Today is Mine.

Today is new! Yesterday is down and in the books. It's something you can't go back and change. No matter how wonderful or how pain-filled it was, the key word is ... WAS.

I can't fix, take back, change, or remove the feelings, experiences, memories, and reactions of yesterday. All I have any control over is what I do with them. I choose to learn from them, and then move forward with that knowledge obtained. It doesn't do anything to wallow in yesterday's mistakes, misfortunes, triumphs or tribulations. I'm not going to rub them across my bosom, or sleep with them under my pillow, and I DON'T WANT TO!

I choose to take the knowledge of yesterday and do what I can to be a better person from the lessons taught me. Today, is new. An opportunity to make better that which I may have failed at in my past. Today is the first day of the rest of my life.

I know it's hard to let go of burdens or pain from your past. We all know our past is what paints our future, however, it doesn't have to define it. What I was yesterday, a month ago, a year ago, a decade ago isn't who I am today. Because today I choose to be free from the need to make excuses for something I can't change. I own my past, take responsibility for it, and MOVE forward.

There are people who can't move out of it. They decide that their past, present and future is who they were and not what they have to potential to become. We've all felt this way, at some point in our lives. But, it doesn't serve you or your future to cling to your foibles of your past. The failures of yesterday are the stepping stones to the successes of tomorrow.

I choose to stop reaching outside of myself for who I am. I decide to look within and make the necessary changes within me. Because, truthfully, that's all I have any control over. People's reactions aren't mine to own. It isn't heartless, on the contrary, it's being heartfelt. Because when we come to the realization we can't control others, we begin to understand that the only thing we can control is our reaction to their actions. Somehow we begin to embody the compassion, love and understanding of where they may be coming from.

Take the time today to celebrate your breath, the thunderous heartbeat in your chest, the thoughts that swirl through your head when you really love someone. Embrace today as if you have no access to yesterday's files. When your feet hit the floor, know that everything from your past is forgiven. That you learned from what bones are buried in the soil of yesterdays battles.

YOU are magnificent! The miracle of another opportunity to grow, learn and expand your consciousness. Why not wake up with the expectation of something wonderful is about to happen. Even in the darkness, when the light appears, the darkness dissipates, EVERY TIME!

You are the light of this life, my friends. It's time someone told you that.No matter what. No matter the situation, emotion, reaction or interaction, you are the light of your life. Okay, I'm gonna get a little bible-bangin' on ya, but it's such a powerful metaphor, "When God said, "Let there be Light", there was light." God demanded the light, he didn't ask, beseech, question or guess there would somehow be light. With the conviction and authority of the Almighty, you have that same right to demand it from the Universe. LET THERE BE LIGHT. The Universe gives you only what you are capable of embodying. If you're only capable of a small flicker of a spark, then celebrate that you have a spark. If you're a raging fire, then you celebrate that. It's time to give yourself permission to just be who you need to be today. Because that which you focus on grows.

May LOVE and PEACE find you in everything you do today! #ILOVEU #TakeAMomentForGratitude #EvenIfImHeartBrokenIFindMySoulsSong #LoveAndLight #LightDissapatesTheDarkness #LetThereBeLightAndThereWasLight.

Take the Beam From Your Eye First

How many bones must a dog bury before it has enough? How many songs must we listen to in order to understand suffering? How many tears must fall before we forgive?

When we look at life as if it is disposable, replaceable, or a rehearsal we short change ourselves the opportunity to live up to our true potential. When we are flung upon the sharp tongues of others, why are we disenchanted by the mouths that scar us? A life can be given in 15 seconds and destroyed in 3. A career that took a lifetime to build can crumble in a blink of an eye. Are we truly that blind? Isn’t it in this moment that we should remove the beam from our own eye before we can pluck the speck from our neighbor’s?

If our eyes were really the true window to the soul why are we so blind to the hypocrisy in the world? We see what we want to and ignore that which makes us uncomfortable. We are taught to attack the flaws of others, because compassion would make us look weak. And yet, even as we speak love from one side of our mouths, we whisper words of hate through the other. We exploit the misfortunes of others and become empowered by the spineless that stand behind us. We are fed by jealously and bound by insecurity.

We claim we are passive and yet we aggressively push for people’s sympathy. Are we truly the ones who need sympathy? Or could our misfortunes and successes be measured by the choices we make? Anyone can ask for sympathy, live in fear, and be ruled by judgment, but it takes strength, courage, and higher thinking to rise above the static that fills the empty space. 

