A GIFT FOR YOU!

BE THE VALLEY OF THE UNIVERSE!

Image via WikipediaIt seems to me that all the messages from the Universe to me today, are all saying the same thing. I listened to The DTAlpha Talkback today, where Stephen Pierce always gives me the right word, every time. In his talk today, he mentioned Napoleon Hill, and those that know me, know my feelings about Napoleon Hill. He was the most selfless human on the planet, but he knew exactly what he wanted out of life. Money was never his purpose, it was knowledge. He was not only willing to work many years for Dale Carnegie for no pay, he was obsessed doing it, and humbled when asked if he would. Really, how many people do you know like that? I have to say that only in the past year have I come into contact with people like that. People who do with no expectations. Expectation of knowledge is nothing like expectation of reward, money, glory, or fame. Knowledge is something we should all be burning inside for. Choosing to learn something new everyday should be our purpose in life.

I had an appointment at the Dentist today, I'm having some oral surgery done and while I was there I was reading a chapter of "A New Earth", this is what caught my eye "Instead of trying to be a mountain, teaches the ancient TAO Te Ching, "Be the Valley of the Universe." In this way, you are restored to wholeness and so, all things will come to you." Am I right or what, that is how Napoleon Hill thought. He knew that focus on his work was where his reward would come from. He did not live everyday trying to learn how to be rich, he spent everyday learning...and then, thank God, teaching others through his writing. I am blessed to have that knowledge and it got me through this day with a smile on my face. It certainly did not hurt my day when I got to my Dentist's office and everyone there was so sweet. They were just all so happy with their work. I mentioned that to the hygienist and she said, "yes, we are like one big family here." It really shows, and it becomes so infectious. How many times have you left your Dentist's office smiling and singing. I did today! What a great day!

GOD WILL ANSWER MY PRAYER!

From Oprah’s mission statement 04-01-2008

"Without loving and caring for others, most of us stand little chance of
communing with God, no matter how many years we may spend in silent prayer."
Bo Lozoff

The average person may read this and think “Finally, I have found a way to make my dreams come true, all I have to do is help a few people and then GOD WILL ANSWER MY PRAYER” And then, when their dreams still don’t come true, the first thing they do is turn on God. Seriously, I know people just like this, they lament all the time about how much they do for others and then when they need something it’s not there. Hello…it says “loving and caring”, that is a continuous state of being. That does not mean when you took care of your neighbor’s dog while they went away…It means service for God. Doing for others should be a priority. Of course, you do for your family everyday, I know… we all do that, but that is a choice we make when we choose to have a family. Loving and caring for others is a lot broader than that, it is the essence of you. It becomes you, it is you, and it is just a thought in your mind that gets it going, that shifts your consciousness enough, to move in the direction of those IN NEED.

Loving and caring for others can come in many different ways, it can come by joining service with others to help others, it can come by giving a neighbor a break once a week when they need respite from the kids, the issues of their home life, or just because you love them. It should be innate in all of us, and it probably was, until our parents decided to interfere with nature, as did their parents. We are born without sin, with the essence of God himself, and we learned to shed that as the years went by, learning things the old way. It is time we teach our children the “new” way by setting an example. Set an example of loving and caring for others. Show our children that the true essence of God is in all of us and we should be standing up to the plate every chance we get.

If you want to see the true essence of God then you should visit this blog and join in service to help with this undertaking. Some of the most amazing Moms I have ever seen are part of this giant undertaking and they can use all the help they can get. They can use others blogging for Autism for the month of April, they can use new resources and people to spread the word. Whatever you have to offer, share it here or there, but share it, make a commitment to shift your consciousness for others and then sit and wait…. for the within to answer the call. Stop waiting for what God is going to reward you with, learn selflessness, learn humility and put them to work in the service of causes that need you. There is something for everyone to do in almost every experience we have. There are millions of people, some without homes, food, clothing, shelter and love…help them without expecting reward. You already have the reward, it is in your heart, be grateful for it every morning and every night, everyday.

Make a choice to watch it, read it or live it…but at least try it, and remember this:
THE SECRET

Thoughts do become things.
There are no coincidences.
Miracles are all around us.
Ask, Believe and you will receive.
It all begins with baby steps.

WHERE ARE YOU

">WHERE ARE YOU?

