Quotation Saturday - Hope, Faith, Love!

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Cor. 13:13 (NIV)

HOPE

“Part of the problem with the word 'disabilities' is that it immediately suggests an inability to see or hear or walk or do other things that many of us take for granted. But what of people who can't feel? Or talk about their feelings? Or manage their feelings in constructive ways? What of people who aren't able to form close and strong relationships? And people who cannot find fulfillment in their lives, or those who have lost hope, who live in disappointment and bitterness and find in life no joy, no love? These, it seems to me, are the real disabilities.” 
― Fred Rogers

“TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.” 
― Howard Zinn

“Since I was young, I have always known this: Life damages us, every one. We can’t escape that damage. But now, I am also learning this: We can be mended. We mend each other” 
― Veronica Roth

“It isn't as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. Don't worry. I say that to myself every morning. It all works out in the end. Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith and confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us. He will not forsake us. If we will put our trust in Him, if we will pray to Him, if we will live worthy of His blessings, He will hear our prayers.” 
― Gordon B. Hinckley

FAITH

Keep Going
“Your hardest times often lead to the greatest moments of your life. Keep going. Tough situations build strong people in the end.” 
― Roy T. Bennett

“Faith is walking face-first and full-speed into the dark. If we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life and the nature of God and the destiny of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith and it would not be a courageous act of humanity; it would just be... a prudent insurance policy.” 
― Elizabeth Gilbert

“The moment God is figured out with nice neat lines and definitions, we are no longer dealing with God.” 
― Rob Bell

“There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is wiser than speech. We should be better Christians if we were more alone, waiting upon God, and gathering through meditation on His Word spiritual strength for labour in his service. We ought to muse upon the things of God, because we thus get the real nutriment out of them. . . . Why is it that some Christians, although they hear many sermons, make but slow advances in the divine life? Because they neglect their closets, and do not thoughtfully meditate on God's Word. They love the wheat, but they do not grind it; they would have the corn, but they will not go forth into the fields to gather it; the fruit hangs upon the tree, but they will not pluck it; the water flows at their feet, but they will not stoop to drink it. From such folly deliver us, O Lord. . . .” 
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon

LOVE

“Promise Yourself

To be so strong that nothing
can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness, and prosperity
to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel
that there is something in them
To look at the sunny side of everything
and make your optimism come true.

To think only the best, to work only for the best,
and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others
as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past
and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times
and give every living creature you meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself
that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear,
and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world,
not in loud words but great deeds.
To live in faith that the whole world is on your side
so long as you are true to the best that is in you.” 
― Christian D. Larson

“Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” 
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“Love is the depth of the soul that flutters every time you breathe. Some enjoy the aroma of breath on their face, others simply exist with no air in their lungs.”
~ Joni Zipp

Illness Knows No Bounds

Pss. 67:2 "That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations."

Even the Healthy Get Sick

I just read an article about a young woman age thirty-two who was a vegan, health nut, she exercised daily, non-smoker in her prime, and she has stage four lung cancer.

I pretty much know how I contracted this disease, and knowing is part of the healing. But this young lady has no idea. She was doing everything right and yet, she was still hit by this disease.

To me, this is proof of the toxic world we live in. She ate the right foods, more than likely non-organic because organic is more or less a new thing. She didn’t smoke but was an avid jogger. I imagine the toxins she inhaled jogging daily was worse than smoking five packs of cigarettes a day. She washed her hair, probably dyed it too, she used deodorant and soap put out with chemicals in them. Then she probably drank water either toxic faucet water or water in a plastic bottle. All toxic.

When we think we’re doing the best we can for our health, we’re smacked with the truth that no, we are not doing everything that needs to be done to stay alive. We are not vigilant enough when it comes to our health. We’re vigilant when it comes to posting on Facebook, we’re active when something happens in our nation, we throw our support behind the wrongs and right of society but our health? That takes a back burner while we’re looking the other way, the wolf is sneaking into the den.

