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

The Best Things In Life Are The Moments When We See The Little Things Clearly

 Such a profound question – what is life?

I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, that hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end.  Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.  Delicious Ambiguity.  

  – Gilda Radner

When you look around at your friends and family, how many people do you know that “just exist”? They are here. They wake up each day. They take in the breath of life, they eat, they go to work or school, they come home and watch a movie, TV, play video games. They are here, but what else is there in life, besides just being here?

The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. 

   – Marcel Proust

There is something about asking questions that opens life up.  About being curious.  Asking yourself the questions that you are afraid to ask, afraid of how the answers might change your life.  Questions like, “Why am I not happy with who I am”?

Be not afraid of life.  Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

  – William James 

I think that there is more to life, than just existing. I think of some of the stories that I love best. They are made up of characters that progress down a timeline, the hero’s journey. They are walking along a path and something happens. Things go wrong, they change to meet the challenges and come out the other end a different person than the one we met in the beginning of the story.

Time is like a river, you cannot touch the same water twice, because the flow that has passed will never pass again.  Enjoy every moment of life . . . ,

  – Unknown

They discover things about themselves during the journey. They discover the “fire in the belly”, passion. They learn to speak up and speak out. They learn that they have courage to fight for truth, justice, life and liberty. We root for them to beat the odds and win. Take the first “Rocky” movie.  He is employed in a sketchy business as a collector for a loan shark..  He boxes and  is made fun of, nothing but a loser and a bum.  He dreams of a better life and thinks that fighting in the ring, could be his ticket to be somebody. He gets a one in a million shot at it, wins against the heavyweight champion, falls in love.

Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations. 

  – Unknown

Boxing was his passion.  He learned to have self confidence in his talent.  He learned that we can all be somebody if we are willing to pay the price of hard work to make it happen.  If we are willing to not give up when it looks hopeless.  As the rest of the series of movies show, transformation is an ongoing process.  We will learn valuable and painful lessons when we don’t remain conscious of who we are and where we are going in life.

Most of us have been through some sort of personal hero’s journey in our life.

Someday everything will make perfect sense. So, for now, laugh at the confusion, smile through the tears and keep reminding yourself that EVERYTHING happens for a reason. 

  – Unknown 

What did we discover about ourselves? Brendon Buchard tells a story about his own personal journey when he was in college. He had a bad breakup with his girlfriend.  She was the one he was going to spend the rest of his life with.  So to try and get out of his depression he went on a trip with a college friend to South America.  They were driving in a rural mountainous area on a narrow road.  The road turned out to be a hairpin curve.  His friend lost control of the car, and they went tumbling off the mountain.  When he came to he was bleeding.  They had fallen down a ravine.  He thought that he was dying.  In despair he asked himself three questions – Did I live? Did I love? Did I matter?

Thankfully they didn’t die.  They both got medical attention, and when he returned to the United States he was a different person.  He is an international bestseller with multiple  books; he is the founder of Experts Academy and High Performance Academy and is a sought after motivational speaker.  How was his life impacted from getting a broken heart?  From an auto accident that could have ended his life?  We never know how the painful experiences of our life, will be positively used for the rest of our lives.

Life has many ways of testing a person’s will, either by having nothing happen at all or by having everything happen at once. 

  – Paulo Coelho

I think that we all want to live a life that results in great friends and family that love us.  That results in us being happy and passionate about what we do with our days and nights.  That results in knowing that we had a positive impact in the world. But sometimes we fall asleep to those dreams.  Sometimes we get so beaten down by our hero’s journey, that we give the dream up as being impossible.  What I have discovered in life is that we tend to do one of two things.  We act without thinking our decision all of the way through and so we end up paying the bill of “unintended  consequences”.  Or we think about it, and think about it, and do nothing about it.  Why?  Because we can’t face our fears about “what if?”.

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes.  Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow.  Let reality be reality.  Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they life. 

  – Lao Tzo

So each morning, what if the first question we ask ourselves is:

If my life is a story, what can I do today to make it a New York Times Bestseller?

What could I do today, that a movie producer would want to make my life into an inspirational movie?

What can I do today that uses up all the best parts of me (my talents), to inspire the world around me to be a better place?

What can I do today that makes people laugh, smile and be more joyful?

Death is not the greatest loss in life.  The greatest loss is what dies inside of us while we live. 

