Everyone Can't Be In Your Front Row!

Email I got and thought it was worth sharing:

Life is a theater - invite your audience carefully.Not everyone is spiritually healthy and mature enough to have a front row seat in our lives. There are some people in your life that need to be loved from a distance.

It's amazing what you can accomplish when you LET GO or at least minimize your time with draining, negative, incompatible,not-going-anywhere relationships/friendships/fellowships!

Observe the relationships around you. Pay attention to:

Which ones lift and which ones lean?

Which ones encourage?

Which ones discourage?

Which ones are on a path of growth uphill and which ones are going downhill?

When you leave certain people, do you feel better or feel worse?

Which ones always have DRAMA or don't really understand, know and appreciate you and the gift that lies within you?

When you seek growth, peace of mind, love and truth, the easier it will become for you to decide who gets to sit in the FRONT ROW and who should be moved to the balcony of your life.

You cannot change the people around you....but you can change the people you are around! PRAY for Godly wisdom and discernment and choose wisely the people who sit in the FRONT ROW of your life.

I Found the Goddess in Me & I'm Loving Her Fiercely‏

Listen to the words of the Great Goddess, who throughout time has been known by many names.

Assemble in a sacred place of your own making when the Moon is full,

and any other time you have need of My aid.

Know that My love will make you free, for nobody can prevent your worship of Me in your mind and your heart.

Listen well when you worship, and I will teach you the deep mysteries, ancient and powerful.

I require no sacrifices or pain,

for I am the Mother of all things, the Creatress who made you out of My love,

and the One who endures through all time.

I am the beauty of the Earth, the green of growing things.

I am the white Moon whose light is full among the stars and soft upon the Earth.

From Me all things are born, to Me all things, in their seasons return.

Let My worship be in your hearts, for all acts of love and pleasure are My rituals.

You see Me in the love of man and woman, the love of parent and child,

the love of humans to all My creations.

When you create with your hands, I am there.

I blow the breath of life into the seeds you plant, whether of plant of child.

I stand beside you always, whispering soft words of wisdom and guidance.

You need only to listen.All seekers of the Mysteries must come to Me,

for I am the True Source, the Keeper of the Cauldron.

All who seek to know Me, know this...

All your seeking and yearning will be in vain unless you understand the Mystery that if what you seek is not found within, you will never find it without.

For behold, I have been with you from the beginning, and I will gather you to my breast at the end.

Source: Charge of the Goddess (Doreen Valiente)

Perfect model of love

To understand we must be clear,

But to see clarity it must be sought after

Because if we just take our hands

And use our fingers to point at the ones we think the blame should be,

Come to find out, your pointing at me,

And in retaliation, I soon point at you,

Yet we still haven't realized why we are pointing at each other,

Do you?

Supposedly, love is the only thing that is supposed to sustain this whole pointing thing

But it seems that this love thing is a mere charade,

Because loves sustains all.

Love remains.

But the love we as humans have seems all in vain

Because we run to it for comfort

But despise it when we become the hunter

And again use this same hand

And take this same finger..

And point...

At the one we love

And yet..

We still have no clarity

Yet we have all the familiarity as to how to point that same finger.

Its so common but it doesn't make sense so we should use our common sense

And use the common knowledge of the one who loved first,

Died on the cross as we used that same hand

And that same finger

To point at HIM

As though necessary to quench a thirst.

However, His love is without reprisal

And did not point a finger back

Nor did He turn His back

Yet,

His love sustained

His loved remained

And with open arms

With those same hands

And that same finger,

He said come.

To the people in my life!!!

I just wanted to say first that people sometimes should take a step back... stop what you are doing... and look at your life... where you've been, where you are, and where you're going... and then take a closer look and acknowledge the people that have helped you along the way... people that have helped you become who you are now...

People that have wronged you but have somehow made you stronger.

People that have been there for you only for a season never to see them again... but they were still there at some point.

People that are distant but always watching you or praying for you.

People that love you dearly and sacrifice for you.

People that have changed your whole world.

People that stick with you even when you have done things that would make an ordinary person want to leave.

People that push you to grow, push you to become a better you, not just better.

People that have broken your heart.

