Soul Mates

Soul mates.
Serendipity.
What do they have in common?

It seems that should be obvious doesn’t it?

Serendipity is the stumbling upon something wonderful without ever looking for it.
A soul mate is someone whose inner light is interconnected to your own…
You could spend a life time searching, but when you stop looking and allow fate to have her way, wonderful things will transpire.

One day you stumble upon each other…. and you just know.
A memory of being forever together while never knowing the other.
An interconnection kept them ever united.

There’s no struggling for words… within the first moments, you’ve known each other forever.
You laugh about things that no one else gets.

There’s an electricity even when you’re apart, it’s there surging and rippling.
The way waves billow upon the shore…. reaching and connecting yet never leaving…

There’s an aura when you’re together enshrouding you both.

You feel that way because even though you just discovered each other physically… you were always united spirtitually.
I believe the two souls were born together and then separated to roam the earth searching for one another.

Not everyone finds their other half…
Not everyone stumbles into that joy…
Not everyone will know that fulfillment…

But for those who have… what an incredible feeling it must be.

Until next time,
Jean

 

Live Freely

“She fearlessly left her own cage.”

Brooke Danielle Reniger
https://m.facebook.com/brookereningerauthor

 She fearlessly left her own cage.

What cage are you locked in?

Perplexing thought as I read the above quote on Facebook the other morning.

As I pondered it, my heart was overwhelmed.
The truth behind the quote gnawed at my soul…

Because I knew this is what I just did…
I left it… to live freely
yet not without fear… but bravely… oxymoron….humph.

We’re all in a cage of some sort.

I know I was… the sad thing was, I put myself in it.
I kept myself in it.
The agony of that self-inflicted cage became an overwhelming and delusional place.
I believed that it would stop… that things would get better.

Don’t go back to the past because you will only rewind it over and over again.
It never changes.

What’s amazing is this cage can only be felt by the constrained in it… the captors don’t see it.
They don’t believe they’d do such a thing.
Why did I stay in that cage for so long?
I know within my heart why… but those that I sacrificed for mock…

People can be fed poison without even knowing it.
They can become so engrossed in the activities… that they become the norm… the toxicity becomes what is normal.
But it’s not.

How do you teach them something different?
How do you teach them the truth when they believe the lie?

Living the truth and seeing the lie eventually becomes their reality.
You’re not there to blame for the behavior anymore… but the behavior never changes.
Difficult as that may be to comprehend.
The innocent become the victim and suddenly take on the form of the oppressed.

Walk away friend.
Walk away and be live freely.
You who are living it understand.

Walk away….
…and live freely.

Until next time,
Jean

Relationships

“The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you.” John E. Southard

I love to watch the boys play and interact. It brings warm, fuzzy feelings to stand back and see the playful interactions…  although all too quickly those giggles of happiness flip into shrieks of, “NO!!!! THAT’S MY TOY!!!!”…. ahhhh yes, motherhood.  Sibling relations

Relationships can be like that too… mother-child, friends and lovers. Life is filled with challenges within those relationships… but how do we deal with them?

I believe all too often relationships can become toxic due to lack of proper communication. Feelings are bottled up. Lies are told and hidden for years. Trust is broken… never to be re-built. How we deal with these issues will determine the final outcome in a relationship.

Decisions.

Where do you draw the line?
Where do I draw the line?
What will you tolerate in a relationship?
What will I tolerate in a relationship?
… these are questions we’re all faced with everyday.

When you have a relationship that communication and honesty, along with God, are the foundations, it is one to be cherished.
One to be diligently worked on.
One to be appreciated.
… because I think it is rare.

As our interactions begin slowly and gradually build, we become comfortable with the familiarity of them.
This is when issues are more likely to arise…
But really… we saw the signs long before we believed them.
We felt the pain before we addressed it.
We hid behind our hopes believing the lies.

Step out.
Stop the noise.
Build faith.
Trust your gut…

Until next time,
Jean

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

“Mommy… I love you!” The words melt your heart because you know they are the truest ones you’ll ever hear from anyone. Your precious child… the one you carried and bore… the one that you would do anything for… no matter what.

Our children have the ability to inflict unspeakable joy as well as tremendous pain to our hearts and souls. Forgiveness and our unconditional love for them is what allows a mother to overlook the hurts… this level of love is reserved only to these souls who’ve entered into our lives. Spouses, lovers and friends are not subject to this type of unconditional love.

I’ve often told my children that their actions speak louder than their words… a cliché it may very well be, but so much truth is forced through this simple yet powerful statement. Our children may shower us with gifts and loving words, but actions of disobedience and disrespect reveal a disturbing truth. I understand fully that our children will do things that they’ll later regret and through their actions of genuine remorse, we see their love.

