Looking at life with a new perspective...

     

Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.

G.K. Chesterton

       

         It seems as a New Year approaches a refreshing also comes with it. The holidays are behind us and cold temperatures have begun, to usher in a feeling of newness and even hope. A clean slate awaits us, especially if we look back and feel a bit disappointed from the previous twelve months.

     We are all given an opportunity to set new goals and even change things we did last year that we weren't satisfied with. Maybe you need to get back to the gym, or spend more time with your family. Did you pick up a bad habit last year that you want to eliminate from your life? What about that new business you have been wanting to start? Remember how much better you felt when you were meditating everyday? Looking at life with an new perspective always gives us a sense of excitement and expectation. Anything is possible for those who believe!

     So lets determine this year to be the best we can be...physically, spiritually and mentally! Amen and so be it!

     Happy 2013!

       

      

I'm ready for health, healing and life...

  “I suppose that since most of our hurts come through relationships so will our healing, and I know that grace rarely makes sense for those looking in from the outside.” 

Wm.Paul Young

   The holidays again come as an unexpected intruder. Why is it every year we pledge...this year will be different! Yet it comes as the year before, with dread and heavy sighs. Maybe it's just me?! I only continue to even put up a tree for the sake of my grand kids. If not for them and my sons I would probably be like the Kranks and just try to ignore it all. (I was really just hoping the Mayans were right!)

     I pray the coming days and weeks will be nothing like the previous year. It's been one I don't want to ever redo. Sickness, pain and death took its toll, and I'm ready for health, healing and life to be front and center this next year.
     I also pray, building up relationships will be one of your goals this coming year. We seem to  operate our lives in cycles. Tending, pulling back, isolating, tending..... We take time to tend to our important relationships, then we have drama happen so we pull back, then there are times we just want to isolate. The cycles can be caused by several things but they seem to happen to us all.
     Again it goes back to staying aware and being able to recognize which cycle we are spending more time in. We really want to be tending more than we are pulling back and isolating. Why? Because we need each other! I pray Gods greatest and best for you in 2013! Amen and so be it!

Today I may need your love...

We are not held back by the love we didn’t recieve in the past,

but by the love we are not extending in the present.

Marianne Williamson

I ended my last blog by saying, “we will continue this conversation soon..” well that was June 7th and today is August 24th. So much has happened since that early June day. Family drama, work drama, relationship drama...too much to go into here. Life happens to all of us everyday. Some good, some not so good, but all can be a lesson for us.

I seem to want every experience I face to teach me something or help me evolve into a more complete person. I don’t know if this notion comes with aging or with awareness, but it is there. I want nothing I experience to be in vain or be wasted. Does this come from my worker bee, do do do mentality? Or from a deep personal desire to be the magnificent being God created me to be.

I am at a place where I know deeply that this mundane, yet “busy” life we all seem to live is not at all what our creator had in mind. When I feel this pulling that something is missing or there is something more I ususally end up doing very mindless things like playing games on my computer, watching more movies or TV. Will I distract it away? Will I drown myself in nothingness long enough for it to pass? No ... it never leaves me.

Maybe it is the “I AM” in me nudging me to manifest what I am purposed to be. I know one purpose I have is to bring joy to those I come into contact with. That is not easy at times when my joy is not fully complete. This is why our divine connection with one another is so important for us to be aware of. Today I may need your love to complete my joy, so I can give it to those who need it. Today you may need your husbands strength, to complete your compassion, so you can give it to those who you meet who will need it. Our divine connection cannot be ignored. We need each other.

May your purpose become more evident to you each day and may you live that purpose NOW! Amen and so be it!

We create with our words....

I want to know all God’s thoughts; 
all the rest are just details.

Albert Einstein

          This is one of my favorite topics. Our thoughts becoming our words and creating our lives by what we allow to come out of our mouths. Wow, I love that! I have been fascinated with this subject for years and have still not mastered it in my own life. And with that confession I will share with you one of my favorite quotes of all times... “Knowledge of a thing is not possession of it.” We can know so much and have so much knowledge of a subject, yet not have the power, patience or wisdom to make it our own and possess it.

          Isn’t it strange how it is so easy to establish and hang on to the worst patterns in our lives....yet the uplifting, life changing and beneficial routines, seem to take forever to become a “habit”. Maybe we try to hard, or not hard enough. Maybe our expectations are out of balance. Shouldn’t we just force ourselves to “do the right thing”? Well I have come to realize force, guilt or compulsion doesn’t change people. What changes people is a willingness and a desire to want something different in their lives. What changes people is love! Had I not realized how much I was loved by God, by my family and friends...I would never had taken this new path to a healthier life. And in that process…begin to love myself.

          All of that began with my thoughts and translated to words, then to the action steps toward accomplishment. Our minds are so intense and complex, we have only scratched the surface of the capabilities that are within it. We must be aware of everything we allow to penetrate our minds by our thinking habits and our thought life. We are what we think about. I want to be what God created me to be. Along with our thinking, we must become more mindful of the words we speak. We create with our words, so what do we truly want to create...life, death, love, hate, peace, turmoil, faith, fear???

