Passion, Purpose, Fate, Dreams, Genius, All Collide To Create Destiny

I was having a conversation this morning, about the art piece I posted.  The artist made amazing pieces of art out of thrown away metal, gears, assorted bars, and pipes.  When he talked about his art it came from a place deep within his heart.  He was deep within his gift.  His soul just poured out of him.  He lays it down at your feet waiting for your reaction.  And because it was all about the gift.  It had nothing to do with ego.  It wasn’t about his being invested in what you thought about his art.  He does it, because he can’t not do it.  Being that connected to your gift is your purpose, and when you are in that space, destiny collides with you. 

Ego says, Once everything falls into place, I’ll feel peace.  Spirit says, Find your peace, and then everything falls into place.  

 –  Marianne Williamson

There is a moment when you are walking in your purpose, where the fears and dreams collide together. 

Decisions determine destiny.  

  – Thomas S. Monson

You can follow the dream where it leads you, or you can bury it down in shadow, where it will become unbalanced.  This imbalance create patterns in your life that won’t be beneficial to you.  Have you ever felt like you had your foot on the gas and the brake at the same time?  That is shadow patterns in your life at work.  Have you ever experienced self sabotage?  A time when you know that the words coming out of your mouth are like someone else is in control?  You watch as before your eyes, you destroy something you love and you can’t help yourself?  That is shadow patterns in your life.  They come from fear.  From fear wanting to protect you, even as it is destroying you.

Fear cannot isolate you, if you allow love to surround you. 

  – Sarah Jakes 

When you are balanced in your life with your gift, you bring it out of the shadow.  It is about being real as to who you are.  No masks.  No living from the opinions of others.  You share your true self, and by doing so you touch the lives of others.  We are all one creation based in love.  It is only egos and fears that separate us.  Those egos and fears create beliefs to further the separation.  Live from the space of love.  The space of being true and real is where it all starts.  You character helps to shape your destiny into the reality you are reaching for.

It is when you realize that, like the artist above, you don’t have a choice but to live within the gift.  It has a hold on you.  Sleep, food, riches, fame – nothing matters except releasing that gift into the world.  When I am in that space, my writing just flows out.  Hours go by and nothing else matters.  I reveal the elusive words, analogies, stories.  Everything flow down into the characters on the blank page.  My soul pours out and I can’t stop it.  And then comes the moment, when the gift has used me all up.  I come around to being hungry.  I notice I am cramped from sitting in my chair too long.  Once again awareness of the world around me seeps into my consciousness. 

A successful life is one that is lived through understanding and pursuing one’s own path, not chasing after the dreams of others… In spite of your fear, do what you have to do. 

  –  Chin-Ning Chu

This dream that leads you to your destiny is that one that keeps coming back.  No matter how many times you push it away, it returns.  The successes, failures, the ups and downs of life don’t shape your destiny.  Your destiny shapes you by swinging back into your life, situation after situation.  It serves your life, unless you push it down into shadow.  Then it wrecks havoc in your life.  No matter what, like a pendulum, it keeps swinging back into your life. 

Even if your life hasn’t turned out the way you expected and you find yourself in an unexpected place, decide to make the most of where you are, because there is always a spiritual reason that your destiny has led you to this destination.

  – Unknown

It is a constant collision that creates both order and chaos in our life, all depending on how we shape the way it swings.  Order and chaos both have good purposes in our life.  They are like the monster waves we are riding in the ocean.  We can ride it for miles, exhilarated by the fears we are facing.  It dances with us in the sunlight, unfolding past the fears.  If we push it away it can drag us down into the depths of the dark water, spitting us back on the shore, exhausted and battered.

Your mission your purpose and your destiny will all be tied to one thing – your gift.

  – Steve Harvey

My passion is to help everyone who reads my words to realize something wonderful about themselves.  To glimpse their own dreams.  To follow them wherever they lead.  To not let the loose shale cause them to stumble.  To not cut themselves on the sharp edges.  To not fall into the pits of others opinions of what you can or can’t do.  Rather to leap or crawl over the boulders of confusion.  To realize that the only person who can truly stop you is you.  To not let anything put you in the space of giving up.  

Every time you rise up, your dream becomes stronger and your destiny flourishes.  Use everything as part of the creation process, just like that artist.  Realize that everything that comes into your life, can be used to further bring your dreams and destiny into reality.  Just like that artist, every piece of metal, heated by the fire in your forge, can be bent and hammered to serve a purpose.

The universe conspires to reveal the truth and to make your path easy if you have the courage to follow the signs.

   -Lisa Unger

Signs of a Good  Life – adventure forth to learn all that you can.  Remember the joy is in the journey, not the destination.  Unleash your purpose to use everything that you experience in life, to grow into who you need to be to fulfill this destiny.  Learn from nature, everything changes from day to day, season to season.  Change is to be welcomed with all honor and dignity.  The challenge from all this change is to guide it into growing, and shifting you in a way that serves you.  The true essence of a life well lived, is to care for and befriend all you meet on your journey.  Who you travel with could be the only way to reach your destination.  Dare to care.  Open your heart and let others in.  See the beauty of life in giving away everything, knowing that by serving others, we serve our destiny. 

Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we’re supposed to be and embracing who we are.

  – Brene Brown

So if you are scared.  If you are lost.  If you are unprepared.  If you are falling apart.  If you think that you can’t survive, and all hope is truly lost beyond recovery.  Take heart.  Rise Up!  Rejoice!  We have all been there.  We have all done that.  And still, here we are, walking onwards to fulfill the life purpose the Divine anchored in our hearts and souls.  People come into our lives for a reason.  Sometimes they need a hand, sometimes they give us a hand.  When our worlds collide, let us take each others hand.  Walk we me until your courage is restored.  Light your candle with my flame.  Every passion has its destiny, and for this moment in time, our destiny has linked hands.  When you are ready, let go and fly away with your wings of destiny into the light.

Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.

  – Anthony Robbins

[lp-logic ids=”3473″ limit=1][lp-logic ids=”3473″ limit=1 use_content=1] Content to use [/lp-logic]

If It Terrifies You, That Is The Place Where Your Potential Is Waiting To Be Released

 

I had a great conversation today with one of my mentors.  It was really interesting because 90% of the conversation was around potential, and what this year was opening up for me.  What made it so interesting is that I had already written about most of what they were bringing up.  I had written it with myself in mind, as that is what my writing this blog is all about.  Writing what is showing up for me supports me in multiple ways.  I love sharing it with you, in the hope that I can support you in your growth.  It isn’t that you don’t already know everything I write.  It is just that we all need reminders of how important it is to keep growing in our life.  In turn you inspire me back with your likes, hearts, comments, and sharing of what I write.

