be the inspiration for someone’s smile today

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Dee Clark

Do you know your value?

Posted on July 14, 2013 by Dee Clark

Dustin Hoffman’s video came across my path recently. i was touched as i listened to his heart concerning playing the part of a women in the movie Tootsie. for a moment in time, he was given the opportunity to see inside the heart of a woman and how easily dismissed they can be because the package is not well received.

it made me think of one of my friends. my friend and i stood in front of a casket. hearts heavy and tears falling. she whispered, “he’s the only man who ever made me feel loved”. honestly, she is one in millions, crying out for someone to, “look at me”… the diamond she is, the value she has to offer and the love within her heart to share.

while i would dearly love to eradicate appearance judgement; magically causing the world see through compassionate eyes, i can’t. what i can do is encourage you, as a woman, to look at yourself through eyes of compassion.

when others reject us, we often turn that rejection inward and feel like we are un-loveable. we may be flawed by unfortunate circumstances experienced along our journey but they do not render us unworthy of love. we may need and be willing to change when possible but we need to give ourselves a break during the process.

our lives are full of relationships. many of them can be disappointing. however, the most important relationship that you have in your life is with you. you spend the most time with yourself. developing a healthy respect, acceptance and love for yourself is key to emotional well-being. learning to be patient, gentle and kind with yourself is the most valuable lesson you can learn so that your journey is unhindered. encouraging yourself to be the best you can be and to have the courage to carry out your purpose will help to guard your heart against the pain of rejection.

i was looking at the photo yesterday that i had taken of the pink lily. when i shot the photo, i didn’t even notice the little bee buzzing near the center of the flower. my thoughts went to the way the bee had just carried on doing what it did in its existence. it didn’t seem concerned about its size, or purpose or acceptance. i’m not sure it matters to the bees in the world if the honey they make will be valued by anyone. i’m not even sure they realize that we eat it. they just work away producing what they produce…and others benefit.

we should be like that. we should accept who we are and what we have to offer…just buzzing along down our path and produce a beautiful product…others will benefit.

when we invest the effort to love and accept ourselves, whether others love us as we wish they would or not, we gain the ability to live happily and emotionally strong.

i believe you are a diamond with your own unique cut and brilliance. all diamonds have a few flaws that occur during the formation process but the flaws don’t have to prevent your sparkle or refraction of light.

don’t believe the lie that value is directly related to anything other than being exactly the you that you are. acknowledge your flaws, continuing working on them and be like a diamond -reflect light and love in spite of them…they are part of your brilliance.Do you know your

being you is success

Posted on July 13, 2013 by Dee Clark

i’ve never given much thought to how small or insignificant i might be. i’m far too busy gathering what i need to produce sweetness. i am not concerned whether my product is accepted, approved or required. what i do nourishes me and others…that’s all that matters.

i am far too busy to worry that the flower overshadows my existence with its beauty. i bring it opportunity for multiplication. it offers me morsels for creativity. we need one another. mutual respect for the other’s purpose.

i am happy with my place in the world. i don’t know how long i’ll be around to do what i do…today, the sunshine, the flower and flight. that’s enough – for now.

buzzing, busy, purpose-full…resulting in sweet, golden success. that’s all…but that’s enough!

isn’t it awesome to be you?

7 step exercise program for developing strong life qualities

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Dee Clark

mind, body and soul – women are complex beings.

there is a lot of emphasis on taking good care of the body. excellent advice can be found nearly everywhere you turn. i have a lot of fun researching yummy/healthy foods to eat. i love the DYI health resolutions with natural products i have at home. then there are fashion and beauty tips. i like gathering as much information i can so that i can be as effective as possible in my pursuit. some of this advice makes taking care of the body quite fun. we understand how important exercise is to maintaining a healthy body. although not always fun, there are some great ways to get the body moving and have a fun doing it.

our intellectual and emotional health is equally as important. as you know, i do a lot of talking about wisdom. gathering, learning and searching out wisdom to help to keep our minds and emotional well-being as healthy as possible. many of these principles require that we apply discipline and practice them to receive maximum impact.

understanding the logic of being diligent with the mind and body is sometimes easier than the exercise and practice; however, we understand the importance.

therefore, Peter’s proposed 7 step exercise program for the soul/spirit, should not be a foreign idea. we have a responsibility in the our well-being; mind, body and soul.

you must first know what you believe and why. what standard do you live your life by? what do you put your faith in? you also need to know if there is a real basis for what you believe. if you don’t, you don’t have a foundation to build on. when life’s difficulties come and you feel you have been wronged – how do you know? if you have no standard to live by, then how can you have healthy boundaries for yourself or others. you live life as it comes…and frankly, it can be quite cruel.

