OPTIMISM: A New Day

Pss. 34:4 I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

Optimism: A New Day

For the past two and a half weeks I’ve been walking around in a veiled fog. My brain couldn’t wrap itself around the simplest of things. I knew without the Oral Chemo I would start to fail. I don’t know why the nurse assumed, two weeks ago, I would jump right into the chemo Herceptin, she knows me and has been working with me for seven months but she went ahead and stopped all further shipments of my meds and didn’t, it sounds to me, get the doctors okay. He wanted me back on what I had left here at home, pronto! And as soon as I started taking it again, my body, muscles, and brain all connected, finally.

I was angry and bitter at just about anyone I came in contact with. I put up a good front (or not) but I muddled through each and every day. If you’ve been reading my blog over the years, you know I am an optimist at heart. I take everything to the Lord and listen ONLY to Him. Not my husband, son, doctors or family can tell me anything, I listen to God and wait for what He has to say ALL of the time.

This instance was no different as I told you last week. I prayed, I heard, and I listened. I also told you I didn’t like the answer I got and for that, I became bitter and disgruntled and in all honesty, ready to pick out my urn! Just an FYI: I want the cover of Dark Side of the Moon on it. Inscription will say: "I'll see you on the dark side of the moon."

Pss. 34:6 "This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles."

God wants me to go the Herceptin route and for the life of me, I cannot conceive why. Why would He do this to me? Why can’t I just be healed like everyone imagines how healing is done? You don’t have to answer that I already know the answer. GOD DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY! 

With all of the healthy eating and supplementation, my body was being prepared to handle what the damaging poison would do to my system. It’s a fact that chemo destroys, it’s a fact that we have the power within ourselves to heal so we need to step up and take action to see healing through. I worked hard to build up my immunity and it may just be time to see if it is strong enough for the poison while the poison attacks the C cells. A science project in motion, if you will.

My body was ready for the Oral Chemo. After sifting through the lies that the doctor told, I had no idea the Oral Chemo was a short term route. I was led to believe ‘that I would see ANOTHER Christmas’. Well, if I don’t go the Herceptin route, I might not see another Christmas!

I have said over and over and over again, this illness is not like a cold. You eat some soup, take some vitamin c and you’re all better. There is no clear indication that just changing your diet to an organic plant-based and taking supplements is the secret to healing the Big C! I’ve NEVER EVER said that or misled anyone to believe that. I made it perfectly clear that there is an entire chasm of healing tools and chemo is NOT the only way to go either! And also, cancer is NOT the death sentence that doctors would like you to believe it is, it’s an enemy of your system, but it is YOUR system, your body, your healing, no one else can heal you but God and you!

The women I see healing alternatively have money, the choice of fine doctors at their fingertips, chiropractors, have been to the clinic in Mexico, have access to the UV saunas, have within their reach the ability to afford all the crazy organic Plant Based food, and many live in states where Medicinal Cannabis is legal. They have family supporting them and maybe they’ve never had a life of trauma. Yes, I know, we’ve all had hard lives but again TRAUMA is different than losing a dog when you were a kid or being whooped because you were bad. TRAUMA is stress that needs tender loving care to get through and it doesn’t happen in a meditation session, or on a psychologists sofa, or with drugs! There are elements to healing this disease that the poor impoverished person has a much deeper struggle to contend with.

So with that, yesterday I woke with an answer. Optimism! I’ve had a gung-ho attitude through all of this but in recent weeks my pep pooped out! Today, my poop got pepped! Ewww. Wait. Today my perk got prepped! Yeah, that sounds better. God said to me if I go into chemo thinking it’s going to destroy and kill me, by all means, it will. If I go in with the optimism that this is just another supplement (albeit a poisonous one) needed in my healing then we’ll find success, then so be it! We’ll find healing! 