  – Norman Cousins

They have a saying, that the best stories are in the graveyard.  There are books that never got written; apologies and forgiveness that were said in their heart, but never left their lips.  Millions of secret recipes that never got passed on.  Don’t wait for the end to ask, “Did I live, love and matter”, but instead ask it each night.  Ask if you showed love, and gave love to others each night. Ask if you were able to do one small thing today that mattered to someone. If you can say yes, to these questions each night, you have a wonderful life. You inspire me to try harder, to be better, to live fully in the present. To lose myself in the sunset.

Never, ever underestimate the importance of having fun. 

  – Randy Pausch

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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 Journey Is Mandatory; Traveling With Baggage Is Not

If you are unhappy with anything…, whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it.  Because you’ll find that when you’re free, your true creativity, your true self comes out.

  – Tina Turner

When you let go of whatever the negative thing is, you are not agreeing that the situation was acceptable.  You are walking away because whatever is going on is not worth destroying you.  You release the anger, the frustration of trying to get someone else to see your truth; or trying to fix something that isn’t your business to fix.  You wall away, and you do not walk back and reclaim it, because someone promises that this time things will be different.  You walk away, leaving that baggage on the ground, and you climb up onto that plane and you fly far, far away.  Never settle.

You can’t reach for anything new, if your hands are still full of yesterday’s junk.

  –   Louise Smith

Regrets are heavy baggage.  Whatever we walk away from or whatever we feel we have lost in our lives, usually have regrets attached to it.  What we said or didn’t say, what we should have done or did do.  Whatever didn’t turn out perfectly sits on the scale of our judgment against ourselves or others.  Forgive both yourself and others, wipe the scale clean of all debris.  Recycle those regrets, let go of the past, so that you can truly move on.

We are all responsible for the energy we have around us.  Drama Queens can’t exist without an audience.  Stop being one, and they will find someone else.  This creates space in your life for the right kind of people.  Those who see the real you, that you’ve buried deep within.  They hold up the mirror to you, so that you can see your potential.  The endless possibilities of who you really are.  They believe in you, because they love who you are, not who they want you to be.  These are once in a lifetime kinds of people.  Find them and keep them in your life.

We all fit together to create this experience we call life.  None of us can see the part we play or the way it all turns out.  Maybe the miracles that we see are just the tip of the iceberg.  And maybe we just don’t recognize the blessings that come as a result of terrible things.

  –  Making Faces, Amy Harmon. 

When my granddaughter and I saw the movie “Passengers”, I thought that quote really is the story line of the movie. 

A computer malfunction in the sleeping pod of the main male character happens and he gets woken up around 30 years into a flight of around 120 years.  During first year he goes crazy being alone.

important encounters are planned by the souls long before the bodies see each other.

  –  Paulo Coelho

Then one day he finds a sleeping pod of a beautiful woman and starts obsessing about waking her up.  Even though he knows he shouldn’t one day he does it.  At first she thinks that like him, it was a computer malfunction.  Then she discovers the truth, and her anger at what he has done to her life drives her crazy.  Then a third person, a ship employee is awakened due to continuing computer malfunctions.  They discover with his help that the ship is failing due to damage received from asteroids.  The ship employee dies from health complications created by his pod leaving them to try and save the ship of over 5,000 fellow passengers and the crew. 

In the process of doing this they almost die several times.  They discover that their being together is the miracle and blessing of their being able to save everyone else.  In saving them, they save themselves.  

I entered the after-loss broken and shattered.  It’s like I had this big bag of fragments I once called life and dumped them in the middle of this new world and said, “Here.  this is all I’ve got left.  What can I do with this?”

  –  Benjamin Allen

They come to peace with living out their lives together alone on the ship, knowing that they won’t reach their destination in their lifetime.  She learned to let go of the baggage of what he did to her.  He let go of the baggage of what he did.  They realized that without everything that happened to them, the entire ship would have been destroyed.  They let go of what they planned for their lives by taken this journey, and lived the journey they instead found with each other.  They realized that blessings can come as a result of terrible things.

We all have some sort of emotional baggage in our lives.  One bag is filled with things that people said to us, situations where our character was unfairly tarnished.  This bag is waiting for apologies that will most likely never happen.  Then there is this other bag of regrets where we lied to someone; promises we broke; things we said to others because our pain was so great that we needed to hurt someone else just as much as we were hurting.  The items contained in the bags could be listed down long pages.  They are not unique to us.  What we have to come to realize, is that we need to let them go.  All of them. 

I always liked the story of Noah’s Ark and the idea of starting anew by rescuing the things you like and leaving the rest behind.

