You did not come to this Earth now to just pay bills, follow rules, watch your body age, and live a random life. You came here to fulfill a purpose, to live your life alive, to view all your changes as sacred meaningful soul passagesFrom Leo at perspectives From the Sky blog

Two of the most powerful words in the English language for bringing about change are "thank you." Especially when offered before the change even occurs and everything still looks pretty much like it did yesterday.You'll have to think of something to say afterwards on your own.Hubba, hubba -The UniverseWww.tut.com

I like the word appreciation over gratitude.It's cleaner,It's clearer,It feels better to me.Gratitude can still have the energy of overcoming something attached to it."God! I'm so grateful THAT is over"!Thankfulness can carry a similar energy to gratitude."I'm so thankful to be done with THAT"!Don't get me wrong, reaching for gratitude and thankfulness,can pull you up and out of the sticky tar of hate, fear and anxiety.But I have found that through the years, as my gratitude journalsevolved, I could read back and feel in those words of gratitude, the wounds that had not healed, the fear that I was trying to banish.It felt like gratitude and thankfulness were part of the healingprocess, part of the energy working to sooth me.Appreciation feels like the finish line.It feels like the wind is at my back, the past is far behind me, andI am reaching that line, having stopped to heal along the way with:1) forgiveness2 gratitude3 thankfulness.So...currently the clean air of appreciation stands waiting for me at the finish line, with a towel and some Gatorade.Try it and see if you can feel the difference.XoxJanet

http://daily.represent.us/matt-damon-blows-your-mind/

This got me thinking. Do we blindly continue to "follow the leader"?History shows that allowing others, even if they are in a position of authority, to dictate our actions, can undermine a society.It is the slow drip effect. It starts slowly, it is subtle, and most importantly, it doesn't FEEL right.What does YOUR heart say?

Your ability to lead a healthy and happy life depends more on your perception of the events that unfold around you than it does upon the actual events themselves.– Christiane Northrup

Delicious Ambiguity

“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.”~Gilda Radner~I LOVE that!! What a contradiction! Right?!!In AA they call it letting go,And letting God.AMBIGUITY (noun)the quality or state of having a veiled or uncertain meaning Synonyms ambiguity: ambiguousness, darkness, equivocalness, equivocation, inscrutability, inscrutableness, murkiness, mysteriousness, nebulosity, nebulousness, obliqueness, obliquity, opacity, opaquenessSounds scary, right?But then you add the word...the perception ofDeliciousI saw this quote a couple of weeks ago and it's been rolling around in my head.What did she mean? The lack of clarity about a situation does not necessarily mean it cannot be desirable. Delicious Ambiguity means to Revel in the Unknown. What appearsambiguious has many delicious things for life. Keep your eyes open,Your MIND open, and things will reveal themselves. Then I found this on the Web just the other day and it all started to make sense. It's a prayer of sorts that feels to me like it can help put us in a place of Delicious Ambiguity. I'm saying it every morning.It goes like this:Dear God, Put me in the right place even though I don't know where it is. Dear God, when you do it, make it comfortable for me and help me to see the sense of it. Make it easy and bring me the right situations and synchronicities to put me in this place I don't know about.XoxJanet

"For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."- Steve Jobs

I LOVE this quote!!

Good morning God,Please deliver me FROM CHAOS TO CALMFROM ANGST TO ACTIONFROM UNFOCUSED TO UNSTOPPABLEThank you,And keep up the good work.

* I got this email from the Universe this morning (www.theuniverse@tut.com)Feels like an affirmation about the tooth as a sign! Be on the lookout for yours!Happy Monday!Pssst... Hey, gorgeous!Want to know a secret?Everything in your life is a symbol,A reflection. A clue. A reminder.Of what you understand, and of what you don't, made manifest.Look to the beauty for truth. And to what hurts, for its beauty.Your biggest fan,The Universe

This solar eclipse energy is such, that many of us are re visiting situations for balance and final closure.The "scratch your head" part of this is,these are situations that are YEARS old.These felt like that had been "put to bed" a long time ago,but just like the toddler who appears in the hallway for one more drink of water at bedtime, "They're baaacck".These are full circle moments.One friend had an old boyfriend call the other day after several years,Another, some old legal matters came up again, and me,As you may have guessed, mine is dealing with the demise of my store four years ago.Processing, processing, processing!Shit!This energy is about owning your own powerby first un burdening yourself of any secrets,or unfinished emotional business.Letting all your freak flags fly and just being authentic.Telling your story AS IT IS,Warts and all.So here goes!Here's my full circle circumstance that happened this week.In 2006 after I had quit my job, but before we had decided on a location for the store due to permit problems and delays, (which should have been my first sign to run for the hills)!I got a tooth abscess.Now I'll tell you why this is an anomaly.I'm anal about my teeth! No...that just doesn't sound right!But you get the gist.I floss like I'm trying to start a fire, I brush whenever I can, I water pick,Dental cleaning for me take 15 minutes, because plaque wouldn't DAREgrow on these teeth!I'm obsessed...maybe because my parents got me braces and I'm just so grateful.Anyway, it was caused by a condition called resorption,which is what makes the roots dissolve in baby teeth, so they fall out, but its rare in adults.I had a molar that was convinced I was a six year old.I had a root canal and a crown and yada, yada, yada.But the molar next to it , in an act of solidarity for its friend, never let the gum between the two, where the abscess had been, close up.No reason, just to mess with me.So for the last 7 years I evaded infection, much to everyone's surprise,by being even more obsessed with that area,shooting straight LISTERINE into itTwice a day with the water pick.Every checkup, my dentist would poke a sharp instrument in there to try and make it bleed, or just to see me jump, I'm nor sure.And all was well...until last week.Last week it became infected, and Thursday I had it pulled.That's a whole story in itself.Note to self...get put to sleep next time.Now, I'm a seeker,I delve,I ask questions of the Universe,So I asked : what the hell is going on with this tooth?And you know what I got?"this is a physical manifestation of a full circle moment."WHAT!?"No more indecision"So I looked up teeth in Louise Hay's little blue book,And here's what it said:Teeth represent decisions.Problems with teeth: longstanding indecisiveness. Inability to break down ideas for analysis and decisions.As teeth are used to pulverize and pound food, teeth problems indicate difficulty pondering new information, ideas or situations. Hence, problems with the teeth indicate fear of making incorrect decisions. Remaining stuck.And as we all know the last few weeks I've been yelling how I'm done with being stuck!!How I'm striving to be more authentic by sharing my crazy journey in this blog.So...there you go.I'm sitting here with an ice pack on my cheek, marveling at God and her painful, yet powerful way of getting my attention,And letting me know.... She heard me!And I'm done!Share your full circle moments!XoxJanet 