God is not a God of fear tactics and scare traits. He wants me to see this as a love potion to add to all of my other healthy eating, exercising, and supplementation. This is just an odd leg of the journey that I did not want to accept. You heard me right, I didn’t like what God wanted me to do! After asking for forgiveness in my doubting Him and asking Him to hold my hand and lead the way, He shouted, OPTIMISM! We’ll walk with optimism so I can see a new day every day and see many more Christmas’! 

I don’t have to do what the doctor says, I’m in the passenger seat of this vehicle and God is my Almighty Driver! The doctors fear tactics have me on this Herceptin for years, ten to twenty. Look, people, I’m not a prisoner doing ten to twenty years for something I didn’t do. I am going to show the world that this disease can be licked, all wounds healed and scars tended to. Years down the line, the scars will be minimal with caressing, rubbing, touching, acknowledging and coming face to face with what brought them to me. 

My mantra will continue - I am HEALED, I am Healthy and I am WELL! 

All praise and Glory to my God! 

Pss. 34:1 "I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth."

I'm Alive

James 5:16 (ESV) “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” 

I’m Alive

Everyone draws concern when I'm away from the social media platform for a week. I imagine they all think the worst and have me dead in the still of the night. But I digress they all might just wonder whatever happened to me as my daily postings come to a halt. I love you all immensely!

I wish I was well enough to bring you great news, but no, I’m down and don’t want to bring others down with me. It’s hard visiting the social media world and see everyone happily moving along, portraying the perfect life while I’m out here miserable. And I know, they all have imperfect lives also they just like portraying the facade. I just could never do that in all honesty. I like dripping truth onto the page and sweeping up the mess as I move along.

I’m now housebound for the summer. I was housebound for the extensive, extremely frozen over winter and now that we've jumped right into summer with a day or two of a spring feel to it, I'm housebound again. I'm grumpy and not liking anything these days so I figure if I stay away from my friends and the social media, I can try and mend without hurting anyone with my snide lashings.

My inability to walk came to a complete standstill last week when I had finished mowing. I used to walk with a limp but now I can't even make it down a pair of stairs, and before you start telling me to see a doctor, that's easier said than done. If you're willing to come and shower and clothe me and place me in the vehicle and take me to the doctor, (if you can find a wheelchair when you get there) then attending a doctors office is not in the picture any time soon. Yeah, it's gotten that bad in just a week. 

My writing has come to a standstill, my walking to a halt, my mowing at a deadlock, my showering when I can, my joy on hiatus. I now write in Yahoo notepad since my MS Word is malfunctioning. My walking, what little I can do, is done with a cane in hand, my mowing is now my husband's fun. My joy? Well, that's taking its sweet old time in resurfacing as the enemy thinks its time to hit me full force!

I thought my riding lawn mower was going to be my welcomed joy this summer, heat or no heat, I would be out and enjoying SOMETHING in the world, but no, it just wasn't meant to be for me. Last week when I got off the mower my legs nearly crumbled. I came in the house to sit down and sitting felt like I had just sat on an ice pick and no one could remove the steel point hitting the nerve in my back. I was in pain worse than I had been in a few weeks ago when I didn't want to visit family but I did. I could not lie down (still can't), I could barely sit, cooking was out of the question so I just sat, and cried, a good long sobbing cry. The uneven land out here and every jostle the mower took, so did my already damaged back. 

I've rested this week staring out the window at the squirrels, bunnies, and birds. We've had pretty intense heat in the upper nineties so peeking my head out the door even became an unbearable task. This is not the kind of heat that arthritic people can endure. I'm here and I'm alive. I don't have my peppy optimism and inspirational spring in my step; negativity from the outside world seeps in whether aimed at me or not, so avoiding the social world helps. I just can't bear to see people happily enjoying the very thing that will kill me in the foods they eat and post happily because well, it's not killing them, yet. YET!

