Reminded To Play

Often, my days get very busy.  I am usually trying to accomplish so much and it is very easy for me to just forget to stop.  The funny thing is, I try to encourage people to stop in their day and sometimes I really screw it up too!

Hey, we're all human.  Living in a human body is not necessarily an easy thing or a 1-2-3 process.

Every day things change.  Every day we experience new things.  We deal with stress and joy and pain.  We deal with life and sometimes we jump up in the air to celebrate.

The only thing is when I get so busy that I forget to stop and have fun in life, it can be like a sword thrashing around in a small room.  More than likely at some point, the result is not going to be pretty.

Cats are good barometers...

I'm always amazed at my cats because they seem to know when I need to stop and play and get up from my desk.  I'm fortunate to work from home.  My cats are good barometers of things I miss sometimes in myself.

It is amazing to watch the cats because sometimes they both come up wanting attention.  If you don't give it to them, they increase their presence until you stop and pay attention to them.  If you don't give them enough, they just up the stakes and work harder to get your attention.

My cats don't really care if you're writing your masterpiece novel or replying to a tweet.  They just know, it is time for you and them to have some social interaction... and for me to stop - play - have fun!

I like that they help remind me to play.  I need that sometimes.  It is just far too easy for us to get hung up on all the tasks we do or the social media posts we have not read.

Cats (and most likely dogs too) are good barometers to help us stay connected to our self and our mind body.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
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Cultivating Your Mind And Body

We're living in a day of disconnect and numbing.  While we can do the new age speak and say words like the mind body, we understand far less than we think we do.  The mind body connection is much deeper than we truly go.

Just like planting a garden and growing seed, if you don't make a fertile place for things to grow, you will never harvest what you plant.  It will be as if you're going through the motions but doing things that truly will not help.

Cultivating your mind and body is how you go in and prepare your day for a day that can be productive and helpful in your growth.  It involves identifying the weeds and other harmful things to your life, where you can work to remove them.  It involves feeding and watering your mind body so that you give yourself optimal conditions to grow.

We fail to see the whole picture...

Too often, we give the soil of our thoughts the opportunity to grow, but we fail to fertilize and water our thoughts by connecting to the body.  We fail to see the whole picture of what we are doing, rather than just the plant that may be emerging from the ground.

Our mind body balance is critical to our overall health and outlook on life.  It can either help us find wholeness and wellness or it can be a source of deep pain.  Our mind body is where it all happens, but if we only focus on the mind and ignore the body, we're only halfway to the place we need to be.

The mind body connection means going into the cells and allowing us to feel and sense what is there.  It is not about creating a story from those moments, but just observing and being one with our mind body to notice what is in that moment.  The more we notice, the more aware we become.  The more aware we become, the more conscious we are.

It must come from deep within...

Awareness and consciousness that stand the test of time do not only come from the mind like many think they do.  Yes, you might have awareness or a conscious thought, but if you truly want it to be grounded to stand the test of time, it must come from deep within the body connected to the mind.

The body is such an important part of the mind body connection and it often gets missed.  We stay numb and disconnected because often times, there is far too much pain that we attempt to hide.  By hiding this pain, we are numbing our entire mind body connection and robbing ourselves of peace, joy, and true growth.

Once you realize that cultivating both the mind and the body is essential for wellness, you will see much more power in healing your own life.  You will experience a deeper world around you apart from the fears that are overblown each and every day.

If you want to know more, here are some good resources to check out because these people truly understand much more about the mind body connection and how it impacts every part of your life.  Do yourself a favor and learn to cultivate not only your mind, but your body.  The rewards it pays out will far surpass the fears that try to hold you back.

Resources

1. Breaking The Habit Of Being Yourself
2. Waking The Tiger
3. The Body Bears The Burden
4. Unified Therapy - Dr. Paul Canali

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Life's Beauty Surrounds Us

In our days, we often miss the beauty that surrounds us.  We get too busy.  We fail to stay aware and conscious and so life's beauty passes us by.  If we're not careful, we will wake up and wonder where it all went.  We will wonder where the years have taken us and how they seem to have disappeared.  Let us behold the beauty in life that surrounds us each day, giving us life and joy and an experience that can never be fully repeated.  It is in the simple moments of observing life's beauty that we come to know the richness of living our lives.


