Unexplored Possibilities Are Waiting For You To Release Them

“Limitations live only in our minds.  But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless” – Jamie Paolinetti

Possibilities are like rabbits.  The more you think about them, the more they multiply.  Pretty soon you have a field full of them.  The trick is to turn them into probabilities.  Probabilities are a guide to enlightenment, in the journey of life.

It is the secret of how the Phoenix arises from the ashes and is reborn.  The Phoenix has coded in its DNA the belief of triumph over impossible odds.  So even when defeated, it rises once more from the ashes to achieve the impossible.

Imagination is like turning on the faucet.  When you start imagining the possibilities, the water gets turned on and you start getting ideas.

The trick is to just start writing them down.  No judgement or editing or being critical.  Just put them down on paper, idea after idea.  Possibility after possibility.

Once you have wrung every last drop out of your faucet, then you start looking at each possibility and see how many of them can grow into a probability.

That is how the miracles are born.  It is looking for the one thing that leaps off the page, no matter how impossible it seems.  That is the one, the one that your inner guidance is calling out for.  That is the one that causes the Phoenix to rise up from the ashes.  Do not allow the critical, judgmental thinking to chain it from taking flight.

“Possibilities and miracles mean the same thing” – Prentice Mulford

So where does that critical judgmental thinking come from?  It comes from your own insecurities.  From every unkind word you have heard.   From every well-meaning person who said, “Oh no honey, you can’t do that”, girls aren’t good at sports, math, or science.  Or boys don’t playhouse or with dolls.  From every time you tried something, failed and walked away.  From every time you said you would do something and didn’t.

All of those negative experiences pile up in your mind and become these critical judgmental thinking machines.  They promise you safety, that you won’t get hurt if you listen to them, but in reality, they are the bars of a prison of your own making.

The trick is to not believe the magician with his sleight of hand tricks. Not becoming attached to those negative beliefs.  They can become chains linked to an anchor that you drag around.  Your imaginations can’t take flight with chains connected to an anchor keeping you bound to the earth.  You need to release all of those negative, judgmental thoughts, as they do not serve you.

They are limitations, illusions of the magician.  He tells you that if you leave his stage, you will be in darkness, no longer in the protection of his light.  If you build barricades from his illusions of danger, they will leave you exposed to having lived an “unlived” life.  A life lived without passion and purpose.  A life that doesn’t fulfill your divine destiny.

“Breathe in the sweet air of limitless possibility, and make life as rich as you know it can be” – Ralph Marston

 

Probability of Success

I won’t – 0%

I can’t – 10%

I don’t know how – 20%

I wish I could – 30%

I want to – 40%

I think I might – 50%

I might – 60%

I think I can – 70%

I can – 80%

I am – 90%

I did – 100%

Increase your chances of success by saying “I can, I am, and I did”.  What if you stopped saying, “I wish I could” and instead said, “Guess what I did today?”

We at LemonadeMakers would love to hear your stories.  Drop us an IM and share both your successes and not so successful stories.  And as always, let us know if we can assist you in burning those insecurities.  We love a good bonfire!

Silence Is The Space Between The Words, The Inner Sanctuary Of The Heart

When tragedy strikes someone that we love, we all have this tendency to want to fix it. That if we just had the perfect words to say, or the right thing to do, we could make it all better.

But grief is a walk alone.  Others can be there, and listen.  But you will walk alone down your own path, at your own pace, with your sheared-off pain, your raw wounds, your denial, anger, and bitter loss.  You’ll come to your own peace, hopefully . . . but it will be on your own, in your own time.

– Cathy Lamb

When I was younger they had these commercials for both band-aids and children’s aspirin. In the band-aid commercial the mom puts a band-aid on the little boys scrape, kisses it and he is smiling and his pain is gone. In the baby aspirin the pill magically makes the child feel better. Unfortunately, in real life, we can’t always “kiss it and make it better.”

What we can do is be there with a hug and a listening ear. Let them vent their anger, cry out their sadness, and get a release for the overpowering emotions.

The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing . . . not healing, not curing . . . that is a friend who cares.

  – Henri Nouwen

When my nephew was killed, my sister was so strong. Making all of the funeral arrangements, who would speak at the service, what songs would be sung, renting the ballroom at the boardwalk – she went all out and was so together. She spoke at the funeral of the over seven years trying to get pregnant because her endometriosis was so bad. How when he was born, the cord was around his neck several times and she had to have an emergency C-section. All the years of loving him, and what he gift he was to her life. She told these stories and not one tear or breakdown. She hugged everyone at the memorial and not one breakdown. I don’t think that I could have done what I saw her do.

Later that night, all of the busyness of the funeral was done, then she broke down. All I could do was hold her. Tell her I loved her. That I was there for her. It was the first time, I couldn’t “kiss it and make it all better.” It has been several years of holding her and loving her, but she has come out the other end of a dark tunnel.

The reality is that you will grieve forever.  You will not “get over” the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it.  You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered.  You will be whole again but you will never be the same.  Nor should you be the same, nor would you want to.

  – Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

There comes a time when the healing happens. It doesn’t mean that you no longer miss what has been taken from you, just that it no longer controls your life. Each of us handles grief differently. We shouldn’t judge another person by how they handle it or expect them to “be better faster.”

No rule book.  No time frame.  No judgement.  Grief is as individual as a fingerprint.  Do what is right for your soul.

  _ Hw

We can look with fresh eyes at the beauty that still exists in our world. We can walk step by step in the arms of loved ones, knowing that when we stumble in the darkness of grief, they will put the light of hope in our hearts, that things will get easier.

Healing comes when we choose to walk away from darkness and move towards a brighter light.

  – Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Listening to the silence of the night, we can open our hearts and ears to the sounds of the universe. If we just be in the present moment, we can hear beautiful songs we have never heard before. The night insects, like crickets will sing to us. We can hear the night birds, like the owl tells us a story. We can be serenaded by the croaking of the frogs. Never stop listening for the messages from the creator, because these messages will be a balm to our hearts, helping us to heal.

