Love Fu

Those that challenge you the most are also your greatest teachers.

Thank them, for they are the ones that call you to live your highest potential.

They are the opportunity for you to face yourself, your fears and those parts of you that you don’t like, for they will expose it.

They are the opportunity to see how you stop loving and to love bigger.

They invite you to live the books, your prayers and your spirituality.

Often when we are faced with a challenging individual, we get angry. We might defend our point, want to fight, be righteous, judge or collapse in fear.

Most of all those that challenge us, give us the opportunity to love.
But we must first shift our perception, how we view the situation and that person.
Here are some steps:

1 -Shift: See that person/situation as a gift. They are the opportunity for you to grow and love more.

2 – Let go: Give up being right and commit to being FREE. Nothing/No one is worth your happiness or peace. Life is way too short.

3 – Realize: They are reflecting something for you to see, a part of yourself that you need to own, an old wound that you get to heal and let go.

4 – Responsibility: Take the focus off of them, take responsibility and learn your lesson. Embrace it. Graduate from the experience and move on.

5 - Release: Accept the person exactly as they are. Perhaps that might mean you will need to let them go from your life or shift the dynamics of your relationship. Stop fighting what they are.

6 – Communicate: Either communicate with them directly if appropriate or simply bless them and let them go within your own heart. Since everything is energy and we are all interconnected, the good vibes that you send that person will affect them.

7 – Appreciate: Acknowledge your growth and learning. Focus on what you received, and the person you became as a result, rather than what was taken.

Remember: When someone attacks you, they are in a lot of pain. And even though it is directed at you, it most often isn’t about you. It isn’t personal, even though it seems that way and they might even feel that way.

You can choose to fight fire with fire, but this only creates more devastation. When someone attacks you, they want to engage you in a fight. If you attack back, you are now caught up in a vicious cycle.

Even if you win the fight… no one really wins. Let go. Focus on freedom and resolution.

It takes two people to fight. When you don’t engage the attack energy, soon your adversary will be left fighting with her/himself. Then the energy will dissipate.

If you drop to the level of your “attacker”, you perpetuate the cycle of endless negativity. Your “attacker” will try to use your energy to keep a war going. But if you don’t engage, then there is no resistance. They will have no fuel to keep fighting you with.

If someone gives you a gift, but you decline to accept it, to whom does the gift belong? It still belongs to the other person!

Rise above it. Disengage. Step to the side. Redirect. Live your freedom.
So, practice Love Fu. Then “Peace” is no longer just a sweet T-shirt slogan. And Love is not just some nice mantra. But Love becomes a daily reality and the opportunity in action for you to live.

Summertime Yumminess

Summertime Yumminess


1) Cooking squash stir fry this afternoon…this has become a summertime tradition for us & I absolutely love it! And they’re oh so yummy

2) big smooches on little girl cheeks. Scrumptious.

3) the sound of rain

4) Veggie steamers cooked in garlic/white wine yummines.

5) an amazing new recipe I tried this evening…so so good–risotto with asparagus, snow peas, squash, Parmesan, shallots, white wine, lemon–so delicious.

6) a brand new book that I can’t wait to read.

7) good friends

8) I so appreciate it when I went to the hospital saw Kelly and Greg enjoy each other after the birth of Lucy.

9) a little time to have a conversation with Larry without 2 dozen interruptions

10) Kleenex…So necessary when the joy of a new born

My Day June 28, 2011

I have been busy today. Busy doing nothing. I had a disagreement with Autumn on Sunday and my nerves have been upset ever since. She is so mixed up about so many things and usually she takes my word over others. However this time she said some things that I knew she had been brained washed with and I tried to help her see the truth.....Oh! well there are time you have to just let things go.

The baby was born (kelly's baby) on Sunday and she is beautiful. She was given my nick name, Lucy. Now I have a dog and a baby named after me. That is so sweet.

I am going to the hospital tonight and visit with her.

