Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall

I've heard this quote before, but after the summer I've had, it really struck me when I saw it again.

We normally think of Spring as being a time of renewal and rebirth because that's when everything starts to bloom.
But, if you think about it, fall is where that whole process starts, isn't it?
For things to have a rebirth in the spring, the leaves need to fall off the trees, the flowers need to stop blooming, and the air needs to get chilled.

This fall has brought me a number starting over moments. Deepening friendships with people, recommitting to my health, both physically and mentally.

I got the chance to go out to our Corporate Learning facility in New York when I needed it the most. It helped me change the way I think about things, people, and how I react.
There was so much that I took away from that week long experience I couldn't possibly write about it all. Two very important things that I will talk about are two quotes.

One is "Thoughts become things...choose the good ones." When you make a point to focus on the negative thoughts in your head, you give them life. You give them gravity and mass and they become real, even when they are not. It's hard to do, but if you can stop and recognize the thought and re-frame it, your outlook on life can change drastically.

The other quote, I already have hanging on my wall, but I never really made a point to look at it every day.

"Be kinder than necessary, because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."
This morning, when I was looking at the beauty of the moon and thinking about how small we are, this quote popped into my head.

There's a whole lot of evil in this world. There's a whole lot of people in this world who don't care about others. There's a whole lot of people who are hell bent on destroying others and breaking them into a million pieces.

I tend to believe, however, that for all those people in the world, there are many more good people, and we outnumber them. As I sat and looked at that moon and thought about all of the people in the world who were looking at it as well, I thought how wonderful it would be, if on a daily basis we all focused on the good. We all focused on helping a stranger, on being kinder, not only to ourselves, but to those faces in the parking lot or at the grocery store we don't give a second thought to.

What would that look like? As beautiful and immense and powerful and stunning as the moon this morning??

"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one."

Something Wicked

I just watched the latest Dateline called "Something Wicked."

In a small town, in a high school, there were three girls. Two girls befriended a third and went through an entire process of becoming inseperable with the intent of murdering her. 

I thought that nothing could shock me any longer, but the murder of Skylar Neece did. The police officer said "evil comes in all sizes and shapes." The parents, the other girl's friends...none of them saw this coming. These two girls were such amazing actresses that after Skylar went missing, Skylar's parents begged the police to leave the two girls alone because they were "like daughters" and couldn't possibly have anything to do with this. 

To think, that my nieces are going to school and later in life might have to deal with people like this is sickening to me. These 16 year old girls had their parents, their school mates, and a "best friend" they spent 24 hours a day with fooled beyond belief. The whole time intending to murder her to see what it was like. You may say to me, there had to be signs. There's nothing to worry about because people like that will be found out. An entire town and high school full of kids and teachers didn't find them out. 

Some people say you can't live your life in fear and the joy of having a child of your own outweighs the small chance that this could happen. 

I say...does it really?