Lightworker

“Do not trust all men, but trust men of worth; the former course is silly, the latter a mark of prudence.”
~ Democritus (460 BC - 370 BC)

“Love all, trust a few. Do wrong to none.” ~ William Shakespeare

“It is an equal failing to trust everybody, and to trust nobody.” ~ English Proverb

“You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist.” ~ Indira Gandhi

“Do not trust all men, but trust men of worth; the former course is silly, the latter a mark of prudence.”

My mother is my root, my foundation. She planted the seed that I base my life on, and that is the belief that the ability to achieve starts in your mind.
~ Michael Jordan

Carry me gently
In love’s ocean breeze
Sail through the waters
With greatest of ease

Waves that were raging
Subsiding with calm
Storm that was brewing
Becomes nature’s Psalm

Softly the wind blows
Sailing divine
Life now just drifts by
Winds now align

Rain now just falling
In gentle sweet grace
Touching my face with
Lavender’s lace

Rainbow upon me
Shine with great light
Heart filled with beauty
As love will ignite

Join in this journey
As sails smoothly flow
Winds of my destiny
Meet with heart’s glow.
author unknown

If you are holding on to something that doesn’t belong
to you and was never intended for your life, then you
need to… LET IT GO!!!

If you are holding on to part hurts and pain, …LET IT GO!!!

If someone can’t treat you right, love you back, see your
worth… LET IT GO!!! (PLEASE!!!!!)

If someone has angered you, …LET IT GO!!!

If you are holding on to some thoughts of evil and revenge,
…LET IT GO!!!

If you are involved in a wrong relationship or addiction,
…LET IT GO!!!

If you are holding on to a job that no longer meets your
needs or talents, …LET IT GO!!!

If you have a bad attitude, …LET IT GO!!!

If you keep judging others to make yourself feel better,
…LET IT GO!!!

If you’re stuck in the past, and God is trying to take you
to a new level in Him, …LET IT GO!!!

If you are struggling with the healing of a broken
relationship, …LET IT GO!!!

If you keep trying to help someone who won’t even try to
help themselves, …LET IT GO!!!

If you are feeling stressed and depressed, …LET IT GO!!!

If there is a particular situation that you are so used
to handling and God is saying, “take your hands off of
it,” then you need to… LET IT GO!!!

Let the past be the past. Forget the former things. GOD
is doing a new thing… LET IT GO!!!

