Clearer (Thoughts)
It is the start of a new decade, 2020. The start of a New Year. We all want something to change. To release old habits; affirm new ones and be positioned for greater.
The problem with that is we will not change our actions until we change our thoughts. When our thoughts are filled with dimmer hopes; broken dreams and shattered vision it restricts our position to move. We are held hostage to what we think, even if we don’t see it. Self doubt comes when we say I think I should, and at the same we say, I am too busy; too old or not capable because I don’t have the right contacts or the smarts to pull that thing (whatever you are delaying) off. We internalize the ying and yang of opportunity by what we think (those thoughts).
Self limitation is like stress, it is a silent killer of your hopes. A destructive force to your operable actions and a taser to your walk in pursuance of vision. Your thoughts when not apprehended for fruitfulness or increase will take the path of least resistance towards limited effort. You must keep the Giddy in your Up – ward thinking. This assures you a place of elevation, a place of jubilation as you see over the circumstances that distract your purpose. You may wonder why this is necessary and I can only tell you this; everything that is down eventually must come up. Seeds planted sprout up, towards the earth to create beauty or nourish life. Mountains, trees, and fountains spring up to allow the partakers a moment of refreshing. And in each of these life happens.
Up-ward thinking allows your life to happen. To be the extension of that well that springs within you. Up-ward brings clarity into view. Just like the eagle who continues to take on higher elevations to come out of the storms. Yes, you can stay low, and neutral, but what does that give you? If all it takes is for you to reposition yourself towards positive thoughts, what do you think can happen? You might just go for that executive position; or for that promotion on your job; or you may even decide to author that book; or take your first flight to that dream destination that you have delayed. You might just begin to experience life in a way you thought (that word) was not possible. Or maybe you can meet people, new faces and races, that you thought (that word, again) were so different from you. And you just might gain a new view of you. Imagine that. To discover a new you who is adventurous, exciting and free to life the life you were meant.
Why not have clearer thoughts starting today. It might just allow you to see life differently; inherently, beautiful.
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The Journey
The road that we take is long and sometimes difficult. What is life without the ups and downs or the trials that come. It is said that what does not kill you makes you stronger; and I’d like to add that what does not kill you can also make you bitter and will lead you to revenge. I laugh at that because it is so true. If stronger is the outcome, I’d like to see the conversion factor. I guarantee that many will attest to becoming a whole lot when life serves banana peels and cheap thrills, but strength is not what one perceives.
One can see that slipping on a banana peel would not immediately create the thought of “strength” but pain. And truthfully embarrassment and a feeling of disgust. It is like life cliché’s become oxymoron’s for us to later align for ourselves. Also as if we are being tested to choose what is truth, false or just that, words with little to no meaning.
Yet life’s lessons are intended to strengthen you; to create in you the ability to overcome hardships (or what I will call heart-ships cause stuff really can hurt). Think about it, circumstances can hurt more that once too, even if you’ve experienced it before, you cannot say oh that hurt me once and I won’t let it happen again. Because if you think about it, fall and get hurt on your knee, does that mean you won’t hurt in the same spot if you fall again? Or love someone, get hurt or even fall out of love, meet someone else, does that mean you cannot hurt? No, each encounter creates another level of pain. Now what lessons you do carry relate more to the “how” of the encounter and potentially how you can prevent the fall or actions that led to the relationship breakdown.
I don’t know maybe I ponder to deeply to understand consciousness of life, why things happen or even it’s highs and lows. Or maybe in my solitude I find it difficult to embrace what all of life really means. In general I think people are looking for meaning, trying to juxtapose the message of ying and yang. Albeit to me to decide or just wonder further into the expression of my finger tips (writings) as I seek the meaning of what my purpose is within the dash.
I do seek a higher truth in what is spirituality in all things. I look to what has become to me more real than belief of anything else, in what I call the one and only living God. The creator, the one who has allowed me the expression of who He is to me in my voice, through my words and in my deeds.
