Radiate and Shine On!

I always end my posts with Shine On!  I don’t know why, but it began awhile back.  For some reason, the phrase Shine On brings me a plethora of emotion.  It’s like a farewell, till we connect again, and a gentle reminder to continue radiating love and light into the world.  Keep shining your special, unique self and sparkle so the world is brighter because of you.  Shine your heartlight brightly dear friends!  Our souls connect in the light of hope, love and prosperity.  Darkness cannot survive in the light.

Kindness, caring, compassion and understanding are key.  When we are patient with ourselves and with all of those around us, our heartlights beat at a higher vibration, thus radiating more sparkling light – we, in fact, shine on ourselves and our beautiful world bringing more peace and healing.

I am ever grateful for the loving, healing connections I’ve made through blogging and I am ever grateful and appreciative of each and every one of you.  Your heartlights brighten my world.  Our connections help to heal and to spread love.

Our world needs more light, love and healing.  Please take a moment today to…

Shine On!

xo

via Daily Prompt: Radiate

Ringing in 2016

May 2016 be the year all of our wishes are fulfilled.

May love, health, wealth and joy be ours.

May we make memories to hold close to our hearts.

May we be healthy in mind, heart, body and soul.

May we heal in miraculous ways.

May we reach out in kindness and be greeted in kind everyday.

May we know love and trust in the Universe.

May we travel safely.

May we keep our faith strong.

May our heartlights shine brightly.

May hope spring eternal.

May love conquer all.

May we continue to be grateful and appreciate every gift.

May we remember to look up and to search within when times are hard.

May we count blessings and not troubles.

 May we make connections through caring.

May we hold dearly the Presents of Presence.

