We are already a whole week into January, 2018, and I’m preparing for my friend’s arrival on the first of February.

I have lived in Phoenix, Arizona, for going on 28 years this coming March, and I received guests especially the first 10 years most every Winter, so this isn’t anything new!  However, there is something very new and different that I have perceived with the planning I am doing these days.  I’M LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF WHAT I AM UP TO…whether I’m cleaning my refrigerator, or my stove top  – even taking out the strainers on the faucets and my shower-head to remove all the hard water deposits!  I’m tending to my home with love and I’m loving the person who is coming to enjoy her stay here..and I’m feeling the love I have for myself because I am intimately connected to all of this process.

I have been practicing living in the NOW for several months and I think this may just be the reason I mention any of this.  My ‘before picture’ was the planning of a things-to-do list which involved making sure my house was in tip-top shape for my guest, and I was hyped to the degree of excitement with anticipation and outcome woven into everything I was planning – all in advance of the actual event.  It was mostly about me, and how I would look, I’m pretty sure…..I didn’t have the glorious feelings I have now that are inclusive of my guest with a partiality to my own feelings not only toward her and wanting her stay to be as comfortable as I can make it, but it also has to do with how wonderful I am feeling as I “refresh” my home because I want ‘it’ to be an extension of my affection for my personal living space that I am sharing with my house guest and friend.

I have no rhyme or reason as to what I choose to do every day, but I know it is going to be perfect out of my intention.  I know she is looking forward to her visit and we talk most every day not only about that, but also the preparations she is making for a side trip she is planning for herself.  It feels so good to be considering someone else in my life right now – living alone provides more solitary thinking remember – and I know the quality of this comes directly from that which I feel for myself.  There is no ego playing into this.  I have no one to impress, nothing to do other than be myself, the woman we already know.   And, there are some special dishes I want to cook for her (which, of course, I have cleared whether she likes them!)

I am expressing my Freedom and Joy through all of the choices I am making surrounding this event.  And, as much as I am certainly looking forward to it, if for some unknown reason it has to cancel, I know the two of us will just say, “Well, when can we set it up again?”  The whole thing is nothing more or less than one of those “series of events’ I refer to often which present to my privilege of living my life.

There’s a lot to be said for being a dreamer, realist and optimist all rolled up into one.  Makes for an exciting time of it, with the knowledge everything always works out perfectly and in its own good time to my greatest good and that of all those around me, right NOW.

Blessed Be.  To All Be Blessed.