Tag: #INSPIRATION
Flowers and Faith
Yesterday,my client was running just a few minutes late which gave me time to walk outside and look at the flowerbeds and the empty pots. I stood there in the front yard, and adjusted the single pot of pansies, and picked up the picture that had the saying, “Life is a journey..enjoy it.” engraved on it then I walked to the back patio and gazed at the yard and the bare trees and felt the familiar tinge in my heart- the call of nature, the urge to plant and be filled with the peace that comes to me every time I am doing what I love.
Since I had found out that I would need to find another place for my business, Rockwall Body and Soul Massage, soon, I had made a conscious decision to step away from my beloved patio and not to purchase the patio sectional that I had wanted or plant new flowers. “It’s not going to be yours much longer,” I reminded myself, “Let it go, let it all go.”
When my client arrived, we chatted just a few minutes and then I started his session. moving my hards, gazing out the window, letting my mind focus on what I love to do and as I was working on him, I felt as if God was speaking to me, a whisper of assurance,
“Plant flowers, Jeanna’, plant flowers here.” and then again, “Go ahead, buy that patio furniture you want. Have faith. Believe that there will be a place for you. ”
Believe. Faith. Plant. Go Ahead.
Tears sprung in my eyes. This is what I needed to hear, to feel– that deep, down assurance, that powerful boost of courage and conviction that didn’t always fit logic but that had always been my guide- God speaking to me.. and my intution kicking in.
I decided right then and there that I would go to Lowe’s after my last session and buy a few flowers and check out the sectionals. During my gap between clients, I jumped in my car and drive over to Greg’s office to share what I had experienced with him and he just smiled at me and told me to go ahead and do what I felt I was told to do.
My next stop was to Tuesday Morning where I went in with the intention to get a birthday gift, gift boxes and tissue paper but, like always, I rambled over to the garden section and then to the wall decor and there was another sign, waiting for me .
“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” Simple black letters on a glass pane spoke further truth to my soul. I held those words in my hands for just a few seconds but they made their mark on my heart.
I found some small garden stones inscribed with e words that I was searching for – a blue one with “love” and two white ones, one with “faith” and one with “believe” and I felt as if this was all coming together in ways that I had not expected.
Saturday morning of March 3, I planted lantana and placed the stone with “BELIEVE” in the middle of the blooms and then I placed “FAITH” in a pot filled with red dianthus and I laid the stone of “LOVE” right by the front door where everyone that walks up will see it and maybe, just maybe they will feel it.
This is one of those times that I just lmow that I am doing the right thing and another thought keeps running through my head, “It is mine, until it is not.”
It is mine… until it is not. It is until it is not.
Let this sink in for a moment. Ponder these words. “It is mine, until it is not.”
This house where I operate my massage studio is still mine, until it is not, and I am going to leave it better than I found it, but most importantly, until the day comes that I no longer have a key, I will fill the place with my presence, with love, with faith, with attention to detail and yes, with red, yellow, pink and purple flowers. I will choose to decorate, to create and to make memories. It is still mine, after all and it is a reflection of who I am and what I want to be known for.but
Maybe this is something that we all need to give some real consideration to. what we have is only ours until it is not…and during that time- no matter how brief or how long- we need to make the most of it. We aren’t guaranteed anything but yet we have enough faith to develop friendships, we have enough courage to start a business, enough love to pursue somone and we believe enough to plant flowers and create gardens.
All these words, all these thoughts, all these choices and one thing I know for sure is that whatever happens, wherever I go, whatever I do, it is my chance, my choice,and only mine until it is not and I want to be known for love, for faith, for believing and for having the courage to listen to the whisper of God and go ahead, to chase my dreams and follow my intuition and to love who I am with and where I am, as long as I can.
It is mine,after all, until it is not.
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This Is What It Looks Like
I hear it all the time, ” You don’t look your age,” and I have always just smiled and took it for a compliment but yesterday I got to thinking .. and I realized something about what that meant.
This is what it looks like.