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Live Your Truth, And Don’t Let Any Obstacle Get In Your Way

Years ago I was a loan processor for a company in Seattle.  I worked for a branch in an area called South Center, which was next to a shopping mall.  Most of the people there smoked and they would be out front every hour smoking a cigarette.  It worked out that they spent 10-15 minutes of every hour, out front smoking.  I didn’t smoke, and I didn’t feel right about spending “working” hours I got paid for, standing out front while everyone else smoked.

They gave me a bad time for the first few months I worked there and then gave up trying to convince me to be part of the crowd.  You have a moral code, you may have a very strict code, or not so strict.  To be other than average, you need to work hard to excel and be a master of your craft.  Spending 15 minutes of every hour for 8 hours means that you are working  only 6 hours.  A lot of work can be accomplished in those two hours.  Or you could just sit back and be average standing out front with the smokers – the choice is always yours to make.

“The only way to discover our true potential, is to clear out the clutter and focus on what matters”  – Unknown

Thinking back to that rock climber, each hand hold and each foot hold gets her closer to the top.  Her focus is solely on getting her to the top.  She isn’t thinking about the climb down, or the ride home, or going to work on Monday.  Every decision you make should be all about moving you one step closer to just today’s goals.  You don’t focus on the past or the future, just the next move for today.

“Each day, focus your attention on what you want.  Each day, take one step that will bring your closer to it.  All things are possible!  The key is to identify it, claim it for yourself, and believe that you are worthy to have it” – Iyanla Vanzant

Passion Changes Everything

The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.

  – Mark Twain

Finding your passion isn’t just about a dream job for your career, or about being wealthy.  It is about finding your authentic self.  It is about having a meaningful life, with both spirituality and community weaved together.  This authentic life is your life propose.  The surest way to find your life purpose is to follow where your passion leads you.  When you find it and align everything in your life with it, that is when your eyes light up, and your heart sings with joy.  You literally fill up your soul with light and shine brightly from within. This is your calling, given to you by the divine. It is the difference between really living and just existing.

Always go with your passions.  Never ask yourself if it is realistic or not. 

  – Deepak Chopra

When you are in alignment with your purpose, passion creates a calmness within the heart, so that no matter what the madness and chaos that is happening around us, we are at peace.  When you embrace your authentic self, you have no competition.  When you focus on your passion and fulfilling your purpose, the doors of opportunity swing wide open.  Creativity seems to pour out of your soul.  Ideas pop into your head.  You see so many possibilities that your like a kid in a candy store and you can’t decide which one to taste first.

Have the courage to follow the things that you are naturally drawn to. Pupose is the reason you journey, walking the path towards insight pulls you forward.  Passion is the fire that lights the way, and keeps you going on the dark and stormy nights.   I think of Jane Goodall, who has lived her whole life for monkeys.  I don’t understand her passion for them, but you can see it.  What I can understand,  is having that kind of passion.  I have it, for LemonadeMakers.  It is your job, your responsibility, your calling, to let the world know why you are here.  The world needs people who have come alive with passion.

Curiosity only does one thing, and that is to give.  And what it gives you are clues on the incredible scavenger hunt of your life.

  – Elizabeth Gilbert

We find happiness by being driven by this curiosity, because it causes us to ask questions that we would never think to ask.  It causes us to look in strange places for answers to the questions and make connections.  The connections might seem strange, yet they fit perfectly to what is happening in our lives. Each one a clue to the next place to look, the next discovery to make.  We get so excited about what we are discovering that our friends and relatives look at us as though we have gone over the deep end of the pool.

One of the oldest and most generous tricks that the universe plays on human beings is to bury strange jewels within us all. And then stand back to see if we can ever find them. 

–   Elizabeth Gilbert

It is looking in the strange places that we find clues to what we are capable of in our lives.  We see how everything in our past is connected.  We can see the dots being connected.  The main path we are walking, with all of the side roads winding through the woods.  We see how each  served a purpose, even though we did not connect the dots until years later.  But each jewel we discover is required to have the complete set of our string of pearls, which is our life.

You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage – pleasantly, smiling, non-apologetically – to say “no” to other things.  And the way to do that is by having a bigger “yes” burning inside. 

  – Stephen Covey

You have to peel off the masks of social conditioning that say you must meet the needs of others, before your own.  That what you need and desire, is as important.  In fact, will be fatal to your soul if you don’t pursue it. You must become what you are seeking.  It needs to seep deep into your pores, become part of your cells.  Live and breathe your dream.

Do you remember having a favorite article of clothing that you loved to wear?  It might have been when you were a child, and you wanted to wear it every day, and your mom would argue with you to choose something different.  But you only wanted to wear that particular outfit.  So you would pitch a fit until she gave in, or maybe you snuck it out of the house and changed and wore it anyway.  Wear your passion like that.  Be a rebel.

You’ll learn as you get older that rules are made to be broken.  Be bold enough to live life on your own terms, and never ever apologize for it.  Go against the grain, refuse to conform, take the road less traveled instead of the well beaten path.  Laugh in the face of adversity, and leap before you look.  Dance as though everyone is watching.  March to the beat of your own drummer.  And stubbornly refuse to fit it. 

  – Mandy Hale

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Your Struggle Today, Gives You Strength For Tomorrow

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It is human to be scared of taking risks.  If I was on this rock wall, I would be terrified.  Being scared is recognition of a choice.  A choice to stay safe on the safe ground called your “Comfort Zone”, or to do something really, really brave.  Comfort Zone’s create boundaries . . . , essentially prison walls where you feel enclosed and safe.  But here is the thing about the boundaries and walls – they don’t let the fresh air in.  They stifle life and smother you. 

