Christmas Presence

Dear Ones,

Hold loosely the presence of love today.  Do not hold tightly to old traditions, but instead go with the flow of being present.  Allow the day to flow freely, evolving divinely to incorporate all the blessings of this beautiful season of  Christ’s birth.

Make your greatest gift your presence with your loved ones.  Pay attention to the moment in the conversation.  Hug with heartfelt joy for life is precious and nothing is ever guaranteed.  Speak with kindness and love in your heart.

The above is what I began channeling before the Christmas Day festivities began and I never finished it unfortunately.  But since today is the day after Christmas and the spirit is still in the air, let me tell you about my day.

It was filled with love and connections with my family.  My greatest gift for which I’m ever grateful was the presence of my sons and the beautiful crystal angel present which they gave me for Christmas.  Through the chaos of circumstances, one bell continued to ring true – we are a family, we are bonded through good times and bad and we support each other’s healing with respect, love and kindness.  Our accepting open hearts and ability to share our feelings triumphs all worldly goods.  Our presence together speaks volumes in a world which is littered with distractions.  Unmasking the superficial, we are really ourselves – our gift to all.  We shine our heartlights with loving presence.  We hold dearly truth and open mindedness.  We bond together with love in our hearts.

That Christmas presence pervaded the celebrations.   When feeling weary from outside forces, we sought shelter together.  We understood each other in profound ways.  Kindness in act, word and deed and living at the higher vibrations was the melody on which we floated.  We chose the gift of presence with each other and that’s the greatest present of all.

Shine On!

xo

Accept Yourself

To be beautiful means to be yourself. 

You don’t need to be accepted by others.

  You need to accept yourself.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

It sounds so easy, doesn’t it?  Just accept yourself with all of your flaws and quirks.  Love yourself.  Drop the fears and wounds that muddy the beauty in your soul.

Imagine if we all did that simple act?  How the world would look differently?  What a wonderful world this would be!

It’s taken me a long time to chacha through accepting myself.  To look in the mirror at my image and tell my eyes that I love me, with all my imperfections.  I’m not always as secure as I’d like to be, as I am a continual work in progress.  I’m not sure I’ll ever be the finished product I’d love to be, but it’s in the journey that we grow, we learn, we inspire and we do our best with what we have.

And on a Sunday afternoon, that’s all I can be.

Namaste

Shine On!

xo

 

Accept Them For Who They Are

Few relationships are perfect as you may know from personal experience.  Many times we wrestle with people in our lives and the relationships we share with them.  It’s a dance, sometimes even a chacha – a few steps forward, a few steps backwards and always flowing.

With that in mind, sometimes we come to the conclusion that toxic relationships need the heave-ho as much as it may or may not hurt.  We choose to discontinue relationships which aren’t working.  Sometimes people become bitter.  Sometimes people become disconnected.  Sometimes the end of a relationship seems not to matter in the least to them and sometimes it matters very much.

But the bottom line is:  Accept Them For Who They Are.

In every relationship, we have opportunities to grow and to learn.  Sometimes they are lessons we would rather not have and sometimes there are no horrendous lessons, just good old-fashioned love and comfort.  Do you know what I mean?

But those who are difficult in your life may be here to help you along with the lessons of life.  They are not here to necessarily be a pain in your neck as it may seem, but instead may be teachers who help you to grow in life.

Some relationships are here for a lifetime, some only for a season.  What bonds us to people is simple:  love and acceptance.

No relationship is perfect.  But in accepting people for who they are, we truly love them.  Not superficial love or that controlling love whereby we make it conditional.

True love which sometimes is rare.

You choose who you love and you can choose to love with heartfelt acceptance or not.  It’s truly up to you.  But to meet all people with acceptance in your heart is difficult at times.  We wish people reacted or acted in certain ways because it’s easier.  But to accept them for their choices is far better for us.  Give free will to love.

It’s an ongoing lesson for me which in my life has had twists and turns and has filled up my dance card with many chacha’s.  But I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Love your life and those in it, past, present and future with acceptance.

Shine On!

xo

The Present Moment

With the uncertainty of life, we let go when we have exhausted all means of control.  Sometimes it takes us longer to finally come to the conclusion that there are simply parts of life that we must allow for we cannot stop them.  For a planner like me, it’s always felt unacceptable.  Searching my brain, I would try to come up with endless ways to make whatever situation better for me, my family, my friends ~ relentlessly trying to improve a situation that I found unacceptable because it was causing someone else or me pain.

