Old Man Winter Please Make Up Your Mind!

Sorry, Mother Goose, but I changed the rhyme:

It’s raining, it’s snowing,

    Old Man Winter’s snoring.

He got into bed

    And bumped his head

And couldn’t decide – rain or snow – in the morning.

I think Old Man Winter is confused.  Dare I say it?  One minute it’s raining, the next it’s snowing and then it’s raining/snowing at the same time.  Weathermen have a tough time these days trying to predict the seemingly unpredictable.  It’s been warmer this past week, but now with the full moon yesterday, the weather is acting crazy.  We’ve got snow on the ground, but also little lakes in the backyard as a result of the flooding from the rain/snow mix.

There have been so many weather surprises in the past few months and not just here.  Can you recall any period of time when we had so many different problems?  Fires and mudslides, earthquakes, hurricanes, tropical storms, and blizzard cyclones, just to name a few?  It’s like the weather and the world have been upended and nothing makes sense these days.

So how do we stay calm in the wake of these pop up storms and hard times?  I think we have to be agile and find a way to move quickly and easily through life’s ups and downs.  Go with the flow, but be prepared for the unthinkable.  Not in a fear based way, but with the inner knowledge that we can weather whatever comes our way.  We have inner strength, but sometimes we forget and feel helpless.  That’s where faith can help, prayer can ease the mind and restore that peace within that is here for us.

I’m not belittling any of the tragedies that have occurred recently or in the past or those that may come in our future.  I’m just acknowledging that these are tough times to weather (pun intended) and we need to bond together to help each other as we endure these changes.  Come on…hold my hand.  Bonding together we can help each other through the hard times and heal while Old Man Winter is snoring!  Keep your heartlights shining!

Shine On!

xo

Empathic Eclipse Of The Heart

I’m struggling today.  Surely it’s due to a bunch of different occurrences, but my heart is heavy and my solar plexus is filled with sadness.  The news of the school shooting in Florida made me cry for the unbelievable news haunts me.  To have sent your children and loved ones off to school on Valentine’s Day, where they should be safe, and to have this life changing situation happen is beyond my understanding.

How can our world be so filled with destruction, ugliness and hate?

I don’t want to discuss gun control so please don’t go there.  I just am in this place of extreme sadness for the lack of peace and love in our world.  My heart aches for the losses of life.  I’m saddened to my core by the lack of love that swirls, the absence of peace and I ache for healing for all of us.  I feel the fear that events such as these increase and the extreme heartbreak that lingers.

Yet, as stories emerge of bravery, and of courage under fire, I know that there are many good-hearted people in the world who do step up in the face of danger as shown by the courageous acts that are recounted.  I hang onto the hope from hearing them.  But I’m also crushed that the heroes have fallen as they protected others.  Surely there’s a special place in Heaven for those who give up their lives in order to save someone else.

We have another eclipse today as well which certainly affects us all, especially empaths like me.  Our weather is changing too which doesn’t help so I am honoring myself and allowing these feelings to flow onto this page in order to help to heal.  Perhaps you are feeling similarly?

Dear friends, globally let’s shine our heartlights and raise the loving vibrations of our community here in the blogsphere.  Please let’s send healing thoughts with light and love into the world today.  Please let’s drive out the darkness with our heartlights.

I’m sending you all love and healing vibrations of community.  Let’s join together to send prayers and support to those victims and their families as they face the aftermath of what is becoming all too common.  Thank you for reading my post.

Shine On!

xo

May An Abundance Of Love Come To You

My wish for you on this Valentine’s Day is:

MAY AN ABUNDANCE OF LOVE COME TO YOU

But honestly, the abundance of love that I wish for you, you already have inside of you!  It’s there, waiting for you to love yourself, to share your love and to shine your heartlight with love to the world around you!

I hope that you have a day filled with reminders of the love that we share, the connections that continue and the gratitude for all that we’ve enjoyed!  May your day be as special and beautiful as you are!

Shine On!

xo

Past Experiences Do Not Dictate The Outcome Of The Present One

When similar situations repeat themselves, sometimes we can go into a mind spasm.  We relive the past in the present situation, mindlessly worrying that the outcome of the present situation could be the same as the ending of the past one.  I know I’m writing generally here because frankly, the situation could be anything that you’ve endured.