EASTER SUNDAY FOUR YEARS LATER!

I was sitting in my kitchen last night with two of my children and my daughter’s boyfriend. I was trying to just be there….I watched each of my children as they spoke and realized how amazing they were. I mean, I listen when they talk…but when you quiet your mind and just be…it is amazing what the experience becomes.

I noticed that there is a shelf in my kitchen that I hand painted 4 years ago. I sat there after awhile thinking that I just couldn’t read the date right from the distance I was from the shelf. After a while I got up, and went over to it, and realized I was right, 4 years. The thoughts in my mind at the time were “where did four years go? What had I been doing for four years?” The concept of time was so far from reach. I had nothing to answer the questions with. I know I was here, but I seriously can not put any information into answering those two questions. It was at that moment I realized, that I have been journaling for at least that long, and it was time to collect them and see where I was and what I have been doing. It did not come with a sense of urgency, just a mental note to begin.

In amongst my journals are the answers to the questions and most likely will contain the content that will tell me that I was on my way here.

Make a choice to watch it, read it or live it…but at least try it, and remember this:
THE SECRET

Thoughts do become things.
There are no coincidences.
Miracles are all around us.
Ask, Believe and you will receive.
It all begins with baby steps.

LIVE IN THE NOW!

I send a newsletter to my family everyday that has a joke for the day and some words of inspiration. While collecting material for it, I ran across this joke:


The End Is Near!

A local priest and a pastor were fishing on the side of the road. They thoughtfully made a sign saying, "The End is Near! Turn yourself around now before it's too late!" and showed it to each passing car. One driver who drove by didn't appreciate the sign and shouted at them, "Leave us alone, you religious nuts!"

All of a sudden they heard a big splash, looked at each other, and the priest said to the pastor, "You think maybe we should have just said 'Bridge Out' instead?"


I have been thinking all day about the way things are expressed to us and by us. It reminded me that there are so many interpretations of the bible, philosophies on life , opinions, judgments. They are all just words. I came to the conclusion at the end of my day after checking out different sources, that all there is or should be, is the present. What we think, feel and do right now is what matters. Only the NOW matters. Everything else is old, used, and not working, usually, so rather than change how we think, feel or see things, we should just BE, I think Dr. Phil puts it best when he says, “How’s that workin for ya?” When things aren’t working, change your mind…TRY LIVING IN THE NOW!

THIS COMES TO MIND ALSO:

From The Masters newsletter 2-21-2008
SELF-CONCEPT/SELF-CONFIDENCE

Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.
Malcolm Forbes

Seek respect mainly from thyself, for it comes first from within.
Steven H. Coogler

"What you see is what you get, and who you feel like is who you really are."
Denis Waitley

Make a choice to watch it, read it or live it…but at least try it, and remember this:
The Secret

Thoughts do become things.
There are no coincidences.
Miracles are all around us.
Ask, Believe and you will receive.
It all begins with baby steps.

OUR GRATITUDE
OUR GRATITUDE IN BUSINESS
OUR GRATITUDE IN BOOKS
OUR GRATITUDE BLOG
CRAFTY 1'S CORNER
OPPOSITIONAL DEFIANT DISORDER
MASTER BOOKS

I'M A RIOT, AREN'T I?

Seriously, I wrote my last blog and talked about the insignificance of money and then I deluge my next post with business ads. Well, the bills have to get paid, despite the value I place on money.
It is unfortunate, but true, that you cannot live without money. Actually people do, but they are usually homeless, without jobs, or disabled, and unable to earn income from home, or survive on disability or retirement. What I was referring to was the necessity to be rich. Being rich provides the ability to help a great deal more people, but even on a steady income, there should always be enough money for helping others.

A friend once taught me that when you lend money...don't lend...GIVE. So I have adopted that policy. That doesn't mean you should come running to me for money...I am still in the process of earning enough to make what i do for others much greater than it is right now.

When I was younger I still remember thinking "Why can't we just run the government with monopoly money? What is the point of money? Why can't the government just print more? Well, I learned that everything is off balance when the economy is off balance, which is the same for the Universe.