Other #MindBodyThoughts

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

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How Fast Can I Heal?

I remember asking this question myself many years ago and sometimes I still do.  How fast can I heal?  How quickly can I get beyond this?  Why do I have to go through this stuff over and over with sometimes no end in sight.

There are times when the difficulties mount in life and it is all you can do to hold your head above water long enough to get a gulp of air, before the next wave crashes over your head.  Sometimes, that is enough and all that you need in that moment.  Sometimes anymore than that is setting expectations a tad bit high.

Even in the moment where you think, when will this be over - it is in those moments that your body, mind, and soul are finding a way to connect together and align for your continued development.  It is like each part is trying to come online and sync up with the other.  To hurry that along, may mean you are only operating with partial systems functioning, rather than your entire self.

Rebuilding Neural Pathways...

Sometimes, I think that as you endure the difficult moments for what may seem like an eternity, it is then that you are really going in and processing all the neural pathways.  From all those moments in the past where you built the neural pathways up to survive, you are now going in silently and without knowing as you rebuild and re-evaluate each and every one of them.  This takes time.

I have found that so many times on this path of healing, that I've had so much to deal with and I can only deal with so much at one time.  If you try to force that too quickly or rush it before it is ready, then there's a chance you can just overload your system.   Your system stays in survival mode, rather than learning and growth mode.  Sometimes being okay with taking things slow allows your growth and enhancement mode to take over which really benefits you.

Hurrying the process will exhaust you...

The more you have gone through and experience, the more there is to sort through.  Just like clean up after a storm, you can only accomplish so much at one time.  It literally takes time to complete the storm cleanup.  Trying to hurry through the process will most likely only exhaust you and serve little purpose.  If you pace yourself and take it one step at a time, you'll find the storm clean up goes much better.

It is easy to want to heal and get things over with because who would want to stay in the mess that they see their lives in at that moment.  However, healing is not a linear step 1, step 2, step 3 scenario.  It is going in and finding the root of the pain and despair and hopelessness, trying to turn that into something that is hope, possibility and joy.

Healing takes time.  It is not a race even if we try to make it into one.  It is a matter of continued growth and evolution because I believe that when you've been through horrific experiences in life, there is something that you will see when the rest of the world turns a blind eye.  It is a part of you that is needed for the universe because you will have an understanding far beyond what most people do.

Allow yourself to grow and evolve.  Allow yourself to surrender into the pain and be okay with where you're at in the moment.  That is the point that really gives you the option to go forward, because the more you fight it, the more difficult it gets and the longer it takes.  Both ways get you to the final result, but one will exhaust you quicker than the other.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

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Should I Buy Unlimited Abundance Program

I get one question so often that I thought I would write about this.  Will the Unlimited Abundance Program work for me and should I buy it?  For each person, the answer will be different and I can't tell you what you should do.  This is something that you will need to decided for yourself.

However, I can share with you what it did for me and hopefully that will help you.  These are personal observations and changes and I'm trying to boil them down in an abbreviated form.

If you look at some of the links at the end of this blog post, you will see more of the journey that brought me to this point and my review of Unlimited Abundance.  I normally never push any products on anyone unless they are life changing to me and they have worked for me.  Yes, I am an affiliate for Mind Valley on this product, but I only joined up with them after I saw what it was doing for me.  What I state here is how it has impacted my life.  It is an honest review, not a cookie-cutter piece following a script.

5 ways Unlimited Abundance helped me

#1 - Reprogramming My Mind To Let Go

For most of my life I have hung on to so many things that I told myself were truths and yet they were big fat lies.  For instance, I have told myself, "I don't deserve abundance" or "I am not good enough for abundance".  It isn't easy to let go of these long held things that we tell to our self.    The program is helping me identify those blocks and then with Christie Marie Sheldon's system, it is helping me let go of them.

