Tag Archives: Hope

Hope Is the Beating Heart . .

05 Wednesday Jul 2017

Posted by in Attitude, Choices, Contentment, Faith, God, Hope, Joy, Peace, Purpose

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Something sorely lacking from our society today is hope. Hope, the promise of something more than this life, something better tomorrow than today, is the fulfillment of God’s Word as truth. Hope is the beating heart which refuses to quit when every single impulse screams otherwise! Hope is looking through, beyond, and with your heart filled with promise because there is actually more than this, more than this one moment of pain, discomfort, failure, loss, and brokenness. Hope leads us each new day with faith into all the unknowns, beyond all our negativity, past our own emotions, and through all that seems to weaken our will. Hope. Hope in something more than this! Never cease in hoping, regardless those “realists” who insist that being hopeful is a weak man’s game played with no prize or victory in the end! There is always a reason to hope, and in spite of those intellectuals who insist otherwise, hope compels us to live with more joy, peace of mind, and contentment within. Hope is a reward in and of itself! A hopeful attitude keeps us afloat when others around us are drowning in uncertainty, despair, worry, or other temporary states of being! Hope within keeps us from letting our current emotions color our life for all time!

 

Sure, someone reading this may speak to the triteness of these expressions and adages regarding hope. They may have their own personal experiences to prove me wrong! They may have tried consistently to be hopeful, yet things never reversed or turned out otherwise! Perhaps they just let the world and their temporary circumstances define their lives in total. Letting others in this world, or even the present state of the world as you perceive it, dictate your emotions is like giving the keys to your home and car to another for safe keeping! Your emotions are in your control, they’re not contingent upon the actions, words, beliefs, or even emotions of others. Sure we may empathize or sympathize with others, we may share in many emotions such as joy. But we are the only ones who decide whether or not we are joyful, peaceful, content and hopeful about our lives now and in whatever time we face ahead! Hope is our choice to believe that this life is purposeful, meaningful, and even with momentary hardships, failures, or despair, that this life is worth living!  

A lot of what our lives become is in our will and hands to decide! Our emotions surely are, even if circumstances, events, and the state of the world overall are not. We could just go with the flow, allowing our lives to become purely reactionary in response, rather than purposefully choosing to be hopeful in spite of whatever happens to us or around us! Hope is God’s promises for our lives realized in our faithful perseverance through everything, knowing that we are ultimately here for His purposes! Things are not promised to us, our lives will not always be pain-free, happy-go-lucky, or even seen constantly through rose-colored lenses! Life happens, our duty is to learn, develop, change, grow, choose, and to move forward with hope. That is our chosen role. Hope for our own lives is not something we should leave to others who have their own lives to live. Hope is not a far-fetched concept only the lucky can master! Hope is merely a choice we make every single day to not just exist in our current state of being, but rather to look forward, through, beyond, and into the future with joyful expectancy as well as contented faith in God’s plans for us! Hope promises us that this is not all there is. Hope assures us that today’s events and our present emotions are not the sole markers of our lives overall. Hope affirms to us that life is uncertain, but the choice is always ours to be content, to stay peaceful, to stay joyful within, to feel what emotions we must for a time but then to heal and move forward. We owe it to ourselves to keep hope ever-present within, as it provides the comfort, compass, and blanket of rest over everything we experience and feel! 

Spring Green . .

19 Sunday Mar 2017

Posted by in Beauty, Blessings, Celebration, Faithfulness, Gratitude, Hope

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I am always so enthralled by the new, bright green which bursts forth in Spring! The world wakes from a seasonal slumber called Winter to reflect life’s enduring promise – it goes on! Life and all living beings seem so determined to live defiantly regardless the threat of weather, the pests and diseases which plague all living matter, and the risk involved in expending the energy just to do so! 

But oh what brilliance there is each new Spring each year when it happens! I drive down the streets and take notice of a shimmer, a glow, a vivid green color which I can only define or proclaim as Spring green. It’s unique, as those same leaves settle and age into a shade less new and brilliant soon after. It’s the color of green which indicates life’s revival for another new year and it’s profoundly beautiful, especially in a desert climate such as where I reside.  

