Spirits in the Night…

While we are mourning the loss of our friend,

others are rejoicing to meet him behind the veil. – John Taylor

Years ago, I awoke from a dream that was so real that I called my parents to tell them.  My Mom’s brother was like another father to me growing up.  He was a special man in my life and I loved him very much.  My dream was brief, but I saw him as clear as day in my dream and I heard his voice which I hadn’t heard in over 20 years.  I knew the voice immediately and recognized him in my dream as well as he looked ‘fit as a fiddle’ and happy.  I spent many weeks visiting him in South Carolina as a child and he always made a big deal of my visits.  When I told my parents about my vivid dream, my Dad told me that it was my Uncle’s birthday (which I didn’t know).  I felt very blessed that he had come to visit me and I was smiling all day thinking of him.

Truth be told, I thought it was a strange coincidence, but went on with my life, never thinking another thing about it.

Then a few nights ago, I awoke in the middle of the night, startled from a dream that was so real that it took me a few minutes to shake the cobwebs from my brain and realize that I was in my own home, in my bedroom and it was 3am.  In my very vivid, realistic dream, I was talking with my Dad and my Aunt Gloria.  We were in a house which I know I’ve visited before in my dreams and we were in the kitchen, talking and laughing.  It felt so good to see the two of them looking healthy and happy.  They looked as I remembered them 20 years ago and not as I had last seen them which had been at their recent deaths.  I remember that there were others milling around, but the three of us were talking in the kitchen of the home and we were teasing my Dad and laughing heartily over something funny.

My Dad passed away 6 weeks ago and Aunt Gloria passed away 6 months ago, but they were great friends and I can easily see the 2 of them whooping it up in Heaven together.  In fact, the more I’ve thought about my recent dream, the more I suspect that perhaps I did really visit with the 2 of them for the duration of my brief dream.  Now I just wish I could remember what we had been talking about as it was very funny.  Surely they shared a dilly of a joke or story with me because I remember feeling so lighthearted when I awoke.

Whatever happened that night, I know that it was a confirmation to me that they are doing well on the ‘other side of the veil’ and I am happy to see it.  I am just so grateful that the two of them found each other and deigned to visit me.  What a beautiful memory to enjoy for days to come!

Has this ever happened to you?  Am I the only one?  Have you ever gotten a visit from someone who’s passed?   I’ve never told anyone but my family about these dreams so I’m interested in knowing if I’m just delusional or if you’ve had similar experiences?  If you would, please let me know…

Happy August 1st to you!

xo

Face the Sun!

Strength. Turn your face to the sun and shadows fall behind you.

Many of us have had tough times.  By a certain age, most of us have endured moments or longer of hard times and with that, have some experience in disappointment, sadness, fear, loss and such.  What I find most interesting though is how some people have endured hardships and yet they don’t allow those moments to define them.

Having been dealt the hand of breast cancer at age 34, I have experienced sadness, fear, loss and disappointment among other things…but that’s not to say that I haven’t been able to enjoy every sunrise, every cloud formation, every season and the precious moments of spontaneous hugs from my sons and family.   I’ve seen the darkness and I’ve seen the light.  Perhaps you feel that it’s not easy living on the roller coaster of life, a sentiment which I understand.  However, what brings me comfort is that with every nightfall, I know that in a few hours, there’s a sunrise waiting for me and it’s that sunrise I choose to concentrate on and ‘turn my face to’ everyday.  I feel grateful that I am here to experience it all ~ for without having experienced the darkness, how would we ever know how spectacular the sunrise is?

You own the power to choose everyday how you are going to face the day…

Turn your face to the sun and shadows fall behind you.

You’ll be glad you did!

xo

5 Minutes of Solitude…

It is only when we silent the blaring sounds of our daily existence

that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us,

as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts. K.T. Jong

For those of you who are energized by a challenges, I challenge you this week to give yourself 5 minutes of uninterrupted silence a day ~ not multi-tasking silence where you turned off the radio while driving to work ~ that doesn’t count nor does taking 5 minutes on the toilet and instead of reading, you sit quietly ~  nor does the 5 minutes before you actually fall asleep and have your head on the pillow ready for sleep to envelope your mind ~ but 5 minutes where you are conscious, quiet, without doing something else and you just sit.

