Things I’ve Learned in My Emotional Pain #5…

This is a great article by Jim Palmer of  Divine Nobodies .  A friend sent it to me, so I don’t know if it was on his blog or in a devotional, but it means a lot to me and I wanted to share it.  He breaks the things he learned down into six items, and I am sharing each of these with you individually.

Connect with the Real Deep Inside You

What allows you to be moved by the beauty of a sunrise?  How can a song on the radio or a scene in a movie bring you to tears?  What is that deep connection you sometimes feel with others?  How do you account for those out-of-the-blue moments of bliss when you feel free and at peace?  From where do these deep feelings of love and compassion come from?  Pay attention to your deepest feelings, and what stirs deep inside of you.  Stay connected to those deep feelings.  Listen to them.  Act on them.  Don’t skim life on the surface.  It may be that your deep emotional pain opens the door for you to be more aware and connected with the real you deep inside.

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Blessings All Around Me…

Recently I was lying on a fabulous down comforter on a bed in a Hilton hotel room in Minneapolis, soaking up the cool air conditioning and luxurious surroundings , pondering my life.  A year ago I was hauling cases of beer out to customers’ cars while in college and now I’m staying in great hotels on all-expenses-paid business trips in an industry I’ve always been fascinated with.  I am awed and overwhelmed with my continued blessings.  What changes a year makes!

A year ago I was afraid I wasn’t going to find a job to support myself and the kids.  My worry was off the charts.  Now I go to work every day thankful and happy with my lot in life.  I love to give this job all I have not only because I’m thankful but I truly find it exciting and challenging and downright fun some of the time.  I am so truly blessed to have all that I have.

I am glad that the memories of a year ago are still so fresh in my mind and that I can continue to be so thankful.  The job at the liquor store was essential for us to survive while I went to school, and I am grateful to the owners for their help and understanding.  It was a great people place.  But now I work with people in an industry that has always been a fascination to me, I love the job and I am experiencing so many new things.  I am growing and changing and it’s such a good thing.

Growth hurts.  Change can hurt.  But it can also bring about new experiences that never would have happened without the pain.  I have hurt, but I have grown.

Does the Butterfly Suffer?

 

Last night I couldn’t sleep.  This is kind of a regular thing for me, but lately that time of night has been full of creativity.  I write entire blog posts – brilliant ones, too! – and then can’t remember them in the morning.  Last night I actually got up to write this topic down because I started to think about the changes my life has gone through in the past two years.  I have compared this time of my life to the transformation of a butterfly all along.  But last night I started thinking about all the pain I’ve gone through during this time and it started me thinking…does the butterfly suffer, too? 

As nature makes over the simple caterpillar into a thing of beauty, does it hurt?  Does it feel the growing pains of its metamorphasis?  I wonder what the time in the chrysalis is like for the caterpillar.  Is it a restful time while nature takes care of the changes, or is it an intense time of work and struggle?

Regardless of the process, the butterfly and I will eventually emerge – each as a new creation.  The pain we have gone through will be rewarded by discovering we have wings.

Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly…

Countdown…5…4…3…?

This bead collage was created out of loose beads lying on my beading table by my son as a surprise for me.  It says “I Love you, Mom”.   Awwwwwwww!!

 

Any day now.  It’s coming soon!  My graphic/web designer is hard at work getting my site ready to go up.  I am so excited!  It’s been a long journey – longer than I initially planned on.  There were so many decisions to be made.  I have spent many sleepless nights agonizing over every detail…wanting to get it just right.  I finally got to the point where I knew I just had to leap and figure it all out on the way down.  Hopefully that leap will lead to Internet opportunities for business growth.

I’ve got all sorts of plans.  Thinking of things to do is the easy part.  Implementing them is hard.

It’s scary, also, because putting my jewelry pieces out there is a risk.  Will people like them?  It is such a personal thing – my “babies” are being put on display and are being judged!  What will the world think?

We will soon find out…I’ll keep you posted!