There are few things more consistent (when approached without preconditioning) than the following:
1) A cat will have more fun with the paper bag and crumpled up receipt from the store than any item you brought home in it.
2) A dog will invariably choose to play with an old ratty stick or ball over a lavish new rubber toy you recently purchased.
3) A young person will have just as much (if not infinitely more) fun climbing into the big cardboard box full of packing peanuts than almost anything that might have arrived inside it.

If we allow ourselves to appreciate the talents and favorite things we have already amassed our lives become plump and juicy and full of genuine smiles. If all one does is search the wide world for new toys to change the way we feel about our way of being, well, as we in my family are fond of noting, “Where ever you go… Whoops, there you are!”. We are who, why, when, where and what is occurring in our lives this very moment. So play with your own self as if it is the best thing in the store you could have ever found. Just because you came with too many twist ties affixing you to the packaging so that you might stay put and look perfect, or the instruction manual seems to be in every language but yours does not automatically infer that you will be unsuccessful or unable to figure out how you work best. Unwrap your life and enjoy your experience as you. And just when you think the fun can’t be any finer, you can look around the playground and share what you have discovered about your wonderful toy with everyone else and choose in turn to befriend what they have learned about theirs.

With much appreciation to you all, ~ Michaele