What I realized during the conversation, is that I had this containment field around what I thought my potential was.  It was an unconscious fence based on how I have been changing and transforming my life.  Based on what I think LemonadeMakers is growing me into.  I didn’t realize that I had put a ceiling on my potential.  I had unconsciously concentrated on my writing gift, as all I had to offer to my community.  A person can grow only as much as their horizon allows.  

Only when we put our perceived potential to the test, can we learn to look, know where to look, and position ourselves to realize our true potential. 

  – Unknown

In the discussion with my mentor, we talked about music.  My writing, especially my poetry has music enveloped within it.  When I write I hear music.  I have always maintained that I can’t sing.  That I am tone deaf.  I guess it came from around 4th grade, when I had a choir class.  The only time I ever took choir was for just that few months.  I remember this moment when the teacher made each of us sing by ourselves to try and find the person who was out of tune.  I was terrified it was me.  I mean really scared.  I was standing there shaking, waiting to be humiliated.  She didn’t find the person she was looking for, but after that experience I refused to take choir again.  My mentors feel strongly that I have some hidden talents around music, so something new to explore this year. 

If it’s both terrifying and amazing then you should definitely pursue it.

  – Erada

As I have said in other posts, we moved around a lot when I was a child.  I don’t think that I finished one whole year at a school until high school.  So at one point, I remember music lessons in an elementary school.  I wanted to learn piano, but my parents couldn’t afford to rent one.  The school had a violin, so that was what I got to learn to play.  I remember practicing, and of course I sounded horrible.  My parents complained about the noise.  When we moved, the violin went back to the school.  I never took music lessons again.  So when they said that I probably had some talent with music and singing, I remembered my childhood experiences.  They were not favorable.  So what do you do when someone tells you, you have a hidden talent waiting to be discovered, lying in a place that you abandoned in failure?

It is good to look at, to examine the stories we have created around things in our life.  While stories help us to make sense of our experiences, they are inherently not true.  Most of them are made up by us.  They serve a purpose to try and make sense of our lives.  But if we live our life as though they are true, we are doing ourselves a disservice.  We will walk away from gifts and talents.  We will assume the story is right.  We will assume that we can’t do or be what we thought we could.  We walk away from our full potential.

Inherent in being proactive and trying new things, and not waiting to be told what to do, is the fact that you’re going to fail, you’re going to make mistakes, and you’re probably going to piss people off.  And it you’re not pissing people off, if you don’t have haters, if you’re not putting yourself in a situation that has some risks associated with it, you’re probably not going to realize your full potential.

  –  Gina Bianchini

Overcoming self-limiting beliefs and self-imposed limitations is often the biggest obstacle standing between you and the realization of your full potential.  One way to see where our potential might be expanded is to make a list of your gifts and talents.  Be sure to list the things that others say you are good at, but which you discount as being “no big deal”.  Then look at each one, and see where the passion is on a scale of 1 – 10.  Then taking the three highest ranking talents, ask yourself how in love with it you are.  The one talent that you are passionate about, and also in love with – that is the one that has more potential just waiting for you to explore and expand.

In keeping with the discussion, I am meditating on what to do with this new challenge around music?  Singing lessons?  Take up piano lessons?  Learn to play the American Indian drum I purchased years ago, but just play around with?  I was just gifted with an Ukulele and it appears to be really easy to learn – at least that was what they told me when they gave it to me.  I challenge you to take up some childhood dream that you had, that you felt like you failed at.  What existing gift or talent can you try to unleash and find your own unlimited potential? 

What can you pursue that is both terrifying, and amazing?  What can you pursue that you will fail at trying, but know in your heart that you are supposed to be doing?  You become a master at something when you have practiced the 10,000 hours.  it is scary to think of how much potential is lost by those who don’t have the courage to unleash it. The edge of potential is where you are meeting difficulties in your life. 

Change is inevitable, but transformation is by conscious choice.

  –  Heather Ash Amara

 

YOU ARE ALLOWED

• You are allowed to have confidence in crazy ideas (they are the best kind)
• You are allowed to sign your own permission slip (go on a field trip)
• You are allowed to stop researching and start experimenting (you know enough and most of what you need to learn you learn by doing)
• You are allowed to try things before you fully understand them (go ahead and take it apart and put it back together a new way)
• You are allowed to define your own success (hint . . . it happens when passion is born and takes you to new heights)
• You are allowed to start many things and not finish most of them (the no guilt zone)
• You are allowed to figure out how to do the work without doing the part you don’t like (there are people out there who like cleaning toilets . . . really!)
• You are allowed to push comfort boundaries (don’t let yourself die why you are still living . . .  comfort zones suck all of the oxygen out of the room)

• You are allowed to FAIL. A LOT. (In fact, it is required)

• You are allowed to push yourself harder than you ever had before (you might decide that you like the rush of the edge of potential)
• You are allowed to invest a new way to do it (vision is seeing potential in what others overlook)
• You are allowed to make work feel like play (love what you do and you will never work a day in your life)
• You are allowed to love what you do and the way you do it (it is what you were created to do, so do it!)

• YOU ARE ALLOWED

Do not dilute the truth of your potential.  We often convince ourselves that we cannot change, that we cannot overcome the circumstances of our lives.  That is simply not true.  You have been blessed with immeasurable power to make positive changes in your life.  But you can’t just wish it, you can’t just hope it, you can’t just want it…, you  have to live it, be it, do it.

  – Steve Maraboli

You have within you, right now, everything you could ever need or want to be a great success in every area of your life.  Whether you’re aware of it or not, you have deep reserves of potential and ability.  If you properly harness and channel it, it will enable you to accomplish extraordinary things in your life.

It’s about personal development.  It’s about creating your own character and pushing it to the limit.  It’s about pushing yourself so far out of your own and everybody else’s idea of who you are, and what you’re capable of, that you no longer believe in limits.  It’s about reaching beyond your so-called potential, because your potential is never where you or anyone else expects it to be, not even close.  It’s about being able to say with the last breath of your life, “I used all my potential and all  my talents and pushed myself to the limit.  I could not have fought any harder”..

  – Charlotte Eriksson

Potential is in fact, limitless.  It is unlocked by gratitude. In order to really experience what life has waiting for us, we need to break out of living close to the potential.  We need to release the fears and unleash our creative potential.  We need to pursue the things we dream about doing.  We need to pursue the things that are pure and real to us, authentic to who we are becoming.

