LIVE LIKE A FLOWER: Be Grateful for Rain

A prioritized life prepares you to live like a flower – nimbly and gracefully in all kinds of weather and refreshed by the rain. Follow this advice from change agent and author of Restoring Order, Vicki Norris, to be grateful for rain.

1. Receive the rain. Look at life’s circumstances–not as inconveniences or intrusions–but as enrichment to your soil. Even the tough stuff can bring growth, and even beauty, to your life. Determine to always become better, not bitter.
2. Refine your transitions. Make your transitions stress-free: give attention to your going-and-coming spaces. Set up a mudroom or hallway where coats, boots, gloves, keys and sunglasses can be easily placed for grab-and-go ease, and welcoming and orderly returns. Display flowers and plants in the area to greet you and help keep clutter at bay.
3. Reconsider your remnants. Pause to enjoy (and even photograph) the overlooked, dirty, or disruptive things, instead of perceiving a nuisance. Snap a mental or actual picture of the muddy boots by the front door, the dishes piled up, the toys lurking under the couch. Remember that these are actually evidence of what we DO have – the beautiful blessings of today.
4. Refuse the daily grind. Infuse your busy life with little pleasures that invite you to breathe in the sweet joys that no circumstance can steal. Take the doors off your kitchen cabinets so you can behold your pretty dishes, add a small vase of flowers in the kitchen or laundry room, tuck love notes inside your spouse’s pocket.
5. Reclaim your priorities. Prioritize your life around that which matters most. Resolve to live with no regrets by putting first the relationships and moments that count. And, like a flower, you will be happier living when the rain comes; you will have the roots and support system to weather the storm and rebound resiliently.

The Complete Live Like A Flower Series