"Wherever You Go, There You Are"

I am a huge fan of Richard Carlson's books and find myself sitting down with his book "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" quite often. It's the kind of book that makes you examine yourself and I like that type of book. It's a book that makes you stretch your thinking, look honestly at yourself and grow from that.

I hurt my knee last week and now find myself being restricted. I don't do the "keeping still" thing very well. I wanted to hike tomorrow but that's out of the picture now. I wanted to work in the garden today, and that's out too. Ice packs and keeping my leg elevated are my "chores" for now. It does provide me with some time to read and today I picked several books off the shelf to leaf through. . . one of those books was Richard Carlson's book mentioned above.

I turned to chapter 54 "Understand the Statement, Wherever You Go, There You Are" I have read it before, many times probably, but today it struck a deep cord, resonating down to the core of my being. One of Oprah's, "Light Bulb Moments".

I am going to type out this small chapter for you, its profound and has much wisdom for how we look at our lives.

"This is the title of a super book by Jon Kabat-Zinn. As the title suggests, wherever you go, you take yourself with you ! The significance of this statement is that you can teach you to stop consistently wishing you were somewhere else - on vacation, with another partner, in a different career, a different home, a different circumstance - somehow we would be happier and more content. We wouldn't !

The truth is, if you have destructive mental habits - if you get annoyed and bothered easily, if you feel angry and frustrated a great deal of the time, or if you're constantly wishing things were different, these identical tendencies will follow you, wherever you go. And the reverse is also true. If you are a generally happy person who rarely gets annoyed and bothered, then you can move from place to place, from person to person, with very little negative impact.

Someone once asked me, " What are the people like in California?" I asked him, " What are the people like in your home state?" He replied, "Selfish and greedy." I told him that he would probably find the people in California to be selfish and greedy.

Something wonderful begins to happen with the simple realization that life, like an automobile, is driven from the inside out, not the other way around. As you focus more on becoming more peaceful with where you are, rather than focusing on where you would rather be, you begin to find peace right now, in the present. Then, as you move around, try new things, and meet new people, you carry that sense of inner peace with you. It's absolutely true that "Wherever you go, there you are."

The photos are just some random shots from my files

A favorite hiking trail that we take quite often

Melissa and Melanie on one of our hikes in California

Sunday Lunch for Emery and I

Wind chimes, a gift from Melanie

Wildflowers