inspirational

Instead of a problem that needs a solution,
I’m changing my approach.

I now want to summon the Universe to help with 
A question that seeks an answer or
A desire to be fulfilled.
That is how I choose to steer my life!

Because really, doesn’t the Universe just need a break from all the heavy lifting?
It must get SO old always being called at the eleventh hour to put out my fires!
And don’t sit there in your smug and insinuate that I’m the only one!
Ha! You rapscallions!

You must agree that it is long past time to graduate from the status of 
Universal troublemakers, creating problems that propel us to move from point A to point B.

Instead, I’m leaning more toward Universal creator, 
Someone who comes up with a series of juicy “what if’s”? for the Universe to ponder.
The brushstrokes are broader,
There’s still forward movement,
Life’s much more interesting, 
Nixing the drama,
There’s a lot less crash and burn.

The ultimate will be Universal dreamer.
I’ll dial up a desire, and BAM!
Like a genie from the bottle,
The Universe appears!
My wish is their command!

As the process is refining itself, 
So am I.
Fewer nights of worry and woe,
Many more days of yeah!! and whoa!!

You did not come to this Earth now to just pay bills, follow rules, watch your body age, and live a random life. You came here to fulfill a purpose, to live your life alive, to view all your changes as sacred meaningful soul passages

From Leo at perspectives From the Sky blog

Two of the most powerful words in the English language for bringing about change are “thank you.” Especially when offered before the change even occurs and everything still looks pretty much like it did yesterday.

You’ll have to think of something to say afterwards on your own.

Hubba, hubba –
The Universe

Www.tut.com

Here are just a few of the things I’m grateful for,thankful for and appreciate!

My health 
My hubby (he’s a saint)
I’m at a quandary here, I don’t want to put my beloved dog before 
my husband, or after my family…she IS family, so..
My family (which includes my dog)
My amazing friends
My friend Eva’s inspirational recovery
The fact that I live in Los Angeles California, USA.
The fact that I can write this blog without fear of reprisals or repercussions (except maybe occasional embarrassment)
Chocolate ( I know it’s high on the list, don’t judge)!
Our motorcycle trips
Singing
The smell of Christmas trees
Driftwood
Laughing, love humor, love to laugh
Airplane travel, all travel really
Red nail polish, well…all nail polish
Mascara and lipstick while I’m at it ( still judging)?
Movies ( I love the surround sound and the big screen)
Rainy days
The color blue
Peanut butter (chunky of course)!
Lazy Sunday afternoons reading
My garden (nature in general)
White twinkle lights
The smell in the house on Thanksgiving!

Let me hear some of yours!

Happy Thanksgiving!
XoxJanet

I like the word appreciation over gratitude.
It’s cleaner,
It’s clearer,
It feels better to me.

Gratitude can still have the energy of overcoming something attached to it.
“God! I’m so grateful THAT is over”!

Thankfulness can carry a similar energy to gratitude.
“I’m so thankful to be done with THAT”!

Don’t get me wrong, reaching for gratitude and thankfulness,
can pull you up and out of the sticky tar of hate, fear and anxiety.
But I have found that through the years, as my gratitude journals
evolved, I could read back and feel in those words of gratitude, 
the wounds that had not healed, 
the fear that I was trying to banish.

It felt like gratitude and thankfulness were part of the healing
process, part of the energy working to sooth me.

Appreciation feels like the finish line.
It feels like the wind is at my back, the past is far behind me, and
I am reaching that line, having stopped to heal along the way with:
1) forgiveness
2 gratitude
3 thankfulness.

So…currently the clean air of appreciation stands waiting for me at the finish 
line, with a towel and some Gatorade.

Try it and see if you can feel the difference.
XoxJanet

http://daily.represent.us/matt-damon-blows-your-mind/

This got me thinking. Do we blindly continue to “follow the leader”?
History shows that allowing others, even if they are in a position of authority, to dictate our actions, can undermine a society.
It is the slow drip effect. It starts slowly, it is subtle, and most importantly, it doesn’t FEEL right.
What does YOUR heart say?

