Making a Difference

Happy Monday,

How are you all doing today? What an amazing day it is. The sun is shining, and the wind is blowing. Simply gorgeous outside. I was enjoying my balcony, but I needed to come in and work inside for a bit, so I opened all my windows, and I can still feel the breeze. I am loving today.

How was your weekend? I hope it was a good one. Mine was good. I did some painting; some big-time cleaning and I’m still not done with that. I am cleaning out cupboards and closets and getting rid of junk. Saturday evening, I went to the beach here at the lake and hung out with some friends. We enjoyed some margaritas and tons of laughs. What amazing gals I am blessed to know and I’m even more blessed that they have welcomed me into their group.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my purpose here on earth. I think I’ve shared with you all that I feel God wants me to, I guess accomplish something and I feel it has to do with sharing my journey, not only here but with my book. I am praying every day to God and asking him to use me in any way he sees fit. I think my book will help others, especially women to get help or get out of high controlling religions and sadly, marriages. I don’t want to see anyone end their marriage, but I do want people to know their worth and that they are valued and not someone’s property. I want people to know that marriage is a partnership, not an arrangement for one to be belittled or to be the servant to someone. That’s one book, the other is not mine, but one where I simply do the writing and my dear Aunt Billie does the narrating. Since she’s nearly 97 years young, it’s a little more difficult for her to write, so I excitedly volunteered to write her words for her. Can’t wait to get started.

I recently read this really nice quote from G. Hinckley/power of wordz and I thought it would be nice to share with all of you. “Being humble means recognizing that we are not on earth to see how important we can become, but to see how much of a difference we can make in the lives of others. I just love these words and they go along so well with a couple of the positive affirmations I listened to this weekend. In one of the videos I was watching, this lady was saying how she had been upset with this one person for nearly ten years and that when she sees this person, she begins to boil, and then she talked about how proud she was of herself for not lashing out at this person, but instead, kept it bottled up inside her. Well, the response to her from the, I guess life coach, person hosting the show/video simply replied back to her and OMGoodness, did the audience stop and jaws hit the floor. The simple statement or question back to the woman who was proud for keeping her anger bottled up was this, “are you proud of yourself and proud of what you have put out to the Universe over the last ten years?” Hello!!! This woman has carried this grudge or anger for nearly ten years, and in order to carry that kind of frustration towards someone, you have to be allowing yourself to hold a grudge and you are not letting go and letting God. I can’t help but think of the time and energy this woman wasted on allowing someone to occupy that kind of space in her life. I’m sure the person she’s upset with has no clue the sort of power she holds in this woman’s life.

Isn’t it easy to sometimes hold a grudge or allow yourself to be triggered by simply seeing the one person who has done you wrong, or who you are upset by? I really had to stop and reflect on the fact that I need to ask God to help me change the things I can but accept the things I can’t. Usually I find, it’s not so much what someone has done to me directly, it’s more that they are doing something in a way I don’t agree with, and that’s truly okay, however, I think it’s safe to say that I sometimes allow my ego to get in the way. I want to be right and when my way works, then why not do it my way? I can answer my own question, it’s because my way isn’t necessarily your way, nor even the right way. There are many ways to get to the same conclusion and destination, and we are entitled to do it the way we think is best. We are all unique individuals and it’s okay to not do things each other’s way and when you think about it, how much more exciting it is to see how someone gets the same results as you do, but in a different way. Perhaps we can, or I can learn a new way of doing something. It’s been said that any day you learn something new is a good day.

So, what does all this have to do with making a difference? Well, the way I see it is, in order to make a difference, I need to be willing to learn. Learning to me, means growing in understanding and hopefully in compassion. I hope to learn and grow to be more accepting. If I can change me, then I perhaps can make a difference in this world. I don’t want to change to be what others want, I simply want to change to be the best version of myself.

“To make a difference in someone’s life, you don’t have to be brilliant, rich, beautiful or perfect, you just have to care. “- Mandy Hale. I think sometimes we are so caught up in technology that we fail to communicate. When we text, we can’t really see what’s on the other side of the phone. A person may say they are okay, yet they are maybe home crying or maybe they are in pain, but they can’t show us, and we certainly can’t see it. How can we show we care if we don’t even talk to someone?

I was talking to my friend the other night and in the office where she works, before you can take a bathroom break, you have to send out a blast email to all in the office that says, BRB. Be right back. I told her, we as a society have gotten so lazy that we don’t even spell out, be right back, we simply use letters or abbreviations, BRB for example. I sort of miss the days of answering machines where you leave a message. I remember always being so excited to see who called when I was out and about, and now, I have my phone with me, so I’m pretty reachable no matter where I am. I have taken John’s advice though and I’m not always as connected to my phone. If I’m doing something, I don’t automatically drop everything to answer a text and when I’m with someone, I don’t always pick up a call. I have the capability to call back. I know when I’m with my aunt Cathy, I’m making a difference to her by not taking calls or answering texts when I’m with her. She has my undivided attention and that means a lot to her.

Even if we aren’t doing something huge and recognizable to the world, or to a big community, we can be making a difference in the lives around us simply by paying them some attention that maybe we don’t even know they need.

I do want to make a difference in this life. I want more than anything to be used by God for however he sees fit. I was raised to not live my life in the moment, instead I was taught that this life wasn’t what God had in mind for me. I was taught to live in the future for a promise that a religion held out for its people, instead of embracing life now. For most of my life I lived with an expectation for an unrealistic future, but now, I’m living my life for the present and how I can make a difference now. I no longer share a false promise with others that embraces an idea that if you do all this work for a religion, then you might get the reward of a good life in the future.

God has given us life, this life, and he wants us to live it to the best of our ability and become the best versions of ourselves now. Yes, we need to work every day towards becoming the best version of ourselves, however, we want to work towards making a difference in our own lives as well as others. We want to live in the here and now and not the future. This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t have dreams and aspirations, but instead of waiting around for something, enjoy the moment of the here and now. Make every day count. Make every moment the best it can be. Dream for where you want to see yourself in a year from now, five years from now, but don’t get lost in living for that dream, work today towards it, so you can make it happen.

If we all strive to make a difference in our own life, makes me wonder, what difference will that make in the life of someone else?

Well, my dear readers, I must head out to the airport. It’s almost time to pick up my cousin. I do hope you had an incredible day and I hope that your week is simply amazing. Enjoy each day to the max as my dear friend P.J. says, and until next time, don’t forget, Love Life++