tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91288284671915098602024-02-07T16:44:36.991-06:00Living Out LoudUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger476125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-1431767603843582052018-05-25T09:26:00.002-05:002018-05-25T09:26:14.332-05:00Pure Magic~ Breathing through your FEET!<i style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: museo_sans; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Breathe through your feet.</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: museo_sans; font-size: 16px;"> </span><br style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: museo_sans; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: museo_sans; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: museo_sans; font-size: 16px;">That's it, essentially. Simple, but let's break it down:</span><br style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: museo_sans; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: museo_sans; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: museo_sans; font-size: 16px;">Bring your attention to the soles of your feet. You might notice that this completely ordinary act of attention takes no effort—as soon as you think of it, it's already happening. You might also notice that it involves a combination of feeling and subtle visual imagining, which you've done all your life. If I say, "Left ear," you immediately imagine-feel your left ear, with no effort or learning curve required. </span><br style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: museo_sans; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: museo_sans; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: museo_sans; font-size: 16px;">Now, breathe normally, but each time you breathe in, imagine-feel that you're breathing in through the soles of your feet. Each time you breathe out, imagine-feel that you're breathing out through the soles of your feet. That's all. I'm sure you've already heard that sitting and meditating every day is an excellent way to reduce anxiety, but in case you're not there yet, this highly portable strategy doesn't require any sitting at all, and you can put it to use right away. Don't worry about how fast or slow or deep or shallow your breathing is, or whether your breathing pattern stays the same or changes. Don't strain to concentrate or focus. Don't try to push away thoughts or sounds or anything else. Don't try to feel any special way. Just breathe through your feet and let everything else be however it is. </span><br style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: museo_sans; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: museo_sans; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />Read more: <a href="http://www.oprah.com/inspiration/dean-sluyter-this-exercise-can-guide-you-through-your-hardest-times#ixzz5GWWcsp9f" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #003399; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.oprah.com/inspiration/dean-sluyter-this-exercise-can-guide-you-through-your-hardest-times#ixzz5GWWcsp9f</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-46407240120894075962018-05-25T09:22:00.002-05:002018-05-25T09:28:56.636-05:00HERE, SIT, STAY~To good not to share... even with myself. Happy Friday!<br />
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The Secret Reason Some People Are Never Happy (and What to Do About It)</h1>
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My friends and I like to play a game we call "pennies from heaven." It's very simple: Pinpoint a sum of money you believe could come to you out of the blue, with no effort on your part, from a source you don't expect, within the next month. You could find a nickel on the sidewalk. A kindly billionaire might stroll up and cut you a check. Write down the amount, then forget about it until a month later—at which point you should see whether your heaven pennies have arrived.<br />
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One of my friends, Claire, didn't want to play the game. "This is silly," she said. But after some cajoling, she decided she could just barely imagine $1,000 floating her way. Three weeks later, Claire received a letter saying that her company had miscalculated her 401(k) withholding. Along with the letter was a check for almost $800. It wasn't a thousand bucks, but hey—$800 is nothing to sneeze at. "Told you this game works!" I said to Claire. "Well," she said, "I'm never playing again. I know better than to tempt fate."<br />
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This reaction may seem bizarre: She won the game! And she didn't want to play again? But her refusal is more typical than you might think. Most of us are comfortable only if we have a certain amount of money, health, love, and promising opportunities in our life. When we fall short of these targets, we almost always find ways to improve our circumstances until we're back in that sweet spot. But weirdly, we often also feel uncomfortable when things get "too good." We have a sort of happiness set point, and if we exceed it, we may, like Claire, discount or even sabotage our good fortune in order to feel normal again.<br />
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Why on earth would we do this? Well, one reason is simple anxiety about anything unfamiliar (this is why people who receive fashion makeovers often freak out and immediately return to their Sasquatch ways). Another is social conditioning. Mom, Dad, and Nana may have always reminded you not to expect much. They did this out of love and the hope that you'd never feel the pain of disappointment or loss. But obviously, this is self-defeating: It ensures the very thing we fear. That is, very little that's good ever enters our life. Yet many of us prefer a mediocre, even miserable, existence to the possibility of loving and losing.<br />