  –  Zach Braff

In order to release yourself of this baggage you need to enter sacred space.  Go down into your heart and the soul of who you are.  Keep what builds you up.  Release everything negative.  When you find yourself, and release what is not yours to keep, you make space for your life to transform once again.  You start moving forward in your life once more.  Reach for what is in front of you.  When you know what you want next in life, you wake up excited about life.  If you aren’t excited about your life, this is a sign that it is time to give yourself healing.  Time to once again enter the chrysalis and transform your life. 

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To Grow, We Must Transform

How can you tell if you still might be in a caterpillar stage of growth? Some questions to think about –

Do I hide my value or discount the gifts that I have for this world?
Am I tightly guarded, afraid?
Do I feel like I am stuck in the mud, unable to move?
Can I see my potential, but don’t know how to unlock it?
Do I feel vulnerable, tossed about with no control?

Strength, Wisdom, Courage, These Are The Bags For Our Journey

When the butterfly has completed its change, the last step is to break through the chrysalis and unfurl its wings. Once they are dry, it is time to fly.  The butterfly must care for itself to both emerge and then complete the process of self transformation.

I have come to believe that caring for myself is not self indulgent.  Caring for myself is an act of survival. 

  – Audre Lorde

There is a story about how if you help the butterfly out of its coverings, it is crippled. This is because it needs to complete its growth through the releasing of its casing. If you enlarge the hole it creates, it deforms the wings. The same is true for us. We can be supported by the sun, to dry ourselves off.  We can be uplifted with the winds.  But we are the ones that must spread out our wings in order to thrive.

Damaged people are dangerous because they know they can survive.

  – LoveFromASelfHammer

Sometimes life’s struggles are to help us realize that we need to grow stronger to complete our journey. Being courageous requires us to be vulnerable. It is a sign of strength when we put ourselves out there. You can’t really experience life, if you live without putting yourself out there to really live life.  It is in fact a gift, this struggle, because all of us have far more strength than we ever dreamed possible.  You must do the thing that you think you cannot do. 

Strength comes from struggle. When you learn to see your struggles as opportunities to become stronger, better, wiser, then your thinking shifts from “I can’t do this” to “I must do this”.

  – Toni Sorenson

Remember Star Wars when Luke is trying to lift his ship and he struggles and gives up.  Then Yoda shows him.  Luke could have done it the first time, but he doubted, he had a lack of faith not in God, but in himself.  You must do the thing that you think you cannot do.  It would not have been placed before you if God didn’t know that you could do it.  It is there so that you can believe it yourself.  To grow your faith, for the next time fear stops you.

The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.

  – Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Looking at history, I think this quote best describes  two people who suffered in Nazi Germany.  Anne Frank, who still believed even after the things she experienced, that the world is filled with good people.  We can read her diary, as well as the writings of those who new her.  The other is Viktor Frankl.  His book “Man’s Search For Meaning” should be required reading for everyone. 

We run from grief because loss scares us, yet our hearts reach toward grief because the broken parts want to mend. 

  – Brene Brown

When struggles happen to us we have a choice, they can define us or refine us. For Anne and Viktor they refined them. They both chose to reach toward the grief and pain of what was happening to her, to her family, to her people.  They somehow knew, had that inner wisdom to realize that by reaching out, they was in fact healing themselves.  Those who become defined by their struggles are true victims. They can’t move past the horrible thing that happened. They encase themselves with what happened and choose safety out of fear. They stop growing, becoming deformed inside, until they learn to “let it go”. To break out of the casing and unfurl their wings.

Being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure.

  – Bob Marley

Life is short.  Break the rules.  Forgive quickly.  Kiss slowly, like in the romantic movies.  Laugh uncontrollably and giggle whenever you can. Never regret anything that brings smile to your eyes as well as your face.  You take a chance of being wounded by living this way, but living any other way is not really experiencing life.

The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice.

   – Ernest Hemingway

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Be The Drop, The Ripple, That Shifts The World

“No one in the world was ever you before, with your particular gifts and abilities and possibilities” – Joseph Campbell

At conception you were granted a “stone”, a sacred life purpose, that you are to “cast across the waters”.  That stone’s purpose is to create many ripples.  Those ripples begin to change you from the moment of casting that stone.  The ripples created also impact many others.  As you cast that stone you set out on the journey of discovering and living your life purpose.

As you walk that path, it shifts and changes both you and the world in some way.  This is because you are impacted by everyone else’s ripples.  Each ripple touches and changes the other ripples.

For each stone that is cast or not cast, there is a change in the water.  It doesn’t matter if you are someone who is hoarding their stone afraid to cast them, or you are one who grabs the courage and risks casting your own “stone” or life purpose.  There is always an impact.