–author unknown

The Blessing Of Thorns

Sandra felt as low as the heels of her shoes as she pushed against a November gust and the florist shop door. Her life had been easy, like a spring breeze. Then in the fourth month of her second pregnancy, a minor automobile accident stole her ease. During this Thanksgiving week she would have delivered a son. She grieved over her loss. As if that weren’t enough, her husband’s company threatened a transfer. Then her sister, whose annual holiday visit she coveted, called saying she could not come. What’s worse, Sandra’s friend infuriated her by suggesting her grief was a God-given path to maturity that would allow her to empathize with others who suffer. “She has no idea what I’m feeling,” thought Sandra with a shudder. “Thanksgiving? Thankful for what?” she wondered aloud. For a careless driver whose truck was hardly scratched when he rear- ended her? For an airbag that saved her life but took that of her child? “Good afternoon, can I help you?” The shop clerk’s approach startled her. “I….I need an arrangement, “stammered Sandra. “For Thanksgiving? Do you want beautiful but ordinary, or would you like to challenge the day with a customer favorite I call the Thanksgiving Special?” asked the shop clerk. “I’m convinced that flowers tell stories,” she continued. “Are you looking for something that conveys ‘gratitude’ this Thanksgiving? “Not exactly!” Sandra blurted out. “In the last five months, everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. ” Sandra regretted her outburst, and was surprised when the shop clerk said, “I have the perfect arrangement for you.” Then the door’s small bell rang, and the shop clerk said, “Hi Barbara…let me get your order.” She politely excused herself and walked toward a small workroom, then quickly reappeared, carrying an arrangement of greenery, bows, and long-stemmed thorny roses. Except the ends of the rose stems were neatly snipped…there were no flowers. “Want this in a box?” asked the clerk. Sandra watched for the customer’s response. Was this a joke? Who would want rose stems with no flowers!?! She waited for laughter, but neither woman laughed. “Yes, please,” Barbara replied with an appreciative smile. “You’d think after three years of getting the special, I wouldn’t be so moved by its significance, but I can feel it right here, all over again,” she said as she gently tapped her chest. “Uhh,” stammered Sandra, “that lady just left with, uhh… she just left with no flowers!” “Right…I cut off the flowers. That’s the Special… I call it the Thanksgiving Thorns Bouquet. “Oh, come on, you can’t tell me someone is willing to pay for that?” exclaimed Sandra. “Barbara came into the shop three years ago feeling very much like you feel today,” explained the clerk. “She thought she had very little to be thankful for. She had lost her father to cancer, the family business was failing, her son was into drugs, and she was facing major surgery.” “That same year I had lost my husband, “continued the clerk,” and for the first time in my life, I had to spend the holidays alone. I had no children, no husband, no family nearby, and too great a debt to allow any travel. “So what did you do?” asked Sandra. “I learned to be thankful for thorns,” answered the clerk quietly. “I’ve always thanked God for good things in life and never thought to ask Him why those good things happened to me, but when bad stuff hit, did I ever ask! It took time for me to learn that dark times are important. I always enjoyed the ‘flowers’ of life, but it took thorns to show me the beauty of God’s comfort. You know, the Bible says that God comforts us when we’re afflicted, and from His consolation we learn to comfort others. “Sandra sucked in her breath as she thought about the very thing her friend had tried to tell her. “I guess the truth is I don’t want comfort. I’ve lost a baby and I’m angry with God.” Just then someone else walked in the shop. “Hey, Phil!” shouted the clerk to the balding, rotund man. “My wife sent me in to get our usual Thanksgiving arrangement ….twelve thorny, long-stemmed stems!” laughed Phil as the clerk handed him a tissue-wrapped arrangement from the refrigerator. “Those are for your wife?” asked Sandra incredulously. “Do you mind me asking why she wants something that looks like that? “No…I’m glad you asked,” Phil replied. “Four years ago my wife and I nearly divorced. After forty years, we were in a real mess, but with the Lord’s grace and guidance, we slogged through problem after problem. He rescued our marriage. Jenny here (the clerk) told me she kept a vase of rose stems to remind her of what she learned from “thorny” times, and that was good enough for me. I took home some of those stems. My wife and I decided to label each one for a specific “problem” and give thanks to Him for what that problem taught us.” As Phil paid the clerk, he said to Sandra, “I highly recommend the Special!” “I don’t know if I can be thankful for the thorns in my life.” Sandra said to the clerk. “It’s all too… fresh.” “Well,” the clerk replied carefully, “my experience has shown me that thorns make roses more precious. We treasure God’s providential care more during trouble than at any other time. Remember, it was a crown of thorns that Jesus wore so we might know His love. Don’t resent the thorns.” Tears rolled down Sandra’s cheeks. For the first time since the accident, she loosened her grip on resentment. “I’ll take those twelve long-stemmed thorns, please,” she managed to choke out. “I hoped you would,” said the clerk gently. “I’ll have them ready in a minute.” “Thank you. What do I owe you?” asked Sandra. “Nothing.” said the clerk. “Nothing but a promise to allow God to heal your heart. The first year’s arrangement is always on me. “The clerk smiled and handed a card to Sandra. “I’ll attach this card to your arrangement, but maybe you’d like to read it first.” It read: “Dear God, I have never thanked you for my thorns. I have thanked you a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorns. Teach me the glory of the cross I bear; teach me the value of my thorns. Show me that I have climbed closer to you along the path of pain. Show me that, through my tears, the colors of your rainbow look much more brilliant.”
~Author Unknown~

A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully. Before it
blossomed, he examined it. He saw a bud that would soon blossom.
He also saw the thorns, and he thought, “How can any beautiful
flower come from a plant, burdened with so many sharp thorns?”
Saddened by this thought, he neglected to water the rose, and
before it was ready to bloom, it died.So it is with many people.
Within every soul, there is a rose.
The “God-like” qualities planted in us at birth, growing amidst
the thorns of our faults. Many of us look at ourselves and see
only the thorns, the defects. We despair, thinking nothing good
can possibly come from us. We neglect to water the good within
us, and eventually it dies. We never realize our potential.

