tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90926252695408584042024-03-14T02:03:28.344-06:00HEART LAWA Universal Code for Life & LoveMelissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.comBlogger86125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-86132248286156349612015-01-16T15:46:00.002-07:002015-01-16T15:46:58.839-07:00We Are Born Winning<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>The greatest defense is being who you are.</i></div>
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<i>~<b>Mark Nepo</b></i></div>
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YOU ARE A WINNER! Yes, you! There. I said it. Cliche perhaps, but true. Think about it...</div>
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The whole process of coming to Life is like a championship sporting event. The female ovaries release an egg. Hundreds of sperm race to meet it, but only a lucky few actually make it to the Fallopian gate to compete for a chance at fertilization. My brother-in-law calls it "getting one past the goalie!" I call it a miracle. </div>
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No matter the argument for when life begins, there is this moment when the lone sperm penetrates the mature egg and all kinds of stuff starts happening. Cells change, divide and Life begins to express itself in unique and incredible ways. </div>
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It's mind-blowing, really, everything that has to happen and everything that could possibly go wrong in the process. If the ovaries fail to produce an egg, or if it is brittle and defective, nothing happens. If there's no sperm around to fertilize that egg at just the right moment, nothing happens. If more than one sperm penetrates the egg at the same time, again, what we have is a failure to fertilize. </div>
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Then there's everything that can go wrong during a pregnancy and complications at birth, not to mention the million-and-one things that can derail our journey once we're here--accidents, disease, careless mistakes--it's a wonder any of us make it to adulthood; especially when you consider the crazy, compromising situations we can get ourselves into because we're human and sometimes make really bad decisions even with the best of intentions. </div>
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Then one day we're walking around--all arms and legs, opinions and attitudes--drowning in feelings of low self-esteem because everything seems to be going so horribly wrong. Yet that's precisely when we need to remember the simple fact that we're here. </div>
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You, in human form, having this fabulously strange, wonderful and, at times, heartbreaking experience. And that, my friend, makes YOU a winner!</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-25980525649847575142014-12-31T09:55:00.000-07:002014-12-31T10:48:04.477-07:00A Horse With No Name<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<strong><em>Every man is divinity in disguise.</em></strong><br />
<strong><em>It is God playing the fool.</em></strong></div>
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~Emerson</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong><em>“I See You”</em></strong> by MHopkins © 2014</span></div>
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Now I’ve been up close and personal with some animals—dogs, cats, monkeys, raccoons, bears, even some endangered species like the lynx and bobcat that visit my land—but never a horse...in the middle of the road...on a dark and snowy night.</div>
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I suppose stranger things have happened.</div>
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‘Twas the night before the night before Christmas, and I was on my way home from a holiday musical extravaganza sponsored by the Unity Church of Boulder.</div>
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With a new moon rising and snow clouds hanging low in the sky, visibility was limited as I wound my way up the familiar stretch of Boulder Canyon toward my home. Sticking close to the canyon wall, I drove through the snow, all the while contemplating the meaning of “Unity.” What does it really mean—this concept of oneness?</div>
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Suddenly, out of nowhere, I came upon a horse running wildly back-and-forth across the narrow, two-lane road, sliding as she maneuvered uphill in the snow. The unexpected sight of her scared me half to death; she was scared, too. So I stopped and turned on my hazard lights, not sure what to do next, but this much I knew: Boulder Canyon is no place for a horse, especially at night when it’s snowing.</div>
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For a brief moment I watched her and, she, looking over her shoulder, watched me. And then I did the only thing I could think of to do: I rolled down my window and talked to her.</div>
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“Don’t be scared . . . I’m not going to hurt you,” I said softly. “Please, you have to get out of the road before you cause an accident.”</div>
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She stopped running, eyeing me suspiciously.</div>
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“Please, come here . . . you have to get out of the road,” I pleaded.</div>
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Slowly, she turned and walked toward me.</div>
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“Come here, girl, I’m not going to hurt you. I want to help you,” I continued, coaxing her with promises of safety while holding out my hand to her through the open window.</div>
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She approached my car, towering high above it, and lowered her head to meet me at eye level. As I reached out to touch the side of her face I saw something in her eyes that moved me. In that moment, I caught a glimpse of her spirit and I understood with acute awareness what I had only intellectualized until then—that the same life force that moved through her flowed through me. The same vital energy that animated her form, gave life to mine, albeit in different packages.</div>
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It was as if time stood still for me and that horse on the canyon. I whispered, “I see you.”</div>
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Just then a car came barreling around the corner and slammed on the brakes. My new friend freaked out and started running around my car. She had no bridle or halter to grab, so there was little I could do but work out a plan with the man in the car behind me to get the horse out of the road. We agreed—he would stay with the horse and warn oncoming cars with flashing lights, and I would drive the remaining three miles up the canyon and get the local police to help us.</div>
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The rest of the story played out like a scene from The Andy Griffith Show. I ran into the police station and exclaimed with excitement: “There’s a horse in the middle of the canyon.” To which the officer replied, “Yeah, what does the horse look like?” </div>
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Four legs a tail and a gorgeous mane? So I described the horse and told them of the man I had left behind on the canyon waiting for help, and I discovered that the officers knew the horse—or at least they knew the horse’s guardian—and they followed me out to remedy the situation. The horse was rescued. Crisis averted. It was surreal.</div>
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Later, as I pulled into my driveway, I could not shake the intensity of my experience with that horse—the moment of connection with her living spirit. What a precious gift to see and truly understand the essence of this spiritual principle, which reminds us that we are all unique expressions of the same Creative Source, interconnected with everyone and everything else. Call that Source whatever you like—God, Allah, Great Spirit, Creator, the “Big C”—it matters not, because there is only One from which all things flow.</div>
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<strong><em>You are at once a beating heart</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em>and a single heartbeat in the body called humanity.</em></strong></div>
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~Dr. Wayne Dyer</div>
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Oneness is a concept emphasized by many, and has been, perhaps, one of the toughest ideas for me to wrap my mind around. It is simple enough in theory to say that we’re all one, but when I see my neighbor in his yard shoveling snow and I’m standing across the street in my own yard—physically separate from him—it’s hard to make the connection. It is especially challenging for me to find the common thread when I look at the most vile criminal offenders—rapists, murderers and child molesters—for it is here that I am most keen to distinguish myself in every conceivable way. It’s even more difficult to conceptualize my oneness with the creek flowing through my back yard or the horse in the middle of the canyon, particularly when I consider the differences in our physical constitutions.</div>
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To grasp this concept requires that we open our minds and see beyond our physical limitations. Analogies help. For instance, if I pour wine from a bottle into your glass, what do you have? A glass of wine—the same wine that’s still in the bottle, only now a portion of it has been transferred to another container. The same is true of me, the horse and the vital energy that flows through us, bringing our “containers” to life. True, our containers are quite different and come with unique bells and whistles—in that way, we’re definitely not the same—but we come from One, which makes us all related in a wonderfully abstract way.</div>
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Spiritual teachers and mystics across time have urged us to consider that what we do to one we do to all; that we cannot hurt another without also, in some way, hurting ourselves. And while many of us may find it easy to extend that thought pattern and courtesy to a handful of people we're close to (our immediate family and loved ones) how often do we reach out to help strangers or animals or the environment in the spirit of unity and oneness?</div>
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And so this was my Gift of the Magi—wisdom and recognition shared between a girl and a horse on a dark canyon road, and now I pass it on to you.</div>
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As we begin a new year, may you connect with the peace that comes with understanding your connection to the One.</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-29222829421943472942014-12-25T12:00:00.000-07:002014-12-25T12:00:24.447-07:00Season of Enchantment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<strong><em>Forget your perfect offering.</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em>There is a crack, a crack in everything.</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em>That’s how the light gets in. That's how the light gets in.</em></strong></div>
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~Leonard Cohen</div>
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The orderly wheeled the boy into the playroom on the 7th floor, just as he always did after dinner but before the nurse came to give him his medicine; this was his favorite time of the day.</div>
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“Well, hello there handsome. Come on in. I’ve been waiting for you . . .” She smiled, standing by the art table with her hands on her hips. “What’s new with you?”</div>
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He blushed, bright red. At 16, he was showing signs of his manhood—small patches of hair growing on either side of his chin—and his voice seemed to get a little deeper each time she saw him.</div>
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“Hello Miss V… Doc says I get to go home tomorrow, just in time for Christmas—“</div>
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“Oh Jack, that’s wonderful!” She clapped her hands in delight, and then suddenly frowned. “I’m sure gonna’ miss you when you’re gone . . .”</div>
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“Don’t be sad Miss V, you know I can’t stay away for long. . .” he said with a seriousness that broke her heart. Forty-two days, that’s how long he had been there this time—his sixth hospitalization this year—at first for a spinal fusion, and then for pneumonia like so many times before. But it was the cerebral palsy that kept him confined to his chair, unable to use his arms and legs.</div>
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She pulled a tissue from her pocket and dabbed at the drool forming in the corners of his mouth. “Hey, we’ve got some great new art projects tonight,” she said. “We can make a snowman . . . or a reindeer . . . oh, look . . . we could paint one of these ceramic angels or a Santa to hang on your tree . . . What do you feel like doing?”</div>
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“Ummm . . .” he contemplated his choices while scanning the room with his eyes. “Can we paint an angel for my mom? ‘Cause she’s an angel to me . . .”</div>
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“Of course we can, Jack . . . and then we can wrap it up and tie a ribbon around it, like this—” she said, holding up a cellophane bag with snowflakes on it, and a dark red ribbon for decoration.</div>
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“Yeah, let’s do that!” He smiled, eager to get started. Together they collected all of the supplies from the art cabinet that they would need to create his angelic vision—paint, brushes, a cup of water to rinse things off, a hand-towel and a bunch of newspapers to cover the table with. And as she prepared their workspace, she listened to him talking with the other children.</div>
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“Hi Lauren, how are you feeling today?” He asked, listening intently to her reply. And then to Kevin, “Did you beat your dad at foosball last night? I knew you would!” He laughed. And as Jenny’s mom prepared to wheel her back to her room for bed, Jack called after her, “That sure was a brave thing you did yesterday—donating your bone marrow like that. You’re a hero! Get some sleep tonight.”</div>
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Miss V felt a lump forming in the back of her throat as she fought back tears. She did that a lot lately, swell up with emotion and cry. It had been a tough year for her in so many ways, and she knew that her problems paled in comparison to the limitations of Jack’s life. Still, something about his tenderness and concern for the others hit her hard. She felt a little guilty for bemoaning her fate, and she swore to herself that she wouldn’t cry in front of the children. She just couldn’t. She was supposed to be there to help them—that’s what volunteers do—not melt into a puddle of tears in the middle of the playroom.</div>
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“Miss V—are you ready?” Jack interrupted her thoughts, now that he was settled in at the table.</div>
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“You betcha!” She smiled, blinking back her tears. “What color shall we paint with first?”</div>
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“Purple for the angel’s robe . . . and then maybe some blue,” he said, exercising his artistic freedom.</div>
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For the next half-hour they sat together, talking and laughing quietly, as she painted the ceramic angel and he directed her hand. Occasionally she would lift the angel into the air for his inspection, since he couldn’t move his head, and he didn’t hesitate to tell her when she had painted out of the lines or missed a spot.</div>
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“Sorry, sorry . . . I do that sometimes . . .” she said, laughing at his sudden bossiness.</div>
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“You have a beautiful smile, Miss V. You should smile all the time—“</div>
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Now it was her turn to blush. She had always been so good at looking after others, complimenting them, making them feel special, but his simple acknowledgement caught her off guard.</div>
