“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.”
Psalm 107:1

Happy Thanksgiving to you! This day is a day of celebration, family and a meal shared with family and friends. As a Christian it is also a day to thank God for all His gifts and to sincerely recognize who we belong to and to share the love of God with others. As I am writing this I am thinking about past Thanksgiving gatherings with my family, as a kid it was looking forward to spending the day with aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents. The aroma of homemade foods lingering in the air and sneaking a taste of icing on a cake when no one was looking. It seemed every year my grandfather would always ask me to say Grace, I often felt it wasn’t fair that he never ask anyone else to say the blessing. Today, I am ever so thankful I was given that responsibility. Every year our family would use the local Lodge Hall for our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. It was an old wooden building that had creaky, slated floors and a bit of a cold draft in the winter. There was an old upright piano in one corner, none of us played but that didn’t keep us from banging on the keys. Those tradition faded as individual families began growing and children growing-up, and grandparents passed away. My family continued the Thanksgiving day meal with as many of us that could make it, my mom was always up before dawn making preparations for a feast. Homemade sage dressing, homemade yeast rolls, delicious chocolate sheet cake, green bean casserole, Turkey, scalloped corn, candied yams, deviled eggs, dad’s special oyster dressing and jellied cranberry to name a few(!). Things slowly change over time, not planned, it just happens. Families grow, marriages happen, children happen, loved ones pass away and before you know it traditions change again. My family continues the tradition of sharing a meal, the faces around the table changes from time to time but the purpose remains constant, being “thankful” for all the things we enjoy from year to year, watching families grow and remember those who are no longer with us and all the joy they gave us. My prayer is for God’s Love to be shared today with everyone around you. If you are alone, know that you are never alone, God is always with you. I am planning on striving for intentionality today to be thankful for everything and to be intentional in what I am asking God for. Often I find myself at prayer time asking God for things almost immediately when I pray and I usually gasp a little and tell myself, “Seriously…after all the things that God provided for me today…I start by asking for more(?)…I then readjust my thought process and specifically name the things that got me through the day because God was with me and provided. When was the last time you thanked God for clean drinking water(?) for shelter (?) for clothing (?)… I am so blessed and sometimes I forget just how blessed I am. My life is not perfect, I don’t always get things to go my way, I’m not rich, financially that is but I am rich is the saving grace of God. I have tough days, I get upset and angry at times, I sometimes get disappointed by people and things and yet with all these things “I AM BLESSED BEYOND IMAGINATION BECAUSE GOD LOVES ME AND WANTS ME IN HIS KINGDOM!” Wherever you are today and whatever you are doing this day, know this for certain…God Loves You!

“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6 – https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=John%2014:6&version=NIV

“The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”
Zephaniah 3:17 – https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Zephaniah%203:17&version=NIV

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.
John 15:9-17 – https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=John%2015:9-17&version=NIV

~Blessings and Peace~

Dreams, we all have them, some we remember and others quickly fade. Dreams can be happy, sad, scary, and odd to list a few. The dictionary offers the follow:

Dream
noun, often attributive\ˈdrēm\
often attributive
1: a series of thoughts, images, or emotions occurring during sleep had a dream about climbing a mountain gives me bad dreams — compare rem sleep
2: an experience of waking life having the characteristics of a dream: such as
a : a visionary creation of the imagination :daydream the dreams of her youth
b : a state of mind marked by abstraction or release from reality : reverie walking around in a dream
c : an object seen in a dreamlike state : vision a man that was her dream come true
3: something notable for its beauty, excellence, or enjoyable quality the new car is a dream to operate
4a : a strongly desired goal or purpose a dream of becoming president
b : something that fully satisfies a wish : ideal a meal that was a gourmet’s dream

I am not expert on dreaming nor do I have any answers for why we dream or anything else about dreams. I had a dream and I am writing about it and wanted to share it. It was only a dream and it could be my unconscious shedding some light on an area I have been avoiding, it might be something I should pursue or at least be open to. Whatever the reason, waking up feeling loved is always a good thing in my book. Perhaps my mind is just reminding me that I am loved and I do try to love others. Isn’t that what this life is really about (?) LOVING AND BEING LOVED. God tells us over and over in the Bible that we are loved and that we are to love others!

