Left or _______ ?

I wish for the strength and determination to not continue to repeat the same mistakes.  No matter how ingrained my behaviors are, I want to be able to push through and do the right thing, no matter what.  I keep telling my children- "It's not about being right, it's about doing the right thing."  It's time for me to really start living this, that is my wish!

Prayer

To quote the Beatles: "When I find myself in times of trouble..."  this prayer always works and not just for me.  This prayer has helped find jobs, maintain one very important job when all hope seemed lost, helped create a life, cure an ear and most importantly strengthened faith.  It is a novena, that you say 9 times a day for 8 days and on the 9th day your prayer shall be answered.  The only caveat is that you need to pass it on to someone else who can use it, once your prayers have been answered.


May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be adored, glorified, loved and preserved through the world; 
Now and Forever.  Sacred Heart of Jesus pray for us, St. Jude help for the hopeless, pray for us.



Now, don't get me wrong, your prayers will be answered- no doubt- but perhaps in slightly different ways than you expected.  That's the funny thing about faith- you can't have expectations you just have to "...let it be."

I know that there are times in all of our lives that we have prayed for something so specific and it didn't turn out exactly how we had hoped.  What prayers are more important and more necessary than those that ask for a miracle?  The true test of faith is being able to see past the immediate outcome, and realize that these miracles do occur, but sometimes they take the face, the sound, the breadth of something all together different, unexpected to us- not to Him.  I am still waiting for my miracle, as I guess many others are too.  I know my prayers were heard sitting alone in that E.R. waiting room, because I feel the much needed love and support and grace of God daily.  Was the outcome exactly what I had hoped for?  Not in the least.  Do I think that my prayer will be answered?  100% yes!  Will I be able to recognize this miracle when I see it?  You betcha, because I am looking for it.  If you lose faith and you stop looking for miracles, how can you find them?




image © held by AnnMarie Gitchell, 2009



Like leaves along a trail...

Okay, so there's really no new wish here.  Instead, I am taking quotes and thoughts of hope and encouragement and scattering them along my path, and anyone else's path who may need them.  

"The greatest glory in living lies not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall."
~ Nelson Mandela



image © held by AnnMarie Gitchell, 2010



"Success is how high you bounce
when you hit bottom."  ~ George S. Patton

"Although the world is very full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it."  ~ Helen Keller

        

    "To the world you are but one person, but to one person you can be the world." 

                                                                                                              ~ Anonymous

Newest wish

Today, I am making a wish for someone else, someone close to me.  I wish for wisdom and confidence.  Wisdom, to select the best treatment for his illness, and confidence- so that he will fully commit to the treatment and believe in it's healing power.


There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophies.
~Friedrich Nietzche



image © held by AnnMarie Gitchell, 2010



One wish accomplished!

Ok, so one wish can be checked off!  I found the perfect artwork for my living room!!

Yes, I get that this wish may appear somewhat shallow and easy to make happen.  But, I don't care!  It made me happy and makes me look forward to what else the universe may be sending my way! 

"The Sacred lies in the ordinary" - Deng Ming-Dao

“Life is made up of small pleasures. Happiness is made up of those tiny successes. The big ones come too infrequently. And if you don't collect all these tiny successes, the big ones don't really mean anything.”    

                                                                                                                                      - Norman Lear

                                                      

Something I'm working on...



image © held by AnnMarie Gitchell, 2010



"We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves. "    
~ Dalai Lama

 

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"When you make peace with yourself, you make peace with the world. "
~ Maha Ghosananda

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"Nobody can bring you peace but yourself. "

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Comprehending the uncompromisable

I wish for resolution with one particularly un-resolvable issue.  What do you do with situations,conflicts or problems that, inherently, can not be equitably dispatched?  Where no compromise can ever be reached, just by the sheer nature of the disagreement- can there ever be a victory for one without complete annihilation of the other?

Ralph Waldo Emerson said: "For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else." 


Although I logically understand this, I don't think I have the strength to live it- yet.  How do you put aside a dream that feels more like a need?  Or more to the point: How do you set aside your dreams and expectations without gaining regret and resentment?

This is truly something that I am throwing out to the universe.  I am committing to this wish with everything I've got!  Let's see what comes back....

Quotes from a King

To celebrate, to honor, to learn from- here are some of my favorite quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, jr.

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."

"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." 

"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend." 

"Life's most urgent question is: what are you doing for others?" 

"The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important." 

"The time is always right to do what is right." 

"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.  "

Hope for Spring



image and text © held by AnnMarie Gitchell, 2010



Does validation = value?

I wish to feel complete.  I never quite feel like I'm done, you know like I'm still searching for that one little piece that will make everything snap into place; bring every part of me into focus.

Maybe what I am searching for is validation.  Am I a good enough mother?  Can I call myself an "artist?"  Would others beside my children, enjoy my singing voice?  If I got the right answers to these questions would I feel complete?  I'm not at all sure.

What I do know, and am a bit embarrassed to admit, is that  I think I am guilty of equating validation with value.  You know that old conundrum: if a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, did it actually make a sound?  Well, my personal conundrum goes something like this: If no one is witness to my gifts , then can  I really be  any good?  Just because I happen to belt out my singing numbers in the bathroom (best acoustics in my house) where nobody hears me- does that mean I am any less fabulous then Celine or Mariah or Beyonce?

Unfortunately, in our current society many of us tend to equate making money with validation and, therefore, with value.  This is not at all the message I hand down to my children.  In fact, we work really hard and counteracting this.  Then why am I holding myself to a different less morally-correct standard?

In order to feel "complete," I guess the real question I need to ask myself is: Do I need validation to feel my gifts are legitimate?

"It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere."  ~Agnes Repplier



image © held by AnnMarie Gitchell, 2010