Along with the brilliant, bright green, there are amazing shades of flowers, scented and not, bursting forth on many shrubs, trees, and in many beds of annuals and perennials. And the outlying drab desert, normally not so colorful especially by the end of Summer, is now awash with patchwork quilt squares of colorful wildflowers, after a generous Winter rainy season. There is so much color, along with the bright green, that the desert belies itself!

I am not sure everyone notices this bejeweled Spring green as much as I do each and every year. Of course, the flowers in abundance are hard to miss! It’s because of the harsh Summer realities approaching and the struggles I know are ahead for me as a gardener and plant enthusiast, that I perhaps give this annual green phenomenon more attention than other people do! In that intense new green, I see great promise, I see beauty, I see the plants’ determined strength and I see life-sustaining energy expended while it’s possible! Our Summer is like Winter for many plants in other colder climates, a time of rest. Many plant species must slow down and mostly go dormant in colder climates just to survive, and they grow more slowly or not at all just to preserve more essential energy. In our desert extremes, it is much the same! Many plants die during our Summer, from either the extremes of drought, heat or through diseases caused in great part by those stressors during the extreme months. And if they don’t die, they often struggle! A plant requires energy for its respiration and photosynthesis. If it is struggling just to find enough water or to evade intense heat each day, has dropped all it’s leaves or is diseased, all of that makes it almost impossible to sustain life in a desert Summer lasting nearly five months!  

 

Spring green represents all the hopefulness of life which wants to eagerly defy this usually dry climate, the changing seasons ahead, and the speculative nature of rainfall! Shiny new leaves are the enthusiastic bursts at the end of each Winter, which for gardeners like me, represent our desire to beautify in spite of all the hardships, limitations and challenges doing so presents! Gardeners are faith-filled, hopeful, and readily see the beauty even in the imperfections normally found in life! And desert gardeners are better able to “weather” the harsh realities of our hardest season ahead by appreciating the surreal beauty of an ardent Spring!  

Good Friday Reminders . .

25 Friday Mar 2016

Posted by in Blessings, Choices, Christianity, Faithfulness, God, Gratitude, Hope, Inspiration, Peace

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This morning, I had made a plan to drive to another part of town with my mom to have breakfast and do some shopping. It seemed a great plan for our Good Friday in preparation for Resurrection/Easter Sunday this weekend. We started out fairly early and ran into a delay on the highway. It wasn’t long before we saw the reason why all the lanes of the freeway were back up. Five or six vehicles had apparently collided in some sort of debacle, which had sent them turning, spinning and careening in all directions. One had penetrated the wire fence separating the freeway lanes and granite-covered sloped shoulder from the traffic lanes up to the access road running alongside, another had smashed into the median and turned toward oncoming traffic. The granite from the shoulder had been flung all over the lanes, and the emergency vehicles were still not on site. Obviously, we had just missed the mayhem occurring, and the ensuing chaos of ambulances, tow trucks, police cars and cleanup crews. We proceeded through the mess with caution, along with the other three lanes of traffic, winnowing into two to bypass the strewn-about cars and the people who drove them. It was frightening to witness the scene, surely something shocking and potentially fatal had occurred. It shook us up as we passed cautiously, and it seemed such an auspicious start to the day. I could only say prayers for the people who were awaiting help there on the freeway this Good Friday morning.   12809794_786221654844305_6885769805558789252_n

And as we made our way to breakfast, we felt contemplative and still a bit unnerved for having witnessed such a mess for all those people involved in that traffic accident. We wondered how all the occupants of those vehicles were and if they had made it through the catastrophic start to their day. On such a beautiful and celebratory morning as this, it surely seemed a tragic start for those drivers and passengers in the five or six vehicles involved. And it reminded us of how fortunate we were today, having just made our way to our destination safely and soundly.  It reminded us to be grateful again for our lives and for the moments we have.  All blessings for sure! I had already seen sad news before leaving the house in regards to those still missing in Brussels, Belgium after the terrorist bombing there two days ago. I had learned that the two missing siblings, who were on their way home to New York, had been killed. I couldn’t help but feel sad hearing about the loss of two such young victims with all their lives ahead, and for the fact that so many around the world had hoped and prayed for them to be found alive. I know they probably died instantly, as I heard they were right near the bomb as it detonated.   10569033_1032352880152144_4730757488208241423_n