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“Thank you, Jack. Nobody ever said a nicer thing—“</div>
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“Well I like you, Miss V. You talk to me like normal—when we’re sitting here like this—and I almost forget about my . . . condition. I swear it's the greatest gift ever!”</div>
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“You’re a good guy, Jack—wise beyond your years— and I like talking with you, too. . .” she said, clearing her throat as she blinked back more tears. “Speaking of gifts—what’s Santa going to bring you for Christmas this year?”</div>
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“Miss V,” he said, lowering his voice to a whisper so the littlest ones wouldn't hear. “Don’t you think I’m too old for Santa?”</div>
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“Well of course not, Jack!” She teased. “Santa’s all about granting wishes . . . Surely there’s something you want special this year?”</div>
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Jack got real quiet like he does when he’s thinking hard about something. Then after a time he said, “No, I don’t think so.”</div>
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“Nothing?” She asked, shaking her head in disbelief because she had never heard of a kid who didn’t want <em>something</em> for Christmas.</div>
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He sat quietly before he spoke. “Well, sure, there are things I want but I know I’ll never get them, so I just try not to think about it—what I don’t have.”</div>
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“What kind of things, Jack?”</div>
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“Like walking. I would love to get up out of this chair and walk—run—as far and fast as I can. I would love to paint that angel myself. Every time I see my dog I want to throw the ball to him and rub his head—he really likes it when my brother does that. And I want to hug my mom because she always does such nice things for me. I want to shake my dad’s hand like a man . . . and play video games with my little brother. I want to hold a book and turn the pages, one by one, as I read them. I want to go to the bathroom by myself without <em>that guy</em> having to help me—“ he whispered, rolling his eyes toward the orderly sitting in the corner chair. “And . . .”</div>
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“And what Jack?”</div>
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“I can’t tell you.” He whispered, a mischievous grin forming on his lips.</div>
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“Sure you can—“</div>
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“Promise you won’t laugh?”</div>
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“I promise,” she said, making a cross in the air above her heart.</div>
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“I want to kiss a girl—“ he whispered.</div>
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“That’s not funny at all, Jack. In fact, it’s one of the most natural desires in the world—“</div>
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“And I want to fall in love with her . . . and I want her to love me back.”</div>
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Overwhelmed with irony, she didn’t even try to hold back her tears for she understood his greatest loss—she felt it—the loss of freedom and choice. As for love, well, she wanted the same thing and she told him so. Sure, she had had some great boyfriends and some success in her life, but the one thing she wanted most of all—the one thing that money could not buy—was true love. She thought her heart might explode into a thousand little pieces with the longing he expressed. She knew it well. And she put down her paint brush and hugged him tight in his chair.</div>
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“We’re not so different, Jack—you and me—the heart wants what it wants. But love is alive and well in both of us and we must never give up.”</div>
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“What do you mean, Miss V?”</div>
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“Well, you know how you talk with the other children and ask them how they’re doing—how they’re feeling?”</div>
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“Yes—“</div>
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“. . . and the way that you smile and laugh even though there are things about your life that you might want to be different?”</div>
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“Yes—“</div>
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“. . . and the way that you feel about your mom and dad and your little brother?”</div>
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“Yes—“</div>
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“Well, that is love in its purest form. It’s a bright light, Jack, and it shines in you—”</div>
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“And it shines in you too, Miss V—like the way you help the children here at the hospital. . .”</div>
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“Exactly,” she said, and they smiled at each other. “We must never let our lights go out. We must never stop loving, even if others don't love us back.”</div>
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By then, the ceramic angel was finished—nearly dry—and she pulled some ribbon through the hole at the top so that he could hang it on the tree. She held it in the air for one final inspection. They agreed—it was good.</div>
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The orderly stood and moved toward the table. “We should probably get going Jack. It’s time for your meds.”</div>
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“Wait . . .” Miss V said, pointing to the bright light coming from the window across the room. “Before you go, let’s make a wish on the Christmas star . . . what do you say, Jack?”</div>
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His eyes danced with possibility. “Do you think wishes really can come true, Miss V?”</div>
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“Yes, Jack, I do. Maybe not exactly as we wish them, or in the timeframe that we would like for them to come true . . . and I think sometimes we may get something that we didn’t wish for but that ends up being better for us in the long run . . . but, yes—I do believe that wishes can come true . . . especially when they come from your heart . . . especially at Christmastime. After all, it's the season of magic and miracles,” she winked, and she kissed him on the cheek before bending down to unlock the brakes on his wheelchair.</div>
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Then together they moved toward the light.<br />
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*This story was inspired by my little friends at Children's Hospital in Denver, Colorado. To find out how you can make cash or in-kind donations of toys or art supplies, please visit their web site at <a href="http://www.thechildrenshospital.org/">http://www.thechildrenshospital.org/</a>. Happy Holidays!</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-8957653810080138842014-12-08T13:37:00.000-07:002014-12-10T12:08:57.791-07:00Today is the Day!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">He said, </span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“There are only two days in the year </span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">that nothing
can be done. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">One is called <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">yesterday</span> </span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">and
the other is called <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">tomorrow,</span> <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">so today is the right day </span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">to love, believe, do and mostly
live.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">~Dalai Lama<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></b></div>
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</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2LAdoxKmUus/VIiZoK9Go8I/AAAAAAAAAhE/yBERw1iYr4k/s1600/Far%2BSide.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2LAdoxKmUus/VIiZoK9Go8I/AAAAAAAAAhE/yBERw1iYr4k/s1600/Far%2BSide.jpg" /></a></div>
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</div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">He saw me before I noticed
him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By then it was too late.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shocking red and blue lights swirled in the
dark of night as I steered my car to the side of the road.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">The officer approached. “Good
evening, ma’am. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you know the speed
limit here in this part the canyon?” He quizzed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">“45?” I said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">“Yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And do you know how fast you were
going?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> He asked.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">“45?” I said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">[Officer laughs.]<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Well, now I wouldn’t be standing here if you
were going the speed limit, would I? Let me help you out. When I first saw you, you were doing 57…
and then you sped up! [More laughter.] Where are you off to in such a hurry?" <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">I think I was more surprised
than he; still, I had no real excuse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
was tired.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was late.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had worked all day and was coming home from
a board meeting at Children’s Hospital.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My husband and wonderful canine companion waited for me at home. But what
<i>was</i> the hurry? What was so important that I would go 20 miles over the speed
limit without any awareness of how fast I was driving?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For that matter, I didn’t even remember the
last 7 miles or so. Apparently I had navigated the familiar curves of the dark
canyon just fine, but I couldn’t will myself to remember.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Had I been in a trance?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I pondered this while the officer checked my
license, registration and insurance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">He lectured me on the dangers
of going too fast in the canyon—wildlife and fatal accidents and such—and
he made me promise to “slow it down,” which I did. Then he let me go with a
warning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">The rest of the way home I
minded the limit, conscious of my surroundings and the beautiful starry-night
sky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I turned off the radio.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought about the way we tend to rush from
one thing to the next, never truly enjoying the present moment, the silence and beauty, because we’re focused on some future event, like what we’re going to do
when we get home, or we’re thinking about something that already happened, a
phone call or conversation. We're zoned out, missing the strange and wonderful once-in-a-lifetime moments before us;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>moments that could be filled with awe and gratitude but which, once spent, we can never get back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">I’m reminded of this as we
move into the holiday season, where the tendency is to spend our time in a
planning state: checking things off our to-do list and watching the days on the
calendar bring us closer to “the day.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When you find yourself in this state, STOP!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And remember:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>TODAY IS THE DAY… To make it happen… To give up who you’ve been for who
you can become… To make your dreams come true. . . to LIVE! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Today is the day.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Be glad and rejoice!</span></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-73211997535236190632014-10-19T20:56:00.000-06:002014-10-19T20:58:02.938-06:00Seeds of Change<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--cSjGxdO5NU/VER4-kHU99I/AAAAAAAAAf4/98iFC7QdL6U/s1600/Beautiful%2BAspens%2B(MHopkins%2B11-2014)_edited-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--cSjGxdO5NU/VER4-kHU99I/AAAAAAAAAf4/98iFC7QdL6U/s1600/Beautiful%2BAspens%2B(MHopkins%2B11-2014)_edited-1.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You know how if you plant seeds,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">it takes time for the fruits of the seeds<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">to push up through the ground’s surface?<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Same goes for the changes you want to manifest.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They take time to see.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #333333;">~Karen Salmansohn</span></i></b><span style="color: #333333;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The thing about seeds is that they don’t grow overnight. You can
plant them, water them—even talk to them—and you get nothing, or at least
that’s how it seems. But there’s business going on underground: roots are
forming, intertwining with others for mutual support and growth, while
decisions are being made about how many flowers, or apples, or tomatoes will
grow from that seed. Then one day, just when you thought nothing was
happening—BAM! Signs of life emerge from the ground, reaching for the sunlight.
Suddenly, it all makes perfect sense.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So it is with you and me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Dreams are our seeds of change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Words are also seeds, and when dropped into the ether, whether spoken or
held deeply in our spirit, they grow and bring forth their kind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nothing grows without a seed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nothing changes without a dream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And as we move deeper into fall, I’m reminded
how temporary it all is. Seasons change. People come and go. Time marches on,
waiting for no one, yet moving us forward in rhythm with the silent longings of
our hearts.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Just as the Aspen leaves turn green, then gold, falling to the
ground with winter’s early warning, I’m reminded that we, too, must first die
to one life before experiencing the new growth of spring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must clear space; shed a part of what we
know and make room for what we want to create. We know it’s coming; we’ve
longed for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet so often we fear the change
we seek.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Consider the Aspen—do you think it spends the winter fearing
that it will never again experience the joy of having beautiful leaves adorn its
branches? Questioning the essence of its being? Wishing things were different?
Regretting having done what is in its nature to do? I think not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s rather like they are hibernating,
conserving energy for the new cycle of life that will emerge come spring.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Why should it be any different with people? Consider what you do
between cycles of change, waiting for your seeds to grow. How do you fill your
time? What do you give your energy to?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When you’re moving through change, yet you can’t quite see the end
result, do you live in fear that where you are is all your life will ever be?