I'm taking a second to acknowledge those people... thank you... thank you for everything, despite the wrong things i may have done to, despite whether or not i have hurt you or you have hurt me, even if i don't know you too well but you have impacted my life in some way... people i don't get along with, but have helped me understand how to love others better... thank you... thank you to those who have educated me, enlightened me, encouraged me... thank you to those who have loved me and shown me that love... life is all the more better because of you all... and you continue to inspire me !!!

Thank you

Choosing good and going bad!!!

When you find something "good" you never want to let it go. You hold onto "good" because you think "good" is as good as it gets. You never imagine something great, something so great, it's unexplainable. Instead, you stop where you stand... close your eyes to any other options, take in a slow deep breath, and accept "good" as your best!

Your thoughts become "good". Your actions are motivated by "good." Your life, as much as you'd like to deny it, has become co-dependant upon "good's" life plans. You take in air, imagining "good" as oxygen itself. You take "good" to mean forever, everything, your all... You begin to believe you were created to fulfill "good's" greatest desires. You were made to stretch, develop, hold onto, work with, understand, and motivate... love ... "good."

Then you start to notice that "good" isn't so great. Instead, "good" is exactly that...good. Nothing more, nothing less. "Good" is nice, convenient, and comfortable. "Good" is pleasing, patient, quiet. "Good" is not noisy, argue-some, or problematic. "Good" is exactly that...good. "Good" is just good.

Don't get me wrong...there's nothing terribly wrong with good. However, "good" will always prohibit true growth because "good" can't stand the test of becoming "great," and has no true passion of becoming "the best, excellent, perfect." "Good" will never be perfect... but you are confident that "good" has great potential! Even in the possibility of reaching such potential, "good" opts out of great and would rather remain stagnant at being good.

Your acceptance of "Good" never allows you to see how far behind you are at reaching great. The longer and tighter you hold onto "Good," you begin to notice that "good" is suffocating. "But why?" Because you, and "Good" fail to realize that accepting good is accepting stagnation and complacency; which have led you to "okay," "average," "aight," "something is better than nothing," "you're not worth anything great or better, so close your eyes to truth, and accept "good" as a lie... accept it as great... accept as the best... accept it for what it claims to be."

A choice must be made... a final choice! "Good" knows it has great potential; but, "good" chooses to remain good. You know that "Good" is not where you are destined... no offense; but unimaginable greatness is in your future. So now, you must open your eyes, clear out all self-created imaginative scales, and move from "good" to an unknown, unseen, beautifully expectant "great."

Cry your tears... for we know "You hold onto "good" because you think "good" is as good as it gets. You never imagine something great, something so great, it's unexplainable. Instead, you stop where you stand... close your eyes to any other options, take in a slow deep breath, and accept "good" as your best. Your thoughts become "good". Your actions are motivated by "good." Your life, as much as you'd like to deny it, has become co-dependant upon "good's" life plans. You take in air, imagining "good" as oxygen itself. You take "good" to mean forever, everything, your all... You begin to believe you were created to fulfill "good's" greatest desires. You were made to stretch, develop, hold onto, work with, understand, and motivate... love ... "good."

Your tears may last a while. They may sting as they stream down your face of disappointment, of "appeared" failure. However, when the tears are done... STAND UP! And take your first step towards being great! Re-introduce yourself to yourself, and remind self, that you are destined for unimaginable greatness! No matter how "good" things may seem...NEVER EVER settle for good. If you settle for good, you not only hinder your own future, but the future of all who have been divinely placed in your future to be blessed because of your oneness with unimaginable greatness!

Wipe your eyes, kiss "good" farewell, don't look back, and walk into your future!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

1) I am terribly afraid of failing. Not in the everyday sense of making a mistake, but not becoming the person that i have the potential to become.

2) I am now living in the crazy state of MD, i miss CA!!!

3) I am in love with the beach and my wet suit. I should have been a water sign :-)

4) I love being in love

5) I hate when there is a whole empty row and someone I don't know comes and sits RIGHT next to me or really close..ugh!

6) Obtained my BA and MA from Berkeley...stand up engineers :-)

7) I hate stupid people!!! No really, i do!!! :-)

8) I'm a theme park junkie, i have ridden every roller coaster known to man

9) I have a crazy chucks problem, the collection just keeps growing....i think i need help :-)

10) I'm always smiling, i don't know what it is, i just can't help it...see :-)

11) My family is a complicated situation.

