Living our Current Dream with Joy

I love to read a good book to get me motivated, and inspired to do that things that will make a difference in life, and give me the satisfaction and joy that I  always seek for.  I love the feelings that come with a healthy attitude; one of appreciation and gratitude.  Life always seems to present challenges that try to take me from this healthy state of mind, so I read, and pray as I gather inspiration from others and from God.

This week I have dabbled a bit in the book, "Life is Too Short for Sensible Shoes", by Connie Sokol.  This is a fun motivating read, from a gal with a lot of energy, and a good positive message.  I look forward to getting back to this book.  However, in this book she quoted Amanda Dickson's book, "Wake up to a Happier Life".  This book looked interesting so I ordered it on Amazon for $4, and have had a chance to read through part of it today.  Amanda talks a lot about finding joy in every job that we have whether it be a janitor, teacher, a mother, etc.  She states, "The easiest way to have more joy in your work is to pick work that speaks to your soul.  And this means work that speaks to our soul, not necessarily work that looks glamorous or that others would think is terrific or that makes a lot of money (although it may be all those things)".  She declares that we all make choices of how we fill our days.  We have chosen to be married, or chosen to be a mother.  These choices fill our day with responsibilities, and events.  We also get to choose if we go about these activities begrudgingly, or with a happy attitude.  We can find the smallest things of positive nature to brighten our moods, and bring joy into every situation.

Another quote from Amanda,"The soul wants to work, to be proud of the work we do, to think of the work we do with joy and energy...All work feeds the spirit, or all work can feed the spirit.  Even washing the dishes".  There is always a sense of accomplishment when hard work is done, and something hard is accomplished. 

Some of us, (and I am guilty of this), are always waiting for this project to be finished and then I will be happy, or let me meet this goal and then I will be happy.  Or maybe we fall short of our goals, and that is a reason to not be happy, because everyone around us seems to be more successful than we are.  I like this quote from Amanda as well.  "Remind yourself that this is the life you chose, that you are living your dream right now - until you have another dream - and then you'll live that one.  But for now, your dream involves this job, these kids, this car, this dirty carpet, and this weedy garden.  This is your current dream."  Let's get passed the negative dull-drums and express gratitude and find the simple joys that are occurring everywhere around us.

This is an interesting statement from Dean Sampano:

Recently in one of my seminars, I was asked the question, what is the secret to success and a happy life? I paused and took a moment to reflect on over the last 25 years of victories but some failures too and I said this:
So many people spend their whole life trying to find the secret to happiness but over the years, I have come to realize that it’s not about finding it’s about “Being!” You see, it’s not about finding the right women; it’s about “Being” the right man. I said it’s not about finding the right employees it’s about ‘Being” the right leader and perhaps most of all it’s not about finding the right friends, it’s about ‘Being” the right friend. For the truth is if you go out looking for great friends an success, they will always seem scarce but if you go and “Be” the right friend, you will find friends every where you go and then you won’t ever have to look for happiness or success, because they will be looking for you!
Dean Sampano
President, Mass Consultants Canada

 Take a minute today and look inside your own dream, and enjoy each day those things that are creatomg the events of your dream.  Remember to include things that you love and are good at.  These activities will fill you cup,  and refresh your mind as you go about your daily tasks.

Best wishes for a bright 2013.

Marilyn

Yolanda Made my Day

I met Yolanda today on a phone call to settle some insurance disputes.  She calmed my mood, and brightened my day.  In my quest to be more positive and grateful, I feel that my experience with Yolanda was set before me as an example of someone I really want to be like.

We have been through a lot this past summer with my son Levi, who was involved in a bicycle accident while vacationing at Flaming Gorge Resevoir.  While lazily riding along in our campground, he hit a bulge from a tree trunk in the pavement which threw him over the handlebars and slid down the payment on his elbow, which snapped his upper arm.  An ambulance was called, his arm was set with a splint, and to try to save money, we put him in the back of our truck and drove and hour to the nearest hospital in Rock Springs.

After being seen by doctors in Rock Spring, we were told that he would have to be flown to the Primary Childrens Hospital in Salt Lake City.  We were put in an ambulance to go to their airport, then loaded into an air med airplane, flown to Salt Lake City, put into another ambulance and taken to Primary Children's hospital.  It was incredibly hard night with a son that was in horrific pain; any tiny movement was more than he could take.  He was seen by many doctors, because they didn't know if he had head, neck or back trauma.  He was finally sedated while they reset his arm into a splint, and then went through surgery the following day to screw everything back together.

