You Are Beautiful

Hi Folks:

This is very short, and really only a shout out to some other folks. These crossed our path yesterday, and we just had to share them. You are beautiful, no matter who you are.

Click on the images to be taken to the individual posts.

Anything for Love

In February 2014, one of Gerdi McKenna’s friends wrote an email requesting a photoshoot for all her friends as she was diagnosed with breast cancer a few months before … and this is what happened

and

The Light Within

Amy Wilton wants to give everyone a mask, so they can be their true and honest selves. Then she wants them to take the mask off and fearlessly continue to let their true selves shine. This is the light within each person that Amy tries to capture with her camera.

and

Carol Beckwith & Angela Fisher: Painted Bodies of Africa

Photographers Angela Fisher and Carol Beckwith join forces to explore the art of using skin as a canvas, a practice performed to attract the opposite sex, differentiate oneself from the enemy, and access the spirit world.

We trust you’ll enjoy them as much as we did!

Happy International Happiness Day (+1)!!

Hugs,
M&M

P.S. Our friend Samantha has a blog post: Beauty Doesn’t Vary – Well worth reading!

Marcia’s Meanderings – Overcoming the Fear Funk

Hello Dear Ones!

Ever find yourself in a rut where fear has talons hooked deeply into your psyche and won’t release it’s hold? Ya, me too!

Fortunately it happens less often and for shorter and shorter periods of time. Blessings be! Yet when it does surface – showing me a perspective I don’t want to see or address or acknowledge in any way shape or form – I feel frozen into immobility. Everything in my world takes on a gray pallor and I see the fear, missing out on the beauty and sparkle of all else around me. So sad.

My most recent Fear Funk stopped me from writing anything positive. No poetry. No journaling in the front of my binder. I record all negative energy entries in the back of my journal book to at least keep up my writing habit, as well to separate the negative from the more upbeat positive energies. Also, it means I can tear up those negative pages when I’ve moved beyond and through the challenge they revealed to me.

Believe it or not, fear is a gift to us – one that reveals a challenge we need to address within ourselves. Next time you’re in a Fear Funk, when you can get to the point of appreciating the gift it is giving you, you’ll know you are on your way to a solution and the joyous release of its hold on you.

One of the keys to removing those nasty talons that have dug deep into your soul, is to name the fear. Once the Fear Funk is named – give it a label or make a statement about what hold it has over you – then you can more easily address the challenge and more freely side-step your way out of its strangle-hold.

Most often the plain and simple truth of the matter, the bottom line of it all, is that there is no trust in the value of self. No value in self means no value in Self and certainly no trust in the Divine.

When the Fear Funk has a hold of you and the feeling of optimism or any potential thoughts of hope are so far removed they don’t even show up in your vocabulary let alone in your dreams, it’s time to do three things:

1. define and name the Fear Funk.
2. force your mouth into a smile. Curl the edges of your mouth into a grin. Even if the smile doesn’t reach your eyes and your heart in the moment but merely adds to the wrinkles on your face – smile.
3. think of the happiest, silliest, most joyously and memorable time you ever had as a child … and then *g*i*g*g*l*e* about it! *G*i*g*g*l*e* until you feel a wee spark of joy within you. That little feeling of joy is one or more talons gone from your solar plexus. *G*i*g*g*l*e* more, letting it take on a life of its own and filling you to overflowing! The Fear Funk hates laughter with a passion – it can’t keep its hold on you when you’re laughing!

When you are ready you can add one more phrase to the statement or the name you’ve given this ‘gift’: one that reflects the trust you are more likely to be feeling – that all will, in fact, work out perfectly – if you can only have enough faith that the Divine Universe will conspire on your behalf to bring the necessary solution into your reality. It may arrive just in the nick of time (depending upon how open you are to receiving it) yet it is there for you! Can you feel it?

With the Divine conspiring on my behalf,  I can …. !

Be gone, Fear Funk!

In Light and Laughter,

Marcia

He Says, She Says… Being or Doing?

Hello, Dear Reader:

There’s a saying:

“There are only 168 hours in a week, no matter your age, how much money you make, what you’ve invested, how attractive you are, or how much information you can access on the Internet. No exemptions. Your quality of life is a function of how you chose to spend that time.” ~ Bill Bachrach, in “Values-based Financial Planning”.

Time is a funny thing. We can’t make time, lose time, or really, even waste time.  What we ‘do’ with those 168 hours each week is a matter of choice that each of us makes, as much as some seem to want to try to squeeze more time out of the clock.  A ‘few’ years ago, a coworker had a sign in his office that read, “We are becoming human doings, rather than human beings.” We’re certainly not the first to deal with this idea, as we’re joining the ranks of people like Neale Donald Walsch and Eckhart Tolle.

With that in mind we thought we’d make the topic of this week’s He Says, She Says… post, “Being or Doing?”

Hugs,
M&M

Follow these links to read what He Says/She Says: Marcia’s View / Mike’s View

He Says, She Says…

Hello, Dear Reader:

Welcome to our He Says, She Says post!

Both of us have been undergoing some interesting transformations of late, and this generated some discussion between us late last night.  A part of that was an idea that arose yesterday afternoon, and so we thought we’d address that today.  If you’ve read our He Says, She Says… posts before, you’ll know that we choose a topic together but neither of us reads the other’s post until we’ve both written what we have to say.  This way we don’t influence each other’s thought processes.

So, without further ado, this week we’re going to explore our ideas on ‘The Sandbox’.

Have a great week!

Hugs,
M&M

Follow these links to read what He Says/She Says: Marcia’s View / Mike’s View

He Says, She Says…

Hello, Dear Reader!

Who are we, really, and what it is that makes us who we are?  Are we the products of our past, the progenitors of our future, or are we simply who we are, in this moment?  If we desire to change something in our lives, do we need to free ourselves from our memories, or do we simply make the changes we would wish, in this moment?  Eleanor Roosevelt said:

“It is today we must create the world of the future.”

With that in mind, we thought we’d tackle these ideas in this week’s He Says, She Says post, “Then and Now”.

“There is nothing for you to go back and live over, or fix, or feel regret about now. Every part of your life has unfolded just right. And so — now — knowing all that you know from where you now stand, now what do you want? The answers are now coming forth to you. Go forth in joy, and get on with it.” ~ Abraham-Hicks

Have a great week!

Hugs,
M&M

Follow these links to read what He Says/She Says: Marcia’s View / Mike’s View.

*

P.S.  As often happens, our friend Samantha recently published a blog post on a similar subject (with her own unique perspective), entitled, “Lighten Up“.