lifestories

Cindyly Yours: Day 1

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I am starting something new today. A friend, Cindy Prud’homme, was given a challenge by a friend to post three positive notes each day on her Facebook page. I found the concept brilliant and inspirational with a touch of zeal  – actually she is the second a person I know doing this. I decided to share them, with her permission off course. Let’s face it, we are all in need of a kick or two to brighten our day. How it comes, it doesn’t matter but it comes. The world would perhaps, be a better place if some of us would take time and do it often. Grateful. Blessed. Positive. Thoughtful. Write it down. Controversial or not. Funny or bad. Ugly or not. Whatever moves you. Whatever groves you. Whatever floats your boat. Let’s get started. Happiness is additive. I call the corner, Cindyly Yours.

Day 1 Post 1
I was given a challenge to post three positive posts each day. There is SO much to be happy about, and we often forget about those things in the midst of our daily struggles. For starters, I will nominate three people to do the same. Now, for the first positive message I have for this day… it has been a beautiful, perfect, Michigan summer day, and I spent it caring for the most beautiful, perfect miracle our family could be blessed with, Kennedy, who turned 2 last Wednesday and is back to her sweet, funny, loving self after a nasty, scary two weeks of being sick. She’s finally eating again, and CHOWED DOWN at the Japanese steakhouse tonight, just about cleaning an adult sized plate of fried rice, noodles, mixed veggies, and hibachi chicken. Then she came home and put away two sippy cups of almond milk and went to bed without any fuss at all. We are so very blessed!

Day 1 Post 2
The next positive thing I want to share is how much I appreciate congress passing the Affordable Care Act. As I’ve been struggling and frustrated the last week with my health insurance company playing games about a surgery I need to have, it dawns on me how many others whose need is so much greater, but they cannot fight the battle I fight because they have no insurance at all, and treatment isn’t even an option for them. More than 7 million Americans now have health insurance thanks to the Affordable Care Act. I am a woman of strong faith, and I know that we are charged to care for the earth, the flora, the fauna, and all those who are weaker or meeker than ourselves. Caring for each other is our responsibility, and if that makes each of us a little more burdened, so be it. I appreciate that in these times where only ME matters, we have this law that seeks to protect those who need our help.

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Finally, the last positive message of this day. As we read the headlines that scream of poverty, a declining economy, threats from abroad, and an uneducated youth who turn to drugs, gangs, and violence instead of education, I would like to correct the record, refocus our attention, and encourage all of us to keep our eye on the ball, think rationally as I know we can, and deal in truth. This moment in our lives presents more opportunity than ever before. The stock market has been at its highest, employment is at its highest in 8 years, and our youth, the gen-y citizens are motivated by social responsibility and making the world a better place to live. It is time, and is safe to come out of the bubble. Our country is safe from enemies abroad, and 80% of terrorist attacks on U. S. soil come from our own citizens who are incited to violence by this culture of fear that certain politicians have fabricated to advance their play for money and power. We have a strong, beautiful, caring country and population. There is no shame in that, and we still have the power of our votes. We can take back our country, live in peace with one another, care for each other as we always have, and remain one nation, UNDIVIDED. But only when we follow our hearts and the values our parents raised us with, and only after we commit to reject this culture of fear and divide that our politicians have created for us. Use your head and follow the money. It’s all been a big money grab and we let it happen. Stopping it is as eady as turning out to vote and refusing to accept the lies that are told to us.

Buckle Up And Dream!

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As the say goes, follow your dreams, the yellow brick road down the river and knock that door. Knock intensely until your knuckles surrenders. Tear through the glasshouse and take matters into your hands, no matter how long it takes, how hard it gets, the circumstances or hurdles you may encounter, just do it.

Go after it with hunger and passion in your soul. Don’t find yourself regretting yesterday, reflecting on what could have been, crying miserably while binging on a pile of bananas.

Live your life intensely or whatever pace your boat flows, whether big or small, enjoy what it brings. Engrave your aspirations on the curvaceous wall and let it stretch.

Ask for it, put it out there and let it be. It may take years, journeying itself in the open ocean, pulling and grabbing perks. Eventually, you will unearth yourself at the tip of that dream, querying on when and how you got there.

