Courage

Happy Friday,

Yes, I said, happy Friday. The weekend is finally upon us. Super excited. Not a lot going on over the weekend, except Johns parents are coming for a visit. They’ll be able to see the lake house. I sure do hope they like it. I also hope it won’t be super hot, but we are in the middle of a heat wave, so I’m pretty sure, we’ll have a bit of a hot day. We plan to take them to the Lighthouse for a couple drinks and appetizers, then we’ll come back home and I’ll make my famous tacos. I will admit, my tacos are pretty amazing. Other than that, I don’t have a lot on the calendar. What are your plans? Send me a message or comment and let me know how you’re all doing and what you’ve been up to. I love hearing from you.

Today, I thought I’d talk about courage. What do you think of when you hear the word courage? According to Merriam-Webster.com, it defines courage as, mental or moral strength to venture, preserve, and withstand danger, fear or difficulty. To me, courage is all of the above and it’s also, doing something out of my comfort zone. It takes courage to try something new. It takes courage to move to an area you where you know nobody. It takes courage to say no when everyone around you is doing something you don’t feel good about or feel is right.

I’ve had people tell me it took courage to leave a religion that I was apart of for 45 years and that I believed in. I’ve been told it took courage to start my life over at 48 years old. I still ponder over the word courage when it relates to those two major events in my life. I think I still feel, instead of courage, it was a survival tactic. I don’t feel I would still be here if I didn’t do what I did. I begged God every day for six months to not let me wake up tomorrow, and tomorrow kept coming and going. Over the past year especially, I’ve developed a closer relationship with my creator and I feel, for the first time in my life, that I’m on the course he intended for me. I feel he has a purpose for me and I look for signs from the Universe to guide me.

John and I were talking last night and he reminded me about a walk we took five months ago here in Canyon Lake. He said it was right in front of our mailbox here that he said, “this feels like home and this is where we need to be.” Four months later, our home became available and we are here. Sure, it’s going to be a challenge over the next couple of years while he and Grant will spend most of their time in San Diego during the week in order to let Grant finish school, but every day we wake up, thanking God for this gift. We sit out on our balcony so grateful for what we have. We not only have each other, we have a home that we love.

I was sent an email this morning from Astrovibe. I like my emails from them because they usually are uplifting and sort of give me a kick in the butt at the right time. It seems when I’m having an off day, the email is something positive and it tends to put things in perspective. There’s a scripture in the Bible that says, “food at the proper time.” Matthew 24:45. Now I know, getting an email from Astrovibe isn’t the same as getting something spiritual from the Bible, but in some ways, it is similar. It feeds my soul, it feeds my mind in a positive way. ” Dear Friend, what is courage? Courage is an action word. It could be speaking out against injustice. It is being able to admit when you’re wrong. It is even often about chasing your dreams against the odds. It’s moving forward when you’re scared to death. Courage is within us all, though we don’t always realize it. Here’s a reminder. You are courage. Courage is YOU. Get it? Got it? Good!”-Astrovibe.com.

This is one of my first emails this morning and I loved it. I stopped and thought about speaking up against injustice, in whatever form that looks like. I think sometimes it’s easier to go along, ignore or just simply use the I don’t want to get involved card then it is to speak up when we see things happening that we aren’t involved in, but we witness, maybe at a grocery store, the park, or wherever. It takes courage to speak up, especially in front of strangers. There’s been times that I didn’t agree with things in my old religion, but as a woman, speaking up was considered disrespectful and something you just didn’t do without running the risk of some form of punishment.

I loved how the Astrovibe message said, “courage is within us all, though we don’t always realize it.” I never would of guessed that I had, what I referred to as strength, but now realize it was courage, to walk away from a high controlling cult/religion. To this day, I face consequences that I’m trying to avoid, but, those consequences are inevitable. I didn’t realize until today that chasing and following my dreams is courageous. Becoming an author, a writer and a reporter, I would of never have had the courage to find the strength to do any of it, that is, without the encouragement of John. I’m moving forward into unknown territory and I’m scared to death, but each day I get up, and take one step to making all my dreams come true. I do it for myself, for my sons and for John. The odds are against me that I will succeed in becoming an author, but I will finish my book by my birthday, which is in two weeks and I will have my book published. Now, I consider it a bonus if anyone chooses to purchase my book. The point is, if you would of told me 2 years ago that I would be near completion of a book, I would of told you that you are crazy, but here I am, doing it. I guess you can say, it took courage to step out of my comfort zone and write my story.

Everyday that you and I chase our dreams, that we take steps in accomplishing and getting what we want, we are displaying courage. John said last night, “we put it out to the Universe just five months ago to live here in Canyon Lake, and not only did we make it happen by putting it out there, we ended up on the very street we made that a dream.” Our dream is now our reality. I love the cosmic email I got this morning. “I am courage. You are courage.” With courage, we can make anything happen, we just need to be patient in some cases and we need to put it out there that it’s more then just a dream, it’s our destiny.

What’s your courage look like? What is it you are working towards? Anything is possible if only we see ourselves in our dream, living it, feeling it, tasting it and doing it. The Universe has plenty of room for us all to get what we want, as long as we are on the right path. If we’re not, we’ll know soon enough. God has a way of correcting us if we are open to accepting his plan and his detours to get us to where we need to be. The journey truly is amazing, with the right mindset that is.

Well my dears readers, I hope you are all doing well, staying safe and living the best life possible. Until next time, Love Life++