A Seasonal Change

     The change of seasons brings many things to many people. Unfortunately, September has brought catastrophic hurricanes to both Texas and Florida. Our hearts go out to the people whose lives have been upended by the storms.

     September has brought something very different to my new hometown: the annual arts and crafts festival, which includes the Thompson Bucks County Classic bike race. There was a race for the kids; one for women; one for amateurs and one for professionals. There was also an antique bike race . . . an exercise that is harder than it looks. There are no gears on these bikes, and if you fall down you have a long way to go.

     Meryl Baer of Six Decades and Counting also reflects on the changing of the season. Soon she will transfer potted plants indoors. Mobiles will be taken down and locked away until spring. Outdoor chairs will be stacked in the garage. "The grill should be stored in the garage," she says in Fall Is in the Air. "But too often we forget, leaving it out until biting rain or snow surprises."

Lining up for the race

     Meanwhile, Laura Lee Carter has been searching for freedom for a lot longer than a season or two. Most of us, she points out, don't have a clue about who we really are until we get older. We have made so many compromises to conform to society, family and every other person around us for decades. We know all the rules. They are ingrained into our souls. The Buddhists call this "armoring": the persona we put on each morning in order to interact peacefully with those around us. This is how we keep our Self in check.
 
     But if you're tired of keeping your Self in check, and want some help in finding the courage to break the rules set up by other people, take an honest look at Find Your Own Personal Freedom.

     Sometimes however, even Carter admits, life gets in the way of freedom, as it did for her last week when her husband fell ill. They had to cancel their anniversary trip. But as the saying goes, when one door closes, another door opens. And so as she tells us in Life in a Small Town, she used her unexpected free time to make a new friend, sell some books, and look forward to Octoberfest.

     We all like the freedom of using credit cards and other payment systems to make our lives easier. But these days we have to be careful. On the Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide, Rita R. Robison reports that Equifax, one of the nation’s three major credit reporting agencies, has experienced a data breach that exposed people’s names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some cases, the driver’s license numbers of 143 million American consumers. Robison then offers tips on what to do about the Equifax breach, to keep ourselves and our families safe as we head back to school, to work, to all the other things we do in the fall.

    Kathy Gottberg also has some great advice for of us, about how we can be free to be ourselves, from a book called Your No Fear Career by Robin Fisher Roffer. Gottberg's post on Smart Living 365 contains nuggets of ideas that will benefit anyone, of any age, who is looking to live boldly instead of turning into a dancing bear.

     She asks: What good does it do to focus on what we can't do, what we did wrong in the past, or what limitations we may have? Instead of being apologetic for our shortcomings, we should accept and even celebrate both our weaknesses and our strengths, for all together they make us the unique individual that we are. She goes on to suggest that if you are hard on yourself, others will be hard on you, whereas if you come from a place of strength and self-confidence, your relationships will be strong. In general, people accept you as much as you accept yourself.

     But, to find out what a dancing bear is, you'll just have to go over to her blog post Living Fearlessly and Refusing to Be a Dancing Bear and find out for yourself.

     Finally, Carol Cassara on Heart, Mind, Soul reminds us in her post Compassion Exercise that the world is crying out for compassion. This is certainly true today in Florida and Texas. It's true every day in Africa and Asia . . . and in our own backyards. Cassara offers a new way to look at people, a way that will help you "Use your voice for kindness, your hands for charity, your mind for truth, and your heart for love."