Once upon a time, there was a wicked stepmother who tried to poison her stepdaughter with a poisoned apple. She was afraid of what Snow White was becoming.
Life is full of surprises. Not all these surprises are pleasant, so you need to be ready for what life brings you.
– Unknown
Deep inside of us is a protector that is afraid of us changing. Like the wicked stepmother, this protector uses fear to try and manipulate us into remaining the same. When Snow White took a bite of the apple, it put her into a deep sleep like state. Everyone thought she was dead. But she wasn’t. She was frozen in time, so that she couldn’t change.
Courage doesn’t mean you don’t get afraid. Courage means you don’t let fear stop you.
– Bethany Hamilton
Have you ever felt like that? So afraid of change, that you are frozen in time? Too many choices so you can’t make one? Or maybe you feel that there are no choices?
What if I told you that 10 years from now, your life would be exactly the same? I doubt you’d be happy. So, why are you so afraid of change?
– Karen Salmansohn
Are you hiding under the bed because it suddenly occurred to you, that the monster under the bed was you? What if everything you are hiding from is just “all in your head”? Change will not come about by waiting for some outside, unseen force to step in and make everything perfect. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. We are the only ones who can create the change we so long for.
The fears we don’t face become our limits.
– Robin Sharma
I am a big Sci-Fi fan and one of my favorite lines from the movie “Dune” is:
Fear is the mind-killer. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
– Frank Herbert, Dune
Everything we want is on the other side of what fear is making us believe. It is all an illusion, and if we can let it pass through us and out the other side, we see the truth. It isn’t real. Only you are real. Never be afraid to be someone new. To try something new. When we are bored, it is because we are staying within the limits of what we already know. Break out of those limits.
Only you know when you are giving maximum effort towards your goals. Only you know who you really are, and if you truly believe in yourself.
– Nav-Vii
That doesn’t mean that sometimes the truth behind the illusion won’t be hard to deal with. There are things in our past that we have buried, and when fear digs them up, we need to shine the light of truth on them. What we need to realize however, is that it is all buried treasure. It may be disguised as worthless junk. It might be tarnished, covered in dust and cobwebs, but if we clean it up, we can see it for what it really is.
May we ever choose the harder right, instead of the easier wrong.
– Thomas S. Monson
Our child’s mind didn’t understand the value it has. It only felt the hurt upon receiving it, and so it was buried deep. But when fear sees us moving to change, it grabs those forgotten things we buried, and brings them up out of the dungeon to scare us back into submission. When we confront what fear brings us, and shine it up, we can see what the treasure really is. The illusion fades and only we remain.
Fear is an opportunity. It is a fuel for courage to transform us into a finer human being.
– Unknown
And that is when the real adventure begins. Once upon a time, . . . I remembered that limits only exist in my mind. Like Luke Skywalker I gathered my courage and went into the cave to face my biggest fear. And like Luke, I discovered it was me. I was afraid of being who I am. I was afraid of what my full potential would require of me. All of my life, I have been the responsible one. The one that everyone turns to when they have a problem. The one who can handle anything. This gave me a feeling of worth and value.
Our true identity is to love without fear and insecurity. Our higher potential finds us when we set our course in that direction. The power of love and compassion transforms insecurity.
– Doc Childre
What the cave showed me is that I was using this as a cover. It kept me busy. It made me look good. But it wasn’t growing me. I came to the realization that while I was doing “good”, I could do better by living my true purpose in life. By using the divine gifts I could write about myself, about the things I had experienced, about the things I had seen, and the things I had studied about for years. To encourage not just my own personal circle of family and friends, but to gather a worldwide community through LemonadeMakers.
The key to change . . . is to let go of fear.
– Rosanne Cash
I had allowed the wicked stepmother to put me to sleep, but now I had to wake up. Now I had to help others to wake up. To help them discover for themselves what they have hidden in the cave. To discover their own life purpose and divine gifts. To help see that what they have been looking for is within them. I can’t tell you what it is, but I can help you to ask the right questions, to help you get curious and set out on your own personal transformation journey. I can applaud when you find it and walk on your true life path for your souls journey. Cheering you on for letting go of fear and setting yourself free to be who you really are.
