Who's Right?

Who's Right?

There will always be numerous versions of events. As much as we may wish we could control all the versions to reflect our own personal feelings/thoughts/perceptions, this is not so. You CANNOT control what others say, do or think.

The best you can do is live your life with honesty, integrity, and kindness - be accountable for all your actions - and apologize when you mess up.

Doing so will help you flow effortlessly into the next phase of your journey.

    Louise Smith

greatness

i often hear, 'when i grow up i want to be an inspiration.' 

i always respond by saying - 'then set the following goals. live with joy. be kind. do good things. be humble. be content. help others. if you do all these things you WILL inspire others, no matter what else is going on in your life.' 

good luck. 

♥ Louise Smith

Self-Respect

Always be aware of the line you can easily cross. 

The line between being a wonderful help for others - and - killing yourself doing it.

If anyone in your world sucks your energy dry, brings you consistently down, drags you into drama and negativity - then you are in a prime position to learn a life lesson of respecting yourself.

It's in your control to decide what energy you want to be surrounded by and filled with. Let go and make space for positivity, health, kindness and joy. 

♥ Louise Smith

Love

To Love

When you think of the love you feel you actually send calm, peaceful, kind, joyful, accepting energy into the world. This energy doesn't travel only from point A to point B - it spreads and touches all in it's path. 

So, yes, love deeply. 

Love people, your job, your habits, your activities. Love animals, and the planet. Love kind gestures.

Love passionately and completely and you WILL make this world a better place. 

♥ Louise Smith

Honesty vs. The Lie

Have you ever noticed that generally speaking, honesty is something we expect from others but excuse in ourselves.

Think about it.

We encourage others to be honest with us. We hurt when they aren't. 

But, and here's the big BUT, in our day-to-day lives we are quick to cover certain things up, leave certain things out, and decide what we need to be truthful about. After all, who really wants to hear that the dress they're wearing does actually make their butt look big, and why would we tell the boss we are late because we had one too many glasses of wine with friends last night.

Here's the irony.

If you decide when and where you should be honest, and when/where a little white lie fits, and when/where an omission or big fat ole lie is best, then you cannot expect anyone else in your world to do things differently.

If you lie. They get to lie. If you choose when/where/why to suit your needs, THEY get to choose when/where/why to suit THEIR needs.

That cycle never ends. Until you end it. If you choose honesty then yes, you can expect honesty all around you. It's amazing how beautiful your life becomes when you fill your space with like-minded souls.

This is a tough lesson to master. Be kind to yourself if it takes a few kicks at the can before you reach the higher level of wisdom. Good luck. ♥ Louise Smith

Here's to Life!

When I was 20 I thought I had my whole life ahead of me. To do what I wish and when I wished. Life seemed never-ending.

I could make mistakes, take wrong roads, live on the wild side, hang out with people even if they didn't resonate with me. After all, I had my whole life to fix those things up if they didn't work out so well. Plus I'm not even sure I knew what 'resonate' meant back then :)

Now that I am 50 I see how short life really is. I arrived here far faster than expected. And now that I am here, at this stage, I see each moment more like a gift.

So,

Here's to choosing not to waste a single minute.
Here's to choosing to surround myself with kindness, honesty, integrity and compassion.

Here's to choosing to be those things myself.

Here's to happiness, here's to life!
♥ Louise Smith

Gratitude

Exactly what I was thinking and feeling last night as I turned onto the highway toward home after a particularly long and challenging week.

The sun was setting. 

The air had turned cool again.

And quite frankly, I was mentally and emotionally exhausted.

But, as my favourite music danced through my vehicle and into my soul, and the sun sparkled and glistened in its final minutes I couldn’t help but feel grateful.

For the big things. Like the time to do what had to be done. For incredibly supportive siblings. For unending love from my husband and family.

I felt grateful for even bigger things. A setting sun to remind me every day is a new day. A cool breeze to remind me I am alive. Music to remind me I am not walking this journey alone.

I spent the rest of the ride counting my blessings. Friends. Family. Health. A warm home, a full fridge, and the forest trails that were waiting to welcome me back.

As the kilometers fell behind I smiled, sang, and acknowledged all the good in my world.

Once again I was balanced, mind, body, and spirit.
♥ Louise Smith

Kindness is a Choice

Living a life of kindness is a choice. 

It doesn't mean we slide through life without difficulties. It doesn't mean we are delusional or 'blind to reality' either. 

It simply means we have TRAINED OUR MINDS to focus on the good, on beauty, generosity, making a positive difference, and spreading kindness rather than doubt, fear, anger, resentment, bitterness, and spreading negativity.

