Here's an exerpt from today's message of Simple Abundance on the topic of embracing the 'path of joy': Many of us unconsciously create drama in our minds, expecting the worst from a situation only to have our expectations become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Inadvertently, we become authors of our own misfortune. And so we struggle from day to day, from crisis to crisis, bruised and battered by circumstances without realizing that we always have a choice.

This, dear friends, was written explicitly for Moi. It describes a process I go through daily. And it's not just in the context of a situation I might be experiencing at the moment. In fact, it's usually my brain, in overdrive, already skipping to the scenes of tomorrow and the next day. Rather than live in the moment and enjoy whatever it is I'm doing, I've already hit fast-forward and am pondering what could go wrong in a hundred other areas of my life. Where does all that get me? Absolutely nowhere.

One of the best books I've ever read: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, by Eckhart Tolle. It's currently on sale at Amazon -- $6.60. The best $6.60 you could ever spend. I just ordered three more copies, so that I might be able to share the wealth. As I gave my last copy to someone, I will keep one and start to re-read. Great stuff. Basically, a new way of looking at the moments in your life. A how-to on living in the present. His other book, A New Earth, is equally amazing.

Oh, the number of days I've spent pontificating on what happened yesterday or what's going to happen tomorrow. Again -- where does that get me? I really have to make a conscious effort not to let my brain do that. I really don't do that well, but am thinking that my new approach to embracing the simple, the joyous, might just get me there. Would be great if I just had an 'off' button on top of my head that could switch me to stay faithfully in 'the now'.

With that in mind, I'm going to experiment a bit with my afternoon. I'm going to do all of the things I have to do today in the present -- appreciating the time I have to spend with the kids, the sunny weather, the freedom I have to do what needs to be done.

Here's my afternoon/evening:

2:00 appt. with therapist

3:00 pick up Keira at school

3:15 stop at grocery

4:00 pick up Liam at school

4:30 shoe shopping with Riley

6:00 Riley has tutoring

7:30 dinner

8:30 iron on Daisy Scout patches for Keira

Pretty hum-drum, wouldn't you say? But it doesn't have to be. It could be, instead, an exciting adventure with my beautiful children, an opportunity to engage them in conversation and find out about their day. Yeah, that's it. The more I consciously think about it, the better chance I have in finding joy in the present moment.