I alone cannot change society for the better. But I can radically transform my own Consciousness, overturning the conditioning that limits my potential. We can all do this, one by one. Over time we can change ourselves to the degree that society changes from the inside out. Giving birth to a new way of being. Manifesting our birthright of living in a peaceful and abundant world. Have no fear. Trust yourself. Live your full potential.
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Admit it, as some point in your life, you wanted to have super powers. Wonder Woman, Super Girl, Super Man, Batman or Robin, Spiderman? What super power did you want to have? What Super Hero do you want to be?
One of my favorite stories of my children is when my middle son Seth was around 5 years old. We were having a costume party and he wanted to be Superman. It wasn’t around Halloween, so I made the costume myself. I made a cape and the Superman S was made out of felt and was on the cape, and on the leotard on his chest. I found these wonderful red knee socks that were fuzzy and looked a lot like boots. The costume was perfect and when he put it on the night before the party he was so excited.
He climbed up on the back of our couch, leaped into the air, and came crashing down to the floor. He was so mad. He thought that if he had the costume he would be able to fly. It took all of my ingenuity to talk him into wearing the costume for his party, because if he couldn’t fly he didn’t want to attend his own party. I am so thankful that he chose the couch and not a high tree to jump out of – lol.
It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.
– Leonardo da Vinci
I think that a great super power is this very thing, going out and making things happen. As women we handle many roles. We are a mother (giving life, nurturing and believing in our children), a daughter (giving love, respect and gratitude to our parents), a wife (life sustaining devotion, inner beauty, and immense power) a sister (who will fight for you and always love you no matter what). And many of us become care givers for our elderly parents. All immensely challenging roles.
You laugh, cry and work harder than you ever thought you could. Some days you’re trying to change the world and some days it’s just diapers. Some days you love your life, and some days you wonder if you can just take one more step. Some days like Old Mother Hubbard there is nothing in the cupboard and your wallet is empty. But your heart is full and you have faith. So you make it through to the next day and the next day after that. Your heart is full, sometimes of laughter and sometimes of tears. You have memories of your family as you grew up, and memories of raising your own. You may not think it, but you’ve changed the world just by being in it. On those days when one more step seems too long, remember you are a super hero.
We are strong, smart and crafty in creating a “home” and a “refuge” in the middle of a chaotic world. We can open and close car doors, front doors, and refrigerator doors, while holding onto both children, bags of groceries, purses and a diaper bag. We bring a new definition to multitasking as one of our super powers.
Each of us is a wonder. We are unique, in an unrepeatable way. The real you, is unique and the only one of you that will ever be on this earth. Never before and never again, will there be someone just like you. It such an amazing thing to let sink in. You didn’t just happen to be here now. You are here for a reason, a purpose. A purpose that can only be accomplished, if you let the real you be up front and center. Your super power is so needed in our world.
We all have angels guiding us . . . , they look after us. They heal us, touch us, comfort us with invisible warm hands . . . , what will bring their help? Asking. Giving, Thanks.
– Sophy Burnha
We are all given the opportunity to be one of those angels among us. Super Heroes are ordinary people who have extraordinary hearts. If you have the power to make someone happy, that is a super power that the world needs more of.
I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.
-Maya Angelou
A kind word to a stranger. Calling a friend when they cross your mind and not putting it off until later (when you forget). Everyone walking today encounters a dark road at times in their life. When they get lost in the woods and are looking for the breadcrumbs to find their way back home. What we all need at that time is someone who is lighting the way with just a single ray of hope. Be that ray of hope. It just takes a smile, a listening ear, to take the time to acknowledge that you have been in that dark place too. That is why we give, because we have all known what it feels like to be lonely, depressed, to have nothing.
I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.