I love piano music.  I can sit and listen to it for hours.  I wanted to play as a child.  I was given a free piano a couple of years ago.  It sits in my living room as a place to put family photos.  It just gathers dust because:  I took it thinking that my grandkids who were living with me at the time could learn to play, not for me to learn it myself.  It needs tuning.  I really don’t have the time to take lessons.  I probably can’t learn to read music, or understand how to get the timing of a piece of music.  I could go on and on listing the reasons (excuses) why I haven’t even tried to learn to play even though it is sitting there looking back at me every single day. 

I am going to listen to divine direction, and see what unfolds around music and/or singing in my life.  I am going to see where inspiration is lying hidden, waiting for me to dig down to it.  To uncover that vein of gold.  I am going to see where the music in my soul is waiting for me to have the courage to pursue it and express it.

You can only become truly accomplished at something you love.  Don’t make money your goal.  Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you. 

   – Maya Angelou

So here we go.  I am committing to unleashing my potential around music.  What will you commit to?  Your inner potential cannot develop without your willingness to commit.  Please comment below and say it out loud to be witnessed.  When you say it out loud, it is the first step to overcoming your current limits.  Go do what you were created to do. 

Use your special key.  Unlock that potential 

[lp-logic ids=”3473″ limit=1][lp-logic ids=”3473″ limit=1 use_content=1] Content to use [/lp-logic]

“True North” Is Calling Me Home

 

Knowing my True North gives me courage to focus my energy where I believe it should be, not according to what is popular or pleasing to others – Jennifer Cummings

There are times when you feel drawn by something that you can’t quite name. It’s a whisper in your ears, a tug in your heart. You feel it pulling you towards “true north” or home. You may not understand it, but you know that you have to go there. When you are searching for your place in this life, you are looking for your soul’s home.

Your interior compass may seem to be spinning in all directions. You no longer have an interest in looking backwards. You just don’t know what direction to take.

Coincidence doesn’t exist and goosebumps never lie.  Your body already knows the answer.  All you have to do is turn down your spinning mind and continue to follow all signs.  Because you are always worthy of becoming your best and most actualized self – Victoria Erickson

When you are at one of life’s transitions and trying to re-imagine a new life for yourself – that is when you need others. You can help each other to find the way to your own souls’ home.

You don’t throw limited beliefs into each other’s faces.  You help to end the wobble in each other’s compass, so you can each find your own true north.  These kinds of friends celebrate you living your own truth, your divine destiny.  Sharing a path with such a person is a sacred gift.

The path to home is found in only in the direction of the winds of change.  The storms of life are by design to help you change.  They don’t happen to you; they happen for you.  Recognize change when it comes upon you, learn what it has to teach you, and always keep your compass on your own True North.

We are not retreating – we are advancing in another direction – Douglas MacArthur

How much you go through in these storms is determined by the attitude you have, by the actions you take, and how well you are listening and paying attention to what is happening.  I think that the meaning you give to things has a large part to play in how you advance.

Are you retreating or advancing in a new direction?  One view indicates failure, and one view indicates resilience.

The more clarity you take in, the less damage the storm brings with it, as you go through it.

It is always your choice of having a breakdown or a breakthrough.

You don’t have to get lost drifting in the “good old days” feeling sorry for yourself.  You don’t try to avoid the truths that the storm reveals to you by using drugs or alcohol or sex to escape it.  You cannot become who you wish to be, if you don’t push forward and leave the past behind you.

When you focus too much on your past, you give away your power in the present and the future.

Goals are my north star.  My compass.  The map that guides me along the road I wish to travel.  Goals are motivations with wind in their sails, they carry me forward despite the storms – Richelle Goodrich

LemonadeMakers don’t wait for the world to change into a better place.  They change themselves, guided by their journey to their own True North.

LemonadeMakers are driven by the passion they have in life, to do and be extraordinary.  As each individual, upon each individual changes, the world changes with them.  It may not happen overnight, and it may not happen as fast as you want it to happen.  But it will happen.

LemonadeMakers are all just walking each other home. Home is not where you were born.  It is not your current place of residence.

It is a place that you find deep within yourself.  It is that space in your heart, where your soul resides.  It is the place where you discover your true self.

And if the sun is too hot, or the rain is a down pouring torrent, or the snow becomes a blizzard, then we can be each a shelter for each other, until the path home becomes clear again.

Knowing my true north gives me the courage to focus my energy where I believe it should be, not according to what is popular or pleasing to others – Jennifer Cummings

I Can Because I Am Limitless. I Am Because I Know No Boundaries

Have you ever had a healing crisis? A healing crisis isn’t just a health related crisis. It can be healing any part of our life that just isn’t working out the way we know that it should.

Nothing has transformed my life more than listening to what needed to be heard.

  – Jeffrey Shaw 

Years ago, when I was first working in the financial industry I had just received a huge promotion. I was really working hard, and for some reason, the different aspects of the job were just not working out right. I finally had a long talk with my boss, and following her advice I turned things around. I knew that I was perfectly capable of doing the job, but I just couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working. I think that at different shifting points in our lives we run up against this road block. We need a different set of eyes to see what needs to be seen. To see what needs to be transformed.

If you’re trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks.  I’ve had them; everybody has had them.  But obstacles don’t  have to stop you.  If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up.  Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

  – Michael Jordan

Do you know why Michael Jordan was so successful?  This quote gives us a clue.  He didn’t reach a roadblock and say, “oh well, I guess I am not talented enough to do this”; or “oh well, I guess this dream was just too big for me to accomplish”.  No, he practiced until he was able to break it down.   He worked with coaches who were able to help him see what he couldn’t see.

Remember that your greatest talent is so much more powerful than your biggest fear.

  – Unknown

There comes a time when we need to take a calculated risk. If you look at the game of baseball it really speaks to calculated risk. The player who is on first base, will watch the pitcher, the batter, and outfielders to gauge how far off the base he can go without getting caught. If he gauges it correctly, he can steal a base, or even make it to 3rd base with an infield hit from the batter because of getting the head start.

I think sometimes you forget that you were born to be awesome.  (here’s your reminder)

  – Unknown

In our lives, if we risk nothing, we get nothing. In personal transformation, we need to take calculated risks. In our life of personal growth, in order to grow we have to take our foot off the safe “base” we are on. We need to risk opening the chrysalis with the hope that we have finished our transformation, and the wings are ready to fly.

Risk more than others think is safe. Care more than others think is wise. Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think is possible.