We have defiled God’s plan for man and beast!

Psalms 104:14 “He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;”

Did you read that scripture? At one time, it was the norm for cattle to be raised on grass, herbs were the source of medicine, and oils were the tincture they turned to. Now if someone says they eat grass-fed beef, they’re looked at as if they’re not normal. 

I love it when people say, “I’d die before I gave up ______.” Fill in the blank, is it beef, coffee, sugar? What would you die for before you gave it up? Think about that seriously. Because when death taps you on your shoulder like you’re given a life-altering illness, would you still rather die before giving something up? I wouldn’t rather die. I know some of my posts sound otherwise, but honestly, I do want to live and get this, I’ll DIE TRYING to live! How funny is that? (not haha, ironic)

I’m sure some of you understand the gamut of emotions I must go through in a day, a week or a month but the emotions don’t cling to me and shape my healing. I write about them good or bad, express the inner turmoil, have people nodding their head in agreement because they too are doing everything to stay alive. 

Often when I’m feeling my lowest asking the why’s I’m doing what I’m doing, I’m told from the higher ups that these struggles are to attain the home that they have waiting for me. It’s like they saved me a spot and they want to make sure I get there, but I need to run the race first.

We’re all in this race together. It’s like running a marathon; some are slow, some are fast, some drop out mid way, some collapse from exhaustion but there are a FEW who make the million-mile stretch to the end!

1 Cor. 9:24 “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.”

The Lord doesn’t ask us to give him half of our self, He’d like it if we gave it our all and submitted all of our self. I can’t hammer this truth home hard enough, our bodies are a temple, we should move full steam ahead in treating it as such. Why do we treat infants with gentle loving care? Because they are precious! Why do we tend our gardens with such intimate grace? Because more times than not our gardens are taking care of US! So why would you treat your body any different? Why are your health and life not as precious as an infant or a garden? Let me tell you, IT IS!! Treat it as such and you too will win this race before us. 

1 Cor. 6:19 “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”

The Season of JOY!

Pss. 51:8 “Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.”

“If you have music inside you, you have God in you.” ~ Joni 

Define what brings you joy.

As I’m winding down my goal setting of 203 blog posts this year, I’m leading you to music, joy, and happiness all found with the LOVE of the Lord. I know this might sound radical but it is my life and the way I live on a daily basis until something negative smacks me upside the head. As you know, this year has been one of them kind of years.

I pushed through with post after positive post never relegating myself to the negativity out there taking over the world. I can only say, there is only one source to that JOY and happiness on a daily basis and that is finding the love of God in the depth of your soul and find music to be a natural healer on days that don’t measure up for you.

If you’ve read yesterday’s blog, you’ll read how music has a way of healing and I posted links to show proof that music is used in many healing capacities. I know that God is the ultimate healer and since we can’t see Spirit or soul we can only FEEL Him to get to KNOW Him, music is His way of intimately touching us through the rhythmic vibrations.

If you say that sad songs make you cry, they make you reminisce, that is all part of God’s plan to make you feel and sense the world around you and Him IN you. God does not ask us not to cry. He doesn’t order us to be stoic and never show emotion, no, tears are a perfect form of allowing God to stream down your face.

Grief is another form of God showing us that emotions are okay to express. When you hear a song, or think about a loved one you lost (often when a song is played) God is planting a seed of remembrance in your heart that has you directly touching Him. 

Joy and Love are other avenues of expressing God from within your soul. I’d like to do a musical experiment of sorts if you don’t mind. You’ll feel something with each link and I’d love to hear your feedback, if not, take to heart what you experience in the sincerest form and allow them to help you grow wherever you may need.

Click this link: bad vibrations?

Good vibrations? 

Intimacy with God - 

I can almost 100% guarantee you didn’t make it through the bad song, your heart stirred at the good vibration one, but your soul QUIVERED at the seconds or minutes you spent in the intimacy with God link. THAT my friends is the musical Healer in Action!