We are constantly praised and coddled by the masses for embracing the fractured bones that weaken us. Have we fallen so deep that we grapple and cling to the bones of trail-blazers that came before us? At what cost will our egos be rewarded? At what point will the pain be enough to keep us motivated? When will the dried, splintered remains of teachers before us become the legacies of what was instead of what could be?


We will always be imprisoned by thoughts of yesterday if we don’t replace them with thoughts of what we want for tomorrow. Right now we are the most powerful thing in our lives. From the moment we open our eyes to the moment our heads sink into our pillows every word we utter, every thought we think and every action we take sets up the cause and effect of our lives. We can choose to flick the domino of life and embrace the outcome or we can stand on the sidelines afraid of what will happen. The choice has always been ours. 

Our life is meant to be lived, active, expanding, and fluidic. We are meant to shine, be brilliant, and yes, even falter sometimes. We are wired to live life the best way we can. Why would we long for Peace if we weren’t meant to have it? Why do we ache for love if we were never destined to experience it? Why would we be given freedom of choice if we were never fated to use it? We are created to experience the best life we know how to live, and in doing so we sometimes lose our way. We become caught up in the lives of others, we become defined by who we allow others to label us as. We give our power to those outside of our inner dwelling. Just because we are who we are today, doesn’t mean we can’t be who we decide we want to be tomorrow. 

Every second of everyday we are changing, growing, and expanding our life experiences. When we allow others to pipe in, we are giving our power away. We know who we are and what we need to do. When did we lose our way? When did the words of strangers or others become who or what we are? Perhaps it happened when we were down, scared, ruled by fear, maybe it occurred when we got lost in the world. Maybe we allowed others to run with our power when we stopped listening to our intuition. Either way, today is the day we take baby steps to reclaiming our power! Right now, at this moment, we will reclaim our inner spark that has always burned brightly in the core of our being. 

What once was will never empower what will be. We can’t take what we want and bottle it in the old used containers of yesterday. We must take a new, clear, beautiful bottle of today and fill it with what we want for tomorrow. 

I will not fill you with falsehood and tell you it is easy. It is not! But what I will say is this … when you decide to love instead of hate, celebrate instead of denigrate, embrace instead of push away, embody peace instead of dysfunction, pleasure instead of pain, you will begin to feel your world change, and then you will see it transform. You will stop embodying what is so wrong with the world and start personifying what is so right. You will give up the judgments, the pain and anger and you will begin to embrace the beauty around you, feel the pleasure life will bring you and start to love the world for what it is, because you and everyone around you deserve to live in LOVE, PEACE, HARMONY, ABUNDANCE, and JOY.

Start today by making a conscious choice to think better thoughts. That’s all it takes is a conscious act of changing your thinking. May today be the start of you following your bliss, taking the bull by the horns, and making the world a better place because you are in it!

Thanks for hanging out and reading my ramblings!

Yosemite Trip taken by Jared de la O 2012. Power At Its Purest!

 

Unfortunate Thoughts of Writers

Everyone has been let down by circumstances. We’ve all paid for the moment that turns into nothing more than a memory hanging on the hooks of hollow smiles and bloated opportunities. Thrown into the ring, heart bleeding, ripped from our cavernous chest, expected to fight for a strong finish only to be splayed on the canvass face down. Knocked out by self deprecation and fueled by the maddening ideas that everything is somehow built perfectly somewhere just outside our reach. Displayed just far enough away to make us ache and dream for the day we too will feel the eyes of acceptance, the warm touch of approval and credence ribboned throughout the words of our heroes.

Instead, we find ourselves tangled in the thick ropes of our own fears. Judged by fleeting utterances, that relentlessly keep feeding our doubts. Tied up and tortured by the few envious words infused with jealousy and fear from others. When did we stop caring? When did the fascination with people’s follies or their belligerent tirades become more important or meaningful than an offered hand or a string of encouraging words?

Bloodied and weakened by the constant pummeling of who we are expected to be and how we are supposed to act, time won’t stop marching across our battered bones and ripped skin until every last word of our lives shows up on the parchment of our soul. Only then will the fighter within us rage against the constant malevolence of few and change the heart beat of the discontented. Then we can rise to the occasion and script our pen to paper and pour the blood of our soul across the pages in a purge so magnificent, the world will have to wake up and listen.

It is time to reach for the bones of our predecessors and sculpt the stepping stones of greatness within the rooms of our own minds. It’s time to close the doors riddled and shaped with contempt and criticism and open the door infused with intuition and honor. We must rise above the fray of pugnacious hostility, fear, guilt, and jealousy, purge them from our veins, drain them from our hearts, and uproot them from our minds.

