Gateway to Health: Spirituality

 John 4:24 KJV “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

Some people are defined by the religion they practice whether Catholic, Methodist, Baptist etc., the list goes on and on. I like to think I am defined by my spirituality, not a religion.

A healthy spirit is needed to get through the muck and mire that life deals you. Just as a healthy body gets you through illnesses attacking you and an unhealthy body has your immune system putting you on notice that, guess what, you’re not healthy.

One might ask how to obtain a healthy spirit and I can honestly wholeheartedly say, this is one thing on earth you can’t get with the almighty dollar. You can’t tithe and donate your way into a healthy spirit, you can’t buy candles or stones and think your way into a healthy spirit, you can’t get a vaccination against the evil spirits lurking the wild; a healthy spirit needs to be tended from within every second of every living day. Hard work but not impossible.

I’ve heard people call me a ‘Jesus freak’, a ‘bible thumper’ and even ‘a hypocrite’ all because I nurture my spirit in ways maybe no one else does. I like to think we’re all the same but just as this disease that has taken up a home in my body is unique to my body, no two believers are the same. We are all unique in our own way.

When you attend church, are you there to worship God or are you there to see who else is attending? Do you look at the shabby clothes one is wearing and compare the suit and tie guy to him? Are your eyes fixed on the extremely short skirt that Mildred is wearing compared to your ankle length skirt? Or are you there to praise and worship God?

Read this story and let me know if you fit in here. 

I realize I don’t fit in anywhere. I am a homeless person among onlookers. I am a leper among the unscathed. I am a fellow sinner among men. I am Spirit-filled to the end. My spirit is full of God and that is why I don’t fit in. I love all that He created, I love my fellow man even the ones who don’t seem to be wanting or in need of love, I love them anyway. My spirit is full because of LOVE. God is my breath in the morning, my lunch in the afternoon, a delectable filling dinner, and my companion at bedtime.

2 Cor. 6:17-18 “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

We cannot all be the same, God never intended us to be that way, we’re unique. When we are filled with the Spirit we sometimes look the same and are like magnets drawn to one another but we soon realize while we are like-minded we are all different on different paths, different roads, different purposes and different completion. God wanted us different but united by one thing… by our love!

We become children of God when we drink in His Holy Spirit. One can be an avid reader of the Bible, attend church weekly, wear the garments of being a Christian but still not be filled with His Spirit.

Deut. 30:1, 6, 19-20 “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”

Did you read that? Obey His voice, cling to Him, He is your LIFE and the length of your days. This is no small fete. He’s not asking you to passively get to know Him, He’s asking you to LOVE, LISTEN, and OBEY! He is the only one who gets to choose whether you live or die. So many humans are riddled with selfishness that we don’t quite comprehend this. We cannot hold fast to the materials of this world, the food, the books, the clothes or the money, it is not ours to cling to and if you say, “I worked for it!” Yes, you did but let me ask, when God calls you home, are you going to take your money with you and tell Him how you can’t leave it behind because ‘you earned it’?

Our spirit doesn’t know money. Money is of the materialistic physical realm. God is not money, God is Spirit! Spirituality is a connection, a relationship with God IN you not God outside of you. Meaning, God is not bits and pieces of the religious you. That is the physical you and what you’ve shaped in this physical world. That is your way of trying to connect to the Spirit of God. Remember what I said earlier, God is love? The Spirit of God is already in you and your free will allows a choice to stray from Him, embrace Him, or become ONE with Him. When your spirit is so full of LOVE that breathing hate is no longer a part of your being, you are becoming one with the Spirit of God.

You become one with everything living and breathing. Your soul opens to nature and all the natural beatings of the rhythms of the sound of the earth. The vibrations awaken in you a sight of God that you formerly never saw because you were too busy with the physical aspects of loving your Father. Spirituality is the meditations of the soul connecting with the Higher being dwelling within you that has now been awakened, God.

Matt. 22:37-40 “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Until you live and breathe these commandments, you have not soulfully or spiritually connected to the Holy Spirit. God is LOVE! Once you connect to the Father-board, boot up your system, you will feel the love course through your veins; for all those around you, your enemy, for those you formerly hated, and for those you disagree with. LOVE becomes your new way of living a spirit-filled life. You will now find yourself full of the Spirit

This is what God intended when He created us. He wanted us to be so full of love the world couldn’t view the hate. Instead what’s happened is the world is so full of hate it can no longer see the love. Sure we go to church, view people, see the steeple, hear a message but how many times in a week do you carry the message home with you, and actually LIVE the message of LOVE? Well, let me just say if more people carried the word, the world would not be the train wreck we have in front of us. You’ll find spirituality underneath the rubble.

