Out of the blue….

As I laid in bed last night the rain pouring down, the thunder and lightning loud and disruptive, I could not help but to feel that the sky’s were expressing all that we feel at times.  The unrelentingly crying that we wonder if we will ever be able to stop.  The anger, the yelling with we feel inside roaring it ugly side of all of us, that too, loud and disruptive.  The flashes of light in the darkest of times reminding us all that we are still here and everything is still around us.  A moment of remembering.  The storm went on for hours and hours it seemed and I laid there letting it express my every feeling.  To the deepest part of my soul, to the loudest part of me and then to the softest side of me just gently crying and letting go.

“Out of the blue…,” is a phrase that we use in life at times.  Mostly to describe our shock of some unexcepted occurrence or change. 

 Today I want to use the phrase in a different way; “Out of the blue…,” out of the darkness, the depression, the pain.  Can you wrap your arms around the difference of its meaning?  Can you feel the power of it pull? 

Out of the blue the sun is shining today, the tears have subsided for the moment and the joy of living in this crazy world rises above it all again. 

Just, out of the blue….

Life…

 I’m quickly approaching the speaking event at the Indy Health Expo on January 23-24.  I will be speaking on “Life… is a challenge by choice.”

 

I’m honored to have a 30-minute slot on Saturday the 23rd at 1:45pm on one of the stages! Please come support me on this subject and let me look out there into the group and see some beautiful smiles that I recognize. 

 

It has been amazingly fun to put together this presentation and watch it grow into fruition.  Many of us grew up with Walt Disney and The Brady Bunch.  We watched June Cleaver and Donna Reed as the prefect mothers in the perfect homes living “happy ever after,” but we never were taught that to live that way is a choice.  

 

All of you graduates of F2R I need your help to answer questions and support people in their process of signing up for a weekend. 

 

To love is a choice; to hate is a choice. To be happy and to live the life you want is a choice.  That simple!  And when you are strong enough to love yourself 100%, good and bad you will be amazed at the opportunities (choices) that life presents.

A Jar and 2 Beers-Guest Blogger, Mike Kempa

Mayonnaise Jar & Two Beers..

WORTH A SECOND LOOK
 

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 Beers. 

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him..
 
When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.
 
He then asked the students if the jar was full.
 
 
They agreed that it was. 

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar He shook the jar lightly.
 
 
The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.
 
 
He then asked the students again if the jar was full.
 
 
They agreed it was. 

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.
 
 
Of course, the sand filled up everything else.
 
 
He asked once more if the jar was full.
 
 
The students responded with a unanimous ‘ yes. ‘  

The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand.
 
 
The students laughed.. 

‘ Now, ‘ said the professor as the laughter subsided, ‘ I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.
 
 
The golf balls are the important things—your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions—and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. 

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. 

The sand is everything else—the small stuff.
 
 
‘If you put the sand into the jar first, ‘ he continued, ‘ there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.
 
 
The same goes for life.
 
 
If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you..  

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.
 
 
Spend time with your children.
 
 
Spend time with your parents.
 
 
Visit with grandparents.
 
 
Take time to get medical checkups.
 
 
Take your spouse out to dinner.
 
 
Play another 18.
 
 
There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.
 
 
Take care of the golf balls first—the things that really matter.
 
 
Set your priorities..
 
 
The rest is just sand.
 
 
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented.
 
 
The professor smiled and said, ‘ I ‘ m glad you asked. ‘  

The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there ‘ s always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.

Being Self-full

Several of my conversations today seemed to wrap around the subject of taking care of ones Self.  A term I like to use for that is Self-full. 

 How many of you have been taught that to take care of yourself is selfish? 

I know in the society that I was raised in as a child that  my role as a young lady and now a grown woman was to care and give to others.  A role that, to this day, is very important to me.  The difference between then and now is I understand that to care and give to others I, first, must care and give to myself. 

What can you give if you are an empty shell?  If you don’t even know who you are?  To give from nothing is nothing!

Being self-full is making sure that your Self is full.  And from that place of fullness is when you are truly able to give, care and love. 

Is your soul running on empty?

Balance in Life

“Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.”
Robert Fulghum

I know for me that when my life is out of balance, the whole world feels out of balance!  When everything around me feels like it is falling apart, I have to stop and do a check in with myself.  What is going on with me?  Why am I feeling this way?  Why does everything feel so difficult?  Because a unbalanced life is stressful!  We are created to need rest, play time and work time.  When one of those areas start to overwhelm the others, life is out of balance.  It not only happens with work but with play and sleep as well.  Too much of anything is not good, therefore not in balance.

Stop and take a look at your life.  Are you in balance?  There are 24 hours in a day, 8 hours to work, 8 hours to play and 8 hours to sleep.  I know from my own experience that I’m a much healthier, happier, and more creative human being when I’m living in balance. 

What about you?