Angelic Wings Embrace…

“We are, each of us angels with only one wing,

and we can only fly by embracing one another.” -Luciano de Crescenzo

I want to thank you all for everything  ~ I wanted to find the right card from my SendOutCards catalog to post today ~ one that would perfectly describe how I’m feeling since my last post and I am hoping that you feel the same way I do ~ that this one says it all.

To all of you who took a moment to think of me, to vibe, to Reiki, to pray, to read, to bless, to comment, to call, to write and to visit…my heartfelt gratitude goes out to you as words cannot accurately describe the tingling of change I’m feeling…and I know that its power is immeasurable and I’m confident that with baby steps, I am turning the corner…

It’s a good lesson to learn my friends ~ yet another one in my life that I’ve been given before and tried to reject.  So perhaps that’s what this post is all about ~

We are all connected.

Together we can make Miracles.

We are not meant to do it all alone.

Even the strongest oak needs help.

Separately, we can only walk…

Embracing each other allows us to fly!

So let’s soar together my friends, each and every day. 

Allow me to be your ‘wing gal’ and together we share the enthusiasm for life’s flight!

My heartfelt gratitude to you ~

for being My Wings.

Shine and Soar On!

xo

Christmas Spirit on its way!

So after I put in one of my favorite scenes in movieland ~ Mame’s rendition of We Need a Little Christmas Now, into yesterday’s post, I began thinking about that special movie ~ all the amazing quotes from it that I loved.  Now the one I gave you, was the 1973 version with Lucille Ball and Bea Arthur which is a classic unto itself.  However, my favorite rendition is the original movie called Auntie Mame with Rosalind Russell from 1958.

So I got my computer, put it on the kitchen table, started some broth in a pot on the stove and checked out my trusty Amazon account (thinking of ShareChair http://sharechair.wordpress.com/in the back of my head…what would she do to find a free version of a the movie) and began!  What I found was a FREE VERSION with my Prime account…and I could watch it from my computer, while I made comfort food for my family and myself.

So as I chopped veggies and chicken and whipped up homemade chicken soup complete with a dash of love and then scooped Nestle Toll House chocolate chip ready made dough from a container and ‘baked’ chocolate chip cookies, I watched my movie in the kitchen by myself…fresh balsam candle twinkling and making the house smell like love and Christmas…and with food ready for our bellies, filled with love and comfort.

In the midst of all of my kitchen antics, my doorbell rang ~ my neighbor brought me a huge homemade wreath ~ made with the branches from our street which had fallen and are being picked up by the town this week…TAngel and her husband had painstakingly picked up branches of magnolia trees, spruce and pine and she had woven the most beautiful wreath I have ever seen, complete with colorful Christmas ball ornaments to brighten my day.  I was in awe of her talent, let alone the fact that she had made it for me.  I feel so grateful and so blessed.  To be given such amazing holiday spirit by a kind friend! (See pic above ~ I just took a pic of it, added a border and voila!  It’s the front of her thank you card from me!  If you’re new, check out my website ~ http://www.rememberchristmas.com/deanery

And when I was all done with my movie, chicken soup ready for the family dinner and homemade (ahem) cookies for dessert, I got online to see if I had any emails waiting…and there you all were…our beautiful blogging community…

Thank you my friends.  Your outpouring of loving comments made me cry…

and I want you to know how blessed I feel…thank you.

I BELIEVE ~  Shine On!

xo

Thank your peeps!

Tongue-tied?  Not sure who in the world you could send a card to ~ let alone 30 people?  Is that all that’s holding you back?  Well, I’ve made up a little list below to see if I can help you out.  You see, there are tons of people in your world who make your life easier, some of whom you don’t even think to thank for what they do!  Or perhaps you don’t know how to thank them?  Or you feel silly thanking them?

Honestly, wouldn’t your heart fill up and a big smile highlight your happy face if someone thanked you for what you do?  Well, guess what ~ when you thank someone else, your heart gets filled up too!  Talk about a real Win-Win situation!  Giving and getting back at the same time ~ spreading sunshine and feeling good ~ PRICELESS!

So for less than the price of your cup of daily coffee for a month, how about venturing out into the gratitude movement to take 5 minutes a day to choose a card, write a note and click SEND ~ SendOutCards will do the rest for you!  And you’ll be making a difference in many lives with just one click!

Give it a try today…I guarantee it will change your life!

It’s changed mine ~ for the better!

Join the 30 Day Gratitude Challenge!

xo

Here are a few people whom you might want to send a real card to in order to thank them!