Some don’t see the rose within themselves. It takes someone else
to show it to them. One of the greatest gifts a person can
possess is to be able to reach past the thorns and find the rose
within others. This is the truest, most innocent, and gracious
characteristic of love - to know another person, including their
faults, recognize the nobility in their soul, and yet still help
another to realize they can overcome their faults. If we show
them the rose, they will conquer the thorns. Only then will they
blossom, and most likely, blooming thirty, sixty, a hundred-fold,
as it is given to them.

Our duty in this world is to help others, by showing them their
roses and not their thorns. It is then that we achieve the love
we should feel for each other. Only then can we bloom in our own
garden.

Author unknown

5 Steps That Could Change Your Life
Unexpected ways to find joy and serenity

By Salley Shannon

Inner peace. A tranquil mind. Serenity. How do you find the way to
your inner quiet retreat when days are full of to-do lists, searches
for misplaced sneakers, exasperating coworkers and nothing much to
start supper with in the fridge? Consider the following.

Step 1: Pay attention to your physical health. We all go through
periods when an illness, a bout of being overscheduled or even
having a new baby in the house means operating for weeks with little
sleep and spotty nutrition. But if you’re eating meals standing
up
and getting by with too little rest, any quest for inner peace is
almost impossible.

David L. Felten, M.D., Ph.D., the prize-winning scientist whose work
first demonstrated the mind-body connection, says seeking serenity
while neglecting the basics of good physical health is like
beginning an exercise program “and then having a junk-food feast
every day.” While embracing yoga, guided imagery or spirituality
might do you some good, he says it won’t entirely reverse the
damage
done by failing to take care of yourself.

If you’re wondering whether or not your health habits are sound,
ask
this question: If my best friend had these habits, what would I tell
her? Then follow your own advice. We usually know what we ought to
do to be healthy; the trick is doing it.

Step 2: Envision the person you’d like to be on the inside. Then
begin living “as if.” Are you who you always hoped to become?
We’re
not talking about your weight or the fact that you wanted to go to
nursing school, but whether you like the woman you hold
conversations with in your head.

We all need a mental photo of the person we’d like to be. If you
don’t have one, ask yourself which person you most admired as a
child. Perhaps you were inspired by an aunt who had a kind word for
everyone, and you wanted to grow up to be genuine and caring like
her. Maybe you’ve always admired people with faith, like your
grandmother, because it helped them weather life’s problems.

For many people, the path to serenity begins with a daily prayer
asking for guidance. But inner peace isn’t just for those with
defined religious beliefs, says Robert C. Solo-mon, Ph.D., a
philosophy professor at the University of Texas at Austin and author
of Spirituality for the Skeptic. Dr. Solomon says peace of mind can
be found by deliberately choosing to be virtuous in all of our
dealings: by telling the truth, being just and fair and striving to
be kind. “Caring about the right things becomes a kind of
spirituality in itself,” he says.

Once you have an inner model, start living today as though you were
already that person.

Step 3: Get rid of anger and blame. We all carry around bundles of
hurts and grievances, many of them caused by things other people
have done, believes Fred Luskin, Ph.D., author of the bestseller
Forgive for Good and director and co-founder of the Stanford
University Forgiveness Project, a research program that shows
clients how letting go of grievances makes them happier and
physically healthier.

“By carrying around these hurts, you are letting the person who
harmed you continue to inflict new bruises. You are renting space to
him in your head,” he says. Aside from wrecking your inner peace,
just thinking about these grudges gives your nervous system a jolt.
Your blood pressure, heart rate and arterial pressure actually rise.
If these responses continue day after day, they can literally
“break
your heart.”

Forgiving someone doesn’t mean condoning bad behavior or
necessarily
reconciling with the person who hurt you, says Dr. Luskin. What it
really means is not letting the memory upset or control you.

