I’m writing tonight on a combination of things. As I was catching up on reading some posts and e-mails today, I was reminded again of how grateful I am, the guidance I’ve been receiving even though I haven’t always been aware of it and to let our brilliance shine.

REMINDER: How Grateful I Am
From Colloquium’s All Women Blogging Carnival, I read Patricia Singleton’s post of her trip to India and even though this is not in the same way I was reminded how grateful I am for my 88-year old mother-in-law who is due to fly back home to Toledo, Ohio Tuesday. She has been out in Denver visiting with us, her sons and their families, for the holidays. What courage and determination she has traveling alone with her walker and diminished hearing. It was the first Christmas after losing Dad in May and she didn’t want to be home. Although she was in Denver in September, this trip took its toll on her with the altitude and high blood pressure. She landed in the emergency room which resulted in an eventual stay overnight to get her health stabilized. After so many years of taking care of Dad, she had ignored her own health and now the warning signs were there and it was time to do something. After coming out of the hospital and settling in at her son’s for the remainder of her trip, all the family gathered to visit with her yesterday to give her a send off. As she sat at the dining room table, we all gathered around her in a circle and each of us went up to her and said what was on our hearts. We each told her how much we love her; we asked for peace and protection to surround her and follow her home; we told her how proud we are of her now that she was the matriarch of the family; how she was like a mother to the daughter-in-laws; how we honor, value and respect her; and the sons told her how they have loved having her as their mother. She cried and her heart was full as she watched and listened to the great-grandchildren as they came up one-by-one to kiss her and tell her they love her. We are so blessed to have her in our lives and, yes, precious Lord, how grateful I am to have experienced yesterday with family.

REMINDER: Trust My Guidance
When I read Andrea Hess’ post today, it made me think lately of how I’ve been asking for guidance and what I do with it after I’ve asked. I must admit I have fallen into the category she mentions of wanting guarantees instead of guidance and her post struck a chord in my heart. There I go again, asking for guidance but not truly trusting and it’s so slick how you can be out of alignment without even knowing it. It’s been like a see-saw, back and forth. Last week, I asked for guidance about work and bang I got a call for an interview. Well, I thought, “Wow, that worked.” The interview went well and I thought I had the job until Friday when I was called and they had decided to hire someone else. “Who’s playing with my brain here?” Today, after I read Andrea’s post I realized I wasn’t trusting completely. I wanted step-by-step answers and was not having faith. I was hanging onto my rope – from a previous post I wrote. It didn’t take much to catch my thoughts and get realigned and to my amazement I received another phone call today. The same place I interviewed with last week that turned me down has hired me and I start Wednesday. I am grateful and thankful for the answers and guidance.

REMINDER: Let Our Brilliance Shine
All around me I see people doing amazing things. I read the posts and see how people have listened to their hearts and not the so-called “experts”. They have begun their businesses, written their blogs, struck out on a new adventure with a desire and some common sense. Christine OKelly reminded me of this today in her post, “How I Stopped Listening to Experts and Started Making Money”. She reminded me of the importance to let your brilliance shine no matter what your passion. Take the chance and go for it and push through all the thoughts that you can’t do it or that you’re not good enough. I have when I started my blog last November. I didn’t know what a blog was no less create one. Little did I know that I would enjoy it as much as I do and feel so fulfilled to have this venue to express what’s on my heart. Amazing things happen. Just like in a previous post when I wrote about Paul Potts, a car phone manager in Bristol, England as he takes a chance to audition in March 2007 for a new talent show in England called Britain’s Got Talent because of his love for opera. Enjoy as you watch his brilliance shine as he pushes past the doubts and fears. It will give you chills to see the transformation of the judges and the audience. You may not realize it – but you’re doing it. Maybe, it’s in a way that’s not as noticeable as auditioning on stage but no less significant. Keep on doing it and your brilliance will shine, too, just as Paul Potts.

From the kitchen table – Pat
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Photo from Microsoft Online clipart
The friendship relationship is so unique and precious. The friends we have come in all shapes and sizes and for all types of purposes. I have a friend to hike with and a friend that was a classmate in elementary school that I’ve known for years. There are friends that are casual acquaintances and others that will be there for you in the wee hours of the morning when you need a shoulder to cry on.

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” – John Donne (1572-1631)

Some friends come into our lives for only short periods of time while others are there for a lifetime. They are the ones we exchange photos with from our weddings and births of our children. A valued friendship is one that is nurtured through all the ups and downs of life and they are the one you keep in touch with when you move to another state.

How do you develop friendships? Does the relationship just happen and evolve on its own? There is time and energy involved in developing a lasting friendship. It’s an equal exchange of mutual interests and spending time with each other. You could strike up a lasting friendship the moment you meet, personalities click and from that point on you’re inseparable. There is a special love between friends unlike the love in other relationships. I can talk to my friend and they seem to know what I’m saying without having to explain everything. Likewise, I can tell by their voice if there’s a problem. We just seem to know each other in that special way.

It’s nice to have a buddy to hang out with when you’re tinkering on cars, going hunting or catching a round of golf. They’re into the same things as you with your energies in sync. These friends are as close and as comfortable with you as a family member without having to impress. If months and years go by since I last spoke with my friend, we can pick up where we left off when we talk as if no time had passed at all.

“Someday, after we have mastered the winds, the waves,
the tide and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies
of love.
Then, for the second time in the history of the world, man
will have discovered fire.”
——————— Pierre Teilhard De Chardin (1881-1955)

Lasting friendships – lasting love!

