How To Survive 2023

I'm a survivor. From where I sit in my kitchen on this cloudy Texas day, I feel peace.

2022 was good to me. 2023 will also be good to me.

This because I choose to see life through a filter of light instead of a filter of dark.

My friend, Donna, challenged my thinking 40 years ago when she suggested we have the ability to create our own reality.

What? Yes!

This is how I do it.

When I find myself thinking darkly, I try to catch it and ask "what is the good in what is happening now?" I find answers and pitch my tent among those thoughts.

I choose how I process. Light is my reality. Goodness chases me. I can apply light to every circumstance and receive creative ideas, solutions, or survival tactics. I can give God my worries, fears, and problems, and receive higher truth about what's happening.

This takes daily practice and I'm still learning. But it works for me. I daily save myself from myself. Wrong dark thinking hurts my heart. Right light thinking helps me soar.

I hope this helps someone.

(Rick gave me an acrylic painting set for Christmas. Here is a painting I made for a friend. I'm not a great artist, but I love to play with color and paint - especially with grandkids.)

Walking Like Captain Jack Sparrow

Do you ever walk around and feel like Captain Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean)? Last night, moving around my kitchen, I walked a little crooked, felt a little tipsy - just like Jack.

Sometimes the truth of what we experience isn't quite what we actually experience. What we feel must look strange to others - others don't even notice.

For example:

We're doing the right thing, but it feels wrong. We're following the rules, but they seem strange. We say "yes" when we're really needing to say "no." We worry when we ought to hope. We doubt when we should be in faith. We're busy when we should be at rest. We're working when we should be playing. We're sad when everything is happy around us.

Oh how I wish my reality would match my inside truth. I want to focus, to say out loud what I mean, to not stumble, to feel like I am doing perfectly and perfectly doing.

But that is not my reality. I'm just me. God made me this way. I stumble. I fall. I forget. I see things differently. And that's ok. If I have to be like somebody, Captain Jack isn't so bad.  #learningtoloveme.

Let Billy Joel sing to you, friend. Pretend your Papa is singing over you! He loves us just the way we are! You are OK and you will be OK! (click)