#2 - Helping Move Past Anger

I am realizing finally just how much anger I have held within my body for so many years.  Yes, the things that happened to me make me angry and it is right to feel all that.  However, the anger is eating me alive and preventing me from being all I can be and experiencing all that I can be.  The more I move through the anger and "Delete, Uncreate and Destory" all that is standing in my way of discovering myself, the more I am discovering it.

#3 - Blessings And Joy Everywhere

As I let go and I reprogram my mind, I'm seeing that everything around me is such joy and possibility.  I'm seeing what can be, not what is lacking.  I am seeing that the more I keep my heart and mind focused on joy and possibility, the more I am attracting a different set of events into my life.  Of course, I don't advocate acting a different way than you see things, but through the Unlimited Abundance Program, I am learning to sync up what I see with what I feel and it is more obvious how many blessings are in my life.

#4 - Taking Action

I can sit there all day long and do nothing, but still expect the world to unfold before me.  News flash - this doesn't get you very far.  It is what too many people do and I was one of those.  Christie Marie Sheldon in the Unlimited Abundance program talks about how we have to take massive action.  It is not enough to just set your intentions or make the statements.  You have to do something.  You have to take the steps.  I've seen this firsthand since I quit my job in August, when I took the leap of faith into massive action and it brought me to where I am now.  The more I take action, the more I begin to see doors open.  Doors have opened that I could not have imagined a few months ago.

#5 - Inspirational Stories

One of the things I've enjoyed about the Unlimited Abundance Live program is all the inspiring stories.  Sometimes it is easy to think that life won't change and you're stuck in this life you can't escape.  Seeing and reading the stories of what is happening for others propels me to moments that I too can do this.  It keeps me going.  It gives me courage and hope that where I am at right now, is not forced upon me.  It is my choice and I can make different choices for the days ahead.

Conclusion

There are so many other ways that this Unlimited Abundance Program is helping me and I've tried to detail my journey into the Unlimited Abundance Live program as I go.  If you check out My Abundance Journey, you will see how far I have come.  You will see my progress as I continue to move forward.

I know many people have asked me, "Should I buy the Unlimited Abundance Program?"  I can't make that call for  you, but I know it has greatly helped me.  I see it helping many others.  You need to make the decision for yourself, but if you need proof of what it does, study what I have written.

At first, I thought I was a little off my rocker for spending the money that I did on the Unlimited Abundance Live program, but let me tell you - I'M SO GLAD I DID!  It is really helping me especially since I quit my job.  It is keeping me focused and moving forward into the world I am now creating for myself.  As I look back at when I signed up for it, I'm happy that I did not let the price of it stop me.  I would have missed out on so much healing and growth for my life.

I started out with the Home Study Course and now I am currently enrolled in the Unlimited Abundance Live training group.  The LIVE experience only happens every now and then, but let me tell you it is awesome!

Further Reading

1)  My Abundance Journey  (on Somatosync.com)
2)  Blog Post on August 3, 2015 - Unlimited Abundance Live Event
3)  Does Christie Marie Sheldon Unlimited Abundance Program Work  (Mar 2, 2012)

Listen To The Free Webinar

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Blog Post And Images (c) 12/5/15 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
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On Guard

To be or not to be I say!  What do you mean?  To be on guard is the body's natural state.  I was reading about this in the book The Body Keeps The Score by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk.  It is an interesting concept because I know I've had to struggle with the amped up version of being on guard in my own life.

According to this book, our natural state in mammals is to be somewhat on guard.  While this is good if you're walking through the tall grass or the jungles, it makes for difficult intimate relationships.  It keeps us shut down or immobilized.  It keeps us distant and not as connected with other humans.  As Dr Van Der Kolk says, "in order to play, mate, and nurture our young, the brain needs to turn off its natural vigilance."