“The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion’– Paulo Coelho

You were born with a reluctance to change.  You resist it.  You fear it.  You create stories around every impulse to create change in your life.  Why?  Because you’re human.

You build walls, not to keep other people out, as much as to keep yourself safe within.

As a human you also have this calling to improve your life.  You demonstrate this every January when you create New Year’s Resolutions around the changes you want to make in your life.  Dreams you want to materialize.  Goals that you want to achieve.  You work hard to bring them into reality.

The funny thing is that you keep these competing challenges active in your life.  You don’t want to change, yet you want your dreams to come into reality.  You make it hard work by fighting yourself internally around the changes you earnestly desire to make.  You don’t know what is worse, that you try and fail, or that you try and succeed.

How do the doubts show up?  You are afraid that you will lose your soul along the journey to success.  That you will become too proud; that money will change you into someone you won’t like; that the cost will outweigh the benefits.

You are also just as terrified that you will fail to live your soul’s unique version of success.  You compare your journey with all of those that you know.  You compete, you judge; You are envious, or you pity their fall from grace.  You are full of the dark emotions such as anger, regret, worry, blame, guilt and fear.  You have people in your life that threaten your peace of mind and your self-worth.  Worst of all you have your own judgmental inner self.

“We realize the importance of our voice when we are silenced”  –  Malala Yousafazi

You may have been given a powerful life purpose, such as Mother Teresa and Malala.  You may have been given a small vision and life purpose.  No matter how small or powerful your life purpose is, you will come up against obstacles in fulfilling it.

You have made up stories about what has happened in your life since childhood.  Those stories will either weaken or strengthen you, depending on how you have cast yourself.

The choice is always within to cast your stone and live up your full potential or hide from your true potential and play small.  When you play small you will cast blame your parents, your “ex”, your employer, or your best friend who provided the knife that stabbed you in the back.  That way you can create the victimhood that keeps you safely hoarding your “stone” and refusing to allow change to transform you into something powerful beyond measure.  To transform you into who you are meant to be to fulfill your divine purpose.

“Just as one drop of water creates countless ripples, so does one gesture of kindness or love change countless lives”  – Randi G Fine

Water is an ultimate teacher for you.  It changes shape to adapt to its situation.

Steam, fog, a cool refreshing liquid against your skin, a single snowflake, a sheet of ice or a mountain glacier, a hot volcanic pool of water that would be death to enter.

Oceans waters waves kiss the shoreline gently, in a storm it pounds against the rocks wearing them down into small particles that get dragged deep onto the ocean floor.  It carves into the earth deep canyons and flows down those same canyons as a beautiful waterfall.

It both gives and takes life.  It is neither good or evil, light or dark.  It reflects back to you how if you take action with your stone or conversely you have inaction with your stone, still an impact is made on this earth.

In a different way, you can have what they are now terming “Raindrop” moments.  This is the disruption of a certain type of business, by new developments that take over in technology.

Think of things such as physical books in print, newspapers, music in CD/Albums, which have become digital.  Think of live streaming and all of the options you now have in watching movies and T.V. and the loss of business with cable companies and how it is changing the nature of both entertainment and business.

We can see the future disruptions in the movie and TV industries, changing from having human actors to artificial actors.

We see businesses such as Taxi’s being impacted by new businesses such as Uber.

These are all the results of someone who cast their stone across the water and created a ripple that was felt around the world.  They made an impact.

Change happens whether you want it to or not.  What water has to teach us is the ability to adapt, to improvise, and to overcome.  It teaches you to shift your shape and transform.  You have your “stone”, the divine purpose that you are here to achieve.  The method of how you are doing so, is within you.

The ability to change, shift your shape, to transform, is what brings you to success. You must be that change that you wish to see in the world.  If you think that world hunger is wrong, what are you doing to feed someone?  Whatever you have strong beliefs around, what are you individually doing to make that change in your own space in this world?

“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks”–  Christopher Hitchens

Be like water and adapt, improvise, overcome, shift your shape (consciousness), transform.

At some point in your journey you will come to a crossroads.  You will have to pick a path (without any ability to know), if it will or will not lead you to your destination.  You have to ask yourself that unanswerable question, Do I go forwards, backwards, left, right, diagonal?

Steve Jobs asked this question to John Sculley when he was vice president at PepsiCo, before Apple was a household name.  “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?”

Do not allow anyone’s definition of who you are, including your own, to define who you are.  Like water, you can transform into what is needed to travel your own unique path in life.

The important thing is to stay curious, keep looking for open doors, keep asking unanswerable questions.  To quiet the mind, and to listen to the soul, which is the source of the unanswerable questions.  To go deep within, to visit and learn from the place our of real existence.  Promise yourself, to not permit fear of failure or fear of greatness keep you frozen in place.