I do like seeing people happy and changing the very way they view their obesity. To overcome weight problems is a chore and one that deserves high-fives and demands hugs! I hope in some way that my testimony of healthy eating has impacted many peoples lives so that they WANT to live and not just live meal to unhealthy meal. Death is final! No, we're not going to take our bodies with us afterward but I feel what we ARE taking is our negative unhealthy thoughts. They don't just go, poof, because we die, they shape our very soul in the here and the hereafter.

If we remain positive, feed on health and nutrition, maybe, just maybe when we face the Lord, we can share the joy we had living with him, our Father who wants nothing but the BEST for us! Forgiveness isn't about doing wrong and treating your bodies bad all your life then when you get to heaven say, "Oh, by the way, forgive me for not cherishing the very sacredness of what you created in me." You knew all along your body is a sacred temple but spitting in the Lord's face is easier than self-control, I get it.

I'm alive. Even though I don't have much to do in a day, I pray, hours on end. It seems like everything has been taken away from me and all I have to do is pray. So if you don't see me for a spell, know that I'm out here, alive. If anything drastic happens to me, I've asked my husband or son to inform you so you will never be left not knowing what happened to Joni. To stay positive, I need to stay away from the negative, please understand that. I need to reclaim the joy that lies out in the dry fields buried. I will be back. You need patience as much as I. My love to you, my friends!

All praise and Glory to God! 

Ephesians 5:11-13, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible — and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.” (NIV)

Happy Ending

Gen. 6:13 "And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth."

A Happy Ending

Who doesn’t like a happy ending? We watch movie after movie waiting, wanting, expecting a happy ending. We go through life with the same expectancies and when we’re let down over and over we become pessimistic expecting the bottom to drop out.

I live in a house with two men, one my son and one my husband, both pessimistic. My son says he’s a realist! I say, “You’re a stubborn pessimist!” How is reality always seeing the bad? You’re looking to buy a new car, you wait expectantly for everything to go wrong, everything goes right, now you wait for the car itself to go wrong. There’s no end to everything going wrong in a realists mind! Then as soon as they expect something to go right, it follows suit and goes remarkably wrong.

Day after day you expect everything to go wrong? Well, no wonder your life is dismal. No wonder you’re a pessimist always seeing the wrong instead of the right. I am a full-blooded, passionate, optimist in every regard. When things do go wrong, I always see the good intricately tied in there. These things happened for a reason and I SEE the reason and embrace everything that is dished out whether to me, others, or the world. I might not like it but that is no reason to see the bad in everything.

While Christmastime focused on the Christ child, February is focused on a Saint Valentine, in short, he was a martyr all in the name of LOVE. I’m not Catholic so I really don’t follow saint days but here we are in the 21^st century and people, like with Christmas, have made February 14th more about materialism than for Christ/love respectively.

No wonder the suicide rate is highest in these two months; loneliness, shortcomings, unworthiness is at an all-time high in December and February because the pessimistic society sees everything wrong and none of the right in their lives. This saddens me because this pessimism and negativity have shaped our very world that we live.

I know I’ve said this over and over but I’m going to say it again. When I got this diagnosis, the doctors WANTED me to fear, they wanted to scare me into submission by telling me all that could go wrong, all that has gone wrong with millions of patients worldwide! When I threw optimism into the mix, they looked puzzled. This was one of those times that you look at supposed educated smarter people and wonder how they ever got by in life. I felt the thread of support from the doctor’s burning and singeing leaving me dangling.

Did that deter me from my positive route? NO! When I asked two doctors, that if I didn’t believe chemo was ever going to work for me, would it still be the cure-all they touted, they both said no, it would not work for me, the mind has everything to do with the outcome. I asked that if alternative treatment would work if I BELIEVED it will work, they buckled, searching their brains for what to say. Their minds were like scrambled eggs before being put on the hot fire. I knew right then and there that my alternative route was going to be my happy ending!