Special thanks to those who have made the choice to make the world a little bit brighter instead of a little bit darker. ♥ Louise Smith

Train Your Mind

'If you care for your mind, if you nurture it and if you cultivate it just like a fertile, rich garden, it will blossom far beyond your expectations. But if you let the weeds take root, lasting peace of mind and deep inner harmony will always elude you.' ~ Robin Sharma

Either way, you are training your mind. ♥ Louise Smith

Beliefs and Behaviour

Sometimes we get so passionate about our beliefs we become almost rabid in our ways of communicating them.

Whether its politics, religion, fitness, the environment, spirituality, or whatever, we can get so caught up in our own personal beliefs we become guilty of pushing. And we will keep an arsenal of reasons to excuse our behaviour, even though we may not be so kind when others push their beliefs back at us.

It turns into an ugly war of words.

I know. I have been guilty of this myself a few times over the years. It happens easily to passionate people.

That doesn’t make it right. I know this too.

There is a fine balance to respecting your own views and respecting the views of others. Learning how to float through this delicate dance of behaviour takes honesty, integrity, kindness, and a heaping pile of respect.

Mastering the dance takes confidence in yourself and a deeper understanding that you could be right, and you might possibly be wrong, and that’s okay. Reaching this level raises you to a higher level of wisdom and brings a more peaceful energy to the world.

Good luck. ♥ Louise

Gaining Back Inner Peace

I took this to heart.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I found March a strange month. Everyone seemed mad about something.

Even Facebook lost its fun vibe and became a place of misery. Sarcasm became cruel. Opinions became shouting matches. Anger was the emotion of the day (whether people realized they were or not). Even kind lil ole me took a few hits to the head (and heart) from friends who ripped into me for reasons I didn’t understand.

The world was spinning and I needed to get off the ride.

So I tuned out for a while.

By dialing down my interactions with others I gained back free time to spend however I wished. Winter sports and forest hikes/bikes were a priority. Time spent connecting with family and best friends filled my heart with joy. Three rooms got painted – with the rest of the house following. And every nook and cranny of our little place has been cleaned and sorted. Junk hit the curb in an alarming rate.

Sometimes we need to step away from the warp-speed spinning of life to reacquaint ourselves with who we are – what we stand for – what we believe. We need to clear the clutter of our connection to the world at large so that we can clear the clutter from our own inner space. In doing so we rediscover our own spirit and can hear it’s calling with clarity.

And then we can re-enter the big old world - on our own terms.

I FEEL GREAT!!

Never underestimate your own power in creating a peaceful world – even if it’s just yours. You are worth it!

♥ Louise Smith

Live with Kindness

Another letter from such a delightful book. The story itself is incredibly entertaining - and easy to relate to. Enjoy.
<3 Louise Smith

Live With Kindness

It is important to remember that just as our words are our thoughts verbalized, so our deeds are our beliefs actualized. No action, no matter how small, is insignificant – how we treat someone defines how we treat everyone, including ourselves.

If we disrespect another, we disrespect ourselves.

If we are mistrustful of others, we are distrustful of ourselves.

If we are cruel to another, we will be cruel to ourselves.

If we can’t appreciate those around us, we won’t appreciate ourselves.

With every person we engage, in everything we do, we must be kinder than expected, more generous than anticipated, more positive than we thought possible.

Every moment in front of another human being is an opportunity to express our highest values and to influence someone with our humanity. We can make the world better, one person at a time.

~ Robin Sharma
(The 3rd letter in ‘The Secret Letters of the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’)

Embrace Your Fears

I am enjoying this book immensely! <3 Louise Smith

Embrace Your Fears

What holds you back in life is the invisible architecture of fear. It keeps us in our comfort zones, which are, in truth, the least safe places in which to live.

Indeed, the greatest risk in life is taking no risks.

But every time we do that which we fear, we take back the power that fear has stolen from us – for on the other side of our fears lives our strength. Every time we step into the discomfort of growth and progress, we become more free.

The more fears we walk through, the more power we reclaim. In this way, we grow both fearless and powerful, and thus are able to live the life of our dreams.

~ Robin Sharma
the 2^nd secret letter in ‘The Secret Letters of the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’

The Power of Authenticity

The Power of Authenticity

The most important gift we can give ourselves is the commitment to living an authentic life. To be true to ourselves, however is not an easy task. We must break free of the seductions of society and live life on our own terms, under our own values and aligned with our original dreams.

We must tap our hidden selves; explore the deep-seated, unseen hopes, desires, strengths and weaknesses that make us who we are.

We have to understand where we have been and know where we are going. Every decision we make, every step we take, must be informed by our commitment to living a life that is true and honest and authentic to ourselves and ourselves alone.