Faith is believing that the universe
is on our side, and that the universe
knows what it’s doing.
Author Unknown From an excerpt of Jack Canfield’s book 2-21-2008

When we are out of align with The Universe, our life is not running on a steady course, we are having a hard time, we are dealing with life issues and crises. God never meant for us to go through hard times, but he is actually pleased when we do, and we find the blessing on the other side. So the next time you are in the middle of something really difficult, remember "FOOTPRINTS"....God is carrying us through the hard times...and when we are past them we have gotten a huge blessing.
"My son, my precious child,
I love you and I would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you."
Mary Stevenson

So try to always remember to find the blessing, because there absolutely is one for every life issue. Make a list off the top of your head...name as many crises as you can and then look for what would not contain a blessing. You will come up with issues like World Wars and 911 and many others but I promise you, if you look from WITHIN... you will find the blessing. It is always there.

Make a choice to watch it, read it or live it…but at least try it, and remember this:

Thoughts do become things.
There are no coincidences.
Miracles are all around us.
Ask, Believe and you will receive.
It all begins with baby steps.
BE GRATEFUL
RUN AN HONEST BUSINESS
READ SOMETHING EVERYDAY
THANK GOD
HAVE GOOD INTENTIONS
A HANDMADE GIFT IS MADE WITH LOVE
LOVE OUR CHILDREN
IF YOU CAN'T READ A BOOK LISTEN TO ONE

MASTER BOOKS BOOKSTORE

BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE WITH OUR HELP!

WOW, I AM PROUD OF MYSELF!

I have been on the Internet now, for just about a year, and the whole time I believed that I was trying to make money. It came to me today as I was meditating, that quieting my mind is not an option when I have this need for “financial abundance” I remember watching “The Secret” one day and then going online to find out who knew about it and what I could do with it? How much could it change my life? And I have spent this year buying into, and being deluged with unnecessary distractions, MONEY MAKING SCHEMES. It should never have been my objective, but when I filled out my first profile and it asked what my goals were I wrote this….?

WOW…I just realized that a while back I changed my original goals and intentions but I never changed my “mind set.” This is what they say now:

MY CURRENT INTENTIONS:
My powerful intentions are to be inspirational and truthful to all and to ultimately possess kindness and generosity.

MY LIFE’S PURPOSE:
My life’s purpose is to INSPIRE others, to leave a legacy of that to my children and begin a thread long enough to generate all of these things. And to NEVER stop until I have realized all of my dreams and those of so many, many others!

MY VALUES:
My values are Kindness ,Generosity, Philanthropy, love and my desire to provide for those that have not yet found their way here!

I am no longer looking to make money on the internet, because money is not what is important to me. Oh, I know, of course it is, but not in the sense that I would think about it today. Today, the only reason I would want to make money, is to be able to help others. That is why I have been floundering about my education, my disability, and my JOB. I do not have a “JOB”, I have a dream, and I can already see my dream taking place. I see the people around me that are influenced by my life, I see the changes in others, that are there, as a direct result of my introducing them to “The Secret.” I feel blessed.

The last two nights I have made phone calls to a friend and a relative and I realized that I have said the same thing to each of them. Money is not important to “me“, my “purpose” is. “I” have everything “I” need , but many, many, others do not. So “I” am taking “ME” out of the equation and will only be focusing on “them." So if anyone was waiting to make money from me, that is no longer an option. Making money for “others” is where I’ll be, and it’s is actually where I have been the whole time. It has always been in my subconscious that, when I reached financial abundance, it would be to make the dreams of others come true and by doing that, my own would be realized, and it does not stop today, as I wrote above:

And to NEVER stop until I have realized all of my dreams and those of so many, many others!
So, my goal is still “financial abundance,” but it is to make the dreams of others come true with it.

My oldest son said to me one time, not too long ago, “If you ever win the lottery, we’ll have to take it away from you, because you will give it all away.” He said that with humor, because I know, my three children, are kind and generous beings, and that is one of the many things I love so much about them.

This is a good day. This is a day of “awakening” to my life’s purpose. I think Eckhart Tolle and Oprah would be proud of me, I certainly am. WOW! I AM. I AM ACTUALLY PROUD OF MYSELF!


Just a note…When I went to Amazon. Com to collect the link for Eckhart Tolle’s name, and I clicked instead of highlighting it, I ended up on the Amazon page for his book, I clicked on the ”surprise me” option that publishers use, and it gave me the excerpt above. So click on Tolle’s name above and read the excerpt, you will immediately see what an experience of “The Law of Attraction” feels like.