– Christopher Reeves
Christopher Reeves not only played a hero in the movies, he was a hero in real life. When life’s lemons took away his ability to walk, he did not give up, feel sorry for himself. I am sure he felt like it at times, but he remained steadfast in speaking out for all of us about what really being a hero was all about. He knew that it wasn’t important how others saw him, what was important was how he saw himself. Because of that he continued to make a difference.
You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.
– Jane Goodall
We all have the super power to make a difference. Most of the time we won’t even know what kind of difference we have made. But if you were to line up 50 adults and go down the line, every single one of them would have more than one person that had made a difference in their life. A special teacher, an Aunt or Uncle, a best friend, a stranger on the street who simply smiled at them when they needed one the most. Probably most of the stories they would tell would surprise you. You probably didn’t realize that what you said or did had an impact.
You want to make a difference in the world? It starts with how you walk into a room. Instead of saying, “Here I am” begin with “There you are”.
– unknown
You might not know it, but you have made a difference to someone. It may not be huge, but it matters just the same. The really cool thing is that your influence never needs to stop. We can affect eternity with our super powers of love. Love can heal us. Love can help us to grow into who we came here to be. Love can grant us forgiveness for ourselves and others. Love can help us to move on when it is time to let go. Love moves us forward when it is time to return to the journey of discovering just how great we really are. And love can inspire us to be even more than we ever dreamed.
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We have this idea in life that there are people “out there” who have no problems. That if you have enough money, power, fame, the perfect soul mate – whatever label we put to it, then magically everything in our life would be perfect.
Wanting something is not enough. You must hunger for it. Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the obstacles that will invariably come your way.
– Les Brown
Today in your life there is some sort of obstacle. It could be a small one or a large one. That obstacle might have a few flakes of dirt on you, or you could be covered in the mud from head to toe. What I do know is that if we have the intention, and keep taking just one more step, we will bloom and blossom as we grow. Obstacles make life interesting, overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.
The struggle of life is one of our greatest blessings. It makes us patient, sensitive, and Godlike. It teaches us that although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.
– Helen Keller
I love this quote from Goldie Hawn – because she might be one of “those people” that you would put in that category of having a perfect life. She is beautiful, talented, famous and undoubtedly rich, and seems to have a strong relationship with Kurt Russell – yet notice what she says.
The lotus is the most beautiful flower, whose petals open one by one. But it will only grow in the mud. In order to grow and gain wisdom, first you must have the mud — the obstacles of life and its suffering. … The mud speaks of the common ground that humans share, no matter what our stations in life. … Whether we have it all or we have nothing, we are all faced with the same obstacles: sadness, loss, illness, dying and death. If we are to strive as human beings to gain more wisdom, more kindness and more compassion, we must have the intention to grow as a lotus and open each petal one by one.
― Goldie Hawn
We all live in an imperfect world and obstacles are going to show up in our lives. At some point someone that we love is going to grievously dissappoint us. We will lose our grandparents, parents, friends to death. The “trolls” of the world will attack us personally and sometimes viciously. Everyone gets sad and has some depression at some point in their life. The question is not whether you face an obstacle, it is whether that obstacle becomes the picket fence that you surround yourself with and then live your life behind. The “I can’t do that” excuse that we use whenever the obstacles in our life show up.
Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have – life itself.
– Walter Anderson
Obstacles teach us just how powerful we are. With each obstacle we get to choose to keep from growing, or to grow from it. My mom was diagnosed with lung cancer and passed away over 20 years ago. She asked that she could die at home and so for the last almost three months I took care of her with my aunt and my mom’s best friend. One of us had to be awake 24/7 because with the amount of morphine she was taking she had hallucinations and would forget she couldn’t get out of her bed. I come from a big family, being the oldest of seven. What was interesting in the last month of her life was how hard it was for my sisters to come see her. Some sisters came once or twice a week, some didn’t show up at all, and some came everyday. At her memorial service some came and some didn’t. When we had a family gathering in the summer to spread her ashes same thing.
