Tag: escapefromdarkness

Posted on

What is in your genes?

This picture was taken of my Grandpa in 1896 when he was 40 years of age. He lived golden moments to make life a golden season.

What is in YOUR genes?

Lifes golden season should be golden right? To say it’s golden means it’s very desirable or marked by peace, prosperity, and often creativeness.

Let me be clear, the words season and golden have nothing to do with your age. It has everything to do with the lenses through which you see your life as it unfolds. If each moment is considered golden, we inevitably create a golden season.

A very good friend inspired today’s blog. It was her relentless bubbly attitude that made the path to her recently perfect planned outside wedding on a beautiful hillside that overlooks our city. We ended the evening listening to the band play while using the God-painted sunset as a canvas for their background. It was truly a golden moment for all involved. She unselfishly created that moment to share herself and her golden moment with the rest of us. It touches my soul deeply when someone wholly shares such a sacred time of their journey.

My friend is that rare person who always sees the glass half full. However, I’ve known her long enough to know that some of her life events could have easily emptied that glass if she had let it.

I sat on the deck this morning enjoying the sunrise and listening to the birds as they beckoned each other to WAKE UP! With my favorite cup of coffee in hand, I pondered the following thoughts about us humans.

..Why do some see the glass half full?

..Why do some see the glass half empty?

..Why do some not even consider a glass at all?

..Why do some of us live so fast we bypass the golden moments?

..Why do others live ONLY for the golden moments?

We all have the same hours in the day, the same options available to us, and the same world to contend with. Yet life can quickly get messy and difficult. We all have hard situations to overcome that hopefully refine us and make us stronger. Life is going to happen no matter what right?

BUT what if there is something in our genes we haven’t considered? What if we just haven’t accessed the very thing that will catapult us to the new endeavor our soul is seeking? The endeavor that wakes up creativity, purpose, and wholeness.

I began to think about my own Grandpa. Born in Ireland in 1856, he came to the United States at 15 years of age.

Grandpa in the final years. Approximately 90 years of age.

He died at 93 with a legacy of written poetry, articles, and speeches. He was a known speaker on the religious circuit for his time and became a writer for several printed tabloids. It doesn’t take long to hear the depth of his thoughts in his archives. Penning his thoughts brought him to his predestined purpose. He was recorded by a local radio station in 1943 at the age of 87 preaching to his small church congregation in Arkansas. My only connection with him is that audio. It was the sound of his voice that threw a flame on something deep inside of my spirit that I couldn’t explain. I simply knew something deep within me had been awakened.

No doubt life wasn’t always golden for my grandpa. However, he scripted some exquisite golden moments during his 93 years on this earth. Even though I never met my Grandpa , I would have to assume his glass was half full most of the time.

Was it predetermined before the beginning of time that I would “inherit’ the desire for writing? Could I have possibly tapped into the waiting well of his influential legacy much earlier in life?

I certainly do not know the answer to those questions but I do know this…just the simple awareness that came from a look back at the family genes has encouraged me to journey on and see where it leads. Many times our influence has a greater impact after we leave this earth. Either way, a legacy of golden moments is more important than actual gold.

The world is influenced by both joy or heartache, peace or violence. We have the choice of which way we will be used.

During my friend’s wedding reception, I saw a group of folks gathered around her mother and aunt. They were both sitting in wheelchairs entertaining the guests with their contagious joy and laughter. It was easy to see WHY my friend always sees the glass half full. The living proof was right there in front of us!

I leave you with this encouragement. Ask yourself those above questions and decide how you see the glass. Decide how you detect the golden moments. Maybe a change is in order after you determine the answers. Either way, take a quick look back at the genes you received through no fault of your own and inspect how they may have influenced your journey so far. And by all means

Enjoy the Journey-VB

P.S. I would be honored for you to read my first book Escape from Darkness. It makes me happy to think of the possibility of my life influencing another as stated in the review below.

I was so awed and inspired by this book. The author, Victoria Bragg, created a special book to truly help us pull out of the darkness and look @’the light and seek wholeness on a Godly plane. I felt as if Victoria was holding my hand and telling me it is okay to go seek real life!
I look forward to more of her pages. It deeply helped my soul.

Blogging is new to me for sure. The desire was there but the knowledge was not. I thank the Reese’s for sharing what they know. Check it out and begin today making a golden moment!

https://itsalovelylife.samcart.com/referral/XnAAkVyb/dww3whBpsMGCQp5k

https://itsalovelylife.samcart.com/referral/XnAAkVyb/dww3whBpsMGCQp5k
Posted on

Is your soul in good condition?

Another great pic from my friend Lindsey Ellen Simon. This picture is from the Badlands of South Dakota. My old stomping grounds. Its barrenness represents a deep look at the condition of a soul that needs refreshing. www.wildfreeadventure.com #badlands

Closing words from the last blog were “The way we manage our dollars is a reflection of the true condition of the soul. We will either invest from a prosperous sight using wisdom, caution, and faith or scatter funds beyond our means from a place drenched in fear, lack, and uncertainty. Sounds like a good topic to address next time. “

It certainly is a good topic! Our individual stewardship has never more important than it is right now in this weird time of global economics. Things as we knew them are changing right before our eyes. The news can be the scariest place for information but yet most informative once a person sorts through the weeds of hearsay and outright deceit. We can quickly get on information overload and not even know which way to turn by the time the long-awaited “stimulus” reaches our bank account.

