MIXED BAGGAGE

[MajestyJo]

This reminds me of my mother's saying, "Take a picture, it will last longer" when she saw people staring at us.

Just had a thought, maybe I got my sense of humor from her.

Deuteronomy 5:16
"Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

The sad thing is that I have outlived both of them. My mom died at the age of 40 and my dad at the age of 66, as a result of their own disease.

[MajestyJo]

I'm so glad
I have you
to share with
to laugh with,
to dream with...
I'm so glad
you're the special
kind of person
that you are...
tender, caring
and understanding.
I'm so glad-
You came into my life!

[MajestyJo]

Psalm 107:19-21
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He sent forth his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave. Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men.

[MajestyJo]

You're a true original!
Just like a sparkling snowflake,
You're quite beyond compare,
A one-of-a-kind blessing,
So precious and so rare.

A miracle from Heaven,
You have to know it's true...
You make the world
More beautiful...
Just By Being You!



You're Always In My Thoughts And Prayers

[MajestyJo]

We are what we feed ourselves. Do you eat negative thoughts? Are we still beating ourselves up. Self abuse can be mental, emotional, and phsyical.

Are we accepting of ourselves in today. Do we endorse and affirm ourselves, or do we continue to put ourselves down and excuse our existence and reason for being. It is okay to be who we are.

[MajestyJo]

It Was
=======

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,

it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,

it was the epoc of belief, it was the epoc of incredulity,

it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness,

it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,

we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,

we were all going direct to heaven,

we were all going direct the other way

in short, the period was so far like the present period...

This was written by Charles Dickens, from the novel,

"A Tale of Two Cities," about the times of the French revolution.

Sounds very much like today doesn't it?

There is nothing new under the sun.

Received with thanks from my friend Anne

[MajestyJo]

If you are in the center of AA, you won't fall off the edge.

Directions to AA: Just go straight to hell and make a U-turn.

AA: Being a part of something is more important than being the center of attention.

AA is the only place whre you can walk into a room full of strangers and reminisce.
A.A. Romance......The odds are good......but the goods are odd.

AA: Look for a way in; not for a way out.

AA: We are not reformed drunks, but informed alcoholics.

AA has no fixed address--you can take it with you.

AA: We're here for a reason, not for the season.

AA Groups: An AA group will be judged by the worst behavior of its members.

AA Groups: When you clean up after your group, you leave the signature of AA behind you.

AA is a check-up from the neck up.

Before I came into AA I was dead, but I did not know enough to lie down.

AA is not a sentence, it is a reprieve.

A.A. is a self-help program but you can't do it by yourself.

AA won't keep you from going to hell nor is it a ticket to heaven but it will keep you sober long enough for you to make up your mind which way you want to go!

AA won't open the gates of heaven to let you in, but it will open the gates of hell to let you out.

In AA, there are no losers--just slow winners.

Alcoholic (as defined by self): A piece of crap the universe revolves around.

Alcoholic: Someone who refuses to give up a life of failure without a fight.

Alcoholic: A person who, when s/he goes to a wedding, wants to be the bride; when s/he goes to a funeral, wants to be the corpse.

Alcoholic: An alcoholic is someone who wants to be held while isolating.

Alcoholic: I may not be much, but I'm all I think about.

Alcoholic: If I could drink like a normal drinker, I'd drink all the time!

Alcoholic: If you drank enough to get to AA, you drank enough.

Alcohol: It provokes the desire but takes away the performance.

Only an alcoholic would believe that the solution to loneliness was isolation.

Alcoholics burn their bridges in front of them.

Alcohol: An alcoholic is someone who finds something that works and then stops doing it.

Alcohol: It's not what or how much you drank, it's what it did to you.

Alcohol: What you thought was the solution became the problem.

Alcoholic: Terminal uniqueness!

Alcoholic: They didn't make a glass big enough for me to have one drink.

Alcohol: You will be rich when you know you have enough.

Alcoholic drinking's three stages: impulsive ... compulsive ... repulsive.

Each and every alcoholic ---sober or not--- teaches us some valuable lessons about ourselves and recovery.

An alcoholic alone is slumming.

An alcoholic is not a guy who thinks he's had one too many.

He's usually the guy who thinks he's had one too few.

Every alcoholic's favorite brand: More!

If you think you are an alcoholic, chances are, you are.

Alcoholics heal from the outside in...but feel from the inside out.

The destiny of every alcoholic is to be locked up ... covered up ... or ... sobered up.

An alcoholic is a man with two feet firmly planted in mid-air.

You can carry the message, but not the alcoholic.

You're probably an alcoholic if: You think spilling beer is alcohol abuse.

Alcoholics are in a class by themselves. Everyone else has graduated.

Alcoholics are life-long loners who cannot stand to be alone.

