Thought for the Day ~ Bring the Magic Forward

Always do your best…..take the magic of the season with you into 2022. It has been a long, strange, exhausting, and sometimes frightening year. As I reflected this morning on the year and what to write as the final Thoughts for 2021. There were many competing emotions, thoughts, and feelings. It has been a very difficult year for people, their families, and their businesses. As a Coach I see the challenges, and the way that the year and the pandemic has placed itself in our society. How we struggle to see our way out of it and how it has stressed many to their limits. So, this time of year is a gift. No matter what your beliefs, we can all agree there is a certain kind of magic in the air. Even with all the restrictions, we are being kinder to each other, we are more aware of how some have very little to celebrate with and our communities are working together to try and fill the gaps. But, especially now, we are not indifferent to suffering. We feel the magic in our hearts and for those who can, we are there for each other. As we take action, that is guided by love and kindness.

This is the magic we need to bring with us in 2022. The magic of love and kindness that seems to pull us all together at this time of year, must continue. It is the fuel that we need to make this world a better place. It will ensure that we don’t tolerate discrimination and unfairness, and we won’t believe that our voices and our actions won’t change anything. Because our voices and our hearts can, and will, make things better, they already are. Every time you use your voice whenever you see or hear anyone excluded because of what they believe, their race, or who they love, or who they are. You bring the magic of love and kindness with you. Every time you speak up for yourself or for someone too afraid to speak you speak for many with love and compassion. Every time you model acceptance, and kindness you inform the young, and when it comes to our children, we don’t have the luxury of despair. If we rise, they will rise with us every time, no matter how many times we have fallen. That is the most important work we can possibly do as parents. Raise love warriors.

It has been a year that has given us many opportunities to see how inequality still plays out daily in so many sad and intolerant ways. While many institutions have proudly written anti-racism statements and display their values of inclusion and diversity, we still have so much work to do. Because no matter how much work you do at the Board level, or with the leadership teams. Real authentic inclusion shows up in the experiences of people who work for or engage with your organization. It is not just a motherhood statement it is action, and change that brings about more acceptance, love, and kindness. It should be evident in every discussion, and every interaction. Leaning in and getting uncomfortable is not just about identifying your bias, it is about understanding that the soul of your organization must reflect those values all the time. That knowledge gained in training needs to show up as wisdom that every single person models everyday.

As you work on getting things organized for the holidays. Take the time to pause, put those phones down, and be present with those you love. Give them your undivided attention and your mind a break from the news and the constant onslaught of information. We must learn to be with each other again. To sit with peace, love, and kindness and let it penetrate and stay. Because the truth is we all know what we need to do as a human race, and when you do not stand fully in the truth of what you know, what you feel, and who you are, you are withholding love. Until today, you may have been busy being busy. It is time to stand in your power, it is the way we demonstrate self-support, self-love, and self-respect. And if you think about it every experience, every encounter, every lesson learned is life’s way of training you to be a greater expression of love. So, feel the magic, let it into your heart to stay and share the magic of the season all year long. May you all enjoy a peaceful, healthy, loving, and joyous holiday and may we keep the magic to carry us through and to make us infinitely more loving in 2022. One Love ~ Namaste

Jennifer Nadel said “Before walking this path, many of us have felt powerless and insignificant. We’ve often been told that there was nothing we could do, and we believed it. At some level, we may have let ourselves off the hook. But now we know from our own personal journey’s that action really can change things. We’re no longer prepared to tolerate the knowledge that others are suffering due to problems that have solutions. Think about what would happen if we really did each decide to subject policies to the same spiritual test we’re applying to ourselves. If we collectively made kindness a guiding value in every aspect of our lives. The solutions that already exist to tackle poverty, inequality, and the threat of runaway climate change would be implemented. We can take action to become fully congruent and to close the gap between what we believe, and what we do. Each of us has our own part to play. Some of us will lead, some of us will support. Some of us will march, some of us will make tea. Others of us will sit with someone who is lonely and feels broken, as we have each felt in our own way”

By Lisa Scott ~ Executive Life Coach?