There ya go. That is it. Isn’t this something that stops us in our tracks .. keeps us from doing what we want … those words…. “what it looks like” holds us captive, doesn’t it?
I know so good and well what those words do to people and to me.
“This is what it looks like.”
As a woman with a severe hearing loss, I have to be careful -all the time- that I don’t stand too close to someone and give the wrong impression.. because of “what it looks like” to others that may not realize that I am trying to read lips. Sometimes when I am with those that know me well, I forget to be mindful of “what it looks like” to those outside my tribe untill I see that all-too-familiar look in their eyes that gives away the thoughts that crosses their mind over and over again.. “what does this look like,what will people think?”
So I back off a few steps and I tuck my hands in my pockets or cross my arms, to hold back my natural tendency to touch as I speak and lay my hands on someone while I’m listening.
After all, I get it, really, I do.
We live in a culture that is so visual, so hooked so social norms, on fitting into perfect places and leaving nothing to chance, to be open to interpretation.
It is so much easier when things look like we think they should… even when they aren’t.
A good example happened to me again today. While checking out at Target, I walked out without one of my sacks and loaded my car. This young guy came up and tapped me on the shoulder and said, “I was calling for you, ma’am, you left this.” and when I smiled and thanked him and explained that I couldn’t hear him unless he was close enough to touch.. he said something I hear all the time. “That”s okay,but, you don’t look like you have a hearing problem.”
I don’t, do I?
After all, what does someone with a hearing problem look like? Would a hearing aid give me away or maybe a cochlear implant? Would it be helpful if the deaf and hearing impaired worn bracelets like the yellow LIVESTRONG or the pink Breast Cancer bracelets? Maybe a little dog-tag on a chain hanging from our necks so that somone will see that and immediately know, “There is one of those deaf people.”
That is what it looks like, after all.
But things are not always what they look like.
That couple you see comparing wines at the grocery store may very well just be strangers sharing a few minutes of laughter and a common ground before parting ways to never cross paths again.
But then again, they may be business associates planning The next event.
The older lady sitting alone at the cafe lost in thought may have just lost her husband and that is why she didn’t respond like she usually does. She isn’t hard of hearing no matter what it looks like. She hears just fine, thank you very much, but she just wasn’t in the mood to chit-chat just yet. That exhausted man at the park with the talkative toddler isn’t a divorced dad putting in his mid-week visitation. He wishes it was that simple, but it’s not. The truth is, he’s been balancing his job, his daughter and a bed-ridden wife for several months now.
But that isn’t what it looks like.
Back to this all over again. If we are always so concernd about what it looks like instead of what we KNOW and what we feel then we are falling into that very same trap that holds so many back and afraid of stirring the proverbial pot.
I wonder, though, if we stopped thinking so hard about what it looks like and instead just decided to take each situation, each encounter with an open mind and a heart that dares to see beyond what it looks like and to see what it really is and what it could be.
Maybe, we would stand closer and touch more often. Maybe we would lean forward without second guessing what the people two tables over will think. Maybe we would strike up a conversation with that guy looking for wine without thinking that it will be inappropiate. Maybe we would hold hands.. maybe we would ask someone if they would like to have lunch or see if they would like to walk to the square for a drink. Maybe we would get up and dance. Maybe we would stop by and see an old friend again without wondering what it would look like to someone else. Maybe we would regret less and live more.
There aren’t really any easy answers to this and I knew that before I started writing my heart out but I know this much for sure- things are not always what they look like and there is always so much more to know, to discover, to learn.
But this is what it looks like. …..and, yes, I really am this age…this is what it looks like to be this age… when you are me, anyway!
Shock
It came as a shock
looking at the picture
she had no idea
that she had let time
cast such a shadow over
the woman she once was
it was enough of a shock
to pull her out of the box
of regrets and mishaps
to begin all over again
with fierce resolve and determination
to conquer the past
shock herself
and everyone else
by becoming the woman
she wanted to be in the pictures
💗Jeanna’ Mead
8 21 a.m. 1-17-17
Jeanna' Soul 
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