Or do you get busy doing what you can to organize yourself, energize your
thoughts, and develop a good plan to support your change as you move forward?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 9.5pt;">All changes, even the most longed for, </span></i></b><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 9.5pt;"><br />
<b><i>have their melancholy;</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 9.5pt;">for what we leave behind is part of ourselves;</span></i></b><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 9.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 9.5pt;">we must die to one life before we can enter into another.</span></i></b><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 9.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 9.5pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">~Anatole
France<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Even when change comes from a conscious choice to restructure
some aspect of our life—to let go of a dead-end relationship, change careers,
start a family, create a new business or embark on a great travel adventure—it
is tempting to spend our time in an anxious state, questioning our decisions,
worrying that it will all go horribly wrong; expecting signs of new life to
emerge immediately on the heels of our decision to change, just after planting
the seeds.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But if we could step back and observe ourselves from a distance,
we would see that we aren’t done yet: We are still moving toward a destination
that we can’t quite see because we’re consumed with the day-to-day experience
of our change, slowed by the natural timing of things; like watching seeds grow
underground.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Remember: To everything there is a reason, a season, a cycle and
right timing. Work with the energy of change, not against it. Be patient and
mindful of life’s rhythms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Use down time
to improve where you can, turning weaknesses into strengths.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And prepare yourself, for a bright new
tomorrow will emerge just as surely as the snow falls on changing leaves.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Will you be ready?</span></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-9289936119343086042014-08-19T22:57:00.000-06:002014-08-21T10:42:42.015-06:00In the Meantime<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Here is a test<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to find if your mission on Earth is
finished:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">if you’re alive, it isn’t.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">~</i>Richard Bach, <i>Illusions</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zcBS3dzHT_k/U_QnbDfUhgI/AAAAAAAAAfA/r_x_aE_YC0o/s1600/Your%2BLife%2B-%2BPhoto%2B(MJohnson%2BSept%2B2014)%2Bcopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zcBS3dzHT_k/U_QnbDfUhgI/AAAAAAAAAfA/r_x_aE_YC0o/s1600/Your%2BLife%2B-%2BPhoto%2B(MJohnson%2BSept%2B2014)%2Bcopy.jpg" height="183" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Statistics are out:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">10 out
of 10 people will die</i>!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So said the
random card I found on the ground by my gas pump.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like a splash of cold water to the face, it
lifted me right out of my head where I had been stuck worrying about something
that I had little control over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s
easy to ignore the inevitable when we’re healthy and young and living our
dreams, or just caught up in the mechanics of life. But we all have an
appointment with death sooner or later, which begs the question:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What
happens when we die?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">I am drawn to this issue—life
after life—because I can’t wrap my head around the idea that when we die we are
finished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sure, our bodies return to the
earth, entombed or scattered as ashes as we’re reminded of the universal law
that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it simply changes form.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our loved ones will gather around our caskets
and mourn our passing, comforting each other with comments like, “She looks so
peaceful,” or “They sure did a good job with him,” staring at the body as if we were in there somewhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet if
ever there’s proof that we’re more than our bodies, it’s in these moments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">When my grandfather passed a
few years ago, I had the honor of being with him in his final days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was concerned for my grandmother, and
asked that we take good care of her, but otherwise, he was ready to go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wasn’t afraid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And as he moved in and out of consciousness,
through labored breath, he shared his final thoughts, “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We are born with a framework for society . . . or so we think . . . but
it’s an illusion . . . there’s the body and the soul . . . but only the soul
lives forever.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>It was my greatest
spiritual experience, witnessing the soul of a man leave his body in the wake of his words.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">For the better part of a
year, I had intense dreams of my grandfather. Not the man who suffered congestive heart failure and passed in his
hospice bed, but the vibrant young man he had been when I was a little girl. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At first I would wake up startled when he
appeared, and I could never return to my dream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But in time, I willed myself to talk to him and he revealed some
fascinating truths about his life in spirit form.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve often wondered what informed those
dreams.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">In his book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Life After Death:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Burden of Proof, </i>Deepak Chopra points
to talking to the dead and near death experiences (NDEs) as two of six lines of
evidence that the soul is real and eternal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He studied many cases of NDEs, where the person had been pronounced dead
and was brought back to life, and he interviewed those patients about their
experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Intriguing to me was the
discovery that across the board, people experienced what they believed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Christians reported seeing angels and white
light and Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Muslims reported
meeting Allah and scenes of Islam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those
who believed that they had wronged others, or that they had been “bad,”
reported an experience of torture and hell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Those who believed in nothing reported an experience of
nothingness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so on, weaving the
thread between life and death. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">I know a guy I like to refer to as a “Militant Agnostic.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“<i>I don’t
know and you don’t either</i>” is his motto.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I never understood this thinking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sure, evidence based science has its place, but not in the realm of faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If there exists even a possibility that there
is an afterlife, why not reach for that hope? Why not believe? What do we lose by being open?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe, just maybe, we would be more peaceful and relaxed
and far kinder to every living person and thing around us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Perhaps we would not fear death as we do.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">It’s your life.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">What will you do in the meantime?</span></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-85409922335543088212014-07-27T15:39:00.000-06:002014-10-19T21:00:34.701-06:00What If . . .<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b>There isn’t enough room<o:p></o:p></b></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b>in your mind<o:p></o:p></b></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b>for worry and faith.<o:p></o:p></b></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b>You must decide<o:p></o:p></b></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b>which will live there.</b><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
(unknown)</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SW-p3Kxxb1c/U9VueHD8bYI/AAAAAAAAAeo/IyM2W1y5Gfo/s1600/Shackled+-+Trim+Castle,+Ireland+(MJohnson+2014).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SW-p3Kxxb1c/U9VueHD8bYI/AAAAAAAAAeo/IyM2W1y5Gfo/s1600/Shackled+-+Trim+Castle,+Ireland+(MJohnson+2014).jpg" height="279" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Tortured</b> - MHopkins - Trim Castle, Ireland </i><span style="font-size: x-small; line-height: 150%;">© 2014</span>
<!--EndFragment--></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">I passed a neighborhood church with a sign that read:</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"> </span><i style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">“Worry
is the dark room where negatives develop.”</i><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">Something in its message resonated to my core, not because I’m a worrier
by nature but because, when I do, the train of “what if’s” can carry me to a
dark and fearful place in a flash.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">It’s not
logical.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Like one of my students who, after nearly making herself sick
with worry, suffering from insomnia and a whole host of physical symptoms that
mirrored her chaotic mental state, confessed that she was worried that if she
didn’t do well on the LSAT she would never be able to buy her own home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Let’s unravel that thought process; break it down for me. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I insisted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She explained that if she didn’t rock the LSAT then she wouldn’t get
into law school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If she didn’t make it
to law school she would never realize her dream of being a lawyer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If not a lawyer, she wouldn’t make enough
money to support a mortgage payment. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
a world full of homeowners who are not lawyers, it was easy to see the fault in
her logic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it wasn’t logic that cast
such a dark shadow on her thoughts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It reminds me of the parable about the young business man
traveling along an unfamiliar road in rural America when he was stopped by a
flat tire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He couldn’t find a jack in
his rental car, and it was impossible to change a tire without a jack, so he
set off on foot for the closest home or business where he might ask to borrow a
jack or at least a phone to call for help since his cell phone didn't have service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As he walked, he imagined his conversation with the homeowner ending in
rejection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“No I don’t have a jack.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“No you can’t use my phone.” And so on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At one point, he even had an argument with
the man he had yet to meet who had yet to refuse him help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the time he arrived at the nearest house
and knocked on the door, he was so bent with anger and frustration that when
the homeowner opened the door he screamed, “Never mind!” and walked away in
search of someone who would help.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Worry, at best, is a misuse of the imagination!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At worst, it is the shackle that keeps us
trapped in self-doubt and defeat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Either
you have some control over the situation or you don’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you don’t, all the worrying in the world
won’t make it so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So next time you find
yourself chasing that parade of horribles, ponder this:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if all went pleasingly well?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if you realized your greatest success? What
if most of the things you’re worrying about never happen?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">What if…</span></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-14943295006087368362014-07-19T10:56:00.000-06:002014-07-19T10:59:37.343-06:00Come What May<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222;">Let go of what has happened.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222;">Let go of what may come.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222;">Let go of what is happening now.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222;">Don’t try to figure anything out.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222;">Don’t try to make anything happen.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #222222;">Relax, right now, and rest.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: #222222;">~Tilopa</span></b><b><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pVYW-VWGEhc/U8qiNtL_bKI/AAAAAAAAAeU/HWWbU11t6To/s1600/Baby+Gossling+-+Dublin+-+(MJohnson+-+Come+What+May).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pVYW-VWGEhc/U8qiNtL_bKI/AAAAAAAAAeU/HWWbU11t6To/s1600/Baby+Gossling+-+Dublin+-+(MJohnson+-+Come+What+May).jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Maybe
I was born this way, or perhaps my work as a lawyer informed my instinct
towards this particular complex behavior: analyze what’s before me, anticipate
what might happen next and plan around it; never be caught unawares.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Name it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Label it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Define it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As if by doing so I can somehow prevent or
create the inevitable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While this may be
a real strength for my business clients, or when planning an event, it can
wreak havoc in my personal life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Like
when trying to have a baby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who knew it
would be so complicated?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I monitor my
basal body temperature each morning before I get out of bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then I pee on a very expensive stick to see
if I’ve ovulated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My husband and I time
“the deed” around all of this data, at the risk of sucking the joy out of sex.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I take fistfuls of supplements to strengthen
my immune system and improve egg quality. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven’t had real coffee in over a year,
worried about the impact of caffeine on my body and future baby, which may or
may not come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I do get pregnant
again, I’m certain to walk on eggshells for fear of losing the baby to miscarriage
like the other two. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I spend a lot of
energy trying to shape the outcome of something that time has proven I have
very little control over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How
many times have I tried to make something happen?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Waiting; so focused on what happened in the
past; striving to make something happen in the future; trying to figure it all
out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s exhausting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
We’ve all done it to greater or lesser degrees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The offices of psychotherapists are filled
with people who can’t quit doing it—this inclination to look to the future and
dwell on the past; to micromanage the way it will all turn out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s maddening, and quite possibly our
greatest obstacle to finding true happiness and peace of mind. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Yet how can we be expected to stay grounded in our
experience moment by moment when filled with dreams and desires that require
some measure of forward thought, planning, vision and movement to make them
real? Anyone who has pursued higher education, written a book, started a
business, built a house, had a baby, or lived their dreams with any measure of
success will tell you that it doesn’t just happen by waking up in the morning
and wishing it so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It takes action,
commitment, planning and patience, while the crop ripens or the idea matures.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’m learning that while
having a vision is crucial to creating the life that I desire, things go much
more smoothly when I let them unfold in their own time, when I give up control
and let the how and why reveal itself, which is no easy task.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not very good at it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Still, I try. . . to let go, to not try, to just be; to relax right now, and rest; come what may.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<!--EndFragment--></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-38553519784453259462014-05-04T21:34:00.000-06:002014-05-05T08:28:53.825-06:00Get Back Up On It! Inspiration From the Ground for When You’ve Fallen and Can’t Get Up<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10.5pt;">“And falling's just another way to fly.”<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><i><span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></i><b><i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #181818; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10.5pt;">~</span></i></b><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></i></b></span><b><i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10.5pt;">Emilie Autumn</span></i></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VSYlOKiBs8E/U2b8n6_jANI/AAAAAAAAAdM/4KM05r7r2q4/s1600/Falling+(MJohnson+May+2014)_edited-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VSYlOKiBs8E/U2b8n6_jANI/AAAAAAAAAdM/4KM05r7r2q4/s1600/Falling+(MJohnson+May+2014)_edited-1.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">So there I was—head down, rump up—in a most compromising
position, caught somewhere between an awkward downward facing dog pose and a
mountain climber maneuver; clad in a tailored pencil skirt, high heels and a suit
jacket. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">I could neither stand nor fall
without putting my silk-stockinged legs in jeopardy.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">And there was my quandary—should I wait for
someone to come along and stand me upright or finish my fall? </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">Who knew how long I would be waiting for
help.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">So I fell, all the way down, just
as Ms. Something-or-Other from the boutique next door came running out with an
offer of new hosiery if I would step inside her shop.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">Of course I would, if I could, but I had to
get up first.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">She was zero help.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">Instead, she hovered and narrated the
situation with comments like, “Oh dear.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">
</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">Your knee is bleeding.” And “My goodness, you’ve ruined your hose!”</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">And my personal favorite, “Don’t tear that
gorgeous suit!”</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">As if I had done any of
this on purpose.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Eventually I got up, nursed my wounds, bought new stockings
and rushed to meet my client.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But time
stood still for me there on the ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I thought my embarrassment would never end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet it did, and I moved on to have other
equally embarrassing and low moments alongside the great ones.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Whether you’ve lost your job, your lover or you’ve hit rock
bottom financially—if you’ve fallen and can’t get up—follow these six steps to
get back up on it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">1.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Relax into your fall</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So often when we find ourselves falling we do
that little jog-hop-skip-thing to try to break our fall or give the appearance
that we’re not falling; that we meant to do that weird move when just
moments before we were walking on sure feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But as one who’s had a fair share of falls, I have found that sometimes
it’s easier not to fight it. If you’re going down and you know it—even if you’re
already on the ground—one of the worst things we can do is deny our experience
or try to hide it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fall gracefully.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">2.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Get a new perspective</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a kid I loved to hang upside down—from
chairs or trees or my bed—to read books, watch T.V., eat dinner, anything I
could get away with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When mom asked why
