Category Archives: Inspirational

A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes…

My friends hate Disney World. This bothers me. I don’t hate Disney, although they’re a huge corporation; a big conglomerate that doesn’t stop at Disney but sprawls over oceans and across continents like most historic empires. I don’t think my friends hate them for this reason either. Although they blame their hatred of all things Disney on their high ticket prices, and $5 bottles of water, I think it is something that goes deeper than this.

Lately, I’ve heard a lot of talk about people disliking Disney’s “Princess” message, and that it’s dangerous for little girls to grow up thinking they are one day going to find their “prince charming and live happily ever after.” I will admit to being a victim of this mentality, but reality made sure it didn’t last for long. I don’t think I’m the only woman who after years of dating jerks and creeps, was surprised to find out that even “Prince Charming” is less than perfect, human if you will. Regardless of this surprise, I still don’t hate Disney.

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Filed under Dreams, Fairy Tales, Fun, Inspirational, Life Lessons

The People You Meet While Working in a Nursing Home

Years ago I worked as a receptionist for slave wages at a local nursing home. For the most part, I had nothing in common with anyone. I made a few friends in the office. They were great people but were all familied and coupled up, much older than me, and we remained nothing more than work friends. The office workers were friendly for the most part but pretty miserable when it came to their jobs. I couldn’t blame them. After the billing department wrestled my yearly raise of 35 cents per hour down to 25 cents, and then the following year from 35 cents to 15, I couldn’t imagine how they’d been treated over the years.

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Filed under Friendship, Healing, Inspirational, Life Lessons, Random Acts of Kindness

Shamanism: Reading the Signs of Your Life

Painting by Hayley Rose

Who says Shaman have to be traditional Native medicine people grandfathered in by an ancient lineage of metaphysical healers? This is what most people think of when they hear the term ‘shaman.’ The truth is that anyone can begin the spiritual practice of reading the signs around them, no journey quest required!

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Filed under Fun, Healing, Inspirational

Karma, Kinda

My grandmother drove a powder blue Monte Carlo. Whenever she drove anywhere, she was constantly approached by men and teenage boys who wanted to buy her car. She had no interest in selling it. She loved that car intensely and even said she wanted to be buried in it. I’d dismiss her idea as crazy, then quietly wonder  how wide of a hole they’d have to dig to do such a thing. I’d picture the grounds keeper sweating profusely as he dug. After half a day, he’d finally finished digging the hole, and  like a traffic cop, he signaled the others to lower it into the ground using a crane.

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Filed under Fun, Healing, Inspirational, Life Lessons

The Worst Piece of Advice I Ever Got

Mariah Carey, Rainbow

Mariah Carey is quoted saying, “Never, never listen to anybody that tries to discourage you,” and she’s right. She is just one example of a person who faced adversity and challenges, yet continued to work hard until she achieved success and then some. When most people think of Mariah Carey, J.K. Rowling, Barack Obama, etc, they often view their great achievements as effortless, and fail to acknowledge the years of hard work they put into getting there.  Most people have put them on pedestal so high, they believe it’s impractical for the rest of us to reach such lofty goals, or even dare to dream them.

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Filed under Inspirational, Life Lessons, Passion

Random Acts of Kindness

What would you do if you were walking down the street minding your own business when a little old man started to chase you down the sidewalk with a tomato in one hand and a wedge of cheese in the other shouting, “Tomat and chez! Tomat and chez!”

Okay…How about if you were walking back to your car after exiting the grocery store and a woman driving a mini-van full of stuffed animals began chasing you in an attempt to wave you over to her?

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Filed under Friendship, Inspirational, Life Lessons, Random Acts of Kindness

I Am a Rape Survivor

Tree in Saguaro, Hayley Rose, Copyright 2005

You too may be like me, a rape survivor, essentially a member of a club that no one ever really plans on joining. As you probably know, this club is not all that elite, as one in every six women has been sexually assaulted. If you’ve successfully survived this ordeal, perhaps you identify with the dictionary’s definition of survivor, one who continues “to function or prosper in spite of opposition, hardship, or setbacks.” For me, this wasn’t always the case.

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Filed under Healing, Inspirational, Sexual Assault

My Fascination with Frida

The dreariness of my high school’s art studio was enhanced by the pea green walls and matching green and white checkered floor tiles, clearly décor left over from the sixties or seventies. Whenever my art teacher was particular back logged, she would torture us with some droning educational video on the life of an artist. Most of the time if she wasn’t looking, we’d sleep through them, taking little interest in art’s making. Most of the artists on these tapes were white men, European or American. Then one day she put in a video about a Mexican woman I’d never heard of: Frida Kalho.

frida-kahlo1

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Filed under Art, Inspirational

Get Busy Living

Years ago when I was waffling through my own misspent youth, my father quoted me a line from his favorite move, “The Shawshank Redemption.”  The film itself is about a wrongly imprisoned man who spends two decades chiseling a hole in his cell wall that eventually leads him to his freedom. This movie is very insightful; the plot alone metaphorically serves as an example for the persistence and human spirit it takes to reach a goal without breaking, no matter how impossible. The movie quote really did change my life, and I’ve thought of it through the years whenever I became hopeless.

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Filed under Inspirational, Life Lessons

How to Find Your Passion

 

Image Via Detritus

I have found the “secret” to identifying your passion. It’s not like all those other “how to find your passion,” articles you may have read. The method I discovered is obvious- and if you hadn’t already figured it out, you’re about to have one of those- But Dorothy, you’ve always had the power to go back to Kansas– moments.

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Filed under Inspirational, Life Lessons, Passion, Sea Glass, Writing