Finding Peace

What I am learning about life is the soft balance that must be maintained with respects to everything and anything you can imagine.  There is a perfect balance which in the right moment creates a harmonious place of peace.  Have you ever reached that equilibrium of life?  Even if for a moment, have you?

I have come across that balance which is very short lived, but none the less is what I work for each day that I am presented with another day of life.  Yes, I try to reach a harmonious equilibrium, which sometimes means for someone else in my life, that I cannot be there right now, do that right now, or help out right now.  It sometimes means I need to pull away from the everyday demand that keeps me busy with stuff, but is not necessarily helping me to reach my high-level  of productivity.  Sometimes that harmonious peace means that I may have to tell people exactly what I think about their thought, opinion, or task completion.  Yep, sometimes to reach my point of equilibrium I have to change and modify some stuff in my life.  That means I may have to look at myself in the mirror and say, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? How will it benefit others in the end?, and scarier is that I have to be honest with myself and listen.

Sometimes we get in the way of our own peace, by being busy meddling in what is going on in and around our lives. Wouldn’t you agree?   My great-grandmother always said, “look at the pot calling the kettle black,” when someone was pointing a figure at someone else.  Or another one of her say, which I think I liked most was, “don’t throw stones, when you live in a glass house.”   We are quick to judge and insulted when we are judged, what a coincidence.

So as we move through life let us be mindful of the power in our words, the impact of our actions, and the outcome we want to see in our future.  Let us take full control over those things that we can, and watch in amazement as we find more points of harmonious peace in our day to day living.  And for those of you who have conquered the lifestyle of peace, please feel free to share, I am certain we all stand to learn from one another.

Thanks for Reading and Remember...

 "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are!" ~Theodore Roosevelt

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What Does It Mean To Be a Woman...

When I think of what it means to be a woman, I think of my ancestors, I think of the little girls I pass in the street, I think of my daughter, my son’s,  my choices.   My thinking does not stop there.  I think about my mother, my aunt’s, my uncles, and the male interaction I have had along my journey.  To understand what it means to be a woman it is only natural for me to begin at the base of my journey, and that begins with a Higher Power bigger than you and I.

My family was chosen for me.  Hand-picked because the ingredients needed to make me, me, only they were able to provide.  Funny how that goes, even funnier is the fact that while we cannot pick our family, we can our friends, and even then we do not make the best choices.  Being a woman of quality means that I am living and learning from a lineage of individuals that demonstrated strength, courage, and hope, while their determination has helped me to become who I am today.

Being a woman of quality means that I carry myself with respect, dignity, integrity, and openly.  It means that I teach as I breath, that I love as I breath, and it means that I live because I have work to do.  My responsibility is to cultivate, educate, and lead by example.  I am responsible for being the vessel that brings life, and through me gives life.  I am blessed with the responsibility to teach love from the beginning of life.  Yes, that’s right, before my womb is even filled, I am responsible for who I choose to receive semen.  I am responsible from the first moment my child is in the womb to teach love, to nurture, to listen, to speak with understanding, and to be protective.  My child’s life begins in me.

My external responsibilities require me to give life to my community, to help my brothers, to build with my sisters, and together to be a unit that cannot be broken.  Being a woman to me is knowing that I cannot solve all problems, that I am not all knowing, that I am not God, but a woman made through His image of man and Himself.  No matter what your background, your pathway, your struggle, your religion, we are woman and men given life to make a difference.   Take a moment to reflect on your journey.  Remember the people who have lived so that you may live, and consider your life and how you live, so that the life after yours may live.

What does being a man or woman mean to you?

 


Thanks for Reading and Remember...

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are!" ~Theodore Roosevelt

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No Day of Thanksgiving

What? Did I hear the new right today, and our store giants like Target, Walmart, Sears, and a host of others will actually be open at 8pm on Thanksgiving?  I wish you could see my face...(they have to be kidding right)  Everyday I see more an more of the world moving further and further away from the value of family, and the important nutrients that come from the time we share as family breaking bread.  We all see it.  How often does your family sit around the table, go around the room to discuss everyone's day, and help to strategize with oine another to make a better moment later? 

For many people that time for family was felt by societies way of closing down and forcing that time upon people.  Think of those holiday's you celbrate, those moments in time that are important to you and your family.  Those moments are being washed away by the demand for everyone to do more with less.  Everyone is stretched at home, at work, at social activities, and the list goes on.  When is enough enough?

So after talking to a good friend today, we have decided no shopping on Thanksgiving or Black Friday, (and she said "I'm even doing away with Cyber Monday), and not shopping at big stores, but rather supporting our local store owners.  Those people who put their money in the bank in our local neighborhoods, they pay taxes in our community, and usually they live near our very homes.  So goes our efforts to take back our lives, our pride, our dignity, our communities.  This small number of two can easily turn into a multitude of individuals and wealth turning opportunities, as consumers we have the spending power and we generate the demand.  So let's do it!!!  Shop local and have fun all the while.

How do you feel about it all?


Thanks for Reading and Remember...

 "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are!" ~Theodore Roosevelt

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Declaring Change

When we declare to make changes in our lives, we are declaring and affirming that we are going to take control and do what is necessary to live differently.  The hardest thing in that declaration we made is how we implement the new behavior.  How long does it take before we stumble and revert back to the past?  How long before we are side-tracked and taken off course?  Well, I am not an expert on how best to handle our declarations over our lives, but I have made many and I have realized that what makes them work is knowing that there is someone bigger, higher, better than me that walks with me everyday and makes those impossible changes possible.  So with that I say, if you want to see better results in your life, see it and declare it in a spoken word over your life.  So what will you declare for you?