12) I love to read....looking for my next novel

13) Despise all Zane books....don't hate me people :-)

14) I love big/interesting words....like mau-mau, pejorative, and pulchritudinous!

15) I'm very sensitive, i'm working on that though

16) I'm ambidextrous

17) I think i play every sport known to man

18) I played basketball overseas for two years, Europe rocks

19) I hate starting over with relationships

20) I'm moving again, hopefully i pick the right state :-)

21) So i love love love baby food, like the gerber baby ones :-) yummy

22) I hate double standards

23) I absolutely HATE shopping, grrrr why don't they just know what they want :-)

24) I love colors

25) At my core, i am the same person i was when i was 6:-)...curious, kind, playful and content

26) I pride myself on being different and peculiar

27) I despise public restrooms

28)I hate when someone says something funny and people laugh and then they keep saying it.

29) I love love kids....everybody wonders why i never became a teacher

30) I'm not a good christian but i do really love Jesus

31) simplicity rules

32) I believe the eyes are the windows to the soul!!!

33) I adore art

34) Lover of cartoons

35) Got to have my pops (cereal) :-)

36) I've been labelled "white" or "wannabe-white" for a large portion of my life....can you believe that???

37) I love to travel

38) I am deathly afraid of cats...like seriously if there was a million dollars in a room with a cat, i would never get that money :-)

39) I love all dogs, especially chloe

40) I love sky-diving

41) I enjoy camping

42) I am afraid of flying but yet still love to travel :-)

43) Disrespectful and aggressive individuals make me furious

44) I am a reality TV addict

45) I eat oatmeal every day...maple brown sugar

46) I collect designer sunglasses, my collection is seriously sick :-)

47) I don't have any tattoos

48) No piercings

49) I HATE being told to do something "now"..I literally will purposely not move for at least 5 minutes because of that. That is so disrespectful!

50) Wish i was a little bit taller :-)

Sit down. Let's have a talk about love!!!

Lately I have been thinking a lot about the topic of love. It seems that everyone has their own definition of love. Disagreements about the nature of love and misunderstandings of other people's concepts of love run rampant, ruining friendships and relationships alike. I don't claim to be completely right...but hearing other people's thoughts can help one formulate their own. So please, share with my your opinion on the topic.

As far as what I believe; Love is a choice. Many people will claim love is an emotion, but emotions are fickle. They change without reason. That can't be love. You see, our best example of love is our relationship with God. Our love should be fashioned after his. But to understand his love, we have to love one another. Seems like a circular argument, doesn't it. Lets go into more detail.

When Adam was created he was created alone. The time he spent alone made him aware that he was lacking. Lacking in companionship and in understanding of how to relate to someone on his level. His introduction to Eve (and consequent relationship with her) helped to form a basis for his understanding of God. It put into perspective where he was, and how Adam should relate to him.

But the topic of this note is humanly love. Adam and Eve's love. They could love each other because of God's example. The time he spent with them, the way he spoke to them, their relationship was an emulation of their relationship with God.

So how does all of this relate to us today? Many people feel they are incomplete without a partner. That is not true. Each and every person is created as a complete being. However, I do believe that the insight gained by being part of an intimate relationship helps us understand and relate better to not only those around us; but also God.

Not everyone needs this experience. But the overwhelming majority of us do. But we tend to go about finding it the wrong way. We confuse our lusts and our love. Lust is an emotion, fickle and constantly changing. Lust is based in the desires of our flesh, and being born into sin, our flesh naturally desires sin. Love however is a decision.

As our relationship with Christ grows, our decision making changes and begins to become more like his. Love isn't about looks or money. position or fame. Rather its about forming a long lasting relationship with someone who can positively benefit your relationship with Christ.

On a personal note. I realized what love was when I decided that I would do what was best for a certain person, no matter what it cost me. Though that relationship didn't work out, my understanding of love was formed through interaction with her. I then could understand how God loves us. How he would truly sacrifice anything for us.

You see, we often forget the sacrifices made for us, whether it be from parents, friends, strangers or even God. The balance of loving someone and being loved by someone can help us to constantly remember how much God loves us, and how much we should love others.

The times when things get bad forges us, cleanses us, makes us stronger. There are trials in relationships to test our love. Don't give up when you are in the crucible.... endure it because love is a choice, not an emotion. And in the end, your love, and your understanding of love will be greatly increased.