I stumbled upon something that has served me amazingly well and I’m so glad that I did!  I did take some heat for it, in a good-natured way, and now it’s become one of my most important tools.  Calling it a “tool” makes it sound like work but it’s definitely not work.  It would be more accurate to say it’s become a part of my default vibration, and it’s now something I’m proud of and happy to share.

I won’t say how many years ago this was, um many, but it began very naturally and was never something I was “working on” to improve my mood or my vibration.  I was with my family on an island in the Caribbean, somewhere we went often over the years.  We rented a beautiful house for the five of us and those trips are a fond memory.  I recall that I felt VERY LUCKY to be there. 

One evening we went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant, which is a family favorite cuisine, as long as plenty of cheese is involved!  This was upscale Italian and such a beautiful place.  I mention this because it was not my first time or one of the few times I had pasta.  I made a lot of pasta, ate a lot of pasta, and even owned one of those restaurant-type cheese graters that you use to grate Parmesan Reggiano over your meal.  So, this was not my first pasta experience.

My daughter and I had the same pasta dish.  It was so delicious that I remarked at the end of the meal that it was “the best pasta I’ve ever had.”  My daughter agreed.  It was pretty much noted by everyone else that it wasn’t a minor observation.  Really, “best ever?”  And, I had to come back with, “I mean it.  I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it.  This is the very best pasta I’ve ever had in my life.”

Later in the evening, we arrived back at our vacation house and as we got out of the car there was an enormous shooting star that streaked across the entire sky.   It was epic.  I’d never seen anything like it.  Being out on an island in the ocean definitely enhances the beauty of the night sky but this was spectacular.  And, naturally, I said, “That’s the best shooting star I’ve ever seen in my life.”

And, then it got interesting, of course.  It was now open season for calling me out on my tendency to designate something as “the best ever.”  Two instances of the “best ever in my life” on the same night!  Oh, it turned into, dare I say, “a whole thing.”  Let’s just say I was fine with the teasing.  I call it as I see it.

And, it never died out. You might say it took on a life of its own.  I continue to call it like I see it and if it’s the best ever I am very happy to point that out to anyone who happens to be there.  I still sometimes have to say, in the presence of certain family members, “but I mean it, I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it.  This is the best _____ ever.”

I recently read a beautiful quotation from Abraham and I’m tempted to call it the best ever but they have a lot of fabulous quotes.

They said:

Love and appreciation are identical vibrations. Appreciation is the vibration of alignment with who-you-are. Appreciation is the absence of everything that feels bad and the presence of everything that feels good. When you focus upon what you want – when you tell the story of how you want your life to be – you will come closer and closer to the vicinity of appreciation, and when you reach it, it will pull you toward all things that you consider to be good in a very powerful way.

Fnding things to appreciate that are in our lives now, and focusing more upon them than anything that isn’t exactly where we’d like it to be yet, is one of the easiest and quickest ways to upgrade our vibration and the circumstances of our lives.  There are always things in our lives that are appreciation worthy even if we’re not having “the best day ever.”

I’m not suggesting that we not also visualize what we do want to create in our lives, with a spirit of excitement and positive expectation.  That also feels amazing and is a fast track to things that are a vibrational match to that excitement.

Appreciation for the things around us now while looking ahead to what we want to create is the foundation for creating beautiful, magical lives.

And, I’m going to continue to call out the “best ever” things in my life whenever I get a chance.  It never gets old, or tired, and I only say it when I truly mean it.  I am always on the lookout for another “best ever.”

In fact, I recently created my own best-ever cookbooks for a couple of my kids.  They contain all of the recipes I consider the best I’ve ever found and that I know they love.  I put my own notes containing things I’d learned about some of the recipes that make them more foolproof.  Of course, there are some funny comments interspersed throughout the recipes.  The recipe notebooks are personalized and literally imprinted with “The Best Recipes Ever.”  I did get a face time call from each of them when they opened the gifts and, I kid you not, each  independently said that “I think this is the best gift I’ve ever gotten.”  And, I could tell that they weren’t just saying that!

It was a very good feeling to hear those words.  Mic drop. Dare I say they were the best gifts I’ve ever given?

I hope you find some “best-ever moments” during your holidays and beyond.  The more appreciation-worthy things and moments that you notice, the more of those moments and aspects will appear.  It’s just the way that energy works.  Wishing you tons of “Best Evers” and what is certain to follow from that, better and better and better things showing up for you in your life.

And, the question to ask yourself each day is “What do I appreciate right now?