But there’s that trigger, that Oh my gosh! realization that we’ve passed this way before in the past.  I tried to put it out of my reasoning mind, knowing that as before, I am doing the best I can with the resources I have.  But there’s that little worrisome thought that this time may repeat the last one’s ending.  Mindful of not wanting the same results, I pushed away the thoughts, trying to reason my way out of not manifesting the past again.  Because I don’t want what happened in the past to repeat itself.  Yet, I couldn’t shake the fear.

So I rechecked the facts, because my need for control, especially now, is fierce.  All seems well at this time which is good.  But in talking with a kind friend, I realized I was beating myself up internally for feeling as if the past could repeat itself and I was helpless to change what may be the outcome again this time.

When she parroted the situation back to me, as I listened to my own situation but in her voice (as if she were me), compassion filled my heart and I cried.  I realized that I needed to have compassion for myself and for my own feelings in this situation.  I understood that pushing off the absurdity of the situation repeating the past with the same ending wasn’t a ludicrous thought that I had to push away.  I understood that it was a natural thought process that if all lined up as it had previously (which is certainly possible), the ending could be the same.  I struggled with the thought, talking back and forth with my friend as we processed the scenario.  When we were finished talking, I realized what I already knew.  I can only do my best with my own resources and it’s in God’s hands.

I have to be content with that knowledge and find peace within me.  Because at this point, the situation is stable and not showing signs of further chaos, but the threat is real.  It’s just a question of if it’s here or not.

I think perhaps PTSD may be in varying degrees something that we endure over a lifetime when repeated similar situations occur.  Fear and past knowledge often make it difficult when we feel helpless.  So how do we overcome those aching worries?

We need to find compassion for ourselves for even going to that dark place of fear instead of tamping it down and turning away from it.  When I exposed the fear to the light with the help of my trusted friend, I cried and released some of the traumatic fear I was holding for the present situation.  With the tearful release, I was able to ground myself again in the knowledge that I am doing the best I can and only time will tell the actual results.  That gave me a small dose of peace for which I’m ever grateful.

Finding peace is precious and priceless as we endure stressful situations.  We all experience life lessons in different ways.  What I’ve found is that in being love, sending love, and wrapping us all in love, we know that love shines our heartlights into the darkness of fear based thoughts.

I’m not bringing that fear into my thoughts anymore.  I know I can flow with whatever may be on my path as long as I continue to stand in the light and not in the darkness.  Please keep shining your heartlights dear friends!  I can see them and they give me great comfort!

Shine On!

xo

The Essence of Forgiveness

A friend recently sent this video to me.  I found it really interesting so I thought I’d pass it along to you.  Have you ever heard of Matt Kahn?  Do you know anything about him?  Here’s his bio from his website.

If you have some time, take a listen to his thoughts on The Essence of Forgiveness and let me know what you think!  Keep your heartlights lit – it’s Monday!

Shine On!

xo

 

Two Weeks

Last night, I watched the movie Two Weeks with Sally Field.  While I hadn’t ever heard of the movie before now, I found out that it’s been out since 2007 on DVD as it’s one of those Indie films which I had somehow missed.

For those of us who have aging parents and relatives, this movie poignantly touched me in many ways.  The complexity of family relationships is evident here along with the reality that we all face when we pass away and when we come face to face with grief when a loved one passes away (especially a mom).

Honestly, it’s not a movie I would feel compelled to watch again as I have with others.  But I tend to watch movies about relationships and people dealing with real-life situations.  Grief seems to bring out the stark reality in relationships and this one does just that.  If you’ve endured a similar situation, this may hit too close to home.  But I think it does just that, in a good way.  It showcases the conflicted emotions that we endure when we are faced with the death of a loved one.

It was reviewed as a dramedy which I think encompasses Two Weeks well.  It’s not all laughter nor tears.  It’s the enmeshment of life’s reality.  If you’re interested in seeing more, please click on the image below and it will take you to Amazon.

Have you ever seen it?  I would love to hear from you if you have as I’d like to know what you thought of the movie.  Please let me know.

Shine On!

xo

 

 

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

Puzzled

I’m often puzzled by people who are too busy or are unable to connect with others.  I understand being caught up in the rat race of life with work, responsibilities, paying bills, family, etc., but there’s something precious in reaching out to others to connect that to me feels as necessary as breathing air.  I can’t be the only one who feels this way, can I?

