Jessica Lynn Lee
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The Power of Intention

5/22/2022

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I need to learn how to harness the power of intention in my every day life.  For some reason I only remember to use this power when I feel the outcome is completely out of my control. I really racked my mind to recall the times I have utilized this power of intention and I could only recall three:

  1. I moved to sunny Hollywood, CA and took the advice of a celebrity I followed at the time.  He was talking more about relationships and said to be very intentional about who you want to come into your life and the types of relationships you want to create.  He said you can find shallow people, ladder climbers, and the flakiest of the flakes if you want, but you can also find amazing, loyal, lifelong friendships if you want to.  I followed his advice.  I set forth my intention to make quality friendships and I did just that in a sea of not so quality people.
  2. I moved to sunny Florida with a mountain of debt and a history of horrible roommates from California. I really wanted to find a quality roommate in an area of town I would like and feel safe.  I set my intention and found a great roommate in a great part of town where I would be sharing a nice house.  I was a little scared at first because the price was at the top of my preferred range, but the pics she sent me of the bedroom had two of my three power animals and I took it as a sign.  This roommate ended up being a great friend and almost like a second mother in terms of helping me when I had crazy stuff happen to me.  She is the best roommate I ever had and probably ever will have.
  3. Golf.  When I moved back to Tennessee and back to the one city I said I would never move back to (just never say never, people) I got into golf.  I love nature and outdoors and love to go hiking, but there are only so many places to hike in the flat western half of Tennessee so my brother suggested I give golf a try.  After the first couple of seasons, I decided that I wanted to get good at golf.  I like it for the challenge that it is.  I set my intention this past winter and as the season warmed up I started practicing a lot and I paid attention to things I hadn’t really paid attention to in the past like how I line up and swing with each club and iron.  I also paid attention to how far I could hit with each so when in the field I wasn’t guessing so much.  And then one very busy afternoon on the course I got a bit of advice that changed my game for the better.  I really hope I run across this golfer again so she can see how far her advice has taken me.
To be honest, my life feels more out of control than it ever has.  I feel like I am coming up to an important cross road as if I don’t make the right move it might be game over for me.  I might not be able to catch up, to change things in the way I need to for myself.  And I have to admit that I already sort of think that it might literally be too little, too late anyhow.  I guess this is why I am thinking about the power of intention.  I am facing what feels impossible and I don’t feel like the outcome is in my hands at this point.  Only instead of it being one specific focus, it is my life and every single little part of it that is in dire need of repair.  I guess I need to make a list and start with the first one and set that intention and start moving forward.  Some things can feel silly to set an intention for, but I am beginning to believe that you can set an intention for anything and set about doing what you can and at some point God, The Universe, Fate or whatever you want to call it - will line things up and help you achieve your intention.

Just stay open though - sometimes the people that show up in your life are not at all what you would expect in my limited experience.
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Getting a Jump Start on Resolutions

10/3/2021

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I know some of you are going to be like why is she talking new year’s resolutions when it’s only October!  Well, it is something that has been impressed upon me.  A nudging if you will.  And it was more of a figure out what you want for 2022 and start putting that energy out into the universe kind of thing.  Start focusing on what you are wanting to attract into your life and the things you want to change in your life including the bad habits that need to be left in 2021.

What I came up with was a tall order.  I know I manifested some of my current life and it does not fit me.  Instead of being upset by this I should just play with the universe again and dial up something different.  And that is what I am trying to do starting now!  Of course, it is helpful that I clearly know what doesn’t work for me and that is the safe road.  I should have known this because every time I try to play it safe, it always backfires.  I get bored easily, really easily.  I need new challenges, new adventures and new places and things and I need them frequently.  Notice I did not put people in that category.  My humans are the only thing I wish would stay the same. LOL.  We’re all moving about on our own journeys and sometimes we can’t stay with certain friends even though we’d love it if we could.  Thank God, we live in a world with fast mass transit!  