While this all sounds fine and dandy, many traumatized people are so hypervigilant that they cannot enjoy the ordinary pleasures in the day.  Yes, they are in relationships, but without overstimulation, it becomes a mundane and routine relationship with only part of the feelings and emotions that one could potentially experience.

Consciousness Of Joy And Pain

The moments of joy in our life are the ones that make it easy to fully live in our day.  However, when we hit those low points and we struggle, that is when it gets difficult to remember the moments of joy.  Of course, we can't have joy without struggle and we can't have comfort without pain.  Both of these things are equally important to our daily life of growth, awareness and consciousness.

All too often, we either numb ourselves to the pain we face in our life and body, or we only embrace happy thoughts and feel good mantras.  Neither is healthy for the mind and body if we are oblivious to the opposite that exists within us.  It is not wrong to have mantras or happy thoughts, but if we have numbed our mind body interface so that we do not fully experience life, then we are trying to exist on a diet of water only in our life.

Balance between joy and struggle, comfort and pain, stress and rest is essential for us to evolve.  It is in the balance that we allow both sides of our present moment to show up, unattached to the outcome in possibility.  You may try all you want to have one side without the other, but in many ways you are only attempting to fool your mind and body.  In all reality, your mind knows, but as we cut ourselves off from the mind body connection, we are disconnected from our mind and our body.

A Life Of Service Is A Life Of Joy

As we begin 2013, there is much to think about in the days and months ahead.  Of course, if you survived the Mayan apocalypse, then there is much to look forward to in this upcoming year.  I do say the Mayan Apocalypse with some sarcasm in the air.   To me, there is much more to do and much to focus on, then most of us inhabitants ponder in our day.

We can continue to focus on divisive issues of the day from politics to religion to personal beliefs or we can focus on the higher realms where we are actually serving each other in this universe.  It is easy to get caught up in the latest news story and debate of the day, but in the end it becomes nothing more than spinning your tires in a mud hole.

As I look at my own life ahead, I have been seeing for some time, the sentiment that life is about asking how we can serve and help others.  It isn't about what most of us deem to be important.  It isn't about how much wealth we can gain at the expense of others we interact with in our day.  It isn't about us staying unconscious to all that exists in life.  It is not about following new age beliefs that are not grounded in truth or failing to search for further awareness in our life.  

Connect With Joy And Gratitude

I find it is so easy to want a more fulfilling life, than despair about all the problems I face.  It is like I want to connect with joy and gratitude in life, but I forget how to do this.  Maybe I sabotage myself into the thought patterns of the past, believing I cannot do this, but who am I fooling?

Once again I remind myself that I can strengthen my life just by connecting with joy and gratitude in my heart.  As I remind myself of all that there is, I only need to stop and feel how these things replicate in my heart.  It is through the connection that we experience them in some very powerful ways.

All I need to do, is just stop and feel my heart.  As I take my hand and place it over my heart, I begin to think about things in my life that make me feel full of gratitude and joy.  When I do this, I begin to feel a warmth inside my heart.  I feel the smile that connects to it, and the sense of peace that covers me in this moment.

It is easy to forget to connect with joy and gratitude.  The busy seconds of our day or the difficult moments we experience, can often knock us off from realizing we have forgotten this.  It is in those moments that we really need to sync up with the gratitude and joy in our heart.  As we do this, we will find a power and a strength much greater than ourselves, that will push us forward.

Life Has Changed In Six Weeks

Thinking back to six weeks ago, much has changed.  I remember at the beginning of August feeling like life had screwed me over so badly that I didn't care if I continued another day.  I felt tired, worn out, and left to rot by the wayside. I felt all alone and isolated from everything and everyone in the world.  My body ached and my heart was beyond sad and full of despair. It seemed like there was absolutely nothing to live for at that moment.

Fortunately I made the decision to go ask for help from a healer in South Florida by the name of Kathi Angeli.  She has helped me in the past and I knew that if anyone could help me cross over the hell that I was facing, it was her.  Taking a leap of faith and going to see her for a healing session, not knowing how I would pay for the trip, I was pleasantly surprised by unexpected income that showed up directly after the session.