Make a choice to watch it, read it or live it…but at least try it, “THE SECRET“ and remember this::

Thoughts do become things.
There are no coincidences.
Miracles are all around us.
Ask, Believe and you will receive.

I STILL LOVE YOU!

In my journey with The Law of Attraction, I have found it necessary to separate from people I have been extremely close to for a long time, some family and some friends. Lately I have been asked if I would re-visit the possibility of resolving the issues that forms those distances. My response has been the same in every asking, yet, I am not sure if it is the TRUE thing to do.

My life has transformed so much that I am not sure that these people belong in it, in the same capacity, I will always love them, and I am saddened by the loss, but my quest to find the truth in myself is just too important to go back. I find that people that can only bring negativity to me are not who I want to be around right now.

The Law of Attraction teaches us that we attract more of what we are thinking about. Each time that someone asks me to re-visit the possibility of this reconciliation, I find that all I attract from it is sadness, so I have resolved to accept that I have learned enough about forgiveness to let this go and move on so I am not attracting more sadness.

I am still reading Eckhart Tolle’s book “A New Earth, Awakening to your Life’s Purpose”, and with every page I take time to read it, then reread it, highlight each line, and tab the line for quick access. I am using post it flags and if like me, you are reading more than one book at a time, these are life savers. It takes organization to a new height. I know…it is silly that something as simple as a posit it notes gives me great joy. I have shrunk my world down a bit for focus, and although post its excite me, I am finding more relative things to fill my world with, and reading is a big one. I have stopped reading fiction because fiction will again, attract what I think about, so I am careful to read positive books with TRUE life experiences, and messages that others have found in their journey for TRUTH of their being. The new Oprah Book Club online is so great, I love the interaction with the actual author and Oprah’s opinion on matters of spirituality are usually so in sync with my own…no I am not thinking I’m Oprah. Anyway, if you can you should join in on the Monday night calls, they are so rewarding. Make sure you get a copy of the book and print out the weeks lesson.

If you want to focus on books of inspiration and change the things you are attracting into your life, visit my blog OUR GRATITUDE IN BOOKS, and find inspirational material on life skills.

In the meantime,. Make a point to watch it, read it, or live it but begin with
“THE SECRET”


Thoughts do become things.
There are no coincidences.
Miracles are all around us.
Ask, Believe and you will receive.
It all begins with baby steps.

"I HAVE NO COMPLAINTS."

I was posting an excerpt for a new release from HCI Books, on my OUR GRATITUDE IN BOOKS Blog Site, when I began to read a couple of lines that reminded me of how overwhelming (yet beautiful) the acknowledgment of “The Law of Attraction” can be, in the course of a single day. The excerpt (Life Lessons, Loving the Life You Live by, Jennifer Read Hawthorne, Jack Canfield, and Mark Victor Hansen) suggests that, even though you see these wonderful things going on around you, when a friend asks how you are, you immediately begin to relate the negative things that took place in your day.

I was talking to my friend Michele, about this last week, and I suggested that we take a lesson from Oprah who said, when people ask how she is, she says “I have no complaints”. So now when Michele and I see each other, we ask, “How are you” and if one of us forgets to answer with “I have no complaints”, the other one points it out, and we find a source of humor in our day, and begin to remember the tiny miraculous little things we noticed during the day, instead of burdening each other with the negative. One thing that gives Michele great pleasure is her daily post from Mike Dooley’s Daily Notes of the Universe. She tells me everyday what her email said and she gets great strength and pleasure from it.

We should all pay more attention to the little, firebug like messages which flit past us everyday. Those are the things that should take our attention, because those are the unnoticed signals that we are getting within. The Law of Attraction is all around us and the more we find of it without, the more we will get from within. The more we share it with others, the more it will come back to us, ten fold every time.

Make a choice to watch it, read it or live it…but at least try it, and remember this:

THE SECRET

Thoughts do become things.

There are no coincidences.
Miracles are all around us.
Ask, Believe and you will receive.
It all begins with baby steps.

I GOT KICKED OUT OF THE BOOK CLUB!