Your close family.  Your spouse.  Your children.  Your parents.  Your brothers and sisters.  Your grandparents.  Your friends/best friend/frenemies.  Long lost relatives.  Long lost relationships.   Cousins.   Your aunts and uncles.  Your in-laws.  Your spouse’s relatives.  Old relatives who are alone. Someone in a nursing home/assisted living.  College roommates.  Childhood friends and neighbors.  Your dentist.  Your hair-dresser.  Your nail salon/barber/spa employee.  Someone in the military.  Your doctor/nurse.  Your work friends/boss.  Your auto-mechanic.  Your food delivery ~ pizza to your home.  Your travel agent.  Your neighbors.  Your coach or your child’s coach/dance teacher/piano teacher, school teacher etc.  Your real estate agent.  Your tax/accountant.  Your favorite bank teller.  Your newspaper deliverer.  Your lawn service.  Your favorite coffee barrister.  Your favorite restaurant.  Your florist.  Your pet’s vet.  Those who would do you a favor today.  Those who would bail you out of jail.  🙂  The person who has given you good advice.  The best teacher you know.  The most optimistic person you know.  The person who needs a caring note.  The person who needs to hear from you most!

The list can go on and on…just think about it! 

Our lives are filled with people for whom we are grateful!

Can you think of more people to add to the list?

Tell me please!

xo

Sharing Love and Gratitude

No fancy words or platitude

can beat the simple attitude

of sharing love and gratitude. -Cait Stanley

I just love this card ~ even more, I love the quote.  You know, Thanksgiving is around the corner ~ a day of sharing love and gratitude with family, friends and others.  Have you counted your blessings lately?  Truly, I wish that we could keep the attitude of gratitude going all the year through instead of just concentrated during the holidays.

I teach people to be thankful, to be grateful, to enjoy blessings in their lives & to send out love.

Imagine if not just at Thanksgiving were we to get together with our friends and family ~ bowing our heads in thanksgiving, blessing the abundance we’ve been given and celebrating the feeling that love, friendship and blessings are in the air and all around us.

Wouldn’t it be nice?

Well, you can…you can do it for 30 days if you wish!

There’s an easy, inexpensive way to send a card a day in gratitude through SendOutCards.  You can keep Thanksgiving going this year ~ for a full 30 days with the Gratitude Challenge!  It’s designed to make it easy for you to send a card a day to tell someone how you feel ~ how grateful you are for them in your life!  You can upload pictures into the card and even add a QR Code to allow your recipient to watch your own video!

Isn’t $1 a day worth it to send a smile through a heartfelt card to celebrate your relationships?

A friend, a loved one, a family member, an old lost relationship ~

Yes, it is that simple…just click on the link below to see what it’s all about…

Take Day One for Free ~ My Treat!

30 Day Gratitude Challenge

xo

Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Nor’Easters ~ Help!

I feel like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz…truly…it’s been one thing after another here for this Jersey Gal.  Hurricane Sandy last week gave us downed trees, power outages, loss of food, loss of life ~ not to mention destruction of property in overwhelming proportions.  Sandy devastated the surrounding areas and many, including my sister and Mom are still without power.  Now I know that we can’t compare Sandy to Andrew or Katrina…but still…and she arrived on Monday October 29th.

One week later, on Monday November 5th, we had an earthquake in Ringwood, NJ  ~ just one week after Sandy hit…which personally I didn’t feel where I live.  A 2.0 magnitude which was reportedly heard as a loud boom for those awake at 1am in the morning.  For an area which is still power deprived, still cleaning up after Hurricane Sandy, I just can’t imagine the fright that the earthquake gave those who felt it.

And then, last night…just two days later, a Nor’Easter hit us.  A Nor’Easter is defined as a macro storm blowing in from the northeast.  Weathermen had been telling us that we would experience heavy rains and high winds in my area…instead, we received a heavy mantle of white snow to the tune of 5 inches at my home which was pretty to watch as it came down, but only if you were happily bundled in a warm home with heat and food.  Luckily for us, we have power, I had made homemade chicken soup and we had heat and each other.

It’s the simple things in life my friends.

Shelter, food and love and not necessarily in that order…but for now, yes, in that order.

So I’m asking for help here…not for myself but for those who need it…for those who’ve lost everything.  The Red Cross is a charitable, well-known, hard-working group who are here, providing water, shelter, clothing, blood for hospitals and funds for those who need it.  Perhaps you would like to help but don’t know what you can do…below please find some links ~ you can donate from your cell phone by texting ~ you can donate blood for those who need it ~ you can donate online if you choose.

If you can’t do any of the above, then I simply ask that you take a moment to give…

Thanks for the littlest to the biggest blessings that you have in your life. 