Okay, back to my resolution for 2022.  Yes, I have just one thought that can get broken down into so many pieces.  That thought is to Create A Life I Enjoy Living.  Sounds so simple, but is quite the opposite.  What encompasses a life I enjoy living?  Well, for starters, I’d like to live somewhere with good hiking and also near a coast because the ocean is a calming influence on my life. And a cooler climate maybe? I don’t do so well in heat and sun light. I’d also like a job that interests me, challenges me and provides a lot new and different mixed into my day-to-day duties.  A nice and safe place to call my home is very important.  A dog or two too! A committed partner who is looking for someone to play with for the rest of their time on this planet, pretty please?  A good group of quality friends in my city of residence is a must!  Right now, my quality friends are everywhere except where I currently live.  A good spiritual community that fits me. The ability to travel more frequently than I can right now.  A physically, mentally and spiritually healthy me - not sure what that looks like at the moment.  I would also love to know what I’m supposed to be doing on this planet besides breathing air.  Tall order, right?  Maybe this is why I need to start putting this energy out there now.

I seem to be bad at choosing.  Men, jobs,… the only thing I am really good at choosing is my meal at a restaurant.  I never get that wrong. Taurus vibes, when it comes to food, we always know what we want.

It’s been a long hard year.  Much of it has been spent being in constant pain and dealing with constant pressure in my abdominal region.  I have gained 25 pounds as a result so now I am fat, in constant pain and super uncomfortable.  At first, my weight gain was welcomed, but it just kept coming and coming and it got to the point that I was no longer happy about my weight.  This coupled with a long commute to a job that is 100% boring and not the right cultural fit for me makes it soooo much worse.  The fact that I went down instead of up in pay with a whole host of health issues I need to see a doctor for makes it all even worse.  I am fighting to get back above water financially and the horizon does not look good.  And this brings me to a week ago when I was pressed to figure out what I wanted 2022 to look like and to start putting that energy out into the universe.  I was told to not worry about feasibility or my age or anything really.  Just to play with the universe and not take anything too seriously.  That last bit is something I have been told way too many times.  Maybe I should start listening.  I can make a mountain out of any mole hill.

The only thing sort of within my control right now is eating habits and starting to work out again despite the pain and the pressure.  For me that means doing the kind of workouts I like and not worrying about the outcome.  I hate running and jumping and anything high energy.  If I am going to run it is going to be on a bike.  I like spin, barre, pilates, yoga and walking/hiking and some dancing here and there.  These are the activities I am reinserting in my life no matter how slow or modified or intermittent I have to do them.  It has been said that if you start with one thing, the other things will fall into place.  So here I am starting with one thing, letting the universe know what I am looking for and trusting that God and the universe will play back.

What about you?  If you had zero limitations, what would your life look like?  Maybe it is time to start putting that energy out there and remain open to what comes back!

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You Are Welcome Here

7/23/2021

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I have been using an app for daily mindfulness meditations from mindfulness.com.  The meditations come with a short thought video preceding the meditations and on one of these videos I encountered the phrase “you’re welcome here”.  Instead of fighting disruptive thoughts we should instead, acknowledge and welcome them by politely saying, “you’re welcome here”, whenever they arise.

I took this practice out of meditation and into my daily life.  There are times I become so overwhelmed by my emotions and thoughts that I feel incredibly hopeless and just cry for hours.  This has been happening a lot lately.  I know that I am in a season of turmoil like so many others right now, but I find myself surrounded by those that are well, not.  

It’s been a hard road these past five years.  Lay off, after lay off, after lay off only to be met by a pandemic and I haven’t even mentioned my medical issues.  I turned the big 4-0 in the pandemic while living at home, without a job and piled high with credit card bills that were half medical bills and half my trying to have some fun.  I did eventually find work, but it was manual, cheap, labor and barely allowed me to eat while taking care of my hefty minimum payments.  Things have turned the corner in that I have a new career position, however, the pay leaves a lot to be desired.  Combine that with a long commute and being bored out of my mind and you understand why I feel that my step forward might actually be a step backward if I cannot catapult from this situation into a much better one within a year.

Driving home the other day I passed by a nice large house where four or five kids are usually playing in the yard.  Instead of kids, there was a giant sign wishing a very happy 40th to the lady of the house and I just wept.  All it really takes is one person I don’t even know to send me into a tail spin.  The feelings of feeling left behind, abandoned, forgotten and not to mention pathetic washed over me.  I don’t know, I just always assumed everything would work out and I would have everything I wanted and needed…. For me, however, life has ended up very differently.  On top of that, I don’t know if I can play catch up at this point.  That is what terrifies me the most right now and poor God has to listen to it almost every night.