Your ability to lead a healthy and happy life depends more on your perception of the events that unfold around you than it does upon the actual events themselves.
– Christiane Northrup

“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.”
~Gilda Radner~

I LOVE that!! What a contradiction! Right?!!

In AA they call it letting go,
And letting God.

AMBIGUITY (noun)

the quality or state of having a veiled or uncertain meaning 
Synonyms ambiguity: ambiguousness, darkness, equivocalness, equivocation, inscrutability, inscrutableness, murkiness, mysteriousness, nebulosity, nebulousness, obliqueness, obliquity, opacity, opaqueness

Sounds scary, right?
But then you add the word…the perception of
Delicious

I saw this quote a couple of weeks ago and it’s been rolling around in my head.
What did she mean?

The lack of clarity about a situation does not necessarily mean it cannot be desirable.

Delicious Ambiguity means to Revel in the Unknown. What appears
ambiguious has many delicious things for life. Keep your eyes open,
Your MIND open, and things will reveal themselves.

Then I found this on the Web just the other day and it all started to make sense.
It’s a prayer of sorts that feels to me like it can help put us in a place of 
Delicious Ambiguity. 

I’m saying it every morning.
It goes like this:

Dear God, 
Put me in the right place even though I don’t know where it is. 
Dear God, when you do it, make it comfortable for me and help me to see the sense of it. 
Make it easy and bring me the right situations and synchronicities to put me in this place I don’t know about.

XoxJanet

“If I have harmed anyone in any way either knowingly or unknowingly through my own confusions, I ask their forgiveness. If anyone has harmed me in any way either knowingly or unknowingly through their own confusions, I forgive them. And if there is a situation I am not yet ready to forgive, I forgive myself for that. For all the ways that I harm myself, negate, doubt, belittle myself, judge or be unkind to myself through my own confusions, I forgive myself.”
~ A Buddhist Prayer of Forgiveness

My darling Diana used this prayer in a meditation the other day
in honor of the current full moon energy.
We get together once a month to pay homage to the energy surrounding each full moon, in hopes it will kick our ass that much less.

We were talking about the inflammatory nature of the word 
Forgiveness

People will get furious and fight for their right to NOT forgive.
I would love to hear the argument for this and how it serves them in their lives.
How is staying mad and resentful working in their favor?

NOTHING is unforgivable
No Thing.
There is always a choice
The choice to stay right..and miserable,
Or the choice to be happy..and free.

Some things FEEL unforgivable, they are so horrible.
Forgiveness does not mean forgetting, nor does it mean condoning or excusing offenses. 
It is accepting and moving on.

“Holding onto Anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die”
~Buddha~

I have a story that demonstrated this to me so perfectly.
I was once walking with my husband through one of those beautiful,
outdoor malls, when suddenly, I saw someone who had visited torment,
in the form of horrible verbal abuse and hugely expensive, unjustified
legal action on me.
He acts like a MEAN guy.

Immediately my blood ran cold.
I darted around him like an idiot, trying not be be seen, or breath the same air.
He on the other hand, was walking and smiling and having a perfectly lovely time with his wife.
He was fine.
I was miserable.
In my anger, resentment, and ultimately my inability to forgive him or move on,
I was hooked up to an intravenous feed of poison, that was only hurting…
ME. 

I work hard literally EVERY day to forgive this man.
And to forgive myself for attracting someone like that into my life.
The moment I met him I should have turned and run!
And I knew that! 
My bad.

Forgiveness is the scent the violet leaves on the heel that crushes it
– Mark Twain

Think about that statement. That feels so sacred to me.

I’d love to open a discussion on forgiveness.
Forgiving others, and forgiving ourselves.
Let me know your thoughts.

XoxJanet