True Power occurs when recognized and harnessed for a purpose. When searching outside the walls of our own souls, we may stumble; even misplace the only key that unlocks the secrets to embodying our permanent balance. But never will we lose the ability to look beyond the limited idea of who we think we are, and be reminded that what we are searching for, we are searching with. We are the key to our own happiness; we are the key to our own success. We are the only keeper of thoughts that reside in our own minds. It is what we do with those thoughts and ideas that shape our experience and in turn shape the world around us that counts. Make your decisions count, without being smug. Let your voice be heard, without shouting. And let your love be felt, without limits. And always be grateful for the journey!

Thanks for hanging out and reading my ramblings!  

Sometimes You Just Gotta Dig....

The other day I had someone ask me, how can I live without the scars of my past rearing their heads and the bruises of my childhood showing up from my past? How can I ever get over the fear and pain that is etched in every fold of my heart and every curve of my brain?

Sometimes the answers aren’t simple, and sometimes it’s the simplest of moments that can heal a life time of devastation and destruction. Think about it…how can we move forward in our lives if at every door we have ghosts falling out of our closets and at every turn we have past experiences that keep slapping us in the face? I’m not going to tell you that you will fix this over night…I won’t even tell you, you will overcome your trespassers in this life time…but I will try and help you come to realize that overcoming your fear and pain, your anger and guilt isn’t in any way admitting that you are weak, that you are wrong, or that you don’t deserve the best that life has to offer.

I’m also not going to tell you that your pain isn’t real. It’s real and it isn’t something you can brush under the misconception that pretending it doesn’t exist will ever make it go away. We ALL are dealt with blows so devastating in our lives that we either crumble under the pressure or we rise above the pain.  

There are times where the answers are more difficult to hear than the actual act of applying them to your life.

But I will say that when you learn that external experiences are just that…external experiences and that inside you resides a power that created the radiant pull of the moon, the rotation of the planets, and the heart beat that keeps you alive…that is a magnificence you can’t deny. There is a power greater than you and you have the ability to use it. As a matter of fact…you were born with the capacity to use it and it's right where you are!

We have the ability to think. We have the ability to contemplate and make decisions. We have the power to take an idea and form it into something that will either catapult the human race forward or annihilate an entire country. We have the ability to choose and in that ability is where our power lies. Our true power lies in our capacity to make choices. Sounds simple, elementary, even easy to do…but when you learn that volition is something everyone has, it’s a game changer. A huge game changer!

It is at the point of realization where we must decide if we are going to be a victim to our past or a creator of our future. Now I know what you are thinking…come on Gretchen are you really gonna tell me, with a straight face, that we have the power to create our future? YES. I am going to tell you that and I will even go as far as to tell you that the minute you give up the stories of yesterday your tomorrow changes immediately. We can’t move forward in our lives if we keep hanging onto our past. We must let go of the rope that keeps us tangled in the past and reach for the ladder which supports us into our future. Let go of what we can’t change, let go of what keeps us bound in limitation and learn to accept the limitless treasures residing within.

The easiest way to start is forgiveness. We must forgive in order to move forward in our life. We must learn to let go of the pain that clings to our memories of what other people did to mark our souls. I’m not asking you to forget…but I am saying you must let go of the pain that has weaved itself into every fiber of your being, one moment at a time.

I think you need to be told you are brilliant, you need to be reminded you are Love, and that you are a perfect expression of Peace. You need to learn about the unlimited power that lives in your soul. You need to know that the most powerful way to reclaim who you are is by changing your thinking. In the Bible it says, “It is done unto you as you believe.” Read that again…IT IS DONE UNTO YOU AS YOU BELIEVE.

If it is done unto you as you believe, then that means what you believe…right now…is what your life is going to be.

What do you believe about yourself and others? Do you believe you are brilliant? Do you believe you are a perfect expression of life? Do you believe you deserve to be successful, brilliant, and happy? Or are you falling back on the same excuses that kept you exactly where you’ve been stuck?