I recently started doing this myself and at first it was hard for me as I like to either zone out in front of the tv if I’m going to be quiet or I like to read if I”m not chatting.  However, sitting quietly for 5 minutes without doing anything is a challenge.  I started making lists in my head of what I needed to do, wondering what the noises I heard downstairs were (did one of the kids drop something?) and the continuous thought of  ‘oh man, is 5 minutes up yet?” looped in my head.

So what I’ve done is started free writing during my 5 minutes which is akin to meditating, but offers my busy body a way to keep quiet for 5 minutes while doing something.  I am not quite sure if 5 minutes of solitude allows for free writing, but for now it’s working like a charm for me and perhaps it will for you as well.

Free writing for me has been me typing on my computer for 5 minutes uninterrupted, just allowing whatever words that begin to show in my head, a space on paper.  It’s just typing (or writing if you prefer) the stream of consciousness or unconsciousness that exudes from my fingertips without constraint.  And boy oh boy has it been interesting to read.  In fact, there have been times recently that I’ve gone over and beyond the 5 minutes as the words simply type themselves on the paper and continue to roll out in long, waves of sentences and paragraphs.

Sometimes it’s been just drivel that my fingers have typed, but some of the words/meanings that have come to fruition have been quite meaningful to my life and present situation.  The thoughts have had insight to my experiences and have been able to give proper responsibility where its due.

My Monday post today is simply to TRY for 5 minutes to be quiet and just listen to yourself…take a few moments for you.  Use it as an experiment.  You have nothing to lose except 5 minutes of worry, work or multitasking…give it a week and let me know how it goes…I’d love to hear if you already do this as I’d love the feedback…and if you’re just starting, let me know if you’d prefer I keep my challenges to myself!  Ha!

Happy Monday to You!

You’re worth 5 minutes…and more!

Be good to YOU!

xo

GROW through Life…

Don’t go through life. Grow through life.

Sometimes I think we mindlessly go through life, continuing the habit of work, eat, sleep, awaken repeat…we get into the routine of doing what needs to be done during each day because it needs to be done.  Taking care of ourselves sometimes gets pushed aside in order to take care of everyone else’s needs and we allow routine and the easy thoughtless unmindful ways to take over.

Being that it’s Sunday, I thought this was a good time to broach the subject of taking care of ourselves ~ “the Sabbath is a day of rest” as my Mom puts it ~ is just the ticket to change the routine.  If it’s an excuse you need to use in order to allow yourself some time to just ‘be’ and relax, well, then here it is!

Let me remind you that there are 24 hours in a day…and you can spare 10 minutes for yourself.  The idea is to start at 10 minutes for you and then add minutes as you go.  Perhaps a little meditation could be in order…or some free writing where you can just allow your thoughts some flight…or just taking a little time to look up at the sky and notice the beauty in nature that surrounds you.

Just going through life isn’t a life…you need to GROW through life so that you can experience all that life has to offer!  I don’t want to look back at my life and wonder where the years went…I want to stroll down my own memory lane with many stops along the way, enjoying the laughter and even the tears of moments which impact my life and my family…I want to remember fun times and silly moments…I want to smile and feel peaceful for how I lived, how I treated others and even how I treated myself.  I want to remember stretching out of my comfort zone to breathe happiness into my soul.

Enjoy this Sunday!

Grow through your life!

You are worth it!

xo

A Single Courageous Step…

Many of our fears are tissue-paper-thin,

and a single courageous step

would carry us clear through them. -Brendan Francis

Lately I haven’t been sleeping as well as I’d like.   I don’t know about you, but sometimes I go through periods of time where sleep evades me more often than not and right now I’ve not been sleeping well.  I wake up in the middle of the night, unable to fall back asleep because my mind continues to whir and mindless chatter of what I need to do and what needs to be done by others plagues me.  And then there is the fear of not getting everything done properly as I’m in charge of a lot these days…that fear alone can put me over the edge.   But what I’ve found is that the fears are usually paper thin and unfounded…but in the middle of the night, they feel like I’m carrying heavy bricks.

So what I’ve begun doing is imagining that each brick is one of my fears and I begin to walk ~ baby steps of course ~ and as I do, I let go of a brick with each step.  I simply drop it and allow my mind to tick it off the list that plagues me.  I drop the brick of named fear into the abyss below me and I imagine that it goes away into nothingness ~ that it simply evaporates.