Peter then tells us it’s not enough to just say you have a belief in something. you must add diligence to your faith. that means again…no magic wand. you add diligence to faith and then exercise the following qualities; activating one which develops the next. it’s like climbing stairs…one step at a time, as you learn and develop one quality, you then activate the next one. you can’t skip steps without missing the foundation to build the next one on.

exercising your faith will develop good character. this stage is where you exercise doing what you do with excellence, not perfection. preform your job for your boss with excellence. hosting a get together, apply excellence. this stage is a great place to exercise “The Law of the Garbage Truck” .
exercising good character will develop spiritual understanding and knowledge. the benefits of good character becomes clear. you begin to understand why you do what you do. we are motivated to take action when we see value in what we are doing.
exercising spiritual understanding develops alert discipline. discipline is required for anything great that we want to achieve. Athletes apply discipline to their sport. professionals apply discipline to their careers. students apply discipline to learning. it is easy to see in other areas of life where discipline is a key factor; therefore, we should not be surprised that in order to develop strong life qualities discipline will play a major part in the process.
exercising discipline develop firm direction, patience and steadfastness. have you ever wished you had more patience? did you know that patience can be developed but you first must have developed discipline? once discipline is developed fully…you can then use that discipline to develop your patience, endurance and steadfastness.
exercising patience develop reverent wonder-godliness. reverence and honor are such important skills. when i came to NZ, many people asked me about America and the honor we show to our servicemen, our president and our country. reverence and honor for God, country and others, promotes a real community type responsibility. i personally will guard reverence and honor, as i feel they are vital qualities for life success. my hope is that you would all see the value of this quality and exercise it. what a different world it would be with a little more respect.
exercising reverence, honor and respect develop warm friendliness. brotherhood, friendships and other relationships are built on a good foundation of honor and respect. we can’t argue with that, aye?
exercising warm friendliness develops generous love. not selfishness. generous love. isn’t that a desire we all have? to be loved genuinely? love is more than just a word. no wonder our hearts get broken so often. reaching this level of love requires a lot of exercise. it must be developed and it is built on a foundation of strong life qualities.

i think you and i could change the world…with a little exercise!

have a great day.

please drop by again soon.

trust is a precious gift

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Dee Clark

when someone shares their heart with you, that trust is a precious gift. show gratitude and be trustworthy. they are telling you they feel safe with your heart…that is marvellous.

what’s all the fighting about?

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Dee Clark

do you need to shift just a little?

the road to the happiness you are looking for is easily found

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Dee Clark

your weary heart may wish it would…

but happiness will not fall out of the sky upon your head.

happiness is within your grasp

it’s the ability to take action.

the key is in your hands.

the seduction of foolishness

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Dee Clark

alone (Photo credit: dragonflaiii)

sometimes i get lost in the terminology when i read proverbs. today, as i meditated on the last part of proverbs 6 and chapter 7, i smiled.

sex gets our attention. don’t worry, i’m not going to be crude. however, marketers use sex to sell products all the time and people take notice. i heard a lovely lady once say that the Bible is quite racy.

well, Solomon wasn’t silly was he? he is attributed with being the wisest man who lived. i guess, he understood that if he really wanted to get the point across…we might just take notice if he compared foolishness to seduction. interesting.

i used to pretty much skip over the references cautioning the naive, young man about the flirtatious, seductive woman. don’t get me wrong, it is incredibly accurate wisdom. even in a very literal sense, this advice is highly valuable.

then i noticed an interesting pattern. an emphasis was presented on wisdom and the benefits of gathering it, searching for it and holding it close within the heart. following this emphasis came the cautions about the seductive woman and how destructive being enticed was to life. my conclusion is that wisdom is taught and calls out to us to make wise choices. in contrast, foolishness is seductive, sly and cunning – enticing us to make unwise choices.

when i think about it, this makes perfect sense. let me show you what i mean. as you read, remember these decriptions are literally wisdom concerning the path one will find if they decided to cheat on their spouse, or with a friend’s spouse. it’s not a pretty picture. however, the metaphor is there and fits for making unwise or foolish choices.

(Photo credit:Seductive woman with luscious red lips on bed. Flickr.com)
the scene is set as an empty-headed and empty-hearted young man saunters down the street in the darkness of night (proverbs 7). he comes upon a woman who cunningly speaks with flattery; offering adventure.

the darkest hours of your life is when you consider and entertain the idea of cunning, sly, and deceptive choices.
the amplified version describes this young man as empty-headed and empty-hearted. wisdom keeps advising you to fill your heart and mind with wise principles so that they are close at hand when they are needed. obviously, when the heart and mind are empty, you don’t make your best decisions.
the woman entices the young man with flattering words and adventurous ideas. sorry, guys, but a woman knows how to empty a man’s heart and she knows how to fill it, as well. when the heart is empty-(you can fill in the blanks because deep in your heart you know the extent you have been willing to go attempting to fill it).
learning, gathering and applying wisdom takes purposeful action. non-action leads you to a state of mind that is void of good sense.

