Hi friends. Welcome back to picture. Love. I am standing here in a very. unpacked office at my standing desk. Grateful for power. Grateful. I found my microphone. Grateful. I was able to unpack my computer and connect to wifi. But we are living a little rustic right now because I'm speaking to you from my new home. Far from the last one. After 20 years of living in the last house, my husband and I are empty nesters and we packed up and we moved to a different part of the country. And we are discovering what it's like to start over. In a different environment with different neighbors and different accents and different traffic patterns. And different mentalities, but. I've definitely got a few key takeaways. We've only been here a week and I haven't even slept here for the full week because I just got off an airplane from visiting my daughter in college. Because that's what you do when you move into a new house, you know, you let the movers bring them. The furniture and the boxes, and you'll leave your husband to deal with it all and hop on a plane to Texas. And there you go. I'm just being playful right now because. It's just been. A never ending Story of, of just twists and turns and. Um, I'm a little proud of myself for practicing so much flexibility. And I literally threw out the plan of making a backup plan because every moment isn't is a new plan for us right now, while there were just so many things out of our control and you know what I'm actually finding laughter and joy in it. And it's very, very freeing. After all those decades of my teacher education and always making a lesson plan and always having a backup plan and always having, uh, other options. I realized that I was planning too much of my life and not living enough of it. And so this has been a really playful adventure. And I do have some takeaways. All ready. And some of them are things that I already believed before, but now I really have embodied them. And I just want to share them with you today because I I'm pretty sure that somebody is going to resonate on some point here. And so here are five lessons from my move. Number one. True friends. Doesn't matter where they live, the distance does not make a difference. You're connected regardless. Well, yes, it might be wonderful to be face-to-face walking the dog. Or, you know, dropping off a cup of coffee. Um, My I trust my relationships. I trust my true friendships. And my family to stay close at heart and they already have. And so for that, The distance doesn't matter, friends or friends, no matter where they are. I had some friends, um, really rally in my absence at the old house when things were. Unexpected to us came up. Um, With our buyers and they were not really happy. Uh, Surprises, but I needed help. And boy, did they show up for me when I needed them? And, uh, cause I had already left the state and it was so beautiful to just. Receive that, and my old self would have felt guilty and would have felt bad, but right now I'm just savoring and the carotid tattooed. Of the true friendships. That rallied for me. That is pure love. That is love and motion. That is evidence of love. And I see it. And I'm so grateful. So take away. Number two. You know what. That stuff. It really doesn't matter. The stuff I spent weeks and months packing up and sorting and donating and wrapping. And. Labeling and. Marking to go to the living room or to the office or to the bedroom, and none of the movers read any of that. And didn't listen to any of that. And they just threw everything everywhere. And so, um, Scrambling just to find. The plugs for some of our electronics, but. It's okay. It really. The stuff doesn't matter. I step outside in the sunshine and I'm so grateful for the. The clean air and breathing. I'm so grateful for. The neighbor next door, who I haven't met, but they still waive. I'm grateful for the booming. The booming barks from the cross, the street neighbor's dog soon. My dog is dying to meet. But they have these deep, deep Berks and these sweet faces that I could see across the way. And I'm just grateful for the new sounds and sights and experiences. So all of the stuff, that's still a disaster and still unorganized, no matter how much planning I did. It really doesn't matter. We have a shelter over our heads. We have water to drink. We have food to eat. And we have clothing on our backs and we're safe. And so all that stuff. Well, sometimes it's nice to have it, and I know it'll be, get sorted out eventually. It really is not as important as I made it. Number three. There is always somebody who needs your light. Um, one of my neighbors. Was so, so vulnerable and so sweet to express our appreciation for our dog who is barking and wagging and wanting to meet her. And. She was grieving the loss of not only her dog, but both of her parents, all N. An 11 month period. And she's just, you know, pretty wrapped up in her grief. And, and my old self would have just felt the grief for her and just been paralyzed by the pain. But my new self was able to actually just. Let her enjoy the attention. My dog was giving her and just lend her. A smile and a listening ear, and I didn't have to live her pain for her in order to show up and just shine. And be that compassionate neighbor and it, it felt so good because it didn't drain me. I still have, it's like a candle, you know, when you light one WIC from another. It doesn't take away. From the, the original candle light. You just keep burning. And as long as I can continue to just maintain my. My own energy. And I know my Reiki has a lot to do with that. Um, my light can benefit other people who might want to decide to like light their WIC as well. And regardless what, um, what they do. It's, it's not up to me to make them happy. It's up to me to be my best self. And to