it was so important that I hang upside down my answer was simple:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">things
look different that way.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s
true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When life as you know it gets
turned upside down, look for that life enhancing perspective that will move you
from tragedy and sadness to strength and possibility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Wayne Dyer says, “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at
change.</i>”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">3.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Disconnect from the opinion of others</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the biggest obstacles to moving
forward when we’ve suffered a fall is judging ourselves as we assume others
must be judging us, or as we might unfairly judge them if the tables were
turned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But running that tired dialogue
over and over again is a sure way to remain stuck and miss key
moments of inspiration that come when we’re open and vulnerable to possibility. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People aren’t sitting
around thinking about your fall; more likely, they’re thinking about themselves
because that’s what people do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if
they do focus on your misfortune, they won’t for long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Soon, they’ll be on to the next thing even as
you’re wiping the blood from your knees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">4.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Don’t expect someone to save you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>Whatever you do, don’t sit around waiting
for someone to save you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s magical thinking that rarely delivers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like hiker Aaron Ralston who cut off his arm to
free himself from the large boulder that had him trapped in a slot canyon—had
he waited for someone to come along and find him his story would have been very
different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes it’s true that we
can only get up with the help of others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it, but remember:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>even those closest to us can’t or won’t be
able to help us the way we need to be helped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Be your own best problem solver.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">5.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Avoid the Hole.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>Columnist Molly Ivin once said, “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When you’re in a hole, stop digging</i>.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good advice, indeed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But wouldn’t it be easier to develop our
sense of foresight and avoid the hole altogether? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Look for the traps and pitfalls that brought
you to your knees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make it your mission
to understand why you missed what you missed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not an easy skill but one that will serve you well
as you move forward.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">6.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Just breathe.</i> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not so long ago as I struggled to pick myself
up from a series of difficult decisions that had changed my life in unexpected
ways, my breathing felt labored and difficult almost every day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then I realized I had been holding my breath!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you’re thrown off balance by the
circumstances of your life, get back to the basics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Just B-R-E-A-T-H-E.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-73193963677502300162014-03-20T17:44:00.002-06:002014-03-21T10:36:39.282-06:00It's All the Rage<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<i style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Anybody can become angry—that is easy,</span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">but to be angry with the right person<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and to the right degree<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and at the right time<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and for the right purpose,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and in the right way—<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">that is not within everybody’s power<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and is not easy.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%;">~ Aristotle</span></b></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AZnqMQ-zPxs/Uyt5qiZo7LI/AAAAAAAAAcs/xazIKWfnPNA/s1600/It%2527s+All+the+Rage+-+Photo+2+%2528MJohnson+4-2014%2529+Vancouver%252C+BC_edited-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AZnqMQ-zPxs/Uyt5qiZo7LI/AAAAAAAAAcs/xazIKWfnPNA/s1600/It%2527s+All+the+Rage+-+Photo+2+%2528MJohnson+4-2014%2529+Vancouver%252C+BC_edited-1.jpg" height="251" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Laughing Men, Vancouver, B.C.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">Picture it:</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 150%;">You’re stopped at a red light waiting for it
to turn.</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 150%;">Green. You barely have time to
lift your foot from the brake when the car behind you starts blaring the horn.</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 150%;">Maybe she’s trying to tell me something, you
think.</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 150%;">Is something wrong with my
car?</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 150%;">Stunned, you haven’t moved through
the light yet when the driver in the car behind you approaches.</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 150%;">You roll down the window.</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 150%;">She starts screaming at
you then punches you in the face.</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 150%;">In
self-defense, you cover your face with your hands, but then she grabs your wrist
and bites off your middle finger—at the knuckle, through the bone—before
fleeing the scene.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
Sounds crazy but it’s a
true story that happened in my aunt’s Northern Virginia neighborhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Aside from the obvious questions, like what
allows a person to bite through skin and bone and blood vessels to remove part
of a finger?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And once bitten, what do
you do with it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spit it out?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Throw it in the owner’s car?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leave it in the street?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have to ask:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Why are we so angry?<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
You’re better than that.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
You’re not an angry person, not the
fighting kind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’re a volunteer, your
son’s baseball coach, a Sunday school teacher at church. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just last month, you attended a community
fundraising event and donated money to support a local homeless shelter.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
And yet you have these moments where
anger gets the better of you—where ugliness turns you inside out and the worst
parts of your nature are revealed; moments when your frustration builds to a
fury and explodes in ridiculous ways as you burn those around you with your annoyance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
Like yesterday when you got stuck
in the wrong line at Whole Foods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You stopped on your way from work, in a hurry to get home and make dinner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You only needed three things, which should
have taken five minutes from door to door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Instead, the woman from Minnesota in front of you decides to write a check
for her groceries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Slowly. </i>And of course, the cashier couldn’t figure out how to enter
an out of state check into the system, which led to multiple cries for help on
the P.A. system that went unanswered, followed by more failed attempts to
process the check.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’re ashamed to
admit it, but you were huffing and puffing and on the verge of throwing your
money at the cashier and storming out with your groceries.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
Then, as you’re headed home,
there’s a guy driving slow in the pass lane, blocking the free flow of
traffic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As you try to pass him on the
right, you see that he’s talking on his cell phone and completely oblivious to
the fact that there are other people on the road.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You make a point to give him your best stink eye
with your face just inches from your window, and nearly
rear-end the car in front of you because you’re so blinded by your rage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now you’re laying on your horn, screaming
some shameful obscenity that your offender can’t even hear and, which, in any
other moment you wouldn’t dare speak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> What's wrong with you? </span>One look in the mirror and you would see the reflection of a crazy
person.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6yT_4NAkgkY/Uyt5m-iT-OI/AAAAAAAAAck/nrHk_NTYRNE/s1600/It%2527s+All+the+Rage+-+Photo+1+%2528MJohnson+4-2014%2529+Vancouver%252C+BC_edited-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6yT_4NAkgkY/Uyt5m-iT-OI/AAAAAAAAAck/nrHk_NTYRNE/s1600/It%2527s+All+the+Rage+-+Photo+1+%2528MJohnson+4-2014%2529+Vancouver%252C+BC_edited-1.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
The scary thing is—you’re not
alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are a lot of “you” out
there. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
Take a look around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re all losing it over something or
another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our anger boils over in our
politics and religions, in our music and social networking, in our schools and sporting events, in
our jobs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We rage over
inconveniences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We shake our fists with
righteous indignation when others don’t do what we want.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
Have we become a culture so
entitled to comfort and ease that we steamroll anyone or anything that gets in our way?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are we simply scared of not getting what we
want, afraid that we can’t handle it if things don’t go our way?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps we’re so accustomed to expressing our
feelings and anger that we can’t keep it in check anymore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or maybe we’re suffering from a spiritual starvation
that demands to be fed yet we don’t even realize what we’re hungry for?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">Its not an easy question to
answer.</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 150%;">For starters, there just aren’t
any clear-cut ways to judge how pissed off people really are, and why.</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 150%;">Perhaps we can ponder this the next time
we’re recovering from a meltdown.</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> I dare you. </span><span style="line-height: 150%;">It’s
all the rage.</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-91168221430885831622014-03-02T11:45:00.000-07:002014-03-02T11:48:43.619-07:00Stressing the Vine<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #181818; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">When we long for life without difficulties,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #181818; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #181818; line-height: 115%;">and diamonds are made under pressure. </span><span style="color: #181818; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span><b><i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 115%;">― </span></i></b><b><i><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/41906.Leonard_Bernstein"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: windowtext; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none;">Peter</span></a> Marshall</i></b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #616161;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DG3gdZXRFPo/UxN594crl7I/AAAAAAAAAcI/fU0_8kfvqJY/s1600/Stressing+the+Vine+(March+2014+-+MJohnson).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DG3gdZXRFPo/UxN594crl7I/AAAAAAAAAcI/fU0_8kfvqJY/s1600/Stressing+the+Vine+(March+2014+-+MJohnson).jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">People speak of wanting an easy life. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">But how many of us really want it </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">‘easy’</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">?</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">If our desire was met and we faced only comfort and ease, wouldn’t we
soon become bored?</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">Where’s the fun in
life without challenge? </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">Where’s the
flavor without spice?</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">Where’s the growth
without pruning?</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">Would we not seek to create our own chaos if chaos didn’t exist, particularly where
situations have become stale or too readily assured?</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">I dare say that we would.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Yet we hear so much about how unhealthy chronic stress
is for our bodies. We need only turn on
the news or read a health post on the Internet to discover all of the reasons
why we should rid our lives of this toxin.
Constantly faced with demands, frustrations, hassles and deadlines, it
seems impossible to break free. But do
we really want to break free? Might this
be where the magic happens?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Consider the life of a wine grape. While it’s true that many agricultural
endeavors require nutrient rich soil to thrive, winemakers worldwide will tell
you that when it comes to growing grapes for wine, fertile soil is not always the
best. In fact, most California vineyards
are planted in soil that would choke the life out of other crops. Growers look for nutrient poor or even dry soil
that drains well because it forces the vines to extend their roots far into the
dirt to find sustenance—<i>stressing the
vine</i>—and causing them to direct their energy and sugar into grape clusters
instead of leaves, which produces small grape berries. A handful of tiny grapes will be almost all
skin and very little juice, which translates into a rich, concentrated color
and flavor in the wine. For these
growers and vintners, the stressed grape is the best grape and produces the
superior vintage. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Might we also benefit from a bit of stress on the
vine? In our periods of stress we are called to
break out of our complacency, extend ourselves beyond the comfort zone, and
direct our energy to find ways to thrive even under the most pressure-filled
conditions. We are given an opportunity
to turn our negative stressors into positive ones that help us to grow, remain
vital and alive. We learn to think
positive and remain hopeful for better days. We discover how strong and capable
we are. And if we stretch, we learn that
humor and laughter are the catalysts that lift us out of our oppression and
transform us into the most colorful and delicious versions of ourselves, like
the wine grape.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">So perhaps what we really mean is that we want
an </span><i style="background-color: white;">‘easier’</i><span style="background-color: white;"> life, every now and then;
a break from worrying that a certain wolf may huff and puff and blow our house
down.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">If an easier life is what you
desire then I suggest you can have it, simply by making up your mind to not
dwell on factors that you cannot change and, instead, look for ways to set a
positive process in motion; and trust that there is a good reason for this.</span></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-69042113960604265822014-02-14T11:47:00.000-07:002014-02-14T11:55:01.398-07:00Still, I Fall<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HZ3NtaVhWS8/Uv5hOIZtimI/AAAAAAAAAbg/exMocRLnSkc/s1600/MelissaKevinEngaged_120923_021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HZ3NtaVhWS8/Uv5hOIZtimI/AAAAAAAAAbg/exMocRLnSkc/s1600/MelissaKevinEngaged_120923_021.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Black is the color</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">of my true love’s hair<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">His face is like<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">A rose so fair<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">He’s got the sweetest face<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">And the strongest hands<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">I love the ground<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Whereon he stands…</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">~ Black
is the Color<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Irish
Folk Song (modified for “him”)<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Ah, Amore! The agony.
The joy! The blush of new love, the rush of romance; thinking of your beloved each moment of the day, imagining his hands touching
every part of your body; anxiously awaiting the next conversation, the next
kiss. Falling in love is the easy part—any
fool can do it—but staying in love, I think, calls us to fall in love again and
again over the lifetime of our togetherness.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">I want to remember it
all—each moment of awareness, each insight into his depth, each time my heart
breaks open, just a bit wider, softened by the light of what’s real and true
and vulnerable between us. Like these
five moments that pulled me in a little deeper, reminding me why I fell for my
sweetheart; <i>f-a-l-l-i-n-g</i> in love all
over again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">1. <i>It’s both</i>. When he met my
Grandmother I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.
But there he sat, knee-to-knee with the matriarch of our family, as she
fired off question after question in her gentle, southern way. “<i>What
do you do for a living</i>?” “<i>How long
have you two been courting</i>?” “<i>Who are
your people and will we like them</i>?” He answered each question with patience and care,
and when she asked, “<i>Is this a real thing
or a play thing</i>?” He responded,
“It’s both!” Yes, he was serious about
our relationship, he told her, but we also played and had a lot of fun together too. Hearing this, my 80-something Grandmother took his hands in hers and just laughed and laughed. I. Fell. Madly.
Deeply<i>.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">2. <i>Bald
for a cause</i>. A participant with St.
Baldrick’s Foundation, my sweetheart has been shaving his head to raise money
for child cancer research for more than seven years. This year he will be anointed a Knight of the
Bald Table for his many years of service.
I love his philanthropic nature. I’ve known this about him since we
first met while volunteering at Children’s Hospital. But last spring as I watched him on stage getting
his head shaved before a cheering crowd of friends and supporters, he glowed. In that moment I understood what my friend
Jenna meant when she described another as being made of “wind and light.” He was.
It made me love him more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">3. <i>Minding
the mundane.</i> We had big snow that
day so I worked from home. But under pressure of a big deadline at work, he ventured down the canyon in the dark of
morning where he stayed all day. Yet,
after a tiring day at work, traveling in hazardous conditions, he stopped at
the market for groceries and picked up dinner before heading back home. As he helped me unpack the shopping bags,
stocking our fridge with fresh organic produce, my heart melted in adoration for
the Man who takes such good care of me. They say, in love, we each feel like we're the lucky one. I knew that I was. </span><span style="font-size: 15px;">He minds the mundane with a patient and glad heart.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">I will never take that for granted.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">4. <i>Spooning
the Furry</i>. I heard him in the
bedroom one Saturday morning, speaking in low tones. I thought he might be on the phone. I had been in the kitchen cleaning up after
breakfast and as I started towards the bedroom I saw them together, lying on
the floor spooning. “<i>You’re such a good doggie</i>,” he said,
stroking the Furry’s head; “<i>We love you
so much</i>.” The dog was in bliss! I stood there watching
them, bathed in sunlight from the open window, just hanging out together, until
he saw me in the doorway and gave me a smile. I thought my heart would break.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">5. <i>The
brightest light</i>. For our first
married Christmas together, I found a fabulous tree. I had been busy that day decorating and
making the house more festive when he took off for town. He returned a while later with
excitement. “Look what I found,” he
said, unpacking his shopping bags and lining the counter with two-dozen soft
white LED candles. Then he carefully
placed one in each window of the house, even the super high windows close to
the top of the cathedral ceiling in the living room that required a ladder to
reach. As I watched him move about with enthusiasm,
to me, he was the brightest light of all.
I could not have loved him more.
