I Want To Be A Cowgirl

“I want to be a cowboy, but only long enough to barge into a saloon and bellow ‘Where’s the yellow belly that stole my happy trail?’” — Jared Kintz

Today I am reblogging what my dear friend Mimi over at Waiting for the Karma Truck wrote this morning as her words resonated with me so much.  The simple truth is what struck me, as well as the divine goal of riding off into the sunset happily on my horse (because I have always wanted to properly learn how to ride!) is the truth of her words.  The above pic (which isn’t Mimi nor me) gave me the giggles so I figured I’d include it.  What’s not to giggle about when it’s Tuesday and a snowstorm’s a’coming ~ the sky is full of golds and pinks this morning ~ may your happy trail be long and lovely!

Now here’s Mimi!  Drumroll please…

I Want To Be A Cowgirl

Shine On!

xo

Daily Prompt ~ Help!

Your illness does NOT define you.  Your strength and courage DOES.

Helen posted this on her blog the other day and I just had to share it.  Stop by to visit Helen by clicking here!  For you see, anyone with any illness can benefit from these sage words.  It matters not if you have battled breast cancer or not.  It goes for all illnesses, cancers and I believe, even traumatic life experiences.

Your courage defines you.

Your inner strength defines you.

Your decision to survive defines you.

And then sharing your experiences, whether good or bad, in order to help others who are in the throes of the illness, that vulnerability shows extensive courage.  Don’t you think?  For to exhibit weakness is to exhibit strength.  When I show how weakened I was by my breast cancer surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation and the multitude of restless nights filled with worry, when I share how I battled against the odds and I open up to you in order that you may know that we are connected, that you are not alone.  I don’t find that to show my weakness, but in fact, it shows my strength for I am still here, still human, still humbled by what I’ve endured.  I take nothing for granted now.  I am learning to rely on my inner strength to flourish in my life.  I let go of the expectations of others (ok, I’m still working on this one) and I am allowing the freedom to be myself and not conform to what others expectations are of me.  For they’ve not endured my experiences even though some of them may believe that because they have been nearby during my illness that they understand.  But alas, they truly do not.  But you, who have walked in these shoes yourself, you understand and it is to you that I reach out.

Even though I have battled this alone, I am here for you.  Sometimes it is only through connecting with another person who has endured what we have, that we can truly heal and truly understand what we have endured.  I was/am blessed to have many who have helped me along the way.  I only hope to help you as well.

Be courageous.

Be strong.

Connect with others.

Shine On!

xo

Just as I was going to press PUBLISH, I saw the Daily Prompt.  If I could completely devote myself to connecting with others to help them on their journey through illness, I would do it in a second!  So that’s why I added the daily prompt to my otherwise Pink Post!  If anyone knows how I could get someone to take care of my daily responsibilities in order to do this full time with an income, let me know! 🙂 ♥♥♥

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/09/03/daily-prompt-help/

Daily Prompt: Blogger With a Cause

If your day to day responsibilities were taken care of and you could throw yourself completely behind a cause, what would it be?

Afraid of Change?

Your Daily Motivation:
Don’t be afraid of change, be afraid of not changing.

-Joel Heller, a Contagious Optimism co-author  

 

Full moons, blue moons, times they are a’changing.  Do you feel it or is it just me?  I feel like I’m in a cyclone these days.  Perhaps that’s why I’m needing space and I can’t seem to get it.  So instead, I’m like the frog in the blender ~ round and round with no escape hatch open.

I don’t mean to sound down, because I’m really not ~ I”m just trying to weather the storm inside.  I’m trying to figure out what I want.  It’s not that I’m unhappy with my circumstances because I’m fine with all of that ~ but obviously from the health issues I’ve been dealing with, it’s my mind/body/soul which needs some TLC (tender loving care) and I believe that I’ve neglected her for too long.  I’ve put her on the back burner so that I could deal with the impending firestorms, knowing that her needs could wait…like always.

But my body is swelling, with no rational reasons, and when I listen to that tiny voice inside my gut, I know.  She’s saying, Pick ME Pick ME ~ ME FIRST!

And so, I am listening.

I will tell you that I am afraid of change, but I am more afraid of not changing this path that I”m on and that’s why this amazing quote was so great today. If you’re inspired by the above quote, make sure you check out the book below ~ you can find it on Amazon (for some reason, WP wouldn’t let me link it for you, so here’s the picture!

What about you?

Shine On!

xo

The Dash

I received an email yesterday from Simple Truths which included a link to the video and book above which I just had to share with you today!  It truly makes you think ~ so sit back and let 2 minutes of inspiration soak into your mind, your heart and your life.  You are worth it!

The Dash, the inspirational poem by Linda Ellis – captures not the date you were born, or the date you die – but the importance of The Dash between those years. It’s what you do with your Dash to make a difference with your life. Linda’s beautiful poem, along with nine chapters that reinforce its verses are included in Simple Truths’ book, The Dash, by Linda Ellis and Mac Anderson. The Dash has touched hearts and changed lives around the world, including the 30 million who have watched Simple Truth’s inspirational movie. “What matters is how we live and love and how we spend our dash.”  Simple Truths provides customers with inspirational and motivational gift books and movies.

Click on  The Dash 2 minute movie!  to watch!

Make Your Dash Shine On!

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