Rest In Peace, Kathy ♥

When I began blogging years ago, as anyone who’s been blogging for awhile, you know, we meet fellow bloggers and connect.  We connect through our blogs even if sometimes  our chosen subjects aren’t always relevant to the other person’s lives.  But we read each other’s blogs with enthusiasm to show support and to keep that good spiritual connection with our blogger friends.

Such was how I met Kathy Funkhouser and her blog IB Designs, USA so many years ago.  I’m not really into nautical flags so much, but I loved her enthusiasm for fishing, photography, her flag business and her sweet spirit.  We connected.

In fact, she used to make a ♥ at the end of her comments as we grew our friendship and it is because of her sharing how to make a ♥ (by the way, it’s by hitting ALT and number 3 and holding them down together) that our friendship bloomed even brighter.  To this day, when I make a ♥ anytime, I think of her.  Really, I do!

So imagine my sadness when I read on her FB personal page which hasn’t shown any posts for a long time, that she had passed away.  She had stopped writing on her blog for awhile, but many of us had no idea how sick she was.  Although we never met in person, we commented a lot on each other’s blog pages and grew a friendship from faraway.

I have a heavy heart today as we found out through her business partner Craig that she had passed away in March.  I know some of you may remember Kathy so I wanted to let you know in case you knew her.

Thank you Kathy for teaching me how to lead with my ♥ in blogging connections.  You were a really special person and I am honored to have called you my friend.  God Bless.  We can still feel your heartlight shining!

Shine On!

xo

If you ever need signal flags, banners with a personal touch, nautical flags, etc, here is her website.  I am not sure if the business will continue, but it’s worth the click to see the IB DESIGNS, USA website!

 

 

An Instagram Lesson For All

Whew!  My plight has been resolved.  Instagram took down my page that was hacked.  My heartfelt gratitude to those who helped by reporting the impersonation of my page and the images which were not mine.  What a fiasco, but I am ever grateful to those who took the time to help me and to those of you who reached out via my blog.

It’s a good lesson to learn that even though there are those out there in cyberland who choose to hack, to impersonate and to live on the dark side; there are also those who have your back, make the effort to do good and to help when needed.  For this, I am ever grateful.

Some tips I read on the Instagram site if you are ever in this predicament, and can’t log into your account for whatever reason, are:

Tell your friends to report it as “this profile is pretending to be someone” and not as pornography or spam.

• “The appropriate way to report an account is go to the person’s account, then hit the ellipse or the three dots on the upper right hand corner.
• Next, click “I believe this violates the community guidelines;” then “report account;” then “this profile is pretending to be someone else;” and then hit “someone I know.”
• If you are a person, tell your friends to do this. BUT – if you are representing an organization, give instructions to the right people within your company to report the account.”

I researched through the Instagram site, trying desperately to contact them to tell them that my page was hacked, password and email changed and there was no way I could log in to remove the hacked photos from my account.  I learned that there is a two step authentication process by which those on Instagram can protect their pages which I highly recommend you do if you are on Instagram.  I will not be using their services anymore, but I will say that am grateful that within a day of complaints by me and some of my followers, the page was deleted and will never be resurrected by me.

I know a lot of people who use Instagram for family photos, etc.  In my research there were tons of people who had been hacked as I had and they had to jump through hoops to authenticate themselves to Instagram and some of them lost their photos entirely.  It’s an epidemic now in this cyberworld that there are people who choose to arbitrarily hack into other people’s accounts and not just with Instagram, but I’ve heard with Facebook and other social media.

Be wary, be careful, and take precautions dear friends.  It can be a dangerous world out there.  I hope this never happens to you and I am grateful that the crisis is now averted for me.  But perhaps in sharing my story, you will be more vigilant so that you don’t experience this unseen, disturbing violation of your social media account.

Shine On!

xo

Wishing You Love and Happiness

Happy Valentine’s Day dear friends!

I wish you love and happiness today and always.  May you always remember how cherished you are to those who love you (and to me!) and how grateful and honored I feel to be connected with you!  May we send out kindness and love to those around us today and always.  May we all feel the infinite love of God, the Universe, and the Divine in every moment!  May we love ourselves and others.  May we cherish our connections (both past and present) and increase them exponentially every day by our kindness, generosity of spirit and gratitude.

May we remember how loved we are, every single moment of every single day.

You are loved, dear friends.

Shine On!

xo

 

You Are Simply the Best!

“The more you praise and celebrate your life,

the more there is in life to celebrate.”

– Oprah Winfrey

This is my birthday week celebration and I want to share it with you ~ let’s celebrate, for we have today ~ let’s embrace The Presents of Presence as we feel gratitude for this day, for this moment in time that we share together.  Come join me in celebrating our lives, our connections and our friendships!  Let’s be grateful that we can enjoy this moment together!

I am grateful for so much in my life, even the hardships that I have endured.  I am grateful for the happy and sad moments for they have taught me well.  I am grateful for the strength that I have found within and the supportive friends and family who have helped me through many trying times.  I am grateful to God for every breath that I continue to have and for the blessed life that I have lived thus far and I pray that I have many more years of life given to me.  I am grateful for the willingness of myself and others to reach out daily through blogging, texting, phone calls, cards and emails etc. in order to support, love and connect with each other in order to increase the love in this world through kindness.  I am grateful for every prayer.  I am grateful for the angels who surround me and for meeting human angels along my path of life.  I am grateful for my feline friends as well who give unconditional loving fur therapy when most needed (and even when not needed).  There’s something about being loved by an animal which is precious as well.  I am grateful for my mind, soul, heart and body which have endured breast cancer etc. and continue to thrive daily, even under unspeakable circumstances.  I am grateful to Mother Nature for daily delivering such a beautiful dawn which inspires me, even when I feel under the weather.  I am grateful as I count all of the blessings, big and small, in my life.