While I have much compassion for those who live guardedly because to feel and to be vulnerable is sometimes hard, it makes me sad when I hear that that’s how some people feel most of the time.  To speak in one’s own truth and to feel openly takes courage.  Obviously, there’s some trepidation and balance needed in order to do it safely, but the precious give and take between people is priceless.  I look around at some people who are so concerned with how things look that they miss the importance of what could be if they were to be honest with themselves and others instead of hiding behind the mask they’ve chosen to show the world at large.  There’s that soft underbelly of emotional connection that they hide deep within themselves for fear of being hurt by someone or something.

I’ve been hurt in my life.  Betrayed by those whom I trusted.  I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone else, but by enduring those situations, they taught me more about people and life than I ever could have learned otherwise.  If truth be known, I am grateful for the experiences, even though they were so hard.  Because by enduring heartbreak, I learned forgiveness, compassion, empathy, and how to love others and myself more deeply.  Life lessons that couldn’t otherwise be learned except by experience.

We are here to experience life in its fullest form so to hide away doesn’t expose us to the amazing experiences that can be had by being present in our lives.  It’s like living in a cave and never seeing the light of day nor the moon at night.  We stifle ourselves when we hide behind the mask and live with the dull roar of fear which limits us.  When we blossom and open to the light, we shine our heartlights knowing there’s a danger of having them dimmed, but we can still see the meaning in the experience as we grow.  We blossom.  We deepen the life experience.  By sharing our stories, we bond with one another.  We flourish.  We help one another through the trials and tribulations of life.  We experience life from a deeper part of our souls when we are open to living to our fullest.

There is much evil in the world, I know.  I’m not such a fool to not realize that there are dangers lurking and I’m careful.  But I’m not going to let evil make me afraid of living nor sharing my heartlight with you for fear of what could happen.

For many of you, I know you think similarly for I read your blogs and your comments and there’s a team mentality here.  We reach out to connect, we enjoy each other’s virtual company and we bond.  We hold hands, we support each other and we shine our heartlights unabashedly.

Keep up the great work dear friends!  Let’s make a movement together to show others how we can live to our fullest extent.  Let’s help them when life situations break us down in order to let more light in to heal us.  None of us are alone if that’s what we choose.

Be the piece of the puzzle that joins us and not divides us.

Shine On!

xo

 

Rabbit Rabbit

Hello dear friends!  It’s that day again.  You know the one – the FIRST of the month and by golly, the time has flown by!  Don’t you think so?  It’s February 1st 2018!  Wowsza!

So here’s my little reminder to make you smile!  Don’t forget to say,

Rabbit, Rabbit,

White Rabbit, White Rabbit

this morning!  If you don’t understand why you should utter those words, then please click here for the explanation!

Shine On!

xo

Moving Up The Family Tree

As we age, I imagine we move up in the family tree.  As babies, we begin at the root of the family tree with our parents and other family members protecting us as we grow.  As we get older, we begin to branch off as our own limbs on the family tree and when/if we should marry and have children of our own, we develop our own branches off of our family trunk of love.

As the family tree increases, peopled with loving connections, it grows.  New branches and connections are formed to increase the tree’s size.  At mid-life though, something happens.  We begin to be in the middle or higher branches of the tree.  No longer are we one of the younger whipper-snappers, but we are now parents, aunts, uncles, and maybe even grandparents and we rise in the tree.  No longer are we establishing our branches.  We are expanding them with offshoots by our own family increasing in size.

When my father died, I was too grief-stricken to feel the shift that happened.  But I feel it now.  We’ve recently had a cousin of my Dad’s generation pass away.  No longer am I a child, but an adult, and I feel it’s my duty to represent our family limb in the passing of a beloved family member from another of the tree’s offshoots.

I guess it’s the way life progresses, but it was an eye-opening moment for me when I realized that I’m nearing the upper echelon of the tree.  I’m grateful that I’m a part of such a lovely family tree and I’m honored to be a part of the rising branches within our family tree.

Are you feeling that change in the generations too?  I guess as we age or under certain circumstances, we become the older generation, ready to nurture the younger ones as time goes by.  It’s all a part of the cycle of life.

Shine On!

xo