From shelter and food, to love and family…to health, to wealth and to an abundance of clean, fresh air that we breathe…to water, to blankets, to smiles and to heartfelt hugs which are abundant when you choose.

Click below to…

Donate to the Red Cross!

Be thankful, be generous…be blessed.

Thank you from my heart.

xo

One Lovely Blog Award!

I want to thank Eva Tenter at  evatenter.wordpress.com

Eva’s  blog is all about the Power of Positive Thoughts and is chock full of Positive Thoughts, Inspirational Stories, Mental Health Advocacy and the most amazing photographs of clouds that you’ll ever see!    I received this award back in June when my Dad was dying and I wasn’t able to post it nor complete the requirements until now.  Eva, I was so honored that you included me in your awards…thank you so very much!  You will love Eva’s blog…make sure you stop by!

The regular rules are (the rules vary a bit with each award, but they are generally the same):

1.   Display the award logo somewhere on the blog.

2.   Link back to the blog of the person who nominated you.

3.   State seven things about yourself.

1. I love ice cream.
2. Every picture that I write about is a greeting card that I’ve made.
3. I love to use photos to make gifts for family and friends.
4. I’m a glass 1/2 full kind of girl ~ always try to see the positive in every situation.
5. My favorite snack is acai berries covered with dark chocolate.
6. I’m a Pisces.
7. I love to get up early in the morning to have my coffee in peace and quiet before my day starts!

4.   Nominate other bloggers for the award and provide links to their blogs.

momentumofjoy.wordpress.com

Jo’s joy is contagious as is her Momentum of Joy which has, like a magic wand, caught so many bloggers up in her enthusiasm, her inspiration and her enjoyment in encouraging everyone who comes within her path!  Her Energy Session is a once in a lifetime experience not to be missed…she changed my life for the better with her gift.  Make sure you check out her website and treat yourself to a session which will make a difference in your life ~ for the better!

www.reddoordesigncompany.com

Kris has tons of DIY ideas, plus she is an amazing website designer!  She also stays current in all aspects of blogging.  She has the most perfectly decorated house ~ you can check it out in her blog posts!  She’s all around talented and very creative ~ and to top it off ~ so very nice!  Enjoy clicking on her link above!  You won’t be disappointed!

elisacashiola.com

Elisa’s blog is The Blog of a Placement Designer specializing in Feng Shui.  Within days of reading her blog, I began to look at my house differently & started to declutter.  I can already feel a change in the energy of my home thanks to her easy ideas which resonate with even a beginner like me.  She inspires me to think about where I put things!  You will love your home after you’ve started following her suggestions!

beeskneesphotographync.com

Christina has a knack of giving you the experience of peaceful visions with her natural light photography.  You won’t be disappointed when you need a bit of happiness at the end or the beginning of your day!  Click on her link above and you can even get her to take your family’s photographs!  What a great memory keeper!

tracielouisephotography.net

Tracie Louise is another photographer whose talent is evident in her serene scenes.  She even paints and you can catch her on Redbubble!  Make sure you click on her link so that you can be inspired.   The panoramic scenes will keep you breathing calmly on your most busy days!

5.   Notify those bloggers that they have been nominated and of the award’s requirements.

Congrats to All!  I am enjoying your blog posts, your friendships

and I look forward to reading your next post!

xo

Gratitude…

The possibilities are endless!

I guess you could say there are two ways to look at life ~ there are limited possibilities or none at all…and then there’s the way I LOVE to look at EVERYTHING~

The Possibilities are ENDLESS!! 

I don’t know about you, but I love the positive expansion of ENDLESSNESS rather than the negativity of limitation.  Don’t you think that’s the better choice?

Many people talk about gratitude lately ~ give thanks for what you have and more comes to you.  While I agree with that theory and have seen it in action myself, I also think that we need to appreciate the people in our lives!   Having had my dad pass away recently and two friends’ moms pass away (one in January and one last week), I realize that what we possibly put off until tomorrow, we miss out on today.   All those things we wanted to say, but didn’t…the wish that you could have told them that they were special…all those woulda, coulda, shoulda’s that are now gone because that moment is now lost.

I”m not saying that there aren’t angelic ways of communication after passing, but that time for human connection is lost once a person has passed.  When I went to my friend’s mom’s wake last night, her dad told me how much my card had meant to her.  I had sent her a card last year telling her how much I appreciated her.  It came out of the blue and was a simple card.  Nothing fancy, just heartfelt and personal, but the connection was one which even a year later, her husband remembered.

We are all connected ~ in joy, in tears ~ in life.