The sky is no limit when you are running down the corridor of zest. Hungry for love you are, for success you dream, for life you ride, indefinitely. Do it with your eyes closed, at sound of the water dripping from an air handler. Jump in that water, pump the gas pedal, put on your sailor’s hat and rocket that boat. Push that button and go for it. Dream!

Easier said than done right?! Not really. To dream is to live an ideal. It is inexpensive, unsolicited, intoxicating and sometimes, breathtaking. You don’t have to pay a cent, it is out there and barring any nightmares, you are on. Have faith. Do not buckle at first smell of defeat. Just lay quietly and if you are lucky, it will meet you shortly after your head caresses the pillow. Good night. Sweet dreams!

Got A Headache? Just Ask For The Magic Pill

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I was driving around the neighborhood the other day when I came across a family’s belongings out on the driveway. They were just open to the elements without care. No one knows the reason but the conjectural story is that the family may have fallen in hard times and were evicted as a result. The sad part for me was the sight of the Fisher-Price power wheels pink Barbie jammin’ jeep.

Issues, snags, hitch, bumps or as they are commonly known on the streets, headaches, are a pain in the derriere for many of us.

I am yet to see a person who loves problems, who enjoys problems or as they say at the water cooler, trouble free. Nope. Not yet nor have I seen a person who has applied for, bought or payed for a problem. Show me a person who had pleaded for a problem and I will give you the moon. Not one, well perhaps a child but the tooth fairy comes knocking anyway, so it is all academic.

Problems are a little nagging elephant in the room and often stubborn, anxiety driven, seductive elicit drug. Most of us want to steer clear of those headaches but the migraines keep coming in avalanche, roller desk full, unsolicited and not even an aspirin can cure. The more you try to avoid them, the more they seem to wash ashore, hitting you in the bun with a force of an asteroid.

They come in different names, shapes, colors, forms, degrees, you name it, balloons included. The never ending pest that just appears without a warning, trotting in like hungry little soldiers geared up for battle.

They show up unprovoked and on a extemporaneously mission, oblivious to you but target practice for them.

“Hey, it is a joke. Just smile, it will be over soon.” The usual rhetoric line but yeah, says who?

Headaches just walk in no matter the temperament, composed or animated, and hands you a ticket to an event that you were not even invited nor subscribed but are bound to appeared. They just have a way of finding you, specially when your are down to pits and can’t even scream alleluia to save your life.

Troubles can hit you at moments notice. They drop like a brick and expands like meteor showers. They knock without shame leaving you broken, beaten and disconcerted. They pile up like dirty clothe at a college dorm or at laundromat and flare-up like firewood. They are odorless but stink like a rotten onion. They mutate like worms in disguise one inch at time and if you snooze one minute, you will find yourself way deep in the canyon, entangled in a jungle without an escape capsule.

Problems are like an old beat up chewing gum that keeps on sticking. You forget you have it in your mouth even long after the flavor has dissolved and cohesiveness is gone, leaving you with that absurd elastic rumble inside your mouth. The more you try to dispose of it, the more it sticks leaving your fingers in one sheet of hot mess when you try to dispose of it.

Problems cannot be escaped or circumvented. One can spot a hole on a dress or shirt but not everyone in their mother can hold a needle and threat to repair it, unless you are psychic Ms Cleo which I seriously doubt is good with a sewing machine. They come in waves and as sizable as the slaps may be, unless one takes a miracle pill, one should never despair nor be discouraged. Take it all in stride, grow from it and let the chips fall where they may, let it be.

Because they march at the beat of their own drum, some headaches just disappear like water rapids but others, take their time, stroll at a snail pace that even the snail has a hard time keeping up with it. All one can do is plead with problems to go way, find their own corner and refuge but as an individual, is best if we buy a travel refrigerator and keep cool, refrigerated. Tune in mom’s voice loud and remember that life is an unadulterated process, a metamorphose, a map of teachable lessons that comes ashore like a drunk in a bar. It strengthens you!

You got a headache? What is your major malfunction?