surviving

Happy New Year 2021!

We all know 2020 has been a year like no other in our lives. If we thought 2001, 2004 (we had 3 hurricanes back to back in Florida that year), and 2008 (banking and job crisis), were challenging, we hadn’t seen anything until 2020. Am I right?

So, I thought now it might feel good to take stock and honor where I’ve been, in hopes to launch my 2021 off on a high note! How about you?

Yes, I honor my past and all I’ve survived.

Some of the things I have gone through were of my own making and some things happened by default. (And a few people turned a fork in my back, but they are long in my rear view mirror now—thankfully!)

My biggest accomplishments

A business coach challenged me to list my top 25 accomplishments, so whenever I felt down, I could point to each one and say, “I did that”!

Well, I had a hard time listing 20 at first and before I knew it, instead of 20 or 25, I found I had written 32! LOL

Here they are in chronological order:

Having my 2 children
Survived first divorce that left me and my children in a new state (alone with only 2 new friends and parents who were in no position to help at that time)
Paid all my own bills
Worked 10 years at a prestigious university
Achieved two college degrees (the second with highest honors)
Put braces on my teeth and paid for those myself
Survived second divorce (from #2 who had major issues; since I don’t like labels though, I won’t list those here.)
Bought my own house using creative financing
Paid off several cars
Sold the house for a huge profit
Wrote both of my children big checks from the sale of that home
Traveled across the country working as an IT consultant (3 years)
Towed my own travel trailer and survived one whole winter in Missouri in it!
Working in Information Technology (30+ years) both for corporate/government
Co-wrote a well-received song when my would-be husband and I met (while I was on the road in Missouri) – https://vimeo.com/416711742?
Married the “Love of my life” (3rd time was the charm!)
Helped my husband buy his first house
Refurbished and sold that house for a profit
Bought a new townhouse together
Learned (and continue to learn) holistic health methods to heal and integrate Spirit-Soul, Mind-Body
Healed my body from 30+ years of asthma
Living full-time in an RV for 10+ years
Writing 3 books (with a 4th in progress) links at the bottom of this article
Writing and managing two blog sites – this one and Being Wholly Vibrant
Enjoyed time with my parents as they aged
Gracefully accepted my parents’ passing in 2017 and 2019
Continue to receive messages and visions from my parents in spirit since they crossed over to the Grand Beyond
Enjoying time with my granddaughters (in person when possible or via video chats)
Working 3.5 years from home (so was already very comfortable with it when lockdowns occurred)
Living off the grid
Learning how to “stay connected” even with limited/low bandwidth internet connectivity
Surviving this pandemic/plandemic year on private off grid property (a huge undertaking at our age)

What are your biggest accomplishments?

I’m using all I’ve learned to craft a self-coaching program where a small group of 4 dig deep and integrate what we know to achieve emotional balance. Would you like to join an upcoming 4 week program? (Let me know in the comments.)

And Happy New Year, everyone! ❤️🦋🌀🎆🎉

Learn more about my Integrated Spiral program here, where we connect spiritual types more fully with their bodies and connect body conscious types with Spirituality.

Integrated Spiral transformational coaching

Many blessings to you in ALL ways. ❤️🦋🌀

A bit about me, your Spiral Sister

Fractal of Omniscience. “Spiral Sister”Observer & Perceiver of Energy & Wisdom from Nature. Empath|Author|Connector|Speaker|Singer. ❤️🦋🌀〰️🔥🙏☯️

I would love to speak at your bookstore, crystal shop, acupuncture / chiropractor office, natural health foods store, art fair, music or yoga festival. I support healthy lifestyle businesses. I’m an Amazon bestselling author of two co-authored books: “Transform Your Life Book 2 Inspirational Stories and Expert Advice” and “Energy of Receiving”, available on Amazon. Visit my author’s page here.

Plus, I documented how I naturally reversed 30+ years of chronic asthma in my holistic health book, Take It Upon Yourself to Live a Wholly Vibrant Life, that’s available on Barnes and Noble: here.

Be the best version of who you want to be. As it really does affect us ALL. We Are All Connected.

Information provided is for educational purposes only and is not intended to treat, diagnose or prescribe.

Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/takeonyourself/

While my son and I helped dad pack things up, after my dad was mentally and emotionally able to sell the property and mobile home in south Florida where we’d first landed after relocating in 1985 from West Virginia, I found several things that answered some questions I’d had for many years.

Diary pages

Along with several diary pages that mom had written in the 1960s and 1970s, I found an unsigned letter to her that made me question which is more important taking advice from family or from friends.

