Pennies from Heaven

Whether we consider them lucky pennies or pennies from heaven, found pennies should be day brighteners.  They are unexpected tiny bits of good fortune.  I've always relished finding pennies, and never more than since Edgar died.  I'd asked him to send me pennies from heaven and in the months since he died, I've found more pennies than I remember finding in the past several combined years. The beautiful, comforting thing about many of these finds, is that they often appear when I'm having a tough time.  Just yesterday, a confirming penny appeared, providing me reassurance on the day that my beloved uncle died.

When we expect and accept good cheer, regardless of how small the increment, we are often rewarded exponentially.  Small kindnesses, smiles, greetings, praise, thanks and gestures are other tiny treasures that we can as easily overlook generously giving and gratefully receiving, as the penny waiting to be retrieved.

We can all make a big difference when we continually seize small opportunities to be day brighteners.

There's an Apple in My Parking Space

We do some things almost on auto-pilot - including our morning travel to work.  Sometimes it takes an unexpected occurrence to make us look at our surroundings with fresh eyes.  Two recent parking lot incidents reminded me that when we're hyper-observant, we can find interesting oddities even on our daily treks.  There are only 10 occupied reserved parking spaces in my area of the structured parking garage at work.  A couple of weeks ago, as I pulled into my space, I noticed a beautiful red apple at the front of my space.  With so little traffic in this area, the only logical explanation is that someone from a higher floor dropped it when entering their vehicle.  This misplaced apple stayed in place for several days before a maintenance worker removed it, reminding me daily to look for the unexpected. 

A few days later, a co-worker was helping me load things into my car.  While waiting, she had the chance to survey the parking lot and asked if I knew why the numbered spaces skipped 3.  Since I park in #7, the only other spaces I'd paid attention to were #s 6 and 8.  It's still a mystery why there's no space #3.

These unrelated parking lot incidents reminded me to look for the unexpected and to see what is actually presented rather than assume things are as expected.

Expect or Except

What a difference a letter placement can make.  When we expect great results we can clearly anticipate what we are going to do to achieve success.  We find ways to overcome the obstacles that may impede reaching our goal.  When we lower our expectations, we start to make exceptions for time, skill, budget or other factors.  As we make exceptions or excuses, we can lose the impetus to persevere. 

Let's expect success rather than make exceptions that lead to failure.