This morning was no different.  I was sitting at my kitchen table having my favorite breakfast of egg and olive toast and a piping hot cup of matcha tea when I just lost it over my current situation and that stupid happy birthday sign in my neighbor’s front yard.  But this morning, I remembered the whole idea of not fighting our disruptive thoughts and instead welcoming those thoughts and so I did.  I said to myself, “oh, yeah, You’re welcome here you thoughts and feelings of being forgotten.  You’re welcome here you thoughts and feelings of feeling lost and overwhelmed.  You’re welcome here you thoughts and feelings of being pathetic.  You’re welcome here you thoughts and feelings of never catching up.  You’re welcome here. You’re welcome here.  You Are Welcome Here.”  Something interesting happened the moment I stopped fighting those disruptive thoughts and feelings and instead accepted them.… They Vanished!  Whatever was coming over me vanished.  I even tried thinking about them again, but the power they had over me had vanished.  I’ve heard time and time again that acceptance is the only path forward and in this instance the saying definitely rings true. 

I’ve experienced this phenomenon  a few times prior to this morning’s tail spin and I am going to do my best to stop these thoughts and feelings earlier in the process by just accepting them by saying to myself and to them: You are welcome here.

I wanted to pen this in case it helps someone else like it has helped me.  I’d love to hear if it does.  
Shalom
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Weight Gain and Self Worth, They Can Go Together

5/23/2021

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Something interesting has happened as a result of quarantine.  I’ve gained weight, fifteen pounds to be exact.  No, that’s not the interesting part.  What is interesting is that I like myself.  Anyone who has read any of my blog posts knows that I have struggled with body image and self worth for eons.  I have always wanted to be as slender as possible and I have really pushed myself to make this happen - limiting food intake and type along with crazy exercise.  I have also shared that I had trouble seeing myself as I really was and often did not realize all my bones were showing.  Friends had to tell me these things and I would try and eat a little more to make the bones go away.  I am in a totally different place today.

I have come to realize through this weight gain that perhaps there is a reason I have always struggled to be “thin”.  I have a misplaced rib cage and I really think the reason I absolutely love how I look sans clothes right now is because the weight hides the somewhat protruding cage on my left side.  It is really strange to hate the number on the scale, but love the reflection in the mirror.  I guess I need not worry about the scale…  Besides, I am still on the healthy side of those pesky charts…. Hanging on the edge, but those charts have been disagreed upon for as long as they have been in existence so why should I worry about them?  As long as I’m in the ball park I think I am alright.

I really have been working on accepting myself and getting closer to my higher power through a sister religion that places more emphasis on how great and awesome God is and less emphasis on how much we humans miss the mark.   I have been praying and meditating on these intentions and I hope that my liking what I see in the mirror is proof that my intentions are happening.  

I am also trying to open myself up to opportunities of all kinds including those in the significant other department.  Many know that I stopped dating years ago after several horrific things happened to me as a result of dating.  I made myself a dating profile this morning.  It was very painful, but I did it.  While I am still terrified, I am also hopeful that making a couple of profiles and letting them exist in the world will help me slowly open up to the idea that I can have a great someone in my life.  I also intend to get back into Meetups and Facebook Groups and other ways of meeting people in person.  I have never liked the online dating scene and would much rather bump into someone on the street, but as I said before I am trying to be open to possibilities.

I have also been reconsidering what it is I think I am looking for in a man and/or partner.  Looking through these dating profiles has taught me a few things in this department…. One being maybe there is a reason I have always been attracted to red flags.  Not that I need one, but a reformed/mellowed red flag who finally wants to have a real partner in his life to explore, play and enjoy this world with doesn’t sound all that bad at this stage of the game.  After all, I have entered the 40 decade and having someone unencumbered and free to play sounds better than someone who has a lot of strings inhibiting what they can do and where they can go.  Previously, I was desperate to find someone with kids and a house that I could just drop into… Now I am not so sure that is the best way to go…

I feel good about life right now, which is new for me.  I feel good about all of the possibilities and I just have to make sure I keep myself open to what and who might come my way.  I am (hopefully) on the brink of obtaining a new career position and with it might come a whole new life.  I mean even if I stay in Memphis things will change, but I have some pots boiling on the East and West coasts and I am really hoping one of them ruptures at the right price, ya know.  If not, I will stay in limbo and get another for-the-moment job, but then I am reminded isn’t all for-the-moment?