I know too many people who have gone the chemotherapy route and died. I know people who went that route and lived. Ask them what worked for them. I would bet money that they can say they believed their doctor, they believed in the system, they believed they’d be healed. Their mind healed them, not the radioactive chemicals coursing through their veins. What they believed was happening as the juice ran its course is what gave them a positive outcome. Had they pessimistically viewed the situation the outcome would have been markedly different.

Ask them what keeps them going; they’ll more than likely tell you the will and determination to LIVE! Their minds are defining their route in life. Our optimism and pessimism are shaping our lives. The over-abundance of pessimism in today’s society has shaped the angry world. Look at the earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding, devastation, murder rate, suicide they are all residual effects of the dismal down sighted pessimistic world.

I know quite a few of you who will say, “It was written in the Bible!” I believe that to be true too, I’ve never alluded to the bible not being prophetic. God knows what He created. He knew what our withered minds were capable of manifesting. Now you see before you how well your pessimism worked. It has BECOME your reality!

All that we BELIEVE will shape our happy ending! Remember that on your deathbed. Your pessimism will have you meeting the snake of fear, the fires of hell, the torment you put your mind through will carry you away. Your last breath of optimism will have you breathlessly meeting your Heavenly Father in a beautiful, painless, worry-free realm of possibilities conjoining with eternal living! You are in total control of your Happy Ending.

 Matt. 1619 "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

Quotation Saturday ~ Faith

Luke 21:19 “In your patience possess ye your souls.” 

ENDURANCE

“I used many times to touch my own chest and feel, under its asthmatic quiver, the engine of the heart and lungs and blood and feel amazed at what I sensed was the enormity of the power I possessed. Not magical power, but real power. The power simply to go on, the power to endure, that is power enough, but I felt I had also the power to create, to add, to delight, to amaze and to transform.” 
― Stephen Fry

“Despite your best efforts, people are going to be hurt when it's time for them to be hurt.” 
― Haruki Murakami

“No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God . . . and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in heaven.” 
― Orson F. Whitney

“If you're serious about sanctification, you can expect to experience heart-wrenching moments that try your faith, your endurance, and your patience.” 
― Sheri Dew

PATIENCE

“The two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what we encounter.” 
― Paulo Coelho

Patience is not the ability to wait. Patience is to be calm no matter what happens, constantly take action to turn it to positive growth opportunities, and have faith to believe that it will all work out in the end while you are waiting.” 
― Roy T. Bennett

“I realized that the deepest spiritual lessons are not learned by His letting us have our way in the end, but by His making us wait, bearing with us in love and patience until we are able to honestly to pray what He taught His disciples to pray: Thy will be done.” 
― Elisabeth Elliot

“Patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can - working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!

Impatience, on the other hand, is a symptom of selfishness. It is a trait of the self-absorbed. It arises from the all too-prevalent condition called "center of the universe" syndrome, which leads people to believe that the world revolves around them and that all others are just supporting cast in the grand theater of mortality in which only they have the starring role.” 
― Dieter F. Uchtdorf

HOPE

“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

“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

“Write it on your heart
that every day is the best day in the year.
He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day
who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.

Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

This new day is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on the yesterdays.” 
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.” 
― Thomas Merton

FAITH

“When you walk to the edge of all the light you have and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown, you must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for you to stand upon or you will be taught to fly.” 
― Patrick Overton

“We never know when our last day on earth will be. So, love with full sincerity, believe with true faith and hope with all of your might. Better to have lived in truth and discovered life, than to have lived half-heartedly and died long before you ever ceased breathing. ” 
― Cristina Marrero

“All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired.” 
― Martin Luther

“You are where you need to be. Just take a deep breath.” 
― Lana Parrilla

Rom. 5:3-4 “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

Quotation Saturday

Jer. 48:10 “Cursed be he that doeth the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.”

