Encouragement 15 Days until Christmas

“Correction does much, but encouragement does more.”

Johann Wolfgang

Encourage where you can!

Today, Tomorrow and Yesterday....16 days until Christmas

“I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today.”

William Allen White

Just love the day and your yesterdays will be better, and your tomorrows you can look forward to.

Learning....18 Days until Christmas

I've learned that we don't have to change friends if we understand that friends change.

I've learned that no matter how good a friend is, they're going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.

I've learned that true friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. The same goes for true love.

I've learned that you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for life.

I've learned that it's taking me a long time to become the person I want to be.

I've learned that you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.

I've learned that you can keep going long after you can't.

I've learned that we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.

I've learned that either you control your attitude or it controls you.

Books:  How to loose all your friends, a puffin book by, Nancy Carlson

Book:   Forgiving the Unforgivable , by, David A. Stoop
Book:   Eat, Pray, Love: One Womans Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, by, Elizabeth Gilbert
Book:  Words...Loving Emotions, Poems to Awaken the Soul.  By, Pittershawn Palmer 

 

Coming alive....17 Days Until Christmas

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

~ Harold Whitman (Is a fictional name....no one know's who really said this)

This quote sometimes is confused with Howard Thurman Whitman (1899 - April 10, 1981) was an influential American author, philosopher, theologian, educator and civil rights leader. He was Dean of Theology and the chapels at Howard University and Boston University for more than two decades, wrote 20 books, and in 1944 helped found the first racially integrated, multicultural church in the United States.

However...Howard Thurman Whitman did say this,"In the conflicts between man and man, between group and group, between nation and nation, the loneliness of the seeker for community is sometimes unendurable. The radical tension between good and evil, as man sees it and feels it, does not have the last word about the meaning of life and the nature of existence. There is a spirit in man and in the world working always against the thing that destroys and lays waste. Always he must know that the contradictions of life are not final or ultimate; he must distinguish between failure and a many-sided awareness so that he will not mistake conformity for harmony, uniformity for synthesis. He will know that for all men to be alike is the death of life in man, and yet perceive harmony that transcends all diversities and in which diversity finds its richness and significance." From The Search For Common Ground; An Inquiry Into The Basis Of Man's Experience Of Community.

Book: Feeding the Animals: Originally published in 1901.
Book:  Community:  The structure of belonging
Book: The Spirit in Man, Art and Literature by Jung
Book:  Creating Harmony: Conflict Resolution in Community

Miracles...19 Days until Christmas

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is. "

Albert Einstein

Bitterness 20 Days Until Christmas

When the days are tough, and bitterness flares up into your heart...
know that it is the bitterness that can tell you that you need to soften your heart!

If we did not have tears, then we would not know laughter.
If we did not have bouts of bitterness, then we would not know sweetness.

We can use our lifes lessons to help us grow.
We can learn to embrace bitterness to make us stronger.

Patience is bitter, but it bears sweet fruit.
Turkish proverb

Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hate. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.
William Author Ward

It is a simple but sometimes forgotten truth that the greatest enemy to present joy and high hopes is the cultivation of retrospective bitterness.
Robert G. Menzines

Who has never tasted what is bitter does not know what is sweet.
German Proverb

When you've been wronged. Moving from Bitterness to Forgiveness, by Erwin W. Lutzer

The Root of Bitterness: Documents of the Social History of American Women

In Bitterness and Tears:Andrew Jackson's Destruction of the Creeks and Seminoles

The Lost Art of Fogiving. Stories of healing from the Cancer of Bitterness. By, Johann Christoph Arnold

Be Willing......21 Days until Christmas

Today is the day you hand your troubles to God. Nothing is too big for him to handle. Be willing to consider the possibility that God can do for you what you cannot do for yourself.

We have the unique ability to hold on to everything, old clothes, old notes, old friends things that might put a stress in our lives.