Jer. 1:16 “And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.

May the Word of the Lord bless you all! 

Gateway to Health: Meditation

John 15:5, 7, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing … If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (NIV)

Gateway to Health: Meditation

I’ve covered a lot of ground with my Gateway to Health series. While I weave in my illness, it is not the central focus as last year. I was finding my feet for the year and needed to throw the journey out for my spiritual family who is standing behind me with their support. Their support means everything to me as I heal. I’ve shown you how your diet and change all leads to healing not only for me fighting the Big C but for you who might be fighting another form of illness.

Here’s a simple thought for you; if you’re overwhelmed by stress you will NOT lose any weight no matter how hard you try changing your diet and lifestyle. Stress hormones have a nasty habit of programming the body to store fat, especially around your beltline.

According to the statistics floating around out there on the web, chronic stress is the root cause of 90% of your disease and weight gain. Stressing and worry cause us to blindly eat, turning to sweets or alcohol to try and soothe what is in our overactive minds. Anxiety robs our attention from all of the good energy that we used trying to change and makes it so by the end of our busy day that we have nothing left to motivate us into continuing our healthy eating habits.

There is some good news people, you can unleash years of stress with meditation and restore some semblance of peace to the body you overwork with a kaleidoscope of thoughts. Relaxation of the mind will allow you a better nights sleep and essentially allow you to be strong enough to face the changes you're trying so hard to implement into the new you as you embark on the Gateway to Your Health! Meditation has helped me throughout my life and has been an essential part of my healing this current illness.

Put quite simply, meditation is breathing, releasing and focusing. I assume people hear the word meditation and think that it’s not within their belief system as only Buddhist adhere to meditation. You would be 100% wrong in that assumption!

1 Tim. 4:15 “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.”

Pss. 119: 99 “I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.”

Meditation is a relaxation technique of the mind. It knows no religion or belief system. It takes practice but as you master stress releasing, you’re guaranteed a new way of thinking, a promising way to fall asleep, a comforting woven blanket of protection when you’re cold. 

People often say they don’t have time to learn meditation. That is so ironic to me because they can find hours upon hours to sit on the computer searching news, spewing hate, being a part of a collective conscience of similar minds achieving nothing of quality in their day, yet they have no time to meditate to de-stress their mind? Ironic.

You have time to read your bible right? You have time, maybe an hour or two to read a book on your Kindle? Find time in your day to just release the stress, relax and breathe. Nothing else. No clouding thoughts allowed into this room. You’re emptying the closet of all the unneeded baggage you have piled up. Slowly cleaning out piece by piece each article that holds your attention during any given day.

In a sitting position, back straight, ears plugged as you close your eyes, listening to the sounds streaming in from your earphones, let the days clutter float away. Visually watch the garbage be carried off. No thoughts of bills or what you’re going to do tomorrow, or what’s for dinner, or worry or stress is going to surface. Nope, all those thoughts are not allowed in here. You are going to think of NOTHING for ten, twenty, thirty and eventually forty-five minutes. When you do this as a daily routine, a relaxing habit you will form and look forward to at the end of your busy exhausting day. 

Life WILL change. You can’t give up because meditation didn’t work the first time. You’re going to push on, days into weeks, weeks into months will have you cherishing this one quiet time in your day. You’ll come home after a long hard day at work, settle into the sounds of nothing and wonder why you haven’t done this for years. 

Rom. 8:5 “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.”

If you meditate on the word, a change of your perception will take place as your negative thoughts turn into positive. Your pessimism will be shifted into an optimistic approach to life. If you meditate to music with no lyrics, tones, and beats with no instruments, all are part of a meditative technique. Close your eyes, breathe and focus on nothing but the sound coming through your earbuds. Start a short session of twenty minutes until you have them lasting thirty to forty-five minutes. Find parts of yourself you thought you lost in nothingness.

