Inspirational Monday: Barbara

This beauty draped in lavendar is my fun-loving friend, Barbara!

We had a fabulous time at the Renaissance Elementary Girl Scouts Mother & Daughter Tea Treasured Moments! Have you ever experienced a giddy feeling that you were unable to control even though you try hard? That was me and several other mothers I had the grand opportunity to speak with at the tea party. It was truly a grand time!

I plan to talk more in detail about the tea party (click here to read the details) but since today is Inspirational Monday, I must introduce you to Barbara, one of the shining stars and the motivator behind the idea and the implementation of this glorious event that made my “good” day memorable!

Barbara and I were co-workers. The day I became her neighbor in the adjacent cubicle to hers, we became friends. We brought the 10th floor to life! Other employees would wander down to our cubicles just because they wanted and needed to join in our laughter. We were passionate about dancing, singing and telling our family stories during our breaks. We had such a blast! The work relationship spilled over into our personal lives and I can tell you that we’ve been friends ever since.

During work, I was so impressed with Barbara’s ability to snatch an idea out of the universe and make it her own. She always turned every job assignment into something magical. I was awed by her ability to rally co-workers, managers and executives to make things happen and she did it with such grace and style. I've learned a lot from here.

Well, Barbara has taken her extraordinary ability from the workplace and applied it to every aspect of her children’s life. I’m so amazed at her energy level and her passion to bring and show the world to her three children. She asked the Girl Scout team, "Why not have our own tea party?” And when they agreed, she said, “Ok, I’ve never been to a tea party so what do you do? That’s just like Barbara. She is so special and funny. She just takes on her idea and brings such a distinctive quality to everything she does by making it her own.

I’m so inspired by Barbara’s love and desire to stay involved in her children’s schools, their extra curricular activities and most importantly, her passion and love that she spreads to everyone she knows and meets. She is the reason why we all connected on such a peaceful and loving level. She is truly a loving force!

I have much to share with you about the tea party, but I want to first show you the beautiful women that made their hats sophisticated… Their presence shined and I was excited to be one of the receivers!

Who are what inspires you?

Happy Inspirational Monday!
Photo desciptions are on top...

Barbara speaking to us "tea" ladies - She's wearing that hat!

Have a closer look at Barbara's hat - beautiful!

Ms. Sonya in yellow and black (Hey Sonya, love that vibrant smile!) and yours truly on the right - We shared the same table.

I was walking by and snuck this shot - Her pink bow reminded me of a butterfly.

We had a best hat contest and this beautiful lady shared the win with another lady!

This classy lady was the other winner of the best hat content!

Meet Tracy, she and I talked about blogging! She was rockin that hat with such sophistication!

The next sweet lady, Grant, warrants two photos. Her beautiful hat made me think of a peacock or bird. I loved it!

Again, Happy Inspirational Monday! I hope you enjoyed it.

Have a great weekend!

Today, J and I are off to a tea party. It is our first. We are excited about it. Actually, I'm more excited than J. Talking about tapping into my inner child... It is a mother and daughter event. We are all to wear dresses and the mothers are to wear hats. We picked out our dresses yesterday and we are ready to go. Oh, and I got my camera ready Se'Lah!

I hope that everyone out there in blogsphere have a happy, peaceful and loving weekend!

Sending positive energy your way, always!

Conscious Friday: How was your good day?

With her daddy's baseball cap and sunglasses (notice they are upside down) and my bargain red shoes on, she asked her famous question.

I spend most of my working days alone in my office. I could easily work twelve hours a day, everyday. I admit that there are days that I have to really take long and deep breaths and accept my job, accept my job responsibilities and accept, accept and accept.

One perk of my job is that I work at home full time saving lots of money and spending such quality time with my family. The disadvantage, I'm totally cut off from the physical presence of others. Yeah, sure, I have the telephone and the internet, but I need and gladly find out-of-my-home presence.

However; my daughter, Jannah, a three-year old energetic, loving and vivacious girl that often surpass my expectations when using her imagination, always has a way with words (one of her father’s attributes). After working 11 hours one day this week, Jannah came to me and said, "Mommy how was your good day?" I laughed and said, "My good day was wonderful, sweetie!"

