A life prompt

The new prompt for my online writing site, Write On, is life. This came from a long time friend and is going to cause me to spend some time thnking before I am ready to post my thoughts on the subject.

Currently living the life of a human, my first thought this morning was from that view. How does it affect me etc.?

As I was driving into town to exercise I began looking around and realized that I am not the only living creature in this world. I wonder what life would be like if I were a frog or a butterfly or a tree? The word to me means living and they are all doing that, in their own way. They too are breathing and surviving.

Because I am living the life of a human it is not possible for me to think like a frog or a butterfly or a tree.

In recent years I have been guided to totally accept reincarnation, so I am aware that I have lived life before, and not always as a human. In one life in particular I was a beautiful white horse, carrying a reluctant knight into battle. Imagine that?

I do know that the opportunity to live life as a human was given to me to clean up my act so to speak. In other words evolve, get past some of the negative traits that still cling to my soul.The major thing I have learned this time around is that we are all one. We all come from the same place and will eventually return, having evolved or not. The second important thing I have leaned is that family is much more than biology.

When things go wrong

I wonder, does anything ever really go wrong? I'm thinking, perhaps not. It might just be our insane desire to have things go our way. The words "control freak" come to my mind. I am quite familiar with them.

A friend of mine offered that controlling is caused by being attached to the result. I believe he was right. We are responsible for offering, but it is the responsibility of the other person to accept or not.

There are times though when equipment, for instance, stops working. Lately I have had an overdose of this happening. First it was my computer, then my monitor and now my printer. What in the world is gong on? Well, I replaced the computer and monitor. My son informed me he just ordered a new printer as a gift for my upcoming birthday. So everything will be brand new. It is like the universe is trying to tell me something. An online business maybe? We will see what the new year brings.

After the turkey

After the turkey is cooked, eaten and the remains put away for another day one wonders what now before the next major holiday of the year? I have decided to call this day FRIENDSHIP DAY and in celebration  found this poem that I had hidden away for a day like today. It is called, If I Could Catch a Rainbow, author unknown.

If I could catch a rainbow
I would do it just for you
And share with you its beauty
On the days you are feeling blue
If I could build a mountain
You could call your very own
A place to find serenity
A place to be alone
If I could take your troubles
I would toss them in the sea
But all these things I am finding
Are impossible for me
I cannot build a mountain
Or catch a rainbow fair
But let me be what I know best
A friend that's always there.

It'sThanksgiving again

Wow the years go by and the memories pile up! Some are good and some not so much. I remember the first time I hosted a family Thanksgiving. My father didn't trust me with the turkey so he stopped by to make sure I didn't poison anyone. Everything turned out well for a first time effort.

As every mother knows the time will come when the job of hosting a holiday meal will fall to someone else. For the last four years the people sitting at my holiday table have numbered two, my oldest son and myself. Most of my immediate family live out of state and my daughter prefers not to include us.

Since my son has been living with me he has chosen to use his grill to cook the turkey. This year the smallest one he could find at Walmart was almost 18 lbs. He decided it was too big to barbecue so I get to go back to cooking it in my oven. Yay! Just goes to show if you wait long enough everything comes back!

This morning the turkey is thawed, the pumpkin pie is chilling, the vegetables for the dressing are chopped and a bowl of cranberry salad is in the refrigerator.

It is Thanksgiving once again! 

A positive garden

Recently a friend suggested that I think of the things I do, especially my writing, as sprinkling seeds, some take and some don't. This same person noticed that I am a little frustrated that members of my new writing group are not responding as much as I would like them to.

She suggested thinking of the group like a garden.

Alright I can do that.

Even though I planted most of the people myself, some of them are not growing. It's getting colder, perhaps they are frozen and will thaw in the spring.

My friend's suggestion was to nurture the ones that are coming up and don't worry about the ones that are not.

It made sense to me. Why would I want to nurture things that appear to be dead?

I realized this same thought can easily apply to almost anything in my life. I have a record of trying to resurrect people who have proved over and over that they just don't want to play anymore. What a waste of time that is! Turning the other cheek is one thing, but when the whole head is involved, it is just plain wrong!

So I will take my friend's suggestion and nurture what is coming up. By this coming spring I will have a beautiful garden full of energizing color. The seeds from those plants will keep growing and growing. 

Help is on the way

My new writing group, "Write On", is slowly growing. In looking for help to inspire the current 29 members to actually write on the given prompts, I invited someone to join the group that I knew would put some juice in their veins.

This miracle worker is a man by the name of, Bob Luckin. He is also an artist and a retired minister. He has given me permission to share his recent view of correct writing. It is the best explanation I have ever read. Here are his words:

"Each and every word is a work of art. Once all the words have been properly assembled, we must frame the work in a way that brings it to life. Poor spelling, punctuation and grammar is like framing a Rembrandt in a Walmart frame".

His words have caused me to more thoroughly check out what I write before my finger pushes the enter tab. I have always prided myself on good writing skills, but there is always room for improvement.