LIES

“When you look at the past without God’s eyes, you subject yourself to deception. The past no longer exists and God doesn’t linger there. However, Satan will show you whatever you want to see and believe, so you will be trapped in an emotion that cannot communicate truth, beyond what you want to remember.” 
― Shannon L. Alder

“Anything is better than lies and deceit!” 
― Leo Tolstoy

“Perhaps you notice how the denial is so often the preface to the justification.” 
― Christopher Hitchens

“Falsehood is so easy, truth so difficult....Examine your words well, and you will find that even when you have no motive to be false, it is a very hard thing to say the exact truth, even about your own immediate feelings -- much harder than to say something fine about them which is not the exact truth.” 
― George Eliot

EGO

“The ego relies on the familiar. It is reluctant to experience the unknown, which is they very essence of life.” 
― Deepak Chopra

“Opinion is really the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding. The highest form of knowledge… is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world. It requires profound purpose larger than the self kind of understanding.” 
― Bill Bullard

“The Ego is a veil between humans and God’.”

“In prayer all are equal.” 
― Jalaluddin Rumi

“Arguments should always be held in private. Audiences inflate the ego.”
― L.J Vanier

SELF

“You are who you are when nobody's watching.” 
― Stephen Fry

“Don't look to the approval of others for your mental stability” 
― Karl Lagerfeld

“We carry about us the burden of what thousands of people have said and the memories of all our misfortunes. To abandon all that is to be alone, and the mind that is alone is not only innocent but young -- not in time or age, but young, innocent, alive at whatever age -- and only such a mind can see that which is truth and that which is not measurable by words.” 
― Jiddu Krishnamurti

“I've come to know that what we want in life is the greatest indication of who we really are.” 
― Richard Paul Evans

STRENGTH

“To run with the wolf was to run in the shadows, the dark ray of life, survival and instinct. A fierceness that was both proud and lonely, a tearing, a howling, a hunger and thirst. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst. A strength that would die fighting, kicking, screaming, that wouldn't stop until the last breath had been wrung from its body. The will to take one's place in the world. To say 'I am here.' To say 'I am.” 
― O.R. Melling

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” 
― Lao Tzu

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.”
 ― J.R.R. Tolkien

“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

OPTIMISM

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” 
― Oscar Wilde

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” 
― Anne Frank

“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” 
― Marcus Aurelius

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” 
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

The LOVE of Life

The LOVE of Life

I see so many people distracted by hate that they are losing sight of the love of life. Entangled in bashing whether gay or religious, these people thrive on the negative aspects of everything to do with life.

I find myself wanting to distance myself from these people but I do have hope that one day they’ll see the err of their ways and give it all up to God like they proclaim. If you sincerely have given it all up to God, should you be dwelling in the judgment seat of all men?

In a matter of minutes people are seen praising the Lord one minute, then bashing gays or Muslims or political figures or what can I say, the list goes on and on. It’s ironic I know but when God said you can’t serve two masters, for some reason I’ve never had the impression that He meant money and Himself.

I seriously think God meant that in a metaphorical sense because so much of His word is built on metaphor. No He did not mean for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, He did not want us to take an eye for an eye, or pluck out our eyes, the list is endless here too, so why would we think God meant, serving two masters meant God and money?

I PERSONALLY don’t feel we can serve love and hate. I do not feel with one iota of my being we can serve good and evil. Love, hate, good and evil are masters of our soul. They reign over us and we need to know which one to serve in an every day, every second situation. *I* choose love and good, over hate and evil but man cannot serve both on their platter of climbing the social ladder.

The definition of serve:

To render assistance; be of use; help

How is dishing out your hatred of someone or something of any assistance to anyone?

The definition of masters:

A person whose teachings others accept or follow: ie: a Zen master.

Matt. 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

The definition of mammon:

Riches or material wealth.

(often initial capital letter) a personification of riches as an evil spirit or deity.

