Take me home. I want to live there, under those stars! In a place where everything is peaceful, where nothing hurts, and where I am always enough, no matter what.

Everybody wants a home, or what home represents to them. At the end of the day, we want to go there and be exactly who we are, no more and no less. Nothing to pretend, no one to judge, with only support and encouragement awaiting our arrival.

But where is home? Where can we find this mystical place that some joke about and others dismiss as fantasy? Should we just pretend that it can’t exist in such a crazy, busy world when something inside tells us that it can and does?

If goal-setting strategies and prayerful pleas to  the Almighty aren’t working, maybe it’s time to try something new. Meditation is a great way to quiet the mind and get into your heart space. And it’s not as much work as you might think. In fact, it’s more like non-work.

One of the best ways to manifest something on the outside is to make something happen on the inside.  There are many ways to meditate and you don’t have to try them all at once. But why not try one, at least?

There’s no need to sit in a crazy position for long periods of time, although it is perfectly all right to do so. Be creative, and do whatever works for you as soon as you find out what it is. The object of meditation is to quiet your mind in order to open your heart to a world of possibilities. Here is something to get you started.

Find a nice relaxing spot and get comfortable. Take a couple of deep breaths, still your mind, and look into your heart. Keep breathing as you feel yourself shine with the glow of unconditional love. It waits for you. It calls to you in your darkest hour. This Presence that knows and notices will hear you cry “Take me home”. And from deep within your most sacred heart, you will be guided to the place outside that most reflects your heart’s true desire. Home really is where the heart is.

It’s Never Too Late to Be Great! ^®

Aerial photo courtesy of Joel Harts, Adventure Pilot

Sometimes I think if one more person asks me if I’ve ever heard of Linus Pauling, I will just scream. As a natural health advocate for most of my life, it’s hard not to feel insulted when someone asks me something so ridiculous. Could they possibly be speaking of the two-time Nobel Laureate, founder of Orthomolecular Medicine, the Vitamin C Pioneer? That Linus Pauling?!

One part of me wants to ask, “Where do you think I’ve been the last thirty years?” and lay out a diatribe that will force them into submission. But then I catch my balance, and the lesson at hand. It’s all about lifelong learning. And that takes patience.

They needed to ask someone. They needed to share something important to them with someone who wouldn’t make them feel stupid or small. Somehow, they heard the compassion in my voice and sensed my patience when I did not interrupt them as they spoke. This was a victory for them. And it was a victory for me, as well.

People have a natural need to share what they know. Their excitement about what they have learned in their Aha! moment overshadows any thought that someone else might not share their enthusiasm. It doesn’t occur to them for a moment that they might be preaching to the choir. They only want someone—anyone—to listen. They want to share part of their lifelong learning journey with someone who will hear their voice. Someone who will be happy for them. Someone who will make them feel like they matter.

Today that someone was me. Tomorrow it might be you. Lifelong learning can strike anywhere at any time. Will you be the teacher or the learner? Will you be ready to step up to the plate, no matter which side of the lifelong learning platform you are on?

I hope that the next time someone tells you a funny but tired old joke, you will laugh. It’s okay to be the listener. It’s okay to let someone else be the teacher, or the messenger. Maybe it’s their turn to feel important, and your turn to make their day. How often do we get to do that anymore?

Be patient. Lifelong learning is a blessing and a gift, albeit an undervalued one. Sadly, the true value of lifelong learning is often realized only when we are no longer able to participate in it.

It’s Never Too Late to Be Great! ^®

Image courtesy of Keattikorn at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

What is your passion? What is your dream? What is it within you that you are so comfortably certain about that you would abandon the logic of your mind, put your complete trust in God and the Universe, and follow your heart because it just feels right?

Trust doesn’t just happen, you know. Trust is like Love. It’s a verb. Trust is something that you do. No one can convince you, convert you, or persuade you to trust. When your heart is ready, trust is there like a bright sun shining a beam of light into the darkest recesses of your heart. You are exposed, revealed, and vulnerable.  And you don’t even care.