And I realize today has epitomized Good Friday, even with the trauma, danger, loss and sadness for some. Just like that day, even though Jesus was crucified in horrible and excruciating fashion, we know He conquered death and the grave!  Even in spite of the chaos and mayhem of this world, the goodness, love, mercy and faithful promises of God are with us always! We needn’t fear death, or whatever comes to our flesh, for His promises have stood the test of time. Prophesied and fulfilled that fateful day over two thousand years ago, Jesus willingly going to his death upon that cross is our constant source of peace, an assurance of God’s abiding love and a way to live with joy in spite of the world we’re now in! All the battles, heartaches, pains and torments we face are fleeting and can never take us from God! For as Jesus overcame this world, the wages of sin and death itself, so will we! All these things which can impact us while we live in the flesh are passing, our eternity is what matters! The ultimate blessing in this life is knowing that God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only begotten Son so that whosoever believeth will not perish but have eternal life! John 3:16       Signature02

Some Will Never Grasp . .

02 Thursday Jul 2015

Posted by in Choices, Contentment, God, Hope, Joy, Peace, Positivity, Uncategorized

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Some will never grasp how much beauty and joy there is in life. They’ve made up their minds that because they don’t live in a bigger house or have all they want or make more money or realize all their dreams or . . well, they just find endless ways or one reason to write all their life off as failed, terrible, rejected, horrible, miserable or worthless. No matter the beauty around them, the love of others, the gift of one more day or the bounty of life’s miracles played out each second, they’ve decided to view all of life as negative. Perhaps they’ve endured tremendous things which took their joy. But in letting their joy lapse every day since, they’ve given their power over to others or to situations or to circumstances which negate their contentment, joy and peace of mind for the rest of their life! If I tried to convince them that there were blessings all around them, joy in precious moments, gifts of time and breath, or a bounty of life they’ve chosen to waste, they simply would not believe me easily or readily. They’ve made up their mind, this life sucks!    96022541

Unfortunately, they would miss seeing the examples of others whom I have witnessed. Perhaps they have not taken notice of those souls, pressed with possible peril or up against unbelievable odds themselves, who are determined to be joyful in spite! Possibly they refuse to notice for themselves the very nature of life’s daily persistence; how it pulls us into each new moment we’re given whether we like it or not! How I pray daily that every soul could experience such a sense and awareness of life’s preciousness and meaning; as well as the very worth of each person, every creature, each bounty of abundance or the infinite blessings in every single day. Unfortunately, some people have made up their minds that this life wasn’t bountiful enough. Sadly, they’ve chosen to believe nothing is a real blessing, not even their own beating heart. Tragically, they don’t respect or value their own infinite worth, much less believing that about others. All of their life is lumped into the negative overall mindset they have created for themselves or experienced. Maybe it takes God’s hands and His will upon our lives to realize our own failings in that regard; for that would be my explanation as to why I see everything as I do. It would be my response as to why I refuse to give into life’s overwhelming negativity and the daily chaos which threatens my peace of mind and my positive spirit.  I am not sure even then that some souls will ever understand the true value, meaning and purpose for their lives, if they refuse to let God be a part of theirs. I only know that without an understanding as to what love truly is, from Whom it comes, people feel dejected, adrift and lost more often than not. Life becomes increasingly meaningless when there is nothing of meaning to enrich it. God is my tether in calms seas and storms! He gives my life its meaning! 306528_10150979705179939_409182314_n

Without sensing a purpose greater than themselves for being, life itself must seem tragic, cruel, hopeless, fatiguing or brutal at times. God gives my life such infinite sense of worth, purpose, hope and love; like a big safety net around my soul, He gives me beauty for my chaos, a will to not cave in and a hopeful desire in His promises to faithfully expect what awaits me beyond this breaking world. Some may think me foolish for believing as I do; but if they believe THIS is all there is to life, only the chaos and madness of this world, I would believe them the fools! Comparing and contrasting the mayhem, failings and futility of humanity to the promises of God is always going to leave humanity lacking. And so we have a glaring perspective on what is happening in the world right now. Humanity is failing more and more the further it extricates itself from God! Souls are perishing in the futile void created by human will without hope, faith and an understanding of their value in life or God’s will for their lives. A life with God is not going to be trouble-free or seem idyllic. In fact, there will be challenges as a believer which often can make things seem harder! But His love, promises and the hope which He instills offsets the challenges, difficulties, trials and failures; washing over the faithful, restoring and renewing their souls and spirits. How sad for those who miss the chance to have contentment, joy and peace of mind in this life as well; in knowing God and His love!  Signature02

Cleanup, Maintenance and Restoration . .