We walk around worring if that boy will really like me, how can I buy the shoes that I must have, worried if our hair will stay right during the day...we can just titter ourselves into a frenzy.

Worry causes anxiety, the worry gets bigger the more you worry!  Sometimes we drain ourselves by doing to much analysing or controlling of situations, or we put too much effort into gathering information before making a decision or feeling at ease. 

Don't you want to get out of the mess?  Get rid of the stress and worry?

Let go and let God do the work!  Lay it all down on the table before him, and be willing to let him take charge. Trust that he will take care of it.  Not when he feels like it, not if you say it enought, because he already knows, and is will do it once you hand it over to him.

This does not mean, you are quitting, or giving up.  When you let go, you are allowing/creating space in your life for change to occur!

Just sit down for a few moments, and give God a list big or small.  Imagine yourself just handing it all over and walking away, while he has the big list in his hands.

Smile and do not look back and relax a little.  Know that HE is bigger than our list, be willing to walk away and let go and let God!  Be willing to be "unstuck" from your troubles.  Don't hold on to them like glue.

Remind yourself, when you get down on things, that you already gave it for someone much bigger to take care of.

Now it is our responsibility to listen, forget and forgive ourselves.
Sit back and watch God work in our lives!

Moving Mountains....22 days until Christmas

You have heard it said, that if we have faith, we have the power to move mountains!
Know that you have that within you, you are a mountain moving machine!

“ If you have faith as a grain of musterd seed you can say to this mountain : move ! And it will move ! And nothing will be impossible to you. “

How do we get the faith to move the mountains?

Well, it is not by sititng and doing nothing, saying...I have faith that this and this will happen! Nothing happens if you sit still.

First, you have to know that you have God on your side, and he wants nothing but the best for you.  Knowing that the creator of creators is right next to you, should be encouraging enough to know that you already have that faith!

Who is better to sit by your side?  Who loves you more?  Who holds your hands when you are down?  Who jumps for joy when you do? 

It is the knowing, that builds your faith.  There is a difference between knowing and having knowledge.  It is that inner belief, that you already have been created wonderful and perfect!  Because he would made you is wonderful and perfect!  He cannot make mistakes.

With that, then you can have a dream and desire to move forward.  He will be your strengh as you walk your walk. How can you loose?

The first step is silence....23 Days until Christmas

The first step in the acquisition of wisdom is silence, the second listening, the third memory, the fourth practice, the fifth teaching others.
Solomon Ibn Gabriol

It is in silence that you discover the truth of interconnectedness, and the priceless jewel of love.
It is the silence that unfolds naturally when you see that all the noise in your mind—the mental chatter—is entirely self-generated. When you see that it is your own story, your own incessant thinking that is getting in the way of your deeper peace and well-being, that seeing brings everything to a stop. Then the exquisite fragrance of stillness, of silence, reveals itself.

More important than outward silence is inward silence, and that is not so easily available to us.  Just as when we look outside and see a vast universe interwoven with activities and quietude, our internal world has both action and silence.  When we look into the mind we ordinarily see only the surface phenomena-thoughts, feelings, and desires. We must mak additional effort to experience that inner silence, the silence of the mind.

Look for it....24 Days until Christmas

"In every difficult situation is potential value.
Believe this, then begin looking for it."

Norman V Peale

When we are going through a difficult moment, look around to see what potential value that moment has for you.
When we do this, then our difficult moments do not seem so difficult anymore and we can gather excitement within ourselves to see what will be next in our lives.

Acts of Kindness...25 Days until Christmas

A follow up to healing a broken heart and to open a closed heart can start with acts of kindness.