And as we proceed, we are certain to experience fortune well beyond our highest imagination.

~ Robin Sharma 

(from the book The Secret Letters of the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari)

<3 Louise Smith
(p.s. the picture is of me in the Santa Catalina mountain range)

Tragedy

Tragedy

Losing loved ones rarely makes sense, let alone when they are torn from this world in a very tragic manner.

Long ago I was comforted by words in a book by J. Edwards. They went something like this.

Every soul comes to this earthly life with a lesson plan. There are places it needs to go, people it needs to meet, and experiences it must endure simply for the purpose of completing its lessons.

And then, when all of them are done. When that soul has accomplished everything it set out to do, it has learned all the lessons and passed all the tests, it graduates to The Other Side.

It is us left behind that are bewildered, in pain, and not understanding. It is us that must continue for the simple reason we have not yet learned all of our lessons, nor have we passed all of our tests.

So, we do continue. As best we can.

In the long run, after the grieving is done, after the mourning lessens, our very human minds and hearts will be given a choice. We can either choose to let the experience harden us, make us bitter and resentful, or we can trust there is a reason for the way things happen that we may never explain, but we must accept.

Our soul has intended for us to experience these things, learn lessons, become better human beings, and gain a higher level of wisdom. It is not for us to question why some souls have chosen to help us learn these lessons in the way that we learn them, we can only honour that they have.

Allow yourself to grieve. And when ready, honour those that have passed by looking for ways you can be a better person, and make the world a better place. It’s the least we can do.

♥ Louise Smith

♥ Sending healing energy to all my friends, former neighbours, and loved ones that are grappling with the deaths of the Dunsmuir family. Peace be with you all ♥

Change

Mastering the lesson of letting go is harder than it seems. 

Too often we desire change, but then hold ourselves hostage to old ways, old beliefs, old habits, relationships, jobs, etc., because we equate comfort with what we know and fear with what we don't know.

The truth is, it IS frightening to forge a new path - but it is also exciting. And exhilarating. And oh so worth it. 

Good luck with whatever you may be trying to let go of. 

♥ Louise Smith

Be Kind

Be kind

We are accountable for our words, thoughts, and actions.

Imagine if we were actually held accountable for the energy we spread into the world. It could be a nice pat on the back for all the kind things we do and say, but – yikes! - what an expensive reality check for the negative energy we send out.

“Let’s see sir, we have you accountable for 13 negative words/actions today.

3 angry gestures/words while driving in traffic this morning.

1 irritated roll of the eyes and angry sigh at the server at the coffee shop.

2 outbursts at the office to the ‘knuckleheads’ as you not-so-kindly called them.

3 sarcastic remarks made about that young musician.

1 comment directed to writer of the article in the sports page.

And 3 Facebook ‘shares’ of unkind messages about other religions and cultures.

So, that makes your total 13, and at $100 a pop, your total for the spreading of today’s unkind energy is $1,300. Please pay the cashier on your way out.”

Indeed we ARE accountable. With so much anger and hate in the world, the energy we add does make a difference. Choose to be kind. And in the meantinme, let’s be happy that for now no one has figured out how to keep tabs.

<3 Louise Smith 

Adventure with Louise - The Mountain Rescue

The Rescue Story - Feb 12, 2013

Everything happens for a reason. e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g.
The bizarre February snowstorm in Tucson.
Mount Lemmon road access being closed.
The 3-months of training and planning not wanting to be wasted.

(Five of us had planned and trained for a 2-day climb up Mount Lemmon)
Choosing a replacement hike.
The amount of food and water we packed.
The length of our stops.
Even our picture taking delays.
Everything was one more piece to the puzzle to arrive at a certain place in a certain time to hear the faint distress calls.
We're in a desert mountain range where it goes from hot to cold in seconds. Winds, ravines, canyons, ridges, rock formations, washes - all play a huge part in sound travel. And we just happened to pass the right spot at the right time to hear the faint calls.
Only 2 other people were on that trail yesterday - and we passed them an hour earlier.
Dione - the lost gal (yes. Named after the famous canadian quints), was carrying a purse, a map and a cell phone that died. And one nearly empty bottle of water. She was at least 200meters off trail and completely panicked. We fed her, replaced her electrolytes, soothed her and brought her back. The hike back was 3 hours.
We all felt grateful to have been there for her, and to have a fantastic replacement hike for our missing lemmon climb.
so - yes - everything happens for a reason.

till next time, 

Louise

Note to self: When you offer to take two uber smart border collies for a walk, DO NOT forget the pee command or you'll end up getting a lot of these looks :)

(I am on vacation at the moment - down in the Tucson AZ area, planning to hike up and down Mount Lemmon.)

<3 Louise Smith