Rescue Dogs
Wilma Melville is a retired PE Teacher. When she retired, she decided to reinvent herself with a 2nd career. She learned how to train rescue dogs. When she was called to help with the bombing in Oklahoma, she discovered that there was a shortage of rescue dogs.
She said, “I can do something about this.” So she started adopting abandoned shelter dogs and training them to have a second career as rescue dogs. In her 80’s now, she has trained over 100 dogs that were abandoned by their owners to be rescue dogs. Just imagine how many lives she has changed by giving these dogs a second chance and training them to search and rescue.
I love what she says, “there is no end to what a dog can teach you.”
It is so amazing what technology can do
It is so amazing what technology can do. Kathy Beitz has been legally blind since she was 11 years old. She has a genetic form of macular degeneration, so I would think that these glasses would enable seniors who suffer from this to be able to see again.
They didn’t go into detail as to how much light and shadow she sees, but they did say it was the first baby she has seen. What an amazing gift to be able to see her son in detail.
New Year always brings the thoughts of a new you.
New Year always brings the thoughts of a new you.
Transformation gives you the chance to rewrite the story of who you are and who you are capable of being. There are many things in our life that we give negative meanings to. But what if you gave pain the definition that it shows you that which is not for you? This would be a positive thing to know – what doesn’t belong to me or my life. Envy is another word that has a bad rap. What if envy simply shows you things which you may wish to empower in your life? That would be a great thing to know – things I want in my life and can empower myself to obtain.
The being that is forming in the cocoon is no longer a caterpillar. For the caterpillar the past is truly a place of reference. It can no longer live there, because that body is gone. Within the cocoon the caterpillars body literally melted into goo, and then formed a totally new body. As the butterfly’s body grows into its new shape, it becomes cramped as the wings want to expand out. It isn’t a place of residence for the butterfly, so it has to break loose and spread it’s wings and find a new home.
Mary Oliver said, “I tell you this to break your heart, by which I mean only that it break open and never close again to the rest of the world.” The butterfly had to break out of the old place of residence and begin a brand new journey, where everything is experienced for the first time. It must break open its heart to begin this journey, because it has to trust its intuition for flying, for finding food, for making a new home. Literally everything for the butterfly is a brand new experience.
Transformation is a scary business. Because I am a perfectionist, I hate doing something new for the first time. I am doing the best I can with my posts, knowing that I will have spelling errors or grammar mistakes in my writing. I can proofread this a dozen times and the minute I publish I find something I missed. When I sponsor the post, I can’t make any changes, so anything I missed becomes a permanent part of the post. I am living with being imperfect in order to just get the post out there.
Steve Jobs said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. “
"Hug Lady"
Known as the “Hug Lady” around Fort Hood, Texas, the 83-year-old has made it her mission to hug every service member leaving for war or coming home from deployment. For 12 years she’s been a fixture at the airport whenever planes are arriving or departing filled with troops.
Her routine was disrupted this fall when the breast cancer she’s been fighting since 2005 finally sent her to the hospital.
When word of her illness got out, the Metroplex Hospital in Killeen, Texas was suddenly invaded with service members storming in to hug Laird and to let her know they have her back in the fight against cancer.
They’ve also donated much of the nearly $93,000 raised in a GoFundMe campaign to cover any of the co-pays or deductibles from the “Hug Lady’s” medical bills.
Laird was released from the hospital November 20, and she’s getting back on her feet. She says she has to get back to work.
“Got flights coming up,” she told one of her visitors while in the hospital. “Got to get out and hug you.”
Purpose
“Love is the bridge between you and everything that you desire.” Rumi. We all came into this world to learn, to experience what life is about, and leave a legacy.
Tonight I saw the new Tom Hanks movie, Bridge of Spies. I found it very interesting how he was able to stick to what he knew to be right, even when it endangered his life and that of his family. He didn’t take anyone’s word for “you did what you could, cut your losses and accept what is left”.