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And we find so many fun and interesting ways to bring that miserable existence into fruition. When something good happens to you, maybe you immediately remind yourself that it's only temporary, or look for some catch that you're sure will ruin everything, or tell yourself you don't deserve it, or focus on any tiny flaws you can find in this happy turn of events. Whatever your approach, I'm sure it's very effective—and if you never want to feel better than you do already, you should definitely keep using it. But if you'd like things to improve, you need to change the pattern.<br />
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You might assume you can take the logical approach and reason with yourself—the way my friends and I all tried to convince Claire that if the wildly illogical pennies-from-heaven game worked once, it might work again. You may have read inspirational books, chanted affirmations, attempted to white-knuckle your way toward optimism. Unfortunately, when we try to force the most timid parts of our psyche to feel safe, they tend to feel only the force, not the safety. Then we get the whiplash effect as our brains belch up a double dose of pessimism.<br />
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The key is to accept loss without resistance. It might seem that leaning straight into sadness would leave us in a welter of fear and disappointment. Paradoxically, the opposite is true. Nonresistance can actually help us raise the ceiling on our happiness level while reducing the pain we feel when things don't go our way. Learning the art of nonresistance means distinguishing between enjoyment, which leads to happiness, and attachment, which doesn't. We tend to conflate these phenomena, though they're actually very different. Enjoyment is present-moment delight with pleasurable circumstances. Attachment is the wretched cluster of emotions that go with fear of loss—anxiety, clinginess, neediness, sadness, flat-out panic. All creatures, so far as I can tell, seem able to enjoy. But only humans become attached, obsessing about potential future loss even in the best of circumstances.<br />
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Animals are experts in enjoyment without attachment. I once watched four lionesses spend half an hour sneaking up on a warthog, moving at about the speed plants grow, displaying incredible patience. Then—boom—the warthog saw them and dashed off. Immediately, all four lionesses dropped in their tracks and fell sound asleep. No moaning, no agony, no rage about their mistakes or their missed opportunity. The lionesses weren't attached to the object of their desire. They lost out on that dinner, but knew another opportunity would come along. And in the meantime, they were going to get the most out of the here and now. They decided that if they couldn't enjoy a warthog, they'd enjoy a nap.<br />
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I learned how to stop puncturing my own happiness from my first dog, an abused pound puppy I named Mei-Mei. When I brought her home, I could practically hear her thinking, <i style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">What fresh hell is this?</i> She wouldn't eat, drink, or lie down. When I fell asleep that night, she was still sitting bolt upright, trembling, waiting for the other shoe to drop. But the next morning I awoke to find Mei-Mei lying beside me in bed, her head on the pillow, snoring blissfully. In one night, she'd allowed her happiness set point to zoom upward. She accepted her good fortune without wondering whether she deserved it or being afraid that relaxing would jinx the deal.<br />
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It occurred to me then that I could raise my own set point if I could be like a pound dog. I decided to train myself with the most basic doggy instructions: "Here," "Sit," and "Stay." This approach has worked amazingly well for me and for many of those I've advised. I'm hoping it will work for you, too.<br />
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The first command—"Here"—is simple enough. It means going to the place where you expect good things to happen. You could, for example, play pennies from heaven. Or spend a few minutes counting your blessings. Notice anything positive at all. Make a list. Then tell yourself that these things will keep showing up, and that even better things are coming.<br />
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If this makes you uncomfortable, practice the next command: "Sit." When you feel yourself drifting back toward your happiness set point, sit still and watch your inner turmoil of fears, memories of past losses, and catastrophes you're already imagining. Let it all float by and then gently bring your attention back to the present moment. Many people who meditate simply call it sitting, and like a meditator, you may find that focusing on your breathing as you ride out the emotional storm is blessedly grounding.<br />
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Once you're sitting, go to the final and most challenging step: "Stay." Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön teaches "learning to stay" as the central skill in personal transformation, the humble but royal road to equanimity and acceptance. Staying in an openhearted place of nonattachment is the best way I know to raise our happiness set point and allow better and better circumstances to flow to us, even as we depend on these circumstances less and less. Here are some helpful hints to use as you gradually teach yourself to stay in hope and enjoyment:<br />
