A New Day
Today is a new day – a new gift from heaven. What will it bring? How will it unfold? Only time will tell.
You control what your day will be. It will be filled with decisions that you, and you alone, will make to direct its course.
Most important is how you choose to get up and greet the day. Will you do it by staying in bed that extra bit to review your aches and pains? (Yes, you may have many!) Will you create your intentions for the day before stretching and sliding out of bed? Will you spontaneously bound (at your own speed of light) out of bed with excitement for the new day?
This first choice will set the course of your waking hours.
My favorite days are the ones when I give myself extra time. I get up and make a cup of green tea to take back to bed with me. While the tea cools enough to drink, I plop myself in a seated position among the pillows and let my self coast between wakefulness and sleep, setting my mind free.
It is often a time when I write, putting my thoughts on paper. Other times I play my day forward, knowing that it will be wonderful. It is also an opportune time to give thanks for the blessings that I have. Each of these sets my day off to a better start.
As I drink my tea I am peaceful, relaxed, and ready to live my day fully.
Some days I even have a second cup of tea!
How do you begin your day?
Bonnie Fatio
My 2017 Age Esteem Wishes For You
- Live each day fully.
- Stretch your body, mind and spirit.
- Inhale happiness and love; exhale pain and fear.
- Embrace new experiences.
- Fill your mind with love and happy thoughts.
- Build play into your day.
- Share your talents with others of all ages.
- Learn something new each day.
- Laugh often.
- Celebrate frequently.
- Love yourself unconditionally.
- Seek the positive in each person and experience.
- Give thanks for the blessings of your life.
- Meet new challenges with a sense of adventure.
- Greet each new day with anticipation and zest.
- Reach out to others in need.
- Become a living model of Age Esteem for those who meet you!
With love and gratitude for all you have done, the person you are, and all that you are becoming,
Bonnie Fatio
Four of the women who have influenced my life.
A Time To Remember
“We stand on the shoulders of those who go before us.” Kenyan Proverb
In many parts of the world a day set aside each year to remember those who have died, those who have gone before us. All Saints Day, following Halloween is one such a day. It is a time to remember those who have positively influenced our lives, whether or not they were people we knew personally.
Each person leaves a legacy. And no matter how great or small their imprint may seem to the masses, to a chosen few that imprint has been inspirational.
When I think of my own mother I am overwhelmed by the richness of all she taught me through her actions and her words. She has not been written up in history books, yet she positively influenced the lives of a multitude of youth as a teacher, and families through her church work. Her outreach increased even further when she authored seven books after taking early retirement due to diminished vision. (Yes, she wrote her books typing on an old state-of-the-art Smith-Corona despite severely impaired vision.)
You, too, have people in your life who may seem insignificant to the world at large, but who have been important to your growth into the person you have become. Take a moment to remember each of these people and to be thankful.
People with age-esteem are grateful for those who have influenced their lives.
Bonnie Fatio
On A Summer Day
“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time.” – John Lubbock
Live Fully
“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” – Diane Ackerman
Forget Yourself
“Develop interest in life as you see it: in people, things, literature, music – the world is so rich simply throbbing with treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.” – Henry Miller
Make Your Heart Sing
“We should do something that will make your heart dance once a day. If you can’t do that because you’re too depressed, then do something that will make somebody else’s heart dance.” – Yoko Ono
Achieve Your Ambitions
“Write, paint, sculpt, learn the piano, take up dancing, whether it’s the tango or line-dancing, start a college course, fall in love all over again – the possibilities are limitless for you to achieve your private ambitions.” – Joan Collins
Think Noisy And Colorfully
“Look, I don’t want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you’re alive you’ve got to flap your arms and legs, you’ve got to jump around a lot, for life is the very opposite of death and therefore you must at very least think noisy and colorfully, or you’re not alive.” – Mel Brooks
A Time Of Discovery
“I want to tell people approaching and perhaps fearing age that it is a time of discovery. If they say, “Of what?” I can only answer, “We must find out for ourselves, otherwise it won’t be a discovery.” – Florida Scott-Maxwell