Ezek. 24:25 “Also, thou son of man, shall it not be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their minds, their sons and their daughters,”

Find a balance. There are times to worry, times to over think your plans for the future, politics, crime in your state, the craziness of this country. Meditation time is for YOU not for thoughts, not for worries, they’re gone, if only for that one moment in time. Allow yourself a peace you’ve never known before. Allow the window of your conscience to be clearly seen through, not washed over by dirt and debris that has built up over the years. Free your mind of clutter. I can guarantee, as time goes on (not a day or two of trying) TIME goes on, eventually, when you try to fall asleep at night, you’ll remember taking out that rag during your meditation time. You’ll pull out the Windex and begin cleaning up your thoughts of the day, leading you to some form of rest, and eventually a good nights worth of sleep.

I find a nice warm cup of green tea also helps before bed. Alcohol stimulates the brain activity, tea calms it, sugar awakens the sleep you so strategically misplaced along your lifetime. Eliminate alcohol, regulate your sugar intake, know what causes stimulation and save that for morning time, but the nights, they are yours and yours alone, stress and worry are not permitted.

Take the time to take care of you! Your mind is an essential part of any healing that will ever take place from ANY disease that ails you. If you can’t find peace of mind, plan on being sick for a very long time. THAT will be your life. It’s not a picture I see ever and if I’m diagnosed with an illness, I know my MIND played a big part of bringing it to my doorstep; change the mind, change the outcome, point blank!

Isa. 26:3 “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.”

Lam. 3:21 “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.”

Stress and the Net

Psalm 124:2-5 (NIV) “If the LORD had not been on our side when men attacked us, when their anger flared against us, they would have swallowed us alive; the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, the raging waters would have swept us away.”

Stress… and the net

There’s a little too much stress going around the internet these days, stress I can not tolerate at this time. I really try to put a handle on it, but in the state of this disease that’s ravishing my cells, I need to control what stress I allow in and what stress I contribute to.

I’ve always been intrigued by weather so when Harvey was headed for Galveston Texas, I kept up to date on when it would hit, where exactly it would hit and the damage. I take devastation very seriously and deaths are nothing to joke about. 

After Harvey pummeled Houston, I began to watch a couple more storms snaking their way through the waters. The jokes from people not directly affected by the storms kind of took a sick and twisted turn. I think damaging a soul for the sake of a laugh is not of good character. You might find it funny and humorous that people are losing not only their lives but also many have lost their homes, their livelihoods. I don’t find it humorous, I’m sickened and saddened by the childish acts of supposed adults.

I didn’t retreat from the social media world when I should have because that is where the majority of my friends reside. I like to read and see what everyone is up to and I also like to be informed about the BC group and what is going on in the lives of other newly diagnosed patients trying this here alternative method. I aim to help but I realize that I’m not as well informed as I thought. Well for me, I am as informed as I’m going to get for now. Apparently, my first month of this crud I inundated my system with some great information.

I look to aid others in this quest but more times than not my words and assistance are shot down by those who know more than I know. I think also because I’m not needy, I’m informative and that threatens people sometimes. You see, every crud is different so what works for me might not work for them and vice versa, what works for them might not work for me. If I try to contradict what they’re saying I feel badgered so I pull myself away and into isolation I go. I sit back and listen but then the overload of information gets jumbled. I’m done trying to dissect all the information as it comes into view. I slowly back away.

Then another hurricane, Irma, took aim after devastating the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean then the beast set its sights on the U.S.! Trees and homes were chomped away like fried chicken and taters as the monstrous hurricane chewed its way through not only trees and homes but also lives. Irma was now setting her sights on Florida, another state with friends of mine. I can tell you, they were not the ones making jokes before or after.

After I made sure my friends were all okay, I chose to step back and take a breather. Away from the word cancer, away from people, away from drama, away from the stress drama causes, away from ignorance and hate and just isolate me and build strength in the Word!

While I can’t do much more than pray for the victims of the hurricane's devastation, my prayers will have to be a sufficient enough form of caring for those who’ve lost so much. While it does take the focus off of me, it hurts me to read and listen to the tragedy everyone has had forced upon them. While my heart bleeds for all involved, I feel selfish in caring for myself. I’m battling a deadly disease, these people are battling a tragedy also but at least they’re alive, for now so am I.

And to those who find humor in this devastation, I pray for them and their lost souls. Next thing you know they’ll be joking about cancer, oh no wait, that more than likely has touched their lives so no, they won’t joke about that. Our world is being consumed by its own form of cancer and while I like laughter as much as the next person, death and devastation are not the place and time to find humor.

