Last Thursday, October 8th, a beautiful woman who I knew very briefly, left this physical world. She left behind three beautiful children, the youngest being a 14-year old girl.

I had the honor of meeting her and her daughter through my work at Bubble Goddess Bath Co. Dina attended another friend’s kickoff spa experience last March and at that time, I learned she had cancer and had outlived her prognosis by at least three years. Looking at her, one would never have known she was dealing with cancer that was throughout her body. She was beautiful, inside and out–vibrant and vital.

This beautiful woman told me she’d been making many of her own personal care products but was very happy to have access to ours because there were certain products, like our body butter, that she’d never been able to create for herself. That day, she became a client. She also asked me if I would do a mother-daughter spa experience for her daughter and some of her daughter’s girlfriends and moms. She wanted to educate her daughter and her friends with our message of safe products, and also create a special memory by connecting with her daughter through some fun Mother/Daughter spa time.

The spa experience we shared last March was all that and more! There was education, fun and lots of connecting. As I stood there that evening, I was graced by the beauty, serenity and courage of this lovely woman. I was awed by the beautiful relationship she had with her daughter and honored to witness the comfortable way in which she spoke about her disease and what she wanted to pass on to this circle of women. I was profoundly touched by the ease and closeness that flowed between her and her daughter. This 14-year old girl seemed grounded and connected to all that was happening in her life.

Dina taught me in our face-to-face meetings and our phone conversations that one can be present to everyone else in one’s life, no matter what is happening. She showed me that prognoses are not certainties–with intuition, determination, courage, being grounded, and integration of many disciplines, one can live life fully and well beyond what medical science may dictate. She also showed me that grace, strength, and courage can go hand in hand. She also demonstrated that we should never stop learning and seeking, but this must be balanced with pausing to see what really speaks to our core–our inner being–and going with that–with belief and conviction.

Above all else, I learned from Dina and Dina’s story that life is a precious gift to be enjoyed and appreciated and valued every single day for however long that may be. And for however long, TO LOVE OTHERS AND ALLOW ONESELF TO BE LOVED. In the end that is really all that matters!

Today is the Fall Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and the Spring Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere. Those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere are now entering the autumn season–leaves are changing color, the air is becoming cool and crisp, and the nights are getting colder. It is a beautiful time of the year!

Today, all over the world, we are experiencing one of the two days of the year when day and night are equal in length–a state of balance between dark and light.

So how can we bring that state of balance into ourselves today? Are there ways we can focus on finding balance in our own lives? And what exactly does “finding balance” mean?

I used to think that in order to be living a balanced life, I had to create balance on a daily basis between work and family, time to myself and time with others–and I needed to have everything scheduled so that no day felt more weighted than another. Talk about creating imbalance! The ebb and flow of our days changes from day to day. Each day brings differing demands, deadlines, commitments, and more. Something unexpected may even occur. One day, we may have five tasks that must be accomplished and then the next, we have nothing specific to address.

So, for me, I’ve realized that it is impossible to have everything in balance like the equal parts of light and dark today. Balance doesn’t mean that within my day everything has to be apportioned equally–I don’t need to create equal amounts of work and play or solitude and social time. The equinox does remind me, however, that there is something I can do and a way that I can live which is saner. I can grow within me that sense of inner balance, so that no matter what is occurring externally, I feel centered within. And I can carry that sense of inner stability with me throughout my day.

For each of us, the way to achieve inner balance may be different. I enjoy journaling, meditating, reading, and taking quiet time for myself. For others, it may be a walk in nature or listening to a beautiful piece of music. It may also be allowing the creative process to flow outward into expression. Or it might be a soak in the tub with no distractions (using Bubble Goddess Bath Co. products of course!). Whatever it may be for you, try to find time each and every day to bring yourself to a place of equilibrium.

And for today, as we experience the light and dark equally, give thanks for nature’s reminder that within the cycle and the ebb and flow of life, we can experience inner balance for ourselves. May you have such a day today!

While at the beach in California, I reread Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s “Gift From the Sea.” I’d forgotten just how many gems that book contains! The biggest “gift” this book offers is timeless wisdom. Who would have thought that a book written 54 years ago would have just as much, and maybe even more, relevance today–but it does! The entire book touched me as deeply as past readings of it–I’m still letting the various themes settle in my mind.

Something that really struck a deep chord had to do with solitude and fragmentation. In the chapter entitled “Moon Shell,” Anne Morrow Lindbergh discussed woman’s (and man’s) need for alone time and yet how much we avoid solitude in order to not feel alone. She quotes the poet Rilke who said about the state of solitude that it is “not something that one can take or leave. We are solitary. We may delude ourselves and act as though this were not so. That is all. But how much better it is to realize that we are so, yes, even to begin by assuming it. Naturally, we will turn giddy.”

Think of all the ways we avoid feeling alone. At the time this book was written, there was the telephone, television and radio to distract us when we weren’t surrounded by others. Today, we have even more tools and gadgets for distraction–we even take our cell phones and computers with us wherever we go!

Anne Morrow Lindbergh states, “The answer is not in going back, in putting woman in the home and giving her the broom and the needle again. A number of mechanical aids save us time and energy. But neither is the answer in dissipating our time and energy in more purposeless occupations, more accumulations which supposedly simplify life but actually burden it, more possessions which we have not time to use or appreciate, more diversions to fill up the void. In other words, the answer is not in the feverish pursuit of centrifugal activities which only lead in the end to fragmentation. On the contrary, she must consciously encourage those pursuits which oppose the centrifugal forces of today. Quiet time alone, contemplation, prayer, music, a centering line of thought or reading, of study or work. It can be physical or intellectual or artistic, any creative life proceeding from oneself. It need not be an enormous project or a great work. But it should be something of one’s own.

“Solitude…these are pursuits and virtues of the past. But done in another way today because done consciously, aware, with eyes open. Not done as before, as part of the pattern of the time. Revolutionary, in fact, because almost every trend and pressure, every voice from the outside is against this new way of inward living. Woman must be the pioneer in turning inward for strength. In a sense she has always been the pioneer. Men too are being forced to look inward–to find inner solutions as well as outer ones. Perhaps this change marks a new stage of maturity for modern extrovert, activist, materialistic Western man.”

I believe the challenge today is even more difficult than 50 years ago because the external pulls are greater and run deeper. The pull is even strong for our children who have so many distractions that leave them little time to dream–something that I was able to enjoy as a child.

It is not necessary for us to give up our modern conveniences or the ways we are able to connect with the world we live in. However, we must make sure to give ourselves the gift of solitude–time to be alone with ourselves in order that we can feel whole, centered and grounded. The more we are able to connect with ourselves, the more we have to give to others.

As Anne Morrow Lindbergh committed to, I also promise to “try to be alone for part of each year, even a week or a few days; and for part of each day, even for an hour or a few minutes in order to keep my core, my center, my island-quality. Unless I keep the island-quality intact somewhere within me, I will have little to give my husband, my children, my friends or the world at large. Woman must be still as the axis of a wheel in the midst of her activities; she must be the pioneer in achieving this stillness, not only for her own salvation, but for the salvation of family life, of society, perhaps even of our civilization.”

So how many minutes can you give yourself today?