Sometimes I imagine that Universe/God catches it and turns it into dust as well, but that’s only if simply dropping it doesn’t actually make it go away.  Sometimes those fear bricks have been known to not easily be released and that’s when my stepping out takes control because I’m still walking as I drop them and as I continue to walk, they are further away from me.

We all have fears which is sad because when we allow those fears to manifest, they can take over…which is why, I adore my baby steps!  Do you carry fears?  Do you sleep well?  Can you see that much of what we fear isn’t anything more than worry emphasized?

Join me in our stepping away from our fears and into the light…drop your fears, make them a kite and fly those paper-thin thoughts right out of your head today!  Let me know how it works for you ~ and what works for you!  I’d love to hear more options for my nightly episodes.

Happy Monday to you!  It’s the start of a new week!  Enjoy!!

xo

Strength…

“STRENGTH does not come from winning.

Your struggles develop your strengths.

When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender,

THAT IS STRENGTH.” —Arnold Schwarzenegger

Although I’m not a huge fan of Arnold, I do like this quote because it’s true…to look at me, to know me, to love me, is to know that part of ‘my charm’ is that I am not a big fan of pain and I have been known to yelp with a paper cut!  I am also a fainter at the sight of a needle which you would think after all of the needles that I’ve seen through my 1/2 closed eyes with fingers splayed across my face, I would be over that fear by now, but nope…again part of my charm.  Which by the way, my darling husband would love it if I were less charming (ahem), but I can’t be anything but me, so charming it is ~ much to his chagrin!

But what I lack in muscular strength, I have in spiritual and it is what gets me through life.  I would never win a prize for athleticism or physical endurance (although I do think there should be a prize given to those of us who have endured more than our share of illness/surgeries and all around ick), but the middle of the nights, all alone spiritual challenges may leave me weakened, but never completely without endurance.

I have endurance…it’s a small seed of endurance filled with love, laughter and an amazing amount of support from my family, friends, loved ones and even strangers.  I have faith which has increased over time…and I am HOPE above all.  I just never surrender.

So if your strength is waning these days, I’ll lend you mine…because that’s what friends are for.

We are all connected…you may be the weak link in the chain at the moment,

but the chain of love will protect you.

Never surrender!

Love you lots!

xo

Before the bloom fades…

Capture it before the bloom fades…

My friend CAngel took this picture for me and sent it to me yesterday and because I love it, I thought I’d share it via a card so here it is…a blue hydrangea!  Her comment resonated with me ~ “I thought you might like this photo. I thought it was so pretty that I wanted to capture it before the bloom faded.’

And then it struck me, ‘capture it before the bloom faded’ and this post was born…

Because that’s what we are always trying to do, aren’t we?  Capture life before it fades…but do we?  Can we?  Like the photo she took for me, we have snippets of moments that glisten in time for us, moments that perhaps we capture on film, on video, on tape or on paper.  Are we the sum of those moments?

On my home answering machine are 2 messages from my Dad which I keep saving.  They are the last vestiges of his voice that I have on tape and they are in fact messages that he left when he was in the hospital.  They are precious to me because of that fact but also because of what he said…he said he loved me.  Although I knew it, hearing how he felt has helped so much these past 3 weeks.  He appreciated my helping him with his business while he was unable to work and it is those 2 thoughts that hold my heart captive.

So today, before the bloom fades…

take a moment to let those around you know how you feel about them.

Send a heartfelt message in a card…

We only have today…

http://www.sendoutcards.com/126830

A Celebration of Life

If one should say to you that the soul perishes like the body,

answer that the flower withers, but the seed remains.

Yesterday marked 3 weeks since my Dad passed and at the time he passed yesterday, I was out to eat with my sons, hubby and in-laws, all whom were laughing and eating and enjoying themselves.  As I glanced at my watch, I said a silent prayer to Dad, hoping that perhaps his spirit could hear me.

For I know he would have loved to have been there ~ laughing, having a good time, teasing everyone.  That’s the Dad I knew and loved.  There are many complexities to my Dad, many attributes I didn’t care for, but the seed of love, well, that’s what I know remains in my heart now.