As I look at my current moment, I see just how far I traveled.  It is like my life is as different as night and day.  I fully and completely realize that I am not the same person I was six weeks ago.  My outlook has changed.  I am much more in touch with the felt sense of my body and connected together with my mind as one entity.  I feel more at peace and full of joy and gratitude.  Instead of feeling isolated, I have had wonderful opportunities to meet some new people.

Joy And Gratitude In Our Heart

Connect with your heart through joy and gratitude, and life will look much different.  For when we embrace joy and gratitude in our life and we touch the depths of it in our body, we are united with a force stronger than any situation we may be up against. - Don Shetterly

Joy On Christmas Morning Part 3

Joy On Christmas Morning
Part 3

This is part 3 of a three part series, please start with PART 1

No matter how hard I try during this time of year, I still succumb to the pain, anxiety and despair of this season. I so badly want to find a way through this rather than face the anxiety, nervousness, stress and tension that I feel.. I want to feel the joy of a child on Christmas morning rather than the anger that bubbles up within me and forces me to hibernate from the outside world during this season. I don't want to feel lifeless and drained as I try to cope with the mixed emotions and pain. I would love to believe that I could wave a majic wand and it would all be a normal and fun and exicting time of year. However, I would not be living in reality if this were true.

Each year, I keep trying and hoping that somehow this year will be different for me. In fact, I can see that things have changed and I am growing through some of the hurts. Yet, as the days get closer to Chrsitmas, my body physically changes as if someone places a thousand pound weight on my shoulders to carry around. I fight to flee this yearly ritual, but I am not able to run fast enough. So, each year I try to do something at Christmas time and I have learned that if I don't do this early in the month of December, that by the middle of the month, I literally have no energy left to carry it out.

Joy On Christmas Morning Part 2

Joy On Christmas Morning
Part 2

This is part 2 of a three part series, please read starting with PART 1

Yes, Christmas was full of joy when I was a child, but that is only half of the story. Christmas morning was one day that I looked to with anticipation, but also dread. You see, most of my family were not grateful for presents they would receive. I always gave something from my heart that matched something that I thought would be special to them and usually it was done on very few dollars that I had to my name. Sometimes I would create something deep from my heart and give to them. The only thing is that all too often I heard the disappointment they had as "this was all they got" type of attitude filled the room. If it didn't meet their expectations, you would know about it and my heart got broken many times.

One example of this was when I was in college and struggling to make it through school and pay bills. I had no help from home and had to pay for college completely on my own. I saved my pennies all year long to buy Christmas presents and managed to have $5 a piece to spend on them. I carefully took the money and tried to buy as much as I could of things that I thought they would use and like. On Christmas day, I heard comments like "this is all I got and we spent more on him then he did on us". It broke my heart and it hurt because I had taken everything I had to buy them these things and I had put so much thought into it. After all, I could have bought a months' worth of food with that money but I chose to give. Of course, that was not the only time I had heard these words, or would it be the last.

Joy On Christmas Morning Part 1

Joy On Christmas Morning
Part 1

I'm amazed at my age that I still get as excited about Christmas as I do. I would think that after all these years, it would start to wane. Even though there isn't the celebration these days, because quite frankly it sometimes hurts too much, I still find myself getting just as excited as I once did when I was a child.

The joy on Christmas morning was something I waited all month for and even though our home life was in constant turmoil, this was the day of the year that offered an escape. It was the one day of the year that Santa would come and give us presents and life would be more peaceful for a few hours. Granted, I realize that we got very few things, but honestly I did not care if someone would have wrapped empty boxes and gave them to me. I just wanted to see wrapped presents under the tree. I was mesmerized by the pretty colorful wrapping paper, the shiny sparkling lights and ornaments on the tree.

The smells of cookies baking and candy being made by my mom, to the frosting of cookies, it was a special time of year in our house. I always enjoyed it when we would frost the Christmas cookies and surprise some lucky recipient. It warmed my heart with joy. My mom would go all out making peanut brittle, divinity, fudge, cookies of every kind, and especially the cutout cookies we would frost together.