Hebrews 13:5b, “For God has said, ‘I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.’”(NLT)

Defining Moments

Job 30:18 “By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.”

Defining Moments

I will not allow an illness to define me. I will not allow the world to shape me and I can’t let people define the most intimate moments of my life. I’ve been taking a sort of break this week allowing my thoughts to be moved forward in a rush to the raging waterfall where they can be forced over the edge and led out to sea.

It seems the rabid heat wave of July has come to an end. This is where I mention once again that Nebraska has had an extremely mild summer give or take a couple of weeks in the lower nineties and a week in the upper nineties, with sporadic rain and nary a storm. Cool air crept in like the baby raccoons invading the property just moseying around to see what they can get into. The welcome cooler temps filled the night air and we rarely got above seventy in the evenings then the beautiful seventies temperatures arrived in our daytime hours beginning August first.

My defining summer moments have been shaped by a garden I didn’t plant but turned out beautiful anyway, new chores that have fallen on my lap because my son who used to do them got a full-time job, and then there’s the full-time employment that my son anxiously needed and received.  

I think 2017 will be a host of defining moments for me and the year isn’t even close to being over. Changes that are taking place, lifestyles uprooted, routines broken like the once fragile eggs that they were. Life is all about changes; I think it’s a matter of how you handle each set of circumstances tossed at you. You either catch the water balloon or allow it to shatter, splashing water all over your face.

Relieving stress and toxins has been one of the hardest of my defining moments year. Giving up sugar, processed food, meat, dairy was easy compared to the stress that haunts the days. While prayer and meditation work amazing wonders, wandering in to read my mail or visit facebook drown all of my meditative work. 

I think I failed big time as a parent and without going into detail because my son is very private, I’ll try and leave it at that. My son suffers from anxiety and depression and I’m the one holding the bag to his outlet of emotional outbursts. Then there is me, realizing my failure, and the need to let him go and shape his own future. It is stress I need to be gone if ever I am to heal from this dastardly disease.

A ray of hope shined momentarily when my neighbor moved from the trailer he lived in for six years. I got a little over excited thinking my son could rent the place. Boy, visions of a peace-filled transition washed over me but were slowly diminished by further inspection of the place. The place needs a lot of work and my landlord hasn’t gotten back to me on whether he is willing to do the much-needed maintenance of the place. By law, I believe he has to take care of them, but out here in the middle of nowhere, there is no law. I’m not willing to risk losing our very affordable housing (a house not a trailer) to push for mandatory maintenance so my son can get out of the house.

So, I continue in a toxic environment trying to heal what has been a life-altering diagnosis and has become a most notable defining moment in my life thus far. I never thought of my husband and son as the toxins that need to be remedied in my life but here I am the medium between two toxic people and trying to heal a toxic illness. 

I sit here and watch my husbands’ family move through life. They’re the good Christian family and all that entails in your mind when you think of when you think of a good Christian family. You know, the Leave It To Beaver June Cleaver kind of people? Yeah, when his mom sees my husband she hugs him like she hasn’t seen him for years and you can see all the love pass between the two. My sister-in-law has two kids that blend so well with her husbands’ two kids you’d think they were blood, but no, they’re more than blood siblings, they’re family!

It’s amazing to watch as an outsider city-gal. Sure I married into this great family but I’m out in the middle of nowhere as the Cleaver family moves on in a time-lapse fashion, and I sit here as the observer of two toxic people trying to live under the same roof. It’s an unneeded stress at a time I need no stress to add to my inflammatory body.

I have unmedicated pains many of my days. Not from this illness, from my arthritis and psoriasis. Trying to put bandages on a lifelong illness like psoriasis is not going as I had planned, and my arthritis flare ups keep me in check, wanting to do certain things but unable to just jump into gear. This is an interesting journey, to say the least. I still trudge through the pain, take breaks when needed and am still overwhelmed by simple things like visiting a social media site to visit with my Spiritual Family. Lord knows I've been dealt a raw deal with no REAL family to call my own. I think that's why He placed me here.

On the twenty-fifth of this month, it will have been eight months since I received the diagnosis of this life altering disease. Eight months of no processed food, no sugar, carbs, grains, etc. etc. and I long for the day I can just eat a piece of pizza without worrying that THAT will be my demise. Joni passed due to a slice of pizza! Hey, if I can’t have a sense of humor through all of this, shoot me now! 