PS - I think I am going to change my blog back to its original form…. Me and my thoughts as I navigate life.
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And She Let Go...

4/4/2021

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She let go.
She watched herself fall.
Onto the rocks below, her dreams in tow.

She thought this was the end.
She thought she would be sad.
She thought she would mourn all she did and did not have.

But she got up.
And brushed herself off
She walked away leaving that life in the dust.

Dreams, Desires and Longings all gone.
She marched forward in freedom,
Her soul humming the melody of a brand new song.

 "The secret to life is to die before you die and find that there is no death."                    - Eckhart Tolle
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Hello 2021

1/1/2021

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I don’t usually know what the new year has in store for me, but this year is a little different.  I know change looms in the distance.  I cannot continue in my current circumstances.  It is impossible.  I also know I might be looking at several changes this year, the timing of which are unknown to me.  It’s not the change that has me anxious, it is the unknown aspect of it all.  Will I like it?  Will it be another ‘try to make the best of a crappy situation’ scenario?  Will it bring me to a new city and if so, will I like it and the city or just one of the two?  All I know is that if the change doesn’t come, I really will lose everything so the change MUST come!!!

My resolutions look different this year too!  My list is more abstract than concrete.  During the year of quarantine I have been doing a lot of reading.  I’ve been really working on fixing some parts of myself that need fixing.  I’ve also been learning more about my God from a different perspective.  If you’ve read anything I’ve written, you know I am technically Christian and 100% spiritual and I’ve been diving into a sister religion this past year.  It’s not the first time either.  But this is a much more in-depth exploration that I’ve ever done in the past.  And that’s what I am calling it, an exploration.  I know a lot about God, the Son, and probably too much about the humans around Him.  Who I don’t know is God, the Father, and that’s who I am getting to know and I am loving what I am learning.

As for my resolutions, it would be easy to say that it all really depends on how this year plays out, on what God graces me with in terms of employment and what not, but that’s not really true.  As I sit here looking over my list, I can see how I can still work on each one regardless of whether I get saved from complete devastation or if I get swept into the trash to be chomped or burned.  Maybe that’s not the right analogy, but it is how I am feeling this New Year’s Eve.

First and foremost, I want to really start combating my initial response to everything which is self-sabotage.  I’m definitely one to run when I shouldn’t and I absolutely love talking myself out of everything and I am really creative when it comes to finding ways to make myself an outsider.  I could seriously write a best-seller on how to make everything fall to pieces every single time.  I should have played baseball because I can bat any opportunity that comes my way out of the park. And I’m good at batting people out too.  These are just some of the things I need to stop doing.  Maybe I will call this an exploration too!  Instead of using my handy vocabulary of “No”, “I don’t want to”, and “I don’t like it”, I will start using words like “yes”, “okay” or “it’s not my thing, but I’ll give it a try”.

Second, I really want to get back to more of who I was before I quit drinking eight years ago.  I want to CDE as I  call it - Create, Design, Explore.  I need more of that in my life and it doesn’t have to necessarily be in the way that I perceive it either. I just need that energy back in my life.  I had all of these ideas that I never moved on and they are all still good ideas so maybe this year I can at least move toward that energy since a lot of it is dependent on my financial status.

And last, but not least, my finances are my final resolution for 2021.  I really need to dig myself out of a rather large hole that is getting bigger and bigger as each day passes.  Yes, a fair amount of this resolution is dependent on my next job, however, there are some things I can do on my end to at least keep the hole from getting any bigger and I am prepared to do those things.  I’ve actually been mentally preparing for a month.

So here’s to a happy, healthy and rewarding year ahead. May what we write on paper become our new reality.  Much love and light and laughter to you and yours!


