Healthy Happy Loving Life: Polar Vortex Again!

17 Wednesday Feb 2021

Posted by Kebba Buckley Button in Effective Living, Feeling energized, frozen flowers, polar vortex, Relationships, stress, uncertainty

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adjusting to change, energy, Feeling energized, frozen flowers, fulfilled, Healthy Happy Loving Life, Kebba, living beyond, making changes, moving on, uncertainty

The descent of the Polar Vortex across much of our nation this week has reminded me of an adventure we had 7 years ago. In 2014, my husband and I wanted to visit the relatives in Denver. So we found a week that would work and booked inexpensive tickets that could not be changed. As the dates drew closer, it became clear that Denver would be having snow. Exactly the same days we would be there.

Then it became clear we were flying into the Polar Vortex— science fiction for Phoenix people. My secondary goal of taking Fall photos became the goal of taking icy winter photos. It was 4 degrees for a high, with dark, cloudy skies most of each day. As we debarked at Denver International Airport, it was the first time I had ever seen gate agents *inside* wearing winter scarves and gloves.

We were challenged, not only to stay comfortable, but to keep seeing well, as our glasses kept fogging, freezing, and thawing, then fogging again. Fortunately, we did have warm enough clothing and footwear.

Above is the view from our hotel dining room. Notice the ice coating on the inside of the window? This is looking east across Colorado Boulevard.

All around Denver, gardens were flash-frozen by the sudden snowstorms. Above are some of the ice-clad daffodils from my late mother’s garden– a rare photo opportunity for me. My sister Annie kindly drove us all around town, in messy, icy wintery traffic, so I could get a lot of snowy photos. I learned to keep the camera (iPhone) inside my top, so it wouldn’t crack from the cold. And yes! That was a cold thing to put back inside my top!

Another blessing of the trip was the chance to get this family photo (below) during dinner one night. Yes, there was a fireplace nearby–very cozy! From the left, that’s me, older sister Annie, Mom, and my husband, Ron Button.

When we embrace situations that could be discomforts, we end up with adventures! We all made the best of the 2014 Polar Vortex and now have great memories for a lifetime. And embracing life takes us further into the realm of Healthy, Happy, and Loving Life^sm? It’s up to you!

Kebba Buckley Button is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life. She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within: Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine. The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office. To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: An Interesting Life

16 Tuesday Feb 2021

Posted by Kebba Buckley Button in Effective Living, Feeling energized, Forgiveness, Grudges, living beyond, Moving on, not boring, Relationships, Resentment, stress, uncertainty

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adjusting to change, energy, Feeling energized, fulfilled, Healthy Happy Loving Life, Kebba, living beyond, making changes, moving on, not boring, uncertainty

This neon sign was in a favorite Denver restaurant. One day, a sudden blizzard blew across the city, dropping the temperature 80 degrees and blanketing the city with snow. The main dining room was a bit chilly. I looked up, saw this sign, and realized: my life has never been boring! And it will probably never be boring! And I embrace my life.

How about you?

The more we are in step with the uncertainty of life, the more we find we’re Healthy, Happy, and Loving Life^sm? It’s up to you!

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: The Pinball Machine of Life

15 Monday Feb 2021

Posted by Kebba Buckley Button in Adjusting to change, Dealing with stress, Effective Living, Forgiveness, Grudges, living beyond, Moving on, Nasty people, Relationships, Resentment, stress, Upset

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adjusting to change, energy, Feeling energized, fulfilled, Garth Brooks, grateful, healing, Kebba, living beyond, making changes, moving on, Relationships, stress tips

Photo by http://www.livelifehappy.com

Today, I offer my Pinball Machine Theory of Life. Think of the top 3 disappointing events you’ve had in life. A relationship suddenly over. The job you KNEW was yours, and someone else got it. The friend who suddenly cut you off. Remember how much that hurt?

Sometimes, it’s like you are the ball on a pinball game board. After the token goes into the machine, and the spring launcher is pulled and released, the ball zips up the slope of the game board. Sometimes, like the pinball, you are racing up the board of life thinking you are definitely headed in a certain direction. Then– wham!– you get hit with a flipper. For a moment, you don’t even know what your new direction is, right? You’re just reverberating with the impact of the flipper (ow!), feeling the pain, and trying to get your bearings again. Then you begin collecting yourself, look up, and see what unintended direction you are now headed in. Yikes! Not what the plan was! And how many time has this happened to you?

Grammy-Award winning musician Garth Brooks has a powerful song called, “Thank God for Unanswered Prayers.” In the song, he tells of being out with his wife and seeing the woman he dated in high school. In high school, he used to pray for that relationship every night. By the time he saw his old flame again, he realized he would not be in the amazing relationship he was in with his wife, had the relationship with his old flame worked out. So now he is massively grateful for the passing of that old relationship! He was redirected on the Pinball Machine of Life, and now he is deeply glad.