May peace be ours to share with the world.

~~~~~~~~

 May we never forget we are perfect, whole, complete and loved.

May 2016 be your best year yet!

Shine On!

xo

Believe in Yourself

“We do not believe in ourselves

until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable,

worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch.

Once we believe in ourselves we can risk

curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight

or any experience that reveals the human spirit.”

~ e.e. cummings

Sometimes we just need someone to reveal to us the words, “I believe in you.”  There is something quite magical in hearing that someone sees you, sees the real you and in knowing that, they believe in you.  I know this because I have experienced that kindness with much gratitude when I have been feeling low, dark and empty.  The words, “I believe in you,” lifted me up and lit my little heart afire in such a spunky way.

It’s like believing in Santa.  When Christmas rolls around, many people, young and old BELIEVE!  They believe in the spirit of Christmas, the giving, the gratitude, the kindness, and the twinkling love that embraces the Earth with a semblance of peaceful joy.  Do you feel that rush of excitement and anticipation?  For us, with the cold weather, it’s a time to bundle up and embrace the warmth of love, finding warmth in ‘yuletide carols being sung by a fire’ and loving camaraderie.

Today, I want you to hear my words, “I believe in you.”  I see you shining my dear friends.  I see your twinkling human spirit filled with the loving light of kindness.  May you see yourself in a loving way as others do you and may you see others in the same beautiful way.

Shine On!

xo

Uniting October in Pink and Blue

Click here to learn more about the CarlyMarie Project Heal

As The Presents of Presence, I like to bring you hope, help and healing.  For the most part, I share my Breast Cancer experiences in hopes that they can help you to heal while you are enduring breast cancer, but many times, the lessons I’ve learned may help others who are enduring other illnesses, other cancers, other traumas and tragedies.  Those sadnesses and grief hold the same importance in my life’s purpose to help whomever I can and however I can.  It is in showing compassion for what another person is enduring that helps us all to heal.  It is by connecting through our hearts, our words and our beings that we can allow the sadness to heal.

As many bloggers have shared, we all have a story.  Many of us carry sadness within our lives.  There is no one who has lived who has not endured something so profoundly life changing that we cannot open our hearts to embrace the pain of another person.  I believe that in that special moment of sharing, we connect and begin the healing process.  Perhaps I am naive to believe that in connecting with you and with others that we forge a bond of healing.  I don’t know.  I am just a blogger who wants to Send Out Love.

CarlyMarie is on Facebook and is someone with whom I’ve never spoken to at all.  But it was in a post by her this morning that this blog post was born.  Because you see, Breast Cancer and Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month have many connections, one being the month of October.  We share this month which highlights awareness for both of us affected by these life changing moments.

I must admit, I never knew that there was a month designated for these precious babies and their families.  Long ago, I began following CarlyMarie on Facebook because of her unique story which beckons me.  It is in sharing her sadness that she has been able to heal herself and others and still continue to light the way for healing while keeping the sweet memory of her son Christian alive.  It is in finding the light in the sadness that she connects with me.  Because it’s what I try to do myself.

So please, take a moment to experience her light ~ stop by her FB page, click above to see how she’s helping to heal others with whom she’s connected.  I hope that you will send out love to her loving community as well.

There may be other ’causes’ that use October as their month as well.  If you know of another, please let me know.

UPDATE:  Colon Cancer shares the month of October as well and Down Syndrome Awareness Month!

Shine On!

xo

Escape!

Sunlight dancing on the water

Today’s Daily Prompt asks for our escape plan and from what we’re escaping ~ well for me, that’s easy ~ put me on the water, let the sunshine glisten on the surface of the water like diamonds, allow the sun’s rays above to caress and warm my skin and allow the breeze to lift all my worries from my brain.  Being on the water gives me freedom from everything ~ I can only concentrate on the beauty of the moment, escape to the Presents of the Presence ~ relishing the NOW as only this moment allows.

It is my very favorite escape ~ I dig deeply into my soul and rejoice in the beauty which surrounds me ~ the call of nature ~ the serenity which envelopes me, the peacefulness which soothes me and lifts my spirits.  Guess it must be the Pisces in me?

Take a moment and breathe in the peace, the serenity and the glow of life!

Shine On!

xo

Where’s your favorite escape?

Daily Prompt: Escape!

Describe your ultimate escape plan (and tell us what you’re escaping from).

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/daily-prompt-escape/

Lovely Valentine Liebsters!

Happy Valentine’s Day to ALL!

I wish you a lifetime filled with love!

I thought today would be the perfect day to share the love of the Liebster because it’s all about our connections!  I am thankful to all of you who read my blog and especially thankful for your taking the time to like and comment on it! xo

My special thank you’s go to Patty from  http://thoughtsfromanamericanwoman.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/liebster-award/  and sweet pup Wiley of  http://wileyschmidt.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/it-only-takes-a-seed/  who recently nominated me for the Liebster!  Please make sure you check out their special blogs!  You won’t be disappointed!

My heartfelt thanks to you both!  Forgive me for putting you both together, but alas, it is VALENTINE’S DAY so I figured I could really make the Liebster powerful today!  I am so honored ~ thank you for making my heart sing!  Happy Valentine’s Day to you!