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Lessons from 2020

12/1/2020

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Oh my, it’s been a minute!  2020 has been both good and bad to me.  How about you?  On the good side, my entire family has been able to remain COVID free.  On the bad side, I have been unemployed for over a year at this point.  I am working for a big box retailer doing online order fulfillment making like 20% of what I did make.  Ouch!  I don’t really have enough to spread around, but I am trying.  Another plus that is also a minus is my holiday 6 days a week and can you always stay much later than scheduled schedule.  I like what I am doing in that the hours fly by because I am so busy, but my body is taking a beating.  Being on my feet and walking and stooping and lifting and all for 8+ hours a day is absolutely brutal.  I had just started a workout and eating program to try and loose the weight I have gained too!  I can only try to eat right at this point because my body can’t do much beyond stretching and resting.  And so this extra weight isn’t going anywhere just like my debt.  I’m trying not to let my circumstances get to me, but it is difficult.  I am beyond scared for myself and my future and my ability to take care of future me, which is non-existent right now.  I have always joked about not having a funeral and just plunging off a cliff into the sea to become fish food… Perhaps I should not have joked about this… it might be my future.  In the same way I should have never joked about my tanning bed being my bright, sunny coffin - that’s how melanoma came into my life.

Anywho, I don’t want to be too down because there are some good things coming out of what I am going through.  And I am learning how to make the most of what is right now.  Like something simple I could have done months ago was flip my schedule.  I have always been a yoga in the morning and a workout at night kinda girl.  But I have flipped my schedule and am trying to do pilates or simple weight training in the morning and stretching out my body at night with recovery yoga.  IDK.  Sometimes intellectuals have the biggest problems with the most simplest things.
I have also finally relented and am taking something to help with my EXTREME temper.  One day I came home from this job I have ready to kill everyone.  I was crying every morning and crying at work and crying when I drove home.  The stress was palpable.  I’ve been told many times in my life that I care too much in the wrong way.  I’ve never really been able to understand, but one night driving home it clicked.  I know that many people in recovery take prescription or herbal medications to help take the edge off or help with that part of them that cannot deal with reality.  Anyone who has read my blog all the way back knows that I have major PTSD type symptoms from a prescription drug that gave me a psychotic break and so I don’t like prescription drugs or medicine in general.  I just kept thinking that at some point I would get enough healing or growth and be “okay” like other people.  Eight years into sobriety I was pushed past my edge and relented.  I obviously don’t have insurance right now (another issue because I have something I need to see a doctor for and I can’t so prayers - PLEASE) and so I went to Sprouts and looked in the emotional well being isle and just prayed that I would pick the right one.  I ended up with a Stress Response bottle from Gaia Herbs and it has changed my life.  I have no idea how it works or what it is doing other than the fact that I am me - only better.  Stuff doesn’t bother me anymore.  Heck, I can even go to the grocery store and run ten errands after work if I need to and I am not bothered by it at all.   (I have previously mentioned my sincere hatred for grocery stores and pharmacies). I am me, but calm.  Apparently I have an over-reactive stress response to basically anything that is required of me. IDK.  Perhaps that’s why I’m an addict.  I don’t know.  But I am hopeful that this herbal supplement will continue to work for me because it is doing what I cannot do for myself.  It also lets me know that it wasn’t me and no amount of will power would have ever changed me - it’s a chemical and/or biological response that I cannot control on my own.  If it weren’t for this whole crazy 2020 situation I am in - I don’t know that I would have figured this out.  And that is priceless!

I am also working on being really grateful right now in all things.  One night at work, I helped a disabled man out of the store.  I found out he also works in retail for a different big box retailer.  He actually does some of the same things I do just a at a much slower pace.  He is so grateful to this retailer (Kohls) for giving him this job and allowing him to do it in his best way.  It made me think that I should be grateful for my job too.  After all, as much trouble as I am having physically and financially he is doing a similar job with a physical handicap that probably makes it even harder on him and he is grateful and I am not.  God really slapped me in the face with that one.  God gets you like that sometimes.
 

A rabbi recently spoke on Jacob and how he always tried to put conditions on his good deeds.  Like if he was trying to barter with God to get what he wanted by saying if You do blank ,then I will do blank for the rest of my life or the rest of this year, etc.  The rabbi mentioned how disgraceful this was and how Jacob should not really be a hero at all other than the fact that we slowly see him change and grow through all of his mistakes and wrong choices.  You can’t please God my bartering with him and you can’t please God doing good deeds because you are trying to get a certain outcome.  The only way to please God is to do what is right because it is the right thing to do.  End of story.  No questions.