I Create My Life

My life, no matter how I sometimes wish it would be is exactly what it should be at this moment. In conjunction with this, my life is exactly a result of the choices that I have made to create this moment.

While my heart is full of joy after a time of reset in life, my fears claw at the door trying to keep me from opening it and stepping out. I truly give my fears more power than they deserve. I truly inflate my fears to be bigger than they are in reality.

So as much as I wish my life would be different, I need to acknowledge the path that has brought me to this point. I then need to open the door, taking the power back of my fears. As I do this, the brightness of the sunlight will illuminate the path ahead into the life I so desire.

I am once again reminded that I am the sole person who creates my day. I bring in the things that I focus on and if tomorrow I desire something different, all I need to do is shift my focus. By shifting my focus, I change my awareness and consciousness which leads me into more of who I really am in life.



Blog Post & Images (c) 3/15/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only
http://www.donshetterly.com

Supermoon, Oceans and Nature

Most likely everyone has heard about the supermoon which is ocuring this evening as I write this blog post. The supermoon is the moon that looks like it is much closer because it is actually traveling as close as it will get to the earth in its orbit for the next 18 years. Since it is also a full moon, it is expected to raise the tides all over the earth. Some say, it will have a significant impact upon the earth and while I have no way to agree or disagree with that, it will be interesting to see if there are any events that coincide with the supermoon. Many would just attribute this to folklore.

I'm always amazed at the systems in space and how they may or may not impact us as humans. Just to gaze at something that is only about 221,566 miles seems awe inspiring to me. I would love to be able to go and travel to the moon and actually step a foot on to it. If there is ever a wow factor in life, the moon and the planets or stars of the solar system would be one of those for me.

Coming back to earth though, I spent time at the ocean today just picking up seashells while dipping my feet in the 60 degree, cool ocean water. Seeing the ocean, hearing the roar of the waves, watching the sea gulls fly and being caught up in the moment of looking for seashells, the world around me seemed pretty small. Much like looking at the moon so many miles away, the earth seemed almost insignificant.

As we ended the day at the ocean, we spent time observing the birds and butterflies all around us. It was a beautiful site and once again, took me miles away from the world and all its troubles and problems.

There is no greater joy, no greater meditation and no better way to just be in the moment than to gaze at the sky, bask in the ocean and observe nature. If you want to let go of things that are bothering you, find your place in nature. Let nature revive you, ground you and help you find what it is that you need in this very moment.

Nature and the ocean and the moon are much bigger than anything we are experiencing. They remind us that we can transcend all that we are going through, if even for a moment. They remind us that we are part of something bigger and that we are all connected.




Blog Post & Images (c) 3/19/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only
http://www.donshetterly.com

Christmas Illusions

Christmas is many things to many people. If you ask a hundred different people what Christmas is all about, you will most likely get a hundred different responses. It is celebrated in many ways among many different people and yet, all across this world, it is a day of great importance.

When I was a child, the Christmas season was one of the happiest times of the year to me. My mom would bake Christmas cookies and candy, and together we would decorate the beautiful cookies with icing and sprinkles. I remember the taste of the fudge, so full of sugar and chocolate that it made your taste buds dance with glee. I remember the divinity and the peanut brittle along with many other types of Christmas treats.

Leading up to the days before Christmas, I was a child full of smiles, waiting for Santa Claus to bring me those special few gifts. It didn’t really matter to me what I got, just as long as there was some special gift for me to unwrap. I was happier receiving a gift than being concerned with what I was given. It did not matter to me what the gift was. It was the joy of the surprise and the endurance of the wait that I longed for each Christmas.

Through the many church programs, singing and playing the Christmas songs for the Christmas story, I found myself wanting to perform these moments forever and ever. I enjoyed playing the piano as well as singing the songs at the retirement homes, where the faces of the elderly beamed with joy. Tears would come to my eyes as these beautiful songs filled the room, and I felt the peace and love of the season flowing through me.