Because he was a man of high integrity and morals, he was able to do what no one else could do. While he couldn’t prevent the guilty verdict for his client (he was guilty), he was able to maneuver the judge into a prison sentence instead of the death penalty. Then when his prediction came true about needing him for a future hostage negotiation, he was able to negotiate the return of an American pilot. And when destiny threw in a twist, he negotiated a second hostage return – a two for one, thereby freeing the innocent college student who got caught behind the Berlin Wall.
Because he was so driven to make the negotiations work, and stuck with it to force what he felt was the right thing to do, he ended up becoming a hostage negotiator with President Kennedy. He was able to free over 1,900 hostages from Cuba, during the Cuban missile crisis and Bay of Pigs.
We are all here for a purpose, some small purposes and others world changing. HIs, was a world changing purpose, as he was able to impact hundreds of lives. Our purpose may or may not impact so many lives, but I believe that each one of us has that possibility. The possibility to ask the divine why we are here. To listen to the whispers of our heart, and the calling of our soul. To hear in our dreams the secrets that tell us why we are here.
That is what the light in our heart is. It is the seed that is waiting for us to plant it. To water and nurture it as it grows into our reason for being here. To dig down into the roots of what we are growing and see the unfolding truth of our own myth.
Each morning is an opportunity to become that which you have been looking for. Stop looking and start becoming. Allow your legacy to shine out, no matter the cost. Shine the light of your heart, on the pathway of love. That is the true bridge to help both ourselves and those around us find our way home.
Treasure
Joyce Meyer said “all of us have gold hidden within, but we have to dig to get it out.” When I was 4 years old I went through a trauma that said it wasn’t safe to be seen or heard. I then spent most of my adult life trying to figure out why I always seemed to have one foot on the gas, and one foot on the brake. Most of us experienced something in our early childhood, from conception through the 5th year or so, that became a unconscious program running in the background of our decision making process.
I went for professional help because I had buried the memory and could remember nothing until I went to school with the first grade. Once I uncovered the memory, I could see how this one experience had impacted my entire life.
We all have these buried treasures that we were gifted with to share with the world. They must be dug up, polished up, and shared. It is these treasures which will shift the world to a better place for all of us. I write to share my treasures with everyone. I am working very hard to help the nonprofits be able to share their treasures with the world.
Elizabeth Gilbert in her book “Big Magic” called this “strange jewels” which are buried within us, waiting to be uncovered. She went on to say, “You have extraordinary treasures hidden within you. Bringing forth those treasures takes work and faith and focus and courage and hours of devotion.”
Most of us spend our lives looking outside of ourselves for fulfillment. If we are the perfect child, the perfect student, the perfect spouse or parent, or the perfect employee, then we will be fulfilled. Nothing outside of ourselves can really provide long lasting validation, security or love. We can get temporary fixes which fail, and then we are on our way to the next partner, or job. Or we condemn ourselves as failures and stop seeking any kind of love, security or fulfillment.
The great religious leaders recognize the truth of this. Pope Francis said “We are all jars of clay, fragile and poor, yet we carry within us an immense treasure.” Joel Osteen recognized the truth that the love of ourselves is how we bring this treasure out into the world. He said, “If you don’t love yourself in the right way, you can’t love your neighbor. You can’t be as good as you are supposed to be.”
The Founder of Agape International Spiritual Center, Michael Beckwith took it a step farther when he said, “We are on the planet to …, wrap our consciousness around the divine treasure within us.”
We all have these treasure maps inside of us, which lead us to the divine treasure of love. Love of Self, Love of God and Family, Love of the World. We are all diamonds in the rough, and the journey through this divine love reveals the beauty of the diamond within us.
“I Love Us.”
Strong Women
Strong women know that sometimes we just need to sit with the questions until a direction is clearly revealed.
Strong women can sit with another woman in the silence without needing to say anything to break the tension.
Strong women know that when another woman is venting she doesn’t want anything to be fixed, she just needs someone there to witness the removal of the splinter that is causing her pain.