30 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by in Attitude, Choices, Contentment, Discipline, Joy, Maturity

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A little rain, a lot of rumbling . . after last week’s monsoon, the one last night seemed a wee bit gentler and efficient. It was just progressively darkening skies, which promised rain and finally delivered with thunderous claps; there were no huge dust storms carried in by disturbing wind gusts. No more tree branches came down and not much debris was scattered.  I hope it washed away some of the remaining mess from the last storm last week, which just blew a lot of stuff into new places!  article-2011713-0CE2031700000578-751_964x626

Earlier yesterday afternoon I had warned my friend Joe, while he cleaned my pool, that there were storms hovering nearby. He looked all around the sky for proof, not really all that convinced. In jest he told me that once he cleans all the pools for that particular day in Summertime, during our monsoon season, he goes home and shuts the windows and shades in his house to effectively shut out the fact that a storm might come and eradicate all that day’s hard work out in the heat and humidity! It would have been hard to silence last night’s storms in that way, booming with such resonance! I hope he was successful though. I’m sure that it is frustrating to have cleaned all those pools yesterday, only to have a storm roll through and mess them up anew.  1394793942827

But isn’t that life’s real conundrum for us all in some way . . our real lack of control as mere mortal human beings in setting circumstances and keeping them just as we want them, neatly, tidily and ideally?? Each day we take what comes, giving everything our best for that day in hopeful planning, reaction and response. We must loosen or release our hold and our sense of control on most everything but our emotions; and faithfully, we must learn to wait to see what comes next in life. Rarely do things go entirely as we had planned or envisioned in our minds eye. Clean up, maintenance and restoration is not just left to those who clean pools in Phoenix during monsoon season. It’s just a part of life we must all come to expect and to tolerate! Most of the time, because we can only control what comes from within us . . . we must learn how to adapt, to alter and to amend our plans when life doesn’t play out as we planned. If we want to enjoy our lives overall, we must not let the unexpected and unplanned stuff which happens that is out of our control overwhelm us or impact us for too long. We must resolve ourselves to cleanup, maintenance and restoration each new day.  Signature02

Sailing On, With Hope and Faith . .

16 Saturday May 2015

Posted by in aging, Attitude, Choices, Courage, Faith, Hope, Life

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I used to believe that life’s simplicity emanated from an earlier, easier time. Now I realize that nothing has really ever been “simple”, it was just how I processed life happening to me and around me that has changed. When I was a child, even the biggest ordeal or disappointment soon faded into hopefulness with a childlike sense of promise for what was yet to come. As an adult, we are able to process things with a much deeper analytic nature; we view life through lenses of regret and “what if”. We consider consequences, and have experienced many more of the hard knocks life often brings just by living. So we understand our mortality, life’s wear and tear, as well as relating to our perceived failings and shortcomings. We also should understand our measure of success better, and even bring light to them via a different perspective.  imagesZFNKFINA

To “grow up” means not only a physical renouncing of what once was with our bodies, but it also means that we have accepted change within! We should know as adults that if all things were easy and safe, our lives would not have amounted to much at all in the way of inner development or growth, much less wisdom! We then should readily accept our role as student in life’s giant daily classroom. Our day as student didn’t end when we left the safety of our kindly teachers and friends in adolescence. It didn’t end when we walked a field to receive a significant diploma.    motivation-98015-1024x640

Life only progresses to bigger and more arduous learning experiences, for which we should consider ourselves suitably able to face rather than to dodge! When we dodge those challenges, walk safely without meeting them head on, or even when we accept ourselves as failures for not overcoming them, we are settling for less in life!

