We came into this life with the intent of learning lessons. While these lessons, both big and small, can appear in many different forms, they’ll recur as ongoing themes until they are fully learned. So let’s say, for example, trust is an ongoing theme in your life. Maybe you don’t trust the process, a person, the universe, etc. When trust is an issue for you, you’ll put yourself in situations that will test your ability to trust. Whether it’s jealousy, anger or resentment, these moments become easier to identify when you become aware of their triggers, or rather the physical reaction in the body. How and why are you being triggered? What’s the payoff for you? What are you being “right” about that allows you to be triggered? Are you being a victim? What do you need to stop being a victim to? How is this a mirror for your life? These moments help you examine what experiences support your triggers and your beliefs around the situation. They are the invitation to take responsibility for your intentions. Tap into your intuition to see if this is a recurring lesson for you. If they’re recurring, then it’s happening for a reason. There is a lesson to be learned. The good news is that it can be one that you so powerfully and responsibly get to learn, once you become aware of it and you’re willing to look at it.
When you hold onto beliefs that don’t empower or serve you, you continue to create those situations that become the opportunities for the life lesson to be learned. You see, the beliefs you hold are what allow those triggers to be created in the first place. Being aware of, and ultimately changing, your “way of being” wouldn’t allow those triggers to continue to happen. By being responsible for your intention, you take responsibility for creating the situation or your part in it. Here is where you can powerfully choose to learn the lesson You can take responsibility for what you do and how you show up without making excuses for yourself or perpetuating the belief that brought you there. Instead of proving yourself right, you open up to being forgiving of yourself, seeing someone else’s position, and can gain tremendous relief from knowing that you don’t have to be perfect and then ultimately replacing the old story with an empowering one that works for you and your healing journey.
Large or 1 ½ medium zucchini, peeled and chopped (2 ½ to 3 cups)
½ cup tahini 2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 small clove garlic, peeled
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
Instructions
1. Combine all ingredients in a high-speed blender or food processor and blend until smooth
2. Taste for seasoning, adding an additional ⅛ to ¼ teaspoon salt if desired.
3. Transfer to a small bowl or container and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.
Are you choosing words that create negative energy or lower your vibration levels? Are you paying attention to the energy that you’re saying something with? You see, our words have tremendous power. When we give words feeling, we fuel them with that energy, giving them even more power. With what energy and how are you choosing things to look on your healing journey? Are you choosing to approach your healing journey from a positive and empowered position? In fact, choosing to do so can keep your energy and overall vibration levels high. What you choose absolutely matters.
It’s also essential to be in integrity with your soul while on your healing journey. You see, our soul knows what’s good for us and what’s not, what’s working and what’s not. Whether it’s careers, relationships, belief systems, mindset, purpose, emotions, history or memories, our soul is in constant communication with us and knows all those things. When we ignore it, we simply lower our vibration levels.
You might even need to go through a period of introspection to connect with what is going to support you in raising your vibration. So you’ll want to ask yourself some questions like: “What’s going to help me grow and evolve? What’s serving me? Will it give me positive energy?” It’s really your choice to make.
Or will you be a victim to your circumstances? Will you even see a choice or none at all? The reality is, saying that you have no choice is all perception. The truth is that you always have a choice, both in life and on your healing journey. You do have a choice to move forward from an empowered place while trusting divine guidance to put you on the road that’s going to give you the best possible results.
You have an opportunity to be a victim or empowered. Once we take responsibility for whatever is going on, or has occurred, in our lives, we are no longer a victim to those circumstances. Sometimes we might even let ourselves be a victim, but it’s our choice of when and if we give our power away. However, when you choose to look from a place of empowerment, your energy shifts and elevates your vibration levels. You begin to release things that no longer need your energy, whether its people, things, places, jobs, emotions, etc. Doing so then allows you to fill the space with things that are for your highest and best good like happy relationships, financial abundance, joy-filled opportunities, or whatever you would like to have more of in your life. You’ll pay attention to the relationships that raise you up and the ones that don’t. You’ll also recognize when and with whom you are at your most authentic, highest vibration of yourself, and with whom you’re not.
For example, when you’re out of vibration with someone and you’ve done all that you can to work on yourself, but it’s still not working, you may come to recognize that the relationship is not serving you in that moment. However, you might notice that as you raise your vibration, those same people who you felt once lowered your vibration level may suddenly come back into your life but at a higher vibration. No doubt about it, our vibration affects those around us. So if we’re conscious of it, we can see how we’re affecting others with our vibration and make adjustments that can improve the relationship as well. If we’re a Debbie Downer, obviously we’re going to affect those around us in a not so great way. If we’re empowered and in a good space, we positively affect those around us. These are the things that happen when you choose to pay attention to your vibration levels.