“We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” ~1 John 4:19-21https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=1%20John%204:19-21&version=NIV

“One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” ~Matthew 22:35-40https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Matthew%2022:35-40&version=NIV

*“The question of whether dreams actually have a physiological, biological or psychological function has yet to be answered.”

*“There are several theories as to why we dream. One is that dreams work hand in hand with sleep to help the brain sort through everything it collects during the waking hours.”

*“During sleep, the brain works to plow through all of this information to decide what to hang on to and what to forget. Some researchers feel like dreams play a role in this process.”

*Excerpt from:

https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/why-do-we-dream.htm

This was my dream:
I dreamed about you last night, you were as real as the sun and the moon and just beyond my reach. Through all that distance I could feel the essence of your soul, I felt your confidence and your compassion, a welcoming smile for a tired and seeking soul. I was overcome with a warmth that engulfed me and gravity seemed to be more of a choice rather than a reality. I know somehow we are destined to meet; I am meant to love you and more importantly you are meant to love me. My heart is filled to epic proportions and as the day breaks into my consciousness and tries to awaken me from my slumber, all I want to do is fall back into the free feeling of you, my dream and I am content to breathe you in and to marvel at your presence. The waking hours eventually win out and as my day continues I am battling with my mind to keep the thoughts of you alive and to not have you fade into the familiar, a hazy memory. I want to remember, I want to relive the feelings and to recall everything about you from your hair blowing in the breeze, to your eyes that seem to penetrate my guarded soul. As I am preparing for sleep once again, I am wishing and hoping we will meet again very soon. Until that day comes, when we are face to face, I will look for you in my dreams. ~Good Night-Sweet Dreams~

I was searching for a song and video to share with you that somehow expressed my thoughts and God lead me to this one. It speaks volumes about what “we” allow the world to tell us about ourselves, all the lies and doubts. This blog started out as something very different from what I usually write about but I had an urgency on my heart to share it. At first I thought it was my dream that I needed to share and perhaps it is to some degree. Dreams are a lot like goals, we can see where we want to be but we have a lot of distance to cover to get there. This video reminded me that our dreams can become reality when we seek God first and ask for His guidance and blessings. My dream made me feel wanted and loved, the reality of that is this…I AM LOVED! God has blessed me far beyond my imagination. I am so thankful for everything God as provided. I’m not giving up on my dream just trusting in God’s plan and I know this for sure, sleeping and chasing dreams in my sleep will not magically make dreams come true. My prayer is that God blesses you in a special and unique way today!

~Blessings and Peace~

http://bravegirlsclub.com/

http://bravegirlsclub.com/archives/34338

I just had to share the latest post from Brave Girls Club.  God is GOOD, GOD IS ALWAYS GOOD!  I had just posted my most recent blog and I decided to check my email and the latest post from BGC had been delivered, as I began to read it my heart was overwhelmed at God’s timing.  I’m thankful for this wonderful website and if you haven’t heard of it or read any of their posts I recommend giving it a try.  I was introduced to it by a very dear and trusted friend and I am grateful every single time I read it and it seems to be written especially for just me!  I am simply posting and promoting their site:

