Words like harmony, evenness, stability and symmetry come to mind when I think about balance. Yet to find that right balance, we have to shake things up to enter a more calm and balanced state. I also equate balance with a certain amount of predictability or sameness.

Here’s the thing. What if we purposefully decided to poke at our balanced state in order to change that status quo? What if we made one small change? That might be forming a new habit like waking up or going to bed earlier. It might mean tasting a new food you never thought you’d like. It could mean letting go of something old to replace something new coming in. Changing the balance on purpose might open your perspective to something you hadn’t thought of before. One small change could unleash a host of possibilities.

You might find this odd that I’m suggesting to purposefully mess with the status quo or your balance. This might seem particularly strange coming from a professional organizer who often writes about “finding a balance that’s right for you.” I do see the value of stirring things up every so often.

This inadvertently happened when I was shopping recently for a replacement journal. I’ve kept a journal for over forty years. Every year or so, I buy a new one when the journal is filled. For over ten years, I’ve happily used a black Moleskine® sketchbook journal. I like the thick, smooth paper.

This time the stores didn’t have the exact style that I wanted. The interior paper was either too thin or it had lines, dots or grids. The black-bound, thicker paper, blank Moleskine® journals were not in stock. I did find the right journal with a red (not black) cover. I immediately dismissed the idea of buying the red one. It seemed too radical, too different, and just too scary. All my other journals were black. How could I break from tradition? What would happen if bought a different color? I could feel my heart palpitating at the idea of making an unexpected choice. Was it fear or excitement?

I kept coming back to that question. What would happen if I bought a different color? And then it hit me and I thought,

“Stir things up, Linda! Break with tradition. Try something new.”

As small and insignificant as this may seem, it represented a willingness on my part to be daring. I thought this would be a great way to enter the New Year by messing with (in a good way) or teasing the status quo.

My new, red journal sits on my nightstand ready to be written in. I can’t wait to make my first entry. I know. I know. It’s just a journal…a red one. However, there’s something about the red color, the different color that suggests interesting possibilities, inspired ideas, new experiences, and unexpected surprises. There’s also something quite cheery about the red. It’s bold. It’s bright. It’s hope wrapping the pages of days yet to be.

Have you ever purposefully messed with your balance? Has one tiny change unleashed new possibilities? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation! 

We all have markers, which are moments and events in our lives that define the passage of time. We have birthdays, anniversaries, new years, new seasons, new months and new days.  Each marks a time of reflection, change, growth and beginning again.

For me, one marker that’s become a tradition is our friends’ annual Winter Solstice party. This wonderful gathering of interesting people includes live music, dancing, food and an enormous bonfire. While I love everything about this event from seeing old friends to meeting new ones to hearing great music and dancing away, my favorite part is the lighting of the fire.

As a group, we each take a candle, light it and trek up the hill into the middle of the woods. Some years we walk through lots of snow. Other years, like this one, there was less snow. Once we get to the clearing, we form a circle around the stone pit. In the middle is a magnificently built teepee-shaped structure of wood standing about eight feet tall. As we wait for everyone to gather, it’s always cold. This soon changes.

Words are shared, the fire is lit and one by one, we throw our candles into the flame. As we do, we let go of negative thoughts from the year about to end and reflect on our dreams for the coming year. The blaze takes hold. The fire builds quickly and transforms the cold night.  My shivering is replaced by warmth. The mood is contemplative and magical. As the flames travel brilliantly up into the deep night sky, hope and gratitude fills my being. We are connected to each other. We are part of a tradition. We are markers in the passage of time.

The end of the year gives us a natural pause to reflect and restore our life balance. It’s the time to adjust, reset and move forward. The annual bonfire is one marker that nudges me into this mode. What is one of your markers? 

Gratitude is something I think about every day. The smallest things like the joy I feel when I see a vibrant color to the larger ones, like being thankful for a loving family. As Thanksgiving arrives this week, gratitude and thankfulness are in my thoughts even more than usual.

My husband and I have always enjoyed having gatherings. There’s nothing quite like bringing positive energy and love into our home. Even before we were married, we hosted our share of events. The tradition has continued over the last 27 years to include birthdays, holidays and impromptu gatherings.

In particular, we love hosting Thanksgiving. Each time it rolls around, we reminisce about two of our classic Thanksgiving adventures.  No matter how many times we recall these stories, we continue to delight in them.

The first Thanksgiving we hosted was shortly after we got married. We invited both sides of the family to our loft in Brooklyn. Steve was very serious about cooking the main dishes (turkey, stuffing and gravy.) He worked for hours, maybe days, preparing the gravy. At the last minute, when it was time to strain the giblets from the liquid, and right as our guests were about it arrive, I heard this big scream coming from the kitchen. I then heard many other explicatives, which I won’t repeat here. It sounded like someone was wounded.

“I’m grateful for the mishaps of life.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVPO

Just as his aunt and uncle arrived, Steve poured the gravy into the strainer without a dish below to catch the gravy. As he poured, he realized his “prize” gravy was going right down the drain! Right after that happened, his aunt walked over to check things out and said to him, “Do you think you have enough gravy?” Distressed, Steve turned to me and asked me to call his mother to see if she could bring some extra gravy. Thank goodness for mothers!

It wasn’t funny at the time, but over the years, it’s become one of our favorite stories. It makes us laugh every time think about it. I’m grateful for the mishaps of life. They remind us that we’re not perfect, we are flexible and we can laugh at ourselves.

Fast-forward about five years from our first Thanksgiving. This particular Thanksgiving was the first one we hosted as new parents. Our oldest daughter, now 20, was only six months old at the time. Steve and I remember waking up early to prepare everything. About an hour or so before our family and friends arrived, we commented to one another how smoothly things were going and how not stressed out we were. I suppose at that point we should have knocked on wood for good luck.

As I was preparing the table, I notice a tremendous amount of smoke coming from the kitchen. Steve yelled out, “CALL the Fire Department!” The smoke alarms went off, our daughter started crying and the cat was meowing wildly. One of the turkeys (we cooked two that year) had caught on fire, which in turn made our oven catch fire.

The Fire Department showed up quickly, but Steve had already extinguished the fire. His Boy Scout training has come in handy countless times, including that Thanksgiving! Twenty people were expecting Thanksgiving dinner and we had to continue preparing, even after the “incident.” Once the excitement subsided and the fire was extinguished, we continued cooking and airing out the house. We had to open all the windows and doors to get the smoke out. Our poor guests froze that year and had to wait a long time until the meal was ready.

But in the end, it was another wonderful Thanksgiving providing us with lots of happy memories. We were surrounded by the people we loved most, no one was hurt, we ended up getting a new stove and as a bonus, we ate smoked turkey.

Steve and I had our Thanksgiving planning meeting yesterday. We figured out who was doing what, when we’d do things and reviewed our notes from previous years. And of course, we had to retell our Thanksgiving stories and enjoy a good laugh together. Who knows what surprises will be in store this year? All I do know is that I’m very grateful to have all the people we love most coming to our home to celebrate the holiday of thanks and gratitude.

Do you have any Thanksgiving stories or tales of gratitude? Please share them.