Thank you Mr. Luckin, your help is much appreciated!

Getting to know you

For the last few months I have been exercising at our family center to keep my body in as much shape as possible for my age. Another lady and I have become friends and  every couple of weeks we go out for coffee and a chat. She is several years younger than I am and we are so different it isn't even funny, but for some reason we connected. Apparently she is a new member of my tribe that I didn't know was missing.

I came from a small family containing one younger brother. Although I had several 1st cousins, we were not close. 

My new friend had 9 brothers and sisters and has 7 children of her own. Her family is very close. She is in daily contact with her adult children, a fact I am having trouble understanding. During our coffee chat yesterday she shared some personal information that shed some light on this subject. She said that when her first husband died suddenly her children rallied around to support her.

I wondered what would it be like to have that kind of family support. Then I realized that I do have family support, but not from my biological family. During recent years I have picked up spiritual family members who have become very supportive. Because of them I have evolved to the human I am today.

I am always reminded of the song Julie Andrews sang in, The King and I, Getting to Know You. It is one I used to sing to my daughter when she was a baby and I was changing her diaper.

Life matters

I was watching the news last night about the terrible fire that is sweeping through California. Several celebrities were interviewed because they had lost their houses. My response was big deal! These people have so much money they can easily rebuild.

My next thought was, what about the ordinary people who have lost everything and have no funds to rebuild?

In comparing the two situations I clearly saw that the universe doesn't care about money, color or race. Everyone is treated the same, no matter who they are. I find that interesting in a world that has become so focused on money, status and race.

It brought back a memory from several years ago when I had a brief experience as a member of a small parish council. The priest entered the room with a question for our group. He asked, if your house was burning down, except for living things, what would you save?

There were all sorts of answers, but the priest was looking for just one- nothing.

Whoever you are, whatever you have, there is nothing more important than your life.

A little piece of paper

In looking for something that I couldn't find I ran across a little piece of paper with some previously written notes. At the top of the page it said, "the happiness trap". After reading it I decided to share it to the best of my ability. I assume it was another push from an unseen entity.

Giving a thought attention (fuel) makes it bigger. Turn off the switch and let it run its course. Don't try to fight it. Ask, "is this thought helpful?" If it is not say, "thank you mind" and let it go.

Accept how you feel and do not analyze it by asking,"why me?" That's a question that never has an answer.

Don't fuss with the story your mind is telling you. Just say, "thanks mind but I am not playing today".

This information was either meant as a reminder for me or to be passed on to whoever needs help with the happiness trap.

Rethinking

Sometimes it is wise to let an idea gel for awhile before taking action. Another word for patience I would guess. Yesterday I was thinking that I need to find a way of sharing my spirit photographs online. My original thought was to create a group of like minded friends. I suppose that might work, but I already manage a writing group and one is enough.

Messing around on my computer last night I remembered that several months ago I created a website called, Previous Posts. In checking it I had to laugh when I saw my last post was February 2018. Seriously? It reminded me of someone I know who starts things and never finished them. I definitely do not want to follow him!

It seems my guides are pushing me to take another step forward.

After mulling things over and taking a good look at the site I came to the conclusion that I might be able to rearrange things a bit and change the name to, Previous Posts & Spirit Photographs. I could also spend a little money and pay a small monthly fee to publish the site so it will get more attention from viewers.

Although I am still rethinking the situation it is clear that this may be the way to move forward and kill two birds with one stone, as the saying goes. Not that I would, of course, it's just an expression.

Alright I get the point

My last blog post was about not really understanding what I am supposed to do with my spiritual gifts. If you read back you will see that a friend suggested that I think of them as seeds that are dropped here and there, some take and some don't. I think that is a wonderful idea. Of course, the words I write and the spirit photographs I have been taking since early 2000 are not just for me they are meant to be shared with whomever needs them.

Although my new writing group, "Write On" is sparking interest, like anything new it is moving along a little slower than I would like. There's that word patience again. It causes me problems every time. I am sure my guides are asking, "will she never learn?".

A week ago my son helped create a new work space for me which should have given me a clue that  my gifts are headed in a different direction than I had planned. This is my new uncluttered space.

In my closet I have several years worth of pictures I have taken, containing spirit images. I have spent a lot of time trying to arrange a local place to share them with others. I came close several times but nothing ever fit. I have wondered more than once what am I supposed to do with them? I am very aware that they were never meant to make money. They were meant to be freely shared with others. It appears that for some reason I was chosen to be a messenger for my Creator.

The following is the picture that I have always believed to be the one I was led to take to show people that we never die. From my experience, I know we can communicate with those living in another realm if we believe we can. I have shared this picture more than once and it is called, "My Man". It was taken at our local Riverwalk several years ago. I believe his name is Joseph.

Now that I have dipped my toe into creating an online group for writing perhaps it is time I gathered like minded people together to form a spirit photography group. It would be a way of sharing without moving from my new comfortable work space.

For years I have dreamed of being a motivational speaker, I apparently imagined the wrong stage!