Pledge for Peace

When all people of CONSCIENCE

do MORE

 than we are currently doing to

create peace

and nonviolence,

our collective actions will

GREATLY TRANSFORM

the world in which we live.

An Argument for Self-Love

Another WONDERFUL re-post from Already Pretty.

 Enjoy! I sure did!

So many women default to self-loathing. Or, at the very least, self-neutrality. Pride is a sin, after all, and it’s more socially acceptable to trash-talk your own body than it is to praise it. Our society has conflated humility with self-deprecation, which makes open acknowledgment of your own beauty, power, and worth absolutely taboo.

But there are so many reasons to cultivate self-love, so many reasons to let go of loathing. I talk a lot about how to love yourself here, but today let’s talk about why.

Hating yourself and loathing your body sucks up energy. LOTS of energy. If you can diminish or eradicate those circular thought patterns, you’ll liberate that energy for other tasks, goals, and ruminations. I promise you’ll be amazed at how invigorated you feel once you’ve cast off that incessant fretting.

Happiness is important, but serenity is vital. And it can feel impossible to achieve when you’re busily judging yourself. Because even when the more immediate worries clear out, self-loathing is still there, whirring busily in the background and keeping you agitated. Make it stop, and serenity is within reach. Learn to love yourself, and happiness follows close behind.

Acceptance of your own beauty opens you up to a more diverse beauty ideal. Once you acknowledge that yes, indeed, you are a gorgeous, luminous creature, other equally gorgeous and luminous creatures appear all around you. Seeing beauty in others begins with recognizing it within yourself.

Self-loathing often goes hand-in-hand with self-deprecation, which puts other people at a distance. It’s not your job to make everyone in the world comfortable with you, of course. But the more comfortable you are with yourself, the easier you are to talk to, relate to, love.

When you’re trapped by your own self-hatred, it can make simple tasks seem impossible. It can fool you into believing that you’re not capable or strong, or that you couldn’t possibly put forth the effort required to meet your goals. Yes, hating your body affects your confidence in other areas of life and diminishes your overall self-worth. Letting go of that negativity allows you to reclaim the power to act and achieve. When you love yourself, you value yourself, and you act accordingly.

People love you. They do, and they always will. But in the end, you must be your own champion. The only person who can truly teach the world about your marvelous, sensual, graceful, unique, lovely, and undeniably beautiful self is YOU. When you believe you’re beautiful, the world believes right along with you.

Loving yourself is hard. It’s work. It’s never-ending and there are a thousand forces working against your success. But believe me when I say it is worth the effort. You are worth the effort. Put that effort forth and you will be dazzled by the world of opportunity that unfolds before you.

A wise man that Mr. Rogers...

"You rarely have time for everything you want in this life,

so you need to make choices.

And hopefully, 

 your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are."

~ Fred Rogers ~

A lesson

Let me tell you a little story about a nurse, who had a patient, we will call that patient "Faith".

Faith was a repeat visit to the hospital, in every few weeks for various ailments, age related, acute occurrences and the like.  Faith, she was a SPITFIRE of an old woman...just a few years from 100, and completely independent.  Truth be told, while she was completely adored her for her feisty ways, she did have the tendency to get on your last nerve & under your skin...when her call bell rang...she timed you...

Faith had such great stories.  From her childhood in Europe, to her first days in Canada, all her triumphs, trials & tribulations.  Children, grandchildren, heartache & happiness.  She had a pile of newspapers at her bed, written in a language that the nurse did not understand. 

This time was different, this time Faith just wasn't as feisty, the colour of her remarkably youthful skin was not as pink & rosy.  The call bell...noticeably quieter.  The nurse had mentioned to her colleagues, that something just didn't seem right. 

Faith rang several times early on during this particular shift..."Could you please sit for 5 minutes with me"  Finally, the nurse made some time, sensing the urgency in her voice barely audible through the oxygen mask.  Faith asked the nurse, "do you believe in God? do you believe in Jesus?"...taken aback, the nurse silently nodded her head in support, not really knowing what to say.  Faith begged the nurse to sit and hold her hands while she prayed. 

For 20 minutes that nurse held Faith's warm, dry, papery hands as Faith poured her heart out to God.  Thanking him for every single aspect of her life, begging him to take care of her children if the coming weeks procedure did not go well & thanking him for this nurse who was "so kind and always treated me as though I were her Grandma"

After the lengthy conversation to God, the nurse surprised even herself with her very profound answers to some of Faith's troublesome questions. Faith's worried eyes eventually settled, her breathing eventually settled and Faith said she felt much better & not so lonely and would maybe try to get some sleep.  The nurse helped Faith into bed, tucked her in tightly, and when Faith asked the nurse if she could kiss her on the cheek for being so kind and making time to listen to her, the nurse obliged.

With Faith tucked in, the nurse left the room and to her colleagues said, it's like she knows it's her time...

Less than an hour later, Faith was gone.  The nurse was left with chills and little goosebumps over the events that had transpired.  She was also left wondering just how much faith, Faith had...to be that much at peace.  The nurse was in awe that she could have that kind of calming effect and assist someone in their final moments to the point that they knew they could let go.  The nurse just could not get over the fact that Faith had so much faith and found that to be so truly inspiring & comforting.

The End

The nurse is still sorting out her lesson learned here...what lesson did you glean from this story?

RIP "Faith"

Weekend Update

I had a lovely, PEACEFUL afternoon...shopping of all kinds.

I started out this afternoon at the Mission Folk Fest, hanging @ the Shanti Uganda table with my peeps.

Listening to fab music, walking among the vendors, I passed a lovely tent of flowy, breezy summery clothes

and for 20 bucks I walked away with 2 beautiful wrap style skirts,  made from recycled saris! How cool is that?

After that I went on my Whole Foods shop...I enjoyed that too....and whole foods dinner number 1 was a SUCCESS! I call it, THE SALAD TO DIE FOR!

Toss together; 

Romaine, green & butter lettuce

Radishes

Green Onions

Mushrooms

Cucumbers

Sprouts

Cherry tomatoes

Strawberries

Dates

Sunflower seeds, soy nuts, pine nuts

Goat Cheese

Fresh parsley (from my garden...oh yeah)

Layer on top, thinly sliced bbq'd medium rare organic sirloin steak, sprinkled with cayenne pepper.  Fresh lemon drizzled over the works and DI-VINE!

I feel kinda pumped today...something...a sort of lightness that I haven't felt in a while...

Welcome!

Here it is! My NEW blog!

Some of you knew I was on Rocketgirl hiatus, some of you may have had an inkling that I was revamping...Why do I need a revamping you ask? Well, when I started blogging, it was blind & unknowing...totally fun. I STILL find it totally fun, but I want to blog about different things. 

I will definitely still keep posting to The Amazing Adventures of Rocketgirl ... which I LOVE, cuz it IS fun...a fun little blog about nothing & everything all at once.

I wanted to start a new blog though, to reflect the many changes going on & about to be going on...in my life.  This blog is going to be more focused on wellness, health, perspective, peace, balance, love , personal fulfillment and my journey in attempting to attain it all (don't worry, there will be some fun thrown in there too!).

I think it can be done.  An ambitious task? You bet! But I am up for the challenge.  Did that all seem a little vague & confusing? Don't worry, it won't be for long!