As time passed by, my life endured many things that were difficult beyond measure. I hid within the joy of Christmas from the pain that surrounded and engulfed me. It became my hope and fantasy but it also was my illusion. For me to realize that anything but happiness, joy, and good cheer existed, took me from the illusion that I was living in life. It grew into a conflict between trying to deal with reality and trying to enjoy a world of fantasy. The pain that I felt was mixed in with the joys of the season, and my heart longed with sadness, my eyes filled deep with tears.

As I stated at the beginning of this, Christmas means many things to many people. I wish I could write that it was all joy and magic and make believe that is portrayed through the season. I wish I could write that it is a time of family being together that I was born into, but I cannot write those words. For if I tried to make it appear that everything was full of cheer for me during this time, I would be living an illusion. As difficult as it is, I face a reality that is anything but full of cheer.

During the holiday season, I see so many people spending countless dollars of worry to make sure they buy the best present they can buy for another person. Whether it is family or friends, the stress of picking that right present is a struggle to many. I know completely just how difficult it can be to spend what little you could save throughout the year to buy Christmas gifts for family members, only to be shunned and ridiculed for the gift you bought and gave them. Christmas has to be about so much more than giving gifts or being with family.

Of course, we should not forget that the corporate retail market believes Christmas is a success when every man, woman, and child is out buying armfuls of gifts to shower their love upon their fellow humans. For according to the retailers, if you aren’t buying Christmas gifts and putting yourself in debt, you truly aren’t human. So many in our country celebrate this time by spending thousands of dollars to show they love one another.

Yet, my mind wanders into the night asking, “Is this what Christmas is truly about?” Is it a time of stressing over holiday parties, holiday gifts, and which family member is going to visit which home at what time? Is it a time of living in a fantasy world full of illusion, and sipping the champagne and egg nog until our senses grow numb? It is a time where we become intolerant of how others believe?

The answers to these questions I see in our world are inadequate. I only write about that which I see and currently understand. Each person is of course, free to believe and practice in the way that is appropriate for their life. My hope though is that each one of us will really stop and consider what this season truly means.

Christmas is a time of celebrating peace, love, and goodwill to men. It is a time of giving to others, not with hopes that you will have bought the perfect gift but that you will have given it out of pure love. It is a time of helping our fellow man, and realizing that the help should not only be on one day of the year, but each day we are fortunate to be alive and living in this world.

Christmas is much more than we make it out to be and much less than we think it truly is. The lights, trees, gifts, carols, and parties are all part of it. There is nothing wrong with these things. However, if we forget what Christmas is all about, we become a noisy gong and a clanging symbol decorated with pretty lights and glitter.

Let us remember that during this holiday time, not everyone is able to participate and many suffer in silence as a result of Christmases past. They often sit on the sidelines in suffering, hoping that the day will soon pass, when all they want to do is to forget the painful moments that this day brings. Let us reach out in love to these people, but let us remember to respect their pain and honor their true feelings.

Christmas is not about doing something because we expect anything in return. Christmas is about giving of our true heart through peace, understanding and goodwill to all that we know and meet. If we can understand this one thing about Christmas, then we will have truly celebrated the real spirit of the season.

I leave you with the lyrics to the song, “Let There Be Peace On Earth”

Let peace begin with me
Let this be the moment now.
With every step I take
Let this be my solemn vow.
To take each moment
And live each moment
With peace eternally.
Let there be peace on earth,
And let it begin with me.



Blog Post & Images (c) 12/5/10 Don Shetterly - use by permission only

Joy, Gratitude, Abundance

No matter how difficult it gets or how much the negative stuff floods my mind, I need to stay in the mindset of hope, gratitude, and joy.

By keeping my thoughts in this realm, I am opening myself up to possibility and empowerment.

Joy and gratitude helps raise my vibration which then allows me to participate in the plane of abundance and what I am called to do.

Forgiving, releasing and letting go of negative drains upon my life will enable me greater capacity for all that is good in my life.