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• As you train your "puppy," be kind. Notice how from a position of power you can feel a calm intention to care for and protect her. Ponder the notion that the universe may feel the same way about you.<br />
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• When you train a puppy, you have to reinforce good behavior—gently, firmly, repeatedly—until that good behavior becomes ingrained. You've done this for yourself dozens of times in your life: When you first learned to tie your shoes, write in cursive, or drive a car, you probably felt unsure and nervous, but you persisted until these skills felt natural. Think of enjoying good fortune as one more skill you can master with practice.<br />
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• Look back over your life and notice how things have floated through it, arriving, often without your intention, then leaving, making way for new things. Notice that while things come and go, the flow of them is inexhaustible. You don't need to rely on any one thing; you can rely on the flow, which never ends—maybe (who knows?) not even at death.<br />
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Eventually, Claire went on to play many more rounds of pennies from heaven. (And guess what? Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn't.) But the pennies weren't really the point. The point is that hope isn't dangerous; good fortune doesn't portend bad fortune; and enjoyment and nonattachment, used together, reliably decrease your fear of loss. Luck comes and goes, but those lessons are permanent, and they can hugely increase your overall happiness. But don't take my word for it. Just walk into a place of hope and enjoyment, and follow three little suggestions: Here. Sit. Stay. </div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "museo_sans"; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />Read more: <a href="http://www.oprah.com/inspiration/martha-beck-stop-sabotaging-your-own-happiness#ixzz5GWVbF0pP" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #003399; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.oprah.com/inspiration/martha-beck-stop-sabotaging-your-own-happiness#ixzz5GWVbF0pP</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-57531866492423428452018-04-22T10:35:00.001-05:002018-04-22T10:35:03.988-05:00And as written, so true!<div style="caret-color: rgb(169, 169, 169); color: darkgrey; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="color: #666666;">I came to A.A. green–a seedling quivering with exposed taproots. It was for survival but it was a beginning. I stretched, developed, twisted, but with the help of others, my spirit eventually burst up from the roots. I was free. I acted, withered, went inside, prayed, acted again, understood anew, as one moment of perception struck. Up from my roots, spirit-arms lengthened into strong, green shoots: high-springing servants stepping skyward. Here on earth God unconditionally continues the legacy of higher love. My A.A. life put me “on a different footing . . . [my] roots grasped a new soil.”</span><br /><br /><b><br /></b></div>
<b style="caret-color: rgb(169, 169, 169); color: darkgrey; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #134f5c;">(Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 12).</span> </b><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-52155197662628233462018-04-14T21:09:00.004-05:002018-04-14T21:09:37.809-05:00Thought for Today~ We are fellow Travelers!<div style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;">
<strong><span style="font-size: xx-small;">To<span style="font-family: "arial";">day's thought from </span></span></strong><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;"><strong>the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation </strong></span><strong><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial";">is:</span></span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #538494;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="font-size: small;"><strong>I feel we have picked each other from the crowd as fellow travelers, for neither of us is to the other's personality the end-all and the be-all.</strong></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">-- Joanna Field</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #d52b1e;"><span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="color: black;">It's not mere chance that we gravitate toward those who become our friends. Nor is it only happenstance that we are picked by others. We are, in fact, on a journey and have much to learn. From our friends and even more so from those not so friendly, we are destined to learn what our souls yearn for. The journey is the process of enlightenment for which we all have gathered. From one another we are receiving that which we're ready to learn. All of us students. Each of us a teacher. </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #d52b1e;"><span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="color: black;">How comforting to know that the pain of a particular experience, or the confusion over a set of circumstances, will become understandable with the passage of time. All experience plays its part. All of our acquaintances share destinies overlapping our own. There is security in knowing that our journeys are necessary and right for us. </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #d52b1e;"><span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="color: black;"><em>I'll not discount the value of any person or any experience that circumstances offer today.</em></span></span></span></span></div>
