The Value Of Reflection And Appreciation

In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, we are bombarded with advertisements, social media, opinions, and new trends. It is fast-paced. It is intense. We feel that if we don’t keep up we are losing out. And while innovation is exciting and wonderful, so is the ability to slow down and breathe.

Our society is so ramped up that slowing down is almost frowned upon. Not having the latest gadget or fashion item can cause us to feel left out or deprived. While I enjoy innovation, technology, and the wonderful products of today, I also enjoy solitude’s beauty and deep meaning. Without time for reflection and pause, life becomes almost like an automatic reaction to all the stimuli surrounding me. And I believe that life is a learning journey of reflection and understanding. Incorporating reflection into everyday life makes me appreciate today's innovation, technology, and wonders much more. It helps me realize that these things are a bonus as I reflect and focus on the real itinerary of living: learning, loving, growing, appreciating, and improving.

I believe that creativity is woven into the fabric of life. We are all creators. We all have unique gifts to share with the world. But I think many of us get stuck. We become so focused on what is happening around us that we neglect our own gifts and talents. That is where reflection and pause come in. They guide us where we need to go and inspire us to do the things we are good at doing.

Stillness Speaks available here.

When I become still, it inspires me to want to contribute my gifts and talents to the world. It helps me dream about what I can do. I see the beautiful planet and I realize the abundance available to us. It is humbling. I think about others who lived before us and how their contributions gave us so much to appreciate today: electricity, appliances, and clean water pumped into our homes are just a few. It’s all a matter of balance: taking time to stop and breathe. To create an ebb in the continual flow of life. It moderates us. It secures us so we can reflect before we act. It is also important in the natural world. We need balance to protect and sustain our natural world so that it can protect and sustain us.

Take a moment to reflect on what you love. On what you enjoy doing. On where you hope to be ten years from now. If you love art, create it! If you love music, write it! If you have an idea, do it! Dive into life! Do what you love and love what you do! Appreciation and reflection open doors and enlighten the heart. They help you think of new possibilities and expand your mind. When you use your talents to help others and to improve our world, it will bring beautiful things to you. And it will heal your soul!

Every Experience Is A Treasure That Can't Be Bought

Experience is the greatest teacher. It is true. Experience is invaluable, important, and exceptional in making us better if we choose to allow it to.

Even hard things teach good lessons. In fact, hardship is one of the best teachers because it ingrains understanding, wisdom, compassion, and grace in us. When hardship comes, if we remember that we can learn from it and grow from going through it, we can see it as valuable. We can change our perspective towards it through envisioning it in a different way.

Money can’t buy experience. It can’t buy love or compassion or mercy. Money is valued highly in our society, and yes, it is important in meeting physical needs. But experience is just as important in meeting needs that money can’t buy.

Try to see your experiences as treasures. When going through a tough time, remind yourself that even your current experience will eventually lead you to a better place if you are able to reframe your attitude and belief about it. Focus on elevation-rising above the turmoil and insecurities you are facing in order to see good possibilities coming from your experience. Sometimes it’s tough to do, but well worth the effort. You will be thankful later if you are able to train yourself to stay positive now. Especially if what you are going through is really tough.

Surround yourself with others of a like mindset. Lift and build each other up. Then you will come to know a new freedom and wisdom from the inside out. That wisdom will bring you closer to overcoming your fears and succeeding at accomplishing your dreams!

What Are Your Plans?

After a year of silence, I have decided to begin posting blogs again. I had a while to think about life, my plans, and what I hoped to do going forward. I’ve been stuck, not sure if I wanted to continue writing. Things that happened in the last year made me unable to write much of anything besides very short 4-8 stanza poetry pieces. I didn’t know how to proceed.

I’ve been feeling the nudge of the Holy Spirit lately and I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to post on my blog to lift others up and help them continue on to what they are destined to do. Over the years, I’ve made my own plans and tried to prosper what I was doing within my own strength and I succeeded somewhat, but nothing ever goes as it should if we rely more on ourselves than on God. So I’ve learned to yield to Him, following the desires and dreams He puts inside me but relying on Him to let them go where they need to go and do what they need to do.

I’ve been meditating on hope a lot lately. Hope is essential in following your destined path. And many times hope is very difficult to find, especially when the world gets overwhelming around you. The events of the last couple of years have really been rough on so many of us. This world has changed drastically in a very short amount of time. And hope is the rudder that will guide us through if we don’t lose it. Hope, to me, is a stabilizing factor and a rampart of strength. It is something we need to seek, something we find when we trust in God. When everything is shaky, run for the fortress found in Heavenly peace and discernment. That is where we’ll find safety and strength.