Here are the rules

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award Presenter on your blog and link back to their blog

2. Answer the 11 questions from the nominator, list 11 random facts about yourself and create 11 questions for your nominees.

3. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 11 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they’ve been chosen.

4. Copy and Paste the blog award on your blog.

11 Random Facts about Me!

1.  I love to wake up early every morning so that I can have a quiet cup of coffee in my home while my family sleeps.

2.  My new favorite treat is Limited Edition Triple Stuffed Oreos ~ Oh so delish!

3.  I am excited to say I am in the middle of writing an inspirational e-book!

4.  I dislike cooking, but love to watch cooking shows!

5.  I smile at strangers.

6.  I love to be out on a boat on a sunny day!

7.  I could watch snowflakes falling for hours.

8.  I am happily and gratefully married almost 18 years.

9.  My teenagers still hug and kiss us everyday!

10.  My kitten (who is 5 yrs old) meows Mama when she’s looking for me ~ really!

 Here are my answers from Patty’s questions:

1. What is your favorite season?  I love them all ~ but I guess Summer because I love having my kids at home!

2. What is your favorite non-profit organization?   ACS ~ American Cancer Society and Society of the Little Flower (St. Therese)

3. If you can choose one place to live where would it be?  I believe that home is where your family is so I wouldn’t care as long as there was a season of summer!

4. What is your favorite song? I Love You Just the Way You Are! by Billy Joel

5. When you were younger what did you want to be when you grew up?  A Spanish teacher (which I was for 11 years!)

6. What is the one thing you always wanted to do that you never told anyone?  Drive a racecar

7. What is your favorite movie?  Gone With The Wind

8. How many brothers and sisters do you have?  1 sister

9. What is your pet peeve?  Narcissists

10. What is your favorite restaurant?  I love many restaurants!

11. Who do you admire the most and why?  Mother Teresa because she lived a life of loving everyone.

And from my favorite puppy blogger Wiley….

1) If money weren’t involved, what would you choose as a forever career?  A writer

2) What causes do you support, why, and how can we get involved?  I am a Reach to Recovery volunteer for the American Cancer Society.  You can get involved in many ways!

3) What is the first item on your bucket list?  Swim with dolphins in Hawaii followed by a helicopter ride

4) What is your personal life philosophy?  SendOutLove ~ which means smiling ~ helping ~ appreciating others ~ and letting them know!

5) If you could change one thing about your past, what would it be?  I would be less afraid!

6) What is the most important life lesson you have for your child/children? If you don’t have children, what is the most important life lesson you’ve learned and who did you learn it from?  I want my children to be good people ~ to have integrity, kindness and to use their intelligence to change the world. 🙂

7) What is your favorite quote?  “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change, ” from Dr. Wayne Dyer.

8) If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?  Australia, Alaska, return to Spain.

9) If you could bring anyone back from the dead, who would you choose? Why?  My dad because I have so many questions and my Mom misses him so much.

10) Tell me about your favorite pet.  I have 2 cats currently whom I adore, but my  Chessie is almost 17 yrs old ~ she never left my side throughout my battle with breast cancer, she purred next to me whenever I slept and stayed close so that I was never alone.  Her dedication is a blessing in my life.  Tiffy, her 5 year old sister, makes me laugh all day and raises my spirits when needed.  They both give the best fur therapy ever!

11) In what do you find the simplest of joys?  My children, my husband, our pets, my life and hugs and kisses.

Here’s a special list in no particular order of some amazing blogs to follow!  Come share the love and visit them!

1.  Julia at http://defeatdespair.wordpress.com/

2.  Judy at http://judysp.wordpress.com/

3.  Ralph at http://bluefishway.com/

4.  Bobbi at  http://www.openyourjourney.com

5.  Diana at http://talktodiana.wordpress.com/

6.  Gail at http://nightowlgail.wordpress.com/

7.  Russ at http://russtowne.com/

8.  Ray at http://villageundertaker.wordpress.com/

9.  De at http://dlcloe.com/

10.  Carolyn at http://carolynhughesthehurthealer.com/

11.  http://cancerinmythirties.wordpress.com/

12.  Lisa at http://thelissachronicles.wordpress.com/

And  the questions for you to answer are:

1.  What’s your favorite day of the week and why?

2.  Why do you blog?

3.  Who do you love?

4.    What’s your favorite holiday and why?

5.  Do you have a guilty pleasure?

6.  Do you play an instrument?

7.  Can you please recommend a good book to read?

8.  Do you laugh everyday?

9.  What’s your favorite post on your blog?

1o.  Are you on Facebook?  If so, tell us where to find you!

Hugs to All!

SendOutLove Today!

xo

Hearing Heartbeats

The Art Of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker

I love how when you allow your life to flow, you receive what you need.  The adage that the teacher comes when the student is ready also comes to mind as the above book came to me recently and I must tell you that I devoured it.  I mean truly ~ I started reading it yesterday and I finished it today!  There are not many times that I am so enthralled with a book that I neglect other things while I feel so compelled to read because it is so special.

A poignant and inspirational love story set in Burma, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats spans the decades between the 1950s and the present. When a successful New York lawyer suddenly disappears without a trace, neither his wife nor his daughter Julia has any idea where he might be…until they find a love letter he wrote many years ago, to a Burmese woman they have never heard of. Intent on solving the mystery and coming to terms with her father’s past, Julia decides to travel to the village where the woman lived. There she uncovers a tale of unimaginable hardship, resilience, and passion that will reaffirm the reader’s belief in the power of love to move mountains. (from Amazon)

