What makes you thrive?

I'm sitting around a beautiful dining room table with vibrant colors, flowers, incredible food and girlfriends. There's wine, laughter and storytelling. We are gathered for a birthday party which we've been celebrating together for over 30 years. We're getting older. 

For a few of us, like myself, the kids are launched, out of college, and on their own. Others have retired... some are thinking about it. These women are pilots, artists, teachers, medical professionals, managers, environmentalists, passionate, and caring. We've known each other a long time. This night we're celebrating my birthday along with a few others, and after dinner, before the dessert, the hostess asks us, "What makes you thrive?"

This is an interesting question as I'm in the middle of teaching a course on how to thrive. She has my full attention as the question makes it way around the table. We are all intelligent women with years of experience and as it turns out, it's not an easy question to answer - family? outdoors? exercise? work? There doesn't seem to be an answer that quite fits. What does "thriving" mean anyway? How do we know when we're thriving?

The tagline in my course, "Getting unstuck" living your life inside out" is, how to thrive and not just survive. In this course, we discuss living your life inside then going out in the world. Remembering, finding, managing that internal calm confidence we all have buried inside so no matter what is happening on the outside, you can feel OK on the inside. Is that possible? Is that thriving? 

It is spring in Montana and today the sun is finally shining. I'm working on my course, going to a fundraiser luncheon, then taking my dogs for a hike on the mountain. Tomorrow and the days following, I'll be working with clients in my office. I laugh a lot. I have deep connections to family and this community. I meet friends often for wine for "last minute Thursday" or "plan ahead Wednesday" which always makes me smile. I do get tired. My husband of 33 years works out of town and drives 5 hours one way every weekend to come home. He gets in late Thursday nights and we meet our two boys out for what we now call our "family board meetings." We enjoy each other’s company and we laugh a lot. I'm especially tired on Fridays. I often care for my mother-in-law and sometimes I throw pity parties for myself but they're not much fun. So I let it go and find my center. Then I smile.

Such is my life rhythm. Is this thriving?  

Sometimes it feels like it and sometimes not.

But today, I'm going to say yes... yes, it is.