The thing about being BRAVE is it doesn’t come with the absence of fear and hurt.  Bravery is the ability to look fear and hurt in the face and say move aside, you are in the way. 

  – Melissa Tumine

Inspiration is the breath of God.  Being inspired, is life giving . . . , breathing Gods spirit deep into your soul.  When we cross those boundaries of the comfort zone we soar . . . , flying we chase the wind, and touch the sky.  This happens because our soul feels the prison bars bend and break when we courageously break out of the comfort zone.  Can you remember the “first” times in your life?  Your first step?  Your first graded “A+” paper?  When you road your bike without training wheels for the first time?  Your first kiss?  The first day at your first job?  Your first child being born?  Your first grandchild?  Think about how your heart swells and bursts wide open.  How you want to shout out to the world “Look at me!  I did it!”.  You don’t walk on the floor, you float.  That is the feeling of inspiration, the breath of God.  When was the last time you felt that?  If it has been awhile, what could you do now, today, this week – what could you do for the first time that would make your heart beat fearlessly? 

Sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage and something good will come of it. 

  – Benjamin Mee

To put that into perspective, Bull Riding Championships are called an “8 second ride”.  So 20 seconds can seem like forever, where you are doing something like that, it makes your heart pound.  Have you ever did something and then said, “Oh my God what did I just say yes to?”  Your destiny is deep within you.  You have hidden it.  You have to be brave enough to set it free.  You hid it because it scared you. It meant that you were different.  That you would be judged.  That some people would walk away from you.  Most of us don’t even see the full extent of our destiny.  We got scared just by seeing the outline of it.  You put limitations around it to cage it so that it didn’t escape.  Don’t do that to yourself.  Take the risk of letting it expand to its full glory. 

Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.  They somehow already know what you truly want to become. 

 – Steve Jobs

Another kind of courage is not allowing anyone else to control who you are . . . , what you believe . . . , and what actions you choose to take in your life. 

Each time a person stands for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, they send a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and résistance.

  – Robert Kennedy

Taking a stand for yourself, for someone else is always scary.  But what is so interesting is that if you were to see into the minds of a crowd watching a bully, most of the crowd will not agree with what is happening.  They are all waiting for someone to take a stand.  And once someone does take a stand, others in the crowd will join with them.  They are just not brave enough to be the first person. 

A totally different kind of courage is standing up to your own friends, your family, your tribe. 

It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends. 

  – Dumbledore, Harry Potter

These are people who you want to accept you, to love you.  When you take a risk, that they are all telling you not to take, it feels like they are no longer your friends.  You counted on their support and they withdrew it.  As you travel down the path from who you are now, to who you think you can be, what you discover is that some friends will be left behind.  Some friends may not understand, but they will still love and support you.  You will also make some new friends who will join you on your journey.  When you accept the responsibility for what is in your life currently, you are granted the power to change your life.  Courage is letting go of what can’t be changed . . . , and the waking up to what can be.

The brave men did not kill the dragons.  The brave men rode them. 

  – Game of Thrones

I love this!  First of all I have always had an affinity with dragons.  My personal dragons were imprisoned when I was young, because when I would get mad, my words would flame out of my mouth and burn people up.  So I pushed the dragon deep down, so that no one would get hurt.  When I finally released the dragon, I realized it was just protecting me from harm.  So we learned together what was really harmful, and what wasn’t.  We tamed the dragon flames.  My dragon gives me both the freedom to be me, and the bravery to fight when I need to . 

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. 

  – Ambrose Redmoon

I always hated how fairy tales painted dragons as the bad thing that must be destroyed.  Fear most of the time is a story that we tell ourselves.  So to have courage, to be brave, we just have to tell ourselves a different story. That crossing the boundaries doesn’t have to be scary.  That the feeling we get in our stomach doesn’t have to be fear, it can be anticipation.

At the edges of ancient maps they had “Beyond this place there be dragons” as a warning to not cross out of the boundary of the known world.  The best part of any journey is all of the wild stuff that happens along our path, as we strike out past the boundaries.  Be brave and go past the edge of the map, find the dragons and ride them.. 

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You Were Born With Wings…, Use Them And Fly

“Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is knowing the difference between right and almost right” – Charles Spurgeon

This is such an interesting quote.  It is easy to tell what is right and wrong in most cases.  So many things are literally black and white morally or ethically.  It is the right, and the almost right – that tricky gray area that gets you into predicaments. 

The mix-up that you may have seen at the academy awards is a small example of this principle.  Warren Beatty saw the card, read it a couple of times, and in his gut knew that something wasn’t right.  But he let his head override his intuition.  And the result was a mix up that certainly wasn’t his fault, but which he contributed to because he felt that he couldn’t interrupt the show to confirm his suspicions. 

How many times in your life, have you second guessed something?  Knew that something wasn’t quite right, but allowed your mind to convince you to go ahead?

One of the hardest things to do, is to identify the true nature of your spirit . . ., to know when you are losing your center and how to find it again. When the whole world seems to be literally falling apart, it is so easy to let the chaos around you take you off center. 

“When you find your path, you must not be afraid. You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes. Disappointment, defeat, and despair are the tools God uses to show us the way” – Paulo Coelho

When you are trying to live a conscious life; to live to your full potential, you have to exercise extreme caution.  It is imperative to have those little alarm bells ringing, when you go off course. 

“So, it is more useful to watch a man in times of peril, and in adversity to discern what kind of man he is; for then at last works of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask is torn off, reality remains” – Lucretius

You could be moving along, with everything in life going perfectly.  You are in the flow or zone, and it almost feels like life is finally going right where you want it to go.  You got the new job or promotion . . ., family life is moving smoothly . . ., your home is finally decorated perfectly . . ., then a ball drops.  It could be a health issue, or your spouse could ask for a divorce out of the blue, something strikes out at you and turns you off center. 