So today, consciously ask someone, "How is your good day?"

Happy Conscious Friday!
(....the conscious creation of Se'Lah over at Necessary Room)

Love Thursday: Waiting on the world to change...

I attend a class at my gym called Body Flow which is a combination of Tai-Chi, Yoga and Pilates. The classes are a creation of Les Mills (former champion body builder). During my class yesterday, the song, waiting on the World to Change by John Mayer, played twice. I love the music and the lyrics of this song. It’s even interesting that at this point of the class where we work on balance and strength, John Mayer’s song is playing.

Balance. That’s a remarkable and natural concept. There’s woman and man - rich and poor - peace and war. There’s more, but my point is that balance is needed by everything and everyone. When there is no balance, we, as humans, suffer greatly. We become so engulfed in our purpose or goal, we lose touch of the very thing we are and that is life. When we focus on using our minds to drive our purpose, we are using mind energy and as Mr. Tolle says, “Mind energy is hard and rigid. Being-energy (true essence of who you are) is soft and yielding and yet infinitely more powerful than mind.”

We need balance in our lives without a doubt. Feel with understanding. Love with non-judgment. We must not allow pain to be our identity. Our identity is manifestation of life. We give our bodies life, which is the same life that is in animals, trees and flowers.

So, look for balance in everyday life. Work hard and play hard. Stand strong with assertiveness when love calls. After we experience hurt, we must forgive and then let all of the pain go because we have no use for it. Pain that lingers within our bodies often becomes ignited after being dormant and then we experience the pain all over again.

The most beautiful and extraordinary concept here is that we don’t have to wait for the world to change. We are the world. So, let’s change.

Happy Love Thursday!
(The creation of Karen at Chookooloonks)

Listen to your heart: John Mayer - Waiting on the World to Change

When Love Calls - From a Relative

Have you ever encountered a friendship or a relative that you simply don't understand how to relate to them? No matter how present you are and want to be; sometimes it feels like the two of you are missing the same vibrational beat.

I recently wrote an email to my aunt explaining to her a feeling that came over me while I was in the middle of preparing dinner for my family. I immediately and abruptly (as I always do when I write) removed myself from the kitchen and sat down to write her. What came out of me in the email was something that I felt needed to be said or else I would not have said it. It is amazing. No matter what the words display when we accept perceived challenges, love and forgiveness should be the motivators behind those words.

Then, I took a deep breath and let it go. When love calls, we must answer loudly, boldly and we must answer with sincere and compassionate love. In response, you receive love and most importantly we both radically forgive.

This was my aunt's final response: I love you... (I didn't actually know how to paste the animation in here but this smiley face opened up with the words... I love you).
My response to her: We are what we look for in others... I love you with my BIG heart (words spoken by my daughter, Ms. J.)

Listen to your heart: Ky-Mani Marley - Who We Are

JAH Works...

It is a pleasure to make a guest appearance here on Operation You. I am so honoured and deeply humbled that Vchelle has invited me into her personal space to share some of my unedited thoughts with you. She has absolutely no idea of what my topic will be so let's just keep this between ourselves.

Vchelle has grown into one of my bestest friends ever and I am forever grateful that our spirits have interconnected on this, our human journey. In one of my darkest hours, I reached out to Vchelle. My spirit moved me to call her when we lost her sister Doris, my daughter's godmother, to breast cancer. Understandably, I only reached her voicemail. Although Vchelle had never met me in person previously, she did not hesitate in returning my phone call and making me feel welcome into her family's circle during this undoubtedly intimate time. I felt comforted in the warmth of her spirit...it was so intense. I was absolutely amazed and deeply touched that instead of mourning, this woman, who had just lost her sister, was comforting me.

I met Vchelle briefly at the celebration of life services for Doris. Barely containing myself, I watched as she gracefully walked the halls of the funeral parlour greeting every guest. I immediately knew it was her because of her uncanny resemblance to Doris. It was so difficult looking at her but I couldn't help it. Her presence commanded attention. I commented to my friend who accompanied me, "This is one strong woman...I certainly could not be that strong were the situations reversed."

