We Are Here To Serve

I’ve often wondered, why me? when life gets hard.  I think it’s a normal response when we feel overwhelmed by hard life experiences.  We’ve all had them, but to different extents and different types of experiences.  Dysfunctional relationships.  Cancer.  Financial problems.  Death of a loved one.  Divorce.  Alzheimer’s.  Childhood hurts.  Depression.  Family relationships gone awry.  Illness.  Just to name a few, I am sure we share some of the same hurdles, but maybe in different ways.

Life experiences teach us what we couldn’t have learned otherwise.  We can’t help others if we haven’t endured similar issues in our own lives.  What’s that quote?  Walk a mile in my shoes?  Maybe I haven’t walked in your particular shoes, but perhaps my similar experience is enough to connect with you and to help you on this life journey.

I am grateful for all that I have endured in my lifetime.  When we can see the gratitude in the hardships, we can change how we feel about them.  We increase our faith and our love quotient.  We rise above what we could have let hold us back from living a full life.

We are all here to help each other as we connect, we bond and we share our experiences.  There’s nothing better than someone else who knows what you are going through (by similar experience) who reaches out to share the experience with you as a friend, a guiding light to help you find peace within while offering a hand to hold as you heal.

The Why Me?  was answered recently by my soul who gave the response that if I hadn’t endured these experiences, I would be unable to connect so purely with others who may be in the trenches.  Without first-hand knowledge, I would only be able to sympathize and not empathize and put myself in similar shoes.  Does that make sense to you?

What I know for sure (thanks to Oprah for the phrase) is that we are here to serve one another in this lifetime.  To share experiences, to open our hearts with compassion and love and to shine our heartlights together!

You are not alone…take my hand and let’s…

Shine On!

xo

Manifesting Grace Through Gratitude

Happy Monday!  I just wanted to share what I am doing which is free!  See below the email from Deepak and Oprah ~ if you are interested in joining the free 21 day mediation, please click below and register!  I hope you have the loveliest week ahead!  Be grateful everyday!

Shine On!

xo

Today marks the first day of Manifesting Grace through Gratitude! As we set out on our journey, you may find yourself wondering, what is a mantra?
Mantras are powerful tools to support your meditation practice. These Sanskrit syllables are carefully chosen to work with and empower the teaching of the day. As you silently repeat the mantra during meditation, a few things happen:
• You quiet your mind – Repetition of the mantra helps you move beyond your thoughts and access the stillness within.
• You experience deeper awareness. The mental vibration created by the mantra allows your mind to access pure awareness.
• Make sure you won’t be interrupted – With daily use during meditation, the mantra helps your body, mind, and spirit relax into their true essence – pure potentiality and happiness.
If you find any of the mantras difficult to understand, or would like to keep track of them throughout the Experience, visit our mantra resource page for a full list of mantras and their explanations.
It is our hope that these mantras help bring the gifts of grace and gratitude into your life each day.
Namasté,
21-Day Meditation Experience Team

Interested in getting more information or trying the meditation?  Click Here!

Need a role model?

Meet Nick Vujicic

Are there moments when you feel you just can’t ________(whatever, you fill in the blank)?  Well, Oprah and I KNOW FOR SURE that Nick’s inspiring story will be one you won’t forget and one that you’ll carry with you.   This morning’s spotlight is on a happily married fellow from Melbourne Australia whom you may have seen on Oprah recently.  Nick was born without limbs as you can see on the card above that I made from photos from his website listed below, but that hasn’t stopped him from living a life of joy, faith, hope, love  and a powerful will to inspire every single person whom his amazing story touches.  His courage, his fearlessness and his faith will continue to astound you ~ he’s truly an extraordinary, inspiring person who shines!

If you do nothing else, take a moment and watch this video ~ it’s sure to inspire you today!

Nick recently graced the stage on Oprah’s LifeClass with Pastor Rick Warren  You can find Nick’s spotlight during that class by clicking http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org/nickhugsoprah/.