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You are reading from the book:</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-76573654476336896682018-04-11T09:52:00.001-05:002018-04-11T09:52:06.596-05:00Secret Places~from Out There Colorado~<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">Child of Mine, come</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">as you grow in youth</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">you will learn</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">the secret places</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">the cave behind the waterfall</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">the arms of the oak</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"> that hold you high</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">the stars so near</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">on a desert ledge</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">...the important places.</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;" /><br style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">And, as with age, you choose</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">your own way</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">among the many faces</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">of a busy world,</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">may you always remember</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">the path that leads back</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">...back to the important places.</span></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-42141516755354830822018-04-07T21:51:00.001-05:002018-04-07T21:53:59.257-05:00Oh little Blog of Mine~ You have returned!I came online tonight to seek out how to start a new blog as I haven't been able to access this one since the last time I wrote nearly one year ago. I am now speechless.. and blessed with wonder at how perhaps you were resting and the time for awakening, you and I, has come~ Thank you!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-87148066034122533822017-07-17T01:01:00.000-05:002017-07-17T01:01:03.048-05:00Sweet Dreams~It felt wonderful to come back here...it's been a very long time. I now have you bookmarked so I can return at will. I am hoping that a door has opened and that I begin to flow in this very private, quiet space that is all mine. Sweetest of dreams and thank you <3 p=""></3>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-51356270555270202642017-07-16T11:04:00.003-05:002017-07-16T11:04:45.912-05:00Home~Little Miss Mustard SeedHi Marion~<br />
I've chatted with you here many times and again! WoW and Congratulations to you and your family. I am a Minnesota girl, born, raised, and one month ago followed our dream to move to Colorado~ I adore lush, green, warm, beautiful Minnesota. I always call it "My Minnesota." I visit Oronoco and Rochester Gold Rush Days and the MANY shops all over our state~ you will be in nirvana. One of my besties lives in Rochester, and I've had the Mayo Clinic experience as well. Enjoy all of it. What an adventure, maybe you are replacing me in "My Minnesota." Best wishes to you and yours, and may your husband's work be in God's hands. Minnesota always provides a warm welcome~ the winters are beautiful, go to the North Shore of Lake Superior as soon as you can :). Soak it all in~. I miss My Minnesota home and I am embracing my new Colorado home~<br />
Stay well, travel safe~ CynthiaUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-37061651889169899972016-05-31T20:05:00.001-05:002016-05-31T20:05:37.306-05:00The Sway of it All~THE SWAY OF IT ALL<br />
by Mark Nepo<br /><br />And so I lift my face from the mud,<br />the mud of my past, the mud of history,<br />the thick and ragged bark of how we<br />think everyone but our own darkness<br />is the enemy, I lift my face like a worn<br />planet spinning on itself to get back<br />into the light, to say to no one, to<br />everyone—it is an honor to be alive.<br />
<br />
And some days I feel like I've got my face in the mud, regretful of an action of my own or anothers...some days that mud feels like home~ otherwise, I feel it's a great honor to be alive. cljUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-49349614210604014802016-05-05T05:18:00.001-05:002016-05-05T05:19:48.864-05:00To be alive is power enough!To be alive is power,<br />
Existing in itself,<br />
Without a further function,<br />
Omnipotence enough.<br />
--Emily Dickinson<br />
<br />
Being a person in this world is an amazing gift. A spiritual awakening promised by this program is open to us. But today, not all of us feel powerful and alive. We may feel weak, inadequate to our task, perplexed, or stymied. Is this a day in which we are filled with exuberance for the gift of life? Or is this a day when we're feeling subdued by life's burdens?<br />
<br />
Perhaps we need to evaluate our perspective. Are we trying to control something or someone? Are we acting as if the world should be as we want rather than as it is? Have our individual wills exceeded their natural bounds and spoiled the simple joy of being "without a further function"?<br />
<br />
