This is From The Balance Beam

[TheBalanceBeam] - Giving Thanks for Renewal

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THE BALANCE BEAM
Ideas and Inspiration for Creating a Life that Works
Vol. 1 No. 8 November 24, 1999
Published by Success Builders, Inc.
http://www.SuccessBuildersInc.com
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"He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened."
Lao-tzu

In this issue: GIVING THANKS FOR RENEWAL
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Dear Friends,
I'm publishing this edition of The Balance Beam a few days early in recognition of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday this week. My hope is that on Friday, when we would normally publish, most of you will be watching football or eating leftover turkey sandwiches or enjoying family instead of checking your email! I also want to take this opportunity to thank you for subscribing to, and reading The Balance Beam. It is a privilege and an honor to be able to share my thoughts with you every couple of weeks, and I greatly value your readership!

If you want to check out earlier editions of The Balance Beam that you may have missed, you can easily retrieve them by clicking on http://www.successbuildersinc.com/newsletter.html and going to the Archives section. If you are not yet a regular subscriber to The Balance Beam, you can also enter your subscription information at this location.
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Today's Topic: GIVING THANKS FOR RENEWAL

Tomorrow we celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States, the holiday we set aside to honor the harvest, share its bounties, and count our blessings. This is always a particularly reflective time for me. As I go about the business of baking pies and cooking cranberries and polishing silverware, I am mindful of the richness of life and its complexities, its joys and its sorrows, its great mysteries.

There's something about this time of harvest, and giving thanks for its bounty, that speaks to the cycle of renewal and change. I was reminded of this last week as I was driving to North Carolina for a business meeting. Throughout the four-hour drive, I was treated to the panoramic splendor of orange, red and gold trees all along the way. It occurred to me how different this same route will look in another month, when all the leaves are gone and the landscape becomes brown and barren.

In many ways, our lives replicate the cycling of the seasons. While most of us would like to believe that we could develop and sustain high energy and production levels day in, day out, year after year, the truth is that we ebb and flow, much like the seasons. Although our cycles may not match the dates on the calendar, we all go through periods of regular change in our lives that mimic seasonal patterns. Our spring typically finds us bursting with energy and ready to put new ideas and plans into action. Summer is our time of radiant activity and growth. In the fall, we harvest and celebrate the fruits of our labor. We also begin to sense a shift in our lives and a preparing for what's to come. Winter is a time for retreating and reflecting, for looking inward and finding meaning. And in late winter, as we prepare to emerge from our cocoons, we begin defining new visions and anticipating possibilities that will blossom in the spring.

If we see change as a naturally occurring event, much like the change in seasons, then we can embrace it as a gift and an invitation to enhance our lives. This means taking full advantage of those peak energy periods when we are crisp and at our best, ready to take on the world. It also means acknowledging those times when our energy levels are lagging or we need to take time to rest and get centered.

To grow through life's inevitable ups and downs, we must move through each season in turn. Tomorrow, as you celebrate thanksgiving, ask yourself what season you are experiencing in your life. Honor it, and learn from it. And offer thanks for renewal.
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Words to live by: "To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring."
- George Santayana