Do you see clearly how in Matthew 6 it is stated you cannot SERVE (assist) two MASTERS? You will HATE the one or LOVE the other. I don’t find it odd that the Words used are HATE AND LOVE. You my friend, cannot serve (dish out) HATE and LOVE (praise the Lord) at the same time, you are serving TWO masters.

I’m not going to run to Pinterest, Twitter or Facebook and shout out how much I love and praise the Lord then in the next post shout out how much I hate, despise, dislike or disagree with something (color it any way you’d like) it is still a love hate relationship with whomever it is you show allegiance to.

Again *I* personally choose love. I choose to love my enemy, love my neighbor as much as myself, love the Lord my God and serve only ONE master of my soul and that is the Lord of LOVE!

While you can dislike or disagree with my opinion, I will love you and pray for you.

Ezek. 34:11 “For thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out.”

One definition of sheep: a meek, unimaginative, or easily led person.

Idiom: Separate the sheep from the goats, to separate good people from bad or those intended for a specific end from unqualified people.

While some will call me a sheep because of my optimism, hope, strength and LOVE for humans and humankind, I have to say thank you, why?

Pss. 37:11 “But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.”

I am whom God created me to be and for that very reason is the reason I am!

Praise be to God from whom all blessings flow.

Quotation Saturday

OPTIMISM

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
~ Winston S. Churchill

“For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use to be anything else.”
~ Winston S. Churchill

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Howard Zinn
“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
 

HOPE

“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.”
~ Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

“The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places.
But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now
mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater.”
~ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Anne Frank
“I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.”
~ Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

“to love life, to love it even
when you have no stomach for it
and everything you've held dear
crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,
your throat filled with the silt of it.
When grief sits with you, its tropical heat
thickening the air, heavy as water
more fit for gills than lungs;
when grief weights you like your own flesh
only more of it, an obesity of grief,
you think, How can a body withstand this?
Then you hold life like a face
between your palms, a plain face,
no charming smile, no violet eyes,
and you say, yes, I will take you
I will love you, again.”
~ Ellen Bass 

INTENTIONS

“A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.”
~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“How would your life be different if…You pretended those around you were deaf to your words? Let today be the day…You let your actions speak and communicate your feelings and intentions.”
~ Steve Maraboli

“The wise do not buy into other people’s perceptions of who they are and what they are capable of. Instead, they bypass a person’s public persona and see who they are in their highest expression. When you see actions taken with integrity instead of words only, you will then know a soul’s worth.”
~ Shannon L. Alder

“The word God can mean whatever you believe it to mean, for me it is the conscious stream of life from which we all come, and to which we can stay connected throughout our lives as a source of peace, wisdom, love, support, knowing, inspiration, vitality, security, balance, and inner strength.
I think that awareness is paramount, because in awareness we gain understanding, which then enables us to regain our feeling of empowerment.
We need to feel empowered to make our choices consciously, about how to deal with changes in life, rather than reacting in fear (which tends to make us blind and weak).
If we are aware, we can be realistic yet positive, and we can properly focus our intentions.
Awareness can be quite sensual (which can add to your sense of feeling empowered). Think about how your body moves as you live your life, how amazing it is; think about nature, observe the intricate beautiful details of natural things, and of things we create, and breathe deeply to soak it all in.. Focus on the taste of food, the feel of textures in cloth, the feel of you partner's hand in yours; smell the sea breeze, listen to the wind in the trees, witness the colours of the leaves, the children playing; and be thankful for this life we are experiencing - this life we can all help to keep wonderful. Feel the wonder of being alive flood into you anytime you want, by taking a deep breath and letting the experience of these things fill you, even just by remembering.
We all have that same stream of life within us, so you are a part of everything. Each one of us has the power to make a difference to everything.
Breathe in that vital connection to the life source and sensual beauty everywhere. Feel loved and strong.”
~ Jay Woodman


“Know that God is the source of your breath and and your best intentions will shine forth and give hope to the world.”
~ Joni Zipp