Non-alcoholics change their behavior to meet their goals and alcoholics change their goals to meet their behavior.

Alcoholics aren't afraid to die. They're afraid to live.

Alcoholism: Alcohol went from being my best friend to my worst enemy.

Alcoholism: An alcoholic can be in the gutter, yet still look down on people.

Alcoholism: Guilt of yesterday, fear of tomorrow, shame of today.

Alcoholism: High bottoms have trap doors.

Alcoholism: If the cure works, chances are, you have the disease.

Alcoholism: If you drank long enough to get to an A.A. meeting, you drank long enough.

Alcoholism: Name it, Claim it, Tame it!!!

Alcoholism: Once you are a pickle, you can't be a cucumber. But once you are a pickle, you can be a newcomer.

Alcoholism is an equal opportunity destroyer.

Remember that alcoholism is .. incurable, progressive, and fatal.

Alcoholism: The three most dangerous words for an alcoholic -"I've been thinking"

Alcoholism: We are not bad people becoming good, but sick people becoming well.

Alcoholism: Your bottom just may be six feet under.

Alcoholism: Your disease progresses even when you are not drinking.

Alcoholism doesn't come in bottles; it comes in people.

Alcoholism is a self-diagnosed disease.

Some people think alcoholism is a two-fold disease -- more and right now.

[MajestyJo]

HOW WE TREAT PEOPLE

Five (5) lessons to make you think about the way we treat people.

1 - First Important Lesson - Cleaning Lady.
During my second month of college, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions until I read the last one: "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?"

Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade.

"Absolutely," said the professor." In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say "hello".

I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.

2. - Second Important Lesson - Pickup in the Rain.
One night, at 11.30 p.m., an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride. Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car. A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960s. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxicab.

She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a giant console color TV was delivered to his home. A special note was attached.. It read: "Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but
also my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband's bedside just before he passed away. God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others."

Sincerely,
Mrs. Nat King Cole.

3 - Third Important Lesson - Always remember those who serve.
In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10 -year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. "How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked.

"Fifty cents," replied the waitress. The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.

"Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired. By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient. "Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied. The little boy again counted his coins.

"I'll have the plain ice cream," he said. The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left.

When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. there, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies.. You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.

4 - Fourth Important Lesson. - The obstacle in Our Path.
In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.

Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load
of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand!

Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.

5 - Fifth Important Lesson - Giving When it Counts.
Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare & serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness.
The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister.

I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes I'll do it if it will save her." As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheek. Then his face grew pale and
his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away".

Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.

- Original Source Unknown

From another site posted in 2011

[MajestyJo]

FREE TO BE YOU

Watch your attitudes, know that you are responsible for yourself and not others. Realize that all judgment of, criticism of, condemnation, and anger towards other people is to be released to their own good. Bless all people as they travel the highway of life and always remember that you are free to be you. And therefore, everybody else is free to be themselves.

Begin to enjoy everyone around you. Keep in mind that love, intelligence and courage is always present enabling us to always be who we are. We can rise up and accomplish all that we desire and maintain the joy, happiness and fulfillment we seek - all we need do is practice our spiritual exercises, study and act as we believe with deep faith. II TIMOTHY 1: 7 reads, "For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but the power and love and sound mind."

Antestian Newsletter - Road to Enlightenment

[MajestyJo]

Elder's Meditation of the Day

http://www.whitebis on.org/meditatio n/images/ oakfall.gifFor Thursday 15 July 2010

"It was good for the skin to touch the earth, and the old people liked to remove their moccasins and walk with bare feet on the sacred earth... The soil was soothing, strengthening, cleansing, and healing." — Chief Luther Standing Bear, TETON SIOUX

Touching the earth - getting grounded, centered. There is magic in touching the earth and feeling her healing power. This is especially healthy to do during a troubling time when our minds are racing or can't stop thinking or are locked onto fear or resentment. When I need to feel free I can go to the Mother Earth. The Mother Earth is full of life and love. She always gives her powers to those who come to her. The Mother Earth is alive.

Today, my Great Spirit, let me remember to touch the earth. Let me slow down and live just for today. Let me be gentle, patient and kind.

[MajestyJo]

Originally posted on my site in June 2010:

I'm participating in Earth Healing for our Oceans. Dr. Masaru Emoto, who many of you will recognize as the scientist from Japan, has done all the research and publications about the characteristics of water. Among other things, his research reveals that water physically responds to emotions.

Right now, most of us have the predominantly angry emotion when we consider what is happening in the Gulf. And while certainly we are justified in that emotion, we may be of greater assistance to our planet and its life forms if we sincerely, powerfully and humbly pray the prayer that Dr Emoto, himself, has proposed:

I am passing this request to people who I believe might be willing to participate in this prayer, to set an intention of love and healing that is so large, so overwhelming that we can perform a miracle in the Gulf of Mexico.