Or could I? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Day by day, in a thousand
ways, still, I fall…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-54089154745206549992013-12-31T08:57:00.000-07:002014-02-14T11:58:06.127-07:00Stepping Into the Future<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The future
is something which everyone reaches</span></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">at the rate
of sixty minutes an hour, <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">whatever he
does, <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #222222;">whoever he
is. </span></i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--StartFragment-->
<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">~C.S. Lewis</span></span></b><!--EndFragment-->
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D0VBOV8lA7Q/UsLoEcK_wII/AAAAAAAAAao/ZY0_OOtNPaY/s1600/Mooghaun+Hillfort+Forest,+Dromoland,+Ireland+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D0VBOV8lA7Q/UsLoEcK_wII/AAAAAAAAAao/ZY0_OOtNPaY/s1600/Mooghaun+Hillfort+Forest,+Dromoland,+Ireland+(1).jpg" height="214" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i>Mooghaun Hillfort - Dromoland, Ireland </i></b><br />
(MHopkins 2013)</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">People speak of “putting the past behind us”. But where else can the past be put? It has only one place it belongs and, once
there, can only be a reference point for the future. Yet we make it a part of our present by
clinging so tightly to our experience.
We go round and round in our heads, remembering some conversation, slight
or injustice, real or imagined, and we stay stuck in that feedback loop
reliving it again and again, often exaggerated and out of context because now
we’re focused on some isolated aspect of our otherwise fading memory, giving it
life, meaning and a whole host of expressions that perhaps never were. Imagine what we miss while running around
the same tired circles!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Can you see it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>How clinging to an aspect of our past might prevent us from seizing
something wonderful that is available to us in the here and now?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider this:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A new form of clinical psychology known as acceptance
and commitment therapy (ACT) stems from the understanding that a great deal of
our psychological pain comes not so much from the experience itself, but from
the words we use over and over to describe our experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of getting stuck in our heads and
avoiding any real forward movement, ACT encourages acceptance of the situation,
conscious choice of direction and action, bringing more meaning and
psychological flexibility into our lives in the process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In his book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Get
Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life, </i>author and ACT co-founder, Steven
Hayes, suggests that we can actually repeat a troubling word or concept over
and over until it loses meaning and power in our lives. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take the word grass, for instance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hayes recommends repeating the word over and
over for 49 seconds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Grass, grass,
grass, grass, grass, grass…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The theory
is that at some point, your mind will stop associating ‘grass’ with the
luscious green stuff and observe it as a meaningless noise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This disconnect between words and reality
will allow us to drop those mind movies that have been tormenting us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why not give it a go,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>beginning with ‘grass’ or some other word of
your choosing and then moving on to the more emotionally charged descriptors
that unnerve you, like ‘rejection’ or ‘failure’ or ‘broke,’ or any
other parade of horrible that you can conjure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The idea is to rub out the sting these words carry so that you can deal
with life free from the fear created by your internal dialogue from the
past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sound feasible?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Diagnosis, they
say, is half the cure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we’re best
careful with how we use our diagnosis lest it becomes the story we tell about
our life, the reason for why we can’t have or be or do what we want.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For just as understanding the root of our
problem paves the way for setting it right, so too can it provide a ready
excuse for not living our best life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Is there something
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make it real in your life?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As you move
into a great new year, now is a perfectly fine opportunity to trade what
torments for something more solid and real so that it becomes part of your
future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Wishing you all the
best in 2014!</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-41141336189767090402013-11-28T08:43:00.001-07:002013-11-28T08:46:17.967-07:00Conspiracy of Love<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Blessed
is the season, <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">which
engages the whole world <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">in
a conspiracy of love.</span></i></b><span style="background: white; color: #222222; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="background: white; color: #222222; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">~Hamilton Wright Mabie</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #222222; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KqX9VdTTgVE/UpdjAJPPvSI/AAAAAAAAAaA/BQTS73NQ2dI/s1600/Stained+-+Kilarny,+Ireland+%C2%A9+MJohnson+2013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KqX9VdTTgVE/UpdjAJPPvSI/AAAAAAAAAaA/BQTS73NQ2dI/s1600/Stained+-+Kilarny,+Ireland+%C2%A9+MJohnson+2013.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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Can
you feel it—the warm fuzzy glow of good cheer building from the first turkey
dinner, jingle-belled advertisement and beautifully wrapped vision of holiday
bliss, and reaching a crescendo as we join our families and friends to
celebrate the season?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Giddy with the
holiday spirit, we’re just a little more kind and a little more forgiving as we
move through the days filled with anticipation of . . .<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Of
what?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What are we looking forward to?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What are we expecting?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What do we really want?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Kids
seem to know with surprising clarity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I
want an American Girl doll!” “I want a new bike!” “I want chocolate chip
cookies!” “I WANT MY MOMMY!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But how
many of these wants are truly needs?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do
they even recognize the difference? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rarely. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In watching kids flit from one toy to the next
we see right through their fly-by-night passions, reaching for this and
grabbing for that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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We
forget that adults are not so different, except that we use these long,
detailed explanations to rationalize our dubious choices, cleverly disguising
the pretenses of our decisions even from ourselves sometimes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We reach for this and long for that then
reach for something else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes we
get what we want.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And sometimes we reach
for what we think we really want only to get it and later discover that it
wasn’t so great after all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe things
have changed since we began wanting what we want and we find that it’s no
longer relevant when it arrives. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And sometimes
when we don’t get what we want it makes us want it even more; an unrequited
passion not so easily extinguished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
how much of what we say we want do we truly need?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Perhaps
at the root of every desire is a basic longing—to connect, to love, to be at
peace; the hunt for comfort and joy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remember this as you move through Thanksgiving,
Hanukkah, Christmas, and look for ways to connect with the root of your longing.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Try this: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">Volunteer!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Get out of yourself and give back to your community!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Rumi says, there are a thousand ways
to kneel and kiss the ground.</li>
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">Keep it real!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No holiday is perfect and few celebrations rarely resemble the cozy
gatherings depicted in commercials and our favorite programs on
television.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If your family dynamic
has changed or tradition is too hard to satisfy, don’t be afraid to do
things a little different each year! Get rid of the pressure!</li>
</ol>
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">Take some time for yourself!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Give the gift of your presence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can’t be there for others in any
real way if you’re not there for yourself so slow down, take a nap, read a
book, get a massage, and take some time to reflect on where you’ve been, where
you’re going and what you’re thankful for.</li>
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">Remember what’s important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s easy to lose sight of why we’re
doing what we’re doing when we’re so busy baking and buying and wrapping
and coming and going.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take some
time to connect with the real reason for the season.</li>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Succumb
to the conspiracy of love and you just might find that what you’re looking for
has been with you all along.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>P.S. Thanks for sharing the quote Mom!</i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-91112162645053752772013-10-19T13:10:00.000-06:002013-10-19T13:13:10.943-06:00LOOK WHERE YOU WANT TO GO<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Why would you give your precious life energy . . . <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to something you [don’t] want?</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">~Dr.
Wayne Dyer</i></b></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kedZZAuN9mk/UmLVQONPUjI/AAAAAAAAAZk/rhUUYNK8CJg/s1600/The+Road+Less+Traveled+(MJohnson+2013).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kedZZAuN9mk/UmLVQONPUjI/AAAAAAAAAZk/rhUUYNK8CJg/s320/The+Road+Less+Traveled+(MJohnson+2013).jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Road Less Traveled</i><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Connemara Region, Ireland © 2013 MHopkins</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
While learning to ride her motorcycle, my mother decided to
practice in their neighborhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having made the loop, she topped the hill and came to a stop, preparing to make a left
turn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s when she saw it—the
neighbor’s mailbox just across the way—and though she tried not to look at the mailbox and, instead, focus on the road before her, as she
turned left, eyes still on the mailbox, she veered off course and crashed…into
the neighbor’s mailbox; the very thing she wanted to avoid.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
There is a golden rule of motorcycle riding that says “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">look where you want to go</i>.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Though she knew it in theory, my mother
learned this the hard way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are
many long and complicated theoretical reasons why this rule of riding might be
true, but none that make any real sense except the idea of target fixation,
which says, in essence, that what you focus on expands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
And so it is in our every day lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How often do we repeat some aspect of the
past or dwell on the negative parts of our situation and then find ourselves
faced with more of what we don’t want, instead of giving attention to what we
would most like to create and then taking small steps each day to make that vision
our reality?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe we’re unhappy in our
relationship or we dislike our job or we don’t like the extra weight we’re
carrying around like a spare tire, yet instead of creating a positive plan of
how to get from here to there we focus in on what we don’t like, complaining or
feeling sorry for ourselves, repeating the same bad habits, or avoiding the
discomfort of change, and so we keep driving our proverbial motorcycles around
and crashing into the same mailboxes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It is impossible to be angry and
laugh at the same time.<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Anger and laughter are mutually
exclusive<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and you have the power to choose
either.<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">~Wayne Dyer<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Choice is the essence of our free will, and it is through
our choices that we direct the course of our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While we may disagree with the actions of
others and even dislike our own circumstances, we have the right, power and
opportunity to make choices every day—the attitude we adopt, how we respond to
the world around us, where we place our attention, the thoughts we entertain,
what we take responsibility for, the meaning we give to the events of our
lives, and what or to whom we give our power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s all energy, and the lightness or heaviness of that energy determines much about our physical, mental and spiritual health. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Take another look down the road you're traveling. Do
you really want to go there?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-76554496369186360222013-09-20T09:48:00.000-06:002013-09-20T09:50:11.513-06:00Dogs Never Lie<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed
a tail we could wag.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">~ W.H. Auden<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tUlEPl_bnCY/UjxqL_iIxOI/AAAAAAAAAYo/_JKUXov69sY/s1600/0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tUlEPl_bnCY/UjxqL_iIxOI/AAAAAAAAAYo/_JKUXov69sY/s320/0.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"></span></i><br /></div>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"></span></i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;">Madison would be freaking out right now if she were here to
see this flood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She would be tempted to
get in the creek but she would hesitate; tuned into the water’s raging energy;
connected to the heightened turmoil around her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She was sensitive like that; dialed in before others even knew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;">Like the time she made a big fuss of dragging her blanket
and pillow around to my side of the bed so she could sleep next to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I noticed the change right away, and I
wondered out loud if perhaps I had cancer, or some terrible malaise, because I
had heard about dogs that can sense these things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few days later I learned that I was
pregnant. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She continued to drag her bed
around to my side for weeks until one day she didn’t; and, again, I wondered
out loud if everything was okay with the baby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A few days later I miscarried.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She didn’t drag her bed around to my side after that, but she stayed
close and loved me through my tears.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;">One time she charged to the edge of the yard and scared the
dickens out of our neighbor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She could
be intimidating with her stocky frame—almost 100 pounds and mostly muscle—but
Madison just wanted to say hello.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
knew her approach could use some work; still, she went too far that time and
she knew better, so when her daddy scolded her bad choice she put herself in
time-out; cowering on the little mat in front of the soaking tub in the master
bath, shaking and shivering in her remorse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She wanted to do right, she really wanted to do right, and it killed her
to think that she had disappointed us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MkAfTrWPw64/UjxqOYDlHCI/AAAAAAAAAYw/er0NlO8qtco/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MkAfTrWPw64/UjxqOYDlHCI/AAAAAAAAAYw/er0NlO8qtco/s320/1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;">But she could never really disappoint us, not for long
anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No matter the infraction, just
one look at her cute little mug and soon we were laughing at her heartfelt
expressions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She could be a real drama
queen sometimes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mostly, we just loved
her and cherished every minute we shared.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;">Before I came along she was her daddy’s best friend, but she
welcomed me with loving paws and big wet kisses. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She even let me paint her toenails in my
favorite shades –“Party-in-my-Cabana” pink for the summer and
“Fa-La-La-Luscious” for the holidays.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>From the way she watched me beautify, I imagined that she secretly
wanted to join me in my primping.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
when she walked down the aisle as the honorary ring bearer for our New Year’s
Eve nuptials, wearing a big red flower behind her ear, I couldn’t have loved
her more if I had given birth to her myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I hope she knew that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W4A-7v9Jck4/UjxqQNuAqUI/AAAAAAAAAY4/FfjKr19Vwlw/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W4A-7v9Jck4/UjxqQNuAqUI/AAAAAAAAAY4/FfjKr19Vwlw/s320/2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;">When she left her condo in the city for mountain dwelling,
we teased that she was living the high life in her new retirement home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More than bacon and eggs—more than
anything—she loved being outdoors, and she moved freely between meditations in
