Last week I came home from a trip out west. Our first stop was Mount Rushmore—a 60-foot granite wonder that photos don’t do justice to—in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Then we headed to gorgeous Cody, Montana. Being immersed in environments as lush and mostly uninhabited as we visited makes me want to immerse myself in the rest of our amazing country. It was an incredible experience.
As I walked through hollowed and sacred ground worn down by the treads of so many, I was completely awed. There are many takeaways from this adventure. Everything from breathtaking waterfalls, and stunning snow-capped mountains, to Buffalo, Big Horn Sheep, Elk, Mule Deers, and incredibly docile chipmunks crossed our path.
On this journey, we slept in four different environments: a motel, horse farm, hotel, and once in our car (which I’d not advise!). We saw dozens of mares, stallions, and ponies break free once gates were unlatched for their morning feast of grasses and birds that seemed to come from storybook drawings.
To say that the landscape’s views, colors, and sounds were stunning would be an understatement. The undulating hills, the snow-capped mountains, the blistering heat, the chilling mornings, and the breathtaking waterfalls were all part of my fascination with this beautiful land.
We rode for hours without sighting a fellow human and through terrain more beautiful than photos can capture. Getting out of my typical routines and seeing our country with new eyes renewed an awareness that to live into our best selves, we often have to start a change process—ridding old habits that no longer serve us, traditions that bring us down instead of up, and memories that tell stories filled with woe.
Most of us can’t quickly flip a switch and banish past realities that created pain or memories fraught with violence, sorrow, or minimization. Change, even when necessary, can be challenging work! It’s easy to fall into rote routines or hear the damaging voices that may have chronicled our earlier lives: narrations that didn’t help us become who our higher power knows us to be. We are products of our lives up to this point, but with enough work, we don’t have to spend the time we have left as victims of those years.
Rethinking—a simple example:
Let’s assume there’s a friend’s party you’ve heard (a lot) about but didn’t receive an invitation to. Being excluded hurts and reminds you of the times you were left behind or rejected. You may not even know why you weren’t on the guest list, but you create a story around it.
Your choices are:
1) hang onto that pain and become distraught, hurling every insult you can at yourself for being “unwanted.”
2) think about how awful the party’s host is and ruminate on that for a while.
3) be aware that you’re upset, but slowly release it.
4) let go of it immediately because you know you have value, or
5) think, “Obviously, the invite just didn’t get to me, so I’ll call the host.”
Which one do you choose?
That decision —whether positive, negative, or somewhere in between—is a reaction predicated upon your experiences up to this point in your life (or previous life). If you can free yourself from the burdens of the past (of course, easier said than done), you open the door to move forward and be fully in the present.
Our lives are not determined solely by what has happened to us. Our reactions to events, circumstances, and attitudes—which influence every one of our days—also shape them. Choosing to be a change agent in your own life by embracing a positive attitude creates a chain reaction of (you know this) positivity.
Being a change agent is
the catalyst that ignites the spark,
that discovers the joy,
that spawns all kinds of extraordinary outcomes.
We may cringe or break down when we examine our non-physical cicatrices—relentless reminders of heartbreak suffered, trauma experienced, or the hell we lived through to get where we are. But (and this matters), scars can be beautiful. Like the lines on our faces, they tell the story of a life lived, not one pristine, untouched, living on a cloistered, dark shelf.
We have the opportunity, ability, and responsibility to create positive, life-blossoming transformations. Marks of healed wounds can be reminders of freedom, perseverance, bravery, and faith in our Higher Power, others, and ourselves. They are the roadmaps of our lives. And we’re still here to tell those tales in ways that mirror how a universal life source sees us—beautiful, valuable, and always and in all ways loved.
May today bless you with the awareness of how amazing YOU are.
Blessings,
Kay
peace full home®—intentional living 
Beautiful and so true!!! Have a Blessed Day!
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