Faith is wrapped up in hope. Faith is defined as, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1. That was always a tough one for me because I was someone who had to see things in order to believe. I’ve really had to change my attitude and outlook about that! I believe that’s why we are given an imagination. And we are free to use it however we choose. When we think about our dreams, we are fueling our faith to step out and make them happen! I believe that everyone has a dream in their heart and I think that this world is the place where we need to discover it and walk it out. Sometimes it can take a while, and when it does it’s easy to lose faith and hope. I am reminded of the saying that anything worthwhile in life takes time. And that certainly does seem to be the case. We are tested on our ability to persevere.

If you find yourself going through a rough patch, cling to the promise that there is good planned for you and that you have a unique dream to achieve-one that nobody else can accomplish quite the same way you can. And if you’ve failed before, take heart. Failure is a learning curve for us all. How would we know what works if we hadn’t tried numerous things that didn’t? You’ll find your way. Have hope, have faith, and persevere! You’ll soon discover the silver linings of every failure you’ve been through which will lead you to your path of destined light!

My art piece titled Faith.

Faith is a rainbow of colors wrapped in trails of glittering light!

Blessings

Life has been hard but life has also been good. I have gone through things I never thought I could handle. I’m still standing. I think besides the greatest thing I’ve come to know-the love of God and Spirit, the second greatest thing I have learned is that hardship can work for good if you just have faith.

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For those of you who know my story, please humor me over the next paragraph. For those of you who aren’t familiar with my story, I will suffice to say that life has been rough. I’ve gone through abuse of numerous kinds, substance abuse, the death of two children and suicidal tendencies as a result of the pain that has rocked my life even up until recently. I am happy to say, though, that I have made the decision to move forward in the honor of my children’s memories and most of all, in the honor of my heavenly Father who so graciously saved them from the fate of death. It’s been a long, trying, at times desperate road, but I choose to walk the rest of the way in as much peace and love as I can muster. The perspective of being a help to others keeps me motivated too. Which brings me to the topic of this blog post: my extreme gratefulness for the awards I’ve won for my books.

My books are written about the pain that I’ve been through. I was hesitant to start writing about my life but I have found that in the three books I have penned thus far, the lessons I’ve learned and shared in my poetry and prose have blessed other people. I had no idea they would be so well received. It is a bittersweet yet beautiful opportunity that I’ve had to experience the effect my writing has had on others. To date, I have won 30 awards for my three published books. I can’t even describe how that makes me feel. So much pain has gone into the pages of these books, including the memory of my most recent child’s death. Before she passed, she convinced me to write Breaking The Silence. Because of her that book is published. I also penned Poetry and Ponderings while she was still with me and we were waiting expectantly to see how that book would help others as well. Unfortunately, she left me before Poetry and Ponderings was published.

To all of you who have gone through trauma and grief, know that you are not alone. Also know that there is a possibility for a brighter day on the horizon. It is with great respect to you and hope that you can find strength to move on that I accept these awards. Because it has not only changed my life but also those of you who have contacted me or left reviews regarding my words that you have read. I will never take these things for granted because I believe that we are all here for a reason, together for a purpose and destined to do something wonderful that will help each other and the world around us to thrive. I pray we will all grow in Spirit and fulfill our destinies. Because that is the end result which will change everything for the better.

God bless!

Fairy Houses

Ever since I was a little kid I have loved fantasy. From epic adventures to gnomes and fairies, my mind was always in the clouds.As a preteen I created notes for my siblings from gnomes who (supposedly)  lived in the walls of our house. I loved to pretend that creatures of fantasy were near at all times, just out of sight of the naked eye. I still enjoy thinking about these wonderful creatures. And I still talk about them-now to my grandchild. Who knows if they aren't just hiding in the flowers of our yards, waiting to cast beautiful nature spells amidst the stars of night? As part of my fantasy wonder, I have started to create fairy houses. Here are a few for you to enjoy:

I can just imagine tiny fairies with colorful hair and clothes moving in, their tinkling laughter riding on the wind as they bless the yard with flowers and dappled rays of sunshine.  Oh, what a wonderful dream!  Maybe that's one thing the old nursery rhyme song meant:  "Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream...merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily-life is but a dream."

In Order To Be Successful You Have To Be Reliable

So many times we dream about things we could do or be, only to give in too easily to despair and hardships on our journey. If we really want to succeed, we need to remain reliable to our dreams and ourselves through the good times and bad. Setbacks happen to everyone making success seem like smoke on the horizon...something we think we see but we're unsure of how to go about achieving it. Or we know how to achieve it and stumbling blocks shorten and delay our stamina. To succeed, we must keep our dreams just ahead of us and continue to strive, to be reliable!