Anyone can blame others for their plight in life. Don’t be anyone! Look at your past for what it is…A learning experience that helped you grow into the individual you are today. Say goodbye to the empty shells of experiences that you have outgrown and enter into the countless possibilities waiting for you to explore. Stop playing victim; we have enough people filling that role. It isn’t virtuous, it isn’t giving you the power to change your life…All it’s doing is keeping you shackled to your past beliefs and limiting definitions. Be the change you want to see in the world…heck, just by reading this you have taken the first step! Pull out a journal; write down one thing you are grateful for then the next day try and find two things…eventually, you will be able to put the journal aside because your consciousness will create the habit of finding the pearls in your life even among the muddiest of clams. Start finding the pearls in every life experience you have…they are there, sometimes you just gotta dig. Believe me!

Thanks for hanging out and reading my ramblings.

An Oldie, But a Goodie!

Things always happen for a reason. ALWAYS...I was going to write a new post when I decided to look through some old postings and found this one. I believe I was led me to this post for a reason. She must know I need her. Here is an Original post from November 2010. And strange enough, just this morning my son asked me for a picture of his grandma, because he has a project due in his Spanish class for "Day of The Dead."



Okay so it's been a little longer than usual since I've posted. Really sorry about that~ been working and just dog tired when I've sat down to write. Things have been taking over my time. You know-- family, house, work, friends, and commitments, they all seem to need a piece of me. Sometimes I feel like Playdough. I'm being stretched, pulled, tugged and twisted into shapes everyone else needs me to be.


Survival gives us the ability to transform into what we need to be at any given moment, but it is our humanity that keeps us doing it.

I don't usually talk about my family on this blog; it has been one of my rules. Less details about my personal life, the better, however; tonight as changed the sheets on our bed (because let's face it, either we are in the shower or we're changing the sheets when we have an "Ah-Ha" moment) I spread out the huge blanket my mother-in-law gave us, and I started thinking about her.

She was a quiet, gentle, nurturing soul, who was abundantly funny and overflowing with love. She was never meddlesome or angry. As I let my mind churn the thoughts of her, I realized how much I missed her. See she transcended this world over six years ago and ever since, there has been a vacancy in my life.

She was sick and went to the hospital early one morning, and passed away that evening. When we arrived at the hospital, she was already in a coma. I never got to tell her I loved her, or thank you. I never got to say goodbye. A day— 12 hours and my life changed.

Did I take her for granted? Absolutely, I never, in my wildest dreams thought about the possibility that in one day I would lose someone that made such a quiet impact on my life. It was only years later did I understand what a huge difference she made in my life and what she taught me. Through her actions I learned what type of mother-in-law I want to be to my sons' wives. Through her words I understood where my husband gets his wit and through her compassion I recognized the sacrifices she made to keep her family safe. She taught me things, even when she didn't know it.

I'm not telling you about her to get some pity points, or cyber-pats on the back. I tell you this story because sometimes we don't realize how fast the world can change when we aren't paying attention. The lessons we lose when we don't take advantage of the time people are with us or we lose the life altering experiences because we are too busy being angry, jealous or spiteful.

We never know when life is going to throw us a curve ball. We never know what is going to happen. So what if we chose to swing instead of backing away? What if we decided to let go of that angst or hate and forgive and forget. We all have people we hold at the top of our "it's your fault list". What if we decided to start erasing one name at a time? Would we see a difference in our experiences? What if we gave up our story and decided it was time to write a new one?

I guess what this post today is morphing into is, take advantage of the positive around you. Live the experiences around you, good, bad or indifferent. Because there will come a day when your life will change, it's inevitable, and it would really suck if the last thoughts you had were— I wish I would have…

Take on the day, smile at a stranger and give back to the community around you, and you will see how different your life can be.

Thanks for reading!

Expectations...Really???

So what happens when we can’t be everything to everyone? Are we supposed to shrivel up and blow away? Maybe we think we have to shrink back into that empty space we clawed and fought so hard to overcome.

Let’s admit it; no matter who we are, or what we've accomplished in our lives, we’ve all been dealt this card before. Whether from family members, friends, acquaintances, or perfect strangers, we’ve all had to deal with disappointing someone!

If we look at our essential titles of parent, best friend, brother, sister, or spouse, we will find expectations of how we’re supposed to act, feel, and live within those definitions.

We all pretty much know how we’re supposed to be when acting in the confines of what we are when society calls us a sister, friend, mother, etcetera. But what happens when we become tired of dragging hurried moment across our lives? What will it take to allow who we truly are to obliterate the guilt of not fitting into the mold society has so pretentiously slapped across us at birth.

Do you ever wonder what would happen if we decided to accept each other for whom we really are? How freeing it would be to work in a cooperative manner instead of the pressing judgment from the competitive mind. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying some competition isn’t good, but why must we feel threatened by the success of another? Of all the things in the world to be threatened by, successful, happy, innovative, harmonious people shouldn’t be one of them. We should be celebrating greatness within each and every person we meet.