So today, please celebrate with me ~ celebrate your life, yourself and your connections with others both big and small.  Celebrate your life well-lived and your present moment.  Choose to feel the tranquility of gratitude, the quiet reminder that you are here~ perfect, whole and complete and you are appreciated for who you are.

For I am grateful to all of you!

Shine On!

xo

 

How to Find Peace

“Peace is to be found only within, and unless one finds it there
he will never find it at all. Peace lies not in the external world.
It lies within one’s own soul.” – Ralph W. Trine

Peace, Stillness, Sanctuary, Self-Love are all ways in which we can find peace within our souls.  But it is we who must do the work in order to find the inner peace which we already have in our souls.  Peace is not something outside of us, but a divine present which we inherently hold deep within us.  We only need to tap into it in order to feel the fruits of the divine.  It is through stillness which isn’t always still, that we are lead to that place of understanding and self-awareness.  I am a seeker of my own peace within, slowly winding my way, piece by peace, taking baby steps on an unmarked path to my soul.  I am blessed to have connected with others who hold out their hands for me to hold, to follow, who willingly walk this path on my life’s journey.  Hearts open wide as they help to lift my tired wings as I learn to fly.  My soul rejoices with every step I take, even when at times, I may stumble backwards.  I may fall, but I get up, ever vigilant, ever optimistic, ever yearning for the Presents of Presence.

May you find peace within you,

today and everyday.

Shine On!

xo

600 Posts

Thank you for the simple fact that you are with me.

600 posts! Oh my!

When I began this blog journey, I had no idea what joy would be brought into my life, how many heartfelt connections we would forge internationally and how many hearts would connect through support and kindness. The magnitude of my gratitude is limitless. I am forever grateful to everyone who has stopped by to visit, to comment, to like and to be here with me.

You inspire me,

you lift my spirits,

you shine your special love into my life

and I pray that you feel I do the same for you!

Thanks for being you! xoxo

Shine On!

xo

Lab Error

As you know, for the last few days, I’ve been battling another feverish worry about my tumor marker results which came in over normal.  Honestly they had been creeping up and were just over normal back in August.  So when I got the call back saying that I needed a retest, my heart dropped, my brain went into overload and I cried.  Fear took over as I’ve been there, done that and I don’t ever want to relive the harrowing hell of cancer a second time.  Who am I kidding?  Nobody ever wants to live it the first time, let alone any encores!

It works the same with any illness I think ~ or any sort of test for health.  We go into the test hoping for the best, worrying about the results and trying our best to stay calm.  At least, I can say that this is how it works for me.  You’d think that after 12 years of this, I’d get used to it, but I’ve never quite gotten used to the fear factor in testing about my breast cancer.  As the years have progressed and I’ve been blessed to live without recurrence, it still matters not when the time comes for testing or for that dreaded wait period for results.  I’m sure you’ll agree that,  The Waiting is the Hardest Part (click for blog post).

My 2nd waiting period was cut short this time due to my favorite sympathetic vampire (my oncologist’s amazing phlebotomist whom I adore ~ thanks Robin) who put my retest in STAT as she understood my anxiety was over the top high this time.  My blood pressure was 190 over something high and it was sheer will that kept me upright in the chair and not passing out, again when she took my blood.  Yes, another of my special charms, I pass out when I see a needle ~ and you’d think I”d get over that as well since I’ve endured countless needles over my lifetime with the C-word, but nope, that one continues.

So when the phone rang  late yesterday afternoon, I knew I had to answer.  I was at a stop light.  I saw it was the doctor’s office.  So I quickly answered and asked the caller to wait a moment while I pulled over.  Breathing deeply, car in park, I gave her my full attention.

“Yes, I’m here.  Thanks for waiting. I am driving so I pulled over so I can talk with you.”

“Great.  Glad to hear it, but I wouldn’t have called your cell if I didn’t have this news.”

“And….”  Butterflies are doing the mambo in my tummy.  I can hear the blood whooshing in my ears and my heart is beating like a loud drum.  Yes, I am afraid.

“Good news.  It was a lab error.  Your numbers are safely within the normal range.”

“Really?  Are you sure?  Everything is good?  I’m fine?” I stuttered, beginning to cry.

“Yes, you are fine.”

“Oh my gosh, thank you, thank you.  I feel like I’m going to throw up!  Thank you!”

“On don’t throw up.  Are you crying?”

“Oh yes, I was so upset.  Yes, I”m crying.  Happy tears.  Thank you so much.  Oh, I”m so happy!”

Giggles in the background, mine and hers, like a symphony.

“Enjoy.  Be happy.  These are my favorite calls to make.”

“I’m sure.  I’ve been on the other end so I understand,” I answered somberly.

“I know you do.   Big hugs to you.  Enjoy your night.”

“Oh you know I will.  Thank you!”

I hung up the phone.  Tears spilling everywhere down my cheeks.  I can’t catch my breath.  I am so relieved.  I feel like the floodgates have opened and I am swooshed away with the pent up worry that is now fully releasing itself from my body.  Giggles, tears, relief flooding everywhere.  Thank goodness I pulled over to park!

“Thank you God.  Thank you body.  Thank you so much.”  I repeat aloud in my car by myself.  And of course, I began to thank all of you, my friends, my family, our loving community.

This morning I awoke wanting to write so much to you.  But I wanted you to have the story here first so please bear with me if I write another post because the story’s not finished here.  It’s just that I don’t want you to have more than a 5 minute post to read today.  And please know that…

Shine On!

xo