Nick’s website is abundant with ways to change lives and to inspire you to make the best out of your life!  http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org/

Nick has written a few books…click on them to find out more!

You can even find more in Nick’s store ~ http://store.lifewithoutlimbs.org/

You can attend this segment of  Oprah’s Life Class by clicking http://www.oprah.com/oprahs-lifeclass/Oprah-and-Pastor-Rick-Warren-Winning-the-Hand-Youre-Dealt

I hope you enjoyed today’s inspirational person! 

Happy Sunday to YOU!

Shine On!

xo

Shining Soul

Pick a star up in the sky and pretend that star is me.

Shining bright with love for you, so all the world can see…

Yesterday I told you a bit about my life and how it feels to be a woman without breasts because they were taken due to breast cancer.  This is my 3rd foray into trying to have breasts again and I am blessed to have found such an amazing doctor who has changed my life with her dedication to women who have endured more than their share of heartache, pain and emotional/physical anguish.

I will honestly tell you that the road to the ‘new normal’ after having breast cancer and multiple surgeries (10th breast cancer related surgery scheduled for December, but #14 in my life) with one more for 2013, is not an easy road to endure.  It’s a road full of pot holes, disappointments, pain and yet triumph as well.  It’s a road that is best when shared with others ~ easier to share with those of us who have traveled it or are traveling it with you.  It’s not for the faint of heart although I am still known to faint at the sight of a needle even after all of the needles I’ve endured over the years.

It’s no different than life for everyone else for we are all on this journey together.  None of us escape heartache, pain and sorrow.  Perhaps you’ve not had breast cancer, but you’ve been shouldering an illness, abuse, depression, a different type of cancer or some other difficulty.  It may not be the same, but the choice is ~ you can endure it and keep taking baby steps forward or you can allow it to rule your life and not move forward.

It’s your choice my friends.  What I’ve learned though is that it’s a choice that I make everyday. 

I can choose to allow my situation bring me down and epitomize the victim role/attitude by feeling sorry for myself, by crawling inside and not taking the helping hands which are offered to me.  Or I can choose to rise from it and shine like a star!  I can use my experiences (there are many beyond breast cancer but that’s for another day) to help others, to be kind, to be understanding, to have patience…to help, to support and to guide by what I know and have gleamed from my own life.

Learning to love your own body is a lesson we all need to learn, breast cancer or not! 

Learning to love yourself for me is a life-long process.

As I thought about my post yesterday, I realized that I have old tapes playing in my head of not being enough and perhaps that’s why I’ve been having such a terrible time lately ~ and perhaps that’s why Dr. Phil and Oprah’s magazine struck such a chord in me yesterday.  My inner voice, you know, that inner strength broke free yesterday from the bonds that I’d imposed on it.  Today I feel freer, I feel more like the girl I love to be ~ the one that may give you TMI (Too Much Information), but will do so willingly if it helps even one other person because that’s my goal here on my blog.

If I can touch just one of you, help one other person to feel that they are not alone, that yes, I have experienced the same as you and I am still here…inspire you to keep taking baby steps…then I feel like I am living according to my divine purpose.  Because that’s why we are all here ~ to help each other on this journey of life.  Helping hands can be found everywhere.  We all have a story to tell…it’s up to you how you write your story!

Breasts or not, I am still a woman who can say she is blessed to have seen the darkness of life and has chosen to search for the light and found it! 

You can’t appreciate the stars if you’ve never endured the darkness! 

Shine on my friends!  Shine on!

xo

I Am…

I AM…poster above is from SendOutCards, but you can make it yourself ~ add your name,  your own I AM ____ etc.  You can even change the feather and seal below…I left them there because I thought they were cute…but you can make it however you wish.

But I AM is not just about the poster above, the sentences we wrote the other day nor about the cards from yesterday.  I AM is a movie produced by a man named Tom Shadyac who was featured on Oprah.  Below is the link to read about Tom’s movie and what he learned about I AM…

Shining-Like-the-Sun-Tom-Shadyac

Tom’s movie was released in 2011…but you can still watch it on DVD or even rent it on Amazon for as little as $4…I have yet to watch it myself, but it’s one more thing on my To Do list…

Click on the image above and you can watch the movie yourself!  I’d love to hear what you think of it once you see it!  Have you seen it already?