It is the flash point of wisdom to see things from the viewpoint of the heart and soul . . ., to be able to see what is both true and lasting, from what is not.  With every season in your life, there is a shift and a change.  A moving forward in your journey along the path you have chosen.  To transforming in line with what has been shifting and changing around you.  

“The difficulties you meet will resolve themselves as you advance. Proceed, and light will dawn, and shine with increasing clearness on your path”– Jim Rohn

It takes discernment to see what direction your life path is taking you.  You will need to constantly re-determine what is still valid in your life.  It becomes time to do some interior house cleaning.  To release what no longer fits in your life – things you have outgrown and no longer serve any useful benefit. What items shift with you, versus what you have moved beyond.  What needs to be left behind?

“We have to be the women we want our daughters to be” – Brene Brown

Just remember, as you are taking stock of your life – you will never have to sacrifice your dignity, for your destiny.  Whenever someone or something makes you feel that way, it is time to leave that mess behind you too.  Walk away . . ., breathe and let it go . . ., and reconnect to your center. 

Discernment refreshes your soul.  Discernment helps you to understand the deeper reasons of why things happen.  The power of spiritual perception into deeper meanings, the ability to tell what is actually going on.  Don’t let fear choose your destiny.  There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.  Recognize inconsistencies, the half-truths, the misapplied truths, or false truths – what is genuine versus self-deception. 

Playing chess teaches you discernment.  You learn how to plan out your moves ahead of time.  See how each possible move affects your game.  You learn to sift and identify what appears to be a good move, but in reality, is a bad move.  To see when a move will put you into a possible trap later in the game. 

You have the innate power to shape and change your life by tearing off the mask of half-truths and self-deception.  To draw down into the depths of your heart, to who you are meant to be.  Your life has immeasurable potentiality for greatness.

“Discernment is a light of protection and direction in a world that grows increasingly dark” – Elder Bednar

Discernment is saying the right thing in the perfect moment and biting your tongue to not say the wrong thing at this most tempting moment.  To realize that sarcasm and scathing remarks do not serve your purpose, no matter how much you want to put someone in their place.  Instead of feeding the fire, you learn how to use it to your advantage. 

“Align yourself with people that you can learn from, people who want more out of life, people who are stretching and searching and seeking higher ground in life” – Les Brown

It doesn’t mean that you are not going to make mistakes.  We are all imperfect.  But you can look at your imperfections and know that true wisdom is the acknowledgement of them. You can live a life of integrity. 

Let people be inspired by that fact that even though you don’t have all of the answers, you are still willing to get up every morning and do the best job you can.  Instead of saying “I can’t because . . ., ” say, “there are endless possibilities in front of me and if this path doesn’t take me where I want to go, I know that another one will show up that will”. 

Show your social circle that living a life of integrity is how you find the right path to accomplish your dreams.   

It is an interesting fact of life, that when you raise up others, you rise too.  On this path what you discover is that when you have the courage to risk making mistakes, your life becomes a series of miracles. 

The problem is that when you are busy fighting the chaos, you forget to take a moment to notice the miracles.  You don’t see your own value shining in the eyes of those that know and love you.  You forget to be grateful for the many daily miracles in your life. 

You don’t see how you are modeling for your daughters and your sisters, that they can be successful without being in competition with other women. 

“Your life does not get better by chance; it gets better by change” – Jim Rohn

It goes along with the saying, that if it is important, you will find a way to do it, and if it isn’t you will find an excuse as to why you can’t do it.  “I know” is different from “I can” . . ., because “I can” has the energy of action contained within it.  You can intellectually know something, like you know how to make homemade bread, because you watched some cooking show telling you how.  To “I can” make homemade bread, because I have done it before. 

Put your journey on the “express train”, otherwise you will find yourself on the slow boat to nowhere. 

“May every word that is ever spoken by our mouths or typed by our fingers be words that lift up, and never words that tear down” – BraveGirlsClub

It Is A Magical World, Be True To You

“Life is meaningless only if we allow it to be.  Each of us has the power to give life meaning, to make our bodies and our words into instruments of love and hope.”  – Tom Head

When you approach each moment with fresh eyes and an open heart, you are no longer defined by your past pain or your fears for the future.  This is because you are not using that past pain or fear, as a filter to color every future experience.

Just because someone broke your heart doesn’t mean that everyone else will do so.  It doesn’t mean that you can’t trust yourself with anyone ever again.  Everything you experience is always a different experience.  You are not the same person you were prior to that experience.  The person you are currently having an experience with is not that person who hurt you.

Sometimes you just need to realize that just because you have had a bad day, doesn’t mean you have a bad life.  Just breathe, let it go.  Begin again.

“Magic is believing in yourself.  If you can do that, you can make anything happen” – Johann Wolfgang Van Goethe

Everything in life is temporary.  Both the good things and the bad things.  Nothing lasts forever, as moment by moment life changes you.  Most of what you term a bad experience, was simply judged as being bad by you.

You got a “D” or an “F” on an assignment.  You could judge that as being a bad experience.  Or it could be judged as a good experience because it served as a wakeup call, to pay attention to your studies.  Now you can graduate with honors and be successful in your chosen career.

Or it could even be the “stop” what you are doing call.  The call that says this isn’t what you want to do with your life.  That you need to stop going through the motions of making someone else happy.

If you find yourself in the wrong fairy tale,

either rewrite the story or leave it.

It could be the moment that you go after our dreams.

At a Hay House Event I attended; I enjoyed a seminar with Sonia Choquette.  I have been a fan of her books for years.  She is an intuitive spiritual teacher.  She told the story of how her marriage ended a couple of years ago, a total surprise to her.  She spoke about the falling apart, the recovery.  Then he came back and wanted to make it work, and then he left her again.  The second falling apart was not as bad.  She spoke about what all she learned about herself.   How much her daily practices saved her so much in recovery time.

