Yesterday, I spent the day trying to get everything done I needed done so as to spend the evening with my daughter.  It seemed like I was spinning wheels going nowhere until we left for her college’s hockey game.

As I read yesterday’s entry from SBB, I noticed that she gives us first definitions.  These are always tricky as she is creating a synergy – new buzz word from work – so that the combination of the words simple and abundance creating more together than the sum of their individual parts. 

The talk about happiness I am taking with a new light also.  The other book I am reading right this moment is The Art of Happiness by his Holiness the Dalai Lama and a Western psychiatrist – I believe his name is Howard but don’t have the book handy at the moment.  I am reading what SBB has to say about happiness and authentic awakening and what the Dalai Lama has to say and they are meshing quite well.

We also get our first introduction to gratitude on January 3rd.  The bigger push to creating a grateful life will come later in the month when we start a gratitude journal.  If you are truly interested in more on gratitude, Deborah Norville has a book out about it.

I always find the January 4th post about life not being a dress rehearsal a favorite.  I realize that many times we think it is.  We work but do not prosper.  We have family but do not have time for them.  These are all part of the dress rehearsal of life.  Life is NOT a dress rehearsal.  You need to live your life.  While you may not want to cook every night – or even every other night, it makes for a better life for your family in so many ways.  While you may laugh at putting makeup on to go to the grocery for a few minutes, trust me when I say it is worth it in more ways than one. 

You can create the setting for your life.  You need to look at your life like a book.  You have control over so many of the items that it takes to make a best seller – characters, setting, and the plot.  You just need to be yourself and be sure of the story you are weaving.