   – Ronnie Max Oldham

This really is the only way to live your life. Not putting off things until we think it is safe. Really opening our hearts completely in how we care about others. To understand that the reality is that almost anything is possible. Whatever is currently stumping you, just means that you are not asking the right questions, or the right people for help.

Our thoughts are very powerful. When we focus on what we lack, we create blockages and limitations. We become imprisoned by the vibration of our negative energy.

  – Randi G Fine

In other words if we think that we can’t we will be a self fulfilling prophecy.

If you think you can or you think you can’t you are right.

  – Henry Ford

I find myself doing this sometimes. I stress about not having enough time and sure enough, unforeseen stuff starts filling up my life. Then I catch myself, and unlock the door to that cage, freeing myself and all of a sudden, the stuff just starts going away and I have my time back to do what needs to be done.

Remember, the moment you accept total responsibility for everything in your life is the moment you claim the power to change anything in your life.

  – Hal Elrod

So if you find yourself in any sort of “healing crisis” at the moment, just take some time to meditate as to how you just lost yourself in the woods. Transform the path by backing up or regrouping. Get back on the path that you were traveling.

And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive.  You won’t even be sure whether the storm is really over.  But one thing is certain.  When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in.  That’s what the storm’s all about.

  – Haruki Murakami

This is another critical piece of the transformation puzzle, in really getting to know oneself. 

[lp-logic ids=”3473″ limit=1][lp-logic ids=”3473″ limit=1 use_content=1] Content to use [/lp-logic]

Believe In Your Potential For Greatness, It Is Your Gift To The World

Do you believe that you are destined for greatness? It took me quite a bit of time to believe that about myself. Compliments have always been hard for me to accept. It always felt like I wasn’t truly worthy. Like you were just being nice to me, but didn’t really mean it.

It is safe to feel like you are an “ok” type of person, but greatness feels like I am being mistaken for someone else. It carries with it the undertone of responsibility, and the potential of being weighed and found wanting. It has the danger of being found to be a fraud, not being as advertised.  That there are those waiting for the mistake so that they can pounce on it and say, “I knew she wasn’t that great.”

There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve:  The fear of failure.

  – Paulo Coelho

I’ve always accepted the compliment that I was “smart”, because I worked hard for the good grades. Writing about things that I have experienced in my life, and what I have learned about life is really easy. Not that I don’t spend time putting these posts together, because I do. It can take hours sometimes, but it isn’t the “chore” that it is for so many people. It is a gift that just flows. So because of that, it is harder to accept the compliments, because it doesn’t feel like I have earned them with hard work.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

  – Marianne Williamson

At some point in our life, we say “enough” to the doubter voice inside of us. That voice that says we have to make ourselves small so that we are not noticed; that voice that whispers no one else feels or thinks like we do, so don’t voice your opinions or let anyone know how you think or feel (you don’t want to be the outcast).

The fears that we don’t face becomes our limits.

  – Robin Sharma

Then there is the distraction button that gets pulled every time you sit down to figure out your destiny. It convinces you to clean up something – the kitchen floors need to be mopped. To watch that TV show, after all you deserve to sit down and relax, you worked hard all day. The phone rings and it is that friend or relative that talks for hours about nothing. Or you get attacked by the shiny objects that glistens and gleams until you pay attention to it, or as my dog used to say “squirrel!”.

If an egg is broken from the outside, life ends. If an egg is broken from the inside, life begins. Greats things always begin from the inside.

  –  Unknown

How do we begin from the inside to crack that shell of protection that we have built around ourselves?

Instead of being distracted, we can instead begin the conversation with the doubter to bring them in to support us. That is when we are ready to ascend another level in our consciousness. We are ready and because of that, doors appear and begin to open to us. We are ready once again to enter into the chrysalis and transform from our current being into a new one.

This advancement is transforming us from being a crawler towards our dreams and life purpose, into a flier. We are transforming from following a leader, to becoming a leader. We strike out on fulfilling our life purpose through the work that we are doing.

Set a goal so big you can’t achieve it until you grow into the person who can.

  – Unknown

We are beginning the path to greatness, with the spiritual joy of choosing our own adventure. Did you ever read the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books as a kid, or to your kids? Each chapter gave you choices as to where you would go next. We become co-creators of our life path, designing the way our divine purpose is fulfilled in the world.

I am not here to change the world.  I am changing the world because I am here.

  – Lisa Wilson

We are free not only to dream of a better life, we are free to “make it so”. Like a phoenix, we die to our old way of living by hiding you we are. We are reborn as we rise from the ashes, a newly made creation that passes through the gates of greatness.

Living by faith includes the call to something greater than cowardly self preservation.

  – J.R.R. Tolkien

As we leave the chrysalis, we leave behind all of the old stories. We are vulnerable, because we are opening ourselves up to take new risks – which means we don’t know the answers anymore. This landscape is completely new.

Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz we will have adventures. Some of them will be scary. We might end up asleep again in the field of poppies. We might have adversity chasing after us like the flying monkeys. We might discover that the people we thought would have all of the answers don’t. We might even discover the truth, that the one with the answers lives inside of our hearts and has been directing us the entire journey.

We have greatness within us; innovative, giving, determined.  It’s time for the best in us to come out.

  – Unknown

We begin to see our own unrealized potential. Becoming both awake and aware, we learn how to discern the correct paths to take, the best actions to make. We learn to raise our vibrational energy to attract what we need in our lives. We learn the secrets of manifestation. We understand for the first time, the truth of how we can design our own life. That we really do have that kind of power.

It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit.

  – J.R.R. Tolkien

Magic comes into our lives because we are listening to the voice of the divine. Even before we can voice what we need, the door opens and there is exactly what we just realized we need. This doesn’t mean that we won’t be mesmerized by the voices calling out in fear. It doesn’t mean that we won’t be distracted or derailed again and again. But because we have awakened and become more aware, we recognize them for what they are sooner, and they delay us less and less. We recover faster.

The truth about you is that you are easily capable of greatness.

  – Fabienne Fredrickson

It is time for each of us to recognize our divine gifts. To answer the calling to greatness. To summon the abilities, we each have within us. It is time to rise up and live a life that is on purpose. To live a passionate life. To answer the call, instead of putting it on hold or pressing the mute button. It is time to stretch ourselves. To push the internal boundaries. To leap up and be true to who we really are.