We cannot change our past . . . we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you . . . we are in charge of our attitudes.
– Charles R. Swindall
What I discovered is that even though it was hard on me financially (as I took an unpaid leave of absence), even though my husband and kids were far away (we lived in another state), even though it was hard to watch the cancer take her; even though it was hard to see her notice who came to visit and who didn’t – that was the greatest experience for me in so many other ways. But I didn’t see the growth and positive things that were happening until after she had passed. I was so blessed and happy that I did the hard thing.
It is when I struggle that I strengthen. It is when challenged to my core that I learn the depth of who I am.
– Dr. Steve Maraboli
The excuse was that they couldn’t handle it. What I have discovered for me personally, is the reality that I can handle anything I think I can handle. It doesn’t make it easy, but I learned early in life, that obstacles don’t kill you. It sometimes feels like they will. The fears inside me tell me to run and hide. And sometimes I do, but then I turn back around and make myself take one more step. It is always just about taking one more step.
Currently I am facing this obstacle. I keep pushing up against this wall that pushes back. But I know that if I just keep chipping away on it, that at some point I will have weakened the wall enough, that it will fall down. Whenever my life feels as though it is in chaos, I know that I just need to take a breath, ground, and continue doing the small things.
You would free yourself from so much stress and drama if you just understood and embraced the truth that you are enough.
– Dr. Steve Maraboli
I am in Goldie Hawn’s mud at the moment with it. Wrestling with it, but I am determined to overcome. I may have my moments of indecision. I may have my moments of being stuck in the mud. But I don’t unpack and live there. I refocus and keep moving forward, one step at a time. Whenever I get discouraged I look back at previous obstacles and the gifts they brought into my life. I realize they are not my enemy, they are in fact my secret weapon. They are what builds character. They provide me with a purpose and what I need for the next path on my journey.
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You are all so busy, that even in the moments when you aren’t crossing something off your list, you fill in the space with something that still doesn’t allow the space to “JUST BE”. When I am resting I am usually still doing something that I call relaxing, like reading a book or solving a word puzzle. And while those things are relaxing for me, I am still in “doing mode” – beat the puzzle or learn something new from the book.
“Learn to pause or nothing worthwhile will catch up to you” – Doug King
Why is it so hard to “just be”? I love this photo because cats are excellent “just be” creatures. What is the difference between us and the cat in this example? The cats isn’t afraid of:
If something isn’t on this list, I am sure that you could add 100 more things that you are afraid of missing, or doing, or being – that stands in your way of “just being”. They even have an acronym for it “FOMO” – fear of missing out. You had it even as a child – it’s the reason why you didn’t want to go to bed. You were sure you were going to miss out on something important.
“Too many people go through life without pausing to enjoy what they have” – David Gemmell
What is just pausing? Being disconnected from the world for just a few minutes. Check into what you are feeling. Quiet your mind. Look around you at the beauty of your surroundings. Ignore just for moment, if the windows need cleaning, that you just spotted a spider web, or there is dust on the piano. It is taking the time to replenish, to give yourself permission to rest and truly relax.
“Something precious is lost if we rush headlong into the details of life without pausing for a moment to pay homage to the mystery of life and the gift of another day” – Kent Nexbum
Why is this so important?
“Taking time to do nothing often brings everything into perspective” – Doe Zantamata
What I find for myself personally, is that when I am avoiding something, I get really busy, usually deep cleaning, which means I take the entire room apart and clean everywhere. I move all of the furniture, I decide that the bookcase needs to go into another room, which means that all of the books get removed, etc….
“Don’t mistake movement for achievement. It’s easy to get faked out by being busy. The question is: “Busy doing what?” – Jim Rohn
You get busy to avoid the thing you don’t want to do. You get busy to avoid the thing you don’t want to face. You get busy and stay busy and ignore the calling of your soul. You don’t want to face this thing, and so you get so busy that you forget it for just a little while.
