The emotions I feel the most each day are gratitude and love. After my dad died I was so sad.. My heart felt broken and I cried so much and I couldn’t feel happy. Grief is needed to move on but how do you do that when you lost your treasured friend. I miss him everyday. I decided that I needed to do something that made me so grateful for what I have. I have so much. So I started doing 3 things that I grateful for. I started doing it on my drive to school everyday and it became a habit that I loved to do. Gratitude is such an amazing emotion.
Love this can be a hard emotion but it also can be an amazing feeling. I’ve had the privilege of watching a boy grow up. He’s one of my greatest joys in life. I’ve spent my summer with him and we have so much fun together. We laugh and have fun. Life is short. I’ve watched him conquer so many things in his life. He tells me sometimes it’s hard. Yes it is hard but practice makes it easier even with a brain injury.
I have a shirt from Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch that says Pray Listen Do. Praying is easy for me but I need to stop and listen to hear what God has for me. Doing is hard but sometimes we are asked to do things that we don’t like but we never know what that outcome will be.
6 months ago I wrote to my stepson and told him what I felt God wanted me to share with him. In all the years I’ve never felt released to tell him about his dad and the things we did while he was not in our lives. I told him that we prayed for him and his sister’s everyday. We never forgot your birthdays in fact we brought a cake and remembered you. We thought about you on all the holidays. We read scripture and we gave it all to the Lord.
He responded the most he’s ever written to me and I left it at that. I prayed that God would change his heart and want a relationship with his dad. About 3 weeks ago Larry told me that his son had reached out to him out of the blue and told him that he was a grandpa and told him about his son.
I prayed, I listened and I did what the Lord wanted me to do. You never know how and what God is planning when you obey Him.
Another cool story is I have step Sisters and a stepbrother who live in Ireland. I pray for them often as well. Recently I got a message from one of my stepsisters and she told me that she was praying for me with the loss of my stepdad and that she loves the Lord. I cried and cried tears of joy that she too knew the Lord. That’s amazing. So don’t every give up on those prayers because in God’s timing He will surprise us and it’s better then we ever imagined.
I’m reminded of this now as I wait to hear if I’m going to be accepted into a co operative housing. It will be life changing for me. A place in a community. A place without mold. A place where I can call home and so many amazing benefits, especially being affordable for me.
As I sit here this morning Praying about the situation, I’m listening and waiting. I feel peace surreal peace that only comes from Him. ❤️
What change, big or small, would you like your blog to make in the world?
I love this question because why I started blogging in the first place was to give hope and encouragement to others. With all the things that I had been through in my life and some of them were really hard. I wanted people to know that no matter what you’ve been through in your life, that there is always Hope. Maybe someone could relate.
When I was really depressed or caught in addiction your always looking for something that can give you that glimmer of hope. I read people’s biographies or stories about hope. I wanted that so with prayer and seeking God and my amazing support system. I found so much to be grateful for. That’s one of the reasons I do daily gratitude.
This is another reason I wrote my memoirs on my blog because many people have had tough lives. It helps to read about others and how they healed. Our stories are part of us and need to be shared. So share that story that defines who you are. Maybe someone needs to hear yours. ❤️
Today I rewatched one of my favorite movies on Netflix. It was a lazy Sunday. The movie is called Radio. It is a must see and of course I cried in it. It’s one of those warm fuzzy movies. It’s also a true story.
Radio is a young man who has a disability and he loves football and radios. He watches the coaches and the kids at a high school practicing. The coach asks him to come back and help out with the team. The kids pick on him because he’s different. The coach takes him under his wing and not only gives him a job but starts to teach him how to write his name and come to school. The students fall in love with him.
The school board gets involved after complaints from a parent and they try to say that Radio doesn’t belong there with a disability. Of course he shines in there. That’s inclusion. That’s what we have fought for. To have everyone come to school. My kindergarten teacher last year used to say that we are all in our own journeys. I love that.
I won’t give away the whole movie let’s just saw without the involvement of the coach and his family and the school he wouldn’t have ever had that opportunity. It changed his life for the better.
One of the reasons why I love to help others and see their potential. The boy I do respite care for is an example of that. He started off his life and there was not many expectations of what he could do. He needed someone to come along side him and help him. It took longer yes but the things he can do today. Just like all the other children. He amazes me everytime I spend time with him. The things he teaches me is pretty amazing.
That’s why I love school so much to have an opportunity to help all children no matter what level they are at. Love is a beautiful thing. To watch it grow and develop. To be part of a journey is an amazing thing. I wouldn’t have it any other way. ❤️
My greatest habit I got into doing everyday is gratitude. I started doing this daily after my dad passed away. When you give gratitude it can only encourage and bless you. There are so many things in my life to be grateful for. I choose 3.
Today my this I’m grateful for were : I’m grateful for the opportunity to worship the a Lord. I’m grateful that my gut is getting healthy and I’m grateful for the opportunity to share my life with a boy that I’ve known for 8 and a half years. He’s my greatest joy.
So what are you thankful for in your life. There is so much to be grateful for. I love this habit I’ve gotten into everyday.
I am a woman who is very passionate about issues close to my heart. I stand in the gap for those who cannot speak out for themselves especially children. Being through trauma myself, I have compassion, caring, and understanding for those that carry some of the same burdens I have had. Some of the hardest children I’ve worked with in school are the same children that come running across the playground to give me a massive hug. That could happen many times a day. Those are the same children I tell them how proud I am of them. They beam from ear to ear. I know and understand.
