Goodness Currents, Monday's Warm Cocoa, 1.10.2025

“I just feel like I’m working really hard and nothing is happening.”

Goodness Currents

The conversation started on the telephone. It lasted for more than an hour. I could hear the worry and frustration. I could also feel her pain as my friend described the background of circumstances she faced.

After we ended the call, to my surprise, the conversation shifted to text.

“Do you have some have some time?” 

I responded with a quick, “yes.”

Her next text asked, “You don’t think I’m doing a terrible job, do you?”

“No! I think you’re doing a great job! You have two great kids. They’re happy and health and you’re well respected professionally,” I typed back.

Then her fingers stroked, “I just feel like I’m working really hard and nothing is happening.”

“That’s the way life is. It is, often, as if you’re fighting to stay above water and not making progress. Then, suddenly you find yourself surprised, almost magically, by being pushed along in a stream of amazing progress. When this happens it’s as if you had nothing to do with it. But you do! You’re doing very well. Just keep up doing the small things every day and you’ll find real progress when you least expect it,” were the words tapped by my fingers in response.

When my fingers came to a rest I thought, “how I wish I understood these seemingly invisible currents of life.”

Even though I don’t fully understand them and can’t see these currents with my eyes, or map them on a piece of paper or computer, I see the results of their existence regularly. I see their impact along my own path as well as on the path of others. Just as in the life of this comfort-seeking-friend. 

Life currents seemingly serve as a principal pathway of exchange both individually as well as with groups of people and even cultures. And, these currents are often strongly constrained by individual decisions and actions. They can even be noticeably obstructed when a large group of people decide to alter their offered goodness. Such obstructions show up throughout the history of our world. I’m sure if you take a moment you’ll be able to identify monumentally negative shifts of these currents locally and globally.

Counter balancing positive shifts are often more difficult to identify. But, if you reflect within you’ll be able to identify helping currents throughout your own history. Once recognize them and keep practicing, you’ll find yourself being able to actually feel life’s invisible, helping current pulling you along.

Even when life is not going well at a moment, the practice of identifying goodness currents will provide you with reassurance of their continuous, helping hand. That assurance will propel you along with a knowledge that goodness is on its way.

_______________________________________________

I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as an Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Both Sides of the Fence, About the Dish, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14AsoipiePjMdj7ds-f80BAGFyGWst-em/view?usp=sharing

Super Hero Help, Monday's Warm Cocoa 11.3.2025

“My wife called me asking for help.” – Chris Hobgood

Super Hero Help

Chris Hobgood just got new neighbors. They’re so new that he and his family don’t really know them yet. They simply haven’t had enough time to get to know them since they recently moved in. But, that didn’t stop them from being great neighbors a couple of days prior to Halloween.

“We’re going to dress as ‘Scooby-Doo Where Are You!’ characters,” Chris said as he described how members of his family, including their three dogs, were going to dress to impersonate characters from the beloved late-sixties and onward cartoon series. The series features a group of “kids” who solve mysteries while helping others.

“Oh, and did I tell you what happened a couple of days ago?” Chris nonchalantly asked, as if foreshadowing his Halloween character “Fred.”

“My wife called asking for help,” Chris recalled, while describing that call received in the middle of the afternoon.

She was calling because she heard a distressed child crying outside, next door. 

“Some people would do nothing, because they didn’t know the child,” Chris continued. “But this small six-year-old girl needed someone to offer her comfort and my wife stepped up immediately.”

Chris put his business on hold and began his drive home so he and his wife could begin to solve “the mystery of the crying child.”

Upon his arrival he found the little girl enjoying treats and adoring dogs. All three of his dogs had surrounded the girl and were offering her wagging tails and comforting kisses. No wonder the dogs had been selected to be members of the family’s Scooby-doo cast for Halloween!

Chris and his wife enlisted a few other friends to come to the rescue as well. They’ve developed deep relationships with members of their community. Even close friends who are local police officers came to help, just because, “that’s what neighbors are for.”

As a result of caring neighbors and dogs the mystery was solved quickly. The girl’s teen-aged sister had simply been delayed at school and was relieved to see all of the support their new neighbors had given her young sibling. They’re not living amongst strangers anymore!