It is funny about the good things being around the corner – you can look down the street, and you don’t see them.  It is physically impossible to know what is around a corner.  It is not until you walk around the corner that you see it.  So, the good thing surprises you just as much as the devastation does, because it catches you unaware.

“She believed in dreams all right, but she also believed in doing something about them…, When Prince Charming didn’t come along, she went over to the palace and got him. ” – Walt Disney

Even in the fairy tales you had to fight to get what you wanted.  It wasn’t all stardust and lollipops.  Bad things happened and had to be overcome.

Many times, just as you thought everything was going to end up perfect, another bad thing happened.  You somehow think that life will just roll everything perfectly to your door, without any effort on your part.  Or you think that if you just follow all the rules, life will repay you with what you want – that was me.  I believed if I followed all of the rule’s life would be perfect.

Life brings you lessons to build character.  It opens many doors, but most of them you pass by because you are not conscious and paying attention.  Then you complain that your dreams are not happening, and they must not be true.

• You need to work to make your dream come true.
• You need to realize that when you hit roadblocks it doesn’t mean you are on the wrong path.
• You need to fight for the fairytale, because it does exist…,
• Just remember that you are the Queen of your kingdom and only you know how to rule it.

There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind”   – C.S. Lewis

• It means that you believe in six impossible things before breakfast.
• That you dream improbable dreams and then create them.
• That you are a little crazy, because all of the best people are.
• That your dreams are entrenched in your soul, and the only way to release them is to make them come true.

Nothing is safe and everything changes.

So, reach out and touch the dragonflies and butterfly’s as you take flight.

Reach for the stars.

Dance with the fairies.

Howl at the moon.

Be a shapeshifter.

Life is a treasure hunt with a shifting map.  Find the chocolate.

Be happy, have fun, and enjoy the beauty of life.

 

The Secrets Of The Universe Are Imprinted Within Your Soul

 The signs and guidance that you seek are all around you.  The Universe works through people and if you stop to pay attention, there’s a theme that emerges from interactions, blog posts, quotes on social media and even the movies or shows you watch.  Get out of your head and start paying attention.

  –  Stephenie Zamora. 

So many times what we want is for the limo to arrive at our doorstop, to drop us off at the Academy Awards, to just have to walk up on stage and accept the Best Actress Award.  Forget the 10,000 hours to master the craft.  Forget the lumps and bumps of lessons along the way.  Forget the time it takes to make the right connections, to promote ourselves, to find an agent, to go on casting call after casting call, hearing “sorry, but your not what we are looking for”. 

The universe is not outside of you.  Look inside yourself; everything that you want, you already are.

  – Rumi

The thought that we have to do something perfectly the first time is such a lie.  If you love music and you want to be a concert pianist, the first time you sit at a piano or a keyboard, you are not going to play Chopin perfectly.  Never abandon your dreams, just because they will take time and lots of practice to transform you into who you dream of being. 

You are more than your thoughts, your body or your feelings.  You are a swirling vortex of limitless potential who is here to shake things up and create something new that the universe has never seen.

  –  Dr. Richard Barlett

The universe doesn’t give you what you ask for with your thoughts; it gives you what you demand with your actions.

  –   Dr. Steve Maraboli

It is making choices by taking the scary actions that make our heart beat so loud that everyone can hear it.  It is taking action, stepping on the stage of real life with the possible rejections, that will bring the universe into concerted action on our behalf.  We might feel that we should just want to hold the dream in the safe mode, where no one can poke holes in it, or damage and dent it.  But what is required in our actions, is to dig deep within us.  To find that place of strength and conviction in our dreams.  To mine for the gold, polish it up and display it for all to see.  To keep walking across that stage even if our heart stops.  Even if our entire body goes numb.  Even if we don’t think we can take another breath, we inhale a deep breath and we keep walking. 

The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.

  –  Elizabeth Gilbert

The universe has shaken you, to awaken you.  

 –  Mastin Kipp

A couple of weeks ago I had this dream.  I was driving down the 101 Freeway.  I was exactly in the middle lane, with two lanes on either side of me.  All of a sudden there was a car in my lane coming straight towards me, driving the wrong way.  I jerked awake as I heard these words, “Wake Up”.  I have thought a lot about this dream.  I sometimes have these dreams where I know that my soul is speaking to me.  That the divine is leading me.  I know they have an impact and meaning in my life, although I am not always sure what.  But they set me to looking for signs to their meaning.  What I took from this dream is that a big change is coming into my life – but I will only see it if I am awake and ready to take advantage of it.  As the weeks have passed, I think that I am seeing some possibilities of what it all means.  Some possibilities that profoundly scare me, because they are such a leap from where I am at, and that is usually a good sign. 

She knows it’s time to make a change.  She feels it on an energetic level that she can’t quite describe and maybe doesn’t even want to put into words.  It is a personal and sacred language, an inner message between her and her soul.

  – Molly McChord

Rarely do we realize that we are in the midst of the extraordinary.  Miracles occur all around us, signs from God show us the way, angels plead to be heard, but we pay little attention to them because we have been taught that we must follow certain formulas and rules if we want to find God.  We do not realize that God is wherever we allow him/her to enter.”

  –  Paulo Coelho

Relax.  Let go of the expectations,  Stop pushing what you want to happen, and release all anxiety.  Trust in your dreams.  Trust in the Divine.  Know in your heart that sometimes impossible things just happen and we call them miracles.  It happens when we let go of how we think it should work and just let it happen in the biggest, fastest way possible. 

Your best life is achieved by listening to the wisest part of you – what you know to be true.