Joy From Sorrow

Losing someone you love or were fond of is never easy. It is much harder if you never got the chance to say goodbye. Whether it is through an unexpected event in life or just not finding out until later, one can never be prepared.

All too often it touches on the nerves that are connected to other losses. The pains we felt of saying goodbye to someone or something we loved are unearthed. It is like a connection or a bridge to previous encounters of letting someone pass away from life.

Death is never easy no matter how you look at it or frame it. Loving someone or something gives us so much joy in our life. Saying goodbye in death, feels like that joy which has become a part of us was ripped out from our bodies. It often feels like the end of the world after someone has died and that nothing will ever take the pain away.

I've lost far too many people and pets in my life. For a long time, I never allowed myself to grieve for them. Grieving was not easy for me because it involved allowing myself to feel many emotions. Early on in life, I was just shown that I was to move on and not allow myself to feel the emotions. However, I have learned that grieving and allowing these emotions is a necessary part of life. it is what helps us find the joy we shared with what we lost.

At times the process of grief seemed long and as if it would never end. There were times that I did not feel as if I could make it. At times, tears flowed as easily as I took a breath. However, with time, life began to balance out and the pain I experienced in loss, once again became joy for my life.

When the joy emerged from the sorrow, I was able to remember so much of what I shared with the person or the pet. It was almost like I had to travel through the tears to see the beauty.

Each person or pet that we love gives us so much. Through our connection with them, we give much back as well. The beautiful moments of what we shared will stay with us for a lifetime. We will realize one day through the tears, all that we received from those we were closely connected to. Through loving gratitude, we will celebrate so much and the pain will diminish.

We will observe that our life is much stronger, better and more full for having these special connections. There may even be things that will take us time to recognize. Deep down, these connections will share a very important part of our life.

Even though we are not able to talk to these people and pets who have passed on, in the same sense we once could, I believe we can talk to them at any time. I believe they are around us and they hear us. They, of course, remain in our hearts and our minds as we think about them through the eyes of love.


Above image taken from memorial website "When Tomorrow Starts Without Me"


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Stepping Into

When I drew this chalk picture, I had no idea what I was about to create. Rarely do I sit down and draw anything because I just don't feel that is my area of expertise. So when I do sit down and draw, it usually takes me by surprise. This is a simple picture but it is jam packed with meaning and significance for my own life.

You see, many times throughout my own life, I've been afraid at what lies ahead. You could even say, I am at one of those moments right now. I am sure that I am not alone as others experience this as well. Often we do not talk about those fears and if we do, many around us quickly tell us to just live for today or go on about our lives and not worry. While there is some good intentions to that, this could short circuit this part of our life and hold us back in many ways. The fears are real, the people are real but the outcomes are what is important.

Often when we face that unknown darkness ahead, we sometimes spend so much time staring at it that we forget what lies behind us. All of the things that we have carried with ourselves up to this point gives us the strength, the courage and the determination to move forward. It is all part of us. It helps us find the footing when we step out into the unknown.

In the picture, the house depicts a sense of security, starting point, origin, and grounding for our lives. It is the safety point from which we emerge. It is the fortress from which we draw strength. It is the beginning point for moving forward. The terrain reminds us of how much we have overcome and how many difficult steps we have already taken. It is the reminder of all that we have accomplished when we begin to doubt ourselves. The tree is for bountiful sustenance and a further anchor to hold on to. It is the strength we see in many ways as we begin to step forward. The birds are there to remind us of the joys we do have in our life and the gratitude for all that we are. Behind the person looking into the unknown is the wind that comes along in our life. It is the people, places, knowledge, self discovery that propels us further. While it seems the wind is only to the person's back, it is helping propel the person and give them strength and energy to keep stepping forward.

Many times we have no clue what each step we take, will bring to our path. We just know where we have traveled from and so as we take a new step, we are reminded of all that there is in our life, to move in the direction we need to go. We have no need to push it or pull it or change it. We just need to take the step forward for taking the individual baby steps forward is what makes the unknown familiar to us.