So how will you choose things to look on your healing journey? Will you choose the things that keep your vibration levels high? After all, the higher your vibrations, the faster the results will be and the better you will feel. When you choose to show up in a different way and at your highest vibration, you ultimately contribute to getting stronger and healthier. Trust that Divinity will bring the right people into our lives as well when we start raising our vibration. Trust that everything in your life and on your healing journey is happening at the perfect time. You cannot mess it up! Choose to trust! Everything happens perfectly and divinely because it had to happen that way to bring you to where you are now, in this exact moment. Ultimately, it comes down to choice. Choose to trust that if it were supposed to have happened for you, the Universe would have made it so.
Ingredients:
4 Tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 ½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp paprika
½ tsp celtic salt
1/16 tsp cayenne
2 ½ tsp onion powder
½ tsp basil
½ tsp oregano
2-3 zucchini (sliced with a mandolin, very thin)
Instructions:
1. Mix all ingredients and toss marinade over zucchini.
2. Dehydrate 14-20 hours.
Are you telling yourself how awesome you are?
“I AM” are two of the most powerful words that we can say. On their own, those two simple words connect us with our natural state of being, our higher power, our oneness with source, consciousness and all creation. When those two words are added to others, we identify with these words and what we choose to put after them creates our present moment, defines our reality, potentially our tomorrow and our future, good or bad. It’s so common for us to say negative things about ourselves, to have a negative tape playing in our head. What happens if we switch that out?
I received this insight in the middle of the night (which is when I get a lot of my insight) and became aware of this several years ago. I decided to put it into practice. As I went to sleep, if I woke up in the middle of the night and first thing in the morning, I kept a list handy of empowering I AM statements that I would say to myself. After the ones above, I would come up with some that I didn’t necessarily feel comfortable with, but was willing to work on such as “I am courageous. I am a pioneer. I am creative. etc.”
Believe me, I’m not coming from a place of being boastful! This is really about the conversation we’re having with ourselves in our head. I may not feel comfortable saying them publicly, but I’m doing it here so that if you struggle with this, you too can feel that it’s really okay to feel good about yourself. I started with the things that I knew and could feel with ease and then added on some that other people described me as but I didn’t necessarily believe myself at that time.
Have you experienced anything like that?
What’s the tape that that’s playing in your head? Is it empowering or dis-empowering? If we go a step further, we can follow our “I AM’s” with what’s awesome about ourselves. And when you’re saying something that’s really awesome about you, you want to start with something that gets you excited…something that just comes naturally to you and that feels really good when you say it.
It’s not like it’s always comfortable for us to say good things about ourselves. But these are the things that are going to move us forward and have us feeling good about ourselves. And it’s one thing to say it to myself every night, in the middle of the night, or every morning. It’s another thing to say it publicly, like I just did.
But it brings up an important point I want to emphasize. For any of you who are scared and feeling uncomfortable, it’s okay. There are things we’re good at and there are things we’re not good at. There are things that are our blessing and there are things that are not our blessing. And it’s okay to have both. Maybe you’re an awesome teacher, but not so great at cooking. It’s a blessing to be an awesome teacher! You don’t have to be good at cooking, but you can go take lessons or say, “I’m not good at cooking. But I’m great at other things” and look at all the amazing things you’re good at within being a teacher. It comes from a place of kindness to yourself instead of a place of beating yourself up. You can’t be good at everything! But you can be really good at what you’re really good at!
That’s where our confidence and our self-esteem lie. So that’s something I do with my kids, I remind them to pay attention to what they’re good at. There’s a shift that takes place when you can start doing that. And it goes beyond just confidence. It’s breaking through being okay with saying that you’re really good at something AND that you’re not good at something. You just don’t feel bad about it. Do you see the difference it makes?
So ask yourself what your “I AM’s” would be and what makes YOU awesome. If that’s tough for you, ask some friends or family what they see in you. Once you really start thinking about it, you will find even more things. And before you know it, they become your reality just like they became mine. You might even surprise yourself as to how truly awesome you really are!!! Eventually, if you haven’t already experienced this, you will say I AM without anything following it and it will become a knowing, you will realize that the “I AM” is the essence of who you are.
Oh and by the way, you are soooo awesome!!!!