They moved into a neighborhood filled with superheroes. And, last night those heroes dawned their costumes and alter-egos in public. Alter-egos are generally fictional personas or characters used by an author, artist, or public figure to speak for them or represent a hidden side. This is most common when discussing superheroes. But not here in this neighborhood.

The Hobgoods and their neighbors are the real deal! They offer superhero help, disguised as regular people and celebrate their character in costume one night each year.

_______________________________________________

I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as an Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Both Sides of the Fence, About the Dish, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14AsoipiePjMdj7ds-f80BAGFyGWst-em/view?usp=sharing

Unintended Loneliness, Monday's Warm Cocoa, 10.27.2025

"Giving advice to others is giving a piece of yourself to them.” – John Hill

Unintentional Loneliness

I was sitting in a large auditorium listening to a presentation by John Hill, Vice President of story at Whop. There were quite a few people in the auditorium, yet I was sitting alone on one row. I was also the only attendee over twenty-five years of age. It’s interesting how a person can feel lonely when surrounded by lots of other people!

As a result of this feeling, I thought about the day before, when I was sitting at the kitchen table of a ninety-one-year-old friend.

“Not one person called or visited me yesterday,” he said, unable to hide the lonely disappointment in his voice.

He lives in a large, mountain property with a lot of land. He’s alone now. His wife recently passed away. Of this he says, “my wife left me.” He has some family members living in the same state, but they’re at a distance, making it difficult to be with him daily. I peered at him.

He seemed to be a small boat, drifting on a huge, once peaceful ocean, turned turbulent. He was rudderless.

“What would you like to do with your life now?” I asked. “What are you looking forward to?”

After all, my friend is physically and mentally healthy. I look at him with wonder, hoping I can fare so well at his age.

“Giving advice to others is giving a piece of yourself to them,” John Hill said, bringing me back to the large auditorium. “The foundation for all strong relationships is face-to-face communication. Video telephone conversations would be next best. The weakest relationship builders are email and text.” He continued, causing me to think of Melissa Kirsch’s given advice.

“We’re all connected, related, dependent on one another, but of course we forget this all the time,” Melissa Kirsch teaches. “We forget that every action we take has a whole cascade of unintended consequences. And so often we feel separate, lonely, disconnected.” 

She coaches, “One way to challenge that feeling is to start with one small thing. It may seem a little corny at first, but it works.”

It may seem a little corny for me to feel lonely in a mostly filled auditorium as well. Especially when it allowed me to feel emphatically-connected to my lonely friend. And, John Hill was standing in front of everyone, seemingly speaking directly to me.

“Face-to-face, give a piece of yourself.”

At the end, I walked away vowing to give more pieces of myself to my aged friend, as well as to others who may be unintentionally lonely. Because small face-to-face visits create a cascade of beneficial personal connection, leading to other positive consequences, that help end unintentional loneliness.

_______________________________________________

I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as an Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Both Sides of the Fence, About the Dish, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14AsoipiePjMdj7ds-f80BAGFyGWst-em/view?usp=sharing

Finding Winning Habits, Monday's Warm Cocoa, 10.20.2025

“I never know what I’m going to find, once I dig into a problem?” – Mark Sebastion

Finding Winning Habits

Looking at Mark Sebastion sitting on top of the fireplace mantel, with the exposed wall behind him, caused me to recall words once spoken by Riley Jensen on another occasion.

“When I’d come home after having a bad day my mother would say, ‘did you really have a bad day, or did you have a bad five minutes?’ Then, she’d follow that up with, ‘are you going to enjoy the rest of the day, or are you going to continue to milk this and pout?’”

Difficult circumstances, such as having a specialized contractor come into your home saying, “I never know what I’m going to find, once I dig into a problem,” and then watching him actually “dig in” by tearing walls, a stone chimney and a large section of roof off could easily be classified as having a bad day; likely turning into a bad week and perhaps, even a bad month or two! It could even cause a person to say, “I’m feeling very picked on!”

Every one of us face stretching-trials, some harder and some less traumatic, and the way a person habitually thinks, while in the throes of “digging in” will make all the difference.

