Breaking the Chains of the Past

Mornin all! Hope this post finds you well & happy!
Today's will be short. For far too long I have allowed the mistakes of my past rule me & for a while now, I've been breaking the chains of the past & moving on with my goals! I know how hard it is to do that. When you have a heart for making resolutions & making things better for all involved, it's hard to just say "I'm through" and walk away. Sometimes breaking chains means just walking away and going on with your own dreams and goals, even if it's family. Don't allow the "guilt" chains of others to hinder your upward walk in life.
Have a great day! Love to you all!

Have Yourself a Merry Little Thursday!

Good morning to you all! I certainly hope this finds you all happy, content & ready for a great day! I'm on the back side of my "volcanic" burst as of late & feeling better about things! I've made some new contacts with like minded people, aiming for the same goals as myself! Very excited about it! Not only am I working on a lifestyle, weight loss and career transformation, I'm busily working on an emotional transformation as well! Too long, especially lately, have I allowed negativity to threaten my happiness & peace of mind. It's when you "just say no" to negative aspects & people that you can start bettering your own life. We must NEVER focus on the things that threaten to drag us down, even though I know very well how difficult that can be. Be victorious over such things by making a conscious decision to chose wisely between what's truly important & what you should avoid. It's an uphill battle so continue to speak and manifest uplifting actions and reactions!
I hope you all have a blessed and beautiful day! Love to you all!

Have A Kind Heart!

Good morning to all! I feel I have to write about this because it upset me on a very deep & emotional level. Yesterday I encountered a situation I had no clue I was stepping in to. Someone whom I've known since she was a kid posted an interesting debate question about a certain subject. The subject itself was not something that is etched in stone. Basically, I presented another perspective on the subject. I know this person has been blessed with a situation in her life that others have not been fortunate enough to experience, myself being one of them. I truly believed  she posted this for others to be able to simply give their opinions and thoughts. I couldn't have been more wrong. I unintentionally ran head first into a mine field of judgement and condemnation, and from a self confessed christian. This person's mother basically blasted everything I said with malice intent. I was stunned and hurt that she would do that, not even trying to see this from any perspective but her own. In all honesty, this would have bothered me anyway, however lately I've been experiencing a battle of sorts against those that would try to oppress me with their false and unwarranted judgments of me, on a very personal level. So, the timing was not great for this to happen. Of course, I defended my intentions, only to get blasted by the daughter, who had originally written the post. This shocked me as well. After I gathered my wits, I responded as nicely as I could, deleted her off my friends list and was left with a truly sad mood. I was astounded that these people would do such a thing publicly, I felt as if I was being stoned publicly.
Having recounted my story now I would like to put something out there for all to hear. Yes, I have made bad decisions in my life. Yes, I have had more than my share of extraordinary situations I have had to deal with in my life and still do at times. Yes, I am VERY WELL AWARE of how my past looks to others who have no clue or idea who I really am. Yes, parts of my past look really bad to those who, again, have no idea what the truth of my situations have been. There are a handful of true friends and people who do know the truth and who are very well aware of who I am now and what my character is all about. My thanks and love go out to those people. I, in no way, wish to hide my past nor do I defend certain aspects of my past. Here it is folks, I am who I am, a work in progress, a flawed human being making her way in this world, jut like everyone else. I make no apologies for my past, as I have been forgiven from the One who counts and have tried to make amends with those I have hurt. If anyone out there wishes to blast me again, go right ahead. Believe me, I can take it. I may get upset and wonder why people would choose that path, but I can take it, make no mistake about that. I've heard it all, especially from those that confess to be christians. I, myself am a believer and I have never once seen anything in the Bible that would make a christian believe that oppressing, insulting and judging others is what God intends for us to do to each other. I'm pretty sure it says just the opposite. I have read the Bible in it's entirety, studied theology in college & I still haven't seen a verse one that, in any way, condones this behaviour.
So, I say to those who have judged me, slandered me, ridiculed me, and otherwise acted like I was beneath them, GET OVER YOURSELVES!!!! You are no better or worse than me. You are flawed and human just as I am. It is our responsibility to love one another UNCONDITIONALLY!!!  To you all I say, you, as well as myself will have to answer for these things. We should be trying to encourage, uplift and have fellowship with one another, not try to tear out the throats of those you choose to look down on from your throne of judgement. Not your call people. This is what's wrong with the world in a nutshell. More and more turn to hatred and judgement as their way of living and I, for one, choose to turn away from that. I truly wanted to be hateful in return to these people, I confess. But I chose not to because we ALL HAVE THAT CHOICE!
Now, having said all that, I would greatly encourage everyone to make better decisions about what you say to others and if you simply cannot find it in your heart or spirit to say something nice, THEN JUST KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!!!! Remember, when you point a finger at someone else, you have 4 others pointing back at you. And, if any one of you wants to point out my flaws, my past, my bad decisions, go right ahead. Just know, I won't be answering for your mean, unkind words, you will.
Thank for bearing with me, I had to vent. I love you all.

