April 2007

“Are you a pauper or a superstar? So you act, so you feel, so you are!” 

-India Arie

This quote was actually on the back of my Starbuck’s cup of Mocha Latte .  I thought it was incredibly motivational and inspirational. Anything that makes you pause and think gets high marks in my book.

I liked the quote, too.

+++ HAPPY EASTER! +++

“Life’s a movie.  Define your character.  Build your story.  Connect to your supporting cast.”  

Wisdom Credit:  Reel Life Wisdom

Photo of my favorite actress on the set of one of my favorite movies ever:  Keira Fans.Net

The only thing I hate about being one of the busy bees in life is that I don’t have nearly enough time to explore other websites and blogs.  Reading people’s blogs is where the real good stuff is!  Think about it - the benefits are two fold:

1. You get to meet new people.  So you get a bigger look at the world.  You’re able to see the world, not only through your own eyes - but through theirs as well.  That concept, alone is driving me to MAKE time for more online vacations. Just this morning, alone, I’ve toured the city of Jakarta with a beautiful young Indonesian Chinese lady (http://www.prettyinthecity.biz).  I went ahead and fell in love with her blog - and with something she said on her ABOUT page.  She said, “Time passes so quickly.  I need a witness for my life.” I love that!  I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent on her blog and I’m richer for it.  It opened up a corner of the world I wouldn’t have seen if I had just gone about my regular, coffee drinking, doin’ my thing routine.  (Oh, I’m still drinking my coffee - make no mistakes about that!)  I love for people to e-mail me links to their blogs and websites - and link exchanges are something I’m always open to.  Thank you, M, for letting me know about your lovely blog - I’ll be a regular visitor!
2. You’ll be inspired and motivated.  I’m always inspired by other people’s lives - inspired by what they do to overcome obstacles, inspired by what they’re doing with their lives, and inspired on where they want life’s road to lead them.  Inspiration and Motivation?  They’re wonderful things!  On another blog I visited this morning, Reel Life Wisdom.com, I found a quote that I’ve written on an index card and have placed on my desk.  (It’ll be the Quote of the Day for today - 4/6/07, so watch for it!).  It’s the first time I’d ever seen this particular blog and that’s amazing to me - but it won’t be the last time.  Two of the dearest things to my life are right there in one place - movies and self help!  I’m a total movie’s buff, so all the pictures and references had me positively giddy.  It was like, “I remember that….I saw that…” - and I’m up to my ear lobes in Self Help, so this is a blog I fell hard and fast for.  It’s an amazing concept and approach, very clever and very, very well done.  It’s also another blog I’ll visit regularly.
3. If you aren’t very careful, you might just learn something! When you visit quality websites and blogs, you’re inviting others to come into your home and share their wisdom with you.  (Except you don’t have to tidy up first or change out of your fuzzy wuzzy houseshoes.  Mine are pink, btw.)  Vouchon.com is a really cool place where the owners invite others to come in, sit around the table and share something they’d “Vouch” for.  I’d been looking for a place to get polls for a few of my celebrity websites - I actually found just what I needed through a Vouchon post.

So, make a habit of searching out quality websites and quality blogs - then make them a part of your everyday life.  That life will be all the better, and fuller, because of it!

Joi

This is some very important information that came to me through the e-mail today.  I hope you’ll read it and do as your heart and mind lead you to do.   Whatever you do, don’t make the mistake of thinking, “Well, this certainly doesn’t affect me.” Something like this, ultimately, affects all of us. 

Mastectomy is, of course, when a woman’s breast is removed in order to remove cancerous breast cells/tissue. To say that a great deal of discomfort and pain are experienced afterwards would, I’m certain, be an understatement.  If you know anyone who has had a mastectomy, I’m sure they could tell you first hand all about it.

Get this:  Insurance companies are trying to make mastectomies an outpatient procedure. Oupatient!!! Heaven forbid women be given the chance to recover properly in the hospital for 2 days after surgery.  Outpatient - I’m absolutely amazed.

There’s a bill called the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act which will require insurance companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It’s about eliminating the ” drive-through mastectomy” where women are forced to go home just a few hours after surgery , against the wishes of their doctor, still groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached.

Lifetime Television has put this bill on their web page with a petition drive to show your support. Last year, over half the House signed on. PLEASE!! Sign the petition by clicking on the web site below. You need not give more than your name, e-mail address, and zip code number.  They’re the only required fields.  When I signed the petition, I was literally in and out in less than 1 minute.

I KNOW the women in your life are worth that. 

http://www.lifetimetv.com/health/breast_mastectomy_pledge.html

Be sure to pass the link around - this one absolutely boggles the mind.  Outpatient!

On my Mental Fitness blog (which sometimes seems as appropriate as Britney Spears having a Good Parenting blog) I often write about the mistake of spending too much time in the past.  As in reliving past mistakes,  revisiting yesterday’s tragedies, and regretting days gone by.  These three re-’s aren’t emotionally sound or mentally healthy.  Mostly, they’re just sick puppies.

However, there is a way we can utilize our yesterdays to bring more productivity to our today as well as success to our tomorrows.

Illustration #1:  If you were heading off for a day at the lake, and 15 miles down the road you were to realize that you had forgotten your cooler of Diet Dr. Peppers (you have excellent taste in drinks), you’d go back for what you needed.  Turn right around, drive back, grab the cooler of coolness, then head off for a awesome day.

[click to continue...]

 I love the responses to the recent post One of the Smartest Things I Ever Did - if you go to the comments you’ll see what I mean.  It’s amazing, isn’t it, how far consequences can reach into the future, isn’t it?  

For better or worse, were married to each and every decision we make - they’ll either be amongst the smartest things we ever do or amongst the dumbest. 

I urge you to read what others have had to say - you’ll learn something new, I promise you.  From what I hear there are more on the way.

I did get one response via e-mail, because she wanted to stay anonymous.  She said I could share her story this way, though. 

L said that, hands down, the smartest thing she ever did was to leave her emotionally abusive husband.  She said that while he never laid a hand on her, his cruelty hurt just as badly.  He would call her names - vicious, cruel names - even in front of people. In restaurants he’d make fun of how much she ate, even pointing out to the waiter or waitress the amount of calories she was “packing away.”  (That would have been the end of him for me.  I’d have pulled an AC/DC Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap on him and found someone to do the dirty - cheap or not.)

L said she’d end up crying on the way home as he told her she was too much of a baby.  

He’s been out of her life for what she described as “The 6 happiest years” of her life. She found someone else - a man, this time rather than an ass.  She said that she had forgotten how FUN life can be.  This husband makes her smile and laugh - and she said that not only has she lost weight, but she has even been taken off 3 different medications she had to take while with the husband from hell.  Awesome!

Something that really stood out in my mind was this:  Before taking the Smartest Step she ever took, she used to count the minutes until bedtime, when she’d often cry herself to sleep.  She said that now she can’t wait to jump out of bed in the morning to see what kind of great things the day has waiting to throw her way.

Well played, L!