Strong women know that they must make their own light. And if as it sometimes happens that their light goes out, another sister will be there to share hers, until we are strong enough to relight our own.
Strong women know that when the light goes out, we are facing the day, when we question everything. When something so tragic happens that all of our foundations crash into dust.
This is the day when we all circle around our sister as she faces her crisis of faith and reveals the doubts which will birth a new creation. This is the day when we nurture her. When each sister holds the soul of the other and whispers the words of transformation.
This is the day of transformation which strips away the old way of being. No longer trying to be what others want us to be, we accept “us” without reservations or restrictions.
We value who we are, no matter what anyone else thinks.
We forgive ourselves completely.
We trust ourselves wholeheartedly.
We are brave enough to love ourselves just as we are, perfectly imperfect.
We empower ourselves to fully embrace our intuition.
We begin to live our life being the wonderful creation we are.
The Women of Saudi Arabia
On December 12, the women of Saudi Arabia pulled off two amazing accomplishments.
They exercised their right to vote for the first time in the country’s history—despite Saudi’s Grand Mufti, the most senior religious official, declaring that female involvement in politics was “opening the door to evil.”
Princess Reema Al-Saud said, “It’s a very proud moment to be a Saudi woman because today we voted and we stood together for something that’s positive for all of us with the support of our whole community. This is a big moment for all of us.”
Then over 13,000 women walked through the doors to partake in an eight-hour event featuring food, carnival games, spinning, and Zumba classes, and on-site screenings and surveys for mental health, breast cancer, diabetes, and osteoporosis.
At around 6:15 p.m., Al-Saud and her team started the ribbon formation process. An hour and a half later, with thousands of women in formation, the speakers in the arena blew out and the giant video screen froze, delaying the Guinness judging by 25 minutes. Ultimately, the judges counted 8,246 women in their uniform pink head scarves—beating the previous record set in India by nearly 1,400 heads. (The event’s 1,900 female volunteers, plus the all-female food vendors, artisans, education specialists from the various ministries, and first aid and cleaning staff were not eligible to be counted.)
In addition to gathering a record number of women together to raise awareness, the event generated 1.5 million riyals (about the equivalent of $400,000) for the Zahra Breast Cancer Association.
SPC Brown & Rocky
This photo has gone viral on social media. I love that they were both able to remain in the same hospital room while receiving treatment. I think that it is special that the doctors and hospital recognized the bond they both have, and how they could both support each other.
SPC Brown and Rocky are both doing well after being treated for injuries they suffered from an IED blast earlier this week while searching a structure in support of ongoing operations in Afghanistan.
They are both very thankful for your thoughts and prayers and are in the process of heading back home. SPC Brown arrived early this morning to Walter Reed where he was met by his waiting family, and Rocky is expected to return to Fort Hood in the coming weeks. Please remember them, as well as all our Soldiers deployed around the world, during the holiday season. Proven in Battle!
Cats & Curiosity
Cats are the most curious creatures. They creep up on something and watch it so intently. They want to touch and experience everything. They live life as a big adventure. We need to be more like cats.
Einstein said “the important thing is not to stop questioning,… Never lose a holy curiosity.” Curiosity is the tool that can be used to open any door. It is the key to the lock. The starting point. It is the only way to enter the journey to self awareness.
Curiosity keeps us engaged. Like adventurers we discover new worlds and possibilities. We see things we never noticed before. Looking beneath the surface, entire new worlds and ideas open up before us.
Like a charging station curiosity gives us energy by bringing excitement into our lives. We spend energy being curious and exploring, and at the same time we are renewed by what we discover. It is like the infinity symbol going around and around and never ending. Each discovery leads us to another “what else is possible?”
Being curious requires that we have an open mind. That we be open to not only learning something new, but also to unlearning what we have outgrown. We also need to be open to relearning about things we thought we understood, but which take on new meanings as we dig deeper into them.