When we recognize the potential steeping within every person; when we take the time to connect with the genius that radiates from their hearts, we will experience a mental shift toward living in gratitude. Life can come at us from all different directions, but when we consciously make a choice to live in gratitude, people open up, our world shifts, and we start to attract the relationships that guilt, fear, and doubt have no place.

When we come from love and gratitude, we understand that there is no need for guilt to hammer us. Holding on to anger or resentment isn’t an option when you live in gratitude and love. Let me be perfectly clear, I’m not saying that when we live in love and gratitude, we will never get angry or feel guilty. That is part of being human; life isn’t so black and white. But when we act with good intentions and live life consciously, we can’t help but increase our chances to have a creative, loving, harmonious life. When we learn how to let people’s limited ideas and conditional love go, the hold of the judgmental will weaken until it dissolves from our lives.

But we must make a conscious choice to come from that unadulterated creative space within us. We must choose everyday to let go of the idea that we can’t live up to the expectations people label us with; because we really don’t have to. Once we learn to live life in gratitude and interact with others from love…what people think of us tends to matter less. Their judgmental pokes and prods start to melt away and we begin to see they really have no power over us. They are likely to drift away from us and become the rocks that outline our path to our full potential.

We want to change our lives; we must begin by forgiving ourselves. Only then can we forgive others. Once we do that…once we decide to heal our personal pain with forgiveness, then the world becomes our oyster and our consciousness can’t help but expand to encompass more love, joy, peace and prosperity. Just remember to give thanks and pay it forward!

Thanks for hanging out and reading my ramblings!

What Floats Your Boat?

Sometimes it takes scraping across the deepest part of the ocean floor to really appreciate the wonders of its immense possibilities.

Now, I’m not suggesting you go drown yourself in the ocean to discover the answers to your life’s problems. However; the shock of the frothy freezing waves as they pummel you against the hard sandy beach, just might do the trick.

Because if the ocean, with all its undiscovered hidden treasures and rich abundant sea life, can rejuvenate and support itself so perfectly and with such ease, then why can’t we? What makes us so different than the ocean? Okay, so we don’t have crabs, or tuna swimming freely in the cavernous spaces of our bodies; but we do have the same capabilities as the ocean, in a metaphorical sense. Are we not controlled by the pull of the Sun and Moon? Is not our bodies made up of 97%....water? And do we give life and sustain life around us?

It isn’t the challenges of life that make it worth living; it is how we overcome them. It’s how we react to the swells of change and tides of fortune that make up who we are. We can fear the ocean’s enormity or we can be enamored by its elegance. The choice is ours.

Think about that for a moment…the ocean doesn’t care what we do with it. We can make electricity with it, we can swim in it, pee in it, surf it, take it in buckets and build sandcastles with it, or even sail ships upon it. The ocean doesn’t care because it doesn’t have to. It just is...

The ocean gives of itself without conditions, without fear, and without expecting anything back. WOW…can we say we do the same thing? Can we actually look at our potential, and say—“I give of myself without conditions, without fear, and without expecting anything back?” If you can honestly say you do, then by all means, walk upon the waters, calm the raging seas, and heal the masses of all their ills.

I’m not saying we can never do amazing things, I believe we all have the ability to obtain greatness; all I’m saying is it takes a lot of dedication and practice. We won’t wake up one day and be as open and fluidic as the ocean, but through changing our thoughts, changing the reactions to the world, and changing our dialogue, we can take a huge leap in the right direction.

It is what we do every day and how we feel while we are doing it, that either makes us limitless like the ocean or stagnant like a cesspool.

When undesirable situations come up, how do we react? Are we coming from a consciousness of peace, understanding and love? Or are we hostile, angry, and offended? When someone goes out of their way to help us, are we grateful? Or are we critical? Do we keep talking about the same worn out experiences and past events that evoke feelings of fear, doubt, jealousy, and pain? Or are we letting go of past mistakes and opening up to new possibilities?

Ultimately, if we are like the ocean, people’s limited ideas can’t define us, our possibilities are limitless, our conditions healed, and our worries dispersed in the vast nothingness from which they came.

It is up to us, as individuals to re-evaluate what is important to us, what rejuvenates and re-affirms our place in this world…it’s time to discover…what floats our boat!

Thanks for hanging out and reading my ramblings!