  –  Cheryl Richardson

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Humor Can Get You Through Almost Anything

Have you ever had that really close friend?  The kind that you can say anything to?  You know, how when you are really, really mad at your boyfriend or spouse, and you just want to kill them – and you tell all to your best friend, and she says something like – where should we hide the body?  “Dear Karma, I have a list of people you missed.”  LOL.  I love my girlfriends.  They not only let me bleed out all of my frustration about what is currently wrong in my life, they jump right in with more wit and sarcasm.  By the end of the conversation all is right in my world again.  Humor can get you to the other side of almost any heartache.

We need people in our lives that will serve as sounding boards for us.  They allow us to vent out what is wrong, so that we don’t bury it under deep levels of sarcasm.  “Bestfriend, the one you can get mad at for only a short period because you have important stuff to tell them.”  Unknown.  When we don’t have a way to work through and release the hurtful things said or done to us, we tend to bury the hurt.  Then either that person or someone we don’t fully trust not to hurt us makes a comment, not intended to hurt.  But, because we have the buried wound, it does hurt.  “Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip”  Winston Churchill  What can happen then with sarcasm is it becomes unbalanced, in that it becomes a reflective action, in which we hit back before they can hurt us.  Having that someone that we can talk to, and tell them everything that is on our minds, is what helps us to keep out thoughts, mind and hearts in balance. 

The last few months of my mom’s life, humor was necessary and required.  We had friends and relatives coming from all over the U.S, Canada and even Germany so say goodbye to my mom.  She had the most powerful hugs and a laugh that you could hear at the other end of the stadium.  She could walk into a room of strangers and walk out knowing everyone and their life history.  She once went on a trip by herself to Taiwan, Hong Kong and had a blast.  Even though she could only speak English, she managed to make life long friends with people who didn’t speak English.  As people came to visit, they would out of habit ask, “How are you?”  Then they would be mortified because they asked it of a woman who had only weeks to live and was on morphine for the pain of lung cancer.  So we got these t-shirts and would wear them almost every day, which said “Really I’m Fine” with a picture of a black and white cow laying on its back with all four legs straight up in the air. The humor of the shirt helped everyone be ok with what was happening. “I’m not a smartass…, I am a skill, trained professional in pointing out the obvious and I speak fluent sarcasm” Minion Quote  

“Our reaction to a situation literally has the power to change the situation itself”  Unknown.  Do you remember a scene in a movie, where the good guy is in deep trouble.  No way out.  And then they say something designed to tick off the bad guy, and you hold your breath and then the bad guy laughs and the whole scene shifts?  Do something that makes people present their best selves to everyone they meet.  Risk being seen, in all of your glory, not hiding a single refraction of your light.  Don’t just hope for the best.  Hope walks through the fire, faith leaps over the fire.    What you don’t know, but hope for, is what is killing your dreams from coming into reality.  The reason why faith leaps over the fire, is that it is the assured expectation of a reality not yet beheld.  It doesn’t just “HOPE”  it might happen or be possible.  “FAITH” knows that it is already done and waiting for you.

“It’s been a rough week, but on a positive note…, I didn’t need any bail money and didn’t have to hide any bodies”  Minion Quote.  Heartbreaks happen to all of us, but don’t let anyone break your soul.  Realize that a bad attitude is like a flat tire.  You have the choice to change it and go places, or sit there and have a pity party.  If you think about it, every strong person that you have read about or know personally had things go wrong in their life.  Usually a lot of things, that is why you think that they are a strong person.  Michelangelo in creating the statue David, removed more of the marble block as waste. than what remained when the statue was completed.  What we go through in life, removes all of the parts of us that are not needed.  When the divine is finished with us, what remains is a work of art.

And if nothing else gets you moving remember how many people you still have to prove wrong.  Lol 

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Imagination Embraces All That We Can Be

Do you want to change the world? Have you ever imagined what the world would be like without:

• Hatred?  
• Violence?
• Bullies?
• Prejudice?
• Intolerance?
• Fill in the blank ——-?

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”  – Nelson Mandela

One of my favorite non-profits is “The Unstoppable Foundation”.  Cynthia Kersey started this foundation out a burning desire to make a difference. Over the years that I have been supporting her work we have become friends. They have a sponsor a village model that they use across Africa, which brings not only education, which I believe is primary, but also clean drinking water and sanitation, medical, food and nutrition, and they help educate the parents for empowerment and income training, so they can raise up the entire village.  The plan is that after five years, the villages are self supporting and no longer need any aid.  They already have many children who have graduated and are attending college.  The five year plan is working.

Right now with the global pandemic most of the NGOs in Kenya have left or closed their doors.  The Unstoppable Foundation right now is asking for assistance to help those in need.  The situation is critical because there is no safety net in Kenya.  No stimulus, no CARES Act.  So The Unstoppable Foundation is asking for whatever donations you have in your heart to give.  Help these families in their desperate need.  A little goes a long way.  If you feel called to support a family across the world, click on this link.

What Malala has done so successfully, is that she makes peace heroic. Success comes about not because of what you accomplish for yourself with wisdom, but because of what you inspire others to do. We all love being inspired by a hero. We are all hungry for meaning in our lives. Malala is bringing that meaning to many young girls and women around the world through education with her foundation.

Education is the beginning of the answer.

“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel”  – Socrates

Education is the beginning of the journey. This is because book knowledge will only get you so far. It starts you down the path – but the path goes much further.  The kindling of the flame is in being curious, in the “wonder” of application of the knowledge.

When you learn something, it starts with the brain, taking it in. Then it is important to download that knowledge down into the heart so that it can be transmuted into wisdom. Wisdom comes from the correct use of that knowledge. Like the American Indian story, we all have two wolves inside of us.

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”

He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

When you read, learn, and acquire knowledge you are acquiring treasure.  Walking further down this path requires wisdom or application of that knowledge.  It is “the one you feed” that changes you and thereby changes the world.

Cynthia Kersey and Malala both made the choice to feed the one that helps others.  That is their life purpose.  A purpose that comes from the heart.  This wisdom comes from the heart, not the head.

