have happened, since “nothing interesting” was my subconscious focus; or I could have remained open to being in the moment in an appreciative state of mind even before seeing the sunset beauty that showed up.

It’s always a choice we make…being in our heads, our thoughts, our disappointments OR staying present and open, seeing what’s in front of and around us.

I invite you to reflect on the following:

Which of those choices do you usually make?…listening to and judging from the likely negative chatter in your head? or staying/being open to the ongoing present.

GOING FORWARD 

Taking the message of this story further, I’m reminded that Thanksgiving, for those of us in the U.S., will be here in less than a week. Many of you will be with families and/or friends and others may be alone.

Whatever your situation is, I suspect that you will have some sort of expectations on the food, on how conversations may go, sometimes anticipating, in your mind, negative conversations.

I URGE you to set an intention to remain positive, to being open to finding the “good” in any situation…to be prepared to find, AND express, gratitude…even if it’s for something seemingly small.

Find beauty in the ordinary. Have it be extraordinary.

May we all find the things in our lives for which we can celebrate and show love. Happy Thanksgiving, for those celebrating it.