As I watch the sun rise over the lake this morning, I am all alone which I love.  Mornings are my favorite when the house is quiet and it’s just me and my thoughts.  That’s the time that I can mourn him, let a few of the tears flow and nourish my broken heart.  It’s the ‘me’ time of day when I am strongest and I can fathom all of the grieving emotions that undulate in my heart during the day.  My health hasn’t been so great lately ~ my body, heart, mind and soul have taken a beating ~ but I am still here and still mending ~ as always,taking it one baby step at a time.

The seed of Dad’s being still exists and I see signs of it everyday.  Emails I receive from his friends, many of whom I didn’t know existed, continue to pop up in my inbox.  Notes and letters continue to arrive in my mailbox as do stories recounted of what he had said and done when he was here.  It’s these stories that remind me of the goodness of my Dad ~ and those are the seeds I want to remember.

He scattered seeds far and wide ~ most of them good ~ and that’s why we’re all here isn’t it?  To touch others’ lives by our own in the best way possible.

So that’s what I concentrate on this morning as I write today’s post…a celebration of life and remembering the love.  And as I ponder what my family would think if I were to perish tomorrow, I keep hoping that the seeds that I’m sowing today will make for a lifetime of love tomorrow.

Happy Friday to You!

xo

Embrace your Uniqueness…

Unique. Embrace your uniqueness.

Time is much too short to be living someone else’s life.

~ Kobi Yamada.

I think as we get older, it becomes easier to be ourselves.  Perhaps it’s just me, but I feel that there’s an awakening, a releasing of caring about what someone else’s thoughts are about me and a freedom which makes life so enjoyable!

I spoke with CAngel yesterday whom I only just recently met.  She was very open in telling me about her life and the recent events which had changed her life so dramatically.  Instead of being negative about the events which changed her entire life recently, when I asked her how she was, she answered, “I am well.”  She went on to tell me that she was not going to succumb to negativity in thought nor in word.  She would accept the growth that the experiences were giving her and she would take this opportunity to get to know herself better.  She looks up, reads scripture and is delving into knowing herself better in order to strengthen herself.  She even shared with me that she has intuitive skills with spirits which I found fascinating and I loved that she was embracing her uniqueness in such a grand way.  Good for you CAngel!

We all have a UNIQUENESS that is OURS ALONE!  We all have talents, strengths and weaknesses which make us ourselves.  We can live our lives covering up what makes us unique or we can celebrate our uniqueness and strengthen it.  It’s all up to You!

For me, I love my Uniqueness ~ I’m not quite sure what makes me Unique though…

Do you know what makes you Unique?  Do you celebrate your Uniqueness?

Embrace your Uniqueness!

xo

Key to Success…Key to Failure…

I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. ~Bill Cosby

Happy Monday to You!  I found this card this morning and just knew it was for today’s message.  In digging through my Dad’s personal items, I’ve found a ton of keys ~ most of which I have no clue as to what doors they open, but I find it interesting that there are so many doors that they could open and I wonder if I’ll ever find them.

On my own keyring, I have a key which I can’t figure out whose door it opens.  It’s been on there so long that I am afraid to throw it out for fear that it is a key I need.  Do you have any keys which don’t serve you anymore because you don’t know to which door they belong?  Have you thrown them out or are you holding onto them like me?

I feel like many of us hold onto keys in hopes of finding the doors to which they belong and in doing so, we somehow hold onto that ‘key of failure’ in the process.  Trying to keep the peace, helping to keep everyone happy and perhaps not keeping ourselves happy in the process is a key to failure.

It’s Your Life…it’s My Life…and I’m a guilty as the next key holder when it comes to trying to please everyone from time to time.  I’m not advocating not smoothing the road of life from time to time for others, but living your life to please everyone is not a life to live.  Giving yourself up in order to make others happy doesn’t allow you to be happy nor to grow by experiencing life as it could be.

As for my dilemma with an unknown door key ~ I’m going to take my own advice today ~ for the next week, I will truly try to figure out to which door it belongs and if at the end of a week I am unable to find it, I will simply take it off my keyring and put it away in my desk.  It’s not serving me and I feel like it’s weighing me down.  Perhaps it’ll be my symbolic key to failure that I’ll finally lay to rest.  I’m still unable to throw it out, but I think there will come a time that I will simply throw it away knowing that the door to that key is permanently closed…and I’ll feel good about it.

Do you carry keys to success on your key ring?  Or do you carry keys to failure?

xo