Calm on the Surface.....

7:00 a.m.  - and I’m sitting quietly overlooking Canal Lake at our friend’s cottage on Paradise Road (aptly named!) in Bolsover, Ontario. Lori has generously allowed us to stay here for a few days before we head out for our annual conference in Las Vegas.

It’s so easy to slip into the Vortex of Appreciation when you have such peaceful surroundings and beautiful vistas to coax you into a good-feeling place. The water looks like silk – so smooth, still, and unruffled. The silence is mesmerizingly incredible.

And yet…. I know that under the surface of the water, life is teeming with activity. Beneath this seemingly tranquil scene, the busy-ness of everyday life continues, unabated….. new birth, growth, decay, and death – the natural and inevitable circle of life carries on…. unnoticed and yet ever present.

This leads me to reflect upon our own experience of life, and to realize that, no matter how busy we are, no matter what we are experiencing, no matter what is going on beneath the surface, if we can find a tiny piece of tranquility and stillness, we will put ourselves into the vicinity of a calmness where we can recover a sense of peace and well-being.

When I have made the effort to find a small amount of time - just 5 minutes will do it – to silence my mind, embrace the stillness, and connect with my inner being, I set myself up for a day where I can go with the flow and achieve so much more than I thought possible. I notice that, when I rendezvous with people, my timing, my words, my opportunities just fall into place – easily and efficiently.

In the movie, ‘Pretty Woman’, there is a scene where, on the way to an evening out at the opera, and before the evening event has happened, Julia Roberts says to Richard Gere, “By the way, I just want you to know that I had a good time tonight!”

With similar sentiments, I’m so appreciative of Lori for allowing us to experience this little bit of paradise…. and I’m so appreciative of the day I am going to have.