Month: June 2014

Ideas for peace, love and joy

by energywriter, posted in Thoughts to Ponder

June 20, 2014

This week I’ve been a bit under the weather so am offering you a few bits of knowledge I’ve picked up here and there. I originally thought this might be a Mid-year Resolution list, but know living in the moment is more important. Besides resolutions don’t work unless you think you are worthy of the outcome.

“Anything is possible. Stay open, forever, so open it hurts, and then open up some more, until the day you die, world without end, amen.”
George Saunders*

Message

Dr. Phil McGraw – Words to live by in 2014*
– Everybody has a personal truth.
– A strong sense of self is the foundation….
– A successful reinvention … happens when you love yourself enough to believe you can do better and deserve better.
– The Universe rewards action.
– The major difference between a dream and a goal is a timeline for progress … (and) accountability.
– We generate the results we believe we deserve.

Martha Beck’s Plan for finding joy*
– Have a vision.
– Let go of what doesn’t work.
– Don’t be afraid to fail.
– Pay attention to what really matters to you.

Brené Brown – Dare to play*
– Create a play list … activities you could do for hours on end.
– Carve out time on your calendar – protect playtime the way you protect work ….
– Play well with others …. things that make us all our most silly, creative, and free-spirited selves.

Iyanla Vanzant – How do I break a negative pattern?*
– Notice it.
– Know its cause.
– Slow down! … to see things for what they really are.
– Forgive yourself.
– Check in … What am I doing and why?

* All of the quotes come from the January 2014 O, the Oprah magazine.

Meditation

Creator Spirit,
Thank you for these wise people who offer their knowledge to us. We know that there are many more teachers circling us daily. We know, but sometimes deny, that we are teachers too, sometimes for good, sometimes for bad. Please show us how to step into our truth and be the best teachers we can be.
And, so it is.

If you know someone who would appreciate reading “Thoughts to Ponder,” please suggest that he or she contact me at: energywriter@cox.net

Sharon D. Dillon, energywriter@cox.net,
Go to http://energywriter.me to read postings at “Laugh your way to peace love and joy.”
Chesapeake Bay Writers, Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop, Southern Humorists, National Society of Newspaper Columnists
Author of one of 14 stories in The Book of Mom: Reflections of Motherhood with Love, Hope and Faith, published by booksyoucantrust.com. Available in print and e-format at Amazon.com

Contents may be forwarded, but please give credit where credit is due and erase all email addresses on original message.

Thoughts to Ponder

by energywriter, posted in Thoughts to Ponder

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did, but
people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Maya Angelou

Message

This is not a tribute to Dr. Angelou, though I’d be glad to add my praise to all the others who’ve taken the time to write about her impact on their lives. I’ll just say that she gave me courage to keep on keeping on.

Her quote explains how most of us got to where we are today. Our station in life often reflects how people have made us feel over the years. Retrospectives are a pain, but they often teach us what we need to know today.

• Did our parents, teachers, friends and spouses let us know they valued our presence, knowledge and love?
• Did they show us that we were a nuisance, substandard and a drain on their emotions, money and time?
• Did they just ignore us and pretend we didn’t exist?

We’ve all felt valued, devalued and ignored. Which of those dominated our lives and made us the people we are today? How do we treat other people? Do we value, devalue or ignore them? How will our actions impact those people as they go out into the world?

No matter how we have been treated in the past, we can determine to be better people. We have a choice about how we treat ourselves. Are we kind, considerate, forgiving of our selves. How we treat ourselves is reflected in how we treat others.

As someone once said, “God don’t make junk. So don’t act like you are.”

Meditation
Creator Spirit, thank you for the gift of life and the ability to evaluate our actions and how they’ve been impacted by our experiences. We thank you that you’ve given us the ability to learn and improve. We choose to be messengers of love, kindness and thoughtful action that bring peace and confidence to those we meet on our journey.
And, so it is.

Sharon D. Dillon, energywriter@cox.net, http://energywriter.me
Chesapeake Bay Writers, Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop, Southern Humorists, National Society of Newspaper Columnists
Author of one of 14 stories in The Book of Mom: Reflections of Motherhood with Love, Hope and Faith, published by booksyoucantrust.com. Available in print and e-format at Amazon.com

Contents may be forwarded, but please give credit where credit is due and erase all email addresses on original message.

Thoughts to Ponder – Anger

by energywriter, posted in Whimsy

June 4, 2014

“Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrong.” – Charlotte Bronte

 “You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.” – Indira Gandhi

“What I’ve learned about being angry with people is that it generally hurts you more than it hurts them.” – Oprah Winfrey

 Message

 People seem to be angry lately. We were angry in the 60s and 70s, but seemed to come back to our senses and live more quietly. During the decades since our world made a lot of strides and a lot of mistakes, but we grew and lived together in relative peace, that is, until the past few years when our personal, national and international anger has grown and become more dangerous for the citizens of many countries, including our own.

In some countries the citizens are overthrowing their governments. Others are being invaded by larger and more-well-armed neighbors. Some people think that anyone who has a different outlook on life should be killed. In our own country more and more people who feel alienated decide to take it out on others, sometimes many others. We then grieve for those who gave their lives.

Some of our politicians seem to think that the only way to achieve their ends is to set up blocks to any kind of progress or change. Some seem to think that anything proposed by the other political party is evil and must be obliterated. Some seem to think that particular politicians are determined to destroy our country. This was the attitude in the years leading up to and including the Civil War and several years after.

Do we want to relive those years with more deadly weapons?

Are we willing to see that we all bleed the same color blood?

Are we willing to try to accept our neighbors for who they are?

Are we and our politicians willing to listen to the others’ opinions?

Are we willing to accept that we all want the same outcome but are approaching the problem from different angles?

Are we willing to talk to each other and learn what is in the other person’s heart?

Or are we going to continue to act on what we think the other person is thinking?

 Meditation

 Creator,

Thank you for this beautiful world and all the people and creatures on it. Open our eyes to see that all of us just want what we think is best for our loved ones. Open our hearts so each of us can learn to accept the other for who he or she is inside. Open our minds to be willing to reach out to those we think are our enemies. I ask this for each person on our planet Earth, no matter who he or she may be. And, so it is.

 If you know someone who would appreciate reading “Thoughts to Ponder,” please suggest that he or she contact me at: energywriter@cox.net

Sharon D. Dillon, energywriter@cox.net, http://energywriter.me

Chesapeake Bay Writers, Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop, Southern Humorists, National Society of Newspaper Columnists

Is author of one of 14 stories in The Book of Mom: Reflections of Motherhood with Love, Hope and Faith, published by booksyoucantrust.com and available in print and e-format at Amazon.com.