Yes, life can be a mystery full of questions, and sometimes very few satisfiable answers. With banana peels and sugar hills (peeks and valleys) set to teach us the value of a moment, the value of a season, the value of a minute collected through time so that we can see the contrast; good, bad, ugly or indifferent all things comes for us to appreciate all that we have in the Journey.
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Time Flies
Amazing how I started blogging almost a year ago and was writing everyday. Amazing how time flies and your thoughts drift away, but where? Writing is not something that you can just do when you are in thought, it is something for me that’s spontaneous; something that happens out of the blue; something that happens when you least expect it; something that happens when you are thinking and want to dispose the thought; something that happens when you are in thought but yet you’re not sure if you’re willing to share these thoughts; it’s something that happened as I looked back at my blog this morning and noticed that it’s been almost 2 months since I’ve had anything to say. Does that mean that I was thoughtless? Does that mean that I didn’t have anything I want to share, or did it mean that I was just not in the mood to write? How is this possible when I love writing? How is it that 8 weeks have past and I’ve been in this abyss of silence towards writing with no thought of my own other than to take each day and walk it through. No interruptions, because time flies.
My thoughts are living in my writing, so I ask myself why not sit down and transcribe it. To not sit down and share it restricts; to give the readers who visit my site and share in the most private parts my thoughts, but time flies. So how do you share what you hope will appeal to the masses? How do you continue to share when you don’t have any indicator outside of an occasional like? That gives just enough to drive you to a public screen of written release, but you wanna know that your words make impact; you wanna know that your words changes lives; you wanna know that your words are seed that’s creating opportunity and thought; transference of energy, enough that’s going to trigger a point of change; trigger a point of redirection or even trigger a point of meditation towards that which is something greater; something more than what you can imagine, but yet I haven’t wrote because time flies. Yet in this world, each and every day there are mini connections of energy; mini connections that trigger other opportunities that otherwise may not take place, yet our energy can’t stop time. Time flies.
We think sometimes that life just is what we make it, but there are forces greater than the we, what we live each day, because when we wake up there’s an opportunity to cultivate, to renew, to recharge, to restore, to reinvent yet we hold on to the reminders of our past. Time flies. Why do we do that? Why can’t we start today with the forward thought, I will value my time because we don’t know what tomorrow’s going to bring, so start today with a forward thought of living your dreams, of loving those you care about because time flies.
Determine the way is that you want to start for that day releases yesterday. You must determine what it is that you want to start today for tomorrow. And on this day being Friday, May the 11th, I am going to take my own words and put one leg in front of the other forgetting those things that are behind me and press towards the mark which is the high calling in Christ Jesus, and the high calling that we should set for ourselves because time flies.
Well I guess the jibber jabber of my words will penetrate the heart of each and every person reading to know that as they start to move towards a greater good, a brighter day will come because you are choosing this day to make it the best day of your life. Each day starts with the lesson of the past, as time flies and tomorrow is not promised, cause time flies, but TODAY is the present, and we should treat it as such and go for all that we know because our lives depend on it because time flies.
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Spares
Michigan’s weather is notorious for being unpredictable and forever changing. During this winter season our roads become very difficult to drive due to the major potholes, craters, deep holes, natures speed bumps. These road conditions cause major catastrophes for many drivers.
I’m sitting at the tire stop because I happen to drive over multiple pot holes on Mound road that created a major blow out on my vehicle and it is because of this that I’m seeing the multitude of vehicles that come into this lot, all riding in on a spare tires. Keep in mind that every vehicle purchased comes with four good wheels; four solid wheels that are built to print for the overall weight of the vehicle, model, durability, brand, you name it, the vehicle is equipped.