My Lord has wrapped His blanketed touch around me for my protection and as the year of defining moment’s speed on, I’m cradled by His love! So if you don’t see me or my name for a couple of days at a time, know that I’m out here struggling to get through the day and always keep me in your prayer. I feel as if it were not for your continued prayers, I might as well pick out my urn now. 

1 Cor. 15:51 “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed”

Maybe One Day...

Rev. 7: 17 "For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

Maybe one day…

Maybe one day

after I’m gone

they’ll remember I lived,

I breathed

I came 

And I went.

Maybe one day

I’ll be more

than a passing thought

a gleam 

in their eye

that’s no more

Maybe one day

they’ll think

of me

as if to see

that I’ll never be

No more.

Maybe one day

will come

when they realize

they missed

the chance

I’m no more.

Fusion Of Confusion

Job 23:12 "Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food."

The Fusion of Confusion

I have to admit, what gets me down these days is the confusing mess of foods. For the past four months I’ve read this, that and the other thing. Eat this, don’t eat that, try this, this FEEDS cancer, leaving me in a total state of confusion and seriously just want to be left alone! 

A perfect example is this from this link.

“Your alkaline diet should be primarily based on organic leafy green vegetables, cauliflower and cabbages, broccoli, herbs and spices, root vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds, lentils and peas, onions, garlic, leek and chives, and non-gluten grains such as rice in small amounts.”

Now from ChrisBeatCancer and The Truth About Cancer says NO to nuts except almonds, and NO to beans and lentils and NO to grains! This kind of puts me in a state of confusion as I’m trying to fight this battle. I get so frustrated with so much mixed information!

This weekend was one of those weekends where everything I did seemed wrong, everything I touched seemed to break, and everyone I spoke to I feel I spat words instead of used encouraging words. I just wanted to be left alone. It was my anniversary and we already committed to going to our nephews' marriage. He is my husband’s sister’s step-son (from a previous marriage on her husband’s part) but an honorable young man none the less.

I knew being around all of those people was really going to put a strain on me, and my husband said it’s because I don’t like being around people. I think he’s wrong, I love people but here lately the enemy is filling me with doubts and judgments, anger, frustration and disgust.

It hasn’t even been four months since my diagnosis and I’m just expected to be the old me who wasn’t told she has an illness. An illness that scares the world but I’m expected to wear a brave face constantly and I’m moving along in my stride, trying my best. Sunday the fourteenth I sat in repentance and now I need to heal from my sin. Writing helps me to actually SEE the errors of my ways, and humility will bring me sharing them with you, my reader, the ones who care for me and will pray for me.

The week before, we went to a graduation where there were hundreds of people. The graduation and people didn’t bother me as much as not being able to go out and eat afterward. Then the wedding, the same thing happened, I didn’t feel strong enough to go to the reception where food, booze and people (who all appeared healthy) were going to be. 

My husband is a people watcher. I’m sure many of you can relate. You go to the beach not to drink in the health of the sea, but to basically watch people. You go to carnivals and fairs and what do you wind up doing? Watching people, it’s human nature I understand that. Here lately, I do not feel human!

I feel like one of those old beat up, run down cars sitting on someone’s property, just there to one day be worked on, but in the meantime, it is just there. I go to a graduation and I’m just there, a wedding, just there. I’m rusty and corroded while everyone else is shiny, sporting new do’s, new clothes, ten-inch heels, strutting like they have no care in the world, looking like a picture of health and then there is me, I’m just there.

My neighbor, who is a hoarder, has three cars sitting over there, they’re broken down but they look like they work. They don’t look bad at all, other than them clogging up the property. That’s what I feel like, I’m just here clogging up the family, having them worried and concerned if what I am doing is not insane when there are drugs out there to help me. 

I allow myself some down time and then I repent because I KNOW I am stronger than this. I KNOW I can beat this and I am the most optimistic person in my corner. Pastor Bill said something that struck me, he said, “When you’re sick sure, go to the doctors but know who the ultimate physician is.” And he gave a scripture James 5:13-15. (look at that number that is the date that I got married.) 

James 5:13-15  "Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."