Relationships with adults are different. When you’ve opened up your heart and laid it upon the altar… bare and naked, you’ve given something of yourself. It’s the ‘do unto others as you’d have them do unto you’ kind of thing. Actions as well as words will create a loving bond between two people or drive a wedge between their two hearts. Love and trust must be nurtured or a necessary good-bye must sadly be said.

You find yourself at a crossroad and you have to ask yourself… “Are you going to do it again? Are you going to except the pain again?”

Before you step onto either road, consider your heart because actions do speak louder than words.
Until next time,
Jean

Little Boys

Sometimes I ask myself, “What in the world was the child thinking?”

Like when one took a blue permanent marker and colored on the wall beside the bed.

Like when they decided to play kick ball in the house and broke a window.

Like when they’re coloring famously and then suddenly stop… look at the crayon quite seriously… and then start snapping them in half.

Why? Do adults do that? I’m not sure, but I don’t think so… at least not rational thinking ones… pardon me to anyone reading this that may have done the above listed offences as an adult! But seriously, have you ever wondered this?

I have to believe that I’m not the only mom that has!

So, today Evan comes in the back door and very calmly and seriously says to me (as he’s taking off his boots), “Mom… Aaron just took my toy and threw it in the hole for the pond (not a big pond, just my little fish pond). He’s so mean!”

He didn’t really seem upset, other than his sleeve and pants were a bit muddy and wet from ‘fishing’ (no pun intended) his toy out of the little hole.

I ask him, “Where is Aaron?”

“He’s outside still,” says Evan

“Is he coming in?”

“Yeah! He’s comin’ in! He’s mean!” …off he goes to get into some dry clothes.

A couple of minutes later the back door opens again and in walks Aaron. He looks at me a bit bedazzled and starts his gibber relating his side of the story like only a three-year old can … as if he knew I was waiting to hear it.  He kicks off his boots, walks on up into the kitchen, rambles off a few more defenses and off he goes to find Evan.

I waited.  Waited some more. No problem.

So on I went peeling apples with my friend who’d come over for the day. We looked at each other and just chuckled.

Boys are kinda’ like that. If you have boys, you know exactly what I mean. They duke it out and get on with the game.  No fuss, no muss!

After awhile the laughter started and the tussling and the happy playing.

It was a good day… and I think they must have duked it out before they came in.

Until next time,
Jean

Her Words

The phone rang… it was Taylor. Happy to hear from her I answered cheerfully, “Hello!”

She didn’t say hello, but immediately asked, “When did that happen?”

She’d just read my blog post from the other day…  the one on intuition and me waking up in the middle of the night praying for her.

You see, I hadn’t told her about it because I didn’t want her to worry or freak out.  She’s a young woman driving to work at 3 am in the country.  There’s not a lot of traffic or people around, so it can be a little ‘spooky’…

I told her I actually couldn’t remember the night.  She wondered what time I woke up and prayed.
“It was about 3:30 am’ish,” I said.

Then she tells me what she didn’t want to tell me so I wouldn’t worry or freak out.

One morning on her way to work she almost ran a stop sign because she could hardly stay awake. There was an on-coming vehicle. It was very close she said.

Goosebumps. For both of us.

We talked a bit about the incident and the blog post… then I asked her, “Do you like my writing?”

“It sucks!” she says laughing.

“Really! You brat!” I said laughing back.

“No I like your writing… it’s interesting and captures your attention and makes you want to keep reading. Really… I like it mom…”

I respect her opinion because she’s an avid reader and a very intelligent young woman.
I respect her opinion because I know she wouldn’t blow smoke up my you know what.
I respect her opinion because I love her.

Her words encouraged me more than any other person’s could…
Her words were more precious to me than if they’d come from a Pulitzer prize winner…
Her words touched my heart more than words can describe…

As her mother there are some words that I’ve spoken over the years that I wish with all my heart that I could take back… words said hastily and quickly regretted…

My words… if only… if only…

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you oh God…”

Until next time,
Jean

The Creative Listener

As a mother of six I often have, shall I say ‘creative listening’. I think most mothers and fathers reading this fully understand the concept I’m talking about.  We tend to do the ‘ah-ha… yup… OK honey…’ not really paying attention responses when we’re busy and not truly interested in what’s being said.

Grandma always teased about grandpa having ‘selective hearing’! I guess I inherited that skill as well… but I like creative listener better!

There are times when we find ourselves trapped in our driveway by our neighbor, who has nothing better to do then tell the same stories you’ve heard for the last, fill in the number, years.

Or a friend is being whiny (again) about the same issues from last week.

