Thanksgiving?

   Happy Thanksgiving, Friends! It has been such an interesting year, and nothing has been as expected. Perhaps your Thanksgiving and holiday plans this year look much different than they ever have before. It can be so easy to let ourselves get mired in discouragement and frustration after all that has happened. But I encourage you to think back to the first Thanksgiving. 

   The pilgrims who celebrated the first Thanksgiving had endured a difficult year. They had traveled from England on The Mayflower. A troubled ocean crossing, as well as a landing at the wrong destination had caused them to have to stay on board the ship all winter. By the time spring arrived, only half of those who had left England were still living. It had been a trying year to say the least. 

   As they came to shore, they were faced with a new land which they knew nothing about. Thankfully though, the local Wampanoag tribe taught them how to plant and how to survive in the new country. Through the alliance forged with their new friends, the pilgrims were able to successfully plant and grow crops. The first Thanksgiving resulted as a celebration of their first harvest in the new land. 

   Similarly, for most, this has been a difficult year. We have faced hardship and uncertainty. We have had to learn new ways of doing things. I hope that through it all, you have found ways to make and strengthen friendships, that you have learned how to survive and perhaps even thrive in a new environment, and today, whether you are gathering with many of few, I pray you have much to be grateful for. Happy Thanksgiving! I can’t wait to see you succeed. 

~K.L.W. 

P.S. For more on the first Thanksgiving, check out the info below. 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.history.com/.amp/topics/thanksgiving/history-of-thanksgiving

Enjoy Your Flight

  Good Morning, Friends! Last week I was preparing for take off from Orlando to Charlotte. The flight attendants were going through the normal safety procedures... put your mask on before helping others, flotation device is under your seat, etc. The pilot came on and welcomed us to our flight, and then he said these words, “We hope you enjoy your flight.” I don’t know why it stuck out to me this time. I’m sure this is probably standard preflight talk. But it grabbed my attention, and my first thought was, “Who enjoys a flight?” Not that I hate flying, but it seems more like one of those things you endure, rather than enjoy. It’s the mundane, somewhat annoying thing you have to do to get to where to where you want to be. 

  But then again, if you can’t find joy in the journey, you won’t find joy when you arrive either. Ever heard that saying? So here’s my thought. I could choose to enjoy my flight, right? I could make a conscious decision that rather than just endure my flight as a necessary evil, I could enjoy my flight, savor the chance to read or to look out the window, to see the world from new heights. I could take time to get to know someone near me or talk to my husband. I could find ways to enjoy the flight, just like we can find ways to enjoy the journey towards out goals and dreams. 

  It’s so easy to get caught up in, "I’ll be happy when..." But how about choosing joy now, whether you’re sitting on the beach or doing the dishes for the tenth time today. So many of us are just enduring our lives thinking we will enjoy them when we arrive at our preferred destination. Don’t let life just pass you by. Your life is not just the mountain tops, it’s in the climb, the day in, day out struggle to get to the summit. We can change how we view the mundane, and let me tell you, that makes the journey a whole lot better. Enjoy your flight. 

I can’t wait to see you succeed.

~K.L.W. 

Can I Recycle That?

   Hi Friends! I was thinking today about the concept of something wasted verses something recycled. When we think of waste we think of something as being lost, ruined, useless, not worth keeping, or unprofitable. When we recycle something, we find new value in it. We create something new from it. We give it a new purpose, and we use it again. 

  Have you ever heard the phrase that you can either lose or you can learn? Our life experiences and choices are a lot like those two receptacles in the picture. When you go through a negative experience or make a poor choice, you can toss it out as a waste, or you can choose to recycle it. How you use your failures makes a world of difference in how quickly you learn to succeed. Thomas Watson Jr., second president for IBM said, “If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.”

  When you recycle your failures you learn from them, see how you can benefit and adjust your course from them, and possibly even use them again in a more profitable way. (For example, using your loss to help someone else avoid making the same mistake.) 

  Learning to recycle your failures is one of the most valuable skills you can develop on your road to success. Don’t throw out experiences you could gain from. Ask yourself instead, “What can I learn from this? And how can I use this experience for my good and the good of others?” When you learn to recycle your failures, you will propel yourself forward towards your dreams and goals. Stop wasting what you have. Recycle instead! I can’t wait to see you succeed! 

~K.L.W.