All of us have experienced the joys and sorrows of life. We all have the scars to prove it, even if we hide them. No one is exempt. We all need to Just Breathe, and heal. I believe doing it together is more fun than doing it alone. I believe we can not only share one another's burden's, hold one another's hands, but we can also teach and inspire one another in ways that traditional therapies cannot. We have all learned many things as we have experienced this thing called life. I want to know what you know. I want to learn what you've learned. I want to hear your stories, borrow your strength, lend you mine and join together to give what we are all ultimately looking for ~ acceptance, joy, friendship and support. This is the purpose of Just Breathe.
So Just Breathe, sit back, enjoy the moment you're in, learn and grow....and heal in the company of friends. Welcome!
Kelly Petersen
Today's inspiration:
"Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all of your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possiblity into flames of achievement."
~Golda Meir~
As promised, a guest contributor combined with an excerpt from my book manuscript....enjoy.
“Why do you look so sad?”
“I don't know.” she said. “I'm not hurting as you seem to think I am. I love my husband and my step-children. I even love Sylvie to a certain degree. I love the work. I love the village. I love the fruit. I love where love is given me. I grew where I was planted.” She motioned to the cherry tree. “And I give the best fruit I can.”
I sat there and shook my head. No, this isn't all the doom and gloom I was certain lay beneath her rough exterior. Me the armchair psychiatrist, who thought she had the world pegged, didn't. But I still had something to learn here, and she wasn't escaping until she told me. I wouldn't have wanted to try to live if I'd had no children. How does she do it? Apparently the last part was spoken out loud because she looked at me a long time. Then she spoke with an almost sacred serenity to her voice.
“Golda Meir once said, 'One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present'. I understand Sophia, that you have had awful things happen to you. My parents did as well when they were held prisoner at Buchenwald during the war. Before my mother became pregnant with me she tried to heal from the effects of a prison camp and starvation but ultimately it killed her as she gave birth to me. In a way, my father died as well that day, an inner suffering I cannot imagine. I saw families who continued to be tortured and mistreated long after the war. Many people suffer, some much worse than we can ever know and somehow they survive and thrive. I don't know how to tell you to, I don't know what you're looking for. Do you?”
“Yeah, I'm looking for someone to give me the secret to want to keep living no matter how hard life gets.”
She patted my hand. “No one can give you that secret dear. You have to decide for yourself. Only you can live for what matters to you. Only you decide what those things are. When you give up on what you believe in, then you wither away, no matter what your age may be, no matter what your strengths or weaknesses may be. When you lose your faith, your hopes, your dreams; it is like the sand washing out from under your feet as the waves rush back out to sea while you stand waiting at the beach. Your fears cripple you there. Your hopelessness and despair has taken the wind from your sails and left you stranded on a deserted island. You think you see so much in my eyes, but I watched you as you painted me. I saw you drowning in fear. Only you can be the one to step off that island; swim, or drown. But only you can do it. What do you want most? Go get it. What do you fear most? Go face it. Only your own self-doubt will defeat you now. Will you grow in the soil you're given or die laying in it?”
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