1. In a large pot, put 2 cups of quinoa in 4 cups of veggie broth with a pinch of salt,
cook until all of the quinoa has soaked up the broth
2. In a pan, sauté 2 chopped scallions in a tablespoon of safflower oil
3. In a different large pot, mix 2 cans of rinsed black beans, a tablespoon of cumin. A
teaspoon of Mexican seasoning. ¼ teaspoon of salt, ¼ cup of tomato sauce, and ¼
cup of water. Let this simmer for 20 minutes
4. Slice up one tomato, a handful of cilantro, and the juice of half a lime and put this
into the quinoa
5. Finally, put the beans into the quinoa mixture and mix well.
Have you ever noticed that you are too busy taking care of everybody else to make time for self-care? Do you wait until you’re actually sick and then finally make time? By then are you too sick to even care for others? How can you when you can’t even take care of yourself, right? Oh boy, this was a big one for me. I actually had to get sick before I would give myself permission to take really good care of me. I find many people do the same. We don’t value ourselves enough to take care of ourselves until we’re forced to.
Or here’s another example, let’s say you miss an appointment. You didn’t mean to miss it, right? Or maybe you did. Maybe there was an underlying reason why you would have wanted to miss the appointment. This is where we can start to see that based on the outcome, you actually did mean to miss that appointment. Why? Intention is behind all of our actions, good or bad. It may have been that you had some nagging intuition about something that would come up during the appointment or maybe you wanted to be somewhere else. Or maybe it might not be that specific appointment that you wanted to miss, but it could be that being late is an issue for you and it is a recurring theme in your life. If so, then you needed to miss just one more appointment because the underlying cause and reason for missing the appointment is to have you learn the lessons that something has to change. Then you can look at the real reasons why you are late. This was also a big one for me. One year I was an hour and a half late for Christmas dinner. Yup. I had my reasons of course, but it was awful to have everyone waiting for me. Yet I got a powerful lesson from it and something within me shifted. Now I don’t like being even 10 minutes late. I’m not perfect, but I’m waaaay better than I was. Once we get clear about our intention, we can begin taking responsibility for what we create in our lives and can create what we want!
Are you ready? Are you fully prepared to take responsibility for what you are creating? What is it that you are intending to create? Whether in your life or healing journey, the invitation to take responsibility for what you create in your life is present when you choose to be aware of it. The good news is once you start seeing where in your life your intention is creating certain outcomes, you can set and create more desirable powerful outcomes.
2/3 cup chia seeds
½ to 1 tsp alcohol free vanilla extract (to taste)
1 packet stevia (if desired/balanced)
Unsweetened shredded coconut to garnish
Combine milk, chia seeds, vanilla extract in bowl, stir 2-3 times over 10 minutes and put in covered bowl and refrigerate overnight.
Put in serving dish and sprinkle with coconut flakes.
You might not realize it but expectation impacts every single area of our lives. From the time we’re children, we are both given and set ourselves up for expectations. Parents, teachers, friends, siblings, our children, significant others – just about everyone – has expectations of us and us of them. We even set expectations of ourselves – our result, goals, careers, life, purpose, etc. In fact, the fastest path to disappointment, sadness, unhappiness, issues in relationships, etc. is having an expectation that is unmet. Why? Expectations breed judgment of how something “should” be done or “should” look. Followed by emotions from being judged.
And where do our expectations come from? We create expectations based on what other people expect of us, essentially building our belief system of ourselves off of someone else’s, ultimately becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy rather than being our perfect and authentic self. For example, when we set expectations upon others, we simply set them up to fail because our expectations are our vision of what and how something should look. It’s unrealistic. After all, how can we expect someone else to meet our expectations when they’re our expectations, but it’s their journey to take? Someone else can never meet our expectations.
Here’s the amazing part! You can give yourself the opportunity to connect with and tap into the divine power of who you are and why you want to heal by releasing your expectations. Once you release all expectations of yourself and others, the Universe and people are now free to be. People can far exceed any preconceived notions you’ve had and the Universe, in turn, can now give us bigger and better than we ever could have expected or come up with on our own. Think about what you could manifest almost instantly on your own healing journey. What can you manifest when things come naturally and effortlessly because you no longer have to work so hard to meet and exceed anyone’s expectations? And, moreover, why? You see, once we’ve created the space, the universe is ready to create and replace it with something bigger and better. So, when things are not working for you, create the space for something new. The Universe is ready to give it to you when you are.
