I have decided that in the midst of the storm to choose joy. It is in the storm that true character is formed. I recently saw a post by a friend that said that the purpose of the storm is to change you. You don’t come out of the storm being the same person you were going in. Instead of fighting the change we should embrace it. God is up to something! So in this storm I am choosing joy now and always. Be blessed!
CHOOSING JOY
Visualize Your Goals
Often times during the course of the day I find myself visualizing myself already completing a task. This has helped me get through small things like traffic and big things like a rough work day. If I can simply see the end result then I can make it through.
In keeping with this idea or concept I feel the need to pick back up where I left off with my blog site and see it through. I have said night after night that I would write again, but I never visualize this goal coming to pass. Well…enough of not following through even on this small task. This is simply because with all things all you need to do is set the goal, visualize the goal and follow through. 
Communicating Your Love…
You know I was thinking and I know I can be pretty sappy and emotional sometimes. But I was thinking how amazing it is to get to know someone, become apart of their life, wake up and they are on your mind, to long for their kiss and touch and to fall in love with everything about them good or bad. When I really think about it I can’t help but wonder: If love and being connected with someone is so wonderful…then how can that also be the one thing that can hurt so bad? And when we experience that high and low why do our souls still long for the love of someone and to be connected to another soul?
This all goes back to what it says in the bible about love being the greatest thing there is. Love the true giving of oneself to another is the key to this life. That is why we long for it and seek it out no matter what the consequences may be.
It is truly ironic! But then again being in love with someone is one of the most amazing feelings known to mankind. There is absolutely nothing like it in this world. Wars have been fought, families have been destroyed, and people have killed all in the name of love.. That kind of stuff is way more powerful than any hallucinogenic drug I know.
Why Not? 2014 Goals…
In life we can constantly come up with reasons why things will not work out. Why we cannot do, go and live our lives. What if there was nothing holding you back? What if the one thing that you feared the most no longer existed? What if you actually finally realized that you are just as great and powerful as you dream you can be? What if you could accomplish all your life goals because there was nothing you were afraid of? What if…you actually faced your fear and said to life…Why Not?! I can do this!
So here is what I propose we do. We should come up with a list of all the things that we thought we could not do or
things that scare us and picked one to do everyday. Get a jar, a box, a bowl, a Ziploc bag even or just simply right them down in list form and scratch them off. However, I suggest (for more success) you write them down and cut them up into strips of paper. That way you can just select one and then just do it. The thing is whatever you pick you have to do it. You cannot double dip and select one that better goes with you for the day. That is not facing your fears.
Imagine what you can accomplish when the things on the list are no longer the things that are holding you back!!
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I Dare You…I Double Dog Dare You…!
If you are old enough to remember saying these words to your friends then you know where I am going with this. If not let me let you in on what my title means. When I was little my brother and/or friends would get these crazy ideas to try things that we knew we probably were not supposed to do; however we would tell each other, “I Dare YOU and more than likely someone else would chime in I Double Dog Dare YOU! Essentially when someone Double Dog Dared you then it was an unspoken code amongst all kids that you had to do it no matter what. If not then you were considered a punk or chicken and probably ridiculed by everyone you knew. As kids we saw these “Misson Impossible” acts that we were being dared to try as exciting and we would even seek out these crazy things to do.
WHY?! Because we lived life without any boundaries and we dared anyone tell us we couldn’t do the things that came into our minds.
Now let’s fast forward 20+ years and say those same exact words to someone about living their life with no boundaries or laughing in the face of someone who dares tell them they can’t. The person that you are now if they have been conditioned by the world to believe that they cannot achieve the life goals that they dream of says, ” No thanks…Your probably right…or even I have too many responsibilities to even think crazy like that.” We don’t even dare ourselves anymore to dream or try and accomplish those “Mission Impossible” acts. I can write this because I too have sat down on the side of the track and become a spectator in my life. I too have stopped Double Dog Daring myself to live my life without boundaries.
So with that said I am challenging you, I am throwing down the gauntlet and I Double DOG DARE YOU to live your life without boundaries and complete an impossible mission of not giving up on yourself in 2013!
Painting Your Own Mona Lisa…How Do You See Yourself?
Benjamin Franklin once said, “There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self” ( http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/b/benjaminfr151664.html). How many people can truly say that they know themselves? There are few people who can answer that question honestly. To know oneself is to fully uncloth yourself (emotionally, physically, mentally,etc.) and come to grip with whatever is on the surface and below the surface.
Putting Life Into Perspective
I pose this question for you to really think about (that is if you haven’t already pondered this question before). What do you allow in your spirit (your space so to speak) that throws you off-balance? These elements or things can be negative thoughts, individuals, emotionally charged reactions, doubt, fear, self-pity, denial, negative conversations or gossip, and unnecessary stress to name a few. All these things that I listed and others not listed can impact your perspective on life and influence your decisions. In reading a quote by George Bernard Shaw I realized that it is not so much that these things enter into our life it is how much weight and life we give to them. The quote by Shaw says, “Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, The one I feed the most.”