Life is for the over-comers! We are human beings, but we have to learn how to be human doers as well. We have to accept life coming at us like a series of uncertain waves, hitting our vessel (our being) as we venture out into the uncertain seas of circumstance around us. We may not know for sure our ability to handle all that comes our way, but trust we must and have faith we shall! For the waves of this life won’t stop until breath has left our bodies. If we look at life through our grown-up eyes, the reality is not always what we would have liked; but we had better choose to make the most with what we have while we’re still afloat! So my advice is this: sail onward all ye over-comers! Start by seeing life’s waves as opportunities to rise up with a new, improved you. Let hope and faith be your guides as life leads you onward into more complex and uncertain times and tides. Call upon that inner child’s hopeful spirit if you must!

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The Seed of Hope Within . .

14 Thursday May 2015

Posted by in Attitude, Conquering Fear, Faithfulness, Lessons, Positivity

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If you allow yourself . .  search and find through every struggle, during each test of willful patience and persistence, and in every trial, the counterbalancing measure of hope which can and will develop within if you only let it! We are born that way, we are designed to persist with hope and by faith. If we don’t vanquish our hope for the sake of our weary, worn-down resolve to quit, to give in, to let go, or to harden our hearts and minds.   download (1)

When something is pushing us down, our natural inclination is to push back in self-defense. We’re not naturally inclined to be quitters. Each breath of life and every heartbeat confers that spirit. In each of us is tenacity for the sake of survival, for the sake of developing life wisdom and for the sake of persevering through challenges meant for our betterment. But we all too often let what was an opportunity for growth become an opportunity for fear, doubt and negativity to take root. And in those moments, we design ourselves anew, with fear, doubt, negativity and hardness taking hold!  persistence

Let the seed of hope which is rooted within you be the one which you nurture and feed when the going is tough! If you give hope your faithful attention rather than focusing on feeding your fears, doubts, sense of failure and negativity, you will have a full stockpile of hopeful intentions, thoughts and emotions upon which to call when you need to strengthen your resolve; to push forward and to overcome all the rest of the world! Hope lives within us all as a counterbalance for the rush of life against our living vessel. We are pushed, thrown, plunged and even emerged for what seems eternities in rough seas quite often in life. But it is only when we give way to those forces rather than developing our stick-to-it-ed-ness and willful determination, that we quit on life.  quotes-hope-01-samuel-johnson-600x411

Life is hard, often seemingly it is downright impossible, yet here we all are! Within us is a great strength and willful determination to live, to persist, to thrive and to move forward . . if we just call upon that hope from within rather than fostering what won’t help us in the end! Next time life hands you a challenge, or you are overwhelmed by some set of circumstances, consider the seedling which is pushing back within you for your very own sake. Let hope grow until it breaks through the surface with purposeful intent! Let it fill your mind, heart and spirit with willful and purposeful tenacity, strength and perseverance for the test and whatever lies ahead.   Signature02

Living Takes A Will . .

23 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by in Choices, Commitment, Conquering Fear, Courage, Dreams, Faith, Growing, Success, Trials

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Living takes a will . . one courageous, trusting and hopeful enough to overlook fear, the “what-ifs” and the scrapes of falling in failure. We cannot dare live, with our eyes closed, behind our protective walls and within our safest confines. Living means we face our fears with courage, we endeavor to meet our challenges head on and we keep climbing no matter how many times we slip or fall from this rung or the next. Living isn’t easy, without obstacle; and it surely isn’t done in the safety of our mind’s making. It takes faith, hope, trust, perseverance as well as a surrender to our inability to control every detail and every outcome. But living is worth every scraped knee we endure, each failure, all of our attempts, each broken heart or broken dream. For in getting those, we lived!  images success

No one ever experiences anything worthwhile when merely existing. Push yourself to go beyond today and every day you get by purposefully living rather than merely existing through them. How do we do that and what is the difference? Living means we are already outside of whatever comfort zone we may have set up for ourselves; it means we dare to realize our dreams, to attempt to make our desires reality and it means we don’t give up on ourselves! Living, as opposed to just existing, means that when faced with challenges, we don’t hide, run or flee. We aren’t going to outrun all of our challenges, so the sooner we learn to step up to the plate each one represents, the better. It is life-affirming, confidence-building and esteem-igniting each and every time we take life’s challenges on for the sake of passing the tests and trials each represents to us. If we run, hide, seek to escape or let others do the heavy-lifting in life, we never learn to trust in ourselves, to believe in ourselves or to have faith and hope in our future!  images5Y99UUMF