Know When To Back Away

Good morning everyone! I hope this finds all of you well, happy and having a productive day. I haven't posted in a while due to much going on the past few weeks. Anticipating the birth of grandchild #9, which should be any time in the next couple of weeks.
My post today has to do with a subject I am becoming more and more familiar with. Knowing when to back away from a situation that I cannot "fix" or help with in any way. When a situation becomes impossible to deal with on an emotional level and you have become aware that anything you do won't be a help at all, that's the time to back away. Give it to God and just back away. Case in point: People HAVE to want to help themselves in order for anyone else to be able to help them. Their desire has to outweigh yours to help them. Otherwise, tons of time gets wasted beating a dead horse. I have encountered several such situations, people that were very close to me. After watching one of them pass away because she just couldn't do what it took to help herself, I had to learn to back away from the others. I have learned that just because someone has great amounts of potential doesn't mean they will ever realize their potential and do something with it. I spent a great deal of my life believing I could "fix" those people, only to find in my later years, I could not. It's been a hard lesson. But I have decided that my time is precious and wasting it on those that only want a cheerleader to schmooze their ego or simply cannot find the willpower to do what it takes to make their life better is counter productive in the long run. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying to give up, just back off and be there when they come to the realization that they have to be the instigators for their own lives. All I can do is support and encourage.
People are not a waste of time but when you are beating your head against the same wall over and over, stop hurting yourself, and allow those people to figure it out for themselves. If they do, fantastic. If they don't, just pray, give it to God and go about your own business.
I hope you all have a wonderful day and remember, smile at everyone! It just may be the boost they need to keep on truckin! Love to you all!

You Know Who You Are

   Once upon a time there was a sweet little boy who was full of love and life. He loved his family, he loved his friends. He grew, strong and kind and loved to help others.
   One day he realized there were choices he had to make in his life. So, he made his choices, not realizing at the time how far reaching these choices would become. They were not good choices. They affected everyone's lives around him, especially those that were the closest to him. Those that were closest to him tried over and over to help him regain his dignity and self esteem, but to no avail. He couldn't and wouldn't see the truth.
   Eventually, the boy grew into a man. He wasted his youth making bad choices over and over again until he finally ended up confining himself to a box of regret and bitterness. He absolutely could not take on the responsibility of his actions due to false pride and arrogance. Those who knew him early on were terribly saddened by this but had no magic tricks to get him to realize what HE HIMSELF had done. As he went on there was one person who always received the blame for his bad choices and it broke that person's heart every time, until one day the "scapegoat" refused to play this blame game any further. The person turned away from the man and walked away, head held high, dignity intact, determined to never allow the man to hurt them again. It was hard but the person realized the futility of the wasted time and effort it took just to maintain a relationship with the man and just could not allow this to happen ever again.
   The end of this story has yet to be written. The moral of the story? Make bad choices, bad situations will follow. Make good choices, life is so much easier and you get to keep your dignity, your family and your real, true friends.
                                                                            Not yet The End