How can we ever come to new insights or conclusions about our lives if our existing reality is never challenged?That would be like only eating at the salad bar because you've never walked the whole buffet and seen the dessert cart.We are creatures of habit,Scared of any turbulence or bumps in the road.But can we learn to appreciate, even welcome, the rainy days when we only prefer clear skys?A certain amount of failure is necessary for success, because it sends us back to the drawing board.When something's not working, there is clarity in that realization.A certain amount of discomfort is good for our souls.We know we don't want to do that again!so it colors all our decisions.Like Abraham says, who comes through Esther Hicks, "When you know what you Don't want. You know what you DO want".I've come to this conclusion : that all the great gifts that have come to me in my life,were born out of soul searching that was either precipitated by dissatisfactionwith the status quo, or....I was dropped kicked by the Universe in the direction of a new life change.Either way, it felt like shit.So, Here's my NEW conclusion:Big change feels scary,It feels awkward, and uncomfortable and uncertain.Change is rude! It shows up unannounced, often at the most inopportune times, and tracks it's dirty feet through your life.It also does a number on your diet by making you eat raw cookie dough and cereal right out of the box!So what does this all mean?We can either hide under the bed,Or ...we can put our arms up, throw our heads back,And scream bloody murderAs we careen toward our brighter future,On the roller coaster of life,In full surrender mode,Knowing the Universe has our back.

Bad things happen to good people.Horrible, unimaginable, things.Those experiences can either break us,Or make us.Often the first thing to affect us is a profound crisis of faith.How can we operate in a world where chaos reigns,Where prayers seemingly go unanswered,and often, endings aren't happily ever after.Failure,adversity,devastation and lossKick our butts another rung up the ladder to the divine.On the way up, we accumulate the experience, compassion and empathy toReach out our hand and pull the next person up the ladder.I often feel like the elephant being pushed up the ladder by the Universe,Maybe that's just me...I believe we CAN rebuild our foundation.We CAN regain our faith.It won't be quick, and it won't be easy.We'll have to dig deep, way below the surface, to find who we at our core.To open the drawer, and find our big girl pants among all those "pull ups."Do you have strength?The strength to conjure tenacity?Can that tenacity fuel a vision?and can that vision carry you forward into the grace of the Phoenix, reborn from the ashes?I think you do!! I have hope that all of us have the innate ability to right our own ships. Adversity is the direct route to that deep reserve of strength and courage you didn't even know existed !Just think about that...Contentment and happiness do not lead us there,Playing it safe certainly will not .Expansion of our spirit does not happen up in an ivory tower.We have to get down and dirty,Get into the street fight that life often feels like,Living as if a richer, broader, more expansive life depended on it!Because it does!

Pol·ly·an·naˌpälēˈanə/noun1.an excessively cheerful or optimistic person."Hi my name is Janet and I'm a Pollyanna.""Hi Janet"Geez!I've been called that name countless times in my life...like its a bad thing.I've been that way ever since I can remember.Always believing that good would prevail, and thatevery cloud has a silver lining.I think when I was in line to come to planet Earth,I was busy checking my lipstick or goofing around, because I never got the memoabout all the bad shit that could happen here!I came for the adventure and the fun of it.Never once did it occur to me that misery and loneliness,sadness and depression would be part of the equation.Therefore, when things happen that are terrible, or unjust, Or just plain sad, I have to admit...I'm still surprised.And surprise can lead to disappointment, as I've found out.And disappointment can be the key that let's all the heartbreak in. Because that's what happens to me, I become heartbroken.So...what to do? what to do?How do I integrate these two? The beautiful light that happens here.And its companion, the "darkness".It's continuing to be a process for me.I was once told that when your light shines brightlySome Will be attracted...And some repelled.I guess I thought that might apply to bad things too.Maybe I could repel them somehow.But why would I be different than anybody else?No one WANTS pain!But can I learn to reconcile the ups and downs,The ebb and flow of life?Can I be just as okay letting sorrow wash over me as joy?Or will I choke it off, or stop it altogether because it's just too damn Uncomfortable?Accepting the bad with the good is my holy grail.What if I didn't dog-pile all the judgement on top of the unwantedevents that occur?Maybe if I learn to throw my hands up and surrender to the painwill help it move through easier.My brain understands, my heart...not so much.If this has been your struggle as well, what has worked for you?Please share!XoxJanet