a daily blog on well-being and how to feel better by Mark Barger Elliott…

Many things can change our life. Poet Mary Oliver once asked if we had ever changed our life because of beauty. She wrote – “And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for? And have you changed your life?” If you noticed something beautiful today, how might that change your life? ——

This morning I was thinking about salmon and was reminded again they offer a model for how to face challenges in our life. When salmon swim up waterfalls, it looks like they are defying gravity. But in reality, they use the force of the current to propel themselves forward. Each time a salmon turns its…

“Hard things break. Soft things bend,” observes Mark Nepo. Flexibility in our body is important, but also in our heat, soul and mind. How might you bend rather than break today? How might you be soft rather than hard? ——

I came across this thought yesterday, “Wherever we stop is the summit.” Which offers us two helpful insights. First, we choose how high we will climb up the mountain that is our aspiration or goal. While there may be more to climb, or not, it is always our choice to continue to climb. Second, we…

“It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves,” observed essayist Agnes Repplier, “and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.” Where happiness begins is in our mind and soul. It’s a choice, not an acquisition. A belief, rather than an event. ——

‘Everything must be possible,” Bach said, according to his pupil Johann Philipp Kirnberger. Bach created an extraordinary range of compositions from the Brandenburg Concertos to his cello suites, from the Goldberg Variations to Mass in B minor. “Possible” is both a mindset and an action. It is a belief and a manta. “Possible” is always…