http://bravegirlsclub.com/archives/34338

~Blessings and Peace~

Today I decided to tackle a project that I have been postponing for far longer than I want to admit. Things were going very well, a stack of trash, a stack of shred and then the unexpected. Things that I had just pushed aside and stacked away, choosing avoidance of things…old birthday cards, photos of friends and family that have passed away, letters and notes from friends and ex-lovers. I paused for a moment, then I began reading the cards, notes and letters…talk about an emotional overload! So, I did what comes naturally…do something else, anything, so I laid the items down and walked away from them. I decided that I needed to allow myself the time and space to view this situation for what it is and not what it was. I have wonderful memories of all these people, places and things and in my memories is where they will serve me best. I know and I have experienced the devastation of wanting to go back in time, to ask the questions of why and why not and I can tell you that these thoughts ultimately will lead to dark and murky thoughts and will only serve to cause more pain. I was recently ask, if I could go back in time and change something, what would it be? My most truthful answer was “nothing.” I am seeking to fully accept that I am the person I am today in spite and because of all my yesterdays. I’ve gained a lot of patience and humility over the past few years and the most important lesson I’ve learned is that things rarely go according to the plan. Time is a variable that tics away and is never measured exactly the same way from person to person and/or from situation to situation. Life’s lesson, I have found to be more like an outline for rules instead of play by-play rules.  Grief is a good example, everyone will experience grief at some point in life; the stages of grief are the same for everyone but not everyone experiences them in the same order or in the same time frame but make no mistake each stage will be experienced.  Additionally, grief comes in all shapes and sizes; plus depending upon everything else happening in and around you at the moment grief pays a visit, no two people respond to it in the same manner. It was important to me to share this grief information because my “emotional cleaning” has everything to do with grief and I have decided I no longer want to be emotionally chained to the grief of what was and no longer is. My mom passed away over 5 years ago, I think about her everyday, not on purpose and yet I’m thankful for the moments of joy my memories provide. I miss her and I have gained more than I lost when she died. I am stronger because I more fully understand her strength and resolve for life; I display more patience than I ever could have hoped for because she was steadfast and committed to her family and friends; I am more confident and courageous because all these things remain true about who my mother was and continues to be. My mom lives on within my heart and soul. I also experienced a relationship break-up over 9 years ago, I mention this for two reasons, the first being it had been a long relationship and secondly because I’ve recently started seeing life in the “present” the here and now, which has helped to pave the way for me to do some “Emotional Cleaning.” As I was going through the old cards and letters, I found myself being drawn back in time, reading the words as if for the first time. Then, my mind quickly adjusts to the present and I felt betrayed by the words I was reading,  I took a deep breath and put the cards and letters aside. Then it hit me!!! I’ve been missing the point and searching for answers that do not exist. The words weren’t betraying me or what was, the words were absolutely true, when they were written. I’ve been wanting to find blame, find the cause and why things happened the way they did.  I am now choosing to see things as they are, people change and things change, there’s a reason for all things the Bible tells us, although the reason may not be clear for a while.  Over time people change, sometimes going in the same direction and others times in the opposite direction; change is inevitable.  In this situation, grief has taught me that life is a forward movement for everyone but often our destinations vary. I am no longer going to allow time to taint my memories, I’m not happy with a lot of my life choices and I’m not going to be defined by my mistakes.  I am choosing to learn from my them and to make better choices. Grief is not about being sad, it teaches us about ourselves and our capabilities. I have many people to thank for being helping me be able to see life so differently than I did a decade or so ago.  I can’t mention them all by name because I have no doubt, I would inevitably forget someone. I do want to personally recognize thank two mental health experts for their time and support; a member of the clergy and a trusted friend who taught me humility and trust through their actions, not through words and lastly a coworker whose constant support and moral fiber challenge me to be a better person today than I was yesterday.  None of this would be possible without the love of Jesus Christ! God has never wavered in His love for me and I promise you, He loves you just as much! I pray that you already know Him in a personal way, as your Lord and Savior. If you don’t, please accept this invitation to accept Him today, right now. All you need to do is believe in God and ask Him to be your Lord. Amen.

Life is tough sometimes but it is so worth it when we rely on God to lead us.

Ecclesiastes 3:1.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens;”

Proverbs 3:5
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;”

The Five Stages of Grief
Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance
“These are the framework that makes up our learning to live with loss. They are tools to help us frame and identify what we may be feeling. But they are not stops on some linear timeline in grief. Not everyone goes through all of them or in a prescribed order…remember your grief is as unique as you are.” ~David Kessler (GRIEF.COM) BECAUSE LOVE NEVER DIES
https://grief.com/the-five-stages-of-grief/

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” ~John 1:1

“My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.” ~Psalm 121

~Blessings and Peace~