Have you ever noticed that when you don’t eat well you have more anxiety, and when you have more anxiety you just don’t eat well. Sounds like the chicken or the egg dilemma, doesn’t it? But this isn’t so difficult to solve. When you eat well, your body feels better and more at ease, in turn giving you less anxiety and vice versa.
Sounds simple, right? But what do you do when you are anxious and want to eat something that’s not so good for you. Like when you are in a rush and hungry or you’re stressed out and too tired to cook and the only thing around is a fast food place or a vending machine?
Instead, try being proactive. What if you were to take 5-10 undisturbed minutes everyday to meditate? Maybe for you it can be while you’re sitting in your car before starting out, or even at your desk, or before you walk in the door at night. Yes, even five minutes is a great place to start. I find it best before I get out of bed, it’s a much more productive and healthy way to stay on the right track, because once you leave and start your day, that’s when you start getting into that anxious cycle of “Let me do this, and then that, and then after that…” But if you take those few minutes to close your eyes, calm and regenerate, you will find yourself better equipped to stop that cycle.
Another is to prepare ahead of time. When the meals and snacks are ready, you’ll have a higher chance of grabbing them instead of the cookies.
So let’s say you’re anxious and you grab those cookies. Now how do you feel? Still tired and anxious, right? Maybe even more tired and anxious because the sugar is feeding your anxiety and fatigue. You are making the choice to be more anxious by eating those cookies.
Sometimes you can’t change the circumstances. Some days you will be rushing around or you have taken on too much to do or have some kind of stressful situation occurring. So if you won’t or can’t change those circumstances, then you need to change the way you are dealing with those circumstances. That’s when it’s important to remind yourself: “I need to be here anyway, I made a choice to make this a part of my life, I can choose to be okay with it, or choose to let it take over how I feel and act.”
The result of making that choice to let that anxiety overcome what you eat ends up being more detrimental than the behavior itself. You still feel lousy, anxious AND you’ve just eaten a whole box of cookies. So now what? You have to get to the point of saying, “No, I choose not to do this any more.” Saying, “I’m tired”, is only going to create more bad choices that will, in turn, make you more tired. “I’m anxious” is going to make you more anxious, unless you choose differently.
So when those feelings come up, do this: take a breath and say: “This is hurting me. I’m not going to hurt myself anymore, I’m going to love myself and do what’s self-loving.” It’s about taking that moment to be present and recognize how you feel and how you are acting. Once you start becoming aware of that anxiety and catching it in the act, than you can be proactive and stop it in its tracks before it gets to the point of ruining your healthy eating habits all together. The cycle can just as easily stop as it began.
So what are you ready to do to keep your anxiety from eating into your healthy habits?
Is routine ruining how you eat? When we start eating healthier, we also have a tendency to stick with what we know works for us. But what about switching up your food routine? Why not have some more fun with it?!
Naturally, changing your diet drastically might not be right for you as each person’s case is different and it depends on a number of factors. The first important step is to pay attention to how you feel. If you have cancer or your body is still weak and trying to heal, then it might be important for you to stick to a regular routine. However, for a lot of us, it won’t hurt to switch up our eating habits and add different things that are still giving us the same nutritional value.
How about playing around with how you prepare your food? Maybe your body can only tolerate raw food or cooked food or only certain vegetables. That’s where juicing comes in! Some of those foods you can only eat a certain way or can’t tolerate at all, you may be able to still enjoy in juice form. Interestingly, when foods are juiced, we don’t have the same issues with them as when our body is trying to break them down through eating. So go ahead and give it a try! Juicing might be just the start you need to add more food variety to your diet.
One of the easiest things to vary each day is your morning smoothie. For starters, try a different protein powder. Alternate so you don’t just get too used to the same one everyday. Or maybe you use unsweetened almond milk in your shake. Then, start trying unsweetened coconut milk every other day. It’s something different but you’ll still be getting the essential fats that your body needs. Oh and be sure to go easy on the fruit. Many people base their smoothies on fruit instead of vegetables and the smoothie ends up loaded with sugar. Yes, even the good kind of sugar is harmful. Cancer doesn’t know the difference between good and bad sugar, it’s still sugar.
The important thing about switching up your food routine is that it will bring more flexibility to your meals and give you back the freedom to eat with more variety when you are out. You can’t always carry around your shakes, juices and snacks. What do you do if you are going out to dinner with friends?
