Today I’m at the town park with my husband Harold and our two dogs, Harper and Cinnamon.

We’re carefully negotiating an icy slope when I notice the bench at the top of the hill.

I’ve seen this bench many times before, but today it looks lonely to me. And, it also looks very compelling. I’m strangely drawn to go and sit for a while on this lonely bench. It looks like a great spot from which to sit and just be, and to watch the world.

Today, with its windchills in the single digits F, isn’t the day to sit on that bench and ponder, so I leave it for another day.

I make a mental note to come back to sit someday.

But, probably, when I do come back, it will be a warmer day, and the bench won’t be so lonely anymore. There will be kids in the playground, at the bottom of the hill. There will be disc golfers competing with each other. There will be skate-boarders over on the ramps, not very far away.

As I turn towards the car, I realize that a part of me wants and needs some solitude. That is the call of the lonely bench. I make a vow to find some time and space for myself, and I leave the bench to its loneliness.

What does your soul need?

It is warm and sunny today, 50 degrees F. It seems like we have had one long Indian Summer this autumn; there have been very few cold, blustery days that usually characterize November here.

As a result, I’ve spent much more time than I usually do outdoors. And so has everybody else. We’ve all been “making hay when the sun shines,” as the expression goes.

The park, which is usually quiet and still this time of year, has been bustling with activity on most days. I normally have my road to myself this time of year, with everyone else hunkered down in their cozy houses. This year, every time I’m out I see people out enjoying the mild weather. We all know what’s coming.

I love seeing all this activity and being a part of it. It feels like a celebration of our collective reprieve.

However, my walking time is usually my “silence and solitude” time. Nature has always been my sacred temple, and my walks are my prayer.

So I realized today that I must cultivate silence and solitude. I’m missing it, because it is one of the foundations of my connection with my inner essence, or true self.

Silence and solitude are not optional for me. They are very grounding, and they connect me with the sacred in my life.

I know that the sacred is in everything, but it is far easier for me to see, feel, and engage with the sacred when I have regular silence and solitude. Nature is also a connector for me in this way.

Very soon, the winds will blow and snow will fly, and I’ll again have the park and my road to myself. Until then, I’ll find another space and time for silence and solitude, in another way.

What connects you with the sacred in your life? How do you cultivate silence and solitude?

A manifesto is a statement of intention. It is a set of promises to ourselves.

When we are going through periods of change in our lives, as in midlife, it can be really helpful to know what matters most.

Midlife can stop us in our tracks and make us reconsider what matters most.

The practice of having a manifesto, and reflecting on it from time to time, can be very grounding. It can bring us back “home” to what is really important to us, especially during those times when life feels out of control.

Here’s a manifesto that I wrote a few years ago.

The questions that I asked myself in order to create the manifesto were:
What do I want to pay more attention to?
What matters now?
What is it time for?

I offer it to you as a starting place if you would like to write your own manifesto, and use it to guide you in your life.

What’s in your manifesto?

It has been the Best Year Ever. This brilliant oak is an example of it.

On October 11, 2013, I wrote a blog post titled Best Year Ever.

I asked myself: What if the Best Year Ever is merely the exquisite quality of attention that I pay to my life? That what makes it the Best Year Ever is my degree of presence, rather than the things that happened to me, or the things I did?

We have choice over how we come to our lives.

Over the year, I shared about sixty blog posts of things I was noticing that grabbed my attention as I was committed to paying more attention to my life.

These were very “ordinary,” everyday miracles, most of them in nature, because nature was always available, for me to pay more attention to.

I learned a lot about paying attention.

I learned how easy it is for me to slip into a trance of not paying attention.

I learned that I am literally showered with blessings, in great abundance, and all around me, all of the time.

I learned that if I am not seeing those blessings, it is because I’m not looking.

I learned more about the power of choosing how we show up to our lives.