In speaking and coaching about how to face adversity Nick Sabin said, “When my team would lose I’d say to the team, we needed to lose! Because, we needed to learn from the things we’re not doing to create the habits we needed to have to play winning football on a consistent basis.”

Could everyday happiness be enhanced by developing a mental habit of running toward problems and digging into them so you can discover things you’re not doing? Will this process and practice work as a creative way to develop needed new habits so you can enjoy a “winning” attitude and life? And, is there one simple, additional habit that will allow you to embrace daily positivity and success? 

Hopefully, each one of us will recognize and embrace the counsel of Riley Jensen’s mother. “Did you really have a bad day or did you have a bad five minutes? Are you going to enjoy the rest of your day, or are you going to milk this and pout?”

Yes. The walls, chimney and roof of your home may be in the process of being demolished! And, you can recognize the in-process-resolution of the once hidden issues afflicting you, see that you can embrace new ways of acting and move forward to win in your life on a more consistent basis.

Finding and embracing winning habits is often disguised as unwanted adversity and loss. And, you never know what you’ll find!

_______________________________________________

I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as an Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Both Sides of the Fence, About the Dish, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14AsoipiePjMdj7ds-f80BAGFyGWst-em/view?usp=sharing

"Looking Back Laugh" Monday's Warm Cocoa 10.13.2025

"You’ll be able to look back on this in a year and laugh.” – Curtis Bledsoe

Looking Back Laugh

“I’ve found that when I’m going through something; you know, when nothing is coming out the way it’s supposed to, I ask myself a question,” Curtis said as he spoke with a frustrated homeowner. 

Curtis had stepped up to assist this distraught customer about five days before this current telephone interaction. During a two-month construction ordeal a previous supplier had sent defective product to this customer time after time. They had sent the same flawed item six times! Finally, the exasperated customer decided to cut their losses and seek help from Curtis and his distribution company. He was about to receive more than a needed plumbing part.

“That’s when I ask, what am I supposed to be learning from this?” Curtis continued; offering enlightened guidance to his customer over the phone.

The customer quietly listened as Curtis spoke. His want to lash out had been extinguished as if water poured over active flames in a smoldering fire pit.

“That’s genius advice,” the customer said, before he listened again, hoping for more sagacious words to be offered from Curtis.

“I haven’t had a difficult experience that I couldn’t look back on and laugh at, yet. And, I’ve had to deal with some very hard experiences in my fifty-five years,” Curtis said with a twinkle spreading from his eyes into and through his voice.

His customer instantly began to reflect on his past experiences. He began to chuckle as he recalled many such instances that had, at the time, been seemingly traumatic. In hindsight he had been able to discover inconceivable humor from the occurrence. Curtis’ words were ringing in his ears as truth!

“As soon as I learned to take a step back and learn from the lesson being offered, my whole experience around difficulties changed,” Curtis expressed. “I don’t look forward to going through hard things and times, but I’ve begun to look forward to laughing about them later! Knowing that humor is on its way brightens my day and my future at the same time.”

The customer’s day had been brightened as a result of this timely display of empathy. He could already see that this current, horrible ordeal would soon reveal itself as a looking-back-laugh in the near future. This was made possible because Curtis took a moment to offer relatable compassion along with quality plumbing parts.

Curtis delivered the needed part the next day and as promised, with that, the looking-back-laughing began.

_______________________________________________

I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as an Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Both Sides of the Fence, About the Dish, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14AsoipiePjMdj7ds-f80BAGFyGWst-em/view?usp=sharing

"Lonely no More," Monday's Warm Cocoa 10.6.2025

"The boys instinctively knew that their friend needed space.” – Bryan Vernetti

Lonely no More

“I was a leader of a Boy Scout Troop not long ago,” Bryan started. “It was a time when the loneliness epidemic was just beginning.”

One of his scouts was also just past the beginning of an ongoing, potentially devastating family crisis. It was an unquestionable life changing period for this teenaged boy. Bryan could have simply left the young man to deal with the challenge alone. But, he decided not to. And, the right opportunity to pull the boy deeper into connection with the troop was possible as a result of an upcoming camping expedition.

