#Jerseyshore

“Open the Windows”

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When I lived in New Jersey, I couldn’t wait for that first spring day when I could turn off the heat and open every window. Fresh air would move through the house, and suddenly I’d be ready to dust, clean, and let winter go. I loved that feeling.

Now that I live in Florida, I wait for it in the fall. After months of air conditioning and closed windows, the first cool day makes me want to open up the house and tackle all those little cleaning jobs I’ve been putting off. It’s funny how moving south turned my spring cleaning into fall cleaning.

The season has changed, but the feeling hasn’t. There’s something wonderful about fresh air coming through the windows and a house that feels ready for a new beginning.

Embrace that feeling of opening the windows wide and letting the sweet smell of the fresh air of a new season in! 

Wishing you love and light,

~Anne Dennish~

“Why Weekends Still Feel Different”

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At 65 years old, I make my own hours. I write, I work, and for the most part, I decide what each day will look like. You might think that without a traditional Monday-through-Friday schedule, all the days would begin to blur together.

But they don’t.

Saturday and Sunday still feel different to me. They seem calmer, quieter, and more peaceful. There’s a softness to the weekends—a feeling that the world has slowed down just enough for us to breathe a little deeper and move a little slower.

Maybe it comes from raising five children. Monday through Friday meant alarm clocks, school lunches, homework, schedules, and getting everyone where they needed to be on time. The weekends meant no school, no lunches to pack, and no rushing out the door. They were our lazy days, our fun days, and our family days.

Later, when I worked full-time, Saturdays and Sundays became the days I cleaned the house, went food shopping, ran errands, and tried to fit in everything I couldn’t do during the week. They weren’t always restful, but they were mine. Even with a long list of things to accomplish, the weekends carried a sense of freedom.

Life looks very different now, yet that feeling has stayed with me. There’s still something special about waking up on a Saturday morning and knowing that the weekend has arrived. The air feels different. The pace feels gentler. Even an ordinary cup of coffee feels a little more enjoyable.

Perhaps our hearts remember the rhythm of the lives we once lived. Mine still remembers weekends as a time to exhale, reconnect, and simply enjoy being home.

And after all these years, Saturday and Sunday are still my favorite days.

Wishing you love and light,

~Anne Dennish~

“Monday Mantra: Kindness”

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Kindness is such a simple concept, yet it may be one of the most important things we can offer one another. In a world that could use a little more respect, compassion, and empathy, choosing to be kind costs us nothing. We never truly know what someone else is carrying, and sometimes a kind word, a smile, or simply showing someone that they matter is exactly what they need.

So today, and every day, choose kindness. Choose compassion. Choose empathy. Treat people with respect, even when you may not understand their story, because it really is true—one simple act of kindness can change someone’s day, someone’s life, and in time, it could change the world. 

Let’s change the world together.

Wishing you love and light,

~Anne Dennish~

“Welcome, August!”

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August has arrived, and with it comes another quiet reminder that life is always offering us a fresh page. We can’t rewrite yesterday, but we can choose how we fill the days ahead—with gratitude instead of worry, kindness instead of judgment, laughter instead of stress, and hope instead of fear.

This month, I hope you find beauty in the ordinary. May your coffee stay warm a little longer, your favorite song find you at just the right moment, your heart feel a little lighter, and your days be filled with love, laughter, music, meaningful moments, unexpected blessings, and people who remind you that goodness still exists in the world.

Here’s to August… to new beginnings, peaceful hearts, and making memories that will one day make us smile.

Wishing you a beautiful month ahead.

~Anne Dennish~

“Today I Can Do Anything”

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I used to pass these pictures on my way to work back in New Jersey. I was lucky enough to always catch the red light at the intersection in Asbury Park where these, and a few other pictures, graced the side of the building.

Today, as I listened to a Queen song, this picture came to mind. It was a reminder every day that I went to work, and a reminder now, that “today I can do anything!” 

And I definitely needed this reminder today. Life has handed me quite a few ups and downs in the last few months coupled with a few endings which I know will lead to some awesome beginnings! That’s the thing about life, the endings simply mean that the time is up for that experience and when we can learn and grow from them it can lead to a beautiful new beginning just waiting on the horizon.

You have to believe that “today you can do anything” and in order to do that, begin to “create” the circumstances needed to do it. 

It feels good to be writing again. I miss it so much and this picture reminded me that I am, indeed, a writer and one that shares her personal experiences in the hopes that it can make a positive difference in someone’s life and possibly in the world.

I’ve missed you all so much and hope that “today I can do anything” and it’s about time that I started to “create” again.

I love you all!

Wishing you love and light,

~Anne Dennish~

“Actions Make The Words True”

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Often times we take things for granted. We assume that the people we love know how we feel about them or how much we appreciate them. We assume that they know when we’re upset or that something they do bothers us. We assume that saying the words to them is enough…but it isn’t.

Assumptions. Nothing good ever comes out of them. It’s a breeding ground for misunderstanding, arguments and hurt feelings.

Words, on the other hand, can make a difference. Words communicate how we’re feeling to someone and  can prevent misunderstanding, arguments and hurt feelings.