The manufacturer knew that the potential was there for even the best rubber to hit a point of weakness where a spare was going to be needed. In that same vein with life, God being the Chief manufacture of our lives; physical bodies, of our spirit, of our souls, and of our minds, He knew that in life there were going to be some potholes. Those potholes are not permanent, they are temporary. While it is unpredictable as to when the spare is needed on a tire, God through His son Jesus Christ equips us and cover us through every unpredictable storm. In these times we are able to call on the blood of Jesus, our strongtower and soar onto a whole new level, over the storms, as the eagle.
Through His Holy Spirit we have the infilling needed to cover any hole in our lives. Hurt, rejection, isolation, pain, loneliness or bitterness, you call out what your pothole is and let God fill it. Just like a spare, we can stand on God’s word when we need it. God is always available and always on time.
Do you have your spare today? Is your spare full of the word, able to be placed in your daily life? Just like a car, if your spear is not FILLED, or not functioning right, it’s not prepared for the unknown bumps in the road. It cannot be used. You’re carrying it around with no function or ability. And it’s same with the word of God. You have to know it, and believe in it and use it for it to flow out of you.
We all need to be reminded that seasons change. Are you ready to pull out your spare? If not, seek God so you can be prepared for the potholes of life through the infilling of God’s word.
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Transitions
Transitions happen every day. You transition from sitting to standing, from walking to running, from love to hate. Transitions are part of life, part of the proverbial transcending presence of time. One who lives without transition, has transitioned as they (or it, as transition is applicable to all life forms) cease to exist. But what would life be like if we didn’t have transition? From Winter to Spring, from Summer to Fall all interwovened to the beautification of life as seen during the seasons. From the extreme seasonal sedulous shift, year after year, we live our transitions.
What would life be like without transition? In Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 the Bible clearly states that life is all about transition:
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
Wow, imagine that, a time for everything under the sun meaning that nothing’s new, everything has repeated itself. Transitions are timelines that we write without planning or knowing. I pondered, at this moment what season of life it is that you might be in ? Where are you transitioning from and what are you transitioning to?
What if transition ceased, and you just continue to exist, imagine life being in a lifeless form; imagine the transcending; descending issues of life that would keep you somewhat encapsulated into a ball of nothingness, what does that life look like? You probably think that if you could hold a certain space and time that was the most dramatic moment, or the best memory of your experiences, those times that you don’t want to ever end would make life grand. It all sounds fantastic, but imagine living in that state as we are a people looking for reactive, spark filled lives, we would eventually find life boring. Just saying as it is my belief that we have to learn to appreciate the deficit’s of life in order to welcome and cherish the moments of increase or joy in our lives.
Imagine if life was like a ferris wheel and it continued to spin or turn and you couldn’t get off; it was just a continuation of the same scenes over and over and over again. You would be so nauseated from the journey that you would plead for it to stop. Although I think that you would want certain things to stop; like wanting the hurt to stop; you want the pain to stop; you want the financial deficits to stop; there are many things that I can imagine that one will want to stop, but yet I believe that maybe, just maybe some of those things are positioned that we may be strengthened; that we may be appreciative; that we may be humbled. I’m not real sure on how life would exist without transition, but I am sure that without the transitions life would not exist as it does now.
If you take time and think about it life is in contrast. Life gives you the reciprocation of what you are experiencing. If you are happy, for example, you wouldn’t know that you were happy, unless you knew what sad was; if you have pain you wouldn’t know what pain feels like unless you had experienced life without it; if you never knew love you wouldn’t be able to understand or identify when it wasn’t present because you never experienced it, right? You identify with that which you have experienced. Transitions.
I’m a firm believer that as we mature, as we get older, we get wiser (or should), we get understanding. There are things that I can honestly say that I have learned through life and if it had not been for the experience, the past lessons, seeing life for all its growth moments, I may not be the person I have become.
My closing thoughts on this blog today is to hopefully impart something that’s going to open your hearts to receive understanding that transitions are the shadowed steps of life, beautifully and creatively positioning us in purpose, building our Faith with each transition.
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The Power Within
Each time I write I wonder what words will appeal within the message? How each word should be framed within the house. The presentation which is orchestrated based on what’s inside of me powerful enough to reach into the depths of what you feel as the reader.