Trust opens the door to your heart, but you are the one who must walk through it in order to claim your rightful abundance. So, what are you waiting for?

It’s Never Too Late to Be Great! ^®

Image courtesy of Joel Harts,  Adventure Pilot

I grew up in a small town–a very small town. I loved being around nature, eating food right out of the garden, or off the tree. The stars were bright and endless, and birds sang all day long. There were seasons and many of my high school acquaintances lived on farms. Beautiful autumn leaves, snow days, playing outside, and spending eight grades at a small school next door to a lovely church.

Growing up in the Midwest, you get used to certain things and take some things for granted–not in a bad way. You just expect them to happen, like Spring, for instance. I grew up, moved away, traveled, got married, had a child, got divorced, and moved to Florida. I missed the seasons but it was nice to have fresh flowers year-round. I love flowers, always have.

Wherever I traveled, or lived, I always made time for flowers, especially the ones that attracted bees, birds, and butterflies. Wherever I was, as long as I had flowers, I had a piece of home with me. A little piece of my Kansas home. I carried it with me in my heart everywhere I went.

Then one day, a little piece wasn’t enough. There was nothing to hold me to any one particular place, so I decided to move back to Kansas for awhile. It was an experience that I will cherish for the rest of my life which, by the way, was changed irrevocably by the love I was shown there. It was much better than it was when I was actually growing up there.

I moved back to Florida and life went on, but not as usual. There was no usual after being home. My life was richer, my experiences more fulfilling, my heart more open. Small town life spoiled me. It’s all I think about now. And I no longer need to carry a little piece of it with me. It is part of who I am.

It’s Never Too Late to Be Great! ^®

Image courtesy of Rawich at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

“There is a direct and proportionate relationship between the degree of inconsolable pain that we have and a deep-seated misunderstanding of our real purpose for being alive”.  Guy Finley

Inconsolable pain–that’s the feeling, all right. The intense loneliness we feel when we are in slave jobs that steal our energy and keep us from doing what we were created to do. The loss, or the absence, of a family that we so desperately want to be there for us no matter what only makes life seem more challenging.

The farther we move away from what we were put on this earth to do, the more energy it takes to find our true passion in life. Doing what we love is not meant to be financed by doing what we hate.

It takes courage and trust to follow the path of your heart. Even if you have not yet discovered your reason for being, there is still time. When you follow your heart, everything is possible.

It’s Never Too Late to Be Great! ^®

Image courtesy of Joel Harts, Adventure Pilot

“I know what you’re going through.” Have you ever said that to someone who is going through a crisis in their life? I have, and I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The truth is that you are the only one who has ever had your experience, because you are the only you and that makes you the only one who experiences things the way that you do. No one knows how you feel.

Someone once told me that people don’t need to identify with my experience; they just need to relate to it. It was a long time before I understood what that meant. After my sister died, I never again told anyone that I knew what they were going through. Instead, I learned how to be supportive and compassionate, and allow my friends to have their own experience and find their way through it. I stood by them if and when they needed me, until they found their way out of the dark.

Acceptance is very powerful. Acceptance means we have to allow people to be who they are, and not judge them based on our own experiences. When we accept and acknowledge someone in a way that honors their experience, we allow them to grow from that experience in their own way, and in their own time.

All healing happens in the heart. Acceptance of others, and of ourselves, as the perfect beings we were created to be, lets us uncover clues to our own needs, and gives us permission to be who we are. It takes courage to step away and let someone have their own experience when a traumatic event turns their life upside down. Sometimes, people just want you to be there, not to do anything, just be present. Acceptance opens the door to unconditional love, and our hearts are never the same.

It’s Never Too Late to Be Great! ^®

Image courtesy of Rawich at FreeDigitalPhotos.net