Here are some examples for starters:

• Donate your professional clothes to an organization that helps people get back into the workforce.
• Reach out to the homebound -- seniors, ill or incapacitate children or caregivers committed to caring for their family members at home. Give them with an inspiring book. Offer to bring them books from the library. Help them take care of their pets. Convince a beautician or barber to make a house-call. Give them a call once in a while for a chat.
• Give a thank-you card to a bus driver who is driving off-peak hours, or to your postperson, the clerk at the bank who helps you all of the time, your school advisor, your favorite profesor.
• Tape the exact change for a soda to a vending machine or a payphone.
  
• Leave flowers in front of someone's house.
  
• Bake cookies for your neighbors.
  
• Put quarters in the laundry machine for the next person.
  
• Send cards with beautiful messages to anonymous people.
  
• Leave chocolate on the desk of your co-workers.
•  Treat someone to a cup of their favorite coffee.

• Make some soup or sandwich for a homeless person in your neighborhood and deliver it to them with a smile. Stop and have a conversation with a homeless person. Find out how they're doing.
  
• Collect clothes from family and friends and take them to your closest shelter.
  
• Collect food cans and take them to a food bank.
• Buy someone dessert.
  
• Pay for the person behind you at a drive-thru.
  
• Pick up flowers at the grocery store and after you check out, give them to the cashier or the bagger with a big smile and a smile card.

Remember to make the world a better place, starts with ourselves.

A Broken Heart...26 Days until Christmas!

We are here to be a vessel of love.  We are meant to fly and look at other with the eyes of love.
The only person that stops that flow of love, is ourselves.

When we are not the vessel of love, something has gone wrong.
When we say someone has hurt us, it temps us to close our hearts.
When are hearts are closed it hurts, because we are meant to have an open heart.
When we have a broken heart, we close our hearts to others and all that pain that is inside only really hurts us.

Our heart is synonymous with love

• have a heart - be merciful
• change of heart - change your mind
• to know something by heart - memorize something
• broken heart - to lose love
• heartfelt - deeply felt
• have your heart in the right place - to be kind
• cry your heart out - to grieve
• heavy heart - sadness
• have your heart set on - to want something badly

What happens when our heart is broken? How do I unclose my heart, and how do I get rid of the pain?

Here is the physical example of how a heart is supposed to function compared to when the heart is not working right:

The heart has three layers. The smooth, inside lining of the heart is called the endocardium. The middle layer of heart muscle is called the myocardium. It is surrounded by a fluid filled sac call the pericardium.

We know that the heart is like a pump, to pump our blood throughout our body and provides the needed oxygen for our system.
We also know that there are valves, ventricles.  This complex muscles goes like this:

The blood flows:

• to the superior and inferior vena cava,
• then to the right atrium
• through the tricuspid valve
• to the right ventricle
• through the pulmonic valve
• to the pulmonary artery
• to the lungs

When our heart does not function properly, we get weak, short of breath, we get dizzy, cough in the attempt to increase our oxygen, and a weak heart can effect every aspect of our body, our brain, our sleep, and our movements. The most common cause of heart disease is a narrowing of or blockage in the coronary arteries supplying blood to the heart muscle (coronary artery disease).  Almost 2,000 Americans die of heart disease each day. That is one death every 44 seconds.

This is caused by the narrowing or blockage of the coronary arteries caused by atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis (sometimes called “hardening” or “clogging” of the arteries) is the buildup of cholesterol and fatty deposits (called plaque) on the inner walls of the arteries that restricts blood flow to the heart. Without adequate blood, the heart becomes starved of oxygen and the vital nutrients it needs to work properly. This can cause chest pain called angina.

Lets go a little deeper: When fat builds up inside your arteries it causes slight injury to your blood vessel walls. In an attempt to heal the blood vessel walls, the cells release chemicals that make the blood vessel walls stickier. Other substances traveling through your blood stream, such as inflammatory cells, cellular waste products, proteins and calcium, begin to stick to the vessel walls. The fat and other substances combine to form a material called plaque.
Many of the plaque deposits are soft on the inside with a hard fibrous “cap” covering the outside. If the hard surface cracks or tears, the soft, fatty inside is exposed. Platelets (disc-shaped particles in the blood that aid clotting) come to the area, and blood clots form around the plaque.
If a blood clot totally blocks the blood supply to the heart muscle, the heart muscle becomes "starved" for oxygen and nutrients in the region below the blockage. Within a short time, an acute coronary attack can occur.
Now, why did I go through all that detail, of things you probably already know?  Because I want to make an analogy, that part of the heart we call ourselves; our other heart.