If you are a person of faith, remember this timeless truth [Romans 8:28]: We know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him…

When the flippers hit you, you are being directed for powerful purposes, by a Wisdom greater than our own. Do your best to deal with the hurt. Then embrace the new opportunities that are arriving. Be the happy and grateful pinball.

Now, doesn’t it feel great to be even more Healthy, Happy, and Loving Life^sm? It’s up to you!

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: You Can Help Win the War on Hunger

21 Monday Dec 2020

Posted by Kebba Buckley Button in Dealing with stress, Feeling energized, hunger, Kebba Buckley Button, stress, Stress Management, the life you want

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Healthy Happy Loving Life, hunger, Kebba Buckley Button, making changes, stress, Stress Management

Hunger is big in the World, in the U.S., and in your community. But you can help from your desk to a degree you may not have realized. The following is not science fiction. It’s real. The current term for “starving” is “food insecure”. Don’t let that fool you. This challenge is big!

Globally, Action Against Hunger (ActionAgainstHunger.org) estimates 850 million people lack food. And hunger is on the rise. With 7.8 billion people on the Planet in 2020, that’s almost 10% who can’t eat enough. To create sustainable food supplies, clean water, foodstuffs, training, and healthcare are needed. Action Against Hunger works in 50 countries, serving 20 million people.

Nationally, Feeding America (FeedingAmerica.org) provides 4.3 billion (that’s BILLION) meals each year through food banks, pantries, and meals programs. There are at least 200 US food banks plus 60,000 food pantries and meal programs. Before the Pandemic, there were 10 million children in food-insecure households. Some kids only get food at school, or in backpacks the school gives them, secretly loaded with food to take home.

In the Phoenix area, there is a lot of help for the food-insecure. The two main organizations are St. Mary’s Food Bank (FirstFoodBank.org)–the organization that invented food banks– and St. Vincent de Paul (StVincentdePaul.net). There is no qualifying to receive food from either the St. Vincent dining rooms or the food pantries, or the St. Mary’s dropoff locations. Monthly, St. Mary’s unloads a semi truck full of food at various locations around the Valley, such as Desert Christian Fellowship at 15th Avenue and Northern (Third Fridays); teams also take food boxes into the neighborhoods.

So there are two secrets to know about hunger:

There is much more hunger than you think, and it could be your neighbor.

2. For every dollar you can donate, any food bank can provide seven dollars worth of food! Don’t go buy peanut butter and drive it to a food bank. Go online and donate $10, or $100, or whatever you can. That will mean $70 or $700 worth of food! In Arizona, you may be able to get an $800 year-end tax credit for your $800 donation. So your wallet will still be full.

Helping others will help you and the Planet. And you will sleep better. And you will spend more time being Healthy, Happy, and Loving Life^sm ! Please give now.

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Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Birds Ignite Change in the Feng Shui Garden(sm)

20 Sunday Dec 2020

Posted by Kebba Buckley Button in Birds, change, Dealing with stress, Feeling energized, Kebba Buckley Button, stress, Stress Management, the life you want, your best life

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Birds, change, Healthy Happy Loving Life, Kebba Buckley Button, making changes, stress, Stress Management, The life you want

Bird feeder array in the Feng Shui Garden

Sometimes a tiny thing can ignite a chain reaction of change, leading to major shifts. In the case we’re discussing today, the tiny thing was a little bird who loves salad. Not just any salad, but chunks of the coin plant and new shoots of grass in the Feng Shui Garden. My Feng Shui Garden. That I have been designing, cultivating, and artfully adjusting, for about 14 years. You should know there are small lawn patches in the Feng Shui Garden, about 25 square feet altogether. And some months ago, Hunky Husband decided the grass needed an overhaul.

He worked and worked, replacing the soil and trying different grasses and care methods. Finally, he found The Right Grass (another whole column), he installed it, and it began to flourish. A beautiful emerald carpet was growing, then up to 4 inches in its first week. But then!! We woke up one morning to find little black craters in the pristine lawn. We watched, quietly, and soon we saw it was this tiny bird, formerly fascinated with biting chunks out of the coin plant, who loved to dig for the bases of the new grass shoots.

Lovebird feeding

So HH decided to offer the bird and his friends some snacks away from the lawn. He put a tray feeder on the back wall, and they came. So did every Phoenix regional bird including doves, pigeons, blackbirds, magpies, grackles, and even something large and black we never identified. HH found that the larger birds were bullying the smaller birds, and he decided we should favor the little guys. So he began to try many different devices: hanging feeders, house-like feeders, tube feeders, open feeders (big fail), and on and on. While this was a lot of change, the little guy that liked to dig up the lawn stopped doing that!

Can you see 4 birds feeding at once?

We installed a fountain somewhat away from the grass, and the little birds seem to like that much more than the big birds do. The hummingbirds like to sit in the eye of water at the very top of the fountain. We seem to have settled out at 6 feeders, one wabi basin (hollowed out oval rock that holds water), and one fountain. And no further lawn-diggers! The Feng Shui Garden was once a quiet place of flowers and statues, meditation space with occasional geckos. Now it is a constant Renaissance Faire of all bird sizes, up to pigeons. There is perpetual motion. Happy motion. We can sit in the living room and watch the widescreen action like a movie, any time the Sun is out.

