"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year."-Charles Dickens

The decorations are all nearly down & I find myself missing Christmas.
Luckily the Catholic Church doesn't start celebrating till after Jesus is born so we still had the pleasure of singing Christmas Carols last Sunday. Singing is my favorite part of mass. I have a deep voice & don't really sing all that well- but I always stand next to my son who sings like an angel & instinctively knows how to compensate for how I sound. He makes me feel like I'm in a choir. I feel a tremendous amount of PEACE when I listen to his beautiful voice as I sing along beside him.

Tony Melendez

The Epiphany of the Lord

"If we open our hearts to God's grace we become the modern stars to lead those to Bethlehem..."

This is part of what was said yesterday in the homily at church. Have you ever heard the true story about the guy who played the guitar with his feet because he had no arms? His name is Tony Melendez. Pope John Paul was so inspired by his playing, he walked over to him & kissed him on his face. He called him the gift of hope.

Check out the video of him. If you listen to his beautiful song, afterwards you get to see the Pope & Tony & how moved Tony was when he was kissed by the Pope, our modern day Holy man.

Wow...how can I be a modern star? I am sure there is something I can do.

"A Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." -Confucius

Not one pound

Not two pounds

Nor three

or even four.

Not five pounds

or six pounds

or seven pounds

but 8 pounds & more!

I'm saying goodbye to 8.8 pounds of first quality sweet cream butter baby!
So after 3 weeks of just maintaining my weight loss, I have finally lost some more poundage! 3 whole pounds to be exact, bringing my total weight loss to 8.8lbs. in a period of 8 weeks.

At my WW meeting this morning my leader asked us what we could do to help ourselves. A lot of the people there were talking about just not having the time they needed to devote themselves to sticking to the program. She told the oxygen story about being on a plane & how it was crucial to put the mask on yourself before helping your child. I shared with the group how awhile back someone suggested to me not to do anything for anyone that they can do for themselves. I believe most women are in the habit of doing for others & it really is a good thing in many ways-it only gets bad for me when it is at the expense of myself. The cool thing about not overdoing for others is that it teaches them to do for themselves, freeing up time for me, empowering them & probably most importantly giving myself some love. If I love myself I think I am showing God how much I appreciate my life.


Thank you God for helping me grow in love.

Letting Go

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

That last line is the hardest for me. I mean sometimes it is so obvious what I can control & what I can't. Yet I guess the most important thing is the first line. If I have serenity it is easier to accept things. Then what about the courage? I heard someone say once that courage is about being afraid of doing something scary but doing it anyway.
Shortly after saying this prayer this morning-I try to remember to pray this every morning no matter how I feel-something told me (I seriously think it was my angel whispering in my ear again) to go and read the daily page in The Language of Letting Go. What a great page for me to read today- thank you my dear angel.
Here is part of it;

In recovery, we learn that self-care leads us on the path to God's will and plan for our life. Self-care never leads away from our highest good; it leads toward it.
Learn to nurture that voice inside. We can trust ourselves. We can take care of ourselves. We are wiser than we think. Our guide is within, ever-present. Listen to, trust, and nurture that guide.

Today I will affirm that I am a gift to myself and the Universe. I will remember that nurturing self-care delivers that gift in its highest form.

Thank you too Melody Beattie.

A Word

Last year before the new year started I was reading a blog about picking a word to use as a daily symbol or as a mantra for the new year. I picked the word strength. I thought about having a strong mind, a strong body, a strong spiritual life. The idea of picking a word to keep in mind appealed to me. I thought I could use it as a touchstone. I remember the blog suggesting you pick a word with qualities that are appealing to you- the idea was that whatever you focus your energies on is usually what you bring into your life. I have consciously thought about this type of thinking in many different areas of my life over the years. I've noticed when I am filling my mind up with the trivial, I tend to have a trivial existence. If I look for inspiration in everything & everyone around me I experience serenity.

I wish I could say how I decided on the word strength-I wish I wrote about it at the time. When I think of the events that transpired in my life last year I can't help but feel that I was divinely inspired. Do you know the part in the bible where it says, "Ask & you shall receive..."? Looking back I believe God sent me an angel that whispered in my ear the exact word I needed in my life to help me through every part of all that took place. I don't believe I picked the word myself. How could I possibly know the very thing I would need?

I thought about my "word" everyday. Most days I felt like I didn't have any strength. That was OK though because that was the first step in finding out how I could get it. With absolute certainty I know I never found strength alone either. I often found the strength I needed by reaching out & asking for help. More often than not the simple act of asking God, "Please take this away from me." was all I needed to do. Sometimes I had to do that a few times an hour-but it always helped.

Mostly though, I started to realize it was important to ask those around me for help in getting the strength I needed. I found that people respond generously when you ask them to share of themselves. I also began to realize that if they didn't help me find my strength it was because for whatever reason, they couldn't & that only meant that I needed to find another source, & I always did. Sometimes it was another person, a nice long run, a beautiful stormy sky or a moving song. Looking back again I feel that if I didn't have the word strength as my touchstone I'm not sure I would know that was what I needed much less begin to think about how to find it.

I feel stronger for picking the word strength. I am grateful for the strength I was given so freely by everyone & everything around me. Thank you God.

This year I choose PEACE.