I was watching the Oprah Book Club and started to take a few notes on my computer and I suddenly lost the feed. Seeing that over 700,000 people were in this class via internet, I am not surprised. In the few minutes I had until I lost the feed, I was in awe of the messages that were in my mind. The messages I have been getting since I was first introduced to “The Secret.” Eckhart Tolle has taken the principal of “The Secret” to new heights for me. Some experienced it differently, by reading his book and then discovering the movie “The Secret.”

In preparation for this viewing I had in front of me, a note book with questions in it, and the outline that I printed from the class preparation materials, the book, and my mother’s bible.

My mother passed away 25 years ago, and I lived believing that she left after spending time with her minister everyday, preparing herself, I suppose, for her journey to heaven, and saying goodbye and I love you to all family and friends…except me. I was the person who turned their life upside down, gave up the business I was opening, and just packed up and went to live with my mother so she could be released from the hospital. I took her for her radiation and chemotherapy treatments until she chose to stop them. I then took over her nursing care, learning to take care of all her needs, because she was very private about her body. I would never have done these things for anyone in my lifetime, but I did this for my mother, and yet she left the earth without even saying, Thank you or I Love You to me.

I wrestled with these thoughts for so many years until shortly after my sister’s passing, when I saw the cast of “The Secret” on Oprah one day and immediately began to absorb “The Secret” and live the Law of Attraction. One of the days I was watching the movie on my television, which is on an entertainment center in my living room; I glanced around for a moment and noticed that my mother’s bible was on the shelf in front of me. I had not put it there and my children certainly did not, they would not have known what it was. I was still mad at God for my mother’s passing and for so many things that took place in my life after that. I still prayed every night and tried to be a good person and raise my children teaching them the right things to do. I just didn’t focus on my spiritual relationship with God anymore. But I got up off the couch, picked up the bible and opened to the first page, and inside it said:

Proverbs 22:6

Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart from it.

And then this:

Acts 17:28

For in him we live and move, and have our being; for we are also his offspring.

My mother had said good bye…. but she left my message in her bible, which is why she wrote in her notebook, the things she specifically wanted each person to have to remember her by. I was so lost in my hurt and anger that I didn’t look for the message. I believed it was too late. She was gone. But there was the message 25 years later. How did I not look in the bible? How did I not treasure it as something that was hers? I was too lost in the pain of her leaving without ever…saying, I love you to me, my whole life. I heard her tell the grandchildren when they were young. I heard her tell every family member and friend that came to see her before she passed, but I never heard her say it to me.

About 6 months before my mother died, I buried my six mo nth old daughter Gillian. Most of my family did not even know I had her. My mother was embarrassed that I had a child out of wedlock. She got a leave from the hospital to come and see Gillian before she (Gillian) went in for surgery. My mother left that day with these words. “Well, I guess if Gillian makes it I will too.” Well, Gillian did not make it and I had to go to the hospital to tell my mother. When I called to talk to my Uncle, who was a Funeral Director, my Aunt got on the phone and said to me, “Ann-Marie, I didn’t even know you had a baby.” I’m sure the fact that my mother was embarrassed by me just added to my hurt. She was in the hospital the day that my daughter died. I went from the hospital my daughter died in, to the hospital my mother was in, to tell her the news. When I got there, she already knew, someone had already told her. I was upset that I had to actually go there and tell her, then to find out that she already knew, was even more painful.

I buried my daughter and then packed up to go and live with my mother until she passed away. I didn’t really even think about these losses for quite a few years later. When I did, the other issues in my life were just too much to even think about these things. I married an abusive man that cheated on me for ten years and I allowed myself to be victimized by his abuse and by turning a deaf ear to his philandering, even when it was with, what I considered, my best friend.

Five years into the marriage I was finally strong enough to put my ex husband out and get on with raising my children. I worked three jobs and did whatever it took to make sure my children never knew we were poor. We moved, by the grace of God, into subsidized housing in a beautiful rural town and I was finally able to pay all of the bills and manage to not work so many jobs all of the time. I took a job driving a school bus for special needs children so I could be home when the children were. When I first started I would take them with me and we always had the same days off so it was the perfect solution. I did that for 10 years.