It feels like time to complete this Best Year Ever series on my blog. I still intend to pay a greater and greater degree of attention to my life, and to practice a degree of presence that becomes ever deeper and deeper. I still intend to live the Best Year Ever. Life is a miracle, and I want to show up to it.

It has been fun to have this focus for the year, and a part of me is reluctant to complete it. I’m a bit uncomfortable with completing it, too, and I noticed today that I was procrastinating writing this final Best Year Ever post. I’ve been thinking of it since the 11th, and just haven’t done it. This is because I don’t know what is next.

It’s always easier for me to let one thing go when I have clarity on the next thing. But that’s life, for sure, isn’t it? Most of the time, if we are living fully present to the emergence, we don’t know what’s next. Being with that is the practice and the process of life. I’m making space for whatever is next, by completing this part of the adventure.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey of the Best Year Ever. What is your Best Year Ever?

Some of the leaves are beginning to turn.

Autumn is starting to show her colors.

I love this time of year for the contrasts and the color.

It is a spectacular reminder that change can be beautiful.

What are the changes that are presenting themselves to you?

Some of you may have seen this image of the setting sun, because I posted it on Facebook, on the day before Autumnal Equinox.

At Autumnal Equinox, the sun sets due west.

We live on an East-West road, and so, on, or very near, Autumnal Equinox, the sun lines up exactly with the road as it rises and sets.

One of my friends pointed out that I have my own Stonehenge. I loved that thought.

I do have my own Stonehenge, on the Equinoxes. On the other days of passage, I’m left to my own devices.

Best Year Ever.

The seasons, they are a changing.

One of the first heralds of Autumn is fungi. Beautiful and complex and spontaneous.

I’m always delighted to see these unusual creations of nature.

I don’t always feel ready for Summer to change into Autumn, even though I love Autumn too. Sometimes it just seems like things are moving too quickly.

This ever-changing kaleidoscope of nature’s creations helps me embrace change.

What is changing in your world?

What if there is a creative flow already in place in your life?

Today I’m playing with the possibility of giving myself into the flow of my life.

All of us have probably experienced a flow state at some point in our lives.

I’m talking about the possibility of there being a larger current in our lives, which, when we release into it, will carry us downstream into the future of our lives with ease and grace, as we align ourselves with it.

What if I can tune into this current, and feel its moves?

Maybe this is what people are referring to when they say “I got out of my own way.”

For years, I’ve tuned into inner guidance, asking questions that I felt I needed wisdom and guidance on, things I needed to know.

This is really a whole new level of release and surrender into intuition and inspiration.

This is not even knowing the questions. It’s just tuning into and attending to what moves me from within.

It’s about receptivity and openness and curiosity.

I guess the playful way to experiment with this possibility would be to make a date with the Mystery. Set aside a chunk of time and move when I am so moved, from within. Follow the inner nudges, and move when the life energy within inspires me to move.

What would be possible for you if there was a current of a river within you, a force of power, inspiration, and momentum, moving in you, that wants to carry you along?

It’s the weekend, and I’m doing my weekly check-in. I want to share a part of my process, because it might be helpful to those of you who are in life transition.

I wrote a previous blog post about Seven Essential Sustaining Practices for Life Transition. This post gives a little background on these practices.

These seven practices keep me centered and resourceful, so once a week I look at how much I’m honoring each of them.

• How much am I remembering that this is a journey, and that I am a hero?
• How well am I managing the stress of my life transition?
• What non-essentials (inner and outer) did I let go, this week?
• How am I using my inner compass to find my way?
• How have I allowed the energy and power of my true self to support me?
• How have I claimed the authority of my own voice and truth?
• In what ways am I making my unique contribution to my world?

It’s important to do this check-in with no self-judgement, just curiosity. Be compassionate with yourself when you ask these questions.

The answers will provide you with two important things, at least:

1. Celebration! Savor and appreciate what you are doing well, how you are nourishing yourself.
2. Feedback. What can you tweak for the next week, that will help support you even more?