My mission this year was to bring about a change of heart in each and every one of you through every blog post. Whether my words solidified what you already believed or my words touched you in any way or maybe it was the brief light that you allowed in your door and it helped awaken you to a truth you’ve never known.

I’ll admit first hand that I had no intention or plans of going this far this year with my blog post, but as many of you can see with your own eyes, God had different plans, as always. Now my plans, after the 203rd post is to take a little break if God allows. Maybe I’ve given you all that He needed me to and will see that I’ve exerted myself to the extent that it is time for a refresher. 

The Advent season will come upon me and I’ll be on a quiet sabbatical of sorts as I pray and meditate on the season in my own way. Remember, Advent is not for Catholics only. I have my prayerful meditative month before the celebration of Christmas day as man sees it and it turns into what God wants from ME not what I want from Him or from man. 

Writing has been my lifelong journey since before I ever had the internet, a place to voice the words God places on my heart to convey to you, a people in need of an inspirational message. While families gather for Thanksgiving around their table with loved ones or alone, please know God is always in your heart to warm you this season.  

Pss. 51:12 “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.”

As aromas carry through the house of turkey and pumpkin pies as we give thanks, it will ring in the season of scents with pinecones and cookies. Always remember the reason for the season. Not the manmade appointed season, the real season of the Birth of Christ we read about in our Holy Bibles. Let Jesus’ birth carry you into a New Year, a new beginning a new perspective on life and the Spirit that will follow you long after you’ve left this physical world behind.

In God’s Holy name I pray that you have a Blessed Thanksgiving and a JOYOUS Christmas. Much of my time will be spent here praising the One and only keeper of my soul. 

God Bless you all.

Pss. 66:1 “Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands:”

Continued Change

Pss. 55:19 “God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.”

Change…I can smell it in the air.

Ah, the year of change has commenced. I can smell the aroma as it drifts in my window, I can see it pass me by in my words, I can feel it erupting in the core of my being, change the ever fearful stir. 

Some people face change like a thick wall of mud, they can feel the impending surge coming but they’d rather walk through the wet clingy mud and drag their feet along until it hardens on their feet leaving them growing stagnant stuck in nothingness. In other words, they stay the same never embracing change and turn into a rock-solid mudpack.

The moist stench that this unchanging community leaves behind is nothing to be reckoned with. They will spout the darkened soil, cling to the cracks in the road and try to move into a positive sand-filled vicinity but would much rather just linger with their shoes stuck in the mire.

Rom. 1:25 “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.”

This change I sense is not one of my own making. I didn’t set a date and say, this is it, this is the year of change. No, it bubbled down inside of me around September and built itself into a surge that was released by the end of the year. I felt the geyser of emotions inside and knew I had to take a form of action. I’m not one to allow my soul to stagnate because I fear change, I embrace the force that calls me into an active pursuit of positive energy, meaning change is inevitable; cradle and nurture it until something beautiful forms. 

If we cling to the negative energy that is released in the world, and it is there, we cling to a darkness that envelops our soul and never allows streams of change into our being. If we allow the negative influx to win, we are allowing our ego to take the reins and put its own spin of confusion on the table. Our babbling becomes just that, babble that no one wants to hear. Everyone sees the walls of gibberish and passes by quickly so as not to be affected by the negative overtone.

Now, take the reins of change and put them through a whirlwind of a positive nature, then people stand up and take notice, they listen to what you have to say, are delighted by your presence instead of being filled with emotional turbulence. No longer driven by the ego, the world around you takes on a different form. It begins to be satisfied with the change that surged within you and surfaced on the path of honor. You find contentment with the light of each new day because within you is sheltered the glorious light of God. 

Can the world run on light alone? No, there needs to be darkness so we can see the tiny glimmer of hope in the stellar nation that emits light. Can the world run on change? Yes, as long as it is not a forced change and allowed to flow from within, the world could be a beautiful effervescent place. Will it ever be content? No, because people want what they want when THEY want it and there is NO change in that position, stagnant. The earth becomes a gurgling cesspool of mudslides and the people of the earth become mummified. 