Yet there’s something important about those words: you need  the actions to back them up because it’s those actions that make them true to the person you said them to.

Be mindful. Be compassionate. Be kind. Be understanding. Be willing to listen with an open heart and mind.

And be those things to the people you love.

And they’ll be all those things to you.

And never miss an opportunity to not only tell someone how you feel about them, but show them!

It’s a good thing.

Wishing you love and light,

~Anne Dennish~

“Believe”

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You can’t even begin to imagine just how many miracles and amazing things can come into your life when you do this one thing: “BELIEVE!”

Believe in your Higher Power and believe in yourseslf.

Take that leap of faith…

It’s a good thing…I promise.

Wishing you love and light,

~Anne Dennish~

 

“Don’t Take Gratitude For Granted”

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Life changes in the blink of an eye and what we have one day can be gone tomorrow. So often we allow life to get so busy that we forget to see what’s right in front us: the people who love us.

We know in our hearts that we’re grateful for them, yet so often that gratitude is put on the back burner and the ones we love are left feeling “taken for granted.” We all need love in one form or another, whether it’s from your family or children, friends or a significant other.

“Love lifts us up when life tries to pull us down.”

Take a look at your life at this very moment and count your blessings. Be grateful for the people in it that love and support you and for the life you are gifted to live every day.

Don’t let the world and all the sadness and craziness in it cloud the beauty in your life. Live your life everyday in gratitude for the people in your life, for the job you love, for the career you are pursuing. Be grateful for another new day in your life; another day in which you can share your love and gratitude with others.

Wishing you love and light,

~Anne Dennish~

“Let’s Make A Chain of Gratitude”

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Every morning before my feet hit the floor I open my eyes and say out loud: “thank you for another day.”

And that’s how I begin each day, with gratitude for having been gifted another day, with gratitude for knowing that I have the choice to make the day the best I can and gratitude in knowing that I have the ability to make a difference in the world with love and kindness.

“Gratitude” keeps us grounded and reminds us of what’s really important in our lives. It makes us stop and think about what’s important and that the smallest of things in our day can become the biggest of things we’re grateful for.

Let’s start a chain of “gratitude” together. Share a post, comment

or a picture of what you’re grateful for at this very moment. It can be as small as your first cup of hot coffee in the morning or as big as surviving an illness. Gratitude isn’t about the size of what you’re thankful for; gratitude is the confirmation that you’ve taken a moment in your day to realize how blessed you are.

Live each day with an “attitude of gratitude” and watch how your life will change. All good things come to us when we focus on all the good in our life and not on the bad. Life is filled with ups and downs, good and bad, yet when we focus on all the ups and the good the downs and the bad becomes less important and easier to handle.

So, what are you grateful for today? Let’s share our moments together…we just might be able to make a difference in the world together by sharing our moments of gratitude with each other and the world.

Let’s make a “gratitude chain.”

It’s a good thing.

Wishing you love and light,

~Anne Dennish~

 

“It Takes But One Moment…”

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Sometimes it takes one moment, one conversation, one word from someone else in which you find yourself “waking up” to something you weren’t seeing. It’s that moment which stops you in your tracks and makes you toss off the rose colored glasses and see the reality of a situation for the truth that it is.

And it can make you angry with yourself, it can hurt your heart, it can make you sad, but no matter the emotion it causes within you, it’s one that you need to deal with. You have to think about why you weren’t seeing what you needed to. You have to wonder how it all got to this point. And you have to understand your feelings and figure out what your role in getting to this point was. After all, we allowed it to happen. Maybe not consciously, but we allowed it.

And we allowed it because we lost sight of something that should be the most important thing: you.

It happens more often than not, and sadly, we don’t always see it coming…in fact we never see it coming until it’s here. What you do with it next is the key to moving forward: you have to forgive yourself.

Forgive yourself for making someone else more important and valuable than yourself; forgive yourself for allowing someone else’s life to hold more importance and value than your own; and forgive yourself for loving someone else more than you love yourself.

Forgive yourself for allowing someone else to care less about you than you care about them; forgive yourself for loving someone more than you love yourself; and forgive yourself for not seeing it.

And then try to understand why it happened; why you didn’t see it coming; and why you allowed it.

We do so many selfless things where love for our children, friends and significant others are concerned that we often lose sight of ourselves and that’s when your “waking up” moment happens. It’s the Universe’s way of telling us that we haven’t been paying enough attention to ourselves and that we let our love for other’s cloud our love for ourselves.

Call it a “wake up” call from the Universe or a nudge from your Higher Power, but regardless, it comes from a source that loves you unconditionally and that source wants the best for you.

Forgive yourself for allowing the moment to happen and embrace the beautiful mess you are for learning the lesson from it: never let anyone love you less than you love yourself.

You are just as important as anyone you place importance on; you are just as valuable as anyone you place value on; and you are as worthy of love as anyone you love.

It was yet another life lesson to learn and one to be grateful for, because it happened to help you have the best life possible. It’s never selfish to do what’s best for YOU because doing what’s best for YOU spills onto the ones around you that you love.

And always remember the most important thing of all:

YOU ARE AMAZING!

Wishing you love and light,

~Anne Dennish~