The holidays had us in the grip of focus for fun, family, food and setting our goals for 2014.  Now that we are 3 weeks in January, how are you doing with the concept of “this year will be different” and your goals?

Baby it  is cold outside.  Record snow in the USA.  Record flooding in Europe.  A potential mess and disruption of the winter Olympic games because of terrorism.  How is a person supposed to concentrate on what is important when everything seems wrong…or just about wrong?

Your world is really pretty simple.  Get up for work.  Take care of your kids.  Pay the bills.  Most of us have food on the table, heat in the house and a good coat to wear for these cold winds.

Pay the bills.  Record your favorite TV show.  Skype with grannie showing her the new baby.  Upload the app that will remind you how many carbs there are in your latte.

I am not making fun of you really.  What I am doing is reminding you that life, your life, is really pretty simple and mostly pretty good.  And the way to keep it that way is to be aware that your life is good right now.

When we navigate in an air plane or boat, we have to know where we are and where we are going.  If we don’t have a starting point or an ending spot, it is hard to get the emotional, physical and spiritual GPS to operate well.  If we don’t know where we are going, we are going to have a number of “recalculatings” every day.

Let me share a short story with you about being aware of where we are.

For the last two weeks, every time I let my puppy out to do her business, there is a mockingbird on the white fence post.  Just flipping it’s tail and going on with it’s song.  When I say every time I open the door, I do mean every time.  3-5 times a day.  My little puppy makes noises in my office and off I go to let her out.  It took me two weeks to notice that the mockingbird was there each time.  Whether sunny, cold, windy.  EVERY TIME I opened the office door to let puppy out, the mocking bird was there.  After noticing several times that the bird was there, I decided that I would look for the bird when opening the door.  I was not disappointed.

So now on my walks, the mockingbird is sailing around in front of me, singing from the treetops, perching on other fence posts along the road.  Yes, the mockingbird is the state bird of TN, but EVERY TIME AND EVERY WHERE I go?

Such a sassy bird.  It sings so many songs.  It is carefree and flips its tail like it owns the world.  Happy.  Confident.  The mockingbird also showed up several times in my daily writings and journal.  So I asked my new dear friend Elizabeth (Lee for short) what the significance of the mockingbird is…Lee is very good at knowing animal totems and their meanings.

This is what is said about the mockingbird:

“Look for new opportunities on your path to sing forth your own song.  Awaken and express your abilities.  Do not hold back.”

When Lee sent me the meaning, I had to laugh out loud.  Poor bird.  It took the totem of mockingbirds 2 plus weeks to get my attention and all the while it had a wonderful message for me.

Get Out Of Your Own Way!!  Everything is good.  You are talented and ready to do what you want and need to do.  It was the best message I could get because I’ve been walking around a decision that really was not hard, it  just needed to be made.  And I was stalling.  Big time.

My question to you.  How many mockingbirds do you have fluttering around with a message for you?  Maybe it is something that is trying to get your attention in this so very chaotic world.

A friend.  A child.  A boss.  A signal that keeps showing up.  A phrase.  A commercial.  Something is tapping at your awareness trying to let you know that you are one terrific person; everything is going to be ok; go ahead and shine and be grateful for the message.

Trust me.  The more you resist, the more it will persist.  The more it has to persist to get your attention, the more attention getting it will become.  You cannot ignore your cleverness and smarts and next great steps.  They are there for you right now.

I am sending you a flock of mockingbirds to wake you up so you can see the signs that you need to see so you can do what you want and need to do.

Let your awareness in right now.  Deep breath and less stress and more joy.  2014 awareness anyone?

My total love to you and yours,

Natalie