126830

Join me in the Gratitude Movement…

xo

Gratitude 30 ~ Challenge Complete

Today marks my 30th day of the gratitude challenge…and it’s not how I thought it would end at all.  I had thought that I would be sending a card a day to different people (which I did) and hopefully sending love along the way to so many.  Spreading sunshine as it were to all those who touch my life ~ so that they would know how much I appreciated them.  But along the way, Dad passed away and today marks the anniversary of his first week which is hard.  I’m told that the first year is marked by 1sts along the way which become easier as time heals.  Right now, I’m still a bit overwhelmed, but I am grateful that he is at peace.

I enjoyed sending my cards everyday which was so easy because there’s always someone to thank and to be grateful for if you take a moment to just look at your life.  I’ve learned and shared that we only have today in which to make a difference in someone else’s life.  We only have today to tell those whom we appreciate, whom we love, whom we care about ~ how much they truly mean to us.

I loved hearing the excitement in their voices when the card recipients called me ~ telling me over and over how much I made their day.  Going out to the mailbox, expecting junk mail and bills and finding a personalized enveloped tucked inside with a heartfelt message from me…reading how much they mean to me, how much they are loved, how important they are ~ my personalized message and sometimes even pictures ~ I know for me, with the passing of my Dad and my last surgery, I received many heartfelt, personalized cards which never failed to make me smile, even when I was so very sad.

Cards have a special way of making others feel good ~ spreading sunshine ~ making the world a brighter place.  And that’s what I’m all about…I want everyone to know how special they are ~ and I want to do it easily, conveniently and cost-effectively which is why I love SendOutCards…

Regrets are for a lifetime and I don’t want any regrets.  I’ve found that what you give out, you receive in abundance…So if I can offer you any wisdom from my 30 days, let it be this:

Appreciate…Love…Forgive…Love…Smile…Love…Cherish…Love…

Remember…Love…Care…Love…Repeat…

 www.socgratitude.com

Sponsor # 126830

Gratitude Day 28 ~ My Hometown

Life,  Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

I feel so grateful that my hometown and coincidentally, my Dad’s hometown, is acknowledging him this Saturday by flying the flags at half-mast.  My Dad loved our hometown and never left the town which he grew up in ~ he always said he would leave his childhood home in which he raised his own family, ‘feet first’ and my Dad was a man of his word.

Dad knew his hometown’s history, having lived there 75 years.  He would drive by various parts of town, telling us the history and how some of the buildings were the originals.  There’s the bend in the road by a pond where as a child, he watched the Queen of England pass by on her way through our town.  Funny that sometimes when I drive on that part of the road, I can hear him telling me the story.  He knew the families who resided in the area and enjoyed learning the history of each of them.  Like one of those old town family doctors (he wasn’t a doctor), he was privy to much information and always kept family secrets.

I have been so grateful for the outpouring of love and prayers from many of the residents.   One particular message I received was, “I will tell you that his involvement with the installation of the new monument was something that I know made him very proud.  I also would consider him to be the “unofficial” chairman/ringleader of our town’s Veterans.  He was the one pushing all of them to come out each year and march in the Parade or attend the Vets Day Ceremony.”

My Dad was patriotic having served in the military for many years.  He loved history and could regale his audience with big and little known facts about many subjects.  He was proud of the fountain of knowledge in his head.  Unfortunately, he never had the time to write it all down, so there are only the scraps of memories which we hold dear to live on in his memory.

There’s much to be said about your hometown and never leaving it…

Bruce Springsteen writes about it and as a Jersey Girl

I am grateful to Our Hometown…

My Hometown video by Bruce

Gratitude Day 26 ~ Strength

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

We need strength now as we transition to getting used to not rushing to the hospital everyday, not worrying that every text or phone call could be ‘the one’ and learning to live without Dad.  There has been the utmost outpouring of support, stories and loving thoughts/prayers given to us which helps us continue to take the baby steps required in planning all that is needed for his memorial service etc.  But it’s hard…and unless you’ve experienced this part of growing up, you simply have no idea what you are missing…and quite frankly, stay that way please.

I liked this card because of Strength ~ but also because of turning towards the Sun ~ as I think we have a choice in how to remember those whom we loved.  You can turn towards the Sun and remember the Good in them or you can turn away and remember the sad, bad memories in the shadows.

Nobody is perfect (although secretly I think Dad thought he was!) ~ and so it is in truth that I say that I am choosing to remember the good times, the good memories and allow the bad ones to fall by the wayside, to exit the way many memories have gone via my chemo brain.  I figure I will keep my strength from faltering by basking in the beautiful memories of those around me, allowing their stories to bathe me in the love I had for my Dad.

Looking to the sun, allowing the shadows to fall behind…I think it’s the best way to be everyday.

Don’t you?

Thank you all for sharing your stories with me!

xo