the sun, chasing sticks and mindless rambling by the creek.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Madison taught me so much about living, about
the joy of routine and unconditional love, about seizing each moment and never
being afraid to ask for what you want.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I envied her life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;">Sometimes I still hear the tap of her nails on the hardwood
floors and I turn to call her name.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then
I remember.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But like the whispering wind
that moves the trees and urges the water downstream, we’ll carry her loving spirit in
our hearts forever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">______________________________</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><em>Photos by Lori Kennedy Photography. (c) 2012 Lori Kennedy. <a href="http://www.lorikennedy.co/">www.lorikennedy.co</a></em></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><em></em></span></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-54682147501368819212013-09-04T09:20:00.000-06:002013-09-11T11:35:37.609-06:00The Bright Side<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RE58BYEneVk/UidPT8F8k2I/AAAAAAAAAYE/0QZpsN3Mntc/s1600/sunny+side.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RE58BYEneVk/UidPT8F8k2I/AAAAAAAAAYE/0QZpsN3Mntc/s1600/sunny+side.jpeg" /></a></div>
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Promise Yourself . . .<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of
mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
To talk health, happiness and
prosperity to every person you meet.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
To make all your friends feel that there is
something in them. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your
optimism come true.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
To think only of the best, work only for the best and to
expect only the best. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
To be just as
enthusiastic about the success of others are you are about your own.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
To forget the mistakes of the past and to press on to the
greater achievements of the future. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times
and give every living creature you meet a smile. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
To give so much time to the improvement of
yourself that you have no time to criticize others.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong
for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">~The Optimist Creed</b>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Optimist
International<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I once quit the Optimist Club because it was too negative!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
New to the Gulf Coast of Florida, I had looked for a good
civic group to join that would be meaningful, engaging, and helpful in learning
about my community while meeting like-minded others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hey, I’m an optimist, I thought; what better
group to join than the Optimist Club! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then
one day, a few months in, the President of the chapter came up with this
“brilliant” idea to increase membership:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>we would take turns carrying around a brick until each member brought in
at least one new member.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now I’m sure
this doesn’t represent all chapters of this wonderful club, but WOW!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What a heavy load!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I barely knew anyone in town—part of the
reason I had joined the group in the first place—and after an unsuccessful
attempt to get a waiver from this dismal approach, I quit. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Not entirely surprising because I tend to run from the
negative, choosing instead those friends and associations that lift me up and
inspire with positivity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A bit of a
dichotomy, really, when I consider the way that I have to approach my work as a
lawyer—looking at the contract, deal or business strategy with a critical eye,
which allows me to consider all potential outcomes—good and bad—and advise my
clients of the consequences of their decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yet for much of my life, when making personal decisions, I brushed aside
anything negative, focusing only on the great and wonderful outcomes that would
surely follow my next great step.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
is a poor business plan and a terrible life strategy because when things run
amok, as they sometimes do, instead of working out as I envision, I have a
tough time adjusting to the reality.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I read somewhere that having an over-abundance of optimism
in the “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">it-won’t-happen-to-me</i>” sort
of mindset can be detrimental to our sense of wellbeing, and as harmful to
longevity as high blood pressure and cholesterol!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, studies have shown that those who
operate with extreme optimism experience more difficulty rebounding from set
backs, which I have experienced first hand, because we get stuck on a mental
track of “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I can’t believe that happened
to me!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why me?”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
So a little worry can be helpful when channeled into
productive action, like having a Plan B or creating a Will or making peace with
getting older while you’re still young, or allowing your thoughts to follow the chain of "what if" while maintaining faith that no matter what happens, you're going to be okay—all great building blocks for our peace
of mind; and very different from dwelling in the negative, which we know causes
excessive stress, impacts our health and affects our mind and spirit in often
undesirable and unintended ways. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
What kind of bricks are you carrying?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-10500282149493764692013-08-04T19:20:00.006-06:002013-09-11T11:48:20.969-06:00An Unlikely Pair<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I destroy my enemies
when I make them my friends.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">~Abraham
Lincoln<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8Ye2_QV1V6U/Uf79X--c-PI/AAAAAAAAAXg/llYczJZCuHY/s1600/An+unlikely+pair.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8Ye2_QV1V6U/Uf79X--c-PI/AAAAAAAAAXg/llYczJZCuHY/s1600/An+unlikely+pair.jpeg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You listen here girl, I don’t
know what kind of little lawyer games you think you’re playing, but you’re
running with the big boys now!”</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
boomed through the phone in response to my letter requesting that he produce
certain documents to support our client’s deal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Red-rage raced through my body, from the scalp down, touching my ears,
and setting my chest on fire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How dare
he speak to me this way, this two-bit, good old boy lawyer! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Only
two years out of law school, I had been thrown into the fire with this deal to
help my client purchase a restaurant and nightclub from a well-known business
owner represented by none other than this J. Don Ridell, Esquire, now on the
phone yelling at me! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I wanted to do
was rip that guy a new one!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jump up and
down and pound him on the head; tell him that I was a lawyer just the same as
he and defend my right to vigorously represent my client.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Perhaps
because we didn’t have the luxury of time to dicker over such trivial things,
and I didn’t want to get fired, somehow, I found the will to simply restate my
request.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“No games here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My client wants
to buy your client’s business and they want to close fast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now my guy wants me to give this deal my
blessing and I’m not going to do it until you turn over those stock
certificates and the corporate books.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>Click.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He hung up on me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
seethed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew I wasn’t over-lawyering
this stock purchase.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If anything I
wanted to slam on the breaks, take our time; what’s the rush?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they had an agenda and I knew I would be
committing malpractice if I didn’t do some basic due diligence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I stuck to my guns and called my client to
tell him where we stood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">An
hour later Mr. Ridell begrudgingly called back and told us to be at his office
by noon. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had heard stories of this J.
Don Ridell and other rogue lawyers who had had the run of the place long before
it became a resort town with high-rise condominiums, nightclubs and top law
firms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A criminal lawyer by trade, he
was stepping up to handle a stock purchase for his best client, but until that
moment I had never met him or had any dealings with him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Intimidated, I packed my briefcase and headed
to his office.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
saw his boots first, wingtip leather all shined up with some fancy studs on
them; and as my eyes traveled up to the top of his six foot-five head, I saw
his jeans with matching studded belt buckle and bolo tie—the consummate cowboy,
this one—made evermore complete by a headful of white hair and small strips of
surgical tape in the corners of both eyes supported by bruised, swollen pockets
beneath.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I relaxed a little, breathed
deep, somehow comforted by the idea that this big bad man had just had a little cosmetic surgery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He sized me up in my
expensive little lawyer suit and off we went to his conference room, with
barely a word between us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As
it turned out, his client didn’t own the stock after all because
he had transferred it all to his 20-some grandchildren who were
scattered, along with the stock certificates, all over the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We wouldn’t
be closing any time soon, that was certain, but for the first time, appearances
and judgments aside, we began working together to make this deal happen. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Later,
we walked downtown to discuss pay-off of the business loans with the bank, only
to return to a locked office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Brilliant!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What now?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My briefcase and car keys were inside, so I
had to stick around and help him break into this one-story-brick-ranch-styled-home-turned-office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sure, the ice had thawed between us that
afternoon, but I wasn’t prepared to shove his Wrangler-wearing butt through the
conference room window. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There
he was, stuck and distressed, bossing me around from that awkward bent-at-the
waist-crunch position he was sort of hanging in with one leg touching the
office floor and the other bent at the knee, jammed in the window sill by that
wingtip boot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tried to contain myself
but soon lost control to my laughter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
was laughing so hard and crying and pretty much useless to help this guy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then he started laughing too…and
farting…there, stuck in the window, which made me laugh even harder; him
too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet something in his jolly laughter
dislodged him from the window and he fell to the conference room floor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Within minutes I was in the office collecting
my things and thanking him for an interesting afternoon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We
closed the deal—everyone was happy—and a real fondness had grown between Mr.
Ridell and me in the process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I
never saw him again until the year that I served as president of the local bar
association, hosting an event for our judges and winding up my tenure
there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He made me cry with his
compliment, he actually praised my mind and told me that working with me on
that deal had changed him. He apologized for being such a jerk. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This fabulously crazy encounter between a cowboy barrister and a little lawyer girl became one of my great lessons, again reminded that things are not always as they seem. We think people are one way </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 11pt;">and
they turn out to be quite different.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 11pt;">We
make quick judgments based on superficial things and think we know all there is
to know about each other, but we don’t.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 11pt;">
</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 11pt;">Yet if we’re open and willing to be surprised, and laugh at our
differences, we just might find ourselves part of an unlikely pair.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 11pt;">____________</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">** Names have been changed.</span></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-18137099546998213262013-05-25T08:30:00.001-06:002013-05-25T08:30:25.630-06:00Don't Forget the Whiskey Whore<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">~</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ernest
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">My friend Tim
took one look at her hanging on my wall and said in his most dramatic, southern drawl, <i>“Well she’s nothing but a whiskey
whore…”</i> summing up the scantily clad woman reclined against the sofa with a
half-empty bottle of booze on the floor in front of her; and so she became
known around our house. But to my
grandfather, she was an erotic gem; painted on a canvas torn from an old World
War II military jeep and hidden beneath a bland landscape painted in gray,
given to my grandfather as collateral for a $2 loan he made to the artist after
the war. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">For years the
Whiskey Whore had been concealed beneath that drab landscape, stashed in the
basement of my grandfather’s house. Then
one day as we discussed art, I confided that many pieces in my personal collection
were erotically inspired from cultures around the world. He couldn’t resist the temptation to share
his secret. “<i>There’s an erotic painting under there…”</i> he whispered, pointing to
the dull gray landscape. I was certain that
I had misunderstood. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">But I
hadn’t. Eager to share his treasure, my
grandfather had placed the framed painting face down on the table and removed the
back with a screwdriver, gently pulling the layers of canvas apart to reveal
the vibrant Whiskey Whore underneath what appeared to be so dull and lifeless. That’s when he told me the story of how he
had won her by default for an unpaid debt.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">He gave me the
painting that day; he made me carry it out the back door, up the hill and round
the house to my car so that my grandmother wouldn’t see. But she had been looking out the kitchen
window as I schlepped through the yard with the painting tucked under my arm
and she knew straight away what I was hiding.
A bit of drama followed: <i>“Why Karl Mason! What kind of grandfather gives a painting
like that to his granddaughter? I’ve
never heard of such!” </i>Grandpa calmed
her down as only he could while I quietly placed the painting in my car. We never discussed it again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yet this
controversial work of art has become so much more to me than paint on
canvas. It reminds me of the many layers
of life waiting to be revealed—the vibrant colors of the soul—and the gentle
wisdom my grandfather shared with me so freely in the time we spent together. And though I’ve traveled the world and discovered
my own great fortunes, this simple painting on tattered canvas hangs above our
fireplace as a gentle reminder of the depth and breadth that is life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">It has also
become a metaphor for remembering what matters most—is it the
painting or the story behind the painting?
As my sweetheart reminds me from time-to-time when I get caught up in
the chaos of life: <i>Don’t forget the Whiskey Whore</i>!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<!--EndFragment--></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-73581784340169695842013-04-25T20:01:00.000-06:002013-04-25T20:01:30.099-06:00COMMUNION<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">If ever
there was a symbiotic relationship . . .<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">you know,
like leaf hoppers and meat ants. . .<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">each of
which thrives because of the existence of the other, <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">it's me
and you, babe. </span></b><b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Include me
in your every thought, as I do you. </span></b><b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">P.S. - You have something in your teeth,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Love,<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The
Universe</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">(Mike
Dooley, <i>Notes from the Universe</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5vg1tpqdkCk/UXnczCUjLrI/AAAAAAAAAVI/Vccs-Wu5Cxs/s1600/Communion+(May+2013).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5vg1tpqdkCk/UXnczCUjLrI/AAAAAAAAAVI/Vccs-Wu5Cxs/s320/Communion+(May+2013).jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’ve been
thinking a lot about these symbiotic relationships or, more specifically, the
mutualistic type where two organisms of different species “work together” to
exist, each benefitting the other in some way and from the relationship as a
whole. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Consider the
flower and the bee. Furry winged friends
buzz about from flower to flower, checking things out, gathering nectar, which
they make into food, and collecting pollen, the flower’s great sperm, carrying it
on their furry little bodies to the next flower. The bees get yummy nectar to eat and the
flowering plants reproduce. It’s a
win-win situation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Or ponder the
relationship between bacteria and humans.
It’s everywhere, really, and kind of gross, I think. But in many ways this bacteria helps us along,
like the intestinal kind, aiding us in digesting food that we couldn’t digest
on our own. The bacteria get to eat and
we get help in breaking down the food we’ve already eaten. Everyone’s happy!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In many
environments, in fact, these mutual relationships between animals and plants
are critical to the healthy organization of life and its processes. Still, scientists say, no species acts
completely altruistically towards another.
