Rise and Shine

“Rise and Shine”, a phrase that often evokes childhood memories of your parents shouting it to you in the morning to encourage you to get out of bed.   It’s a nicer way than yelling “GET OUT OF BED!” or dragging you off your bed.  But the sentiment of “Rise and Shine” is a great way to start your day.  Recently, this saying has taken on additional meaning to me.   To “Rise and Shine” isn’t just about getting up in the morning and starting your day with a smile.   Let’s look at this saying in a new way.    Both of my sons have a shirt from a basketball camp they attended which is called RISE and the back of their shirt has the following:

Reach

Inside

Seek

Excellence

I never gave the back of their shirt much thought until one day a stranger was reading it out loud and with great tonality said “Reach Inside and Seek Excellence…I like that” and then walked away.  “Rise and Shine” starts with Rise and to Rise we begin with Reaching  Inside to Seek that which lifts us up and gets us going whether it be Excellence or something else:

• To reach inside and seek the energy to get out of bed, or seek the energy or effort to do what we need to do.
• To reach inside and seek the courage to face our fears.
• To reach inside and seek forgiveness for ourselves and others.

Or whatever each of us needs to reach inside for, to help us rise; because rise we must…..

When we’re down, We Rise

From the ashes, We Rise

From the darkness of despair and destruction, We Rise

When we hit rock bottom, We Rise

That’s What We Do!

We Rise to get up

We Rise to Shine

And what does it mean to “Shine”?   To be happy, to smile, and live a life of your passion.  When you’re happy and passionate in your life, your work, your home, your community, you are shining and your light impacts the world and helps others shine.  And the spark in you helps ignite the flame in other people. 

Just like Rise, we reach inside to seek that which will help us Shine:

• Reach inside and seek the love and happiness that exist for no reason.
• Reach inside and seek the freedom and peace that comes when we have given up judgment of ourselves and others.
• Reach inside and seek the passion that gives us the energy to shine.
• Reach inside and seek the light in us that is always shining.

Name what you need to reach inside, to help you shine. 

Shine and light up the world.   Now!  It doesn’t matter what happened yesterday, or what might happen tomorrow.   On this day we rise and shine…together!!

Rise and Shine!, Rise and Shine!, Good morning world, let’s Rise and Shine!

Ben

Revised and reposted from a previous post on the old short lived three post Ben's Pebble 

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