And so I am trying to be grateful in all things and I am trying to do what is right in my encounters with my fellow humans for the sake of doing what is right and nothing more.  Especially, now that I am not a raging lunatic ;-)  Besides, doing good deeds to try and get a certain outcome only makes you bitter and resentful.  It’s a trap I have found myself in too many times.  And so I guess that is another vicious cycle I am being freed from in crazy 2020.  My hope is that I can keep these lessons with me as I continue to adjust to my circumstances whatever they may be in the future.
​

How about you?  How as 2020 kicked you butt?  How has it blessed you beyond measure?
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Racism, Riots & George Floyd

6/4/2020

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Everyone is up in arms about the latest African American to become a victim of police brutality - George Floyd.  Violent protests are commencing in many of America’s major cities.  Unfortunately, the toll of these protests might not be felt at the white house or by the police who were involved; instead, the toll will be taken on innocent members of the community who are losing their livelihoods, neighborhood stores where they buy necessities and some are even losing their life.  The toll will also be felt among innocent officers who do not use the tactics depicted in Minneapolis.  The toll will be felt across America as tensions among races escalate and while tensions between police and civilians continue to create an us versus them mentality.  There is no winner in this environment.​

It seems like this is about race, but it really isn’t.  Racism is a symptom of a much greater and deeper rooted evil in our society.  The hard truth is we don’t respect ourselves, we don’t respect each other, we don’t respect the animals and we don’t respect the planet.  You cannot respect life and create violence at the same time.  A society that respects all forms of life has no violence.

The problem is that we think there is a difference between a human and an animal, between a white man and a black man, between a man and a woman.  And yes, on the surface, there are some key differences that we allow to become our focus.  What we should be focusing on, where respect for all life lies is in our sameness.  We all have a spirit inside of us and that spirit does not age.  Ask anyone who is in their elder years and they will tell you that while their body feels old, their spirit still feels like a little kid.  It’s a weird phenomenon, but it points to an eternal truth.  We each came to this planet, but before we could “arrive” we had to be given an earthly body.  I liken the differences of our bodies to the differences one might find driving down a street looking at homes.  There are blue ones and green ones and red ones and white ones and yellow ones and even purple ones.  Some of the houses are short and slender while others are compact and tall.  Some are dirty and others are pristine. Some have protrusions while others have a smooth surface.  While all of the houses on this street are different on the outside, they are all the same on the inside in that they provide shelter for people and some animals.  The outside doesn’t really have anything to do with the inside.

We are the same.  We all have an earthly body or as I like to call it a “carcass” because that is what it is - it’s a temporary home for the spirit that inhabits this body while on planet earth.  It is nothing more.  And just like the homes, there are brown bodies, black bodies, beige bodies, red bodies and white bodies.  And each body has a spirit living inside of it while it is on this planet.  It is the same with the animals too.  All bodies are temporary homes for life on earth.  The outside doesn’t mean anything - we just want it to and thus we begin to create divides that aren’t really there at all.

The only answer to prejudice in any form is to acknowledge that we really are all the same and thereby start respecting each other.  No, you aren’t going to love everyone and there are going to be people who get on your nerves or who you just don’t like for one reason or another, but you can still respect the being inside them.  The one you might know and spend time with long after this earthly body turns to dust.  You don’t have to like someone to respect them.

This lack of respect keeps cycling through our planet, generation after generation.  Slavery in all of its forms, genocide, the Holocaust, civil wars, gang violence, political upheaval, racism, religious wars, deadly road rage, mass shootings, etc… all of these horrific events boil down to a lack of respect for others you deem different from yourself.  The awful truth is - it is a lie.  There is no difference.  We are all the same.  To rip it out at the root we must bring respect back into society.  If we don’t… we will bully, torture and murder until the earth blows up.  What kind of world do you want?  It really is up to you.
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May 26th, 2020

5/26/2020

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Everything is temporary if you give it enough time - Jewel
This strangely gives me comfort.  No, I’m not afraid of commitment  - it’s just that I am a Taurus and I tend to assume that this is it forever every time I hitch my cart to anything.  Probably because I want so badly to hitch my cart to something and someone I actually want and anything outside of that is putting what I want another couple of years away or so I think.