At any moment you can say enough…, You am not going to avoid this any longer. You can radically change the course of your life, your purpose, your destiny. You have the power, the faith, and the courage to follow your hearts calling. You have the ability to pause, to pray, and to stop and practice deep listening to what your soul is calling you to do. You can pause and just listen.
“Pause and remember – Change will happen the moment you have the courage to change” – Jennifer Young
The courage to change is folded into the realization that every change in your life has been meaningful. Some were life’s lemons and they tore you asunder. You may have thought that they were going to be the end of you. But instead they made you smarter, stronger, and wiser than you were before they blew through your life.
“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory” – Unknown
Other changes were easy and like a light summer breeze came and went without too much commotion. Even so, they changed you in a very meaningful matter. It revived you.
Introspection, reflection, relaxation, they all mean that you have to take a moment, a pause to let your mind wrap around the changes and accept them in a way that moves you forward in progress.
“When things get too messed up, life seems too stressed, and you feel trapped in circumstantial webs. Take a pause, take a breath, break free from all the thoughts and then march ahead” – shrawanidas
So, pause and practice being a cat and JUST BE.
“Your inner child gets It all, believes it all, hopes for it all and is the only guardian worthy of your heart. That child knows that life – which runs on love and feasts on creativity – is on your side, and that the universe conspires with you, not against you, to help you spread that wild, crazy, messy love through your own story. Please, don’t grow up…” – Andrea Belt
That is where inspiration comes in. It gives me the confidence to admit I don’t know it all, but I can find someone who does.
Dreamers make wishes when they blow out the birthday candles with complete confidence they will come true. They blow on the dandelions seeds and spread their wishes all over the world. They wish on the first star they see each night. The secret they know is — we are all just dreamers in an endless universe.
Judith Thurman said, “Every dreamer knows that it is entirely possible to be homesick for a place you’ve never been to, perhaps more homesick than familiar ground.”
Doers take the dreamers up a notch. They believe in the magic, but they also know that it takes a little bit of elbow grease to make the machines run. They know that to take the dream into reality we must put it in writing. We must plant the seeds, water and fertilize them, weed when needed, and watch in amazement as the miracle of growth happens. Doers know that the energy goes when the attention flows, so rather than giving their energy to their fears, they focus their energy on their dreams. They know that action needs to follow the dream.
Sarah Ban Breathnach said, “The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do.”
Thinkers know that they can put the dream on steroids because they realize the power of thought and attitude. It is like strapping a rocket onto the doers goals, when the doer has the right thinking to get the dream off the paper and into reality. The trick is the right amount of thinking, in combination with action.
Creative thinking outside the box produces inspiring ideas that can change the world. Plato said, “Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.” When we go deep inside ourselves and draw up the dream, enhance it by stripping away all of the negativity about the dream that we have, we become free thinkers who can see without prejudice what the destiny of the dream is. We talk with our souls and see possibilities for the dream everywhere we look. This helps the doer to pick the best door to open to the best opportunities.
That brings us to possibilities. Thomas Edison said, “When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.” Since his most famous quote is “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”, I think that this quote is certainly made by someone who knows it to be absolutely true. If he had not continued his work, then his numerous inventions, most famous being the light bulb would not have been invented. He founded General Electric, had a motion picture and record company in addition to others. All because failure to him was just more information to think about. A part of the process, and not something to be avoided.
I also love the quote by Audrey Hepburn “I M Possible” instead of impossible. Inside each of us is the space where we know. We know, that we know, that we know, that anything that comes into our heart and soul for us to do, is for us to do. And most important, that it is completely possible for us to do.
So greet your dream with open arms, know that the doer and the thinker will show you the endless possibilities for you to bring that dream into reality – then go do it.
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
Your personal circumstances don’t determine where you can go, they merely determine where you start.
– Nido Qubein
I think that most of us could agree that when we look out into our world today that it would be great to re-imagine the world in a better place. Many in the world are not happy with our current political situation in the world. In some places in the world, we have wars creating the worst refugee crisis ever. We have terrorist who believe that blowing up the world of others, is a way to re-imagine the world. It can be scary, it can make us angry, and it can make us depressed.