Martin Luther King Jr. stated that we needed to develop a world perspective, instead of a loyalty to some race, tribe or nation. I think that education of girls and young women has really taken this world perspective on, as it is moving from just a few countries around the world, to envelop the whole world. It will take them out of child marriages. It will provide them with both opportunity and choices.

It will not only take these individual women out of poverty, it will lift entire nations our of poverty. It is what will bring the world out of darkness and into the light. It is both hope and peace. Educating the minds, hearts and souls of everyone is what will change the world.

But what about us, as in each of us?  You and me?

“Education is the beginning of transformation.  Dedicate yourself to daily learning via books, audios, seminars and coaching”  – Robin Sharma

Your formal education may have ended years ago, whether it was completing high school, trade school, or college.  But what have you been doing lately to continue your education?  Are you a life long learner, as part of your transformational process?

You may or may not be a book reader.  If you are not a book reader, the use of audio books can make the commute to and from work a more pleasant experience.

I read books every single day in my life.  I love to learn something new.  I love to get that “click” in my brain when something reveals a new meaning to my understanding of life.  I love to find that small change that I can make in my own life from reading the stories of others.  Even my mystery and sci-fi books reveal new ideas that make my imagination take flight.

I love to share with others what I am learning about myself and the world.  I share because this is my passion – to discover new worlds within the one we all live in.  So I ask you to share – what is the book that you read that has most impacted your life?  The book that maybe you have read more than once?  The book that you have recommended to others?

Share your treasure with us.

Stop, Look Around, Believe In You

Insight is a new awareness about something.  I think it is easiest to see it play out in your life, when you look backwards in your life.  About 15 years ago, I started long range planning for what I would do in my retirement years.  I knew I wanted to have my own business, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.  I started attending seminars about holistic healthcare businesses, because I had been trained in Herbs, Aromatherapy and Reiki.  I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a practitioner with it, but I thought that if I leaned how to run a practice, it would be easily transferable to any other type of business.  At one of these seminars, I had a huge transitional life experience.

“Your perception of me is a reflection of you; my reaction to you is an awareness of me”  – Unknown

The facilitator called on me, as I had raised my hand to share something with the rest of the group.  It was a large group of around 100 or so people.  He looked at me, like he wasn’t sure if he knew me, but thought he did.  He asked if I had attended any of their other events and I said yes, three of them.  That was when it happened.  He made a motion like he was removing a literal cloak off my shoulders and said, “You are one of those invisible people.  I am removing your cloak of invisibility.”  It felt like in every single cell, in each strand of DNA a shift  occurred in that moment.  I felt like a spot light was centered on me.  I was blinded by the spotlight.

I knew in that moment, that I could never be invisible again.  It was the beginning of a multitude of shifts and changes in my life, some of which are still continuing today.  Change can happen within a single moment, but if you are not open to awareness, it will pass you by.  If I had just thought, “that’s a stupid thing to say”, it would have passed me by.  Why?  Because I wasn’t open to it happening.  How many things happen around you daily, where you miss the opportunity to shift and change your life because you are closed off?

This is why, even though you say and do whatever you can to help another person, you can’t change them.  They could be drowning in a bathtub and all they have to do is stand up to save themselves.  But if they are not open and aware, anything you say or do hits an invisible shield and has no impact on them.  It breaks your heart to watch them self destruct, to hurt themselves over and over and not be able to reach them.  They have to walk their own path.

“Fight for the fairy tale, it does exist”  – Joy F

Just remember, that for them too, change can happen in a single moment.  For Snow White it was a kiss that dislodged the poison apple.  For Sleeping Beauty the kiss woke her up.  It may be that your loved one just hasn’t hit their bottom yet.  That when they hit their bottom, you hope that like the fairy tale they will wake up.  That they will see that they just have to stand up to save themselves.  What is sad but true, is that most of the time hitting rock bottom doesn’t affect people the way you think it will.  It can be as simple as life catching you by surprise.  Because your mind is not prepared, it’s not on guard.  In that brief moment something as small as a comment can slide into your consciousness unimpeded.  At that moment, your perception of reality changes.

“When you change your thoughts and perception, you change the way you live”  – Rita Zahara

When I look back I can see that it was literally as if my reality changed to a new place.  It felt like all of that was in preparation for LemonadeMakers, as it was just a few months later that my nephew was murdered, which was the catalyst for creating LemonadeMakers.  It was if the timer went off, and Sheryl’s destiny gears began moving everything into place.

“Sometimes in the wind of change, we find our true direction”  – Unknown

Insight is like a faceted crystal, or a kaleidoscope.  Every time you look through it you turn to a new facet, or with one click on the wand, the kaleidoscope changes what you see.  You see a new perspective.  A different angle.  There are so many levels of awareness about what you are trying to see or understand.  It is up to you to be curious.  To ask questions.  To look at the subject through different lenses to see another level of awareness.  So our picture at the top of the post for example, shows a light bulb with an idea that pops into her brain.  Then you see the gears, these are the levels of awareness that she is running her idea through.  The question mark, is her insights, that again start running through more levels of awareness.

“Perception is a wave.  You change as your perception of something changes because you define yourself as a reflection of whatever you happen to perceive”  – Frederick Lenz

There is a game that a friend made up.  You had these slips of paper, and during dinner you would choose one slip and read the question written on it to another person at the dinner table.  I remember once I had the question, tell me a story about your life that you don’t think I know.  I asked my dad and he told me this wonderful story about something that happened when he was a kid.  It totally changed how I thought he was raised.  A little curiosity opened a new awareness, an insight about a man I thought I knew.

“A man of awareness knows that life is constantly changing.  Life is change.  There is only one thing permanent, and that is change.  Except change, everything else changes”  – Osho

You have had something happen in your past that changed your life.  Do you remember when you were a kid in grade school and they had those pictures that were partly formed and you have to connect the dots to complete the picture?  Awareness many times happens, when we look backwards after a change has happened.  All of a sudden we see connecting dots to different small life changes that prepared us for the bigger life change.  We had no idea, insight, or awareness that these seemingly small changes, were in fact a part of the larger picture of where we were going in life.

