The Knots Prayer for 2012

Dear God, please untie the knots that are in my mind, my heart and my life. Remove the have nots, the can nots and the do nots that I have in my mind. Erase the will nots, may nots, and might nots that find a home in my heart. Release me from the could nots, would nots and should nots that obstruct my life. And most of all, dear God, I ask that you remove from my mind my heart and my life all of the am nots that I have allowed to hold me back, especially the thought that I am not good enough. ~ Unknown~

New Year, New Thinking...

Live your life for yourself, fully and without regrets.

The Four Rooms of Your Life

What Do You Value?

A lot has been said and written about passion and purpose. I have been described many times as a hard core, passionate person. In paying attention to what brought me to this status, I went back to my values, learned or acquired; those which created a clear vision of what is important in my life. This, in my opinion is the first step in the development of passion and the identification of life purpose. Do you have a clear vision of who you are? Do you embrace yourself as a divine creation or do you rely on the opinion others have about you and your actions? Who makes the most crucial decisions in your life? How do you feel about your relationship with yourself and those around you? These questions were and have been pivotal in the development of my own self, the personal meaning I give to success, and how I transmit and relate to the world around me. Honestly identifying your values, those that resonate with you and make you who you are, constitutes the first step toward a passionate, fear free life. They determine your course.

It is important to realize that values might change. Many of them have been passed on from generation to generation. Others have been learned through life experiences. That is perfectly fine. Growing is evolving. Just remember that values will have a direct influence in your attitudes, character, actions, and reactions. The way you see life and that of others will be determined by your values. Keeping track of your unique set of values translates into “knowing thyself”. It is an amazing tool that would help you ignite that inner fire that would light up the path to your purpose, and a passionate, mindful, and meaningful life path.

As Mark Twain said: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” . Find your values. Light them up with courage and determination, and create your way to a passionate road of wonders!

Learning to Walk

After eight years on solid ground, I am now back to a third floor of an apartment building, not mine but my daughter’s until I re-organize my life and decide where I am headed. But, that’s another story. A couple of nights ago my new neighbor came knocking on my door complaining in a nice way about these “walking noises”, like something hitting hard on the floors. I couldn’t but to apologize kind of mind puzzled. I had never pay attention to my steps. It was precisely my daughter; the one who made me realized how solid and strong my steps could be. “It is like your eyes mom. The way you walk and the way you look have the power to intimidate people.” Although I have heard about my look many times before, this one was totally new for me.

Since that night, I have been more conscious of my feet, which took me back to my broken foot a year ago and how, after three months partially immobilized, I found myself learning to walk again. So there I was, right in the middle of the kitchen, staring at my feet and asking them to move softly, to float from the floor. Crazy, right? Well, not really. This encounter with my feet encountered the truth that, in fact, every single day in our lives we are learning all over again; learning to learn, to feel, to see in different ways with a new perspective of what this amazing trip is, learning to let go, and to live simpler but better. It’s amazing how something so simple has the power to open our minds to new realities with the force to keep us with our feet on the ground.

Maybe it is as Donald miller once said:” It is always the simple things that change our lives. And these things never happen when you are looking for them to happen. Life will reveal answers at the pace life wishes to do so. You feel like running, but life is on a stroll. This is how God does things.”