The statement in the letter that got me was, “I’m disappointed in you that you feel that your friends understand you better than your family (and me).”

Who wrote it?

I have an idea of who the letter is from, but I am not sure. It was typed, single spaced on one sheet of paper.

As of this moment, it doesn’t matter to me who wrote the letter.

I will say that it ended on what I would consider to be a positive note, though still preachy.

“Don’t continually think about what is in your past. Let’s live for the future.”

Now, as for me, “I’ve had my share of sad kicks in my face, but I have come through” (to quote from one of my favorite Queen songs, We Are The Champions).

I haven’t cried much in the last year since mom passed, mostly because I still communicate with her in subtle ways, and I am keenly aware of her continuation in my life by occurring synchronicities.

Yet, today, I cried.

I had meditated and upon coming out of meditation, I was filled with emotion. I cried and spoke the following aloud:

Family reflect who we were; friends reflect who we are.

Family reflect who we once were, or who we were in the past. But, our friends reflect who we are now, who we’ve become, and how much we’ve grown (or not). That’s why we sometimes tend to love our friends more than our family. Yet, some of us (like me), who are very blessed, have family we are also friends with and who we want to spend eternity with. Time limits us, but thankfully (Thank you, God), that eternity is not limited.

Here’s something that’s true for most of us. We’re stuck in a box, or bottle. Even if its clear.

The box or bottle I’m referring to? The fences (rules) of religion—even when religion supposedly isn’t involved.

From a dream

Dream: Mom was reminding me about all the notations she had made in her Bible about “No gossip”, and “not to gossip.”

And that’s because all learning must be Experiential learning—coming from direct experience, which is also why Jesus said let thy speech be yay or nay. He knew that we can never really know the truth of another.

Someone may try to warn you of another. But we all experience each other differently because who we are in any given moment, elicits something different from the person. Many times we’ve experienced this. It’s the situation when one divorced person marries another and they get along gloriously. The “bad” partner may get along with another just fine.

Each of us experience life differently. We just can never fully know someone. People lie. People pretend.

I think most of us want to put our best self forward—but, for most this involves wearing a kind of mask. Call it the mask of pretense. It’s the face of kindness, compassion, peace, or love, while inside ourselves we feel anger, resentment, sadness, jealousy, or regret.

Best lesson

Be a loyal friend and keep people’s confidences. Mama taught me by example and reminded me often to be the best friend I could to my friends.

Now, I find I have a splendid variety of the most trusting loyal friends—all unique in their beliefs, but who each hold a strong core of integrity.

❤️🦋🌀☀️🌱

Thank you.

I miss you mama. Thank you. Thank you for teaching me everything I needed to know (when you could barely talk anymore), by looking in my eyes and placing your hand on the side of my face. And for always living in utter GRATITUDE the last years of your life (though your surroundings were not as you once would have wanted). You came to a place of not knowing or of acceptance, it doesn’t matter which, because you were grateful. You became Grace.

I only cry because I never got to tell you how much I got that lesson, how deeply I learned that last lesson from you. I continue forward, with understanding.

Nothing really matters, or everything matters. Each of us get to choose. Who do you love?

We Are All Connected. OM

Many blessings to you in ALL ways.

UPDATE: I found the rest of the letter, and it was NOT from whom I had thought! And the rest of it brought the earlier statements into balance with love and grace, so I have learned another lesson. I continue to feel Gratitude. Tears! 😭

UPDATE 7-Jun-2019: As I was washing the Lifetime brand (which really do last a lifetime) of pots and pans (that dad gave me years ago), it hit me why mom always LOVED to clean house–it put her in a meditative state! Ah! Yes, my aha moment today. And it brought tears to my eyes. OM

After that, I was looking through pictures of a book I’d bought my granddaughter last year (yes, I save things like that), and it highlighted my new found awareness:

A bit about me:

Check out this original song, Didn’t I Tell You. My husband wrote this song and it was performed and recorded in a Nashville, TN studio. You can download it (it’s Track 6) from this link: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/chevyfordb2

An Amazon bestselling author of two co-authored books: “Transform Your Life Book 2 Inspirational Stories and Expert Advice” and “Energy of Receiving”, available on Amazon.

Plus, the brand new book that’s been in the making for 13 years, Take It Upon Yourself to Live a Wholly Vibrant Life, is now available for online sale and distribution (PDF format).

Buy it here.

Be the best version of who you want to be.

Information provided is for educational purposes only and is not intended to treat, diagnose or prescribe.

Follow me on Twitter at: TakeOnYourself