I wonder what becomes of each seed that’s transpose from my mouth to your soul as I understand that words penetrate to the core of an individual because they have power. Words are the most powerful element of expression we have. It’s the extension of our hearts that roll off our tongues and they do have the power to produce life-or-death. Yet what we believe falls under the realm of what we see. And unfortunately this adds to our disbelief as well. Look at it like this: Impossible, only if you say so; It’s never going to happen, only if you believe it after you say it; I don’t know if it’s worth it, I guess not because you just lined up your own destiny with the words that you spoke. All words must have a level of agreement. Where two or more agree powerful manifestations can happen. We agree on what’s in heaven or on earth. God cannot function outside the realm of our belief because our words are faith driven. They are the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen.
I’m reminded of a very interesting book that I read while in college by an author named Charles Capps, I recommend that you try to get that book because it talks about The Tongue a Creative Force, matter fact that is the title of the book. As profound and prolific as it is, each word radiating from those pages stabilizes the reader to control the tongue and it’s empowerment aligns who we are destined to be. This comes not only from our innate desire but it also comes from our choices. I know that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak. But what are you speaking; what are you professing; how do you rev up the cycle of expectation?
Imagine if all of our words expressed a form of gratitude, a sentiment of appreciation, the balance of hope for better in spite of the circumstance. What could we produce? Me myself, I am a recovering word pusher. I mean really, I was addicted to pushing my words thinking that I can say whatever I want to say (young and dumb); whenever I want to say it; however I want to say it, to whomever, didn’t matter. I was harnessing the power for what it was, freedom of speech. It was my constitutional rights.
But as I matured, I realized I was working against the power because I felt that I had to speak my mind with words that may not have even been life forming. But the Bible says when as a child I did things childish things but When I became an adult I had to put aside those childish things. Now I choose to protect my environment, my world, by pushing away the harsh, negative energy and I allow creativity and positivity to a stand within every circle I find myself. Of course this is the most difficult place to be because people will take you to the 10th degree and you will want to just let them have it but thank God for the convicting power of the Holy Spirit that bridles and tempers the words of His people.
I understand this one thing if I didn’t understand anything before now and that is that I must protect the word within me so that when I speak I am creating life and that the word comes from my heart, lining up with the word of God. May your life radiate the plan and purpose ordained of God and may my words be a blessing to you. Amen
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Periods: Endings or Beginnings.
Happy New Year, can mean the start of something new; the beginning of something refreshing or the end of something significant. As we transition the calendar flips, Auld Lang Syne plays and people make resolution towards that which is to come. For some it’s a new lease on life. Letting go of unfavorable habits or negative energy, formed from connections that should not be.
Many people use this time of year to reflect; to make a plan for better. Social media chimes in with a myriad of propeling thought as well. I have been seeing a lot of post that challenge the question of what’s going to be done different? That which ultimately leaves the question of choice, better or different, making an opportunity for release of the past and its mistakes, while taking the opportunity to build upon something that otherwise may not have happened if it hadn’t been for the history of the previous year, and the year before, and the year before. Pause… wait…… am I the only one who has made resolutions only to fall into the same old same after 30 days (sometimes-big smile). Yet the significance of the New Year goes deeper than any plan that we would have, it is beyond the thought of reasoning that requires a plan of action that hopefully will propel us towards greater.
What it boils down to is seeing 12 months or 12 chapters of life with 365 pages to re-write our script. Or 8,760 hours to live purposefully. What will we do with our most valuable gift called Time. Yes, there will be bumps in the road when we will be have a page or two and want to take the biggest eraser and remove each mark. But we know life does not allow us to pull out the eraser as each written expression of our day serves as a lesson. And in this vast classroom; on each page, we have options to create run on sentences, inject proper punctuation, provide colons; semi colons and periods.