At the end of the day, what truly matters is the condition of our soul. I want to approach the meaning of the soul from an objective view for the sake of my point. The soul is simply the part of you that consists of your mind, character, thoughts, and feelings. Collectively, those four things affect our decision-making in every situation we face. Personal development in all these facets will make you a very wise decision-maker at the very least and break you free from your own internal prison.

I can relate to watching life from “behind the fence.” It seemed as though that track was headed toward a destination I would never reach. Photo Credit: Lindsey Ellen Simon

I took a great interest in the condition of my soul when I realized how much it was influenced by my past on a minute-to-minute basis. My past had left me looking through a smokescreen of poverty and lack. This greatly affected the way I navigated the world in front of me. For example, there are folks that have been so focused on the monies recently given to stimulate both personal and local economies, that the shelves at “big box” retailers are frequently left barren merely for the fear of lack for future days.

Don’t get me wrong- I enjoy receiving a check in the mail as much as anyone. However, the time spent awaiting its arrival included strategic planning. You see, money is only a tool. It will go where you tell it to. It will also blow right out of your hand like a feather in the wind if you loosely embrace its significance.

Have you considered the thought that this year’s stimulus checks were enough to create a passive income if deposited in the right spot? I mean put it in a place that keeps on giving! This is where the condition of your soul becomes very important. A soul free of clutter will see opportunities as they present themselves! A soul free of clutter will ebb and flow like a lazy river without fear through the seasons of change! A soul free of clutter will even change the course of the river if needed! A soul free of clutter will be like a magnet to fertile fields to plant your seeds! Finally, a soul free of clutter will work as hard as a well-defined athlete to become in pristine condition!

The true condition of a soul is not hard to discern. It reveals itself through behavior. We are all on the same common course of personal development. People of ALL levels will one day face the condition of their souls. We all come to the place in life that forces us to look at what circumstances have sprinkled our past and conditioned our responses. It is a very personal journey and can only be addressed as we become aware.

Finally, this pic from one of Lindsey’s wild adventures represents the freedom to be all you can be.

I leave you with this encouragement. Let this written piece remind you to stay aware of repetitive behaviors that reveal the condition of your soul. Ask yourself the hard questions. Are my decisions made from a place of fear and lack? If so, provide your soul some education and let it know there are other options. Napoleon Hill’s Think & Grow Rich is a great place to start. You will be surprised how someone’s personal testimony will suddenly open a different window of perspective and change your course to a prosperous potential! Be willing to listen and apply AND by all means

Enjoy the Journey–VB

Interested in blogging? You simply have to start! I encourage you to start right here. There are folks waiting to hear what you have to say!

This is my story of my own escape from a personl internal prison.

Posted on

Time Holds Your Purpose

One of the best tools I ever used was a 7-week calendar with 1-hour increments. Each week has exactly 168 hours. It seems the major complaint one hears from most folks these days is there just isn’t enough time. The truth is we all have the same amount of time. It is how we choose to use it. If you will spend a week completing the handy little calendar based on your daily activities, how you spend your time will be quickly revealed. Frankly, I was appalled at my own results. I actually uncovered all kinds of time that was available to me. Furthermore, the way I was spending my time was far from productive or satisfying. It was no wonder frustration and anxiety chased me around.

The value on that exercise turned out to be long lasting. When I sense that feeling of my plate being “too full” , I simply pull out the 168 hour calendar and reevaluate my priorities. A reevaluation may come frequently or it may not. There are no defined rules as to when you reevaluate YOUR TIME.

24hourcalendar-1Download

Creating time in your schedule for the things you love to do is empowering. Deciding how much of YOUR TIME you give away to others is also empowering. Relenting to the uniqueness in you and the desires that are pushing on your soul is empowering.

I have to wonder if most people avoid their own talents simply because they can’t see how it would make a difference. The real truth is anything we enjoy doing will be done with heart and passion. That alone is enough of a reason to pursue the dream. Tucked deep in each one of us are gifts and talents pushing to get out. We will either recognize their presence or take them to our grave. If the latter happens, the world around us has been deprived because each of us carries a purpose. Your purpose will always affect the life of another. The Butterfly Affect by Andy Andrews is a great read to influence how you live each day.

It all started when I began a journey of emotional healing through counseling. I designated one morning a week to do nothing but write. Writing was my saving grace. My journals filled up between each counseling session. I could sense more freedom with each word I wrote. It also had to be long hand with a felt tip pen. Okay, that may sound silly but I am being transparent to make a point. You can RELENT or PARTIALLY RELENT. The choice is yours. I totally relented to my kinesthetic learning style. This is part of finding out how YOU are wired. The more freedom I found from my own life trauma the more the desires of the divinely installed gifts began to surface. I loved writing so much I decided to turn my experience into a book. I would not let anything interrupt the time I blocked out to write. Two years later Escape from Darkness was published. There are no sufficient words to properly describe how that accomplishment boosted my courage to JOURNEY ON AND FORGE THE WAY TO MORE UNCHARTED TERRITORY!

I leave you with this encouragement. Take the time to evaluate your time! Complete the 168-hour calendar and take charge of your life. Time is a gift to be stewarded in a way that points us in the direction of our predestined purpose. Unwrap your gift today and by all means

ENJOY THE JOURNEY – VB