Quotation Saturday

OPTIMISM

"Life is too short to spend your precious time trying to convince a person who wants to live in gloom and doom otherwise. Give lifting that person your best shot, but don't hang around long enough for his or her bad attitude to pull you down. Instead, surround yourself with optimistic people."
~Zig Ziglar
 
"I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter."
~Walt Disney
 
"Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many, not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."
~Charles Dickens
 
"You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses."
~Ziggy  

PRAYER

To the lamp of love: may it burn brightest in the darkest hours and never flicker in the winds of trial. 
~Author Unknown

When we talk to God, we're praying. When God talks to us, we're schizophrenic. ~Jane Wagner

The Lord's Prayer may be committed to memory quickly, but it is slowly learnt by heart. 
~Frederick Denison Maurice

Prayer gives a man the opportunity of getting to know a gentleman he hardly ever meets. I do not mean his maker, but himself. 
~William Inge

REALITY

Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces.
 ~Sigmund Freud

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
~T.S. Eliot
 
To treat your facts with imagination is one thing, but to imagine your facts is another.
~John Burroughs

Listening to both sides of a story will convince you that there is more to a story than both sides.
~Frank Tyger

It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled seas of thought.
~John Kenneth Galbraith

 POSITIVE

"A strong positive attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug."
~ Patricia Neal
 
"Our attitude toward life determines life's attitude towards us."
~ John N. Mitchell
 
"I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination."
~ Jimmy Dean
 
Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies.
~Erich Fromm
 
I have a simple philosophy: Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. Scratch where it itches.
~Alice Roosevelt Longworth

What a Week!

Prov 25:16 Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.
***

Well it started off on the right foot as Easter came and  we went to the wonderful Church service that was flooded with the yearlies. That’s the folk who come once or twice a year? Mainly Christmas and Easter. It makes them feel like they are doing something good for God, and I’m sure God is excited to see them, but I bet he wishes they’d stay.

Then we had an awesome family dinner at my beaus sister's house, with ham and cheesy potatoes, and an egg hunt for all the tradition followers. That means that the kids range in age from 14- 22, and all have a blast seeking out the candy-filled plastic eggs, and returning to eat all the candy. What a fun sight and day. 


Beau, being blind, usually gets a little overwhelmed with all the noise but this time it didn’t seem to take a toll on him like it normally does. Maybe he’s getting used to the sounds and commotion? I know he’s having a blast at audio book-heaven and enjoying writing reviews for all the books he listens to.

Which leads me to today’s post. Where have I been all week? Well I sort of hit a stumbling block, or should I say, a Writer’s Block! The weather has been cold and windy, the days have been spent in shadows of light trickling in the window and the time outdoors is spent in a coat which really hinders any yard work or gardening that I’d like to do.

Winter has Spring in its clutches and is just not letting go and that can be quite depressing to the human psyche. Depressing and frustrating. Everything seems to be frustrating me these days, from the whimsical, “It’s gonna be a breezy day” which really means a WINDY day with gusts exceeding 40 mph, all the way to the clouds not letting the sun come out and play.

I sit at the computer frustrated at all the Social Scenes, games, people, falsity, hypocrites, weather, you name it, then I open my word to type something and I draw a total blank. Well I can write what is frustrating me and through that I’m hoping it weeds out the mangled thoughts that are hindering my writing and gets me on the right path to writing again.

See, Joni? Now that wasn’t so hard! Let it all out and get yourself back together. I’m sure May will bring warmth and sunshine. It will bring a doctor visit for beau and possibly the promising news of being put on the cornea transplant list, and all will once again be right with the world. Or will it?

Only time can tell and only time is the healer. I’m closing off all the negative vibrations and going to rejoice in the promise of a New Day. May you all seek out the positive that all the negative tries to strangle from your thoughts. Hold your head high and know, God loves YOU!
 

Tuesday was Astri's birthday ~ somber day because she WOULD HAVE been seven!