Instead, their relationships evolve when their paths cross and one manipulates
the other for its own benefit. True,
both might benefit in the end, but it begins with the selfish motivation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">We’re not so
different, are we? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">My friend’s therapist
swears that all of our relationships exist—and the way we operate within them—on
some level, because we’re getting something out of it. I resisted that thought at first. I prefer to
believe that I do things like volunteer or help my neighbor because I’m a good
person. But truth be told, I do get
something out of volunteering. It
elevates my mood, it gives me perspective and, ultimately, I feel better about
my own life. Not exactly manipulative
behavior, I suppose, but not entirely altruistic either.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The same is true
when I help my neighbor. Sure, I extend
a hand whenever I can and I’m glad to do it—we have a great relationship with
our neighbors—but having helped, it frees me up to ask for help, like on those
days when we can’t get home fast enough to let the dog out, or when we’re
traveling and want to be notified straight away if someone starts loading our
things into a moving van in the driveway.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then I think of
the selfless acts of daring and rescue initiated by people who have no
relationship or connection to those they seek to defend. I dare say that Good Samaritan family who
rushed from their restaurant to help injured runners during the Boston Marathon
bombings acted from anything other than their desire to help. They knew nothing of the injured; they owed
them nothing. But they helped them all
the same. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Still, I wonder:
aside from these random acts of
kindness, in our day-to-day relationships, do we act from purely altruistic
motives? Giving our time or resources,
expecting nothing in return? Helping
even when we don’t benefit in some way? Extending
ourselves to those we love, work or socialize with without etching marks on
some mental scorecard to remind us of who did what for whom and when?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">As we peel away
the winter layers and warm into spring, I challenge you (and myself) to explore
those underlying motivations that spur action.
Why do you do what you do? Why do
you commune with certain individuals or groups to the exclusion of others? Then do one thing each day in May that
benefits another without also benefitting yourself. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let me know what you discover. I'd love to hear from you!</span></div>
<br />
<!--EndFragment--></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-17839459844848576632013-03-19T16:04:00.000-06:002013-03-20T12:23:19.700-06:00Monkey See, Monkey Do<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">“What you see and what you hear </span></b></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;"></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">depends a great deal </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">on where you are standing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">It also depends on what sort of person you are.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">~C.S. Lewis, <u>The Magician’s Nephew</u><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f60-8tRcj0E/UUjbtwiOqwI/AAAAAAAAAUw/2Kxp966vx44/s1600/Evolution+2+-+MJohnson+April+2013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="116" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f60-8tRcj0E/UUjbtwiOqwI/AAAAAAAAAUw/2Kxp966vx44/s320/Evolution+2+-+MJohnson+April+2013.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">I saw him standing
by the big window, his face fixed in concentration and disbelief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Get
over here, love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ve got to see this!</i>”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Certain that he had
spotted one of our four-legged friends, I joined him at the window with that sort
of stealthy gliding motion I have developed after years of quietly
watching, sometimes following, wildlife in this mountain paradise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I scanned the yard, the creek bank, the
massive trees; the space between. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What is it?</i>” I squinted to sharpen my
view.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">“There! You see it?” </span></i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">He pointed with his fingertip on the
glass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“I don’t know…it looks like…a dog?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No, it’s not a dog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What’s it
doing?”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">I could see it there by
the water’s edge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“What the heck...is that a…oh my, is that it’s tail?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Look at that…it’s standing on its hind legs!”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">“It looks...like...a...monkey!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Look at that! Shoot! It's a monkey! Sweetie, get the camera!” </span></i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">He could hardly contain his excitement.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">It didn’t make
sense!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When have there ever been reports
of monkeys in our mountain community?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
knew this, yet there we were having this random conversation while watching a
couple of monkeys walking around on their hind legs down by the creek in our
back yard.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Just
as we had convinced ourselves that we were witnessing something truly amazing, the monkeys cleared the trees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Our vision no longer obscured, we realized they weren’t monkeys at
all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were our neighbors!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Sure they were out of their territory and, true, one need only look at a
diagram illustrating the evolution of man to see the resemblance of humans to
monkeys and understand our mistake, but how could we have thought for even one second that we
had monkeys in our back yard!?!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
laughed so hard I nearly peed in my pants.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">That’s the funny
thing about perception:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the way we
organize, identify and interpret information to understand and make sense of our
environment!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you get right down to
it, we’re all walking around on our proverbial hind legs seeing monkeys of some
sort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes our reality coincides
with another’s and we have a shared experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Other times, not so much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Maybe we cannot say
that we are in touch </span></i></b></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">with reality </span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">and he is not, but
should instead say, </span></i></b></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">His reality is so different from ours<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">that he can’t
explain his to us, </span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">and we can’t explain ours to him.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">~Philip K. Dick<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Maybe we’re all
just living in unique worlds, different from each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one else has access to the private world
we each carry in our heads, no one else can see or feel what we feel, or
understand what we think we understand, unless we attempt to communicate our
experience to others, which, even then, may not be understood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet if reality differs from person to person
(or at least our perception of it), then how can we really claim any singular
form of reality?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Might we speak instead
of parallel realities?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Consider a person with multiple personality disorder. His
reality may be quite different from mine, yet as I learn of the disturbing, even nightmarish, events of his life, I know that his experience is as real to him as
my perception of the monkeys in the back yard seemed real to me (however strange and fleeting).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Kind
of makes it hard to say “he’s crazy” or “she’s right” or “they’re wrong” when
you consider that we’re all just doing the best we can to make sense of the
world we live in. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Each of us was once a dream and now we are the dreamers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In one instance the world is one way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The next moment, it’s entirely different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> The longer I live the more I understand: Most of our experience of the world and the people in it takes place </span>in our minds. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-21431205392513893922013-01-20T13:21:00.000-07:002013-01-20T13:23:41.971-07:00Bridging the Gap<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10.5pt;">The round pegs in the square holes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10.5pt;">The
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<span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10.5pt;">You
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<span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10.5pt;">About
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10.5pt;">They
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<span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10.5pt;">And
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<span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10.5pt;">Because
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<span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10.5pt;">to think they can change the world, are the
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<span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><b><i>~Apple,
Inc.</i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
I think most of the time what we really want is a little bit
of peace and quiet, a little bit of tranquility, prosperity, understanding,
relaxation and just the feeling that we’re okay. And often what we get is a whole bunch of
aggravation, irritation, confrontation, conflict, difficulty, challenge, and,
well, one sort of problem after another despite our desire for comfort and
ease. Before we know it, this dis-ease
pulls us this way and that in conflicting directions. So we have to ask ourselves, am I going to
take the bait and allow this to consume me, or am I somehow going to rise above
it? Yet, even when we do nothing there’s
this nagging feeling that we cannot do what we would like to do about these
factors, which exacerbates things quite intensely. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the one hand we may feel that we want to make a clear and
determined move to do something about “it”—drawing a line in the sand, making a
point and saying, no, I don’t want to have this anymore; yes, I want to sort
this out; I want to move on from this; I want to clear this up and I want to
change something that can’t possibly continue for another moment in its current
form. This desire for change is both
admirable and appropriate, because it’s what spurs us into action. The opportunity for change always exists when
we leave the door open. Yet the speed at which change can come about is the
unknown factor. If we push too hard too
fast, not only do we face extreme burnout and disappointment, we’re likely to
miss something critical to our long-term success; maybe we leave behind someone
or something that ought to come with us on the next leg of our journey. Perhaps we end up with dissent instead of
support. On the other hand, if we do
nothing and they do nothing and we just sit around waiting for change to
happen, it will most surely continue to elude us.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Keep this in mind as you consider your own goals,
resolutions and, perhaps, shortcomings in the new year, and as we look to our
leaders to make it all better following the Fifty-Seventh Presidential
Inauguration and the swearing in of President Barack Obama to a second term in
office. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Real change—thoughtful change—takes time. It doesn’t happen without some effort. The longer I live and the more I experience
of the world the more I tend to side with the science fiction writers who have
long maintained that time is not necessarily a linear thing. We see it as something that has a beginning,
middle, and an end; we see the past as something to move away from as we step
into the future. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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But perhaps time isn’t such a straight shot. Maybe it’s more of a circular thing or a
twisty swirly thing and instead of darting ahead, trying to get from where we
are now to where we think we need to be by forging the quickest, most direct
path forward, we should be looking back to our past, to our history, and re-examining
some things that we thought were done, re-reading some case files that we
thought were closed, to see what else might be there for us to learn from; with
the goal of understanding how by re-writing our history or changing our
perspective from what’s gone before we can empower ourselves, individually and
collectively, for the future.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">So take a deep breath and another deep breath and then
one more. Never mind about moving
anywhere quickly. We must ask ourselves,
what can wait? Why can’t it wait? What must be handled right now? I’m not suggesting a course of apathy or
retreat, but rather that we pace ourselves and get it right. Remain calm.
And put our confidence into something that we have every reason to be
confident about, namely, about our ability to bring about the right kind of
change at the right time. We may not get
it all at once but great change is attainable when we’re committed to finding a solution.</span><!--EndFragment-->
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div>
</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-57731634556002394552012-12-20T06:14:00.000-07:002012-12-20T06:16:53.461-07:00From Where I've Been<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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To journey without being changed<o:p></o:p></div>
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is to be a nomad.<o:p></o:p></div>
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To change without journeying<o:p></o:p></div>
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is to be a chameleon.<o:p></o:p></div>
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To journey and to be transformed by the journey<o:p></o:p></div>
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is to be a pilgrim.</div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><b>~Mark Nepo</b></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><b><br /></b></span></i></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jUFDrwfNqfY/UNMIpyt6zRI/AAAAAAAAAUI/oIHYB0-T_zc/s1600/MelissaKevinEngaged_120923_023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jUFDrwfNqfY/UNMIpyt6zRI/AAAAAAAAAUI/oIHYB0-T_zc/s320/MelissaKevinEngaged_120923_023.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Photo courtesy of Lori Kennedy © 2012.</span><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I read this story once about a
woman who called herself “Peace Pilgrim.”
In 1952 she became the first woman to walk the entire length of the
Appalachian Trail in one season. Shortly
after that she began her walk for peace, vowing to “<i>remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace, walking
until given shelter and fasting until given food.</i>” For almost three decades she walked back and
forth across the United States, with no money and only the clothes on her back,
walking more than 25,000 miles before her death. She was always fascinated that her needs were
met. “<i>Aren’t people good</i>,” she would say.[1]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">She spoke to anyone who would
listen about the big peace picture:
peace among nations, peace among groups, and that all too elusive inner peace
because she believed that was where peace began. In the course of her pilgrimage she touched
the lives of thousands of people with her message, and many of them inspired
her as well. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I love the story she told about
a small, remote village she visited where she found a group of people with a
unique way of dealing with conflict.