In life you have choices that you can make on whether to feed the negative crap in life or to starve it. So in essence we all know that different things be they positive or negative will come into our lives that is just life. But the end result of that “negative” thing coming in ultimately lies within oneself. That coincidentally is why there is a billion dollar industry based solely off “Self” help information. No one can bring about a change more powerful and beneficial in your life like you can!
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Que Sera Sera – Whatever Will Be Will Be…
People have often said that they wish they knew what their future held so they would know which direction to take next. But really how many of us would really like to know how everything in our life is going to turn out. I personally used to believe that I wanted to know, however now I believe that knowing would remove all the possiblity of enjoying life for what it is. It removes the ability to truly find out who you really are as a person simply because you are basing who you are off of what you perceive in the laid out manual of steps and decisions to make that you see in front of you. I personally want to write my own manual or book of life as I make my way through and on this journey.
I have had this thought on my mind now for about 3 days so I decided to sit down at the computer and finally get it off my chest. I continue to go back to an earlier post that I made where I used a quote by George Bernard Shaw, ” Life is not about finding yourself. It is about creating yourself.” So with that in mind we as human beings need to remember that, “Whatever Will Be Will Be!” I don’t think I could sum it up any better than Doris Day did in her song. “The futures not ours to see, Que Sera Sera.” So I charge each and every one to remember that one simple statement as they venture out into 2012. Live life in the moment and enjoy every minute, every sound, every smell, every laugh, every kiss, every rejection, every support or approval, every denial, every conversation, etc. because every one of these things is in someway is connected to the next move you will make. And whatever will be will be in the end anyway. Go out and create who you want to be and enjoy it!
Your life is an open book with tons of pages waiting to be filled by your experiences, losses, loves and etc. What you put in that book of life is soley up to you. I personally want the prose in my book to be so suspenseful, erotic, inspiring, adventurous, life changing and whatever else that it could make the New York Times Bestsellers list and be discussed by Oprah’s Book Club! So I will close with this question, how do you want your next chapters for 2012 to read? In answering that question you will do something pretty amazing, “You will find yourself!” Que Sera Sera!
Coming Full Circle or Not…
Image by island home via Flickr
There is a scene in one of my favorite movies ( The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood) where Ellen Burstyn is told by her friend that, “One day everybody’s bill comes due,” that keeps resonating in my mind and keeping me from sleeping. Just those simple words makes me think back on this year and really think things through. I have done some things, said somethings, thought somethings, and even went to the extent of laying out a well crafted plan on somethings that I know were not (as we Southern Baptist say) Christian like. Whether I thought I was right in the face of that mountain or whatever had me over the top that day it still does not negate the fact that everybody’s bill comes due one day. And I better have the money to pay the piper when that time comes.
See even when we do things that are probably with good intentions we need to stop, meditate (something I need to learn to do) on it, and then react. Our words and our actions are something that will live on and will follow us. Our words and our actions can lead us down a path that we never intended to go down. We have to carefully choose our next move because every action on our part or someone elses always, always, always causes a reaction. And we have to remember that, “One day everybody’s bill comes due!”
So on this rainy Christmas morning I want to say that I know I am not perfect (never claimed to be), I am flawed beyond belief, but I am here. I am here ready to make a change and ready to cast all the things aside that would make my bill at the end higher than a giraffe’s neck. Just as Whoopi Goldberg said in the movie Color Purple, “Thank God I’m Here” because now I can come full circle or not…
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Taking It One Day at a Time
I can finally say that I am at a point in my life where I am really living in the moment. That is something that I have had great struggle with over the years because I have always wanted to control the outcome of situations. I have never been able to say that I really take time to smell the roses and enjoy a moment for whatever it is. I am happy with that. I am free! This aha moment is also very serile in someways because I have wanted to be this way for so long and now here I am. And coincidentally enough I still find myself wondering “what now!” I read once in one of Oprah’s, What I Know for Sure, sections in her magazine that when you are uncertain about something you just have to stop and be still. You basically have to stop and wait for the answer to come to you because believe it or not it will come. And when it hits you, you will know for sure that the move you are about to make is the right one.
Our souls where told I believe what we were destined to do or become. But it is essentially important for us to stand still and listen to that voice that is our soul and then we will go down the correct path. No one ever said that the journey would be easy, but they did say it would be worth it right. Well as I embark on this next chapter of my life I think I will take the joy with the pain, the ups with the downs, the smiles and the frowns, the love and the hurt and still slide into home base with an amazing story to tell! One of my favorite quotes is, “Life is not about learning how to make it through the storm. It is about learning how to dance in the rain.” And dance I shall!
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Achieving It All...The Mocha Southern Belle Way 