Affirmations:
I forgive myself for denying myself and others.
I am alive alert and enthusiastic.
Everyday I awaken with wonder about what I will learn.
I love my life and my life loves me.
I freely choose what is highest and best for me.
Read below Robert’s "Week After Christmas"
Renew Your Spirit!
What do you do to renew your Spirit?
What do you do to inspire yourself?
What do you do to feel enthusiasm?
What do you do to be happy every day?
Your life energy is your responsibility.
Only you know how and when to fill your tank.
Only you can make the choices which benefit you.
Only you can assess and address what inspires you.
You have a life and it is yours to use well.
You have a mind and it is yours to inspire.
You have a body and it is yours to keep fit and energized.
You have emotions and they are yours to make happy.
This is your job to explore, observe and choose what works.
Nature, meditation, recreation, creativity, inspiration, contribution may work.
Exercise, competition, achievement, education, empowerment, building may work.
Relationship, intimacy, connection, partnership, healing, listening, quiet may work.
Music and art, writing and design, varying forms of creating beauty inspire and renew.
Finding someone to love and be loved, creating a family and connection may inspire and renew.
Healing and service, caring and helping, making people happy may inspire and renew.
Introspection and contemplation, wisdom and knowledge, prayer and meditation may inspire and renew.
Do you know what works for you?
Hunting and fishing, hiking and outdoor adventures, camping and rock climbing may inspire and renew.
Building a home, planting a garden, restoring antiques, making old things new may inspire and renew.
Creating a party, planning a wedding, rearranging your living room may inspire and renew.
May these ideas begin to inspire you to renew your Spirit.
May you research the various ways you have chosen to give yourself respite and rest.
May you look at the high points or moments in life when you felt most alive and aware.
May you see what fills your mind with appreciation and makes your heart sing.
Each one of us needs to have new beginnings and moments of sheer delight.
Each one of us must find our own way to gratitude and praise, feeling delighted to be alive.
Each one of us deserves to feel joyful and at home, safe and trusting, free and happy just to be.
Everyone can find our own way to renew our spirit and be alive again with love in our hearts.
Our gift to one another is to free ourselves to live with Spirit.
When we give ourselves regular renew and daily inspirations, we will encourage others to do the same.
When we deny ourselves what is needed, we deplete ourselves and often become resentful and negative.
Let us forgive ways we have depleted and denied ourselves and freely give to ourselves and others what inspires, delights and enlivens us to live on purpose and in love.
Loving one and all,
Betty Lue
The Week After Christmas
T’was the week after Christmas and all through the land
Things were all settled, it was all pretty bland.
The gifts put away, the sales all complete
Settled down by the tube in my favorite seat.
I had my awareness written down in my book
Had my insights, ideas and whatever it took.
The spiritual lessons had been easy to share
They were all filed away (I’m not really sure where).
When deep down inside me there arose such a clatter
It was really unfair. Now what was the matter?
Away from my chair I flew like a flash
I looked in the mirror and then came the crash.
My life was unsettled with nothing the same
And the worst of it all—there was no one to blame.
When what to my wondering eye should appear
But a glowing white light, from behind my left ear.
With a little old angel so lively and quick
I’d seen him before. I was going to be sick.
More rapid than eagles his pronouncements they came
And he whistled and shouted and called me some names.
“More action and faith and tolerance and trust
Now listen within, be responsible, you must.
To topple complacency and breach the fear wall
Now dash away, smash away, drop away all.”
As leaves caught up in a hurricane fly
All of my thoughts were thrown up to the sky.
And as they were jumbled and tumbled and swirled
I knew when they landed, it would be a new world.
And then in a twinkling, I felt it all start
The seeds of awareness awakening my heart.
As I came to my senses (picked myself off the floor)
I saw in my mind’s eye, a picture of more.
A world bathed in light, from the south to the north
With every one on it aware of his worth.
No one was waiting for others to do,
Or to fix or to heal or to make it all new.
Their eyes how they twinkled, their dimples how merry
When they each played their part,
the world was easy to carry.
The smile on each mouth was drawn up like a bow
Shining laughter and love wherever they’d go.
The aura of kindness bespoke inner peace
Letting each individual experience release.
Oh the bright shiny faces, wherever you’d look
It seemed—to be willing was all that it took.
To start with ourselves, from deep down inside
To give our true gifts, not to withhold or hide.
With no blame, shame or guilt for our seeming mistakes,
A little forgiveness is all that it takes.
To clean up our world from inside to out
It was simple and happy and I wanted to shout.
Once I see the Christ presence in each person’s face
We all become one, with no distance or space.
I recalled in that moment just what my gift was
To love all of my brothers, with no “why” or “because”.
And I’m here to exclaim as I set myself free
I remember the truth—It all starts with me.
Adapted by Robert Waldon