Letting Go

As I prepare to face the greatest battle of my war with cancer on July 1, I have been spending more time with my counselor and with my spiritual advisor. We have talked so much over these past two months in particular, as I have taken in old records, old letters, what remains of old journals, new letters, losses, failures, joys, and successes. The past year has probably brought me the most pain and the greatest sense of what I have been to so many... I struggled this past year to get people to speak openly, to be direct, to view facts not fiction and to remember not just the bad but the good. I struggled to make them remember how much I love them. I longed for them to love me and to know that there is a definite place between fact and fiction. I have struggled to hold on to what was never mine at all. What I have finally learned, in both this battle for life I face (mostly now on my own ((by choice)) and for love is that it is time for me to let go grounded firmly in reality.

Letting go:

There are people who can walk away from you. And hear me when I tell you this! When people can walk away from you: let them walk.. I don't want you to try to talk another person into staying with you, loving you, calling you, caring about you,coming to see you, staying attached to you. I mean hang up the phone.When people can walk away from you let them walk. Your destiny is never tied to anybody that left. The Bible said "...they came out from us that it might be made manifest that they were not for us. For had they been of us, no doubt they would have continued with us." [1 John 2:19]

People leave you because they are not joined to you. And if they are not joined to you, you can't make them stay.

Let them go. And it doesn't mean that they are a bad person or that you do not love them, care about them or need them. It just means that their part in the story is over. And you've got to know when people's part in your story is over so that you don't keep trying to raise the dead.. You've got to know when it's dead. You've got to know when it's over.

Let me tell you something.. Today, I've finally received the gift of good-bye. It's the tenth spiritual gift I am told, Oh, it's not that your or I am leaving them, I am simply letting go; Father Craig has told me it's about being faithful, and I know whatever God means for me to have He'll give it to me. And if it takes too much painful effort, I don't need it.

So today Let go~

Stop begging people to stay. Let them go!!

If you are holding on to something that doesn't belong to you and was never intended for your life, then you need to.......

LET IT GO!!!

If you are holding on to past hurts and pains ....... LET IT GO!!!

If someone can't treat you right, love you back, and see your worth......

LET IT GO!!!

If someone has angered you. LET IT GO!!! (To me anger is a wasted emotion that suck all the energy out of the room)

If you are holding on to some thoughts of evil and revenge.....

LET IT GO!!!

If you are involved in a wrong relationship or addiction... ..

LET IT GO!!!

If you are holding on to a job that no longer meets your needs ortalents

LET IT GO!!!

If you! u have a bad attitude.... ....

LET IT GO!!!

If you keep judging others to make yourself feel better......

LET IT GO!!!

If you're stuck in the past and God is trying to take you to a newlevel in Him.........

LET IT GO!!!

If you are struggling with the healing of a broken relationship. ....

LET IT GO!!!

If you keep trying to help someone who won't even try to help

themselves.. ....

LET IT GO!!!

If you're feeling depressed and stressed ............

LET IT GO!!!

If there is a particular situation that you are so used to handling yourself and God is saying 'take your hands off of it,' then you need to......

LET IT GO!!!

'The Battle is God's !'

For those you love, always will love, for those you must let go and forgive, join me in The Lords Prayer

Our Father, who are in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom

Come, Thy Will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this

day, our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive

those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but

deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, forever.

Amen.

God bless.

Time for me to let go

And Let God.

Embrace Your Passion...

I was remembering today when I first decided I wanted to be a writer, and I believe I was about 8 years old when I first started writing stories and poems. I know by 12, thanks to a teacher in Albion Central High School, I first began experiencing the exhilaration and absolute fear of being published and of public speaking. You see, sometimes fulfilling a passion really can be a double edged sword.

Some of us hear our passion calling when we are very young, like I did. Most of us, however, do not and not because the passion is not strong but for a myriad of reasons the worst of which is listening to external censors and the worst censor of all, our own internal censor. How many of us, including me, in absolute fear of those censors have embarked on that vocational path (teacher, psychologist, lawyer), trying on different lives for size until we find one we can wear even if it does not exactly fit and in most cases is quite unbecoming to us?

Perhaps you are conflicted about continuing a journey you embarked on 25, 30 or even 40 years ago but feel you have now outgrown. You know you are not heading in the direction you WANTED to go, but at least your daily motions are familiar, it is an accepted course, and of course, it pays the bills. Besides, familiar feels safe doesn't it? In today extremely turbulent world feeling safe and secure seems the true definition of emotional sanity and physical safety.

Perhaps you are skilled in one occupation but not thrilled about using those skills anymore? Some other line of work secretly thrills you but the stakes seem high and others might disapprove. Perhaps your are overwhelmed and depressed because you don't actually know what artistic work or self fulfilling work actually awaits you if you just have courage and faith?

Not knowing what you want to do can be very frustrating can't it? You want to go para sailing off the Grand Canyon but you are afraid of the risks... overwhelmed by the options For anything that stretches us outside ourselves, no matter how desperately our souls long for it, there is that inner critic telling us all the reasons we can't:

I would have to quit my job to do what I REALLY want to do; and I can't do that. Who would pay the bills, by the food?

Every time I try to go after something I want, I drop the ball and wind up failing. (Please remember that Edison failed over 1,000 times in making his light bulb and he never once looked on it as a failure. He said, I now know 1,000 ways NOT to make a light bulb)

I want to do so many things, I can't just pick one. (Sure you can, you have to start somewhere).

I have tried so many things and nothing really seems to fit me (refer back to Edison's discourse on the light bulb)

It's not my fault I am not doing what I want -- no one will give me a break. (Here I will quote Miss Helen Keller "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable:) No one promises us fairness or breaks; we must take the risks and make our own.

Then there is this excuse (one I gave myself when I was in my mid forties... I am trying to go after something, but my heart's not really in it, and I don't know why... (Sure you do.. you just think you can control something of which you have no control.)

Here, dear Reader, I would like to recommend a good book that may help you resolve some of these afore mentioned dilemmas: I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What it Was by Barbara Smith. Through her insightful writing you will come to understand that whether you realize it or not, there is a good reasons behind everything we do or don't do. Behind every choice we make or avoid.

None of us can move forward if we do not understand what it is that is holding us back. It may sound cliché but the truth really does set you free. If you suspect that one of those frustrated, angry, discouraged, or timid voices sounds awfully familiar, reading this book will help you gain wisdom and reassurance in discovering your true dream or dreams.

Passion, its cost may seem high, but there is not one single person who walks this world who can truly exist living as a spend thrift of self.

"Oh the secret life of man and woman -- dreaming how much better we could be than we are if we were somebody else or even ourselves, and feeling that our estate has been unexploited to its fullest" ~ Zelda Fitzgerald"

Go on, dear Reader, take the leap of faith, and embrace your passion.

Blessed be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OId8ByO4jg&playnext=1&list=PL15BFC737DBEA550C

Shadows of Love New Contest Ends Soon

On June 17, I will choose a new contest winner for a gift from the online store. If you have not already done so, make sure to go to shadowsoflove.com, navigate to the contest page, and send in your form for the next drawing. Good luck and Happy reading!

4000 copies now sold

I just received confirmation from my publisher that 4,000 copies of Shadows Of Love have officially sold, my first royalty check is in the bank. A very humble and grateful thank you to my readers; without you nothing in the writing realm would be possible. And so happy to know that Poetry is not such a dying genre after all. For a chance to win a free copy of Shadows Of Love, just respond to this post Happy Reading