One way to get rid of inner anger is to mentally “change the
channel” by turning your mind to something else. If you find
yourself replaying the mental video of an argument with your mother,
stop. Replay a happy moment instead. Likewise, don’t keep talking
about old grievances. If you hear yourself begin telling a new
coworker about how you were unfairly deprived of a promotion five
years ago, stop. Talk instead about something that makes you feel
good.

Step 4: Create a life you enjoy. Many of our regrets center on
things we haven’t done, especially as we grow older. Barbara
Sher,
the guru of midlife changes and author of It’s Only Too Late if
You
Don’t Start Now, advises, “Find what you love and find a way
to do
it.”

If you always wanted to sing, you probably can’t quit your job
and
join the opera, but you can start taking singing lessons. If
you need practical inspiration to help you pursue what you want,
visit Sher’s online bulletin board, www.barbarasher.com.
You’ll be
inspired by stories of women who have taken up everything from
raising gorillas to hairstyling.

Among Sher’s best suggestions: Gather a group of friends who are
supportive and will help each other pursue their dreams, then
brainstorm with them to find practical suggestions for making money
or finding time. As for the critics who tell you that what you love
is irrelevant or crazy, ignore them. “One of the best things
about
growing up is that your inner satisfaction becomes more important
than status or praise,” says Sher.

Step 5: Let go of trying to be perfect. Trying to do everything
right is impossible. Even when a task is finished, there is always
something you could have done a little better, so your mind stays
stirred up and peace eludes you.

Perfectionism “is a pretend way to make you believe you have the
power to control things no one can control,” Sher says. Trying to
be
perfect becomes the way to prove you are worthy, get approval or
force your critics to admit you’re good. Since perfectionism is a
habit often developed in childhood, you may be trying to please a
person who isn’t even in your life anymore. Also, keep in mind
that “critics want to criticize,” says Sher. “They have
their own
reasons for doing it that have nothing to do with you.”

I will realize my own worth when I accept ………… I cannot get away with inappropriate, unworthy behaviour.
Life will let you get away with something for a while, but sooner or later, you will pay the price! When you get the bill, don’t be shocked! Don’t act like you don’t understand! Everything you do in life causes the effects that you experience. When you get the bill, be prepared to pay.
If you know that you are being dishonest, you must know that you can only get away with being dishonest for a while. Eventually what you do and say will come back to bite you. When it does, don’t cry over the teeth marks! Acknowledge what you have done. Forgive yourself. Ask for forgiveness. Make amends or restitution if you can, and move on.
When you know that you are engaged in activities that dishonour you, you know that you will eventually be called on your stuff! Only unworthy people can do unworthy things and get away with them. Since you obviously are not in that category, you can expect to get caught. When you do, don’t act innocent! Own your stuff! Acknowledge your deeds. Forgive yourself. Ask for forgiveness. Make amends or restitution. Move on! Now here comes the hard part.

When the moment of reckoning comes, you may feel as if you are unable to forgive yourself. You may be too proud to ask for forgiveness. There may be no way you can make amends or restitution. In the worst case scenario, you may be faced with all of these possibilities at once. Should that happen, remember this: Life knows what you are capable of! The only reason life has taken the time to point out your little shortcomings and nasty habits is that life wants you to act like you know who you are.
Until today, you may have been trying to get away with doing something that is in conflict with the things life knows about you. Just for today, stop doing things that are beneath you.
Today I am devoted to stopping the things I do that do not honour who I am!

Iyanla VanZant - Until today

Just for today,

I will live through the next 12 hours and not try to
tackle all of life’s problems at once.

I will improve my mind. I will learn something useful.
I will learn something that requires
effort, thought, and concentration.

I will be agreeable. I will look my best,
speak in well-modulated voice, be courteous and considerate.

I will not find fault with friend, relative or colleague.
I will not try to change or improve anyone other than myself.

I will have a program. I might not follow it exactly,
but I will have it. I will save myself from two
enemies, hurry and indecision.

I will do a good turn and keep it secret.
If anyone finds out, it won’t count.

I will do two things I don’t want to do.
Just for exercise.

I will believe in myself. I will give my best to
the world and feel confident that the world will give it’s best to me.