In Appreciation of My Body

Below is a wish for myself

It is the future of me, as I become.I did it for me. I did it for my daughters.
I stood before the mirror. Naked. I had scars and I still have scars. Scars that can be seen by the eye and scars embedded deep within.
The beauty was always there but my eyes could not always see it.It took love and it took time. It took acceptance. It took love.Love. Love for me. Love for my daughters.
But my weight and my rolls kept me at bay. I looked in the mirror. Naked. And I finally saw. Me. I am a spirit I have a soul and I live in a body. But my body is my home in this life. Its health, its strength, its vitality is paramount to feel joy, to feel pain, to be. It is the eyes through which I see, the hands through which I touch, and the mouth through which I taste. It allows me to see love, to feel love, to taste love.
In that moment I looked and I looked and I looked. I looked with love, with care and with compassion. I cried. I understood. No matter size, no matter shape, no matter moment, this body carries me. This body houses me, and this body deserves me.That was the moment it all changed. That was the moment I decided to feel love. To be love. That was the moment I first uttered these words aloud:

May I be filled with loving-kindness
May I be well
May I be peaceful and at ease
May I be happy
From that day forward, I began my mornings with those words, I ended my days with those words, and I repeated them in the moments of self doubt and in moments of pain. Slowly and surely I bathed myself in compassion, in the compassion I readily gave to others but rarely gave to myself.
Things began to change.No longer did food take mindless prominence in my life. It was integrated in a joyful and loving way. I took pride in my food and created meals with love. Gratitude and thanks were spoken before food was eaten. Farmers were acknowledged for their time and energy and my girls came to learn from where our food came.And I ran but no longer from myself.
I ran because it was love in motion. My heart beat loud in my chest. My breath strong, rhythmic, urging me forward. My legs slowly felt stronger, the jiggle dissipating. I felt strong and worthy. As I ran and as I nourished myself a strange thing happened. I realized it wasn’t about my weight. It was about my worth. I felt joy readily and I allowed myself to feel pain. And, the weight---it came off. And I walked tall and proud.The chip bag crinkles loudly now. No longer do I shamefully sneak cookies hoping no one will notice. No longer are candy wrappers hidden in bedside table drawers. I eat them, blissfully enjoying each bite. And yes, there are still moments of weakness, moments I am not mindful, moments I am not compassionate. But I acknowledge those moments now, and I repeat to myself:

May I be filled with loving-kindness
May I be well
May I be peaceful and at ease
May I be happy.

June 23, 2011

Nobody born automatically goes to Heaven. Instead, you were born traveling straight down the road to Hell. It is Jesus our Savior who SAVES us from that road to Hell and puts us in the direction of Heaven. That is why it is called "being saved." He is rescuing us from something. He is rescuing us from our sins which send us to that final destination of hell.

For example, let's say you are out in the ocean and drowning. Wondrously, you see a boat drawing near. The boat captain throws out to you a life preserver. You know that if you grab hold of that life preserver it will save you from your terminal destination which is drowning to death. It'd be a huge misconception if you thought you were already pre-saved and wouldn't eventually drown.

Grabbing hold of that lifeline of salvation is a choice that you and me and we all have to make. It is a choice, our own decision, on whether we choose God's eternal rescue or not. If you are swimming out in the ocean and you push the life preserver away, it is you who choose to die. It is you who choose to drown. It is your choice. Jesus in John 3:36 teaches this reality, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. But whoever rejects the son will not see life, because God's wrath remains on him."

If you haven't already, choose to be saved today. Turn to Jesus your Savior and ask Him to save you from your sins and the just sentence of Hell.

While there may be a lot of misconceptions about the afterlife and how we get there that are meant to cofuse the reality of it all, we can learn what the real deal is in the Bible.

CELEBRATE THE MAKING OF ME

A SIMPLE PATH TO THE MAKING OF ME



"I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day."

Abraham Lincoln



I was invited to play softball on our local team. I had played for years and always was the picture. This year was different. I had not played in a couple of years and did not know if I still had the edge.



I was nervous driving to my first game. Did I still have it, What if I can't pitch like I use to?

The questions buzzed my mind.



My turn up to bat, this was my weakest position. I got a base hit. Going for one isn't bad, but I would like to knock it out of the ball park one time.



After the game, I changed out of my uniform. Once finished, I tossed my bat and glove over my shoulder and strolled out of the dugout without much energy. I don't see the girl waiting for me.



"will you teach me to pitch like you?" the young girl asked.



I patted her on the head and said, "Sure."



On the way home, I thought about the game. I am a good pitcher, because I can consecrate but my batting was upsetting to me. Time to hit the park.



Larry, suggested to me that the reason the girl asked me to teach her to play wasn't because I had a great game, but because I was in the game.



CELEBRATE THE MAKING OF ME. Celebrate the long hours I had put into pitching. Celebrate how I hit softball after softball until my hands bleed. Celebrate the times I am on the practice fill instead of in front of the television. Celebrate how softball is making me into a lady of passion.



Sometimes the simple path to the making of me isn't defined by one great moment, but by all the moments when the more difficult choice is made.