What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible.
– Theodore Roethke
On a personal level, we have personal life changes affecting us. We may have lost our job or career. Or we may have suffered the loss of a relationship or loved one through death or divorce. We may be going through a life threatening medical diagnosis. The stress of raising children, the stress of a taking care of a parent who is slowly exiting this life. So many things that we could want to re-imagine onto a blank piece of paper to make our life easier.
It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.
– Henry David Thoreau
I believe that we can all be visionaries. Visionaries see possibilities, what could be. They make new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision. Remember the “Back To The Future” movies. When Doc Brown said, “Roads? Where we are going we don’t need roads.” I think that all of us can make changes in our lives that begin with sitting down with this blank piece of paper. We can all start re-imagining our life. But in order to do that, we need to let go of what is no longer serving us. We need to wash off the dust that is on our souls.
If you create a vision for your life, doors will open.
– Unknown
You may hate your job. Sunday night you might not sleep well, because you know that Monday you have to go back to work. Your stomach may be tied up in knots. You may get a Monday morning migraine, every Monday morning. But the thought of looking for a different job is scary. What if you end up in a worse working situation? What if you change jobs only to be laid off from the new job?
Don’t be afraid to fail – be afraid not to try.
– Unknown
That happened to me years ago. I was working for GMAC in their mortgage division in Southern California. There was a smaller mortgage company where the owner was calling me all of the time to come work for him. One day I decided to say yes, because it offered me an opportunity to get a promotion. I went to work for him and as a side project I updated and revamped his existing broker guideline manual. At the same time that I finished this (about six months) the interest rates spiked up, the values of properties went down, and California had a mini meltdown in the mortgage industry. I was laid off. And no one was hiring.
In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision.
– Dalai Lama
I thought that I had made the worst job decision ever. We ended up having to relocate up to the Seattle area where I had connections in order to find a new job. We didn’t have sufficient savings to weather all of this and I hurt our credit. We relocated our children who were all in school in the middle of the year. So many little crisis’s created because of one decision. But I started with the blank piece of paper.
You’ve got to think about big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.
– Alvin Toffler
I re-imagined my world and created something even better. I found a new job, with a higher promotion and a higher income. We fixed our credit, we bought a new home. Our children adapted, they made new friends and ran around with all of the cousins that lived in the area. What I learned in creating that manual for that old employer is what got me the wonderful new job. It was a tool that I needed for my toolbox to continue my career growth, and I don’t think that I would have been hired for that position without it.
Your purpose explains what you are doing with your life. Your vision explains how you are living your purpose. Your goals enable you to realize your vision.
– Bob Proctor
So what does that experience tell me about what is happening in our world today? It gives me hope. Because I think that many of the long standing structures and governments in our world today – the systems that we have had in place for so long, need a transformation. They are no longer working and need to be released. We need a transformation into something better. But just like what happens to us personally, the world hasn’t been listening and making the changes in an easy way. So instead we appear to be having the breakdown to breakthrough. What we need is more of us to step into being visionaries. To re-imagine what each of these systems could be. To look at all of the structures and say, “what else is possible?”
Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside awakens.
– Carl Jung
The signpost on this photo has 4 blank boards. If you sat down right now with a blank piece of paper and wrote on it four things in your life that you are not happy with, what would they be? What would you release and how would you release it?
All tears are a releasing of resistance. Every time. No exceptions.
– Abraham
Are you in resistance with releasing what no longer serves you? Most of us are, even when it is painful to hold on. It is what we know. Letting go without knowing what comes next, is more fearful than holding on to the thing that creates pain in our life. While I believe wholeheartedly that the journey matters more than the destination, we need a destination or all we do is wander.
The only thing worse than being blind is having eyesight but no vision.
– Helen Keller
So create four new destinations for your life. Write down what you would change if I gave you a magic wand that you could wave and make your life different. Some things may be personal for your own life. Things you want to attract, a significant other, a new dream job, a child of your own. Some things may be more universal, like ending wars or terrorism, or medical care for all, or ending poverty or global hunger.
Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life. Because you become what you believe.
– Oprah
Your soul is calling to you. Your dreams are calling to you. Your destiny is trying to unfold. Take out that blank piece of paper and put something on those four blank signposts. Start your journey to a new destination. I can attest to the fact that your life will never be the same. I took up the pen and started writing these blogs as part of my journey to a new destination. You can’t imagine how much my life has changed. The journey hasn’t been smooth, but it has been wonderful just the same.
Sight is what you eyes produce. Vision is what your heart produces. Never let what you see effect your vision.
– Shandren Reddy
Visionaries don’t just believe in impossible things, they believe those impossible things must be done. To take yourself from where you are, to someplace you have never been.
You need to associate with people that inspire you, people that challenge you to rise higher, people that make you better. Don’t waste your valuable time with people that are not adding to your growth. Your destiny is too important.
– Joel Osteen
That is the importance of community. It is why I write these blogs and share the news stories that I share. You all challenge me to be a better person. Thank you for showing up and sharing your stories and your encouragement. So let’s all go raise hell, and change the world!
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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.
“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?
“Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it” – Ernest Holmes
This is a great time to reflect back on what transpired for the past few months of your life. What happened to the goals or resolutions that you set for the year? Did you achieve them? Did you give up on them? Did you rise up or fall down?
If you look at your reflection in the water, you see the outer surface of you, looking back at you. But if you put your hand through the reflection, you can see what lies beneath.
The question I always ask myself is “why am I doing this to myself? How can I do better?”
It’s in the looking at what’s beneath the fears of self-sabotage that you can see what is holding you back. Then you can pierce the illusion(s) to find the real truth.
“When someone tells you it can’t be done, it’s more a reflection of their limitations, not yours” – Thegoodquote
Looking back helps you to see what you want to bring into your life.
It is not the things that happened in your life that define you, but how you coped and adjusted through them, that made you who you are today.
“You can be stunned, awakened, and changed by what happens to you, but choose to grow from it, and refuse to be reduced by it”– Unknown
2022 is a year for deep self-reflection. The past few months new things have been brought up from the depths beneath the surface and released. Wars, a global pandemic, Black Lives Matter, Police brutality, a personal loss of income, stay at home orders, teaching children from home, working from home, and on and on.
“Self reflection is a humbling process. It’s essential to find out why you think, say, and do certain things . . . then better yourself” – Sonya Teclai
You are working on being a better person, and that includes your body, mind and soul. So the reflection that you see right now, is showing you who you were. So reflect back to it, who you want to be.
“The ability to honestly and quietly reflect on one’s life is one of the most powerful tools for personal growth” – Richard Carlson
I saw a photo years ago of Carrie Fischer and Harrison Ford. The article asked why it was ok for Harrison Ford to have aged, but not ok for Carrie Fischer – they were talking about 40 years ago when they filmed the first Star Wars movie to the start of the new Star Wars movie series how much she had aged. It is really sad that someone feel the need to say negative things about how someone looks. Harrison Ford had aged too, but no one was commenting about that.
Speaking in this way didn’t help anyone. I think Carrie Fischer was an amazing woman, who had her struggles, just like all of us. She was courageous because she did it in the public eye, and said what she thought. The way she was upfront about mental illness puts her in the category of being a hero in my book.
“When I loved myself enough, I began leaving whatever wasn’t healthy. This meant people, jobs, my own beliefs and habits – anything that kept me small. My judgment called it disloyal. Now I see it as self-loving” – Kim McMillen
It means that you can say this to your own reflection: “I love you” means that I accept you for the person that you are, and that I do not wish to change you into someone else. It means that I will love you and stand by you even through the worst of times. It means loving you even when you’re in a bad mood, or too tired to do the things I want to do. It means loving you when you’re down, not just when you’re fun to be with.