Just thought I’d share a bit of I AM…

Happy Sunday to YOU!

xo

Bonsai Inspiration

We are, all of us, works in progress…

I wanted something gentle, relaxing and inspirational,

just an easy way to enjoy the last vestiges of the weekend.

Happy Sunday to YOU!

xo

100 Posts ~ Gratitude Goal!

Thank You!

Today celebrates my 100th post on my blog and I want to begin by thanking all of my readers.  I started this blog to reach out to others, to inspire, to be of service and to spread the knowledge I’ve gained through my life experiences.  Using cards as my springboard, I’ve tried to bring an inspiring message to you with every post.

I’ve had a bit of time to think lately as I’ve been recuperating and I’ve come up with a goal that I am hoping you might want to participate in.  I’ve been talking a lot about gratitude these days and I’ve got a lot to be grateful for in my life…and I’ve a lot of people to be grateful for in my life.  I’ve written a ton of thank you notes recently as many people have come to the aid of my family and me by bringing dinner over, sending flowers, sending little gifts in the mail, sending prayer cards and even just sending ‘thinking of you’ cards which have brightened my every day.  Truly I am blessed.  I loved getting that unexpected card in the mail among the bills and junk mail.  My eyes lit up every time someone brought me an envelope with my name on it because to me, it was like a little piece of Heaven…you thought of me enough to pick out a card, write a heartfelt message, address, stamp and mail it to me so that I could have something special to open…how fantastic is that!

There are many books out now, like The Magic, which reiterate that we should be grateful, be cognizant of the blessings we have already and as you concentrate on those multitude of blessings that you already have, more come your way.  I agree with counting your blessings and living a life of gratitude.  I’ve kept a gratitude journal a la Oprah which has helped to keep my positivity in check…and has grown my blessings and miracles enormously.

But I’m finding that I want to do more, globally and reach out to others with that gratitude.  A smile, a polite thank you in our daily lives to those who show us kindnesses is one way to show gratitude, but what if we were to take it a step further and say it…say thank you with a card…a heartfelt message to someone to whom you are grateful?  Imagine the amazing benefits to you and to the recipient if you were to write a heartfelt message of gratitude to a friend and the priceless feelings it would give that person when they opened a special card from you saying thank you.

Maya Angelou wrote,

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

My goal is to send a heartfelt card a day to someone whom I am grateful for ~ I’m going to do it for 30 days ~ a card a day.   I will post my journey each day so that you come along with me.  I’d love for you to join me as my goal is to get 100 people to send a card a day for 30 days.  Imagine what we could do by sending out love & gratitude  everyday for 30 days to 30 different people?  Imagine the impact it would make on our little world…of course, my mind races with what if’s…what if 1000 people did it for 30 days and so on…

If you’re interested in joining me, let me know…it’ll cost about $1 a day, you can do it from you computer and you may even change your life…what if we started a movement of gratitude?  A wave of gratitude which knows no bounds…

Join me on this journey…let’s change the world, one card at a time…

Thank you for reading my blog…I am grateful to all of you!

xo

Thankful Thursday ~ Be Thankful!

Be Thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. -Oprah Winfrey

I just love this card from SendOutCards!  In case you’d like to send it as well, just log onto my website http://www.sendoutcards.com/126830  and enjoy a free card on me!

I’m finding that sending heartfelt cards every day is like eating potato chips…it’s so easy to do and so much fun!  You start with one person ~ I need a birthday card for my neighbor and before you know it, you’re sending a ‘just because’ card to a friend and then a Welcome To Your New Home to your sister…and my analogy continues with being thankful for what you have…once you get started consciously thinking about and BE-ing THANKFUL for what you have…you DO end up having more!