When I started to obsess over “The Secret”, everyone around me began to think there was something wrong with me, that I was having a nervous breakdown. I began to have issues with just about everyone around me. Despite all of the disappointments and anger, I was feeling stronger, because none of the things that were upsetting me, were anywhere close to the pain I felt for all those years, thinking my mother never loved me. I quit smoking after 40 plus years, I lost 47 pounds and stopped using the excuse that I needed to drink alcohol every night to sleep. I found for awhile, that I had little tolerance for people with drug and alcohol issues, and severed some very difficult relationships. One of those relationships was my youngest son.

I believed that when I began to change that my children would follow me, but I found that not to be true. My youngest son seemed to get worse and it seems now, like it got worse as I got better. Maybe it was the same, but I just never saw it until I stopped abusing myself. My mind was clearer than ever and I began to get over the illness that was keeping me trapped in the house. I started walking again and I would walk and listen to James Taylor, with tears in my eyes, just for the beauty of walking. Just for the beauty of breathing, how energetic and happy I felt. I could see people around me starting to see me change, some resented it, and others wanted to have it themselves. It still is that way. Not everyone will see things the way I do, I would now, never expect them to.

When I began reading “A New Earth”, I immediately felt that I was attracted to it, and understood Eckhart Tolle’s purpose in writing the book. There are many more people in the world, just like me that are seeing things this way. Some people call it new age religion. A woman asked Oprah about that tonight on the show. Oprah’s response was perfect; she said “A true path of spirituality enhances what your religion already is. Jesus came to earth to teach us the Christ Consciousness. The kingdom of heaven is here within you.” I have said that to myself since I first started to apply the principles of “The Secret” to my life. God is within me. I have always believed that my relationship was with God not so much the church.

When Eckhart Tolle talked about whether this book was waiting for him to write it or asked himself what life wants from him, I already had that in my mind. I have been asking God for the past year what my purpose is, and I am still waiting for the answer. I’m not sure if this is the answer but I am learning to quiet my mind so I can hear the answer. Everything in my life is The Law of Attraction in action. I can see it all around me, in everything I say, do, see or hear. I am learning to live within, so what I see without will be me.

This to me is the most amazing part of this whole experience, when I heard about this book and Oprah having the book club online, I was actually doing a search for a new business idea to see if people were doing online book clubs. So I was definitely attracted here. I will just have to keep quieting my mind until God speaks to me, or I discover it by Law of Attraction. I feel such a genuine attraction to everything, and the expectancy I feel, waiting for the answer, is both frightening, but also exhilarating, neither of which I plan to give up, until I know the answer. What my purpose is. I know this much, my purpose is in service, and I will soon be shown the way.

Make a choice to watch it, read it or live it…but at least try it, and remember this:

THE SECRET

Thoughts do become things.

There are no coincidences.
Miracles are all around us.
Ask, Believe and you will receive.
It all begins with baby steps.

STOP FAILING!

STOP FAILING!
After yesterday (last night) I thought I would not find my way back. I was sitting there crying to God about how my life still doesn’t have what I need. But I also told him I was grateful for what I had, but I felt like there were people counting on me to do something BIG. And I felt because I had not gotten there, I had failed. Well, I remembered that “I took failure out of my dictionary.” Yup, just cut it right out! And I am back on track today having realized it is just not my time, I have more work to do.
Service is a crucial element in the journey to success. Learning to give before you ever think about getting. The thing is, I thought I was giving and servicing. I was following through with my intention to help one person everyday, even if it was just a matter of a little advice or something big like needing money or food or any kind of help. Truth is, that is still an excuse to not feel worthy of success. I do not mean that I should not be doing those things. I just mean by focusing only on that, I was not moving to what I determined to be my BURNING DESIRE. Oh, there were baby steps…I was taking those, but patience is never something I have been good at. So I need to do more work on developing patience. (That is a new intention)
I read an article this morning about an interview that Joe Vitaledid with Will Bowen and he asked him about his interview with Oprah. Bill said this:
“Between takes Oprah leaned over to me and said, ‘I have nothing to complain about’.
“At first I thought she meant she had nothing to complain about because she’s Oprah and life is good.
“But we talked and I learned that her life is so great because she doesn’t complain to begin with. She always focuses on what she wants. Her not complaining created the Oprah we see.”
When I read that article, I realized that “The Law of Attraction” was all over it and I thanked God that I know it exists and helped me to find that message.