You’re going to have to eat something at the restaurant. Okay, they might not have gluten-free pasta at an Italian restaurant. So fill up on a salad and vegetables instead. Ask for dressing on the side or for them to hold the cheese. Be picky, speak up! Just don’t let your food limitations prevent you from enjoying your night out.
You don’t want to get to the point where your very survival depends on you having the same foods with you everywhere you go. That’s no fun! I remember when I first changed the way I was eating. I would take a ton of specific foods with me wherever I went. And that’s natural for the first six months or so, especially when your body has gone through something as severe as cancer. But if you’re still sticking to these habits after six months, then you might simply have a control issue with food and you may even be addicted to the foods you’re eating. Just remember to have fun, change it up and don’t let food dictate how you spend your time.
Try introducing some new foods to your routine this week and see how you feel. Be bold and try something you haven’t tried before. Browse the produce section at the health food store and see what you can come up with. Go ahead, get out of that rut!
Julienne the following:
• 3 zucchini
• 3 yellow squash
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 inch ginger
• 2 red peppers
• 2 yellow peppers
• ½ of a large bok choy
• 2 carrots
• 3 scallions
• 2 Tbsp Braggs or Coconut Aminos
• 1 tsp Mirin
Put this mixture in a frying pan with a tablespoon of coconut or avocado oil. Add 1 clove of chopped garlic and an inch of smashed ginger. Cook on medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring every minute. The veggies should be tender.
Add 2 tablespoons of Braggs or Coconut Aminos.
Add a teaspoon of Mirin and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
You know those times in your life when you’ve been able to just say, “I’ve got this!” And I’m not talking about picking up the check at a restaurant! I mean those moments where you have complete confidence in how you’re going to handle the situation. Whether it’s as a mom, gardner, surgeon, holistic healer, friendly shoulder for someone to lean on or you’re healing cancer.
It’s hard not to feel amazing about yourself when you’re able to step in and just say, “You know what, I’ve got this!” It not only shows others how much you believe in yourself, but it also allows you a moment to be loving to yourself. And it brings such a positive outcome to the situation. It’s about you feeling good about yourself and opening up and allowing the positive energy to flow towards you.
Now, how do we get to our “I’ve Got This” moment? Remember, there’s a difference between being arrogant and being confident about who you are and what you can do. It’s about being comfortable in your own skin and with what you are able to do. That’s all there is to it! Once you are at that comfortable spot full of positive energy, you will simply be able to say “I’ve got this!” And who knows, you might only be saying it to “yourself” given the situation, but at least you’ll still know!
All roads lead to loving yourself. So why hide your strengths or be embarrassed about acknowledging them! We’re tough enough on ourselves. Have gratitude for your life and all that it gives you and remember to tell yourself, “Nice Job!” Look how far you’ve come already! Think about when you are around other people with low or high energy. Would you rather hang out with someone who is loving toward themselves and is full of high energy or would you rather hang around someone who is always beating themselves up with low energy? Which one of the two is likely to step up and say “I’ve got this!”.
Just remember to look at what your blessing is, what you can do and all that positive energy you can bring to things. Now, what are you waiting for? You’ve got this!
How many things do you do every day that you think are hard? Maybe it’s that long commute to work, cooking a healthy meal for your family, or just getting up in the morning. But are any of those things really that hard? No, of course not! It’s what we tell ourselves. If you say to yourself that something is “hard”, it will be!
How do we stop telling ourselves this? It’s actually quite “easy” to change the way we send messages from our brain to our body. It’s all about turning those messages from passive to active so we can take action in a way that ultimately has us feeling better too! Maybe you have been telling yourself, “I have to cook something healthy.” How about saying instead, “I am going to cook something healthy and it’s going to be delicious!” Or substitute, “I need to get up now and work out,” with “I will get up now and work out.” By using more active language, we are already moving what we need to do from a passive state to one more active which is much more empowering. Don’t you think?
Imagine a cold winter night when all you want to do is get home but you still have a long walk ahead of you. Would you say to yourself, “Oh, I have to walk all that way. It’s far and I’m so cold.” Not very motivating, is it? Now what if you tell yourself, “Look at me, I’m doing it. There’s another step, and, oh I just took another and another. I’m almost there now!” It’s important to be in action using empowering language instead of disempowering language with everything you do, no matter how simple the task seems. Taking a passive, or disempowered, approach will only use up more of your physical and mental energy. Being passive is good for things like relaxing, but not for when you need to do things. If you stay in a passive mindset on a daily basis, you’ll only feel less motivated, you’ll be more resistant, and you’ll get more frustrated more easily.
