The last couple of weeks have been filled with so many events and happenings that are life altering. From another tragic school shooting to a power shifting election, a criminal indictment of the once most powerful man in the world, rockets shot into Israel and their promise of retaliation, Evan Gershkovich being kidnapped and held hostage by Russia and devastating and dangerous weather here in the US, (just one of these) can be cause stress, worry and heartache in your life. So I thought this might be a good time to remind ourselves of two things. •Be aware of what’s going on but only be concerned about what we can control. •Even our biggest challenges are only IN our lives, they are NOT our lives. I remember as a young man my dad told me “If you want to control what’s happening in the world, first you have to control what’s happening in YOUR world.” So for instance, if you want more kindness in the world, be more kind in the smaller world around you. Be more kind to the world within you! Bad things will happen both in the world and to us. The path we’ve laid out will sometimes be blocked. Our mood will sometimes not be what we hope for and the same will go for our outlook. We have experience with this kind of things. These are all things that have also happened to us in the past. The bottom line though is that we made it through those challenges in the past and that’s what has gotten us to here! Find a way to remind yourself of and to be proud of your resilience and gumption. (A word I did not envision using when I woke up today. If you’re under 45 you might need to look it up.) Take a breath. Enjoy the things around you that most people won’t. Make a plan to make things better. Smile. Allow yourself to be the person that you were made to be. People like you make this world better. Keep that in mind as you keep taking care of yourself. Keep searching for the important things in life, then share them so others can find them too. Peace       …..Gregg