[lp-logic ids=”3473″ limit=1][lp-logic ids=”3473″ limit=1 use_content=1] Content to use [/lp-logic]

Strong Women Stand In The Storm And Adjust Their Sails

Let go of what you thought life was all about.  Let go of your expectations of life and people.  Let go of holding on to something so hard that you become brittle, hard, and breakable.  Let go, so that you can move forward.  Be a once in a lifetime kind of woman, build a castle with all of the bricks that others throw at you.  When women are connected and collaborate together, they are the most transformational force on our world.  Probably in our universe.  When you have your whole tribe behind you, you are fearless, because you know that they have your back.

A woman is like a tea bag.  You never know how strong it is until it’s in hot water.

  – Eleanor Roosevelt

Have you ever watched someone who isn’t the type of look that is considered beautiful?  Someone who is so confident and centered in who they are, that they radiate something beyond beautiful.  It is like you can’t not look at them.  They are so comfortable being overweight, or too short, or boyish looking – whatever isn’t considered by the masses to be like a model.  Even so they show us the true essence of beauty.

Embracing your true self radiates a natural beauty that cannot be diluted or ignored.  Confident, powerful, untamable, badass you!

  – Dr. Steve Maraboli

Life tests all of us.  We all get some lemons in our life.  Each time we make lemonade from those lemons we rise up.  We become stronger.  And what is so important to remember is that we are ALWAYS strong enough, even when we think we aren’t.  This is what the whole “make lemonade out of lemons” is all about. 

There is a purpose in each lemon that life gives us.  It is to help us reach back to that dream we had when we were a little girl.  To fulfill that promise that you made to yourself that when you grew up, you were going to . . . , whatever that fill in the blank is.  Don’t disappoint that little girl.  Go out there and create the fulfillment of that dream.  There are thousands of other little girls who are looking for inspiration and encouragement, that they too can fulfill their dreams.  Be brave and be that woman!  Be an empowered woman with vision.  Give to yourself the grace to achieve what you set out to do, and self awareness to do it with a soft heart and honest open arms.

Ask for what you want, and be prepared to get it.  

  –  Maya Angelou

It is better to have a heart without words, unable to express what is crying to come out, than to offer words without the hearts emotion contained within them.  Prayer is a longing of the soul to be expressed in a way, that mere words cannot but fail to express.  The heart speaks to the soul, and it listens to what the soul has to say.  This is the birth of inspiration, the breath of life itself.  Hold on to the vision in your heart.  Trust the process, life’s lemons, in order to bring that vision into reality.

We need women who are so strong they can be gentle, so educated they can be humble, so fierce they can be compassionate, so passionate they can be rational, and so disciplined they can be free.

  – Kavita Ramdas

I heard the expression today of “The Moon Shot”.  What it was referencing was the attitude that was displayed when President Kennedy said that we were going to the moon.  No one had any idea how to do it, but he energized the nation to figure out a way to do it.  Give your life a “Moon Shot” experience.  Shoot for something that you have never done, or don’t even think is possible for your to do.  Give it everything you have to bring that moon shot vision into your own reality.  Believe.  Act as if.  Live like you have already accomplished it.

I am not what has happened to me.  I am what I choose to become.

  – Carl Jung

As you move down the path of creating your own Moon Shot experience, forgive yourself whenever what you are trying doesn’t work.  Forgive others when they don’t believe in you, and even when they try to stop you.  Forgive God whenever you hit the frustration button and start blaming him, bemoaning your life experience.  Forgive any situations that create heartache, anger, and bitterness in your life.  Forgive yourself for not being, or doing something different.  Let all of the anger, fear, frustration – all of the negative emotions that you have been carrying around, flow free from your heart and soul.  Stop giving failure a negative meaning.  Realize that when you turn that lemon into lemonade, the experience becomes a powerful blessing to you and others.

There is no force equal to a woman determined to rise.

  – W.E.B. Dubois

Self awareness is an amazing gift that we can give to ourselves.  Take notice of what shows up in your life.  Who and what you are attracting into your life.  There is a map inside of you, that tells you where you are, and where you are going.  But you have to be self aware to read it.  Otherwise, it is like listening to six people talk at once, each one in a foreign language.  You know they are saying something important, but you can’t make head or tails of it.  Self awareness is necessary to move the mountains in our life.  Self awareness is what makes life’s journey a full on mountain climbing experience. 

I know it’s hard to women to tap into that feeling of self-worth.  We need to get the message out that you are valued, your are a goddess and don’t forget that.

  – Jennifer Lopez

Don’t let anyone tell you it can’t be done.  That you aren’t capable of doing it.  Don’t hide yourself.  Don’t demean yourself.  Don’t let anyone or anything get in your way.  Claw your way up and out, fight for what you believe in, for your dreams and visions.  Choose your battles and don’t give up.  Be the strong, powerful, confident, driven woman that you are.

I believe I’ve always been a big believer in equality.  No one has ever been able to tell me I couldn’t do something because I was a girl.

  – Anne Hathaway

[lp-logic ids=”3473″ limit=1][lp-logic ids=”3473″ limit=1 use_content=1] Content to use [/lp-logic]

Don’t Wait, Do It Now

Hopefully I am not the only one that this happens to.  On my commute to work and back to home, my brain is so busy detailing everything I have to do – both at work and at home.  The minute I step into my office or my home, that list magically hides itself.  I forgot most of what I have to do, being busy doing so many other things.  Then the minute my head hits the pillow, the list reappears as a list of everything that I didn’t get done.  Does anyone else go through this?

Why is taking action so hard?  We have these dreams, passions around our life.  The space between a dream and reality is where all of the action has to take place.  We want whatever the dream is.  We talk about it all of the time.  “Don’t wait for your feelings to change to take the action.  Take the actions and your feelings will change”  Barbara Baron. 

We tend to put off the hard parts.  The parts where we aren’t sure what to do.  I do it everyday.  Put off the conversation I don’t want to have with a friend, relative or co-worker.  Put off studying for a test because I am afraid of failing it.  Not asking for what I want, because what if they say no?  I am sure that this list could go on forever.  The key is to just take a first step, then one more.  Don’t look at the whole mountain that needs to be climbed, just look at the next few steps.

I always think about physical workouts here.  If you are on a treadmill, and your goal is five miles.  You start to get worn out and out of breath on mile three.  Those next two miles seems like impossible.  Seems like forever.  Seems like Mount Everest.  Seems like you can’t do it.  But here is where a little stubbornness comes in handy.  You just tell yourself five more minutes, and you take the next step and the next step, and before you know it, that fifth mile is done.  Be proud of every next step, not just the one that puts you over the goal.