If you want to do something, then tell yourself you “will” do it, not that you “have to” or “need to”. Once you switch to an active mindset, there will be no stopping you! You’ll be more energized, inside and out, and be amazed at how much more you can get done and how you feel about doing those things. Next time you’re doing a simple everyday task that you tend to drag your feet on, be more active in how you approach it. Even if it’s just brushing your teeth or taking out the garbage. Do you want to just get through it and get it done? Or do you want to see the benefits from getting it done? Put it to the test and you’ll notice a difference. Or, rather, an active difference!
2 medium-sized halibut or salmon fillets
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons grape seed oil
1 small jar of sun-dried tomatoes, in olive oil (about ½ cup)
2 lemons, juiced
2 teaspoons capers
1/4 cup pinoli nuts soaked in water for 4 hours
1 tablespoons chopped parsley
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Season the halibut fillets with salt and pepper. Drizzle olive oil in the pan and melt the 1 tablespoon of butter. Add the fillets and cook until browned on both sides. Place the skillet in the oven for 10 minutes, or until cooked.
Remove the fish from the skillet and place on serving dish. Place the skillet back on the stove and add 1 tablespoon olive oil, remaining butter, white wine, sun-dried tomatoes, lemon juice and capers in the pan and cook over medium heat. Boil until reduced. Pour directly on fish and garnish with parsley.
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Serves: 2
As I flew down to North Carolina last week while a hurricane was about to hit, I was thinking back to when I was traveling from Long Island to North Carolina on a beautiful summer day a month ago. No, it was not a vacation. Normally I love traveling. As Kevin says, there’s never been a plane that I haven’t wanted to be on. That trip was different than most. On that trip I released my baby girl, Kelsey, to begin her journey into adulthood. She entered college and it was twelve hours away from home.
Some of you have been on this journey with us all these years. Especially if you read my book Choose to Live, you’ve gotten to know her; the adorable, funny, loving, compassionate, nurturing, caring, beautiful, old soul that she is.
She struggled with leaving because we have such a close relationship and she (and we as a family) had had an amazing high school experience. She said she felt so blessed and so loved. She felt she was able to be her authentic self and what a gift that is. She created something really special with friends and family because of the way she is. She gave back and was in contribution through her many “pay it forward” volunteer clubs, and she even changed some lives too. Prior to her leaving for college, we had 8 days of celebrations with different groups of people coming to say goodbye and wish her blessings on her journey. Most nights, the goodbyes lasted until 2 am. I had a good supply of toothpicks to keep my eyes open and a Costco size supply of tissues (for myself).
Leaving my baby girl a month ago was close to unbearable. I really had no idea whatsoever how difficult this college separation and transition thing from our home to her new 4-year home was going to be.
I’ve just recently recovered. There were multiple ways that I dealt with the transition. I can and may write several newsletters about all that I learned and experienced. Or maybe it will just be a couple of chapters in my next book J.
I will begin with the easiest first–gratitude. I have “chosen” to come out of grief and loss and into gratitude. As the President of her University, Nido Qubein, said at the convocation (induction) ceremony, “You cannot whine and be in Thanksgiving at the same time”. I just love that.
As I do with most life challenges, I look to see the good in every situation. I began the list…I’m in gratitude for all the years I’ve had with her in my home and care, for doing the best job I could as a parent to prepare her for this phase of her journey (as I’ve been told), for the beautiful young woman, friend and leader she has become, for the love she has given to so many, for her ability to make others feel special, for the way in which she is able to help others to open their hearts and connect with their loving side. For the excitement about all the expansion, fun and adventures she will create in this next phase of her journey. The list goes on.
Yes, I may be crazy. But for all this amazingness encompassed in my beautiful girl, I will fly into a hurricane to celebrate with her on Family Weekend so that she knows how loved she is and how we appreciate how hard she has worked to “BE” who she is. I feel blessed to be her mom.
So, to all the Moms (and dads) out there who have gone through this before me, my hat is off to you. I could not have imagined or prepared for how difficult this would really be. You seemed to go through it with such grace. How? How did I not know what you were really going through? Well now I can say that I understand your pain. I have a whole new understanding and appreciation for the strength you’ve exhibited.
As with anything, we get to choose our view. It’s all about perspective.
Chilled Roasted Red Pepper Soup
8 Roasted peppers
1 lg. white onion chopped and sauteed in oil til opaque and light brown
Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp oil
1 c. veggie broth
1/2 lime juice
Blend in food processor. Serve.