So as the enemy works on filling me with doubts and having me second guessing myself, I’m trying to be the fixer-upper that I know resides in me. All of the negativity and hate that people spew is not helping the matter so I need to stay away for awhile so I can build the strength I need to get through this. 

Yes, in time I will have more strength. What I eat and what unhealthy living habits others eat and drink won’t bother me, but right now that is causing me to want to spew hateful comments and that is NOT WHO I AM!! I’ll continue to pray for you.

I just received a message from my mother that her brother has been placed in hospice and will be passing soon. His ex-wife just died in April and their son passed in December. Prayers are definitely needed as my God saves me while taking others. 

I have left my email address on my facebook account in case you don’t see me or hear from me, THAT is how to contact me. I will be deleting my other account soon so THAT is not an option of contact. 

I am grateful for those who have continued their support of me and I pray for those who don’t. I am not weak, I am STRONG and glad to be alive and find life so worth living, I am taking care of myself to see that I continue. 

God be with you all! 

2 Tim 1:7  “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

BEAUTY! 11-11

1 Chron.16:29 “Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.”

BEAUTY

Keeping to my word, I am writing about the BEAUTY I see in the world. I have to admit while everyone is happy stroking their ego’s I am content seeking beauty where there is none. 

I open my eyes in the morning and am grateful to be alive another day. I thank the Lord as I shuffle to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. It is usually after a good eight hours of sleep. Yes, I’m still young enough not to have inhibited sleeping patterns and I chalk that up to my daily prayerful meditations and the content feeling I have with MY life.

I hear people say that they’ve suffered from insomnia all of their life, or because of medications it stops them from sleeping all night, or that they take a supplement to help them sleep, or that I better enjoy sleeping all night while I’m young because the older I get the less I’ll sleep. 

I guess I see why they call it beauty sleep because of the rarity of a restful, content, full night of sleep is absolutely beautiful. Thank you, Lord, for allowing me to see the BEAUTY in a good nights rest.

After the coffee begins perking I take my dog outside for her morning business. It is usually dark and before turning the outside light on, I stare at the illuminated starlit sky and say good morning to God. I usually get a wink but it just might be my eyes adjusting to the dark after coming from the lit house. Thank you, God, for allowing me to see the BEAUTY in the early morning sky!

I gather my dog by giving a whistle and she either slowly (she’s getting old) crosses the leaf filled yard in noisy steps or makes her way around the front of the house and begins barking for entry. I let her in the house and we both meet at the pantry where her treats are stored and she stares, gratefully and eagerly; even if she’s done nothing, she knows a treat is coming! Thank you, God, for allowing me to see the BEAUTY in my dog’s smile.

I turn and go to my finely brewed coffee after listening to the final groan of percolating, I stand there, inhale the scrumptious aroma and thank God once again for technical gadgets that bring the house alive visually and aromatically. Thank you, God, for allowing me to see the BEAUTY in a well-brewed cup of coffee.

I begin shuffling across the floor with hot coffee in my hand, pause as I inhale the steam, and continue walking to my lit computer screen. “What will I write about today, God?” then I click the weather that screams in the darkness, warmth and sunshine this fine November week and again I say, thank you, God, for allowing me to see the BEAUTY in an unseasonably warm day!

To my left, the sun begins to rise in a splendid show of color, I open the bible and read, pray and meditate on the Word He has so richly filled me with since my youth. Good morning my dear friend, thank you for allowing me to see the BEAUTY in prayer and the brilliance in the sunrise. Even when it is hiding behind clouds I sense the BEAUTY and warmth that the sun lends me to start my day.

I click ‘log in’ and the beauty melts away like a wax candle placed in the center of a roaring bonfire. I pray… “Lord, help me see the beauty in the world through your eyes.” My computer crashes… I shuffle myself to the kitchen for a second cup of BEAUTY!

“Sometimes people are beautiful.

Not in looks.

Not in what they say.

Just in what they are.” 

― Markus Zusak

Poetry Sunday ~ The Path

Pss. 17:5 Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.

***

The Path I Take

***

As curious winds dance about

snow lay at my feet

swirling in my mind is doubt

for all the world to meet.

Take my hand and walk me through

the life that has a muddled hue.

Swift soft whispers of the day

spin my life around

stellar are the stars I see

they lift me off the ground.

Hold me now for I am weak

my Father’s face, do I seek.