“We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”  Aristotle.  It is important that these lists are not just a grocery list or a laundry list.  Things that take up time and space, but are not really taking a step.  That is the first step of procrastination.  What I call the shiny object or squirrel.  Have you seen the cartoon, where the dog is doing or saying something, then shouts squirrel and takes off right in the middle of it?  That is a squirrel.  I come into my office to write this blog post.  Then I see some mail that I forgot to take care of yesterday and so I do that.  Then an email comes in, so I read that.  Then I think of something I wanted to research and I do that.  Two hours later, I haven’t written a single word of the post I came in to write.  That is chasing the squirrel.  I didn’t really take a single step toward writing that post, and now my time is gone.

The best that we can do is to promise ourselves to be better and do better.  The best that we can do is to keep trying, putting one foot in front of the other.  To ask ourselves, what is the most important thing I can do right this moment to take that next step, and then just take it.  Don’t wait for permission.  Don’t wait for the perfect moment.  Don’t wait for anything, just take that next step.  We might fall down.  We might get hurt or do what we later judge to be the wrong thing.  It doesn’t in the big picture matter.  What matters is that we took what we saw to be the next step.  The funny thing about life, is that those steps that we judged to be wrong, are usually the steps that give us what we need for a future step.  So that, in the long run, none of the steps were really wrong.

“I promise myself,

To be so strong that nothing can disturb my peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person I meet.

To make all my friends feel that there is something worthwhile in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make my optimism come true.

To think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To give so much time to improving myself that I have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of myself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words, but in great deeds.

To live in the faith that the whole world is on my side, so long as I am true to the best that is in me”

Christian D. Larson

What’s In Your Backpack?

---

Sometimes you don’t realize the weight of a burden you’ve been carrying until you feel the weight of its release.

 – Unknown

Have you ever had several inches of your hair cut off?  For many years I would grow my hair long enough to cut and donate to “Locks of Love”.  When they would cut off that much hair, my head would feel so light, like it was floating.  It only lasted for a day or two and then the new normal would kick in.  The weightlessness feeling would disappear. 

Have you ever felt that same way when you left a bad employer?  Ended a bad relationship?  Walked away from something that was consuming your life in a bad way, like an addiction?  Did you feel free?  Like a heavy weight had been lifted?

A smile can hide so any feelings; fear, sadness, heartbreak . .  but it also shows one other thing:  strength.

 – qutoesforbros.com

We all of us sometimes smile, and pretend our world is perfect.  When really deep inside, our world is being carried on our backs, and we can see it tipping us over.  We can see that we are about to lose it all.  We can see it, slipping off our shoulders.  It’s like the weight is crushing us to the ground.  Why do we do this to ourselves?  Why do we take on too much?  We don’t ask for help.  We don’t want to fail.  We don’t want to be seen as needy.  We tell ourselves we must be perfect 24/7. 

Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are. 

 – Bernice Johnson Reagan

Maybe what the life challenge is all about, is to teach us that this idea of perfection or not needing any help, will never work long term.  It might get you through a challenge or two.  But eventually it will become too heavy, and we will fall down.  We need to learn to receive as well as give.  We need to learn how to unpack our bags.  To let go of the things that no longer serve us.  We need to look at each item in the bag.  Are these socks really ours or do they belong to someone else?  What about that ugly top that we hide in the closet, who does that belong to?

We all have baggage, find someone who loves you enough to help you unpack.

  – Unknown

I think of the example of going grocery shopping with either a hungry spouse or your children.  You are walking down the aisle and getting the items on your list.  When you are not looking, they sneak things into the cart.  They hide it underneath something already in the cart, so you can’t say no. Then when you get to the check out line, you discover five things in your cart that you didn’t put into it.  We are like this in our personal lives.  We not only cart around other peoples items in our bags, we pay for them too.  That is the best reason to have someone help you unpack.  They can help you figure out who those socks and ugly tops actually belong to. They can help you release them back to their true owners.

Travel light, live light, spread the light, be the light.

  – Tea Bag Quote

We do this unconsciously for the most part.  Part of it comes from the initial wounding experience that you had as a young child, sometime before the age of 8.  For some reason so many people I know, including myself, it is age 4.  You experienced a childhood trauma, which impacted how you view the world.  What also happens is that you take on some of the problems as your own, that came from the other person involved in your wounding. 

If you want to fly, you’ve got to give up the things that weighs you down.

 – Savannah Smith

For example, in my own case, I walked in on my mom having an affair.  As an adult I had a problem with trust.  It wasn’t that I didn’t trust others so much as I didn’t trust myself.  This caused me to attract untrustworthy people into my life.  I finally through years of transformational work discovered that this issue wasn’t about me at all. It was about my mother.  When I released this baggage everything in my life shifted, because I finally knew that I could trust myself.  I was carrying around a mountain that didn’t even belong to me.

If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light.  Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.

  – Glenn Clark

We all do this.  When you go camping, they tell you to put your food up in the air between trees so that wild animals can’t get to it.  In our backpacks, we have these items that attract the “wild animals”.  We attract these experiences into our lives over and over again.  We have a pattern of the kind of friends we attract; the kinds of significant others; the kinds of jobs; etc……  Why does the same thing keep happening to us? 

Keeping baggage from the past will leave no room for happiness in the future.

  – Wayne L Misner

We are attracting it into our life, it is our “wild animal”.  What the transformation process does, is it helps us to unpack our backpack.  To see what is really inside.  What are we carrying that no longer serves us?  What are we carrying that belongs to someone else?  What grudges, slights, hurts, and painful mountain heavy experiences are we carrying in our backpack?

It’s not the heavy load that breaks you, it’s the way you carry it.

 – Lena Horne

We are only meant to carry the load for a short time.  The time of the experience happening.  Not months and years later.  The weight of the past must be released.  You are meant to find the gold, and let go of the rest of the boulder.  Refocus on where you are headed.

Even the boulder that you are currently carrying, that you are trying to find the gold in.  The weight of that boulder can be lessened if you confine it to the lesson itself.  Sometimes we take the lesson to mean that we can’t do anything right.  That our whole life has been one failure after another.  That we are doomed.  That our existence itself is a burden.  None of those things are ever true.  It is our mind pressing down from the weight of every single burden we have ever carried, into one gigantic mountain.

When I accept myself, I am freed from the burden of needing you to accept me.