          When you use the words.... “I am....” how do you finish the sentence? I am stupid or I am brilliant? I am fat or I am beautiful? When Moses was confronted by God at the burning bush, he was given an assignment. When he asked God, “Who do I say has sent me?” God said to him, “I AM WHO I AM....tell them I AM has sent me to you.” In studying that phrase God spoke I found, this is not a “name of God”, this is God’s character, essence, completion, the fullness of Yahweh. So since the words “I am” are still a part of our language, shouldn’t we acknowledge their extreme importance and even their connection with God. Selah...let’s think on these things!

       We will continue this conversation soon......love and blessings to you...amen and so be it.

Begin to take every thought captive...

"There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn

to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age."

Sophia Loren

So, I have been going through somewhat of a “mid-life” crisis the last few months. I have never really thought about aging until lately and now I have been preoccupied with it. There are other issues that seem to be aligned with this thought process. One being the fact that I will turn 56 in June and my mother passed away at that age.

I think of my mom everyday and have since she died in 1976. She died of breast cancer and all the nasty things that come with the treatment of that awful disease. Her life, needless to say, was different than mine. But her personality and thoughts not so much! I was only 20 years old when she passed and I would have loved more time with her....especially as an adult woman and not a child. She went through so much and at the time I was not present for her needs. As a disfunctional young 20 year old mother and wife, I wasn’t even present for my own needs.

She was a saint in my eyes and always will be. She raised 10 children, loved them all more than life itself. I am going to dedicate the month of June to my mom, Leaetta Juanita Applegate Willis, to celebrate her life and the great things she taught me!!

If you are going through a hard time right now....grief, depression, anxiety or frustration of any kind...know that you have the power to come through to the other side. The I AM within you will lead you to the other side of peace and bliss. Don’t give up or get stuck in the turmoil. Begin to take every thought captive and speak out loud the positive things you want to see manifest in your life right now.

I think I’m over my “aging” crisis, but I realize other detours will take me down a road I don’t wish to travel....but I will not stay there long because I know I have a capable “GPS” system within that will get me back on my true journey.

Be kind to yourself and believe when you are in a dry, hard place...this too shall pass. Amen and so be it!!

It all comes down to making good and consistent choices...

Using the power of decision gives you the capacity to get past any  

excuse to change any and every part of your life in an instant.  

Anthony Robbins

When I began this journey to better health and bliss, I didn’t realize that every aspect of my life would be affected on the path. So, I’m reflecting on my way to the gym the other morning. I’m thinking how I hadn’t really lost a lot of weight quickly, yet I had lost weight consistently every month. Whether it was 1 or 2 pounds, it was consistent. I was consistently making better choices regarding eating and excercise. I was consistently working on myself spiritually and emotionally. I was consistently deciding to move forward.

It reminded me of God....and how faithful He is to me, even when I am not. God is consistent in His love for me and that is what gives me the strength to make the choices I make.

When we begin to be present in our own life and take responsibility for our choices, things change and our life becomes more vital. It all comes down to making good and consistent choices toward the best lifestyle for you personally. We are all different and we all eat different food, do different workouts, and practice different spiritual habits; this is one of the greatest concepts I have learned this year....bio-individuality!!

Pray with me if you would like.....Thank you God for being consistent in your love and support for me. Lord thank you for giving me my voice back. For giving me the strength and courage to speak truth even when I want to resist. I always want to walk in who I really am. Who you have made me to be and what I have to contribute to those I come into contact with everyday.  Amen and so be it!

A New Year, with opportunities to start fresh...

Today is your day, your mountain is waiting, 

so get on your way.

Dr. Seuss

Another year is behind us and a new one awaits. A New Year with opportunities to start fresh and begin a new chapter in your life. The past year for me was really one of my worst and also one of my best. It started out with some bad health revelations from the medical world. But through that, I was forced to make some wonderful changes in my life. I truly had an epiphany that took me from “dieting” to “being healthy”. The numbers on the scale took second place to the numbers on the lab reports.  2011 opened my mind & spirit to the realization of how fragile I am, but also how incredibly strong I am.

The path we take to get from an unhealthy place to a healthy place is lined with reminders of where and who our true source is. God has strategically placed gems of evidence for us along our journey to remind us of who He is and how much He loves us. Those gems are usually very small and can only be found when we are present and aware of our path. It brings to mind the scripture, “...be still and know that I Am God.”  That takes awareness and recognizing who we are as well.

I read recently “awareness and compulsion cannot co-exist,” so true! Our compulsions distract us from the present! We live our best moment, day, week, month, year and life by becoming present with our moments. Living that moment and not allowing the proverbial “carrot” of the future to command our steps. When I lose the weight, when I get the degree, when I get more money, when I get more spiritual.....that mindset robs us of true life and true living! Abundant living!

It is great to make goals, plans and have those to do lists. But sometimes those great things facilitate in keeping us focused “out there, or someday”. On Tuesday, on next week, on next year, causing us to lose track of the importance of being present to enjoy what is right in front of us. And what is right in front of us are relationships...with a husband, a son, a daughter, a grand daughter, a client, a customer, a friend, a neighbor, and most importantly God (your Source).

So, on the top of your goal setting, your planning and your to do lists, make your first priority BEING PRESENT and aware of every gem that God has placed on your path.

I pray this year is the best year you have ever lived and you come to terms with issues you have struggled with, and not found victory! This is the year, the month, the week, the day, the moment you find your victory in every area of you life....body, soul and spirit! Amen and so be it!