Love & Growth Beyond Measure...What is success to you?

I've had this quote saved for a long time and re-read it recently. The power of the written word can really grab hold of you. This touched me so deeply now as if I had it saved all those years for this day...

Chasing success is like trying to squeeze a handful of water. The tighter you squeeze, the less water you get. When you chase it, your life becomes the chase, and you become a victim of always wanting more.
If you refuse to change your job (if you don’t like it), the only sensible thing you can do is practice loving it every day.
Enjoy everything that happens in your life, but never make your happiness or success dependent on an attachment to any person, place, or thing.
The more you see yourself as what you’d like to become, and act as if what you want is already there, the more you’ll activate those dormant forces that will collaborate to transform your dream into your reality.
Most people are searching for happiness outside of themselves. That’s a fundamental   mistake. Happiness is something you are, and it comes from the way you think.
You are in a partnership with all other human beings, not a contest to be judged better than some and worse than others.
Life is never boring, but some people choose to be bored . . . boredom is a choice.
Treat yourself and others with kindness when you eat, exercise, play, work, love, and everything else.
Money, like health, love, happiness, and all forms of success that you want to create for yourself, is the result of living purposefully. It is not a goal unto itself.
The opposite of courage is not so much fear as it is conformity.
Try viewing everyone who comes into your life as a teacher.
Forgiveness is the most powerful thing you can do for yourself. If you can’t learn to forgive, you can forget about achieving true   success in your life.
There are limits to material growth, but there are no limits to inner enlightenment.

The Heart of a Woman

The heart of a woman

No limit extends to others without thought 

Unconditional and not premeditated

Giving until others are happy

Extending until there is outside calm

Keeping the peace at the sake of her own uneasiness 

Pushing her wish because it doesn't fit in

No one asked - she just does 

Until the day she is weary and doesn't know why

Until she has nothing left for herself and finally realizes that it all needs to start with herself 

Her heart is hers first and foremost and is not to be given away only to be shared : it's nearness alone can breathe such life into another

Appeasing

Serving

Bending 

Ensuring others' happiness before her own

Through time, it all leaves her empty with a realization that all she needs is her own medicine to heal

Her own love to uplift

Her own hug to warm

Her own smile to cheer

Her own adventures to inspire

Her own ear to feel seen

Her own song to awaken her

Her own prayer to believe again

Her own heart to bring her back & fill her with love

Throw yourself a party

You're the guest of honor and you're the only guest.
You're initial reaction may be to think, 'how sad'.
Instead, think, 'how liberating', 'how fun', 'how freeing'...

Because it'll be the party of the century.
The party you've been wanting to attend.
The party of your life.
Celebrating YOU!

I'm opening myself up. I'm releasing one finger at a time of this clenched fist of mine.
Allowing myself to feel with the palm of my hand.
I'm tearing down walls and seeing lots of exposed things I've known have always been there but never taken the time to really look and feel them.
There's a lot of dust, dirt, animals that jump out and surprise me; There's also lots of great pictures, memories that make me smile and laugh out loud. Lots of warmth and a little worry about how to redesign that space.

I'm learning to forgive myself for for not granting permission to feel all of it. I think I skated - glided through the surface of many experiences in my life and kept moving to forget, to not feel; to not feel the pains; to not feel the depths of joy for fear of them leaving. Luke warm enough to get a little bit of both and move on.

In retrospect, I haven't been very nice to the real me. I've pushed her aside. Ignored her; forced her to be someone she is not and told her to suck it up when she was weary or losing faith. Left me feeling scared - alone - weary to be me.

Today and moving forward, I forgive myself for not showing up; for not standing up FOR myself; forgive myself for skimming by the hurt; numbing the great just to make it's goodbye seem less painful or significant; for distracting myself with things that weren't meaningful.

So welcome me to my own party. Celebrating all of it. Celebrating the freedom to feel all of it; Celebrating not having to ask for permission to be me and for not having to apologize for any of it.

There's no need to be sorry. You are exactly what you need to be at this moment. You are fully equipped with beautiful gifts for yourself and for this world. Open the box. Go ahead. Throw it all up in the air and hug it...each piece of you.

Celebrate yourself today...