“Believe in yourself and all that you are.  Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle” –  Christian D. Larson

That something is divine guidance, trust in it and don’t stop.

Listen To Your Soul

 

When you can quiet the fluctuations of your mind and drift into stillness and silence, you can finally hear the whispers of your heart.

  –   davidji

Silence isn’t just empty space.  It is the container that holds all of the answers.  But you can’t access it, until you release what you think life should be.  It is only then that you can begin to see what is, and accept it.  When you can process life as it is, only then you can see what it can be.  That is the beginning of the journey of transformation.  Because it is only in this place that you can begin to hear the sound of your soul.   

True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.

  –   William Penn

It is in the silence you begin to hear your own heart.  It is in the heart that the soul hears the whispers of the divine, Gods answers.  This is where true intelligence is, not in the mind.  By listening to this voice, you see things in a different light, a different space.  This is the space that you hear God’s voice answering those prayers for direction.  That is the space where your soul is at peace with your minds thoughts.

Dare to stand before those you fear and speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.

  –   Maggie Kuhn

This is where what they call “out of the box” thinking occurs.  It is the place where the curiosity starts, where creativity lives, where you can find the right solutions.  It is the place of firm collaboration of the mind, body and soul.  Where the spirit and soul commune to stand in an overwhelming force for doing the right thing, regardless of what anyone else is saying or doing. 

 It’s a shame when the things that are on your mind and in your heart, never reach your lips.

  – Unknown

The worst thing that can happen is for people to be too ashamed, too scared, or feel too unworthy to speak their own truth.  When other people to try crush you because you don’t share the same religion, the same culture, the same language, the same color of skin, or the same sexual orientation the human race is being robbed.  We should welcome all expression.  Risk being seen, not just in all of your glory,  but with all of your imperfections..

The biggest bully most of us will ever face lives within us, located inside our own heads.  The screaming thoughts that we hurl at ourselves about ourselves, we would never allow anyone to say to us.  We worry about what kind of person we would be if we let loose who we really are.  That we are too much, too emotional, too loving, too sensitive.  That we are a bad person; that everyone would judge us as not enough and we will be destroyed.  We don’t give ourselves the love we give to others, the grace and forgiveness that we give to others. 

 Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose.

  –  Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Like most things in life, silence also has it shadow that gets expressed out in the world.  Martin Luther King Jr. wrote about this shadow when he said:

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. 

  – Martin Luther King Jr.

This is what all civil unrest and protests comes from.  Something that matters so much that they are willing to step outside of fear of judgment or retribution.  I know that to me these people are like modern day Joan of Arc’s.  Their bravery lies in standing in protest, being willing to be beaten, hit with water cannons, or tear gas. To be arrested or even the ultimate sacrifice of their lives.  I may not always agree with their beliefs, or their methods.  But I do praise their courage that they are willing to stand up for their ideals.

They say that time heals all wounds.  It isn’t the passage of time itself that heals.  It is the knowledge and application of that knowledge (using it wisely) that heals.  I know that from the murder of my nephew, there are stages of grief.  The more distance there is from the actual murder, the more time the raw emotions have to pass through you.  It is the emotions that create the pain and suffering.  But you can only live in that place of raw emotions for so long.  If you don’t process through them, they will literally drive you insane.  It is self preservation that moves those emotions through you.

The ultimate way of Being lies beyond all contradictory pairs of opposites with which our two dimensional thinking mind operates.  As soon as we are successful in silencing the restless activity of the thinking mind and give a chance to intuition, the pure all embracing spirit in us will manifest effortlessly.

  – Anagarika Govinda

Intuition and creativity takes you on a wild ride of so many options and choices, it is life inspiring, life fulfilling, and more valuable that all of the gold in Fort Knox. This is because life is not just light and dark, and choices are not just this or that.  We live in a multi-dimensional universe, and we were created in God’s image.  Each of us has the power of miracles within us.  When we embrace his spirit and power, we manifest our divine destiny.

 Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.

  –  Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt is one of my heroes.  She is on my bucket list of people that I would love to have a long visit with.  She has such great wisdom, and she was an amazing woman.  When we operate from that space of great minds, the soul speaks. 

The quieter you become, the more you can hear.

  –  Ram Dass

It helps when you surround yourself with people who can hear the sound of your soul, as well as their own.  If you listen to the voice of intuition, the voice of the soul, you will find the way of life that you love, that was designed just for you.  Then all that is left is to have the courage to live it.

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