Little Detours

True surrender is to love it all. Everything.

The mosquito. The ex-husband. The barking dog. The traffic. The weather. Even growing old. Especially growing old.

Plan a birthday extravaganza to celebrate every age you are. Release all your hostages. Be free of all you have built to protect you from the world. The secret isn’t to build a wider moat or to be a fiercer dragon or to build thicker walls or tougher skin. The secret is to believe at the deepest core of your being that your soul is unhurtable.

Because it is.

A first class life requires first first class relationships. Is it time for an upgrade?

Your life can and should be full of vibrant, conscious people who love and support you and are a joy to be around.

Learn to tame the takers. Bless them, release them and change you.

Are you living the life your soul wants you to have?

Most of us waste a lot of energy and squander our joy minding other people’s business and neglecting our own. How do you mind your own soul? Meditate daily. Pause through the day to center. Release drama addicts from your life. Remind yourself often, Not my circus, not my monkeys.

You might be too old to crawl into a lap to hear a good story, but you’re never too old to read yourself a great children’s book.

Artist and illustrator Karen Sandstrom talks about her favorite children’s books. The former book editor for the Cleveland Plain Dealer owns hundreds of children’s books. On her Facebook page she spotlights a weekly favorite.

You know the kind, where you know every line by heart because the books leave an imprint on your heart, one that lasts forever.

The bombing in Bali turned Sophie Sureau into her own superhero. She was burned and buried under the rubble in two explosions that killed 202 and wounded 300 during the terrorist attack of Oct. 12, 2002.

She regained consciousness when she felt people walking on her back to escape the carnage. Her choice was to burn to death or get up. Sophie turned herself into the Incredible Hulk to survive, fleeing the scene with skin hanging from her body.

We’ve all experienced someone say, “Shame on you!” Well, shame OFF you. Shame off everybody.

That shame isn’t yours, so don’t carry it for the parents or nuns or teachers or siblings or strangers who dumped it on you.

Cleveland Criminal Defense lawyer Ian N. Friedman got a new grip on life after he lost his arm in a motorcycle accident.

That moment he hit the guardrail and flew 100 feet has been with him every day since June 17, 2011. The metal tore through his neck and severed the nerves to his arm. He calls it the best thing that happened to him.

If you’ve ever felt too bruised to love, you’re not alone. Some of us were born bruised. But the truth is we were born whole and worthy of love.

We often look for the love our life everywhere but in the mirror. Once you can look in the mirror, say to yourself, “I love you,” and truly believe it, you are better able to love others and to heal the world.

“No” is such a tiny word, but it’s the gateway to saying “yes!” to you and your life.

The word “no” is your guardian and a gift you give yourself. When you say “yes” you are giving away not just your time, but your life, because your time IS your life.

Hal Becker was diagnosed with terminal cancer when he was 28. Instead of killing him, it made him eternally grateful — for the next 38 years.

Hal made a vow to have fun back in 1982, and he has kept it every day since.