From the kitchen table – Pat
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In my life, I’ve had numerous experiences where what I saw was not what was really going on. It’s confusing at first because we’re a human breed that tends to believe by sight. I have learned to follow my instincts even though I may be tempted to do otherwise. If I’m patient enough and do not instantly react, the real truth to the situation will usually reveal itself.

Some time ago, when our daughters were still at home, I took them and a friend shopping with me. I had to get something at one of the small outlets and was driving the van around the parking lot looking for a spot. I finally parked and we got out walking across the parking lot to the store and this woman came running up to us yelling her head off. She claimed that I hit her car and put a big hole in her hood; she had a compact car. She was mad and upset and very accusing. It took me and the kids by such a surprise that I was in a state of confusion, at first, until I settled her down to explain what she was talking about. “Well,” I thought, “the van is big and I don’t always feel or hear every bump or noise while I’m driving so it might be a possibility”. I asked her to follow me over to the van so I could get the insurance contact information, all the while still figuring out how I did this. She was still yelling and I was still asking. As we approached the van, I noticed our tire mounted on the back door of the van. I asked her, curiously and hypothetically, “How could I have put a hole in the hood of your car with the tire mounted on the back?” “Wouldn’t it have hit the tire first before doing any damage?” I was trying to figure this entire scenario out while still cooperating. All of sudden, she spun on her heels and took off muttering to herself leaving us in a stupor. The only answer I could come up with in this situation was: I didn’t know what her intentions were but by being willing to cooperate and be accountable for something I may have done, the angels took over and handled it.

We, humans, are good at disguising what our true feelings are and what is really going on with us. Well, a lot of times we don’t know what’s going on with us; we just know we’re hurt or we have a problem and we react the only way we know how. If we could just find a common ground to start where we feel safe then we would be in a place to listen and be heard. We all want to be valued and respected but because we feel attacked or used we lash out. Ram Dass in Still Here, said:

“…when there’s true surrender and service between people, the roles of helper and helped and the boundaries between those in power and those who are powerless begin to dissolve.”

It all brings us back to service and surrender and with God’s help we will be true.

From the kitchen table – Pat
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As I watch my 21-month old grandson, I see the purity of a child learning about his new world. He’s learning how to open doors, take things apart, and climb – to him it’s all a wonderment of discovery. It’s fun to watch the growth and the innocence. Somewhere along the way, though, we become conditioned as to what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Depending on how this is presented we may lose sight of who we are.

Then, we move along this path and participate in family activities and interact with others outside of family and adjust to the acceptable behavior and we begin to unlearn who we are. We think we can’t have both – expressing “who I am as God’s creation” and living in this world. We compromise to avoid judgment or rejection and we don’t want to disappoint anyone.

As we become teenagers we start to challenge the ideas and beliefs handed to us. It’s the little child in us remembering and we want to express that in a unique way. But so many distractions and more new discoveries become available that in order to explore them further we need to yield our challenge to some extent and comply. At this point we dive into our world and maneuver around enjoying all that life has to offer getting so caught up in the physical distractions that we don’t even take the time to think about Who I Am.

Photo by Altaf Hussein – at www.sxc.hu.home
From there, it seems that life takes over with the tasks and responsibilities and we get glimpses every once in a while of Who I Am but put that off until we have time. Through all the years of conditioning and the “have to’s” we have come so far we don’t know how to get back to the innocence and pure essence of who we were when we first came into this world. That’s not to take away from all of what we’ve learned but to combine it with your whole being.

Ah, but that’s the journey. I believe that’s why you and I come into this existence, “To discover who I am in a new dimension, a new world, and learn how to express it.” I knew it as a newborn but could not tell anyone and I then began the process of adapting to this world. The animals know too Who I Am but they are also committed to silence. Each of us has to relearn this ourselves and by going within we find the answer. In Patricia Singleton’s latest post With Love, Man Is God – Sathya Sai Baba she quotes:

page 24, “I soon learned that in response to his devotees’ many questions, he (Sathya Sai Baba) directs us to look inside ourselves for answers. To the most pressing question, ‘Who are you?’ he answers, ‘How can you know who I am when you don’t even know who you are? When you know who you are, you will know everything.’ When asked if he is God, he gives an extraordinary answer, ‘Yes, and so are you; you are also divine! The difference is that I know it and you do not. Look inside and find your divine nature.’ ”

What Can I Do:

First, get comfortable with quiet and go within – pray, meditate.

Then, start observing how you interact and begin caring about what you think instead of what others think as Andrew discusses in his latest post, Caring What Everyone Thinks. Realize the gift that has been given to you and to me – we are creations in the image of God. I’ll begin with that as a visualization on this journey when I go within to discover Who I Am. It is not an act of selfishness but one of Godliness.

Inspire others to be true to themselves by listening to them with an open mind and heart without placing any demands on them to see it the way you see it.

Accept each others’ truth with the same openness that you desire. Instead of defending our positions, look for a common ground where we can both agree.

Consider this poem taken from Ray Hunt’s site:

The Guy in the Glass – by Dale Wimbrow, (c) 1934

When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf,
And the world makes you King for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that guy has to say.

For it isn’t your Father, or Mother, or Wife,
Who judgement upon you must pass.
The feller whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.

He’s the feller to please, never mind all the rest,
For he’s with you clear up to the end,
And you’ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may be like Jack Horner and “chisel” a plum,
And think you’re a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum
If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you’ve cheated the guy in the glass.

From the kitchen table – Pat
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