influence them. So that if they choose to be inspired by my light to light their own, then all the better. And there's a question I can ask myself. I do ask myself all the time. To this point, and that is what can I do today to feel good so I can show up better in the world. And, and it is. You can call itself a shift you want to, but I, I really think it's. An underestimated self care. That the world needs to be called to. And the more I take better care of myself and I meet some of my own personal needs and I'm not talking about the stuff I'm talking about. The basic needs. And the rest, the time to slow down the. The focus and the best, most fruitful directions. These are some of the ways. That I make myself feel better, whether it's putting on a playlist, whether it's journaling something out, whether it's writing a thank you note. I have many to write mind you many to write. As a result of this move. These are all things I can do to feel good and show up better in the world and keep my light shining brightly. Which is good for me and those around me. Okay. Here's number four. You know what, when things go wrong, quote unquote or. Not the way I planned it or maybe not exactly how I would like it. It's no longer failure. It's no longer failed plans. It's just information. And seeing things unfold is always information, but when I can observe it, like zoom out the bird's eye view of something and just see what's happening. And see what my role in it was and what are the surrounding circumstances? It's it's it's information I can use instead of being paralyzed by disappointment. And, and that right there is a place of freedom. When we're not held prisoner by fear or worry or stress while stress happens sometimes, you know, and it has many faces, but. I'm not saying I haven't had any stress, but I'm saying. That my stress has been far more positive than negative. Because of this. This ability to identify, you know, when something comes out of my mouth wrong. You know, and maybe a little bit of my shadow is appearing. To notice it instead of berating myself. Um, and grovelling and being worried about what do they think of me? I look at that as information like, oh, I need to work on this. Oh, maybe I need to go take a time out. Oh, maybe I'm over tired and I am not in the best functioning condition to have this conversation right now. Those are some of the examples of what I mean by using that information. And the fifth one, and I'm going to stop at this because I really feel like this is the most overlooked thing. And some of the people I'm observing. Present company, especially me. When you need to rest do it. Our bodies, our vehicle, we're here to have this human experience. And if our body is breaking down or run down her overworked. There's no. There's no amount of willpower. That's going to make your body sustain without rest. Our rest is when our body heals rest is when our. Our minds can, can actually work on things and. Let our bodies recharge. I mean, you can't expect your iPhone to run straight for a week without a charge. It does. It's not meant to do that. And neither is our body. So. Please please do, as I am doing and give yourself grace to take rest when you need it. And if it means just simply sitting quietly. Do it, if it means. Going out in the woods to get away from all the chatter, do it. If it means setting a timer so that you can take a nap. And not miss work, then do it. And. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing to stay up late. If you're in a workflow and something beautiful is coming out of you, something creative that. Is really special, but, but don't do it without planning a chance for your body to rest and recover. Will you join me on that? Let's go into this next season. With a greater appreciation and a greater priority. On rest. Because when we arrested everything else works better. And we are healthier. And if you don't hear it in my voice, I had quite a beautiful thing going on and my chest. It's just clearing out now, but. Um, Chasing my connecting flight definitely gave me a setback. And once I got to the gate to discover that the, my connecting flight had been in fact delayed. Grace. It gave me time to actually breathe again. And as soon as I'm finished recording this, I am ready to go get that well needed. Required rest that I am encouraging you to do. So. I am probably going to do one last episode before the end of 2024. And then I'm going to give myself a little bit of time off. I have not missed a Tuesday episode in a year, over a year since this, um, podcast launched actually 14 months ago. I'm very proud of it. And. I think during this rest, I'm going to give myself the opportunity to go deeper in something I've mentioned on an earlier episode, which is, I am closing down my reminiscence business. The one that you have heard likely. Commercials about in prior episodes. And, um, I'm working on making some decisions and I've got some creative projects in the wings and. I just discovered while I loved my business, I was catering more to what people wanted me to do rather than where my genius lies. And so that's one of the ways that I'm making myself happy. Is by listening to my heart. And I'm regrouping. To actually do the creative work. When I come back in a new business and a new partnership and a new something. Whatever that looks like it's going to be my most authentic work to date. And, um, that will be a really fun conversation to share with you when I'm ready. But in the meantime, I hope that there is a gentle reminder here that you needed to hear today. And if you think that this would come alongside and support somebody, you love, please. Help me picture love and share it with them. Until next time. Keep picturing love and take a picture too while you're at it.