But there are times now, after sleepless nights of fret, worry and planning, that I am learning, albeit slowly, to let go and to allow God and the Universe to proceed.  What I’ve learned in the wee hours of the morning is to go with the flow, release, let the river take its course and have faith that as long as I can put my head on the pillow in peace, knowing I have done all with a loving heart, there is nothing more I can do.

However, it’s hard ~ this letting go.  So I am learning to let go and let God ~ and let Him in.

I think it’s human nature to believe we’ve got this, we can figure it out and make it work.  But we forget that there is God, the Universe and the Laws of Attraction who also carry us when we allow them to work their ‘magic’ as well.

Being in the present moment is a life lesson worth learning for me.  I am watching my Mom struggle with Alzheimer’s and being in the present moment with her.  Sometimes her present moment isn’t ‘reality’ but wherever her brain is at the time.  So to honor her, we gather in her present moment and support her, enjoying whatever gifts we can.

It’s a shift of thinking that has taken me a long time to accept and to process in my own brain.  However, love is accepting and above all, I love my Mom.  So I accept where she is at any given moment.  I’ve come a long way baby, but I still have much to learn.

Isn’t that the way life school is anyway?  Learn, practice and love?

Shine On!

xo

Alzheimer’s Disease and Telling a Loved One About a Death

My Mom recently lost her sister with whom she lived in a memory care facility.  It broke my heart to deliver the news to her, so I remained mum for a while and didn’t tell her.  She believed our Aunt was still alive in the hospital for longer than she was, as we contemplated how to tell her the sad news.

But God and the Universe had different plans.  For you see, her resident friends who knew Aunt Mable were also concerned about Aunt Mable and wondered when she would return home.  Mom was told that she was still in the hospital getting treatment, but in truth, she had passed away.  Little could any of us know that one little lady, who is wheelchair bound, blind and has hallucinations along with memory issues would be able to succeed in calling the hospital in hopes that Mom could talk with Aunt Mable and get more information.  A miracle unto itself that she accomplished this with her cell phone.  Sadly, she got the news that Mable had passed away and in a loving manner told Mom.  I know she thought she was helping, but her announcement wasn’t what we had planned.  We were trying to get to Mom to tell her ourselves in person.

Looking through the eyes of an observer, this little lady’s heart was in the right place.  She saw our Mom upset and wanted to help and when I see the situation with a loving heart, I am grateful.  But in that moment when Mom reached out to me, sobbing that she had heard that her sister had passed away and was frantic, I felt powerless.  I had wanted so much to shield Mom from the pain and be there when she found out in order to help her through her grief.  In the end though, life unfolded as it was meant to be.

It is hard for anyone with memory issues to remember, let alone to keep the information that a loved one has passed away, for their ability to remember fades and rallies, moment to moment.  The acceptance of what feels unacceptable (a death of a sister) is too much for the mind to handle and it fades, only to return after a bit and the grief begins again.  It’s a roller coaster for all involved as we try so desperately to soothe a broken heart as the knowledge comes and goes, along with the grief.

There’s no easy way and from my experiences, the only rule is to keep a loving heart, flow with the moment’s understanding and continue to offer love and support to Mom.  That’s all we can do in every situation quite honestly.  Be open, be kind and love.

May you find your Sunday to be filled with peace and love, this is my wish always.

Shine On!

xo

 

 

 

You Gotta Live and Let Live

My Granddaddy owned a general store in a small town in South Carolina.  Because people sometimes didn’t have the money for the necessities that they needed to buy in his store, he would often trade with them instead of using currency.  He would come home with chickens or eggs, once even a goat, from the farmers who needed to buy flour etc.  The story goes that he never let anyone leave without what they needed even when they lacked money.

“You gotta live and let live,” was his motto even back then.  He has long since passed, but the refrain still sticks in my head.  I was talking with one of my cousins today and we were reminiscing about our family and the memories that we shared were priceless.  When I told him the motto above, he chuckled and said it was one of his favorite sayings from AA and he never knew why.  It was simply one that stuck in his brain.