Or one of the children is trying to describe something not that interesting…

Most people including our children can sense when we’re not really interested… when we’re not really listening… when we’re doing the ‘ah-ha… yup.. OK honey…’ fake business.

What do we do?

Here’s where in my life I try to apply that golden rule, do unto others as I would have them do unto me. It isn’t always easy, especially when we’re in a hurry.

Today and everyday may we be a friend to the weary, a ‘creative listener’ to the lonely and a light to shine the way,

Until next time,
Jean

As Seen Through the Eyes of a Child

Aaron came down the stairs whining about how mean his big brother was being to him along with a whole string of jibber-jabber that I couldn’t quite make out. Into my lap he climbed and snuggled into my arms….  I consoled him and asked him, “Well Aaron, what did you do?”

“Naa-ting mom… me do naa-ting!” Well… I happen to know that my sweet little boy probably did something to make the big brother feel warranted in being mean.

Big brother came down the stairs with lots of justifications. After a lengthy discussion (all of about one minute and twenty-five seconds), on why he needed to set a better example to his little brother, everyone went back upstairs and all was well again.

There are two sides to every story… no matter what. Both the boys saw the situation from their own perspectives. We may have a tendency to side with one of the people involved in a situation, most often because of the relationship we share with them.  But there is always two sides to every story… and the reality of the situation is usually somewhere in between.

We all view what’s happening around us differently. Our perspective will be determined by several factors… primarily our ‘feelings’.

Our feelings are real… but they may not be based on the truth.

That’s not how our Heavenly Father works though… and it shouldn’t be how we as parents work either.  Our children rely on us to be fair and impartial without favoritism. As a mother of six children ranging from almost twenty on down to three, this poses occasional challenges.

I’m thankful for prayer and the ability to call upon Him for wisdom and ‘parental’ discernment.  It’s not always easy but He’ll be faithful in showing the way…. sometimes as seen through the eyes of a child.

Until next time
Jean

Purpose

“Sometimes it’s the same moments that take your breath away that breathe purpose and love back into your life.”

~ Steve Maraboli ~

Loving someone has an incredible impact on your heart and soul. It’s causes both intense pain as well as overwhelming joy. My question today is, ‘What are you willing to do in the name of love? What are you willing to sacrifice? What are willing to tolerate?”

These pose some challenging thoughts running through my mind.

As a mother, I’m willing to go pretty far out…

As a Christian… well, maybe not so far….

Our children are literally blood of our blood, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh. The pregnancy… the development… the childbirth…

The first time we look into those eyes there is an instant bond that no one can break… not even the child.

The first moment we hold them in our arms and feel their nakedness upon our own… the warmth… the natural instinct to die for this child.

The first moment that child suckles on you… you are its life source…

I remember everyone of my children grasping onto my finger for the first time…

I remember everyone of my children’s first movement within my body…

I remember the incredible feeling that leapt into my heart the first time I felt their bodies movement within my own…

I remember…

The anxiousness of their first time away from me. For a few of them they were never without me for the first year of their life… it wasn’t a burden. It wasn’t a difficult decision. It was by far my own. I wanted it that way. They won’t be little long…

I wouldn’t change a thing…

Except the disappointments I feel I caused in their lives.

Except the impatience I too often show.

How I wish I could take back those hasty words…

I have a purpose… and that purpose is to ‘train them in the way they should go, so when they are old they shall depart from it…’

Not only a purpose, but a deeply concentrated focus.

Let us each realize, those of us that have been given charge over a soul, remember whose it truly belongs to… the One above

A charge to keep we have…

Until next time,

Jean

True Beauty

“Beauty is not in the face, it is a light in the heart”… author unknown.

We can look out to nature for all the beauty that she holds…

The light of the sun’s rays gently shining through a sky filled with clouds creating an elusive lighting that reflects something that no artist hand could dream of duplicating…

A sunset over a still lake… a swan gliding across the waters surface, amazingly motionless… a cloud’s shadow running across a field as it races overhead…

Beauty. Simplicity. Nothingness.

Pretty is as pretty does is a saying that I gently remind my daughter of regularly. You see in my opinion, which is very biased, I think my daughter is a very outwardly beautiful young woman. I often remind her that no matter how ‘pretty’ she is, when she opens her mouth and something not nice comes out… the pretty isn’t there any longer.

She is a young woman with a slight attitude… which by the way, she gets honestly <blushing- somewhat>

She is strong willed, again coming by honestly.

She is spirited.

She is free….

Her soul longs for belonging. For meaningfulness. For security…

My daughter is forever an extension of my heart and she’ll forever tug at it.

Her beauty is not only in her face… it shines out from her heart as she reaches in the direction of where He is leading her.

Lets take the time to behold the beauty that surrounds us each day… in the faces of our children.
Until next time,
Jean