Step lightly as you pass.

on wilted willow's bough;

Windows open, breath falls in

I’m here amongst you now.

He breathes new life into me

I share for all the world to see.

Originally posted:11 21 10

The one I wrote for today was

too dark.

This Is The Air I Breathe

People always say, "What is it about this God of yours."

Let me tell you, this song says it all. If the video doesn't play, here are the words that say everything that my God is to me.

This is the air I breathe

This is the air I breathe

Your holy presence living in me

This is my daily bread

This is my daily bread

Your very word spoken to me

And I I'm desperate for you

And I I'm lost without you

This is the air I breathe

This is the air I breathe

Your holy presence living in me

This is my daily bread

This is my daily bread

Your very word spoken to me

And I I'm desperate for you

And I I'm lost without you

And I I'm lost without you

And I I'm desperate for you

And I I'm lost without you

I'm lost without you

I'm lost without you

I'm desperate for you

I'm desperate for you

I'm desperate for you

I'm lost without you

I'm desperate for you

I'm desperate for you

I'm lost without you

I'm lost without you

I'm lost without you

I'm lost without you

I'm desperate for you

Lent: Day Twenty-two ~ Breathe a New Beginning

Pss. 51: 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Breathe a New Beginning

Don’t we all wish we could just breathe a new beginning? I think that is what Lent is for me. Normally I fast from food and do a deep spiritual meditation focusing on all things NOT related to technology. These days these techno gadgets are getting on my last nerve.

A new beginning to me is a fresh new day. Seeing things in life in a new perspective. That’s what my blog posts are doing for me, breathing in me a new beginning. While some people are content with their spiritual life, sitting at home living on the techno gadget they own and passing the time thinking this is a normal way of life.

I’m not knocking it if you are handicap and need techno gadgets. To some people it is all they have, it is their only means to viewing what the outside world is like. This gadget can be everything to a home-bound person. I’m not far from that in being the arthritis in my back won’t allow me to just get up and go so sometimes I depend on this gadget for friendships. But will it ever be the replacement part for the here and now called reality? Never!

I sometimes feel like Jesus, as I’m fasting from what the Lord asked me to and doing what He’s asked, I feel satan taking little nips at me as I’m in my deepest breath of a new beginning. Pick, pick, pick! He doesn’t care how or when he just picks and picks trying to get at me little bits at a time whether online or offline, he’s there, slithering in the garden, trying to sway me into a bout of anger.

I find it quite chilling that man (when I refer to man I mean the HUMAN race) thinks HIS will could over ride God’s will at any given time throughout a day. Man cannot live by bread alone. We were reading our bible study last night and it posed a question, “Who (or what) are you a slave to?” I just blurted out “God, I’m a slave to God.”

I think what it was asking is what do we find ourselves richly immersed in, in our lives? Are we surfing the net for hours? Then you’re a slave to the net. Are you listening to music for hours upon hours? Then you’re a slave to music. Do you sit on YouTube watching inane clips? Then you’re a slave to YouTube, just a wee part of the net. Ask yourself what is it YOU are a slave to?

I said I was a slave to God because I find myself hour upon hour, reading the Word, writing ABOUT the Word, talking about the Word and anything else about God or the Word I wrap myself up in and feel safe. I wouldn’t call it a slave though; I’d call it addicted.

Have I always been addicted to God? Well, it did begin as a minor obsession, then grew into a must have possession and then it became so phenomenally thirst quenching, I could no longer breathe a single minute without Him.

I did look into different religions and different faiths but nothing was so breathtaking as the Word from the Holy Bible. I then had to seek out a way to surround myself with positive-natured, God-nurtured people. Yes, my path was a little haywire at times, but I wound up breathing a new beginning with Christ.

I’m not here to judge how you walk in your breath of Christ; I’m not here to tell you the ‘right’ way or the ‘wrong’ way to find the breath of Christ alive in you. I AM here to tell you how the breath of Christ refreshes me and wakes me every single day and causes me to walk in a Light that many don’t understand.

Some try finding God in a book, some try and find Him in proof, some try and redefine the essence of His true meaning. Some will continue their search and change for the better. Some will get all the proof they need, read and believe until their eyes bulge out of their heads, but still remain a slave, to humanity. Me… I find the breath of Christ right here within me; I need look no further.

Pss. 40: 8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.

World of Words

"Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all."
~ Winston Churchill ~

Our Words create Worlds...