~ Live and Let Live ~

What a lovely way to look at life, don’t you think?  Allow others to be who they are, don’t judge and just look after your own self.  Do what’s right.  Be a good person.  Be yourself.  Be kind and loving towards everyone.  Just remember you can only change yourself and you need to accept everyone else as who they are.  Be a blessing in someone else’s life.  Allow your hardships to help others and not to harden your heart.  Look up and embrace life.  Be joyful that you are here to hold someone else’s hand.  When it’s your turn to need help, embrace the kindness given to you.  Pay it forward.  Don’t hoard your lessons, but share the experiences.  We are all battling something ~ patience and understanding go far when we connect with others on our life journey.  It helps to share when you connect with understanding and embrace others in a kind, loving way.  Be grateful that you can help someone else, even in a small way.  That’s what we are all here for on this life’s journey.

Hold my hand…let’s share!

Shine On!

xo

Just The Way You Are

I Love You Just The Way You Are

To be true to myself, I must admit to you, that I love with my whole heart.  When I say those three words, I mean, I love you, just the way you are.  It’s in loving the whole person, accepting who they are, that you truly love them.  I’ve learned you can fall out of love, but many times, that doesn’t change the love that you share.  The loving acceptance of truly loving another person is timeless and a priceless gift that when shared, is exquisite and precious beyond all measure.

I have had a few precious moments recently which have helped me tremendously on this life path.  To hear that another person loves, accepts and understands you is a gift of enormous proportion.  To connect with another soul on this level is a ‘present of presence’ whose healing properties know no measure.  It is here where I sit this afternoon, heart full of gratitude for the gifts I have given and received.  In trying to process, I find it difficult to express with words how my heart feels completely broken open to receive the heartlights of others who have shared these connections with me.  Words seem so small to the enormity of the situation and yet they are all I have to express how I feel.

Perhaps I can share with you that the everlasting legacy of those who have gone before us stays lit by the memories of how they lived their lives, how they inspired, were they admired and how their presence in our own lives made us feel.  We remember the good and the bad in life.  We can be angry or we can find peace.  We can blame or we can forgive.  But in loving without reservation, there is no good or bad and there is no blame nor need of forgiveness.  There is simply love which heals and knows no boundaries.

One of my favorite songs is by Billy Joel, Just the Way You Are.  They lyrics meant something different to me long ago, but now the song means even more to me ~ its depth and richness of meaning has increased by all the experiences in my lifetime.  I will leave you with the tune below ~ stop and listen to the words, for when we take the time to love someone just the way they are, that love continues soul to soul, spirit to spirit forevermore.

Shine On!

xo

Daily Prompt: “Think Global and Act Local”

The reason why the Universe is eternal is that it does not live for itself;

it gives life to others as it transforms. -Lao Tzu

Today’s daily prompt:  “Think global, act local.” Write a post connecting a global issue to a personal one resonated with me and when I went searching for an image from my SendOutCards greeting card catalog, I knew I had to share!

With today’s daily prompt, I challenge you during the month of February to practice gratefulness for 30 days.  As an 11 year breast cancer survivor, I’ve learned that the key to enduring life’s journey is simple ~  LOVE and GRATITUDE.

World peace is possible by taking small steps ~ and it begins with you and me. 

Imagine for a moment going to your mailbox  ~  you rummage through the junk mail, the bills, the newspapers, etc.  As you quickly peruse the pile, you see an envelope which isn’t a bill, isn’t junk mail and you’re curious.  This is the envelope you open first, isn’t it?  This envelope is an unexpected card from me ~ telling you how wonderful you are and how grateful I am for you in my life.  I  don’t know many of you personally, but as a blogging community we’ve bonded in a most unusual way.  The positivity that flows so effortlessly makes it easy for me to send you this real paper card to tell you how happy I am that we’ve connected and how much I enjoy reading your blog.

How do you feel?

Appreciated! Happy!  Special! Loved! Grateful! 

And you are smiling…because someone thought of YOU today, took the time to tell YOU

how special YOU are and didn’t ask for anything in return. 

That feeling is PRICELESS!

And the greeting card cost only $1 plus postage!

And there’s even financial freedom ~ SendOutCards gives residual income as you think globally by sending cards to everyone all over the world ~ in different languages and act locally by increasing happiness in your world because you are sending a heartfelt message in the card.  You even increase global economy by sending a beautiful card which you do from anywhere in the world, 24/7 via your computer or your phone.  How simple is that?

Sharing GRATITUDE and LOVE increases the good in your life.

Simply click onto GRATITUDE  and get a FREE ACCOUNT!

Sponsor ID is 126830

As for Financial Freedom ~ Click  HERE!

We all deserve a lifetime filled with appreciation, health, happiness,

self-worth,  love and gratitude.

Shine On!

xo

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/daily-prompt-global/