Creating a life filled with happiness and love starts with curiosity and self awareness – asking the right questions and not being afraid of the answers. Being 100% honest with ourselves, will produce insight into not only the problem that presents itself, but the solution that comes from a new perspective.
I find personally that this is where the hard part comes, making a decision to put the solution into action and just doing it. Making the positive change usually means both stopping a practice and starting a new practice.
This is where you change a “should” into a “must”. If you just think or say, “I should do this or that” nothing will happen. The should has to turn into a must, which has a vibration of action embedded into it.
The “should” is like the lazy dream that never goes anywhere. The “must” is like the emergency vehicle speeding down the road with lights flashing and sirens wailing. Everyone gets out of the way, because you are on a mission that can’t be stopped.
Amelia Earhart said “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.”
Giving Back
Mandie Barnes organized an amazing event to give back to the homeless. She had heard about someone in NY doing something similar and reached out to every stylist she could find to come help her.
They had Chic Fil A, Texas Road House, and Great Harvest donate food, they had hats and socks, and all supplies were donated to the hairstylist who were donating their time.
One man said it made him feel human again – Thanks to everyone who tries to make people feel good about themselves!
New Years Eve
On New Years Eve, my nephew got married in Bullhead City, AZ. We stayed in Laughlin, NV and then went to St George to see my Aunt. We came home Saturday the 2nd, leaving around 1:00 PM and driving back to LA was a nightmare. I foolishly thought that leaving on Saturday would be escaping the crawling traffic on Sunday. The six hour drive took nine hours and would have probably been more if I hadn’t cut off at Highway 58 and cut across to I-5 that way and then down to 118 and home.
I share this because when you are in solid bumper to bumper traffic people seem to lose any manners that they might have had. People were driving on the shoulders, driving alongside the road on the desert, they were cutting people off, honking horns and of course the hand gestures. Every once in awhile I would have to take a deep centering breath because I could feel the frustration, anger, anxiety coming into my car from the people surrounding us. Music has a way of soothing the soul when you are in these types of tense feeling situations.
The other quote I loved and considered for this post was, “music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it a rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul.” I went with Plato because of “wings to the mind” and “flight to the imagination”. I love the visuals I get with the words, wings and flight.
The beats in a song are like the heart beating. A steady comforting sound. We hear the beating of our moms heart at conception. We put our ears against our lovers chest and hear the beating of their heart. It is life pumping through our body and soul until the last heartbeat echos off in the distance, and we return to our heavenly father.
There is also a rhythm to music and to beating of the heart. There is even a genre of music called “soul music”. It is a mixture of gospel and rhythm and blues music. It draws your body to move with the music. You might start dancing or clapping your hands, you just have to participate with your body.
When words fail us, music can still transport us up the vibrational scale from the depths of despair back into the nirvana of the soul, where beauty, joy and happiness live. It fills in the emptiness that we feel in our soul and like a string draws the soul up towards the light.
Martin Luther called music, “the art of the prophets” and said “it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us.” Music transcends generations of men. It lives on long after the composer has left the earthly realm. It doesn’t require to be translated like words into one’s own language but exists in all languages.
Think about the musical scores to the movie soundtracks. You can hear the music and your mind will take you directly to the scene in the movie that it applies to. It creates a wide range of emotional responses when you are watching a movie. You can be in another room and practically describe what must be happening in the movie based on the music that you hear. You can tell someone is experiencing great joy and happiness, that someone is dying or has died, that the climax of an action scene is happening, etc…., it can induce goosebumps, tears of both sadness and happiness, and joyous laughter.
It has even been said that “music is the prayer that the heart sings.” I know that there have been many times in my life that music was my only escape from the problems I was experiencing. It allowed me to regroup, put myself back together emotionally and go back into life feeling like things would be ok.
Years ago when my children were young, I would put on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and clean my house. It made the housework go so much faster and not seem like such a chore. So whatever is going on with your life, just know that there is some music to go along with it, or to transport you away from it. You can go into deep meditation or get your party started and rock out your soul!