Posts Tagged ‘powerful’

We Believe…In the Power of Forgiveness to Heal, and the Power of Love to Carry Through

Posted: May 15, 2011 in Mama Says Namaste
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If you’re new here, the last five posts have been addressing each line of our Family Creed.   Only two more to go, and each one is so powerful to me!  For today, the creed is “We Believe…in the power of forgiveness to heal, and the power of love to carry through.”

This is a perfect one to address considering the podcast we just did last week on the ConnieAndSheila Talk Podcast.  Based on the previous blogpost here, we were asked on the show to address the topic “I Am So Unique“.  Not only does this podcast really hit on the power of love and acceptance, but also on how the uniqueness in each of us strengthens all of us, like I’ve stated before.

During one of their previous podcasts, they interviewed my brother and sister-in-love, Jared and Ilea Angaza.  Their podcast was on “Living without Electricity…but Lots of Energy“.  Each week Connie and Sheila start it off with powerful quotes, and the one that really hit me in this interview was:

“Forgiving is not forgetting; it’s actually remembering – – remembering and not using your right to hit back. It’s a second chance for a new beginning. And the remembering part is particularly important. Especially if you don’t want to repeat what happened.”
~ Desmond Tutu

Wow–how incredible.  When we talk about the power of forgiveness to heal, we’re not saying you have to forget it, or act like it doesn’t hurt.  Remember it, address the pain and/or anger, and then take the next step: heal.  When I was in college I studied The Work by Byron Katie.  If you’ve never seen this, check out the process at the link above–it’s free.   It really hit home for me – we’ve all been hurt by someone, and sometimes the hurt is so strong we come to identify the person by this one action.  We let it brew and fester and become a sore spot, or we write off the feeling completely and don’t pay attention to the person or the pain…thus potentially missing out on an important lesson or relationship.

I ask that you listen to the podcast “I Am So Unique” for a few reasons.  First, you’ll get the back story on Nathan and me and this wonderful thing we call our life.  Second, we talk about forgiveness and grace, and lastly, we address the topic of Love in a controversial why by talking about Rob Bell’s newest book, Love Wins. (I’ve got to warn you…there were a few tech glitches and you’ll hit some dead spots in the podcast.  Bear with it–we pick it back up.  Just think of them as “moments of reflection” times!”)

Everyone who reads this has their own perspective on life.  We each bring our own beliefs and opinions, and I’m not asking you to think like me.  I am, however, challenging all of you to just love first.  I’m pretty sure that comes before judgement everywhere but in the alphabet.  At least I hope so.  My final thoughts…this world is big and beautiful – we have the chance to experience our closest understanding of heaven on this earth merely by embracing these two powers–forgiving and loving first.

What do you think? 

We Believe…In living deeply, laughing often, and loving always.

Posted: January 27, 2011 in Mama Says Namaste
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Each week I want to address one line from our Family Creed.  The first line states “We believe in living deeply, laughing often, and loving always.”  The key element to me in this post is that second action–laughing often.  Laughter does so much more than just feel good on the inside.  It lifts any heaviness in the air, it allows you to reset your attitude, and it’s just plain fun to do.

When you live life full of passion–when you truly “live deeply”, you embrace the moment.  Back in college I read Eckhardt Tolle’s The Power of Now.  It talked about savoring the moment–truly living in the present and not wallowing in the past, or spending so much time focusing on the future that we forget about today.  It’s easy to do, especially with kids…you spend so much time planning…what to cook for dinner, where do kids need to go tomorrow, what work project is due next, what vacations are we going to do and what can we budget to handle next month, etc., etc.  Why is it that we only allow ourselves to live deeply and savor the moment when we’re on a scheduled vacation? What if we took a “mini vacation” every day…taking a moment to breathe deeply…and truly live deeply.

So, going back to laughing often.  If we are living deeply…with passion and gusto, if we allow ourselves to feel the present moment, we then have a choice.  How are those moments going to affect us?  When the kids are cranky, the bills are stacked up, and there are 300 emails to answer (maybe this is just me), how can we cope and actually enjoy ourselves?  It’s the old cliche- when life hands you lemons, make lemonade.  If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.  Whatever you want to say, the bottom line is, give a little.  Figure out how to make yourself laugh.  When I have the days where kids basically prevent me from accomplishing anything else, I figure “what the heck- let’s have some fun.”  And those are days I choose to laugh.  Often.  About anything.  Even if I have to force it at first, I need to let go and understand that some days you just have to let things slide.  Sometimes it’s not worth the battle.  Sometimes you have to remember that living deeply isn’t always about cramming everything into every moment…sometimes it’s about letting some stuff slide so you can truly enjoy the things that matter.  The things you love.  The people you love.  The people, that no matter what, you choose to love always.  So embrace them, both literally and figuratively.  Let go of the nit-picky details, order a pizza, laugh a lot, and go back to the family you love.  Always.

It’s All Around Us!

Posted: April 18, 2008 in Mama Says Namaste
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What is your bright light? I was looking through my emails, and through a chain of links, ended up on a website called BringLight.com. It got me thinking yet again about the power of positive thinking. It seems the past two weeks I’ve been inundated with emails from poor souls who don’t have any passion in their lives, or don’t know how to dream. How did we all become stuck in a world with no hope?
Do we really have no hope, or is the problem in our own perspective? Life balance is teetering on a tightrope of work, work, work in our society. We get caught up in doing all the time and sooner or later, the day has flown by and it’s merely been a day of survival. Community gets thrown by the wayside as we hurry to get our errands run, our chores done, and the bills paid. When we get together with friends, our talks quickly go to the long list of “to-dos” and becomes a competition on who has put more hours in at work, or has the wildest child, or anything else that puts us in the martyr role.
Our tunnel of work becomes so long that all we see are the dark items on each side—we lose sight of our “bright light” at the end—the reasons we do what we do.
What is the goal of making money? What is the goal of buying groceries? Working? Carting kids to events? Lugging the whole family to church? Isn’t it all to achieve a better, more fulfilling life? Isn’t it all to embrace the “bright light” in all of our lives? Our children, our spouses, our friends, our parents…the music we love, the nature we relish, the time spent learning about new places, people and causes… don’t we all have something to be thankful for?
When you look outside your window this spring, and see the green leaves and the buds blooming, how can you say there is no hope? Even the plants are excited about the new day. When you are surrounded by negativity, your tunnel gets longer and longer as your bright light of hopes gets muddied in the mess. But remember, no matter where you are, there are rays of sunshine peeking through, both figuratively and literally. Take the time to notice them.Embrace each bright light in your life, no matter how small…you’ll find the more you notice them, the brighter those lights become.