We are not powerless. We are powerful. Our united energy, speaking this prayer daily...multiple times daily....can literally shift the balance of destruction that is happening.
We don't have to know how......we just have to recognize that the power of love is greater than any power active in the Universe today.

Please join me in repeating this healing prayer from Dr. Emoto. Feel free to copy and paste this to send it around the planet. Let's take charge and do our own clean up!
And so it is! Pass it on.


"I send the energy of love and gratitude to the water and all the living creatures in the Gulf of Mexico and its surroundings. To the whales, dolphins, pelicans, fish, shellfish, plankton, coral, algae, and all living creatures . . .
I am sorry.
Please forgive us.
Thank you.
I love you."

************ ******
Do what you Love.
Live where you Love.
Love where you Pray.

[MajestyJo]

Beginning today I will no longer worry about yesterday.
It is in the past and the past will never change.
Only I can change by choosing to do so.

Beginning today I will no longer worry about tomorrow.
Tomorrow will always be there,
waiting for me to make the most of it.
But I cannot make the most of tomorrow
without first making the most of today.

Beginning today I will look in the mirror and I will
see a person worthy of my respect and admiration.
This capable person looking back at me is someone
I enjoy spending time with and someone
I would like to get to know better.

Beginning today I will cherish each moment of my life.
I value this gift bestowed upon me in this world and
I will unselfishly share this gift with others.
I will use this gift to enhance the lives of others.

Beginning today I will take a moment to step off the
beaten path and to revel in the mysteries I encounter.
I will face challenges with courage and determination.
I will overcome what barriers there may be which hinder
my quest for growth and self-improvement.

Beginning today I will take life one day at a time,
one step at a time.
Discouragement will not be allowed
to taint my positive self-image,
my desire to succeed or my capacity to love.

Beginning today I walk with renewed faith in human kindness.
Regardless of what has gone before, I believe there
is hope for a brighter and better future.

Beginning today I will open my mind and my heart.
I will welcome new experiences. I will meet new people.
I will not expect perfection from myself nor
anyone else: perfection does not exist in an imperfect world.

But I will applaud the attempt to overcome human foibles.

Beginning today I am responsible for my own happiness
and I will do things that make me happy . . .
admire the beautiful wonders of nature, listen to my
favourite music, pet a kitten or a puppy, soak in a bubble bath
pleasure can be found in the most simple of gestures.

Beginning today I will learn something new; I will
try something different; I will savour all the
various flavors life has to offer.
I will change what I can and the rest I will let go.
I will strive to become the best me I can possibly be.

Beginning today.

Everyday.

[MajestyJo]

Be your own best friend, give yourself a hug!

[MajestyJo]

Take an inventory, look at what is junk and let go and let God. Remember God doesn't make no junk. You are worthy of recovery, and just for today, make the decision to not pick up, no matter what.

[MajestyJo]

Pocket Sponsor - Book - Quote

God didn't do it!

God doesn't do anything to me, but always through me.

That is something I ask for daily, to be a channel that God may work through me instead of having to work around me or others.

For so many years, it was look what you did! It got to a stage in my life, I always replied, "The Devil made me do it!" Hogwash!

For one thing, as much as people said it was wrong, it was there opinion and I had to stop taking it personal. I don't think I will ever forget my mother saying, "Look at what you made me do, it is all your fault." I don't even remember the incident, just remember the words. Don't know what she did or I did, but apparently I did it and I was responsible for the whole mess.

I firmly believe that God DOES NOT TEST US! We test God. Yes life happens, and things are put in front of us, I don't see it as a test, so much as Him allowing me freedom of choice. It can be a lesson learned, no matter what it is, I see them as life's experiences. We are often the victim of other people's choice, if we allow ourselves to go there. It is not easy breaking away from an abusive relationship. That is when I have to call on God. If He was testing me, I see it as something I have to do without His Help, and I don't see my God working and thinking that way.

It can be a test of faith, yet every day is that. He doesn't do something that will hurt me and His Goal to 'Get' me and only me and I am so hard done by and why is this happening to me. I made choices that brought me to where I am in today.

So many times we are victim of other people's choices. So we have to learn to accept it, or we can choose to become a victim and play the martyr, which I have done far too many times.

My God doesn't grab me by the scuff of the neck and say "Don't!" Yet if I go to the quiet, and sit in the stillness, the good orderly direction is there. It is up to me as to whether I listen to it or turn away.

So many people blame God for the state of the world. The people of the world made choices, in most cases, to ignore God and disclaim His existance. What a wonderful world this would be if everyone just made their space, the best space it can be, just for today.