In order to be successful you have to be reliable by Diamante Lavendar

We hear overnight success stories and they do happen from time to time.  More often though, we have to work tediously and slave for our dreams to become a reality.  I am reminded of the saying "nothing in this world worth having comes easy."  The seemingly overnight success stories often are built on a platform of hard work behind the scenes.  Even the singer who wins the reality show has spent years perfecting his/her voice.  Overnight success is rare.  Very rare.

Never give up.  Unreliability and irresponsibility will kill a dream every time.  Believe in yourself and know you can achieve whatever you believe you can.  Then, if you persevere, chances are you will succeed...if you don't give up.

And never be afraid to lend someone else a helping hand.  You never know when the favor will come full circle to bless you in the end!

Life Is Short. Live It Well!

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw87X_wQWow

 

Each of us thinks that we have all the time in the world to do what we want to with our lives. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. The clock of time is constantly ticking, urging us forward second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. The days have a way of turning into months and the months have a way of turning into years. Soon we are left wondering about where all our time went...if we're lucky enough to have that much time.

Each of us has a purpose to find and fulfill. Sometimes (many times), that purpose can take years to figure out. So make the most of the time you have. Try not to engage in worry or hatred, fear or torment to the best of your ability. These things only steal more of your time. And if you are forced to deal with these things as most of us are, take wisdom away from the experience so that they can enrich the process of finding your purpose. You only have one life to live. Live it well!

~Letter Of Intent #2 by Diamante Lavendar~

Letter Of Intent #1

Letters Of Intent are ways to focus on increasing your power and perspective in life.  Here's Letter #2:

The time is NOW to rise and shine.  The time is always NOW.

People persist in believing in yesterday and tomorrow, but those are only illusions.  NOW is all we have.  NOW is all there is.  That is why many people experience a delay in achieving their dreams.  They look for answers in yesterday and tomorrow.  And while some answers may be found in those places, they must be applied to NOW.  Because NOW is the timetable of life.

Take the lessons from yesterday, take the dreams from tomorrow and plant them in NOW.  It is the only way to truly thrive in your life journey.  The moment you're in means everything.

Blessings,

Diamante

Who You Are Meant To Be

We all have ideas of who we are meant to be, whether they are ideas from others close to us or ideas built on experiences and interests we hold.  Most of the time it is an accumulation of all of the above.

But if we are what we believe we are, can we reach our highest potential?  What if we believe there is no limit?  We can keep growing and changing until we pass away from this earth!

Over the years I have come to believe that we are each put here for a specific reason.  Every one of us has different talents and abilities, strengths and weaknesses.  We compliment each other through the things we are and do.  I believe we all have a special purpose that we grow into during our lives.  But I believe that in order to find our purpose, we must keep our eyes focused Heavenward and our minds positive.

Who We Are Meant To Be

Everything around us is a sign; a marker showing us the path that we should choose.  Each situation that happens to us is a potential for growth and maturity to lead us on that path.

It is my thought that we are all meant to be happy.  For some, happiness is elusive because they haven't noticed the signs along the way.  My hope for each one of us is that we will keep our minds open and responsive to the signals of life.  What a wonderful world it would be if everyone was content and accomplishing their goals and dreams.  It would be a world where pain slowly dissolves away and is replaced by peace and goodwill for all.

Take the time to enjoy the things around you; your family, your friends, the place that you live and the beautiful things that you find there.  Everything is a stepping stone to a new beginning.  And each of us has our own unique destination and contribution to offer!

Dreams

SpringAs I see winter fading and spring approaching, new life comes into my spirit. The wet and the cold will soon be fading and warmth and sunlight will take its place. It is a time for dreaming.

I dream of everything I wish to accomplish before I pass away; writing the stories that are bursting inside of me, listening to the pitter-patter of my grandchildren’s feet, watching my precious children raise their own families, and maybe even spending winters in a warmer climate someday. I have so many dreams. My dreams drive me to keep trying.

I feel sadness for those who have been through such great pain that their dreams have been smothered. But I wish to tell those people that their dreams are still alive deep inside their hearts. If they search their innermost being, they will find their dreams once again. And then they will find hope to go on.

This state of living we find ourselves in is just that—a state. It can change from day to day and we have the power to change it from moment to moment if we wish. Even making the choice to smile at someone who looks depressed can change the feeling of the entire day for us and the person we smiled at.

I am so thankful that we can create our lives in such a way. So today I am encouraging myself and all of you who are reading this to dream your dreams. Who knows where they will take you? And don’t just dream them—be them!