“I felt our troop could make a difference for him. So, I went to his house to pick him up for the trip. I didn’t want this dear friend to be alone with his grief, when he could be with us to feel our supporting bond.”

Bryan didn’t tell any of the other boys anything about what was happening in their friend’s life. He simply extended the refuge of the troop around the one person who needed support in a very personal way.

“Once we were all set up and had the camp in order I started looking around. You know, taking an inventory of the boys. I noticed, the one scout I had especially reached out to, was nowhere to be found! So, I decided to go about quietly, to see if I could find him. I didn’t want to make a stir or a sensation,” Bryan explained.

Bryan went weaving through the trees for very short time when he spotted the boy off and out a little way ahead. He was there, up and off the trail, alone with his grief. The young man had finally, fully surrendered to his natural grief and had sought solitude to release his pent-up emotions. And, that wasn’t all Bryan saw.

While scanning the surrounding forest he also observed the other boys sheltered amongst the trees. They were all standing there, clumped together as if they were of one, unique and exceptional variety of blending-in-vegetation, bearing witness to their friend’s personal moment. And, they were unmoving. They instinctively let their friend have his needed moment of solitude.

“I was so proud of them and was equally amazed by their sensitivity at an age where most would have thought them to be thoughtless and self-centered. Yet, there they were, doing the right thing at the right moment for the right person,” Bryan said with tears welling in his eyes at the memory.

Then, his eyes were filled with a luster again as he remembered the moment when the mourner had finished expelling his emotions, came back to camp, and found his friends there waiting for him. The troop came to him in an instant, without knowing the source of his grief, and embraced him with greetings of, “We’re glad you’re here. We’ve been wondering where you went.”

As Bryan watched his scouts acting as true friends, as well as adhering to their apothegm of loyalty, he rejoiced within himself saying, “Lonely no more!”

_______________________________________________

I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as an Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Both Sides of the Fence, About the Dish, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14AsoipiePjMdj7ds-f80BAGFyGWst-em/view?usp=sharing

Dream Come True, Monday's Warm Cocoa 9.29.2025

"Did I tell you about my dream?” – Gail Downey

Dream Come True

“Did I tell you about my dream?” Gail asked from the other side of the car.

Robert, her husband, was sitting behind us and Gail’s question didn’t cause a flicker of surprise. He simply sat and listened to the conversation happening ahead of him, as if it were as common as green on grass. He didn’t even seem eager to hear my reaction.

“No. You didn’t tell me about your dream,” I answered.

“I get them once in a while,” Gail responded. “They’re important. They give me guidance as I make my way forward in life.

She went on to describe the details of her dream. She told me what she saw, the timing of things to come and how she could best walk forward.

Now, don’t get me wrong, this was not a dream containing her entire future nor the perfect, all-encompassing path of her life. Gail’s dream was targeted, as are her other, similar dreams, to one specific question. The question of where and when she and Robert should move. I watched a calm relief flow, based on the law of gravity, from her face to her toes as she continued.

“In this case,” Gail said, “the most important factor in our move is the timing. There are some things in need to finish before we leave. I know what I need to complete before we move here. I don’t understand the reason I’m to finish the project I’m now working to complete where I live now, but that doesn’t matter. I simply know I need to finish it while in Texas.”

We’ve all heard the phrase, “timing is everything.” Today’s living pace seems to be frenetic for most. We see and hear messages exhorting us to move forward quickly. Don’t miss out. There is even a label for this FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). So, it was out of the norm to speak with someone who had obtained a different perspective of timing. Gail’s dream-message was directing her to do things in a specific order and to only move forward when it was the right time for her to take the next step.

When you and I do things with the right personal timing it allows stress to wash away naturally, like the tide pulling waves away from the beach. I’ve tried to fight the tide at times in my past. The result was regrettable!

Gail and Robert will have no regrets as they enter into the coming stage of their life. Because Gail is listening to her inner voice and understands how, when and where they need to make their next move. As a result, their move will be a dream come true!

_______________________________________________

I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as an Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Both Sides of the Fence, About the Dish, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14AsoipiePjMdj7ds-f80BAGFyGWst-em/view?usp=sharing