“I can be changed by what happens to me.  But I REFUSE to be REDUCED by it”  – Maya Angelou

How is it possible to have life change you, yet not be reduced by those changes?

“The spirit of her invincible heart guided her through the shadows”  – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

My cousin had a fitness test at work that triggered a heart attack.   How do you go through “bad things”, and yet not be reduced by it?  Perception.  At first everyone was really upset that this happened.  They were talking about suing his employer.  But when it was discovered at the hospital that he had Graves disease everyone’s perception of what happened shifted.  Without treatment, Graves’ disease can cause some serious and potentially fatal health problems, including: An irregular heartbeat that can lead to blood clots, stroke, heart failure, and other heart-related problems.  So what happened at work could have saved his life.

Perception is the meaning that you give to the thing that happened.  Have you seen those pictures that have a hidden picture in it?  Where some people see a beautiful woman, and others see a hag with a pointed hat – depending on their perception.  When someone points it out to you, now you can see both women.  Your perception is changed.

So many possibilities of something positive coming from any experience – it will all depend on the meaning that you put to it.

“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything”  – George Bernard Shaw

So open up new doors.  Shut the doors behind you that no longer lead to anything positive.  Trust in the magic of new beginnings.  Don’t make it complicated.  Just begin.  Join us in our next monthly call of April 4th and learn about what you can do to have a more positive and fulfilling life.

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be”  –  Lao Tzu

Leave No Path Untaken, May You Always Do What You Are Afraid To Do

It is easy to run away from your problems.  Fear is hard to face, hard to shrink, hard to work through.

Facing whatever is in front of you in life, is never easy.  But doing so is building a muscle.  The more you do it, the stronger you get.  It not only makes you stronger, but you gain confidence that you can use in every area of your life.

We’ll inevitably face challenges in life.  The best defense is believing that we are strong, we will survive, and we will be better for it – Lori Desehene

Each time a storm comes into your life, it is a chance to transform your life.  Whether you choose it or you fight it, some part of you will change.

The change can be beneficial giving you strength, determination, self-confidence.  It can bring you emotions of joy, happiness, and an expanded heart.

OR, you can fight the change, and become a defeated, bitter, a victim of life.  It can bring emotions of anger, grief, injustice, and hatred.

It all depends on the path you choose to walk down.

My mom was diagnosed with lung cancer, with a short window of time before she would die from it.  The last 6 weeks I took care of her.  I have five sisters and one brother, and I am the oldest.  During those six weeks it was a reflection of what I am talking about here.  Some family members were there every day, others came only once or twice.  We had a service afterwards at her church.  Some family members came, and some didn’t.  That summer we had a family ceremony with all of her brothers and sisters and their families where we spread her ashes, and again some of my siblings came and some didn’t.

What I heard was how they couldn’t handle it – what I knew for myself is that even though it was the hardest thing I ever did, it was also the greatest blessing, and some of my siblings missed out on that blessing.

You can put a smile on your face each morning.  Then begin the stresses of getting the kids to school on time, breakfast made, going to work on time.  Then the car gets a flat tire or makes a horrible noise as you stop at a light.  The engine dies and it won’t restart.  Your boss reprimands you for something at work.  Your teenager swears at you and slams their bedroom door.  You get that phone call that our mom or dad is being admitted to the hospital with a heart attack.

The list could go on and on.  Each day, every week, every month, you have something that happens that stresses you out and makes you wish life was easier.

So, you paste that smile back on our face, and if asks you how you are doing, you say “everything is fine”.  You live a life on social media that only portrays the wonderful things in your life, because you’ve been taught that you don’t “air your dirty laundry”.

You think you have to pretend that you live a perfect life, because you think that everyone else does.

Let’s stop pretending things are ok when they are not, so we can pray for each other and know we’re not the only one who struggles – Renee Swope

• Sometimes when your life is not happy, you need to share that with a best friend.  You need to talk about it, because someone else is either going through the same thing or has gone through the same thing.   Stories tell you that you are not alone in any of your life experiences.
• Sometimes you just need a hug and a reminder, that while today is not the best day, there will be better days.  That what seems to be catastrophic and unending, is just a story you are making up about it to help relieve the stress and tension.
• Sometimes the bad things that are happening are waking you up to other choices in your life.
• Sometimes the bad things cause you to take out life’s road map and choose another way to your destination.
• Sometimes that change is the best thing that ever happened to you.

Have you ever had something happened that seemed like the worst thing, but when you look back on it, you realize that it redirected you to where you were actually trying to go?

Years ago, I took a new job, that ended up being short term.  When I was laid off, the mortgage market in Southern California had a small crash and I couldn’t find a job anywhere.  We moved in with my mom temporarily and ended up moving out of state to find a new job.  I had ruined my credit because of the long term unemployment.

It seemed like the worse decision I had ever made in taking that job that laid me off after only 4 months.  A bad decision that put my family at risk.

But in hindsight, the job I got laid off from, had given me a new skill, which turned out to be just what I needed to land the underwriting job that had been my goal for several years.  It looked like the wrong path, but was despite the rejection and pain, the perfect path.

You just need to believe in yourself.  We are all made in God’s image, which means that no obstacle, no mountain, no immense body of water – nothing can stop you, except you.

While you may sometimes feel that life is unfair, too painful, not worth it – the truth is that life is full of people just like you, trying to overcome each new obstacle.

Recovery is an acceptance that your life is in shambles and you have to change it –  Jamie Lee Curtis

So leave no path untaken.  Every single one has something wonderful hidden within it.

So, stretch and keep choosing a new path to the life you are stretching for.