Just like with our first steps, our first developmental stages through infancy, life never ceases to present to us challenges and learning experiences which we must overcome and pass in order that we may grow and develop into new stages! And each of those new stages brings more of the same by way of tests and trials which we must learn to pass successfully in order that we grow and develop for what lies ahead. Imagine if we had chosen in our toddler years to remain helpless and infantile? No one does that because adulthood represents an promising period which prompts our desire for more. All children seem to want to leapfrog through their development, eager to grow up before their time. Why then do we suddenly find our scraped knees, fears and failures so overwhelming at some advancing age, that we wish to halt our own progress? Keep pushing through challenges, obstacles and all the mess life brings! The only person you really hurt when you let fear, doubt, insecurity or apathy win is you! Make it your goal to live today, with a will, courage, faith and hope. Don’t let life beat you back, down or out.    Signature02

FEED YOUR SOUL

05 Wednesday Sep 2012

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FEED YOUR SOUL

Feed your soul with what you require for this life, starving it of anything you truly need for its preservation can lead to its slow demise.  The soul, just like the physical body, requires certain essential nutrients.  Those for most are:  love, companionship, joy, laughter, spirituality, close relationships born of confidence, and peace of mind.   Some may find they can exist easily without any or all of those, but rarely with a contented soul.  The being which dwells within, your spirit, starts to erode.  Feeding your soul, also means feeding your body, your mind, your heart, and your spirit.  When something is lacking from your inner set of needs, you will begin to feel an ache, a longing, a perpetuation of intolerance building within the cellular walls surrounding your most vital organs.  From there, the disease of the ultimate death of the soul which dwells within you, the wonderous and beautiful creation living on the inside of you, can and does eventually set in.

For me, when something is aching inside, it means it has gone unnourished or untended to.  It is not implausible to garner that for a reason of neglect, disturbance in patterns, inability to reach the “dream” or any other of a number of reasons, we cannot achieve what our souls demand for their very prosperity to thrive.  An example of this is richly quoted on the social media forum, Facebook.  It is often bandied as a profile post:  don’t give all of yourself to someone who sees fit to give you in return only crumbs!  Meaning, if you are more for someone than they can be in return, then the imbalance might cause your inner self to feel a sense of longing, of need, of less instead of enough.  It’s only up to you what you will tolerate in life, but I do know that settling for less than you deserve or than you truly want, will feel like you are starving your body!  Give it what it desires, without harming it with excess.  You must be aware of the internal desire your soul has to not in fact be selfish, but instead, to be the ultimate protector of self.  If you are out of bounds, off track, not in right step, starving the innermost sanctums of your being, you will feel discomfort, sometimes even to the point of a physical sense of pain for that lack!  Learn to listen instinctively to those things happening within your soul, they are in direct link with your spirit and body, if not in right step, you will soon pay in health, happiness, and hope lost!

How can you feed your soul?  It is so easy.  What makes you feel good?  What things do you enjoy that no one can take?  Maybe you love music and deny yourself that extra 1/2 hour of listening time in the car while driving to return phone calls instead.  My thought on that is this, driving and talking is hazardous, it slows down your reaction time, so keep the phone calls until you are stopped and listen to the music instead.  Even if you are a business person, you should just pull over, take the call and then commence in your driving again when you’ve finished.  I bet you learn how to more efficiently handle your cell-phone calls this way!

Put people who mean the most at the top of your life!  You aren’t going to keep them in your life for long if you let them feel diminished or take them for granted.  Life is precious, quit thinking there are tomorrows enough to make up for all the time the excuses used up today!  If you are making excuses for not doing something consistently, chances are you just didn’t want to do it anyway!  It’s a reality.   With the people we love, we must tend to the relationship every day, as though it were a garden and that without our care, something each day would wither and die.  Eventually, enough parts will have perished, that upon your unexpected return, you will find the garden has in fact completely gone, nothing is left.  Now I believe real love doesn’t die, but in that moment of such repetitive disregard, it has learned to shut itself off with all the negative things . . . like when weeds ultimately choke out the living, thriving plants in a garden.  They didn’t die, they were overtaken by something else and replaced!  If you love and value someone, you want to put them high up on your list of priorities, that relationship is something you don’t wish to forget to take care of each and every day!  