A Very Materialistic Man Indeed

Good morning folks! It's going to be another scorcher out there today!
We finally finished Aiden's bedroom yesterday, all that's left is hanging the new doors for the entryway. He's such a happy camper! And just in time for first grade to start! Can't believe my oldest grandchild is starting first grade Monday! Abby's in Kindergarten, wow, where has the time flown? But I'm enjoying every single second of it! Thanks be to the "Big Guy" for allowing me to be a part of it all! And, only 9 weeks left until grandchild #8 comes into the world! Can't wait!
I gained a new wrinkle in my brain last night. Jerry and I were discussing money and numbers last night and somehow the conversation turned to who the most wealthy individual in the world was. The man I'm about to chat about is not the wealthiest man in the world, but he's extremely close. The country is Brunei, located on one of the Malaysian islands. It's a very small country. The sultan of this country, Hassanal Bolkiah basically has all the money in his country. For more info on Brunei, check Wikipedia or Google it. This man obviously is an extravagance hound. The palace he lives in, called Istana Nurul Iman has 1,888 rooms, 290 bathrooms,  and a floor area of 2,152,782 sq ft (200,000 m²), undisputedly the world's second largest palace after Beijing's Forbidden City (720,000 m²).  He has 531 Mercedes-Benzes, 367 Ferraris, 362 Bentleys, 185 BMWs, 177 Jaguars, 160 Porsches, 130 Rolls-Royces And 20 Lamborghinis, bringing the total number of his cars to 1,932. I just don't get it. Who needs all that? And why? This man could sell 2/3 of his cars and feed, house and clothe lots and lots of people in the world. And over 2 million square feet of living space? Really? Who needs that?  I was simply astounded at the fact that one man has that much and can actually be fine with the fact that there are tons of suffering humans in the world when he has the means to help. I realize his perspective is nowhere what mine is but goodness. That just seems ridiculous to me. Something I found interesting about him and Brunei: (taken from Wikipedia)  Despite his personal extravagance, he has attempted to share the country's oil wealth. In Brunei, mockingly dubbed the "Shellfare State", a reference to the significant influence of the Shell Oil Company,^[4][5] Bruneians have free education and medical services. There are neither personal nor corporate taxes in Brunei. I found this to be an interesting fact. I am going to learn more about this country, just for my personal knowledge. I was just overwhelmed at what this man has and how much good he could do with it, if he was so inclined. 
I hope everyone has a great day, full of blessings and peace! Love to you all!

Make Everything You Do Count!

Good Sunday afternoon everyone! It's going to be another hot day but at least we had one day of reprieve!
I had a talk with my granddaughter today about wasting food this morning and it set me to thinking about how everything we do makes a difference of some kind. A negative action or word creates a negative scenario in some way and the same is true of a positive action or word. We have the power to create our own scenarios and the scenarios of others as well. My explanation to her was that it takes one person to start the chain reaction. If one person starts to conserve a bit of electricity and gives their idea to 10 others and one of the ten does the same thing, then they tell another 10.......and so on, and so on, and so on. I explained that one person started the great pyramid with one block. Then another put down a block, then another put down a block and after many years, the Great pyramid was built. But it all started with one block. Everything starts with one thought, idea and/or action. Both negative and positive. I experimented with this several times in restaurants. I would start staring at the ceiling, with an expression of genuine interest and after several minutes others were doing the same. I realized just how true the "domino" effect is. So, I started making it a point to smile at everyone I saw. And I noticed that the more I smiled first at people, the more they returned the smile! I hope that they started smiling at others because a smile may change the whole outlook of someone's day. We can lead by example, that's how great things are accomplished and I, for one, want to accomplish great things, even on a small scale great things! And I want them to be positive things that help others and make lives happier and more productive! The only way people will start to make the move towards more positive actions and outlooks is for one person to start and others to follow along. Be that person, be the one that starts a chain of wonderful, awesome things to happen between one another. Be the one that smiles, be the one that feeds a hungry person, be the one that helps an elderly person with something, be the one that holds the door open for another, be the one that says a kind word first, be the one that starts picking up litter in the park or walkway, be the one that starts an outreach for the hurting and needy, be the one that teaches something to someone, BE THE ONE!!!!!
I hope you all have a marvelous day and find a circumstance that needs your help and Be The One to make a positive change! Love to you all!