The Abundance in Nature

As I was out walking the neighborhood I noticed the abundance that surrounded me. No, I’m not talking about the SUV’s and sport cars in the driveways of luxury homes that embraced the asphalt-lined streets. The abundance I noticed was in nature: It was the limitless blades of grass on countless lawns; it was the never-ending blooms bursting from bushes, and the inexhaustible supply of leaves rustling carefree in the breeze.

Isn’t nature amazing? It is the perfect example of how we should be living. I’m not talking about becoming rooted in one place in your life. I’m talking about the abundance of nature, the automatic(ness) of nature, the uncaring, ever multiplying aspect of nature.

Trees are a perfect metaphor for our lives. Think about it, a tree doesn’t care what you do to it; its nature is to continue to produce whatever it is supposed to. We can come along and prune branches, pluck fruit, or pull its leaves, and the tree will respond by multiplying its growth. The tree doesn’t care that you pruned its dead branches; it doesn’t look down at the wasted fallen leaves and see loss. It answers change by growing new branches where the old ones were pruned; it produces new leaves, new blooms, and new fruit. Nature is a continuum of growth, release, renew, and repeat.

Look at the tree for an example of your abundant growth. Trim away the dead branches of your old spent thoughts, and pluck the ripened fruit from your limited thinking. Prune your consciousness to encourage and stimulate new ideas of abundance. Take the time to admire your limitless supply of greatness within you. 

Recognize the endless supply of plenty in the world. It doesn’t matter what appears around you at the moment. Know that you, like the tree, will eventually replace old growth and old limited thinking with new vibrant ideas, thoughts, and energy. Don’t look at your old conditioned thinking with a sense of loss, but with a sense of relief, of gratitude, and forgiveness. Be like the tree that releases its old blossoms, fruit, and leaves.

Spend a moment this week; identify the conditioned thinking you want to let go and like nature, release the spent ideas, give up the dead thoughts, and inadequate judgments. Let the leaves of your limited consciousness fall beneath your feet without looking down. Expand your belief in love, joy and abundance. Know, like the laws of nature must keep producing, so shall you.

Watch the expansive growth that occurs in your life. Rejuvenate in the infinite supply of the sun’s rays, so you can rejoice in the shade you created with your new abundant growth.

Thanks for checking out my ramblings….

What You Lookin' For?

How many times have you felt like you were missing something in your life? How often have you looked at your life and wondered what the hell is going on? Have you ever considered that maybe what you are spending your life looking for… you happen to be looking with? Let’s face it, we all are taught from a young age to search outside of ourselves for power, strength, love, joy, peace, and authenticity. Have we ever really hopped off the hamster wheel of life to stop and think; all those qualities already exist within us?

Society keeps claiming we gotta buy it, eat it, become it, sell it, work harder for it, sacrifice for it, or travel for it. We keep getting offered an old expired idea that doesn’t have a warranty and the problem is… we keep buying it. It comes down to the fact that we need to stop looking at the world to heal us. We gotta love ourselves before someone else can. We gotta give with an authentic, unselfish heart in order to prosper. We must speak peace in order for peace to saturate our lives.

Too often we poor mouth ourselves. I can’t afford it, I’m not worthy, I didn’t ____________(fill in the blank) sound familiar? We keep make excuses for our successes, and why? So we don’t hurt the people around us? I have to tell you right now, we have to stop stripping people of their power. Who are we to keep our authentic self tucked away from them?

Why shouldn’t you believe that people deserve to be inspired by you? Praised by you? Loved by you? That is the least we can do in our lives. Right now is the time to be an authentic person.

Who cares if they don’t think the same way, believe the same way, walk, talk, or eat the same way? We all want the best for our families, peace in our homes, and joy in our hearts.

When we come to the realization that there is unlimited power in the act of deciding; the minute we truly understand the power of decision; our world will suddenly burst open with unlimited possibilities. That’s when we will have created a change in our world. Suddenly we’ll see that we’ve had what we’ve been looking for all along…

We mustn’t forget that when we come from Love, Joy, Peace, and Prosperity that is exactly what we get back, tenfold, multiplied, and running over.

Thanks for visiting and reading my ramblings!

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Bat Out of Hell

Okay, so I am the type that jumps into things with both feet. Rarely do I sit and contemplate the outcomes of events years down the road. But for the first time, I am contemplating… and man, it can be a little scary.

I know this blog (which I set up to be about my writing), has blossomed into life learned lessons and my tendencies to ramble about events and thinking that inspire some to live a more peaceful life, a more authentic existence; but let’s face it, sometimes authenticity can be overwhelming. When I decided to live a more authentic life, it caused me to face some pretty intense feelings, experiences, and thoughts.