May I find the pleasure and exuberance today that come with being alive. The simple power to be a person is "omnipotence enough."<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-61792354965430633452016-04-10T13:54:00.001-05:002016-04-10T13:54:45.740-05:00When BABIES don't come home : ( (Katie's friends)<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><b><u>In Christ Alone</u></b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In Christ alone my hope is found;<br />He is my light, my strength, my song;<br />This cornerstone, this solid ground,<br />Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.<br />What heights of love, what depths of peace,<br />When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!<br />My comforter, my all in all—<br />Here in the love of Christ I stand.<br /><br />In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,<br />Fullness of God in helpless babe!<br />This gift of love and righteousness,<br />Scorned by the ones He came to save.<br />Till on that cross as Jesus died,<br />The wrath of God was satisfied;<br />For ev'ry sin on Him was laid—<br />Here in the death of Christ I live.<br /><br />There in the ground His body lay,<br />Light of the world by darkness slain;<br />Then bursting forth in glorious day,<br />Up from the grave He rose again!<br />And as He stands in victory,<br />Sin's curse has lost its grip on me;<br />For I am His and He is mine—<br />Bought with the precious blood of Christ.<br /><br />No guilt in life, no fear in death—<br />This is the pow'r of Christ in me;<br />From life's first cry to final breath,<br />Jesus commands my destiny.<br />No pow'r of hell, no scheme of man,<br />Can ever pluck me from His hand;<br />Till He returns or calls me home—<br />Here in the pow'r of Christ I'll stand.</span></span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-90487980732792358482016-02-23T18:22:00.001-06:002016-02-23T18:22:20.481-06:00Sounds to the Season!!Today's thought from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:<br /><br />There are sounds to seasons. There are sounds to places, and there are sounds to every time in one's life.<br />--Alison Wyrley Birch<br /><br />Live is rich and full. Your life. My life. Even when the day feels flat or hollow, there's a richness to it that escapes our attention. We see only what we choose to see. We hear selectively, too. Our prejudgment precludes our getting the full effects of any experience. Some days we hear only the drum of the humdrum.<br /><br />But the greater our faith in the program and a loving God, the clearer our perceptions become. We miss less of the day's events; we grow in our understanding of our unfolding, and we perceive with clarity the role others are playing in our lives.<br /><br />We can see life as a concert in progress when we transcend our own narrow scope and appreciate the variety of people and situations all directed toward the same finale. The more we're in tune with the spiritual activity surrounding us, the more harmoniously we will be able to perform our parts.<br /><br />I will listen to the music of today. I will get in tune, in rhythm. I am needed for the concert's beauty.<br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-4152550070860343692016-02-17T20:00:00.001-06:002016-02-17T20:00:56.982-06:00The Train by Jean Turbeville SandersI adore this~ <br />
<br />
THE TRAIN: At birth we boarded the train and met our parents, and we believe they will always travel by our side. As time goes by, other people will board the train; and they will be significant i.e. our siblings, friends, children, and even the love of your life. However, at some station our parents will step down from the train, leaving us on this journey alone. Others will step down over time and leave a permanent vacuum. Some, however, will go so unnoticed that we don't realize they vacated their seats. This train ride will be full of joy, sorrow, fantasy, expectations, hellos, goodbyes, and farewells. Success consists of having a good relationship with all passengers requiring that we give the best of ourselves.<br /><br />The mystery to everyone is: We do not know at which station we ourselves will step down. So, we must live in the best way, love, forgive, and offer the best of who we are. It is important to do this because when the time comes for us to step down and leave our seat empty we should leave behind beautiful memories for those who will continue to travel on the train of life.<br /><br />I wish you a joyful journey.<br /><br />Jean Turbeville SandersUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-18162430968851529032016-02-15T13:40:00.005-06:002016-02-15T13:40:25.354-06:00Finger prints~
<em>
"Our finger prints don't fade from the lives we touch."</em><br />
<em> </em>
<br />
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12942.Judy_Blume?utm_medium=email&utm_source=quote_of_the_day" target="_blank">Judy Blume</a>
<br />
Happy birthday, Judy Blume! The beloved author of Are You There God?
It's Me, Margaret and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing must have an
enormous trophy shelf at home. She has won more than 90 literary awards
including—not one, not two—three lifetime achievement awards.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-44430947372363952612016-02-07T17:16:00.000-06:002016-02-07T17:16:00.504-06:00
<em>
"I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all."
<br />
</em>
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5300.Laura_Ingalls_Wilder?utm_medium=email&utm_source=quote_of_the_day" target="_blank">Laura Ingalls Wilder</a>
<br />
Laura Ingalls Wilder (born February 7, 1867) first gained popularity
as a writer with "As a Farm Woman Thinks," her column in a local paper.