 – Healrhyplace.com

You need to give yourself the gift of forgiveness.  The gift of compassion.  The gift of redemption.  The gift of letting go.  Get a piece of paper and start unpacking your backpack.  Write down every untold story that you have inside of your heart.  For years I blamed myself for my parents divorce.  If only I hadn’t opened her bedroom door, I wouldn’t have uncovered her dark secrets, and my parents would still be married.  But the truth is that had nothing to do with me, and was the result of their bad decisions and choices over which I had no power.  We all have these stories inside of us that must be released.  That must be unpacked and let go of.

So stop carrying the mountain.  Unpack your backpack.  Release the weight of the past. 

Always pray to have eyes that see the best, a heart that forgives the worst, a mind that forgets the bad, and a soul that never loses faith.  

– Unknown 

Give yourself the gift of seeing the best things in your backpack.  Of forgiving the worst things that you blame yourself for.  Of forgiving the bad things that happened to you, so that you don’t carry the weight of other peoples sins inside of you.  And never lose faith that everything in your life can serve you, if you give yourself the gift of love and forgiveness.

[lp-logic ids=”3473″ limit=1][lp-logic ids=”3473″ limit=1 use_content=1] Content to use [/lp-logic]

Happy Thanksgiving

I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for becoming part of our community.  Thank you for taking the time to read our posts.  For commenting and liking them and most of all for sharing them with others.

I wanted to let you know that you have all become special to me, because through you I have realized that I am not the only one who thinks about what I write.  Thanks to you I have realized that there are many people in this world who see the possibilities that our world can become a better place.

I also wanted to take this day for helping me to be able to receive the love that you have shown to me, in encouraging me to continue to write my heart out on this page.  I always dreamed of being a writer, since I was a very small girl.  But I didn’t think that I had any talent.  I didn’t think that what I wanted to talk about, was anything that anyone would want to read.  You have no idea of the joy you have brought into my life.

Thank you!  You are a blessing in my life.  We are a blessing to each other.

Overcome Fear, Behold Wonder

In the world, in this moment, many are being overcome with fears.  Fears of the pandemic.  Fears of losing your elderly loved ones to illness and disease.  Fears can be based on past experience, of knowledge of something that has happened in the past.  This past fear is then projected into the immediate future of a danger that is seeking you.

Instead, Take a deep breath.  Just be aware and conscious of just this single moment.  This moment of inhalation or exhalation of your breath.  When you just concentrate on your breathing, you see how to live outside of this kind of fear.

In this moment, you are alive, breathing.  Your eyes are taking in what is around you.  Your ears are hearing sounds both from near and far.  You feel the softness of the material of the clothes you are wearing.  Maybe the way the tag on the collar of your shirt irritates your skin.  You think to yourself that you have to remember to use the scissors and cut that tag off.

If you have been outside, you might feel the rain drenched softness of the ground under your feet.  The soft dirt clings to the bottom of shoes as you sink into it with each step.  You smell the scent of rosemary as you walk along the path, its heady scent drifting on the breeze.  The sounds of the waves crashing down on the shore drowns out the call of the sea gulls, as they ride the air currents high above you.  You are awake and aware of the wonder of life itself.

If are in a state of fear, you won’t be aware of any of the sounds or smells of nature around you.  So, your choice in this moment is are you to be overcome with fear, or filled with wonder?

Think of those advertisements you might see for going to Disneyland or Disneyworld.  They are filled with the young children who can’t sleep because tomorrow is the special day when they enter the world of magic.  Their faces are the epitome of excitement and wonder.

When was the last time, that look was on your face?  The last time when you dropped the heavy burden of fears, and beheld the magic of life?  This photo reflects the majesty of our world, the beauty of creation and it is how you behold the wonder of life.

Remember the movie “Dune”?  The line around fear has stayed with me, Frank Herbert was a master with this thought around fear.

Fear is something that you can’t run away from.  Running away only puts more distance between you and the solution to your fear.   The only way to deal with fear, is to face the illusions that it brings.  You can only be fearless, when you learn to recognize the illusions from what is true and real.

“Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth; when perfect sincerity is expected, perfect freedom must be allowed; nor has anyone who is apt to be angry when he hears the truth, any cause to wonder that he does not hear it”  – Tacitus

Isn’t that something to wonder about?  This concept that you create the fears out of your own illusions, is something to think deeply about.  Illusions usually come from thinking that there isn’t enough of something that you want.

Not enough money, not enough jobs, not enough food, not enough of . . ,   what would happen to your fears if you could sincerely and honestly allowed a moment of perfect freedom into your world?  If you could truly believe that there is more than enough, and it is just waiting for you to step out of the illusion to get it?

I couldn’t find the person who wrote the “Reality of Fear”, but I loved it.  It captures the illusion of fear, in that it convinces you that the lie is truth.

You are scared of the dark it says, when really what you’re scared of is what you have projected into that darkness.  You can’t see in that darkness, the possibilities of what might be there.  A thief will rob you.  A killer will murder you.

Your mind freezes us with “what if’s”.  And the “what if’s” are made up in your mind.  The monster under the bed is actually the fears in your mind, manifesting the illusion into something appearing real.

Reality of Fear

You’re are not scared of the dark . . .  you’re scared of what’s in it

You’re not afraid of heights . . .  you’re afraid of falling

You’re not afraid of the people around you . . .  you’re afraid of rejection

You’re not afraid of love . . .  you’re afraid of not being loved

You’re not afraid to let go . . .  you’re afraid to accept the reality that its gone

You’re not afraid to try again . . .  you’re just afraid of getting hurt for the same reason

What if you took all of those fears and said this instead?

There Is A Dance That Only You Know How To Do

In many shamanic societies, if you came to a shaman or medicine person complaining of being depressed or dispirited, they would ask the following four questions:

When did you stop dancing?
When did you stop singing?
When did you stop being enchanted by stories?
When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence?

When I read George Carlin’s quote I thought of the above words – because the wolves being silent at the moon, and the moon howling back – this spoke to me of a wolf being dispirited and the moon howling back those questions. 

This quote by George Carlin with the wolves being silent also reminded me of a time of reflection. Being silent and going within to review the actions of the year. A time to release the baggage of the past.

And you were just like the moon, so lonely, so full of imperfections, but just like the moon, you shined in times of darkness – Unknown

Every January we think of the new year’s goals or resolutions, new dreams to grow into our lives. The things we want to accomplish or bring into our lives. In order to be ready for that contemplation, you need to create a clean slate.

A good way to do that is to examine what you set out to do last year, what happened along the way, and what you need to acknowledge and release. 

Part of what can be released is all of those dreams that didn’t happen. You can mourn and release those dreams that no longer are a part of your life, because you have outgrown them.