Since that day, Vchelle has been a source of comfort, strength, encouragement, and unyielding love (among many other things). I could not hold back the tears when she called me one day and said, "I am not trying to replace Doris but please allow me to be your daughter's godmother on her behalf." She is ridiculously sweet and I often tease her that she is going to give me insulin shock as a result.

As a Rasta woman, I do believe that the spirit which resides within each of us, is in fact the Holy Spirit. JAH is in within each of us.

So as you go about your day, I pray that you will look deep within your very soul and find peace regardless of any situation you may be facing. Have no fear because as long as JAH is on your side, you will be okay. HE will never leave nor forsake you. Always look to the bright side of life because every once in a while, you will cross paths with one of His angels.

One Love, Se'Lah

Listen to your heart:
*Buju Banton & Morgan Heritage: Psalms 23

Inspirational Monday: Getting up that mountain

Photo of cliff on the way up to Kennesaw Mountain's peak

These lovely ladies are Nadra (left) and Dawn (right)

Hi Nadra and Dawn!!!

After my aha! moment (click here to read about it) in the car, I walked up Kennesaw Mountain. At the entrance of the road heading to the peak of the mountain, I said, "The first person that encourages me to get up this mountain, I'm going to take their picture."

I guess because of the expression on my face told the story of pain, Nadra’s and Dawn's voices sprung out at me like thunder. “Keep going, you can do it.” I smiled and jumped at the opportunity to stop climbing. I told them about my feeling at the entrace of the trail and we had a great conversation. They were so sweet and kind especially because they allowed me to take their photo. We were equally impressed and thankful that our Creator allowed our paths - our energy to conjoin together as one. All three of us looked to the sky with gratitude.

I was inspired by Nadra and Dawn, such kindred, smiley and beautiful Beings, to get up that mountain. I successfully made it to the top. Thank you, Nadra and Dawn, because this time the expression on my face was of gratitude rather than pain because I did it with a smile. I felt the energy and the warm hellos from others as we passed each other.

God's universe had given me just what I asked for and that was the opportunity to meet beautiful people that were inspirational and conscious. What a gift! The sign posts we look for, we travel! Isn’t that powerfully amazing?

Who are what inspires you?

Happy Inspirational Monday!

Happy Easter Sunday!

I send lots of peace, joy and a waterfall of love! Beautiful photo taken by Se'Lah

Conscious Friday: Multiple Sclerosis

The top of Kennesaw Mountain

Jeanie and Antonio (Aren't they beautiful?)

Look at that face...(Not a good photo but I had to show his face.)

It was a hectic day in terms of work and I felt the desperate need to embrace nature, specifically the sun. With a little anxiety, I knew just what my Being ordered. I needed to feel my way back to normalcy.

Within minutes, I was headed to Kennesaw Mountain. It was in the 70’s and the weather was perfect for exhaling and healing. There was no music playing in my car and I felt as if the silence was stroking my head with comfort. The idea came to me like a flash of light to the core of who I am. I’m going to ask complete strangers today (inspired by Sunnyboy over at Sunnydaytodaymama) who or what inspires them in honor of Inspirational Monday and what subject they are passionate about in honor of Conscious Friday. I wanted to share the very thing that we are – energy.

On the way up the steep mountain trail, I met Jeanie and Antonio, her beautifully-colored black, gray, white and tan Collie. Gayle over at PlanetMFiles helped bring to present my childhood dog, Lans and then I saw Antonio. That was exciting! Anyway, Jeanie and I shared touching stories of our former pets and connected on the same frequency. During our conversation, she mentioned that she and Antonio recently walked for the fight against Multiple Sclerosis in honor of her friends who have the disease. Please click here to read about the details and effects of this disease.

So, on this Conscious Friday (Se'Lah's creation), I would like to send love, peace, healing and strength to Jeanie and her friends and all of those who are winning the fight against Multiple Sclerosis.

For information on Multiple Sclerosis and how you can get involved, please click here to go to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Sending positive energy your way, always!

Happy Conscious Friday!