About two decades later, she used her childhood memories to write her
beloved, autobiographical novel, Little House in the Big Woods.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-10090976257396022502016-01-11T18:19:00.000-06:002016-01-12T18:21:33.513-06:00Tweny Years StrongOh my dear~<br />
Twenty years of not one sip of that pleasant tasting sweetness<br />
that warmed my soul,<br />
softened my heart,<br />
let me breathe,<br />
or not.<br />
That stole my soul,<br />
my heart,<br />
stopped alll breath.<br />
Until<br />
I nearly died<br />
lost myself,<br />
my loves,<br />
my world~<br />
Oh my dear~ thank you God, thank you God, thank you.....God.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-38080649863301302302016-01-11T08:16:00.001-06:002016-01-11T08:16:24.547-06:00Oh How they LOVED me!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><span style="color: #538494;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><strong>I can still remember my mother clutching her heart, threatening to have a heart attack and die, and blaming it on me.</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: xx-small;">--Anonymous</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">For some of us, the idea that we were responsible for other people's feelings had its roots in childhood and was established by members of our nuclear family. We may have been told that we made our mother or father miserable, leading directly to the idea that we were also responsible for making them happy. The idea that we are responsible for our parents' happiness or misery can instill exaggerated feelings of power and guilt in us.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">We do not have this kind of power over our parents - over their feelings, or over the course of their lives. We do not have to allow them to have this kind of power over us.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Our parents did the best they could. But we still do not have to accept one belief from them that is not a healthy belief. They may be our parents, but they are not always right. We do not have to allow their destructive beliefs to control our feelings, our behaviors, our life, or us.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><em>Today, I will begin the process of setting myself free from any self-defeating beliefs my parents passed on to me. I will strive for appropriate ideas and boundaries concerning how much power and how much responsibility I can actually have in my relationship with my parents.</em></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-2873948105266070992016-01-05T10:42:00.001-06:002016-01-05T10:42:10.735-06:00Do nothing and Rest afterward~<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><span style="color: #538494;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><strong>How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterward.</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: xx-small;">--Spanish proverb</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">The beauty of the Third Step is that there's no real work for us to do. Making a decision to turn our will and our life over to the care of God requires no energy, no movement. We don't have to grit our teeth. It's only a decision and can be made in the blink of an eye. The action comes from God.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">We don't need to do anything to earn the grace of God. In fact, there isn't any way we could earn it. This grace is ours when we let it come to us. Trusting God's love for us is all it takes.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><em>I will rest knowing that my life is in God's hands.</em></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-62492618325632493742016-01-01T09:37:00.001-06:002016-01-01T09:37:31.915-06:00My 2016 Quest~<br />
<div style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;">
<span style="color: #538494;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><strong>Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.</strong></span><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">--Rainer Maria Rilke</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">We carry problems and discrepancies within us, quandaries that are not easily answered - and we have bigger questions about life and the world. Why did I act as I did in my younger years? Can my life partnership be happy again? How should I handle a secret that I carry? What is this thing we call Higher Power and God?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">We are on a journey and, in some ways, this journey is a quest for answers. The questions give energy and direction to our seeking. We cannot expect to get quick or easy answers. And some questions will always remain just that: questions. But we can learn to be patient with ourselves, tolerant of our incompleteness, and always curious about how it will all turn out.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><em>Today I will practice patience with myself and embrace my unsolved questions as crucial elements in my quest.</em></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: xx-small;"><div align="center">
You are reading from the book:</div>
<div align="center">
<a href="http://www.hazelden.org/OA_HTML/ibeCZzpEntry.jsp?go=item&item=4902" style="color: #8d3c1e; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.hazelden.org/HAZ_MEDIA/2135.jpg" /></a></div>
<div align="center">
<a href="http://www.hazelden.org/OA_HTML/ibeCZzpEntry.jsp?go=item&item=4902" style="color: #8d3c1e; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Wisdom to Know by Anonymous</a></div>
</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-36370613950099016392015-12-24T14:11:00.000-06:002015-12-24T14:11:03.997-06:00I've loved the dark, Always~<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-size: large;">"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><em>I like the night. Without the dark, we'd never see the stars."</em></span></span><br />
<br />
<div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/941441.Stephenie_Meyer?utm_medium=email&utm_source=quote_of_the_day" style="color: blue; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Stephenie Meyer</a></div>
