What will you do with this beautiful day?

I awoke early this morning as my internal clock is a bit off after a couple of weeks on the East coast where I got used to rising before sunrise. It was dark at 5:15 a.m. in Minneapolis, but I could tell it was going to be a gorgeous spring day.

So I fired out of bed and went for a walk around the neighborhood contemplating what I will do with this beautiful day — nearly 70 degrees expected. Everything is greening and springing to life after a long hard winter. And somehow that just brings happiness and hope.

My plans started with a list of things to do, both work and personal. But then I stopped myself from creating a “should” or “to do” list and decided instead how I wanted to feel and “be” in this day. That changed everything.

Spring Fever hits me hard this time of year and I feel like a school girl who can’t wait to get outside and play. I decided I wanted to feel/be like that again. And that today I would give myself permission. Then, I quickly defined what that meant, including going for a second walk later around my beloved Como Lake, digging in the dirt, buying myself spring flowers, and doing a surprising and unexpected good dead for a stranger.

What will you do with this beautiful day? How do you want to feel/be in this day? And what does that say about how you will enter and end this day. It’s amazing how shutting off the “shoulds” and thinking about the question differently brings up a different way of approaching the day/life.

Kinda cool.