The periods do not always signify that it’s the end of the story but it often signifies the start of a new chapter. That chapter is written within our own grasp, a call to innovate, accelerate or captivate the desires of our lives. Periods can open up a vast array of newness and if it’s good enough that period might serves as a pause to allowed more time in thought, personal development or give additional thoughts on what’s going to be written next, a continuation of a later date, maybe.
So as we look upon 2018 let’s look through the lens of magnification towards what is going to be larger than our imaginations; brighter than our expectation and deep enough to expand to the next generation. I’m ready, how about you?
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The Bigger Picture
The lessons of life always have a bigger picture. Ever considered how everything starts out small like seeds, when planted, it grows into a larger intent of the designed purpose. Doesn’t matter if it’s good, bad, or ugly. Edible or non-edible everything starts by being planted. In thought, actions or words. God’s garden’s take true to form according to His word (speak life, power is in your tongue/mouth).
Although we tend to see things often times in the presence of now, there is always a bigger picture as each thing we do creates something. Everything created must have a start, that start is a seed that will bring to life the vision, the thought, an end goal. Businesses start as a seed someone thought of with actions which can create fortune 500 companies. Before conception a seed has to be planted for a baby to be born. The food that we enjoy every day came from the seed of something, yet it started out so small. Everything comes from humble beginnings for it to become something great. Yet we tend to take situations and see them at face value. We don’t see the bigger picture. How many times have you heard comments like “it is what it is,”. Yet when we began to think that it is what it is we are no longer seeing the opportunities of it being more than what we see. Its just starting small or an opportunity for us to learn life’s lessons.
As we approach the end of 2017 and we set our sights on a New Year we often set in motion New Year’s resolutions and we look at the big picture of what we want to achieve. I would ask that we consider the seed, small yet powerful and able to propel us towards the greater image of our thoughts and desires. Never stop watering your seed. It will become what you desire.
To all Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Prepare your seed for planting, take action (water) get busy and watch it grow.
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Our Better Self
Each and every day we have an opportunity to reflect upon our lives, the choices that we make, the regrets that we have; the moments of excitement, and the moments of sadness. Through it all we have learned that we are resilient, life does move on and hopefully through the lessons that we’ve experienced, on any given day, we can look back from where we currently stand and see how far we have come.
Yet one of the things that the enemy likes to fight us on is not being where we think we should be. He fights us in our comparisons of what we should have, versus what we do have; at where we should be versus where we are, all the while preventing as from progressing to where we need to be, to the destiny that was are ready paved out for us.
The things that we focus on can be very debilitating to our growth because we get caught up on what we should have opposed to what we do have. No matter where we are in life we should have thanks. Yes, I know that somethings hurt to deal with but even in the hurt we must somehow pull the strength from within and know that we’re being transitioned, were being perfected, were being challenge to our better selves. And even when we cannot find full gratitude our attitude should be to think how much worse it could be. Yet when we are lowly there is no other option but to become aware of our ability to pull ourselves up, out of the muck and mier, to position ourselves for better.
Far too long we’ve imprisoned ourselves under the limitation of what we see. It’s time that we start to look at everything in the heart of grateful opportunity. As each day brings forth new opportunities for us to embark upon. You might think this is too much optimism, it is too much, I cannot pull myself out of where I am. But I’d like to proposition you. How will you get there without changing your thoughts? To have the understanding that your attitude is going to be a direct reflection to your altitude. You must acknowledge the fact that you are better than your mistakes and that you are more than a conqueror through Christ.
When I speak, I think of each and every challenge that I myself have faced or that I am still pressing to overcome. But I will not be moved as each and every day I see an opportunity to be better. So as we approach the end of 2017, Let us take confidence in our lessons to learn from them, learn through them and become our better selves pressing toward 2018, it’s never too late to start again.
If you like this blog, I want to hear from you! Please leave a comment at the bottom of this page and sign up on the Home Page, or link to the follow me button on the lower right bottom of this page to receive all of my posts directly to your email. Thank you
Toni Hollis - Empowers 