When a person in the village violated the natural laws or had intense
conflict with another, the locals would gather in the town center, form a
circle around the offender, and one by one they would recount every good deed, act of kindness and contribution to the community made by that person. There was no punishment or finger pointing or
harsh judgment, only kindness. And as a
result, their community thrived without the need for jails or local
police. Generally, they had very little
conflict among them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Innovative conflict resolution
aside, when I think about the devotion that allowed Peace Pilgrim to live this
mission I am overwhelmed by the truth that I have never been so dedicated to
any one thing in my life. Sure, I’ve
been interested in things and fascinated by people and places. I’ve championed a few causes. I’ve dabbled in this creative endeavor and
that; I’ve explored this career path, then that; but never have I devoted
myself to any one person or purpose to the exclusion of all others. In a
way, I’ve had one foot out the door; one eye cocked in search of the next great
thing, certain that I would miss “it” if I settled on just one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">A curious realization as I prepare to join my beloved at our ceremonial alter this New Year’s Eve and make
the single-most significant declaration of love and commitment so far in my
lifetime. As I contemplate the vows we will be taking—the vows I will be making on our wedding night—among the most important, I think, will
be my vow of happiness, not just for that day or in the weeks and years that
follow when the fire of romance burns hot and bright, but everyday no matter the
weather. In so doing, I also choose
myself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Not that I have been unhappy by
nature; to the contrary. Yet I, as you, sometimes feel isolated and unsure even
when surrounded by love and beauty, waiting for things to be just so. But in waiting, I find, my attention to happiness
slips and my experience of life and connections with people become obscured. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">So as I move from where I’ve
been, walking towards a new year, a new chapter, and a whole new life with my sweetheart by my side, I begin this pilgrimage of happiness. I will not wait
for some future moment for all to be right in the world—for countries to quit
fighting, for financial markets to stabilize, for the environment to be
protected, for everyone to act right and do right and play nice--or for the pieces
of my puzzle to fit perfectly in place. From this moment forward I am a pilgrim for the cause, and I will choose those life-affirming friendships and experiences that support my journey to move beyond the pettiness that breeds discontent and that tendency that we all share to change or hide the truth of our hearts
so that we may please others or avoid pain. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">In this I honor that sacred place: the deep well of happiness within,
always present and waiting to be rediscovered. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Isn’t that why we’re here?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">As we inch closer to 2013, I wish you all safe journeys and
a very HAPPY New Year!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> _______________________</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: left;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="display: inline !important; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody style="display: inline !important;">
<tr style="display: inline !important;"><td class="tr-caption" style="display: inline !important; text-align: justify;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<span style="font-size: small;">[1] Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words, ©
1992; published by Ocean Tree Books. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-73197380187231287992012-11-18T17:09:00.001-07:002012-11-18T17:11:50.448-07:00Tapestry of the Heart<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
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<b>“</b><b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">Any human life situation<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">is like the momentary position of a kaleidoscope;<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">and the group of souls within that situation<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">are like the bits of brightly colored glass<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">which form an interesting pattern of relationship.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">Then the kaleidoscope is shaken . . .<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">and with this flick of the wrist there comes into being<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">a new design, a new combination of elements.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">And so on, again and again, time after time,<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">always different . . . always it is significant, and always<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;">there is a dynamic and purposeful intention.</span></b><b> ”</b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">~Gina Cerminara, PhD, </span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><i>Many Lives, Many Loves</i></span></span></div>
<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U_1AJnY6IVk/UKlxfXae7iI/AAAAAAAAAT0/PJdGmuek--g/s1600/Tapestry+of+the+Heart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U_1AJnY6IVk/UKlxfXae7iI/AAAAAAAAAT0/PJdGmuek--g/s320/Tapestry+of+the+Heart.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i>Tapestry of the Heart</i></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;"><i><u>New York, New York</u></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">I met Connor on a plane from New
York City.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">At the time, I was dating an
aspiring young photographer whom I had met on the beach in Florida months before.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">He had flown to New York to surprise me for
Valentine’s Day.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">I was surprised
alright; especially when I learned over dinner that he hated children so much that
he had taken medically necessary steps to make sure he didn’t father
any.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">There I was, at yet another
relationship crossroads trying to sort out the truth of my desires.</span><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">Did I even want to have children?</span><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">Did I see myself as a mother?</span><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">What was motivating my decision?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">We had argued when I broke up with
him.</span><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">The next day, he insisted that I
accompany him to Ground Zero.</span><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">In an
effort to appeal his case, he reminded me that the people who went to work
there on September 11</span><sup style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">th</sup><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"> fully expected to return home that
night.</span><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">“Life is uncertain,” he
said.</span><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">“How do you even know that you can
have children?”</span><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">True, he had a point,
and we really did have fun together.</span><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">But
logic notwithstanding, a red flag waived in my mind’s eye.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i><u>The Meeting</u></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">So it was on my return flight to
Florida that Connor introduced himself.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">He was my age, single, ruggedly handsome, had never been married but
wanted to be, and he adored children.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">He
couldn’t wait to have a family of his own, information he proudly volunteered
over in-flight cocktails.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">We talked
non-stop, and by the time we arrived at the gate in Atlanta it was as if we
were old friends.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">He asked if he could
call me sometime; he would look me up the next time he came to Florida.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">I gave him my number and we parted ways.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Meanwhile, I was in a state of flux. </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">I knew I needed to call
things off (again) with the photographer, but I was swayed by
indecision and basically avoiding the inevitable.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Then Connor called.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">It had been more than a month since
we met.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">I had thought of him often,
remembering his passion for children and family and finding comfort in
that.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">So when he called to tell me that
he would be in my area at the end of the month, I readily accepted his
invitation for dinner and, that night, I ended things with the photographer.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">But Connor and I never did have
that dinner.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">His trip was delayed.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">I went to L.A.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">We re-scheduled.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">His flight was cancelled.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">I went back to New York.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">We rescheduled.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Through it all we continued to speak by phone
almost every day for three months until, finally, we came up with a plan:</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">A double concert weekend with James Taylor in
Atlanta and Elton John in Pensacola.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">We
planned every detail, excited to see each other again when I returned from New
York.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i><u>A Love Connection</u></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Then one night about a week before
our date, Connor and I were talking on the phone and the subject turned to
love.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">“<i>Have you ever been in love?”</i> I
asked.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Connor laughed, and then told me of
his childhood sweetheart Karley.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">They
had grown up together, both from large Irish-Catholic families.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">In the 4</span><sup style="text-indent: 0.5in;">th</sup><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> grade, she had given
him a homemade Valentine, and he kissed her.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">They were inseparable after that, dating throughout high school and
college.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">The summer after graduate
school, she gave him a Celtic friendship ring and proposed marriage.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">He accepted.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">A year later, Connor called the whole thing off.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i>“Why?”</i> I asked.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i>“She didn’t want to have children.”</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i>“Is that the only reason you broke
things off?”</i> I pried.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i>“Yeah, I guess so.” </i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i>“What would make her not want to
have children?”</i> I furthered.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
“<i>Well, she had just finished grad
school and was about to start a new job</i> . . .”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i>“How long has it been since you’ve
seen her?”</i> I coaxed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
“<i>At least four years, but I hear
about her from time to time through mutual friends.”</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
“<i>What would you do if she came back
to you and said, ‘Connor, I’ve changed my mind; I do want children’?”</i> I posed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i>“Honestly? I don’t know. I’ve never considered that. When she said ‘no children,’ all bets were
off. What about you?”</i> he asked, changing
the subject, <i>“When was your last relationship?"</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">I told him about my recent break-up
with the photographer for similar reasons, and we marveled at the
parallel.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">But I couldn’t ignore the
small voice within warning me that Connor was not mine to love.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i><u>Calling All Angels</u></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Two days before our long-anticipated
first date Connor called, <i>“I’ve got good news, and bad news,”</i> he said.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i>“Okay, let me have it; good news
first.” </i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i>“Well, Monday, after we spoke, I
couldn’t quit thinking about your questions. They stirred up a lot of painful
memories for me. I stayed up all night
reading old letters and looking at pictures of Karley . . . of us . . . just
thinking about things. Then, yesterday,
I called her. We talked for six hours
and guess what? She’s sick of Manhattan;
bored with the corporate world. She wants
to have children! She’s ready to begin
that part of her life! No joke. We’re
meeting in Hilton Head this weekend, can you believe it?”</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i>“Oh my goodness, that’s . . .
wonderful?”</i> I said, shocked yet
fascinated!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i>“And so the bad news is, well, I’m
canceling our date. Are you mad?” </i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<i>“Are you kidding? How could I be mad? The whole time you were talking about Karley,
I knew she was your soul mate. Just
promise that you’ll keep me posted; let me know what happens.”</i> He promised that he would.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">The following Tuesday Connor called
with news of his engagement.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><i>“We have
you to thank,”</i> he said.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><i><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">“I told Karley
that if it hadn’t been for your questions, I never would have called her.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">You’re an angel; really, I think you’re an
angel.”</span></i><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">I was so happy for them, yet I
could hardly believe it was true.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">I had
met this guy once on a plane and hadn’t seen him since.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Now here we were, more than 3 months later, sharing
this incredible moment of transformation. I would never view my relationships
the same again.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i><u>Giving Thanks<o:p></o:p></u></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Today I am humbled as
I reflect on my life, filled with gratitude for the brilliant threads linking
past, present and future, and as I step confidently in the direction of my
dreams, hand-in-hand with my beloved, I know that I am exactly where I’m
supposed to be, comforted by the delicate intertwining of spirits, meaningful and purpose-driven.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the end I've learned it's true: No matter the outcome, when we’re open and willing to look beyond
our immediate needs, our connections with others will bring the most significant
opportunities for self-discovery, expand our capacity for human
understanding, and leave the greatest space for love.</span></div>
</span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9092625269540858404.post-54255628479974330852012-10-22T15:19:00.000-06:002012-10-22T15:21:36.515-06:00IT'S ALL IN YOUR MIND!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">“Don’t Make Assumptions.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Find the courage to ask questions<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">and to express what you really want.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Communicate with others as clearly as
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<b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and
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<b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">you can
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<i><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">~ Miguel Angel Ruiz<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HHaaUcLHA8I/UIW2of2I8lI/AAAAAAAAATk/pw0P_HiVLa0/s1600/photo+(6).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HHaaUcLHA8I/UIW2of2I8lI/AAAAAAAAATk/pw0P_HiVLa0/s320/photo+(6).jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As You Think (c) 2012</td></tr>
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They stayed in the city that night instead of retuning home
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Thrilled to be out walking past 9 p.m. (something they
rarely did in their mountain community), they walked slowly, hand-in-hand,
savoring the night, as they moved comfortably between sound bites of their busy
week and absolute silence. Then it
happened, one of those “Aha!” moments that brings understanding. The exchange went something like this:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>HE SAID:</b> You know, if
we kept our place in the mountains and bought a house or condo in the city, we
could go walking like this every night.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>SHE SAID:</b> That would
be fantastic!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>HE SAID:</b> But once our
child starts school we couldn’t do that.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>SHE SAID:</b> Why
not? We could just go after dinner.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>HE SAID:</b> No, that
won’t work. Once our kid starts school
we won’t be able to do that!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>SHE SAID </b>(with growing frustration)<b>:</b> Well, why the heck not? I mean, once the kid starts school he’ll be
old enough to stay up past 7 p.m., so why couldn’t we just have an early dinner
and go right after?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>HE SAID</b> (also with growing frustration)<b>:</b> What are you talking about? Once the kid starts school it won’t even be
an option!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>SHE SAID</b> (eyebrows cocked, hands on hips and evermore frustration)<b>:</b> What am I talking about? What are <i>YOU
</i>talking about? It’s not like our kid
has to go to bed at 5 p.m.—why couldn’t we just go after dinner?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>HE SAID</b> (voice raised, chest bowed and that tone he gets
when he’s convinced he’s among idiots)<b>:</b>
Once school starts we’re not going to be running back and forth like
that just to go for a walk in the City!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
They stopped in their tracks and looked at each other, their
faces colored with a mix of amused irritation and a hint of understanding;
something in their communiqué was amuck!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Turns out, she had assumed that if they had a second home in
this lovely neighborhood that their child would attend the prestigious Academy,
a charter school located right in the middle of the development, so there was
no reason why they couldn’t make this walk every night after dinner if they
chose to. But she didn’t say that; not
to him anyway; not out loud.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
And it turns out that he had assumed that once the kid
started school they would be staying at their mountain home during the week
because that’s where he would be registered for school, in his home
community. But he didn’t explain any of
that; not to her anyway; not out loud.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
But the real kicker is that this “child” they spoke of, the
one whose schooling would prevent these fabulous evening walks through the
city—completely fictitious; an unborn idea between an unmarried couple dreaming
out loud about the future.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
All the while, she thought he was being uptight about their
child’s bedtime and he thought she had gone mad thinking they would be driving
up and down the mountain to accommodate a late night city stroll, neither
making any sense to the other at all.
But as the hole in their communication cleverly revealed itself, real
magic happened. There, in the gap, they
saw the unspoken assumptions that had led them down this path of
confusion. They laughed so hard it hurt!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Thing is, so much of our experience of life takes place in
our heads! Sure, we move about in our
day-to-day existence, grounded in the physical.
Yet whole worlds exist up there in the space between, real or
imagined—for good or ill—and our perception of the world and the people in it
and what’s going on around us all come from that place; including our
disappointments about the way things “ought to be,” which points the finger of
our personal suffering right back at us!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
We make assumptions and then we make assumptions about those
assumptions—assuming others are operating with the same understanding—many of
which are flawed and which, in oft surprising ways, trigger our emotional
experience and inflame our hotspots.
Next thing you know, you find yourself in that heated debate
over why you can or can’t take an evening walk in the city after dinner with
your unborn child because of where he’ll go to school!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Fascinating and a little bit scary when you consider that on
some level we’re all doing this—experiencing the world around us in our heads—which may or may not produce an accurate picture of what’s really going
on. The key, I think, is to ask questions.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">When we make clarity and truth a priority in our lives, it allows us to a</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">cknowledge when we don’t understand something, to ask for confirmation, without getting all tangled up in the ego's need to be right.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> And as our young couple learned, when we </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">seek to bridge those communication gaps rather than assume another’s intent when we feel confused
or offended, real magic awaits. The only dumb questions are those not asked, so go ahead, give it a go. You'll </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">be surprised at the
outcome and, who knows, you might just have a good laugh! </span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">By Melissa E. Johnson © 2011 HeartLaw.blogspot.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to view the homepage: www.HeartLaw.blogspot.com.</div>Melissa Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06055068755255017279noreply@blogger.com0