Change, it can only happen from within. That is our greatest challenge.

1 Cor. 15:51-52 “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”

Mixed Emotions

Ecc. 7:3 Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.

Yesterday was not a good day, not a good day at all. It would be the day of my dad’s funeral. The day that family all gathered ‘round sharing tears, memories and love. There would be brothers and a sister, aunts, nieces and nephews, maybe cousins who I haven’t seen in ages all gathering to show their love for my father. There would be something missing from the family gathering…namely me. A series of mixed emotions would encompass my entire day.

Steven was very sick yesterday. Well, seriously he’s been sick for two weeks, first with a nasal infection but it seemed to have cleared up but by Monday something was running amok in his chest. He has asthma and breathing had become very tiring for him and by yesterday when I woke he announced, “I have to go to the doctor!” I scurried to get dressed in record time and we were at the doctor by 9:30.

I had first called my mother to make sure she was okay on what would be the hardest day of her life, putting her husband of sixty years to rest. I tried to keep it together but by the time we returned home from the doctor, I was once again on the phone to my mother seeing to it that she was going to be okay. She assured me that she would be, she had loving family surrounding her and she’d be okay.

After the phone call I broke down sobbing like a child who lost her puppy. I run the gamut of emotions from sadness, anger, guilt, shame, hate, love, sorrow, grief, concern despair and sympathy. No wonder the tears flowed by the bucketful.

At three o’clock (four o’clock eastern time), the time the funeral was to begin, I lit a candle for my dad, placed my little angels around the emanating light and sat a picture of my mother and father there and then I mourned. I was once again crying like a fire hydrant at full throttle. I was feeling all the pain that my family was enduring rush over me, as I looked at memorial pictures of my dad at the funeral parlor’s website.

Why am I not there? Why am I not grieving with my family? Why did nobody see to it that I was able to make the trip? I threw a pity party for myself and it felt okay, it felt like the right thing to do alone out in the middle of nowhere. The answers would come one day, but right now I just wanted to be alone to cry, to let the floodgates open and mourn.

Last night for some reason I wanted to watch It’s A Wonderful Life. I wanted to see Clarence, I wanted to see George, I wanted to see family and friends rally around him to make sure his Christmas would be a memorable one that made his life worth living. I wanted to see Clarence get his wings and leave George the message from beyond, “No man is a failure who has friends.”

It's a Wonderful Life

If it were not for my friends rallying around me to offer me comfort and support, the death of my father would be unbearable. I received a condolence card from a dear friend whom I’ve never met in person, yet she reached out, took her time out of her day to think of ME! Nothing touched me more than that moment of knowing, someone out there, cared for ME. My spiritual friends have been a welcome comfort where my blood family cast me aside and sent me out to sea.

After the movie ended I once again placed a call to my mother, not thinking she’d be home yet, so I’d leave a message reminding her to take her medicine. To my surprise she answered the phone and said she had just walked in the door. She went on to tell me how it was good seeing my father with no tubes in his nose, no mask on his face and not being hooked to wires. She felt a peaceful feeling knowing that she had family surrounding her during one of her darkest days. As we parted words I would go to bed in a sea of mixed emotions.

"Each man's life touches so many other lives, and when he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?" says the angel Clarence to George Bailey.

Emotional Rescue

Rev. 4: 3 And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.
***

Words are to me, a form of expressing my feelings. Whether it is fiction or non fiction, words are what heals my soul.

As you all know and have read, last week was not a good week for me. Emotions ran at an anxious high, my esteem dropped for a few notches, my brain was not wrapping around anything that I read or did, and I was just an emotional wreck.

On about Thursday, I was God slapped. This is what I call it when I have one of those clarifying moments that is telling me to wake up and smell the coffee. I lived! Not that I was ever close to death, it just felt that way to me, since it was my very first accident and the more people I talked to, the more I felt that this was a rite of passage that all drivers go through. My son said, “It has to happen at least once in your life.”