the woman reasons, comforts, and appeals to the young man’s senses. she justifies the offer with reassurance that everything is in place for no consequences to be suffered. she persuades him to overcome his conscience and fears. she allures him visually and sensually to give in to his inflamed passion for relief.

your natural instincts for comfort and escape are powerful.

reluctant at first, the young man yields as if he were being forced because his loins and passions have been set aflame.

there is always a point of no return. you may know that a choice is not wise but if you entertain it long enough-weighing the risk against escape, you yield to a moment as if you have no choice in the matter. this occurs when we are not equipped.

what he did not realize was that he was not her first victim. she had led a host of men down a deadly path. a path that would cost him his life.

the cost is described earlier in the metaphor:

he becomes tortured by the consequences.
he is not innocent and there is punishment that is eventually paid.
he gets wounded and disgraced.
the reproach sticks.
no amount of begging, bribing or attempting to buy his way out of the situation will reverse the consequences.
the situation cost him his life. before he knows what hit him – he is overtaken with anguish. he will be sitting with his head in his hands wondering what in the world brought him to such a dark place in his life.

i have never walked this pain as a result of being unfaithful to my husband. however, i have walked this path as a result of being unfaithful to wisdom. i can’t even describe to you the panic, torment and pain that my heart experienced. i might not need to because you might be able to relate. when facing the consequences of a foolish choice, i have done my share of bargaining with God and others – if i could just be rescued from my foolishness i would learn my lesson and do things differently…”please, just give me a second chance!”

the moral to this story? yes, there is one. you and i have choices to make. there are wise choices. they require effort, preparation and determination. there are unwise choices, as well. they come to you cunningly, in the dark and appear to be a more pleasurable, alluring, easier choice…but they bite hard.

…Bind them continually upon your heart …

When you go, they shall lead you; when you sleep, they shall keep you; and when you waken, they shall talk with you.

For the commandment is a lamp, and the whole teaching [of the law] is light, and reproofs of discipline are the way of life, -Proverbs

sometimes life is difficult and can become dark. it doesn’t have to be. the choice is mine to make…and it is yours to make as well.

this is the follow-up post from Monday’s post on proverbs 6 concerning preparation. i do hope you have enjoyed them both.

thanks for reading,

it’s alive…the washcloth that lived on

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Dee Clark

“it’s alive…it’s alive”

actually, the washcloth isn’t alive but a simple gesture of kindness that involved that washcloth is…after 22 years.

you have heard it said that a smile can change someone’s day. it can.

i woke this morning and waiting for me was an email from a friend i have not seen in years. she has just gone through what she described as a stressful move. in the midst of the move she came across a little washcloth.

this friend and my sister came to my house to bring my daughter back home after a visit. i don’t even remember if she was visiting my sister or my parents. funny ,at 52, my memory is not what i would like for it to be. the girls had stayed overnight and as they prepared to leave, they did the usual girlie stuff…showered, put on their make-up and did their hair. as they were packing their belongings, we realized that my friend had a hot curling iron. my usual remedy is to wrap my curling iron in a washcloth to prevent damage to the other articles in the bag. so, i offered her a washcloth. no big deal. it was just a washcloth. this is a 22 year old act of simple kindness. one long gone from my memory.

as my friend stood at her sink to do dishes, the only thing she could find to use for the task, was this little washcloth that once served as a heat shield given to her by her friend’s sister.

the entire event flooded her memory, the trip, the little girl they were taking home, meeting me and the gesture. she stated, “as…. stressful as that move has been…seeing your cloth gave me a moment to breath and remember a nice memory.”

i smiled, wrote her back and thanked her for sharing this experience with me.

i took out my calculator (no, i do not do math in my head) and calculated how many years had gone by since the morning i handed her that little washcloth…22 years.

a simple gesture of kindness, long forgotten in my mind, had life and continued to speak long after it’s “use by date” was up.

you will have them, too. simple gestures that have just flowed from the abundance of your heart that have lived years beyond what you coud imagine. they might even live on in the heart of the person long after your journey on earth is complete.

just imagine the living acts of kindness wondering around in the world…just because of you and your kind heart.

it’s not always the major accomplishments in life (although they are fabulous as well) but don’t underestimate or overlook the simplest of gestures…they take on a life of their own.

now, get out there and inspire someone…you have exactly what you need in your bag of resources today to make a difference!

i’m having a great day…hope you do as well!

BTW, the photo is used with permission…my sweet sister, Evie, loves photography and she graciously shared the photo with me today! Thanks, Sis! I love you!