FYI:  My bigger hips are here to prove it…I just love those potato chips!  LOL

Honestly though, here’s a challenge for you ~ try to take 5 minutes a day to think of and write down all that you have to be thankful for in your life…it’s so easy!

Let me get you started:

You got up this morning!  Woo hoo!

You can read…my blog! 🙂

Family, Friends, Loved Ones!

Food (mmm good…potato chips!)

Your Hair ~ yes, I’ve been bald, so I never have a bad hair day anymore!
(Ok, I do, but it doesn’t bother me!)

You have TODAY which is a PRESENT!  Enjoy it!

You can be thankful for little things and big things and all things inbetween!

If you feel like sharing, please comment below!

BE THANKFUL FOR TODAY!

I am thankful for you!

xo

A New Year ~ A New Decade ~ Welcome 2012!

Happy Anniversary to Me!  Ten years ago, at 1pm on New Year’s Eve, my breast specialist confirmed that I had breast cancer and my life changed in an instant.

I celebrate this day, every year, thankful that I am here yet another year in which to celebrate this special personal milestone in my life and in addition, the giddy anticipation of a fresh new year and the closing of the old one.

This year, I will say, is my personal favorite thus far as I (knock wood) have no pressing health issues other than the ‘new normal’ that I live with daily and my family was with me to celebrate and they are healthy as well.

Big WOO HOO!

I happily relinquish the past decade to my chemo-brained memory, noting the blessings I received from God in the gifts of my husband, my children, my family, my friends and ‘friends I hadn’t met yet’ who helped me survive the past 10 years ~ knowing always that I was loved and supported.

My Presents of Presence shall we say…

My plans for 2012 are many, varied and constantly evolving which I adore… I have decided that starting 2012, my NEW DECADE will be something special ~ a mixture of my victory over breast cancer and all that entails and somehow a way to be able to bring all that I’ve learned and experienced to fruition in my life.

It’s a new life for me…a new lease on life, a new chapter in this Journey of Endurance as I like to call my life.  I am open to new experiences ~ I want to share what ‘I know for sure’ a la Oprah, add to the many blessings that I’ve been graced with and to acknowledge that I am so grateful for this Journey of Endurance that my breast cancer has led me on the past 10 years.

So raise a glass with me (because I always see the glass as 1/2 full!) and let’s toast a New Year filled with an abundance of blessings, presence, love, health, wealth, prosperity, happiness, family and joy filled moments for us all!

May 2012 be your best year yet!  And look out, because here I come!

Life is a Class with Oprah and James Redfield!

Tonight at 8pm begins Oprah’s Lifeclass which I am anxious to see as I love to learn!

Tuesday night from 8-9pm is James Redfield, author of the Celestine Prophecy, Global Prayer/Mediation which I just heard about and am also excited to listen in on since what Redfield’s written below has resonated with me deeply.

On Redfield’s site, he writes, “Tomorrow, October, 11, 2011, the Mayan Calendar predicts the long-awaited Unity Consciousness will enter its final step of manifestation. Far from a prediction of doomsday in the external world, the Calendar’s predictions are about internal events. To some people this time feels like the end of their old world inside. They are searching for a new spiritual beginning. And precisely now, the Calendar talks about the Ninth step of creation, Unity, becoming more available, so that it will be easier than ever before to tune into a divine connection in life that can replace the old world of distraction, materialism, and doubt. This connection will be ever more available until it reaches its greater power on October 28 and beyond. Yet this profound internal event will not be imposed in any way.”

Since late August, I’ve been trying daily to improve my life and change it for the better.  I’ve realized that my life has changed dramatically in the last 10 years and I want the next 10 to be different…I want to embrace what I’ve endured, experienced and learned and spread the valuable lessons that I’ve been blessed to learn to others.

One way is by my blog and my FB page.  The other is by my new venture into SendOutCards ~ so that I can spread sunshine, tell others how much they matter and hopefully make someone’s day special everyday.  That’s my goal now…and it continues onward and upward.

We only have this life, we only have today…and that’s why I’m making it count!