We all have shadows within us.  Dark places where you hide the things you don’t want to face.  Where you hide things you are ashamed of.  These things need to be brought into the light.  You need to release them, so that they can become what they were meant to be.  They are the broken bits of you, the dreams you abandoned because of someone or something that hurt you. 

You can also release any toxic relationships that have ended or need to now end.  Release the darkness.

And like the moon, she had a side of her so dark, that even the stars couldn’t shine on it; she had a side of her so cold, that even the sun couldn’t burn on it –  Abigail J

I have always thought the saying is so true, “We make plans, God laughs”. This is because you tend to make plans that you feel safe about, things you know that you can do. Those kinds of plans don’t grow you or accomplish all that you are capable of doing. So, God laughs because he will take those plans, tear them apart and rebuild them into better ones.  Those are the unanswered prayers, the dreams that won’t grow you towards your destiny.

Throughout the year you can look for those examples, where your small safe plan, was revised with divine humor into a much bigger plan.

Or it might be that because  you didn’t do a release from last year, that this year’s plans have not even got off the ground. 

Look not for the desires you have, for they are simply things that you want in your life.  Look for what your soul longs for.  What each heartbeat is sending to you, telling you that THIS IS WHY YOU ARE HERE! 

When the wolf howls at the moon, you can hear the yearning in his voice.  Give your own yearning a voice in your life.

Don’t tell me the sky’s the limit when there are footprints on the moon – Paul Brandt

So with the next full moon, you can again review, release, and restore life. Every quarter, the moon will usher in a new season.  That is a perfect time to release the old, failed, or aborted dreams, and plan anew. 

We dance for laughter,

we dance for tears,

we dance for madness,

we dance for fears,

we dance for hopes,

we dance for dreams,

we are the dancers, we create dreams.

Albert Einstein

One of my all-time favorite songs is “Moondance” by Van Morrison.  I love the summer and autumn nights of a full moon.  With a warm breeze blowing and sitting on a sandy beach, watching the moon rise over the water – there isn’t a better feeling.  You can feel the magic of the night strumming your heart strings. 

  

You Must Do The Thing You Think You Can’t Do

“The dark does not destroy the light; it defines it.  It’s our fear of the dark that casts our joy into the shadows”  –   Brene Brown

Anytime you feel like life is giving you too much to handle, that you can’t take one more thing, that is the time to step outside of the drama and trauma.  To ask yourself a very vital question.  “What is this experience awakening within me?”  You would not be going through this experience unless the divine knew it would open you up.  It is up to you to figure out what you are being opened up to.  Even the shadows have wisdom to share with you.

“Run my dear from anything that may not strengthen your precious, budding wings.  Run like hell my dear, from anyone likely to put a sharp knife into the sacred tender vision of your beautiful heart” – Hafiz

When you come up against your secret deepest fears.  When fear is invading your body and flaying you alive.  That is when it is vital that you have the courage to be willing to fall.  It is in the surrender to “I am failing”; when your heart is torn and beaten; that is how you find out how far you can rise up.

It is in the “let go and let God”, in the surrender to the divine will or destiny.  That is when everything changes.  Until then you are in a fight inside of, and with yourself.

Facing your fears is like walking through a crowded room with all of these shadows of people.  They seem to have substance, reality.  They are talking, but their whispers fade away as you try to listen.  They appear to be making perfect arguments, and logical deductions.  Yet they are simply shadows, and they disappear as you put one foot in front of the other and simply walk through them.

“Courage is more exhilarating than fear, and in the long run it is easier.  We do not have to become heroes overnight.  Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down” – Eleanor Roosevelt

They have no substance, because they are based on projections of what “might” happen.  When you take the time to face them and shine a light upon them, they fade away.  The truth is that you’re worrying about what might happen, can’t change or alter what tomorrow brings. What it does, is to make your today heart breaking.  It isn’t failure that you should be afraid of.  It is doing nothing and having nothing change in your life that is truly heart breaking.

There is a Swedish Proverb that says, “Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow”.  Worry stops you from making the right choices.  It stops you from being the brilliant, funny, entertaining “light up my life” person that you are meant to be.  It bleeds away your courage to get up and take action.  It drains you, instead of fueling your passion to get stuff done.

“Ask yourself if you’re certain – do you really want it?  When you’re certain, desire will transform you into a racehorse, explosive at the gate.  When you’re certain, details and obstacles will noticeably shrink, and crumble away.  Excuses will die, ecstatic determination will strengthen your drive, and the sheer power of intent will rattle your lands and skies.  Are you truly certain?  Then call it out.  Claim it as yours.  Do what you need to do each and every day, to let it know you’re ready, you can see it, and that you’re on your way.  Now is the time.  Your dream patiently awaits” – Victoria Erickson

When you are courageous you spark the souls of others and ignite the bravery in them.  That is why you love to read the stories of those who conquer their fears.  It lights up the coals inside of you that are in danger of going out.  It re-ignites you to push forward once more.

The moon calls to the tides, beckoning the waves to reach the shore and having gently kissed the sand, they return to the depths.  To release what no longer serves the ocean to the shoreline.  The shoreline makes space for something new that is coming in on the tides.

When I am moving towards my own passion and purpose in life, my purpose in life moves towards me.  Like the ocean waves entering and leaving, my passion and purpose ebbs and flows.  Courage is the foundation on which fears can be met.

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.  You must do the thing which you think you cannot do” – Eleanor Roosevelt

This foundation helps you to take the risk of leaping forward, even though you don’t know where you will land.  It is the foundation that helps you to be compassionate with yourself when you have the rough landing that breaks you into pieces.  It gives you the strength to put yourself back together again, and venture forth one more time.

You must dare to live a life that is more than just a daily existence.  To understand that sometimes in order for something new to come into existence, fire is required to crack the old hard shell of your life.  You can then see the potential of who, and what you are.  You can see what you can accomplish, only if you keep trying.

“Becoming fearless isn’t the point.  That’s impossible.  It’s learning how to control your fear, and how to be free from it” – Veronica Roth, Divergent

You all have these wonderful talents, these personal geniuses that are just waiting for you to have the courage to follow them down the trail of mastery. It is in risking the fire, stepping across the threshold into the unknown, that is when you discover your true voice.

“Faith is the strength by which a shattered world, shall emerge into the light” – Helen Keller

What are your dreams, visions, your life purpose? Are you on track to bring them into reality and complete them? Have you allowed distractions to sidetrack you? Are you unclear on what your life purpose is or how to bring it into reality?