On page 244, there came a paragraph which struck a chord in me and perhaps when you read it as well, it may do the same to you.  At times, love is difficult to see in our lives and it takes hearing the heartbeats of our loved ones in order to know that their love exists.  Perhaps you will find solace, love and understanding below as I did.

“Because we see only what we already know.  We project our own capacities `for good as well as evil’ ~ onto the other person.  Then we acknowledge as love primarily those things that correspond to our own image thereof.  We wish to be loved as we ourselves would love.  Any other way makes us uncomfortable.  We respond with doubt and suspicion.  We misinterpret the signs.  We do not understand the language.  We accuse.  We assert that the other person does not love us.  But perhaps he merely loves us in some idiosyncratic way that we fail to recognize.  I hope you will understand what I mean once I have finished my story.”

In the wake of my father’s death and in the healing of my heart as well as watching many friends recently (both in life and blogosphere) deal with the same circumstances, I feel the need to ignite the peace of understanding in our lives ~ hence this post today.   If you are interested, you can click below on the picture of the book and it will bring you to Amazon where you can buy it via kindle or hard cover as you wish.

Shine On!

Keep Loving!

xo

Inspirational Sunday ~ Joy Jars

Meet Jessie Rees ~ Founder of JoyJars

Have you ever met an Earth Angel?  A person who thinks about others ~ A person who radiates JOY and LOVE into the lives of all whom she touches with her special spirit?  Well, I found one and I just wanted to share her inspiring story with you.  Meet Jessie Rees who’s the 12 year old founder of JoyJars.  Her story will inspire you to look around your world and to make it better than when you arrived.  Please take a moment to be inspired…this is Jessie’s story, her website and her foundation!

Shine On!

NEGU ~ NEVER EVER GIVE UP!

xo

https://www.facebook.com/JessieReesFoundation#!/JessieReesFoundation

http://www.negu.org/

Daily Prompt with a Twist

A Heavenly Place

Today’s daily prompt said:  “Ode to a Playground…A place from your past or childhood, one that you’re fond of, is destroyed.  Write it a memorial,” and today I’m asking for a bit of leniency from you as I answer the question.  You see, last night, my son had a dream that was so vivid to him and it immediately brought me back to my childhood, so I wanted to share it with you.

I’ve been to Heaven.  There, I’ve said it and now those of you who want to can click away…and those who want to stay, please understand that I am opening up to this playground of my past for you.  No, I haven’t died before (although I’ve had a few close calls in my lifetime), but I have experienced Heaven which to me, is a playground of my past.

As a child, I was intuitive and I believe that as children, we are receptive to many energies which surround us but as we grow older, we tend to lose sight of them and stop connecting with them for those imaginings are not thought of as grown up…and yet the funny part I think is after we are grown up, we long to dream again, to open up to possibilities in our lives and we are reminded to stop and smell the roses.  Do you know what I mean?

For you see, I dreamed of Heaven and that dream, although it happened more than 25 years ago, is still as vivid to me as if I had dreamt it last night.  To me it was comforting to feel so at home in a place where I have not been in this lifetime except through dreams.  In fact, I have dreamt of the same house many times in the last 25 years and each time, there are people in the house with whom I speak or share a smile and they can see me ~ except they are all people who have already passed in my lifetime.

Ok, have I lost any of you yet?  Or are you still with me?

I guess what I am trying to say is that I believe that when we close the door to our playground of childhood, we destroy our dreams.  We destroy the ability to create our lives in the way in which our higher selves function.  The key is to not stop believing ~ to not stop the feeling of possibility ~ to continue to hold onto that playground of Heaven where love encompasses our every moment.

Imagine a world where we all kept that love alive in our hearts!

Shine On!

xo

 http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/daily-prompt-ode/

Be the Peace ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

January 15, 1929 – April 04, 1968

 “It does not matter how long you live, but how well you do it,” is just one quote attributed to the man above and because today is his holiday, I am dedicating this post to his quotes.

“Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.”

“Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

“Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.”

“Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.”

“No person has the right to rain on your dreams.”

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?”

“It is cheerful to God when you rejoice or laugh from the bottom of your heart.”

“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way”

“Be The Peace You Wish To See In The World!”

Shine On!

xo

So tell me, which one is your favorite?

Just a few other posts about his quotes:

http://coffeeteaordog.com/2013/01/21/prelude-to-a-dream/

http://joyreturns.com/2013/01/21/hope-disappointment/

http://blog.luckybrand.com/2013/01/21/dream-often/

http://bloggingonthebrightside.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/carve-a-tunnel-of-hope-through-the-dark-mountain-of-disappointment/

http://gainesvilletxsocial.com/2013/01/21/mlk-day/

http://defeatdespair.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/everybody-can-be-great/

http://garyrichmond.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/we-have-a-dream/

http://culturesfashion.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/remembering-mr-martin/

http://ackans.com/2013/01/21/pic-o-the-day-226/