I love working at school with both the children, their families and the teachers. I have an amazing sense of humor that I will bring into stressful situations. I love to laugh the best are the kind that hurt your tummy.
I love hanging out with my friends. I’m close with my family and patience is key for all things in my life.
I love creating art projects and find it very relaxing. I love sunflowers 🌻and bald eagles. I love Jesus with all of my heart and he often brings me eagles that fly where I can see them. It’s His way of telling me that it’s all going to be alright. 🦅
I love blogging and have found much healing in my writings. In fact I was able to write my memoirs which was a dream of mine for many years to write down.
I love animals and have a crazy Labradoodle whom I love so much. I also love rabbits so much. They are amazing creatures. That’s me in a nut shell.
What strategies do you use to maintain your health and well-being?
In January this past year I decided it was a year for me to work on my health. My immune system is not good and my gut is horrible and not learning it’s a second brain. I’ve been with the Super Patch company now for two years. It’s a drug free company that works through touch. The patches touch your skin like Braille for the brain. When your blind and you read Braille with your finger each dot represents a letter. When you touch it, it sends a signal to your brain telling it what the letter is. So the patches work in the same way, you put them on your skin and it seems a signal to your brain about what needs to get corrected in your body. It’s the most amazing technology in the world. In fact it’s 50 years ahead of it’s time.
I use it for pain that I experience in my knees. It works almost instantly and 95% of people feel that relief quickly. I wear one to protect my immune system that when I wear it I don’t have all those allergies to pollens and can even sleep I’m a home with two furry cats. I would never be able to do that before. That’s AMAZING.
I wear one that helps with my balance, mobility and strength. It helps me be able to walk up and down the stairs with ease. Stairs are hard when your knees ache often. I wear one that comes me steady energy all day with no afternoon slumps. I use another one for anxiety and stresses in my life. I love how calm I feel wearing it. I’ve just started one that’s called kick it. It helps with bad habits and no longer crave sugar and salt. I found it helps with not wanting to scroll much on my phone and I have no desire to shop online.
I’ve enclosed a video of how the patches work. The science behind them is amazing. Not only are they drug free they are FDA approved and we have a advisory board with top doctors on there. We also have 3 clinical trials done. It’s been life changing for me.
I also have started talking this pre and probiotic to get my gut back into a normal state. I have joined a gut health group that the information is amazing. Things I never knew. No wonder I had so much inflammation in my life. It’s nice to have control over what I’m taking and have the knowledge to be able to live best life.
Life as we know is so short so living out best lives is so important and how many of us feel horrible because of a poor immune system or how we eat. We are surrounded by things that can make us sick. I’m in a year of learning how to look after body. By changing 1% of what I do everyday it’s been an amazing journey. ❤️
Today is a teary day but that’s ok. I miss the wisdom of my dad. I miss walking on his favorite beach with him. I miss chatting with him and him telling me how important I am to him. I wish I could hug him one more time. It’s been 7 months since he passed away. It seems like an eternity.
It’s ok to be sad because my grief is not all the time, in fact it’s hardly at all, but it will just appear and I know that he loved me no matter what. I feel that love in my heart everyday. I look at photos of him and smile. I recently went back to his beach and I could feel him there.
As I grieve my dad it brings up the memories of missing my best friend. At the end of the month it is our annual trip up island . The one the four of us did for years and years. I still remember Wendy’s last time. She was weak from all her chemo but she wanted to come and be with us. She slept in the van while we went into the Thrift shop the one we always visit. When we got to Coombs the place with the goats on the roof. We all got our photos together on the stone animals. We laughed and Wendy wanted an icecream. I remember her smiling from head to toe. It’s those simple things we sometimes miss.
Then we head into the country store to see what we can find. As we had a quiet moment together she told us that no matter what happened to her or not that we continue to do this trip. This will be our third trip without her. She’s with us and we feel it everytime we go. She’s watching out over us. So we will again and laugh and hang out and remember what an amazing friend she was to each of us.
So with grief days comes amazing memories of those we have lost. The best thing is that I get to see both of these people again when I die. I look forward to that day. Until now I will remember all the laughs, tears and everything else we shared. Make sure you tell your family and friends how much you love them. Life is precious and short. ❤️
What’s your favorite game (card, board, video, etc.)? Why?
One of my favorite games is called Telestrstions. It’s a drawing game. You have to draw what is on your card and when the time is up, you pass it on to a person who is beside you. They have to guess what it is. Then the next turn you get to draw again and it continues on. You can play up to 12 players.
It’s a halarious game and you laugh so hard trying to figure out what people are drawing. To make it funnier I can’t draw for the life of me so nobody wanted to sit by me. The guesses are halarious as well.
As I write this my eyes fill up with tears. This was the last game that we played with my best friend before she died. I’ve not played the game since. Wendy was an amazing drawer and often got to sit beside me. She was always very patient. The last time we played was with all our good friends. Since then two moved further up the island. Two more moved about 45 minutes away and one moved to Australia oh and Wendy passed away.
I still love that game but it won’t ever see the same again. I miss her so much. Make sure that you let the people know in your life how important they are to you, as you never know what can happen to them.
Beauty from Ashes. 