 I declare more family gatherings.  Setting a game night, a fish night, making something a monthly tradition if not more to get together.  There is something about being amongst family that makes us different.  Yes, different.  Even if some of the relationships are not healthy, there is something GREAT about you that arose from the depth of the dysfunction.  So unless there is an unhealthy reason, family time is something we should all seek to share some of.

Talking about seeking.  I am seeking to set off this season of Thanksgiving with positive stories, miracles, and inspirational feedback.  So please take the time to share a delight in your life, in the life of someone around you, or just leave a note of encouragement.  You never know how important the words you have are for the audience hearing them.

Thanks for Reading and Remember...

 "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are!" ~Theodore Roosevelt

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Taking Contol

We each travel through life with an overwhelming amount of thoughts.  In our thoughts at one time or another are regrets, satisfaction, undecisiveness,  fulfillment, and yearning for more.  On any given day the thoughts vary, and how we receive and handle them varies as well.

Some days I am better than others, by far and I know I could do better for sure.  I need to control my thoughts, own more of my decisions, and set clear boundaries for those people outside of my control, and for my own sanity.  Yes, I said it sanity.  How often does yours feel compromised?  Do you find yourself taking on the task of others, trying to be the all and all for everyone in every situation?  I know I was there, and sometimes I even fall back there, but today I declare change.   I am changing my future by taking advantage of my present.   And you should join me!

Together lets change our future and the future of those who come in contact with us, just by being better than we were the moment before.  Let us look over our lives, take a deep look at where we are, and dare to dream about where we want to be.  Let us set clear goals, mark milestones, and cherish the journey, while never taking our eyes off of our destination.  Where are you hoping/planning to end up?

For me I plan today to live in each moment, cherish each person I am living out my journey with, and ridding myself of unnecessary waste.  Yes, we all have unnecessary waste, and those are the draining, garbage dumping, self-engrossed people that take up space in our minds, hearts, and even souls at times.  We have to learn not to pick up the extra unnecessary things.  Those things that set us back or make us feel like we are moving against the forces that be, simply mean we are to readjust ourselves in a manner that makes us better than the moment before.  Let us stop trying to place the triangle through the shape of the rectangle expecting it to take up all the area.  Let’s stop trying to force manners that are really not for us and charge ahead to our destiny that awaits!

Thanks for Reading and Remember...
  "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are!" ~Theodore Roosevelt

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A Letter to the Family

To My Family –

I miss you!  I look at our photo albums and I see strong men , woman and children.  I see a family with values, integrity, dignity, and hope.  I see pictures where it appears that there was little in the background of the pictures, but smiles, with an abundance of poses that said nothing was going to stop us from rising to the top.   We just look focused, determined, and prideful.  Now, I look around and I am not sure what I see in our pictures.  There is an absence of dignity, a decline in integrity and our smile…they seem to be unreal, and the background appears to be busy with things.

I am looking at some photos and the woman are half dressed, leaving nothing for the imagination, while the men…are their pants down?  No it can’t be? Why would their pants be down if they are not in the process of dressing or undressing, or using the bathroom?  Are the children in the picture dressed in matching outfits, distinguishing who is a girl and a boy, based on the woman and the man?  

When will we sit around the dinner table again regularly?  When will we have heart to heart conversations about life, its struggles, the responsibility to take ownership, make good choices, and accept the consequences that come when we make irresponsible decisions.  When will discuss the values of finances? Saving should start when there is thought of another life, and continue until the last breath on earth is taken by man. 

I want you at dinner: I need to see you more, to talk to you more, to hug you more, to tell you I love you more.  I cannot survive with you.  You are what helps me be the person I am, and without you, how can I survive?  

I look forward to our next photo album.    I look forward to seeing that smile of confidence, determination, dignity, and pride in just being who we are as men, woman, and children living in a world where we are connected.  If you have time, take a look at the photo albums for yourself and let me know what you think.

Until our next dinner…keep your head up high, keep your focus on the vision of your future and our future as a unit.

I love you and I hope to see you soon.

Love you always!

 

 Thanks for Reading and Remember...

 "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are!" ~Theodore Roosevelt

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Gratefulness

It was a beautiful day today.  I woke up and was able to take a breath, and with that I stretched my arms, threw my legs over the bed and raised my body.  How about that?  I walked to the bathroom, after making my bed, and I didn't get wet along the way, I was not cold, nor did I feel the glass or cement at my feet.  I brushed my teeth, washed my body and was able to get dressed and head out for work.  I am truly grateful and blessed.  Are you?

I listen to the news, friends, family, and strangers and so often we are distracted by the curve balls that life throws at us.  Why?  Why do we allow the things out of our control to take control.  Why do we we spend the precious gift of life, on things that are lifeless?  I wonder what the world would look like if we took each moment we were given and were focused on helping, lifting, teaching, and working together.

Our biggest accomplishment is not measured by what we acquire, or what we have, or what we had.  Our biggest accomplishment, and success is measured by those that we touch who become successful.  What good is living if your life ends, and so goes the memory that you were ever here living.  We should be encouraged to teach the future, to make a difference, and be the change we need in the world.

So let's take this moment that we have shared, you reading, my writing, and together lets put our feelings and thoughts of positivity (hopefully you are thinking positive), into action.  Take time to share a random act of kindness.  You do not have to tell us what you did, but share with us how you felt after.

Off to infusing the world with positive energy.


Thanks for Reading and Remember...

 "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are!" ~Theodore Roosevelt

AnalizeThat