I have an opportunity to step into a management position with the retail store I have been working at part-time.  On the one hand it is the exact opposite of what I want: weird hours, no weekends, no holiday time off and all that standing - ugh.  It’s also in Memphis - that place I don’t want to be.  I mean I refuse to ever buy any property here and I feel that as long as I am here I will have zero friends and no man! I know I supposed to be giving up on that man part per my previous post, but while I am not actively seeking I am also very open to the right person showing up in my life.. ya know? Any who,  I want to go north. My winter skin came back and it is not leaving.  Northwest or Northeast and on a coast!  I miss the ocean.  Even though I only went at sunset or at night - I still love and need that big beautiful body of water. I want rolling hills or mountain tops and tall trees to give me shade.  I want ALL of the seasons and a cooler climate.  Memphis is flat, dangerous and only has two seasons.  I live out on the outskirts and have not had much luck in making friends here.  The ones I do make leave soon after and are usually from out west or up north and that is where they return.

Okay so getting back to the opportunity… On the other hand, this position would take the financial pressure off of me and allow me to knock my debt back down and take care of any medical needs as needed.  This position would also look good on my resume since it would be a management position that deals with HR, Finance, some Operations and the sales floor.  It just means staying put.  Staying in Memphis and slamming the door on well…. Everything I ever wanted - not that I would get it, but staying put sorta makes it a 100% NO in my feeble little mind.

I don’t know.  I think the no marriage and no kids thing is really starting to weigh on my soul.  It has been made clear to me by others that I constantly try to invent “traditions”.  And I am reminded over and over again that just because I do something and I like it and its a holiday - doesn’t mean it becomes a tradition.  I apparently try to rope friends and family members into my so called traditions and they really wish I would go find someone to do “my traditions” with and leave them out of it.  I have to say it is kinda true.  I have held a tradition of seeing the play A Christmas Carol every Christmas season and no matter where I am I always rope someone into seeing it with me and then I make them go to dinner after and listen to me talk about how great it was and what the story means to me that year.  My family went to the beach over a couple of Thanksgivings and I tried to make that a tradition.  I was like this is awesome and its our new Thanksgiving tradition and they all yelled in unison back - No! It’s Not! Leave us alone, Jessica!

I digressed again.  This is what happens whenever I am faced with any sort of decision.  I don’t know why I make everything into an end all be all type of situation when I am the Queen of Departure.  I guess my age is throwing a wrench in everything right now.  I suddenly feel as if I have to absolutely get it right or it’s all over for me.

In the book I am reading, The Power of Now, it talks about surrendering to what is and not allowing any resentments or irritations to crop up.  If you can’t shake the irritant, then allow it to pass through you.  Well the past few days I have been allowing a giant irritant to pass.  I don’t know I can’t just snap my fingers and surrender.  I have to treat it like “Lady Time” in that I understand that I am going to feel like death and be depressed for about three days and then I’ll be better.  I find myself doing the same with irritants.  I cannot just surrender to them.  I have to allow them to pass through me understanding that I am going to feel sick and depressed for a while, but it will eventually pass.  I am trying to do that with this job opportunity.  I am willing myself to see it as a possible answer for me right now.  I have been doing a visualization that I learned from an Abundance Challenge from Deepak Chopra.  You imagine yourself sitting on a beach and you have a pen, a piece of paper and a bottle with you.  You write down your main intentions on the piece of paper, roll it up and stick it in the bottle and cap it.  You watch yourself stand up and hurl the bottle and your intentions into the vast ocean of possibility knowing that the Universe (and God) will do the delivering.  I guess it is a manifesting technique.  I have been doing  this with my top three intentions: Right job for me right now; meet, befriend and marry my life partner; write and create from home and be very successful at it.  