I’ve always known most of my life, what I focus my attention on, will grow and manifest in my life. I also grew up knowing that when I wanted something, I must act like I already have it. Growing up knowing this was… empowering, to say the least; yet as I moved out into the “real world” I began to let everyone else’s definition of who I was take over my authenticity. Slowly limited thinking clouded who I was. I got caught up in living up to everyone else’s expectations of me. I didn’t take time to remember who I was, what was important in my life, and how I was going to go about being the most authentic person I could be. Like Oreos to my hips, it snuck up on me.

All of a sudden, the whispers mattered, the smirks hurt, and the expectations of others battered my heart. In the flash of a moment, what other people thought about me, became my shackles. Locked in the consciousness of am I worthy enough, am I thin enough, am I educated enough.

Why do we do that to ourselves? Why do we let other people’s insecurities become our own? At what point did we let that parent, friend, relative or authority figure press their negative sharp words into the sweet dough of our lives? Was it when we were children, adolescents, young adults, parents, grandparents? When did we lose the ability to see the forest for the trees?

It happened when we conformed to everyone else’s fears, doubts, and limitations. The insidiousness of negative beliefs are lightning fast. When we start believing in lack, fear, and hate, our lives immediately begin to mirror that belief. When we believe we aren’t worthy, life hands it to us completely. “Here you go, hope you enjoy. Would you like some self loathing with that?”

When was the last time, any of us sat motionless and contemplated the achievements in our lives? What was that, you’ve never done it? EVER? Maybe it’s time. Maybe right now, today, we need to take ten minutes and think about all the things we’ve accomplished in our lives. No matter how small they may appear, or how huge they were, we need to take a moment to appreciate our victories.

You exercised an hour, you won free tickets, you didn’t eat the huge piece of cake, you got your masters, you nailed your job interview, you met a new friend, bought a house, or paid cash for something you’ve saved up for. Whatever it was that sparked that self-love and infinite joy within your life. It’s those events that we must let fill our minds, soak in the excitement that swells in our hearts, and bathes in our pride.

Then will we begin to celebrate our lives. Then will roll out the sweet dough of our lives and cut out the shapes we want to make up our experiences.

It’s only when we see the goodness in everything; that we can truly be authentic.

Thanks for reading my ramblings, here is a thank you picture for you....Max???? hummmm

What is Fear?

Where does fear fit into our life?

I was out walking this morning and I had an “Ah-Ha” moment about fear.

Fear is nothing more than a limiting emotion that is evoked in us after a tragedy, an embarrassment, a mistake, or something unknown. What is the purpose of fear? Well we know it exists in the animal kingdom to warn of danger; an instinct innate in the animal kingdom for survival. What about mankind? Why do we need fear? Okay so let’s just get past the idea that we need fear to keep us safe from falling off the edge of a cliff or keep us from entering into a lion’s den. I get that fear, what I am talking about is our limiting fear? The fear that creeps up in our throats when we have to get up and talk, call somebody we don’t know, or confront a problem. It’s the fear that stops us from following our dreams. This fear is ruled by our Ego. Yeah, that’s right, EGO…We all know the creepy voice in our heads that replays all the failures of others and convinces us that we will do the same. The same creep that says we aren’t worth it. It’s too hard…we’re not educated enough… we’re too fat, thin, short, tall etc. It is that creep which keeps poisoning our thoughts with limitations, lack, failure, and at last fear!

It is our fear that keeps us from trying something new.

What if we knew the secret of overcoming fear? What if we used the tools within us to overcome our fears, doubts and negative beliefs? Just think of the difference we could make in our lives…We hold the power within us to let fear paralyze us or set us free. All we need to understand is where it is coming from.

What if we looked at fear as nothing more than the chunk of bubble gum that clung to our shoe when we walked through the parking lot of the grocery store? Hum, well that takes its power away doesn’t it? Now it is more irritating than paralyzing isn’t it?

Let me give an example… You all know I am about to release my first novel. Within the process of getting it to print, I’ve suddenly come to the realization that the world is going to see into my soul. Suddenly, I am going to be put out there and judged. My creative expression is going to be loved and hated by people from all over the world. Now the paralyzing fear is that people are going to look at my novel and rip it to shreds. The WHAT IFS start to play in the front of my mind… What if they don’t like it… expectations are too high… too much details between the characters… it looks like a child wrote it...so on and so forth.

Suddenly my fear has captured my dream and held it hostage, and it doesn’t feel too good. I tell you, most of the time it is a lot easier to throw our hands up and say, what the hell, you caught me! Yeah, I was trying to sneak my dream past you. The fear of failure is big, heavy, and strong when we let it squat in our minds. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can battle back and all it takes is LOVE.

All we need is love for what we are doing, love for the experiences and people in our lives, love for ourselves. Love will conquer any fear. Love will kick fear’s ass to the curb and let us dance along to fulfilling our dreams. Self love is major. So often we’ve allowed other people’s limits to become our own. Well so and so wasn’t able to do it, so I won’t.

Who’s to say we can’t or we won’t? We must love ourselves before anyone else can.