“I love you, means that I know your deepest secrets and do not judge you for them” – Jonathan Safran Foer
So what do I do when I see someone extremely gorgeous? I stare, I smile, and when I get tired of holding up the mirror, I put it down. 🙂
Sometimes it feels like the bad guys are winning. Like there is no justice. That we have been abandoned by our friends, our family, and by God. It seems like we are burning alive and everyone just stares at us. You can see them talking to each other about the tragedy. No hero is showing up to save the day. That moment of tribulation, of complete annihilation of who we are, is a turning point. All of us go through it at some point in our lives. Some of us visit this place more than once.
I survived because the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me.
– Joshua Graham
I always think of the old show, “The Six Million Dollar Man”, Steven Austin. The line in the show, “we can rebuild him, better than before”. Sometimes we have to die to who we currently are, in order to be reborn as the person that we are meant to be. We can rise again. God did not abandon us.
If you’re not okay, that’s okay. It will happen sometimes. But you have to tell yourself that things will be better tomorrow. Even if they’re not better tomorrow, keep telling yourself they will be. Because eventually, tomorrow will be better.
– Sam Miller
What we discover in life and in relationships, is that we are not really in control of anything. Things will happen that we don’t want to happen. When my mom kicked our 1st stepfather out, my siblings and I were devastated. We loved him at that moment more than her. He was the one that really stepped in and took care of us. He was crying, we were crying, and my mom was standing at the door with a new stepfather asking “our dad” to leave. We had to accept that he wasn’t going to be in our lives any longer. We had to let him go, because to continue to cry and beg our mother to bring him back only created trouble for us.
She’s been through hell and came out an angel. You didn’t break her, darling. You don’t own that kind of power.
– BMM Poetry
Then there are the things that we don’t want to know, but have to learn. One of my best friends in high school had an alcoholic stepmother. Sometimes she would pass out in the bathroom and we would have to drag her into the bedroom and on to the bed. We should never have had to experience that, but we had to learn how to clean up after her or she would be horribly mean to my best friend.
Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do.
– Nelson Mandela
This was a man who certainly had experience to speak from. He grew up in apartheid Africa, becoming a lawyer and speaking out against the injustices in his country. He was arrested for treason and sentenced to life in prison. He served 27 years in prison and was released in 1990. He negotiated an end to apartheid and became the first black democratically elected president of his country. He didn’t come out of prison preaching violence as a way to end the injustices of racism. He helped to create a new constitution, and emphasized reconciliation. He received a Nobel Peace Prize for his work.
There comes a time in your life, when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh. Forget the bad, and focus on the good. Love the people who treat you right, pray for the ones who don’t. Life is too short to be anything but happy. Falling down is a part of life, getting back up is living.
– Jose N. Harris
Deep within you is the power to rise above any situation or struggle. Within you is the power to transform the brokenness that you are feeling into a strong foundation. Do not lose who and what you are. Move forward, not building a fortress or wall of protection, but instead building a firm foundation of a new life.
Three things you cannot recover in life: the word after its said, the moment after its missed and time after its gone. So choose your words wisely, embrace every moment you have with those you love, and never waste time arguing over things that will not matter in the last 5 minutes of your life.
– happywivesclub.come
The sun will continue to rise up every morning, and sunset will continue every evening.
The light may feel like it goes out, but it continues on it’s journey.
Feel the burning rage wash through you,
Watch the smoke of injustice as it incinerates your life.
Feel the winds of change, watch the storm surge roll away taking all of your beliefs with it.
Feel the death of a reputation, of knowing the taste of ashes as everything you have worked for blows away.
Now at the end of everything that you knew, that you thought was yours.
Now is when you stand at the crossroads, and choose.
Do you stay in this smoke and desolation of a past life?
Do you stand up, shake it off, and walk down a new path?
Forgiveness is the gift that we can give ourselves, because the haters can only hate by first hating themselves.
A person may break your heart and damage your pride, but never ever give them the power to break your spirit.
-Susan Gale
Journey Wisely.
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