THINK LOCAL

The power within, the power within...  This is from Sponge Bob, sometimes we go around the house saying this and we all laugh.  But the thing is the power does come from within.  When we can master our mind, control our thoughts and our reactions to whatever comes our way, that is when we have the power.  I tell my girls all the time that they can't control how people act, but they can control how they react.  Great advice, when am I going to start taking it?  Nobody can beat me up like I can.  Nobody can knock me down and control me like I can, so why not start lifting myself up?  I went to a therapy session last week and one of the things that she talked about was our own "self talk".  Last night at a study meeting a guy made a point that if we had a loud speaker coming from our head broadcasting our thoughts, we'd probably start changing them.  You are the most important person in your life, so why do we abuse ourselves so much?  This is all very baffling.  Apparently I am a slow learner and have to keep telling myself of my own self worth.  I have many people in my life that uphold me, tell me what a good job I am doing with this or that.  But the most influential speaker in our lives is ourselves.  So today I am declaring I Am Worthy!  I do have the power within, I just need to draw from it and use it.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4bf9e69baad88eef152da11f/cranberry-cosmos

Whatever we decide to do today I want to be in the moment.  I was reading my friend Melissa's blog the other day about being in the moment and it made me think about how little time I spend there.  It seems that I am always doing at least 2 things at once and thinking about something else while I am doing them.  So, I am really trying to focus and be present.  Life is good and I don't want to just keep going through it, I want to LIVE it!!!

April 16th each year on this day I find myself once again unemployed.  It is something that I am so ready for and am anxious about every time.  It was a very slow year this year and I only worked about half as much as usual, while financially needing to work twice as much!  Funny how that works, but here I am.  The no more paycheck thing was really starting to worry me, but Janelle put her spin on it and told me "that's okay, now your money will just come from different sources".  Yes, like from selling my artwork, which is what I love doing anyway!

This morning as I drove Kyra to school the sun was shining on the snowcapped mountains and it was beautiful.  Majestic.  By the time I took Gracie to school an hour later it was not so sunny, but not too bad.  Went to Jade's and came out to gloomy clouds and a bit of drizzle.  Had lunch and watch hail/snow accompanied by terrible wind.  Came home to grab something and was pointing out to Janelle the flowers that were starting to come up.  I have some "flags" that originally came from my great, great grandma's garden in South Dakota.

As I sat down to write this outside the window was snow everywhere and now there a big patches of blue sky.  Go figure.  I love it when people ask me what the weather is like in Montana.  It depends on what time you ask the question!

I hope that you all have more balance in your life today than the weather here in Montana.

"The human spirit is the strongest force there is. As long as our spirit remains unbroken, there is no defeat. In life, spiritual defeat always precedes actual defeat. Guard against laziness, cowardice, carelessness, impatience, resignation and despair which corrode the human spirit and sow the seeds of defeat." - Daisaku Ikeda

Have you ever met or even just been in the same room with someone who's spirit, their life force, is so strong it is like another presence?  Ida is like this.  She is by and far the kindest, most giving person I have ever had the pleasure to call my friend.  She is generous beyond belief with her time and friendship and genuine heartfelt caring that just touches you deep down inside.  Her spirit is infectuous, there is no escaping her!  I thank her everyday for sharing her strength and spirit with me and for making me to want to be a better person.  And not even just want it, but know that I deserve it, and that is way cool.  Thank you Ida!

So often these days I think  of Kyra as 11 going on 16.  She just seems to be growing up entirely too fast!  She is always texting her friends, logged onto facebook, talking on the phone or rolling her eyes at me when she thinks I'm not looking.  She is a great kid, don't let that other stuff fool you.  Yesterday she cleaned Gracie's room for her and baked her dad a birthday cake!

On Friday, her friend Madison came for a sleepover.  They took my camera and said that they needed to do new photos for their facebook.  Great.  I could only imagine what they were going to come up with.  So I did the job of downloading the pics onto the computer, thinking that I would be able to edit out whatever I didn't think was appropriate.  Wasn't I surprised to see what fun, silly pictures they took of each other!  It's good to know that she isn't growing up too fast, it just seems that way.