I am trying to understand that this opportunity might be the right job for me right now.  It might be what I am supposed to do.  It’s not like it is easy to get a job across the country right now or get a work from home job right now or get any job right now.  Maybe this is my next right move.  I was just really hoping to relocate and get back into higher education which has great hours, great time off (especially around the holidays) and is typically a great long term place for women.  Of course, the higher education industry has been hit extra hard by COVID-19 and most universities are on hiring freezes for anything except absolutely necessary positions.  So maybe this is the next right move for me right now.  Maybe this leads somewhere I cannot see… maybe this is a stepping stone and not a rock to be kicked out of the way.  It is out of left field that they are even thinking of me for the position.  I will have quite a learning curve ahead of me.  And I mean if I keep saying I need to get my hand off the steering wheel aren’t I supposed to let go and let God and the Universe steer?  Right now I am in the let’s just allow it to pass through me stage which means a lot of crying about not moving, not getting my own place, not getting a dog and not getting anything else I desperately want.  I am allowing myself to feel these things understanding that I don’t actually know anything.  I have judgements, not facts, and so I let go of the wheel and say yes to what is.
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Living on Breadcrumbs

5/7/2020

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Well, one thing I have learned through current books and a meditation series is that I have a problem with uncertainty.  It is true that I don’t feel okay unless I have a plan for everything.  The plan can be absurd and not make any sense - it’s just having the plan that matters.  The universe is apparently done putting up with me and my plans - at least for the time being.  I am living on breadcrumbs.  Every time I get to that point where I might actually default on everything I get just enough to keep me going for another week or two or three.  It’s like I really am having to surrender anything and everything I could ever want to God and the Universe.  I am being forced to have no plan.  

My part-time job came back in a big way giving me full-time hours out of the blue and I was  so happy.  Finally, I thought, I can start tackling my debt again and start making the interest payments on my car again and you know splurge at the grocery store!  I thought the pressure was off and I could wait for more things to open up so I could land myself somewhere good… Then I learned through conversations that what had been presented by management was not the actual truth.  That if anything, I was hired back on to do a bunch of grunt work until store management was sure about the business staying open,  then all of the regular employees would come back and I along with the few others in my classification would loose our hours again.  It’s just heart breaking.  And that’s not all.  I have a foot problem.  A problem that might diminish my one joy in life - hiking.  A problem that might require surgery.  A problem that is keeping me in excruciating pain while I am taking these few breadcrumbs that have been dropped in my lap.  I can’t even!…

Had I gotten my new part-time job a few weeks before I would have been eligible for that $600 COVID paycheck, but I’m not.  The good news would have been that if businesses are able to start staying open I can look for more part-time jobs with guaranteed hours, but all of those jobs will require standing and walking for several hours a day…Something that will make surgery my only option with my new foot issue.  I think I am being taught how to truly live one day at a time trusting that God and the Universe will provide what I need when I need it.  Perhaps I am also being taught a serious lesson on trust…. Or God’s just removing my hands from the steering wheel the only way He can… That could totally be it too.  You know they say when you are drowning you have to stop fighting to survive just long enough for the lifeguard to get his arms around you and start taking you back to shore.  Maybe you have to do the same in life…. I am certainly there.  I don’t even have the will to try anymore… I just want to give up, but I can’t even do that… all I can do is take the breadcrumbs given.  Wake up every day and tell God and the Universe (I don’t use these interchangeably) what I need and wait and see what happens.  Like right now I apparently need a job that does not require me to be on my feet all day and I need health insurance like yesterday.  But what job is going to do that and then let me take time off ??? Especially, in this current economic climate?  I don’t know, but it is what I need and so I leave it at the feet of God and the Universe.

All of this has me thinking about who I am on the trail and my never ending pursuit to become that person all of the time.  That person never worries about anything when on a trail.  She don’t even have a plan when she is out in nature.  She just picks a trail and she does it.  She doesn’t worry about what she might encounter either.  She just lives moment to moment in pure joy as she explores all that nature has to offer.  Maybe I need to let my trail life become my blue print for my everyday life.  I do some planning, but not much.  I look at the mileage, the terrain, the weather and then I take what I deem appropriate and I just go.  I leave everything else and I trust I will be okay.  Something else I always do before starting out on a trail is wonder aloud: I wonder what nature has to offer me today?  Will I see any cool wildlife?  Will I encounter any unexpected obstacles?  Will I see something beautiful?  Maybe I should start each day with the question What does life have to offer me today?  Maybe it will help me open up to the possibilities and opportunities around me during this trying time.  Maybe this is the reason for the trying time…
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