So, we lived through this traumatic event.  He wore a cast for 5 weeks, up to his shoulder.  When they took off his cast, they discovered that some extra bone had grown around the break and around his elbow, which drilled a hole through his elbow skin and caused an infection to start.  Immediately, he was put back into surgery to see if the infection had gone to his bone.  We were happy to find that it had not traveled, but was just centered around the elbow.  So, he was cleaned up, stitched up, and then Levi went about trying to keep his wound sterile and clean as it continued to drain.

After a period of several weeks, and many emails and visits to the doctor, it  was determined that Levi needed another surgery to remove all hardware, replace a nerve in it's proper place and clean out more infection.  Now, Levi continues to watch and care for the wound which is still trying to heal up.  In the meantime, he attends physical therapy trying to gain back his range of motion, then to develop some muscle back in his arm.  Needless to say, this has been a frustrating, expensive event in our life.  Now we are dealing with the insurance company to pay all the medical bills of hospitals, doctors, ambulances, etc.

Today, I had reached my boiling point where I was  ready to explode.  Our insurance is still denying claims that should have been paid months ago.  After calling them stupid, idiotic, and what is their unintelligent problem, my husband forced me to settle into a conference call with our insurance.  This is where we met Yolanda.  She is a very pleasant women from Georgia.  I presume she may be black, by the way she talked.  She never got defensive, never raised her voice.  She remained calm and pleasant the entire time we were on the phone.  Our phone conversation lasted over an hour.  She patiently conferenced  to some of our billers, she went through every claim and told us the status, dates paid, what was happening to each claim.  I have never met anyone so patient, kind, & willing to serve to make life better for others, especially angry others.

By the time we were finished with our conversation, I had such a desire to express my appreciation, a desire to meet this women personally, a desire to recommend her for woman of the year, and a desire for me  to be just like Yolanda.

In the past month or so, I have been on a journey to become more positive, wanting to develop this Christlike trait.  My journey has been an incredible one.  I have found that there is an energy that comes with being positive and grateful.  It is almost like a magnet.  Good things come to those who are positive.  People want to be around those that are happy and positive.  With Yolanda, because of her positive kind attitude, I wanted to do something to make her life better; recommend her for a raise or send her a gift or a thank you.  She was such a positive influence on my day.  Just in this instance her attitude created good things to come to her.  Positive attracts positive, and negative attracts negative.  The more I am in a positive state of mind, the more I see, feel and recognize the blessings, the attractions, and the joy that come from being positive.  Everyone wins in a situation where there is positivity.  I am determined to develop the gift of being positive.  I know it will truly change my life and the life of so many others.

Thank you Yolanda and others out there that make this world a better place to be.  It is people like you that truly spread sunshine and joy in this world.

Discover Who You Are -Fulfilling God Given Purpose

I am rounding the corner to 50.  It is hugely impacting my life.  Up to this point, I have worked my body to being tired and a little worn around the edges.  I have sacrificed incredibly for those that mean the world to me. I would not trade a minute of the past 49 years.  I have lived much, enjoyed much,  and weathered each days challenges and joys.

But now, I look to the future and wonder what it has in store for me.  I guess I am on my way to the next 50 years of my life, and I want to make sure I fit into it all the wonder, excitement and experiences that are meaningful to me.  I don't want to miss a thing.

So, I have been searching how to fulfill my life's dream.  To make sure that I not only accomplish my desires, but that I magnify my God given talents and fulfill God's plan for me.

This has been an exciting journey for me.  Impressive enough that I want to share my experience with others.

Because I am moving into a new phase in life, I have decided to change things up a bit.  Be daring, try new things.  Take time to enjoy those things that really cheer me up.  It is almost like opening a can that has been sitting on a shelf for the past 20 years, and discovering many sweet feelings of excitement and energy.

One thing that I have done is to create a Life List of all the wonderful things that I would like to experience before my life is over.  This is a ton of fun, and interesting to reflect on.  Some of the things on this list are things that I deeply and truly love.  Things that are deeply routed in my soul.

I have prayed intently to understand what God would have me do with my life.  The inspiration has not come easy.  I have had to search and search, pray and pray.  One day, the answer came.  It was like the light inside me wanted to explode.  I knew fore a surety the path that I should take.

The interesting thing is that after this discovery, I went back to my life list.  Choosing this path, would allow me to accomplish every single thing on my list.  Instantly, I became optimistic, energized, and excited to live each day to the fullest.