Imagine a life without words. We’d be all running around in silence hoping for some swishing sound to fly by our ear. Maybe a fluttering leaf, the waves in the ocean? The downpour of a mid-summers rain?

Without words there would be no books, no imaginative writers and no creator! A writers life is a World of Words. We take one word at a time and shape it into a sentence, then we link those sentences together to form a paragraph; and before you know it, our one paragraph leads to another and the deluge happens; you’re sitting atop a mountain of words called... a novel!

Is that possible, for real? Can you make a mountain out of a molehill? With words, you can create worlds of life, death, light and dark, joy, sorrow, grief, pain and happiness. You are the artist but instead of paint you dip your fingers into the word pool and drip onto the paper the world that you have imagined.

Also your words are going to be splattered on the page and as your reader picks them up they can either lift them to new heights or drop them a few feet below the soil. As the creator of these tales you are the master of the world you create. I think it takes some form of ego to think you are God and can create something out of nothing, but that is basically what writers do; we create something out of nothing and see what can happen allowing the world free reign of all that you created. A God given talent, surely not something acquired through training. All the studying in the world will not make you a writer.

Think of your tale as Earth being formed out of a void of emptiness; breathed into existence. Now think of the readers as Adam and Eve, the ones who will make or break the world you brought into existence. Well, we know how earth turned out, right? So be prepared for not all readers to accept what you write, think it utter foolishness, or think it is divinely inspired by truth.

Let the reader then breathe into your novel their own world. Allow them to create what they want from your words, whether they get what you had intended, or walk away with a totally different aspect of your intentions. Either way you have all filled the world with light and rainbows. You have walked through the forest, taken misguided paths, but in the end, if all goes as planned, you’ll all wind up in the same place, or maybe not.

Have faith...the world was not created over night and as you, a writer, knows success in your novel will not blink into existence. Remain calm, take deep breaths, think yourself the potter, and mold the clay into something everyone will stand in awe of, and most importantly...godspeed. :)

Joni Zipp's : https://apps.facebook.com/yourlifecontest/content/see-again

Writing~A Living Breathing Entity

Gen. 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
***

This week in F2k I’ve read a lot of sentences by many writer’s who are at different levels in their writing. I’ve seen beginners structure words, the novice create sentences, the artists, paint a picture.

The artist paint, you ask? Well this is what I call a writer who not only writes words, but they paint pictures with words. I’ve had to exercise my knowledge cap because this is one colorful bunch of people who likes exercising their keystrokes.

They can take a sentence like:
“The man walked down the street.” and turn it into
“The little chubby man walked down the street.” then even more...
“The little chubby fellow bounced and jiggled as he walked happily down the street.”

Do you see what I’m getting at here? Shaping a sentence is a lot like molding clay. You have a form of nothingness, then you shape it to make it your own creation. I didn’t over exemplify the above sentence (yes it is mine.) I added shape to it. In your mind you have now conjured an image of a little chubby guy bouncing down the street happily.

Now there is a possibility to over-do a sentence and not create the image you want or one that bores your reader as they swim in the pool of words.

Take a look:
“The portly round little chubby guy,wearing green and red plaid pants and a yellow and orange striped jacket, had a pipe in his mouth, tooting smoke rings in the air as he bounced up and down, walking the the street overly happy.”

I like this sentence but I think I over-did it. Sure you get an image in your mind even clearer, but all you really wanted to say was he was walking happily. Give him some meat and you have a complete sentence. But add to many adjectives and you possibly lose your reader. You might even lose your sanity because you think that no sentence is good enough to call actual writing.

The above sentence works for me but had it been in a story of 2500 words, and the story is filled with these types of sentences, you may bore your reader to tears.

Quote by June: “Writing, like life, is not stagnant, but is a living, breathing entity.”

I once read a Native American parable about a grandfather who says, “I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart. One wolf is the vengeful, angry one. The other wolf is the loving, compassionate one.” When asked which wolf will win the fight in his heart, the old man replies, “The one I feed.”

Feed your writing. Let it flow as a natural form of consciousness. Don’t over-word your sentences so that it looks and sounds right; feel that it is right. We can’t be perfect writers, we can only learn so much via a textbook; there comes a time when we must trust ourselves enough to say, “I am a writer! I am a darned good writer!”

Breathe life into your writing.