Monday, April 26

Some of my best moments were in a single breath, lost swept away. ~

Cheryl Nordyke

Cheryl ~ Day 116; 249 to Go

Sometimes life takes us down a path we never intended to go and what we find as we travel this path are opportunities we never expected. Introductions to a world we never thought possible. I know sometimes it may seem as if life isn't moving as we want it, yet if we keep our minds open we may be surprised to what life presents us. I never would have planned the last 30 months of my life would go as they have. I have experienced more moments of facing my fears than ever before in my life. Yet I have also had some of the best moments of my life. I have learned to appreciate that true value of time. To understand that the sand never stops moving through the hour glass and this moment right now this breath will never be mine again. Breath in life breath out love. Breath in appreciation breath out gratitude. Breath in the gift of life and breath out the memories of the moments. These are my daily inspired thoughts.

Thursday, April 22

Respect our Earth.

To me, nature is an obviously omnipotent force with the upper hand, and we are guests. As long as we are graceful, appreciative lodgers, the earth remains healthy and wondrous.

KT Tunstall

Cheryl ~ Day 112; 253 to Go

48 years ago the idea of Earth Day was born. Until then there was no organized day to dedicate the appreciation of our planet. Of all the things we have to be grateful for I think one that we all tend to take for granted is our Earth. It isn't until nature reminds us of it's power do we even recognize that we are on this big beautiful ball traveling through space. We have deserts, valleys, mountains, rivers, waterfalls and oceans. We have sunrises and sunsets, rainbows and rainfall. Our Earth is so much apart of our lives and I am very grateful today and everyday for all the Earth provides us. This is my daily inspired thought.

Gratitude Wave Necklace

Today I wore the Gratitude Wave made by Waves Of Gratitude. Everytime someone complamented my necklace or I looked down at it I thought of all the things to be greatful of. Wearing this necklace truly reminds me to smile and find the positive in life and what it has to offer.

Wednesday, April 21

Cheryl ~ Day 111; 256 to go

So there is this website I discovered a few weeks agot called 1000 Awesome Things and the persont that wrote it has a book out called "The Book Of Awesome" and just the cover makes me smile. Basically his site is dedicated to finding the awesome things in life. So today I run into the supermark to pick up a few items like bread and milk and there in the front of the produce section are these BRIGHT RED STRAWBERRIES! One of the downfalls to moving from California to New England was the limited access to fresh fruit and produce all year like I had there. However, the site of those STRAWBERRIES made me smile. I immediately thought of his website and that made me smile even more. Then my daughter and her boy friend come home and he's like "guess what I did today?" I'm like okay "what?" He said "I sharpened a pencil and the first try it came out perfect, and I thought AWESOME." I realized this one man with this one blog has created a ripple. I had shared the site and some of his blogs with my teenage daughter and now not only was I noticing what was AWESOME but them as well. He started a Ripple of appreciation and gratitude and it has spread to me and then down to my daughter and her boyfriend. Never under estimate the power of one positive action in this great big world. This is my daily inspired thought.

Tuesday, April 20

“Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live.”

By unknown

Cheryl ~ Day 110; 256 to go

There is something to be said for laughter. I know I have talked about this before, however, I must say it again. Tough day, didn't go according to plan at all. Had a very long to do list and barely made a dent. Then decided to be completely honest and lets face it nobody wants anybody to be completely honest. Then my evening ended at "Young Frankenstein" broadaway. Needless to say 3 hours latter there is a smile on my face and the reality is that my to do list not getting done didn't stop the world. However, the 3 hours with my daughter and her boyfriend laughing at totally inappropirate parts of the play made me realize that this moment 10, 15 or 20 years from now will make me smile when I think of it. The reality is our lives are woven over time with a combination of laughter and tears and those are the things that matter. This is my daily inspired thoughts.

Monday, April 19

Friendship with ones self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.

by Eleanor Roosevelt

Cheryl ~ Day 109; 256 to Go

Sometimes there are moments when we try to analyiz a situation to understand it , or to find out what we have done to cause a change. At work, in a relationship with family members. There are times that no matter how much we try to understand why things are changing or what we have done wrong it isn't about us. There is nothing we have done wrong. The truth is we seldom know the entire story to things that happen within our immediate circle let alone understand those outside that circle. We have to sometimes put ourselves first. Do what is best for us and if those in our life or situations come back around again to where they once were then they were meant to be that way. However, we each must respect ourselves and not allow ourselves. In doing this we will attrack those to us in our lives that will also respect us.

Wednesday, April 14

Cheryl ~ Day 104; 261 to Go

There are times in our life we are required as a friend to be the person that listens and allows them to vent. To not judge or input our opinions. To be supportive and understanding. Then there a moments we see the person we admire slipping away. We see the turmoil they are going through winning and taking them with it. It is a tough call and doesn't always work out for the best, however, there are these moments we need to stand up and point out some tough things. Typically friends in this position have slipped into the role of the victim. They have given control of their lives over to the situation. All they need is a hand out reached to say own where you are. When you own your problems you give yourself the power to fix them. When you are the victim the outcome is dependant on factors outside of your control. Having come from a family that had playing the victim down to a science I knew I didn't want to be a repeat of history. So I acknowledged early on that when we own where we are in our lives then we have the power to change where we are in our lives. Once given this power we then need to change our thoughts and see the life we want. Visualize your life and then you can begin to create it. These are my daily inspired thoughts.

Tuesday, April 13

Cheryl ~ Day 103; 262 to Go

Dishes, why is it a great meal has to come with dishes. It's part of our life. We have a great meal wth friends and family and when it is over there they are the dishes. There are many things in life like dishes, they keep coming back. However, the key to dishes is to tackle them early and get it over with. That is the key to many other things in our lives. The things we hate that we want to aviod, just because we don't deal with them doesn't mean they will go away. They actually just pile up and create a mess. So like dirty dishes face them head on clean it up and when it is all done there is nothing like a kitchen that sparkles. The same is true for our hearts and minds, clean out the dirty dishes and there is a sparkle where once there was greasy build up. Under there is hope, inspiration and creativity.

Monday, April 12

Cheryl ~ Day 102; 263 to Go

There are moments we all face that it seems as if we are barely hanging on . That life seems to want to smack us around just to see how much we can take. Then just when we think it's going to get better here comes another smack. Here it is we all get smacked around, some of us more than others. However, here is what I know. My dear friend is approching the 2 year mark of the loss of her soul mate to a heart attack prior to the age of 50. I can actually see the pain in her eyes when she talks about the plans they had. I watch her struggle with defining the rules as a single parent in a role not made by choice and wish that I could somehow help. Then there is that light, that shins when she talks about the love she had for him and the memories of him. That love that she had for 14 years. I know I have never known the love of spouse that they had and realize that pain that deep can only come with love that deep. Within the hurt was the blessing of the love. Our lives all end in death, what matter is what we do with the living part. Are we going to just hang on, is that what our loved ones would want for us is that what we would want for them. Part of the healing process however, is accepting that today, it hurts to much and I am going to honor this loss and tomorrow I will begin again the living.

There are little signs of light that can guide us if we are attentive enough.

Monday's Inspiration

The Edsel was introduced by the Ford Motor Company in 1957. The sales goal for its first production year was 100,000 to 200,000 cars. Falling far short of this, Ford sold merely 100,847 cars over the entire three years of Edsel production. While fewer than 6,000 Edsels survive today, Ford reamins teh second largest automaker in the world. "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." ~ Henry Ford