![\"The](\"https:\/\/annahelizabeth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/The-Five-Facets-Lakeside-Wedding-Photo.jpg\")
<\/a>Other moments that lifted my spirits include the iris flowers in full bloom in my yard, a steady stream of hummingbirds at my feeders, a therapeutic massage, talks with my parents and my morning commute conversations with my sis, a dinner date with Warren, hot tub soaks with Hubby, the season’s first crickets and fireflies, the inspiration for more book ideas and articles, sunshine, a few short jaunts with my pooch, a lakeside wedding for the daughter of long-time family friends, fluffy white clouds, and super soft toilet paper (this week’s heatwave brought me a serious bout of bowel troubles. I’ll spare you the rest of the details.)<\/p>\nThis morning, as I was moving some more papers around on my desk, I found a fortune cookie note that read: “Service is the rent you pay for having room on the Earth.” Turns out it’s a Muhammad Ali quote. Poignant and super cool that this inspiration should be unearthed from my mess the day following this legend’s death.<\/p>\n
That is another of life’s little divine appointments.<\/p>\n
[Tweet theme=”basic-white”]”Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” ~Muhammad Ali[\/Tweet]<\/p>\n
This week’s title stemmed from the many boating vessels found in the images that captured some of my joys from the past seven days.<\/p>\n
If you’ve never heard some of the stories behind classic nursery rhymes, suffice it to say that many of them are a bit daunting. Row, Row, Row, Your Boat<\/em>, however, is akin to one of my other favorites, The Little Engine that Could<\/em>.<\/p>\n Row, Row, Row Your Boat is about life, living, and learning.<\/strong><\/p>\n That childhood ditty is about captaining the ship of your own life. I imagine that the rowing metaphor has to do with achieving the sort of zen feeling I experienced when out on the lake. It’s about finding balance, about learning to be in the moment, and about letting go of the tension that tends to turn us upside down.<\/p>\n While looking for validation that I interpreted this nursery rhyme correctly as a positive one, I stumbled across an article by author Contento49 of the blog A Day in the Life and Other B.S<\/em><\/span>.<\/a> I absolutely love this line about his interpretation of this childhood sing-along: “you are the oarsman, rowing down the river of time.”<\/p>\n Journeyer, we are absolutely the oarsman of our happiness. Like healing, happiness is a choice. We choose to see the signs, we choose to acknowledge them by incorporating them into our daily stories. And like the oarsman, we choose when to paddle and when to rest.<\/p>\n I love rowing along side you down this river called Life<\/em>.<\/p>\n