The one little bird that loves garden salad ignited a revolution in the Feng Shui Garden, which has become an avian paradise. He changed the Garden and our Garden plan. Unanticpated, he ignited a revolution. And we are so glad! We love the new version of the Feng Shui Garden. Sometimes our intentions cause unintended changes, and a tiny bird may be the agent of those changes. And now we are more and more Healthy, Happy, and Loving Life^sm !

——————————————–

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

UpBeat Living: Life Bats You… in a Different Direction

13 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by Kebba Buckley Button in Adjusting to change, Dealing with stress, Effective Living, Forgiveness, Grudges, living beyond, Moving on, Nasty people, Relationships, Resentment, stress, Upset

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

adjusting to change, energy, Feeling energized, friendships, fulfilled, grateful, healing, Kebba, living beyond, making changes, moving on, Relationships, stress tips

Photo by http://www.livelifehappy.com

Think of the top 3 disappointing events you’ve had in life. Maybe you were in a relationship you believed in, and suddenly it was over. How about the time you had your heart set on a job, you knew you were the prime candidate, and you didn’t get it? Then there was that friend who suddenly cut you off, with a weird reason or no reason. Remember how much that hurt?

Enter, the Pinball Machine Theory of Life.

Sometimes, it’s like you are the ball on a pinball game board. After the token goes into the machine, and the spring launcher is pulled and released, the ball zips up the slope of the game board. Sometimes, like the pinball, you are racing up the board of life thinking you are definitely headed in a certain direction. The right direction, surely. Then you get hit with a flipper. Ow! For a moment, you don’t even know what your new direction is, right? You’re just reverberating with the impact of the flipper (ow!), feeling the pain, and trying to get your bearings again. Then you begin collecting yourself, look up, and see what unintended direction you are now headed in. Yikes! This is a new direction! Not what the plan was!

Now let’s talk about that major relationship change. Grammy-Award winning musician Garth Brooks has a powerful song called, “Thank God for Unanswered Prayers.” In the song, he tells of being at a football game with his wife and seeing the woman he dated in high school. Back then, he used to pray for that relationship every night. By the time he saw his old flame again, he realized he would not be in the amazing relationship he was in with his wife, had the relationship with his old flame worked out. So now he is massively grateful for the passing of that old relationship. He was redirected on the Pinball Machine of Life, and now he is deeply glad.

Now, that perfect job you didn’t get—what changes would that have created in your life? Changes that would have prevented something great that then did happen? Here’s an example from this writer’s life: 20 years ago, she flew to Denver for a pre-hiring interview with an international company. Having done projects with the CEO of the Colorado Division, she knew it was only a matter of negotiating the position and salary. In Denver, she scoped out where to rent an apartment and what moving arrangements would be involved. But when she called the man who was to interview her, he said he would call back in 20 minutes and never did. He never managed to meet with her during the 5 days she was there. When the CEO asked how her conversations with the interviewer went, she told him they never even met. The CEO said, “but I thought it was a pre-hiring interview?’ She said, “yes, I thought so, too.” She never heard from the company again. It was a bitter disappointment that hurt for many months. Now, however, she sees that she would never have met and married her husband, had she been given the job in Denver. She was redirected for a powerful reason.

As to a friend who suddenly cut you off, let’s put it in perspective and then give thanks. Recently, a client was suddenly dropped as a friend because she declined a vacuum cleaner demonstration. That’s right. She politely declined an emailed request, due to an extreme work schedule. Also, she did not know the friend-of-a-friend-of a friend that she would be helping by giving 2 hours for a demonstration of a product she could not afford. The inviter then sent an attack email, assaulting the client’s integrity and spirituality. The client called the inviter’s wife to ask if she felt the same way. The wife said she would call back. Immediately the inviter emailed the client again, nastily saying she must not go behind his back to talk to his wife, and best she not contact either of them again. Did the client really want to be friends with people who would go ballistic over small matters? Reconsidering a number of past hints of the nature of these “friends”, the client sadly let these friendships go. Since, she has come to be glad they are no longer in her life. Now she has more time for more compatible friends. She was redirected for powerful reasons.

If you are a person of faith, remember this timeless truth [Romans 8:28]: “We know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him…” When the flippers hit you, you are being directed for powerful purposes, by a wisdom greater than our own. Do your best to deal with the hurt. Then embrace the new opportunities that are arriving. Be the happy and grateful pinball.

_______________________________________________________________

● Your comments are welcome!

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

Healthy Happy Loving Life!

~ Your source for energized, fulfilled, joyous living!

Tag Archives: making changes

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Polar Vortex Again!

Healthy Happy Loving Life: An Interesting Life

Healthy Happy Loving Life: The Pinball Machine of Life

Healthy Happy Loving Life: You Can Help Win the War on Hunger

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Birds Ignite Change in the Feng Shui Garden(sm)

UpBeat Living: Life Bats You… in a Different Direction

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