Standing With Your Shadows

How many of us have someone in our lives who is addicted to alcohol or drugs? How many of us have children who are not leading the lives that we had envisioned for them or have strayed down a path that scares you so much that you can't sleep at night? We've all heard about the interventions where you bring all of the family and friends together and they all tell your loved one how much they are hurt by his or her actions.
These interventions are full of darkness and sadness and anger. If someone is not motivated to change, all the prodding and pushing in the world will not make it happen. But here is another idea to consider.
Let's bring all the people who love and care about this person and tell all the good things that he or she has ever done. Let's tell all the good qualities that they possess. Can you think of a time when someone said nice things about you? Didn't you shine? When you stand with your shadows you are in the "light". We all have shadows. Things that we are not proud of. If we didn't have shadows we would be in the dark, which means we don't acknowledge our transgressions and ask forgiveness for them. Standing with your shadows is standing in the light of the Lord.

Find your calling

You can find your calling just by being willing to listen. Your calling could be anything, something to write, raising horses, working with children. If you allow this great spirit of "your calling" into your life, it will become bigger than your life and you will know that you are doing what you are meant to do. But first, we must understand a simple premise. We are like where we come from. Take a minute and roll that thought around in your head. We are like where we come from...a divine source. We are not just a package of skin and bones. We are a part of God. We are kind, loving, caring, infinite, spiritual beings having a human experience.

Shift your belief system that says you are limited. When you change the awareness of yourself, you will be changed. When you trust in yourself, you trust the very wisdom that created you. So take some time and listen for your calling.

Nothing happens unless something moves. Albert Einstein

Where is Spring?

Respect

Promises are only words until they are tested. It is when your best intentions meet hard reality that true character is revealed. Maintain your integrity in those difficult times and your word will gain a quiet strength that others will never doubt.

A Chain Reaction

Our lives are not determined by what happens to us, but how we react to what happens; not by what life brings to us; but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It is a catalyst...a spark, that causes extraordinary results.

Endurance

What do you think of when you hear the word "endurance"? Does your mind automatically go to the atheletes who run marathons? Or the people who live in the heat soaked deserts with no food and no water or the children who endure never ending tests for their diseases? Of course, those are tests of endurance to be sure. And I can think of a multitude of others.

But for this topic I would like you to change the way you look at the word "endurance." We all want to endure. That would mean that we are strong and that we tried. That would mean that others could look to us for inspiration. Others could look AT us for inspiration.

• Endurance is standing in a grocery line with a crying baby.
• Endurance is making it through the day when you have chronic pain.
• Endurance is helping someone else when you need help.
• Endurance is smiling at your child when you really want to cry.

Do not minimize your accomplishments. Build on them. Use your endurance as a sign of your strength and and inner wisdom. I know how hard it can be to endure, my friend, but we will have our reward.