“A thousand names for joy. “ ~ Byron Katie

For us parents, it is a wonderland of surprises to watch our children grow up and live their lives. Whoever would have guessed as they grew up and became adults, that they would have chosen this or that… or this or that opportunity would have unfolded for them. I gave up trying to control that a long time ago!

Right now my oldest daughter, Holly, is in East Africa and just finished a safari. She actually left Vancouver in September 2016 with a backpack, hiking boots, a swimsuit, and money she had saved from working two jobs. She left Canada on a one-way air ticket, travelling on her own. How cool is that?

She is a young woman with dreams, and one of them is to experience the world. She decided the time for this dream was NOW, and she went for it! Personally, I am very excited that she is following this dream – that she has put this all together, created it.

I am sharing this with you because my children have been, and still are one of my biggest teachers in life. They inspire me to keep growing in ways that are really important to me.

She sent many photos. I loved all the “big 5” animals in Tasmania, but there was one photo that really caught my eye. It’s the one you see… her holding a little creature in her hand.

I was mesmerized by the expression on her face. She is so alive in the moment with total appreciation and delight for this small creature. I remember thinking, “wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could all our lives with such aliveness and appreciation”. It was a reminder for me of how juicy life can be when we are really in appreciation, especially for the little things in life.

It’s wonderful to have an ‘elephant’ of experience or a ‘lion’s’ worth of active fun. Most of us are the most alive when things are going our way. But to be alive because we are simply in delight about a small creature or thing in our life, that is really hitting the jackpot of health and vitality.

From my experience, the consistency of joy and happiness is related to our ability to find delight in the small things in our life rather than take them for granted. Everything can be beautiful. Even the way the wax melts off a candle can have us smiling in wonder.

Day-to-day delight comes from our appreciation of all the small things. Of course I love it when a big thing comes my way, but the daily emotional, spiritual, and physical nourishment comes from our joy in all the small creatures or things in our life.

Now of course there is another layer to this experience that I found really interesting. The small creature she is enjoying is a chameleon. A chameleon can be a symbol for us of the power we have if we use it wisely. A chameleon changes colours… easily and effortlessly. It has the innate capacity to do that. As humans we have the innate capacity to change the colour of our moods, perceptions, and life experiences.

We have been gifted a lot of power with this capability. We don’t have to stay ‘blue’. We can change our colour to bring us vitality and happiness. Both vitality and happiness are inwardly charged. There is a tremendous amount in literature about this. The well known saying, “what we focus on, expands” gives us a great deal of power to change the colour of our moods.

Everything we experience is dependent on how we process it… what meaning we give it. We are chameleons in a very positive way. All the innate gifts we have are dependent on how we use them. Use them well!!!

I would love you to invite yourself this month to be more alive to all the good stuff around you. Bring in appreciation, especially for the small creatures or things in your life. And know you have tremendous power, like the chameleon, to change your colour to a tone that fills you up inside with vitality and happiness.