In feeding your soul, you can feed the world!  The souls and bodies, spirits and minds of this world are linked, and therefore, when we feed and nourish that which lives in us, we help to nurture the world.  No life is distinguishable from another, it is connected through humanity, and of course, the sum total experience of that humanity.  Live life with your soul nourished, and you shall give yourself back to the world, healthier, happier, and filled with hope! 

HOPELESS OR HOPEFUL

16 Saturday Oct 2010

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HOPELESS OR HOPEFUL

 

Are you always left to wonder, hopeless or hopeful romantic?  We live in a world, where, by the nature of our lifestyles – the busy way we proceed through our days, we are often hitting and missing the mark with one another . . . love is left stranded and abandoned on the rocky shore, battered by the waves, we are beaten down.  We search, we seek, we hope, we wait. We give and expect, until we think, surely there is nothing worth giving and waiting for.  Just when we think we will find love, sometimes even then, it can be a shocking and surprise reality check.  We might begin to think love is a great urban myth created by some mass marketer just to get us to buy more greeting cards!  Love is real, it just isn’t always really there.  It might be imagined, it might even be so hoped for, that it becomes an illusion pursued by two people who aren’t even able to see the facade which they created.  In other words, sometimes love becomes so desired, the very hope of it is what makes it seem a genuine occurrence, when in fact, it isn’t love, it is infatuation or another precursor to love, which will then wither and die.  Love will never wither and die.  Never.  Not when it is real.  It may be injured, maimed, abused and become tainted by melodious additives like jealousy and resentment, but real love is felt forever.  There is always a piece of the heart which holds the love of another forever.

Now that’s the bleak part.  The better part is the hopeful part.  The hopeless part speaks to those who strive to find love, again and again, making the same mistakes, the same choices, the same plays in all the same “games” repeatedly.  It isn’t that they actually want the same result, but they never learned from the prior experiences, which is the most desired part of having those life-lessons which can hurt.  We are compelled to learn something from each one to move ourselves forward in the process of living, so that we are not continuously repeating those very same mistakes.  That is the goal. It is only when we know who we are, love ourselves and respect ourselves adequately, and have a genuine appreciation for the chance to give our love before receiving it, that we will even have a chance at finding the real depth of love which exists in a relationship between two strangers brought together in a committed relationship.  Love isn’t about completion, nor is it about waiting upon someone else to make you happy . . . it’s about a true and real desire to be the addition to another person’s life, with the desired goal of enhancing their life, helping them through all aspects of living, and giving your love, care and compassion in an unselfish way to another person for the total betterment of their experience while here on planet Earth.  If you are measuring those gifts you give on a meter, or placing too much expectation about what you’re receiving in return, then chances are you might only ever find a superficial aspect of emotion, which never leads to the depths you are hoping for where love is concerned.

The most hopeful elements of love to me are the ways it can actually catch you by surprise when just musing it over.  It exists internally at such a level of consciousness, that it almost feels surreal at times.  It is truly indescribable.  It is hard for most people to make an adequate attempt at describing what love is . . a feeling, an emotion, a sense . . it is all of that and so much more.  It is beyond definition because it is beyond our capability of understanding in its most genuine form.  Real love, the kind which outlasts the initial attraction phase, and grows into the full-fledge, stand-by-one-another-forever stage is something so pure of spirit, so totally unfettered by human flaws of thinking and behaving, that it is surely beyond even our ability to measure, define, nor verbalize, much less properly understand. It is the ability to put yourself after another in need; to want the very best for another human in every endeavor; to feel a need to protect, nurture and assist another without fear for your own safety in this life even.  Does that sound too dramatic, too fantastic to you?  Then perhaps you’ve not loved anyone unconditionally through a daily decisive covenant to do exactly that.  Love, the best gift you ever received, is only that way when you first give it away without ever expecting its return!  Love, in any language, is always hopeful, the greatest source of joy, the biggest purveyor of faith, and the truest gift of God’s grace.