We have to know within our core that we are worthy. We are worthy of our dreams! Did you hear that? Here let me yell it…WE ARE WORHTY OF OUR DREAMS. Our dreams are what make us unique. It is what makes us individuals. They are the one thing nobody can take from us. We mustn’t let fear get its gnarly hands on our dreams. We must see everything from love, unconditional love. Come from love, go with love in our hearts, and suddenly we will see our dreams begin to materialize in our lives.

It doesn’t mean we have to become friends with people we don’t get along with, or go out and rescue every person in need. Coming from love means we don’t have to give our power away anymore. We can stop worrying about all the wrongs in our lives and start celebrating all the rights! Stop focusing on the what ifs and know the truth. Start seeing the good in every situation, every person, and in all the space around us. Stand outside and let the sunbeams warm our faces, watch the birds soar, listen to the trees swaying in the wind, and rest in gratitude for every moment we have to live our dreams.

And if the WHAT IFS start to take over our thoughts, remember… we hold the power to cast out fear and welcome the endless supply of unconditional love. It is time to celebrate the greatness within us. Who knows we might just find that we are not alone in making our dreams come true!

Thanks for sticking around and reading my ramblings!

 Me seeing my book for the first time in print!

It’s Time to Live Your Dream!

Waiting can be hard. I ain’t gonna lie!

I ordered the proofs for my first novel Wilson Mooney, Almost Eighteen,(Yipee) and I can tell you, the day it shipped, I’ve kept opening my front door, looking for the little brown box they are coming in. Okay so it would be near impossible for the books to be here the same day they shipped, but what if? Child like expectations… right?

I can feel the butterflies rumbling in my stomach and my heart climbing up in my throat; another step closer to my dream. We all have a dream, a desire, or want; it is the thought or idea that won’t go away no matter how much we try and chalk it up to a juvenile pipe-dream. It is the want that shakes our core with excitement when we think about it. It catches our breath in a shallow hitch and we can feel the energy bubbling in the back of our throat. You know what I’m talking about; we all have something we have wanted that bad. Unfortunately, so often our dreams get buried in the rituals of living the “real” life.

How many times have you thought about what you really want? When did you let your dreams become faded memories of a childhood nonsensical daydream? So often we have dreams, wants, and desires that turn to rock hard dusty reminiscences of what we use to want. They are the same bright ideas that look to be way out of our reach when we stop to analyze them.

We’ve let society dictate to us what is “safe” and way too often we are the ones that clutch the shovel that buries our dreams. Why?

We decide to give up and accept other people’s limited thinking.

So what if we fail the first, second, third try…at least we tried! We are so conditioned to expect to fail, that our own fears keep us from trying. Wasn’t half the fun of childhood, learning and trying something new? If we stopped getting on our bicycle the first time we wreaked, we would never have learned to ride. Now can you imagine never riding a bike, balancing on a beam, riding a horse, or hitting a ball? If we let setbacks dictate the outcome, we wouldn’t have experienced any of the great things that make us…US!

It is time to shed other people’s definitions of who you should be and let your dreams dance around in your head again. Let the fear of failure, judgment, and limited thoughts disappear into the vast black hole it was born from. You deserve every ounce of happiness there is in this world, and the good news is… there’s enough joy, happiness, and love to go around. There is an unlimited supply, and once you drink from it, you will find your life over flowing in it. What goes around comes around…so isn’t it time to praise the goodness and worthiness within each and every person you meet.

Who knows, they might end up being your biggest supporter!

Thanks for reading my ramblings.

(Here’s a picture to meditate to, or drool)

The Wilson Mooney, Almost Eighteen Book Trailer is Here!

Well it is finally time to unveil the book trailer for Wilson Mooney, Almost Eighteen. 

BUT FIRST...I want to say how grateful I am to all of the people who have supported me, helped me, pulled me off the floor when I was ready to give up.  Without naming names, (because I didn't ask permission to write their names on my blog) but you know who you are; it is you who I am grateful for. My friends, family, and followers of my blog, you are the people who make the journey to being published worth it. It is my hope that once my novels are out to the world, others will see what you saw! Thank you from the deepest and most gracious part of my heart...

ENJOY!

My debut novel, Wilson Mooney, Almost Eighteen was inspired by my insatiable crave to ignite, in my readers, memories and feelings of the first time they were spellbound by passionate new love. Tastily portrayed encounters and emotionally charged dialogue rightfully fuel the relationship between the complex; yet inexperienced Wilson and the guy of her dreams. The matrix of this love story will escort you through Wilson’s delicate and intimate journey of new discoveries, a lost family, and her first forbidden love.

Wilson Mooney, Almost Eighteen, a novel by Gretchen de la O. Book cover designed by Eunice Ortegón. Images used in this video production are licensed by DepositPhotos.com and 123rt.com. Music, My Deadly Romance, licensed by JewelBeat.com.