Now imagine, our "other heart" or ourselves has three layers, a layer deep inside, a middle layer and an outer layer.  We have our own layers too. The surface, with those passing by followed by nod's, and hello's.  You know the small and sweet conversations at the grocery store line. We have our middle layer, the one where we someone in just a bit, our colleagues or our neighbors and sometimes that middle layer for us, could even be our friends and family.  Then we have the deeper layer, the one where no man can hardly go, but a given few.

It is at this layer, where the damage can be the most dangerous.  First, we have a little fatty tissue develop, then our layer, "becomes sticky" but we let it ride, keep on going and if at that point, we do not see the danger, and forgive, look at the other with love...that stickiness, starts to get hard with "calicum..." (plaque) making the deep layer fragile and open for cracks or tears.  And if it goes untended and cared for, BOOM, our hearts become closed and blocked.

This is where the pain comes in, both physically as in a heart attack and emotionally in our other hearts.

When does the person start to heal from a heart attack and is the healing process?

(These facts are taken from: http://www.holisticonline.com/Remedies/Heart/heart_attack_life-after-2-healing-heart.htm)

When a person heals from a heart attack, the healing starts, as soon as the blood flow is restored.

• White blood corpuscles enter the damaged heart muscle and remove the dead (heart) cells. 
• Gradually, scar tissue forms on the area of your heart that was deprived of oxygen during the attack.
  

• This scar tissue is different than the normal heart tissue. It does not contract like normal heart muscle or adds to the heart's pumping action.
  
• The amount of tissue that is injured depends on the size of the area that is supplied by the blocked artery and how long the artery stayed blocked.
  

• It is normal for you to feel very tired for the first one or two weeks after your heart attack.
  
• It takes time to rebuild your strength.
  
• Take it easy and get plenty of rest.
  
• Slowly resume your normal activities.
  
• Space your activities.
  
• Take time to rest if you get tired.
  

For our "other heart" the healing process starts....

• As soon as we open the doors! As soon as we open our hearts! As soon as the closed heart stops being closed!  As soon as we decide to become vessels of love.
  
• Our own blood, heals itself! Imagine.  Once we open the doors, the pain starts to go away and we feel like we can breathe again! The process of healing commences.
• Yes, there is scar tissue, scar tissue is a sign of healing. Our scar tissue is different than what we had before.  Isn't it wonderful that we can look at that scar as a reminder of something that is healed, a new birth or a death of that old pain, cramping you up inside?
• The amount of scar tissue, depends on the size of the area...the amount of pain, the amount of hurt, how much our stomach churned and how long we remained closed.

How do we open our closed heart?

The only way that I can have my own heart healed, is to be a healing agent to others.  By being a healing agent to others, I start to open up, and let the blood flow. I start to breathe again, smile again, by giving and forgiving.

Christmas is not the only time for giving...27 Days until Christmas

We should be giving all the time, it makes the world a better place.  From now until Christmas, you should try to help someone each day.  Like helping the little ole lady cross the street, the stranger who seems to be carrying a heavy load, or the client who could use a "free cup of coffee with a smile".

As you go about your days, look around and see who you can help.

29 Days Before Christmas

It is 30 days before Christmas and my tradition is to send "Words of wisdom" or "Food for thought" each day to my loved ones until Christmas. I thought that I would include the program on my blog.

The greatest contribution you can make to this world is to better yourself. God works directly through you, so his work is an outcome of the person you make yourself out to be.