Good, I got my one accident over and done with, now I can move on, right? It’s an eerie feeling this moving on stuff, I want to just relive the moment of the accident over and over like my brain is a movie film. Rewind, play, rewind, play. This weekend I pushed STOP! I need to take the film out and put in new film.

I decided to own my fear. I pulled the truck around and washed her off. She had so many of the ditches weeds clinging to the top and the underside, she looked like a truck who had been through combat, survived and came back to tell the story. The mud was caked in the wheels, the injured headlights, the demolished grill, but when I got done washing her, talking to her and pampering her, I told her her straight up, “I own you Destiny, you don’t own me!” I’m gonna own my fear and not allow anyone or anything to hamper my healing.

My writing community has been so supportive, I don’t think I could have gotten through this without their love and support. There is Bro who is tending to the trucks mechanical needs, and mom is trying her darndest to help financially in her loving supportive always- there- for- you mom way, my sister called from miles away, then there is my writers!

An awesome community that knows how to wrap their words around me like a blanket, put the road barriers up to my fear, hug me in a worded way that only they know how to do. My final words today come from a dear writing friend named Standing Deer, she is Native American and knows me spiritually. I wish everyone could see the Native Americans brilliance. I treasure their wisdom and guidance.

Standing deer says:  I know you have wings too...I feel them. They are soft, iridescent, with all the colors of the Rainbow. Only Rainbow carriers put others before themselves
before they can even think any other way.
Rainbows are not just after a rain, they are always there, only special beings know this.
All one has to do is look inside, look within, and there, they will see one.
Darkness cannot hide them for they are what light is made of.
The shining Light from all that exists, it is all that is and more.

What awesome words from my deer friend! Love ya deer!

~Write Right~

Judges 17:6 In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
***

Emotionally Write Right

I thought that Write Right was a creative blog name but it must not be, because I found one with an extremely familiar name. And wow, this person actually has the same topics for posts that I did over a year ago!

Is it plagiarism or is it a non-creative mind that sinks their teeth into my blog and repost theirs, just flipping the words around adding and taking away a few words here and there. That person has three posts so far and I will surely keep my eye on the blog, of the same title, minus my One Voice!

I used One Voice because I am only one voice among thousands of writers wanting to help writers along in their growth. I try to come up with creative posts, so that you the reader will find learning, interesting. We writers are part of a collective conscience that interestingly enough, thinks alike. We write the same things, feel the same motion of words, create pieces of art out of shapeless clay.

I write poetry to relieve stress and in the process I inspire others to write or feel something they knew was inside them, they just needed a boost to trigger the memory of what it was. My poetry is a trigger of those emotions. Some people get triggered and some people read without a hint of emotion, leaving them sagging throughout their life. If emotions don’t make you sit up and take stock of your life, then how on earth are you going to write?

No matter what type of characters you have in mind when you're writing, your emotional state is going to feed those characters. It will give them either an unfeeling straw kind of character, or you will create one with a rainbow of words shaping your character in many colors, with many hidden aspects. You can’t just have a cardboard cutout of a character, one without any shape, just the same old thing used over and over again. Your writing will get nowhere with this kind of character.

Our emotions will shape our characters in every way. I read Stephen Kings “On Writing” and in the book, although it it is more of a memoir, he states he was a heavy drinker and basically, the drinking shaped his characters into these weird, all out crazy maniacal people. The alcohol had an affect. Now since he has quit drinking, he has written some of his best work, Lisey’s Story is a spellbinding tale, with a rainbow of characters each having their own personality. You can tell his mind is clear.

Emotions are what drives our characters and our state of mind spits them out onto the paper. I’m hoping you don’t spit on the paper and that you spill words, dredged up from the pit of your being and state of mental health bringing forth a delicious character. Remember, pieces of our characters are all bits of us. Give the world a great character and we see little crumbs of you, the writer. Become One Voice to YOUR reader.