<div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Happy birthday, Stephenie Meyer! When the Twilight author was four years old, she met her future husband, Christian Meyer. They got married seventeen years later.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-62232708402980779942015-12-21T08:59:00.004-06:002015-12-21T08:59:59.940-06:00Love "Your" Window by Mark Nepo<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
So Wonderful~</div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>LOVE YOUR WINDOW</strong> <br clear="none" /><br clear="none" />No matter how small or old. Keep it <br clear="none" />clean so you can see what comes your way. <br clear="none" />When the lost bird flies into it looking for <br clear="none" />its mate, keep the feather stuck to the glass. <br clear="none" />Take it with you and dream of finding what <br clear="none" />completes you. At the edge of winter, open <br clear="none" />the window of your heart and see your <br clear="none" />breath, how what you bring up becomes <br clear="none" />the air. When you’re ready or pushed, <br clear="none" />close your eyes and the other window <br clear="none" />will appear, the one that faces all of <br clear="none" />time. What flies there never lands, but <br clear="none" />hovers, dropping seeds of infinity in the <br clear="none" />breaks we can’t heal. So open the window <br clear="none" />of your pain, though the whisperers tell you <br clear="none" />to nail it shut, and let in everything that’s <br clear="none" />ever lived. What flies and never lands has <br clear="none" />been waiting. Be brave. Don’t run. Let the <br clear="none" />fire around your window burn until you <br clear="none" />become the opening. </span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-88015080306192168522015-12-15T14:22:00.004-06:002015-12-15T14:22:41.634-06:00Sometimes less is more!"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><em>In our deepest moments we say the most inadequate things."</em></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7184.Edna_O_Brien?utm_medium=email&utm_source=quote_of_the_day" style="color: blue; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Edna O'Brien</a></div>
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Happy birthday, Edna O'Brien! The Irish PEN Award recipient didn't know what kind of books she would write—if any—until she stumbled across A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce and realized it was autobiographical. Inspired, she started writing what would become her award-winning debut book, The Country Girls.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-75178763586090096152015-12-12T21:37:00.004-06:002015-12-12T21:37:37.338-06:00Life IS a resilient thing!"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><em>There’s no such thing as ruining your </em></span><br />
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<em>life. Life’s a pretty resilient thing, it turns out."</em></div>
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6160.Sophie_Kinsella?utm_medium=email&utm_source=quote_of_the_day" style="color: blue; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Sophie Kinsella</a></div>
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Happy birthday, Sophie Kinsella! The bestselling British author had already published five books under her real name—Madeleine Wickham—when she submitted a manuscript for a breezy chick lit story called Confessions of a Shopaholic. Worried her publisher wouldn't like the new direction, she used Sophie Kinsella as a pen name.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-19771364312993825772015-12-07T17:34:00.000-06:002015-12-07T17:34:25.954-06:00The heart of another~<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><em>The heart of another is a dark forest, always, no matter how close it has been to one’s own." </em></span></span><div style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/881203.Willa_Cather?utm_medium=email&utm_source=quote_of_the_day" style="color: blue; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Willa Cather</a></div>
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American author Willa Cather (born December 7, 1873) only ever owned one house, a secluded summer cottage on Grand Manan Island in Canada. The small home had neither indoor plumbing nor electricity, but Cather liked the fact no one could telephone her there.</div>
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This is absolutely the truest thought I've read~ Although we may rush in saying, "Oh I know, Oh I've been there, that exact thing happened to me, Oh I can just feel your pain~ Never can we experience the same feelings, have the same reaction, or truly know how another feels...no matter how close. Our dark forest belongs only to each of us~</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128828467191509860.post-63576146254322947112015-12-07T01:32:00.001-06:002015-12-07T01:32:54.646-06:00Can two minuses make a plus??<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #538494; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;">Sometimes two minuses make a plus.</span></strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #538494;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: xx-small;">--Edith Shannon</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">What appears to be a problem sometimes turns out to be a most beneficial circumstance. We live only in the present, and it generally takes the perspective of hindsight to get the full meaning of an event. Over the years, we have learned that some of our best lessons actually caused us pain while we were in their clutches. What a relief to be able to see, now, that they had their silver lining. This principle still holds true.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">We have had a lot of years to learn to take our experiences in stride, giving them no more weight than they deserve. But it's easy to forget that it's the accumulation of them all that defines who we are. The lost jobs, the friends who left, the hurdles in a marriage all played their part in the people we've become today. We are who we need to be right now.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><em>I can't let a setback set me back today. I am evolving right on schedule.</em></span></span><div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><em>from Keepers of the Wisdom by Karen Casey</em></span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0