In Los Angeles, rush hour can more appropriately be called crush hour.  I have long since learned patience in the often gridlocked traffic; sometimes I feel like I can turn on the interior car light and get some work done, but I don’t.  Instead, I might blast the tunes and dance in my seat, often singing along, and sometimes at the top of my lungs.

I had to chuckle last Thanksgiving eve, though, as I slowly made my way home from work.  People were honking and cutting each other off, being in a mad rush to get wherever they were headed, perhaps the grocery store or home.  “How interesting,” I thought.  “Here we all are, getting ready to really dig in to the energy of gratitude, yet on the day before, we’re pummeling each other!”

It’s like if I complain about my life while waiting for a yoga class to start, or someone whispering about what another woman is wearing in the pew in front of her on Sunday morning, or being in a fist fight in the mall parking lot around holiday time.  By virtue of where we choose to spend our time, we can be even more mindful about how we will use that opportunity.  Many of us aren’t focused on self-improvement, but for those of us who are really intent on unlocking the door to living our greatest life, let’s be willing to deeper, starting right now!

What would it mean for you to invite gratitude into your life today?  Or compassion, or love?  Rather, to ask it differently, with things being exactly as-is, if you were to inject some gratitude, compassion or love, how would that enrich your life?  Might it help you shift your perspective, thus cutting yourself some slack?  If so, why wait for a holiday or someone else’s lead to do it?  The more you inject gratitude, compassion and love to yourself, the more energy and fuel you will have to set your heart and your life on fire!

The occasion to create each day more fabulously than the last is ever available.  How amazing would it be to incorporate compassion on a daily basis as if it were as automatic as brushing our teeth?  Or extending a helping hand to another without giving it a second thought?  Or even just letting someone merge into traffic without your blood pressure rising?  Do any of these resonate with you or does something else strike your fancy to incorporate more often?

So for today, tomorrow and each day thereafter, I wish you a deeper understanding and experience of clarity and abundance, as well as healing and love.  And if our paths cross on the roads of Los Angeles, I promise to be kind!