Congratulations! If you're reading this final Inspirational Love Note from me it means you made it along with the rest of us to the end of this year. It means despite whatever challenges, obstacles, or difficult circumstance that may have come up in your life throughout the year, you overcame them successfully. You made it to the finish line still standing...still breathing...stilling a live.
Therefore, even if the 2011 didn't unfold as you had envisioned this time last year or planned, you still have reason to celebrate tonight. Why? Because the despite all that didn't go your way this year the most important thing that did work out in your favor is that fact that you made it to the end of this year. Therefore, you are blessed and that in and of itself is worthy of celebrating tonight as we welcome in the new year.
Before we bring this year to a final close I'd like to take a moment to reflect back to the beginning and connect the dots of all the messages I've shared with you through my Inspirational Love Notes throughout the year. In case you're just coming aboard as a new follower. I began using my gift of creative writing through this blog website in January of this year to encourage and enlighten others by publishing my poetry and original articles here each month to share the knowledge and use of the 12 spiritual powers within all of us.
Let's look back and review those 12 spiritual powers so that you can remember them and take them with you into the new year to continue to use a productive way and see your life expand in a positive way and your most long awaited dreams come true.
In January of this year I introduced you to the 1st spiritual faculty which is Faith. So begin 2012 standing on your faith that this will be the best year of your life thus far with even better still to come. Go in February with an open heart because it the month that represents the 2nd spiritual faculty, Love. Know that with faith and love all things are truly possible. And no matter how much the odds appear to be stacking up against you never give up having faith in love because God is love and He promises to never ever give up on you.
With the power of your faith and and open heart filled with love enter March 2012 using 3rd spiritual faculty, Strength, which the month of March represents. Use the power of your faith and love to tap into your inner strength that will help overcome any obstacles and challenges that may arise along the path of your new year. Move through those challenges with perseverance and fortitude knowing that God promises to be with you in and through all things.
In April remember to get in touch with the 4th spiritual faculty of Wisdom. As you begin your spring cleaning take a few minutes each day to also get centered in Spirit and ask for the guidance, infinite intelligence and wisdom of the Most High to come forth in your consciousness and show you the divine right path and steps to take in your life that will lead you to right decisions concerning every area of your life. Trust me, you'll be surprised what God reveals to you that will change the coarse of your life for the better.
Remember that May represents the 5th spiritual faculty, Power. So by the time you reach the end of the first quarter of 2012, if you continue making good use of these spiritual faculties, you should be moving in stride. Use your inner/spiritual power constructively by taking control of your life and doing what you can do to the best of your ability and leave what you cannot do for God to work out on your behalf. Then go into June ending the first half of the year using the spiritual faculty represented by that month which is Imagination. Spend some time each day do as children do by putting the power of your imagination to use to visualize the life you desire to experience in vivid detail and color. Then release that vision to the Universe to unfold for you in the divine time and perfect way.
As we moved in the 2nd half of 2011 I continued publishing Inspirational Love Notes that explained the last six of the twelve spiritual faculties. So let's now review them beginning with July which represents the 7th spiritual faculty, Understanding. Sometimes life can be very confusing and situations can arise on our paths that leave us in a full state of indecision feeling completely perplexed.
Here is where the importance of this spiritual faculty come into play. In is in those moments in life that we need most to turn within and ask God to reveal to us the power of spiritual understanding. By doing so we can begin to see things more clearly and make better decisions without fear because we feel the confidence of that decision begin led by the wisdom of spirit and not our own intellect, judgment or limited perspective of the situation at hand. Instead, we can following the instructions in the book of proverbs that warns us to lean not on our own understanding but to turn inward to God for guidance and he will direct us and show us the lightened path.
August represents the 8th spiritual faculty, Will which simply means to pray and ask God to His perfect will for your life and allow His will to have dominion over our personal will. If you are born in the month of September you are born under the 9th spiritual faculty represented by this month which is Order. With order being the first law of the universe, use this spiritual faculty to spend time to bring order into your thoughts and your body by fasting from unhealthy foods and beliefs about your life that create toxins in your mind and body. Another good use of this faculty is to rid your physical space of clutter and bring order to your home, office and even your car. You'll be surprised how an orderly physical and mental environment allows you to see more clearly, think and make decisions faster and manifest things you desire in your life with more effective results.
This brings us to the final quarter of the year where October represents the 10th spiritual faculty, Zeal, which means to move through life with enthusiasm. November represents the 11th spiritual faculty, Renunciation, which is a time to release and let go of any persons, idea's, beliefs, relationships, or anything else that may have served a purpose for you in the past but is no longer supporting your personal and spiritual growth. Give thanks for the time it served you good then kindly surrender it back God with love and deep gratitude.
Then move forward in the final chapter of the year where December represents Life. Use the power of this spiritual faculty to close out the month and year remembering the scripture that says Jesus came that we may have life and have it more abundantly. Put special emphasis on the last part of that scripture, "more abundantly" and prepare to move forward into the new year knowing that no matter how this current year ended the very best God has in store for you is not behind you but in front you still yet to come.
I hope my sharing these 12 spiritual powers with you along with the messages of my Inspirational Love Notes have been enlightening, encouraging. I pray that you feel the love I have poured into each article and poem published here throughout the year. Lastly, I pray that you find the knowledge and awareness of these 12 spiritual power faculties as helpful tools you will begin to put into practice throughout the coming year 2012 and beyond to live full of greater abundance and more positive experiences and effective results. I wish you a safe and joy-filled 2012 New Year celebration.
Until next...I behold the divinity of Christ in you...and surround you in light and Love.
A One Love Production
By Anna M. Hendricks
copyright 2011
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Be Determined...Not Deterred
If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle." - Steve Jobs
I was recently watching the classic movie, The Wiz, a rendition of The Wizard of Oz produced by Motown starring Diana Ross as Dorothy, Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow, Ted Ross as the Lion and Nipsey Russell as the Tin Man. I love this movie for various reasons, one of them being that no matter how many years goes by it never fails to bring back such fond childhood memories for me. The other reason, as equally important as the first, is the profound message this movie has that is both ageless.
In this classic story we find four very different people coming together from four very different walks of life. Yet, they are brought together by a longing and desire to fill a deep inner sense of emptiness. An inner void they each felt was a part of them that "they perceived" they lacked and needed fulfilled in order to feel whole and complete in life. A brain or rather to know ones own mind, to find ones heart, to realize and unleash ones courage, and to discover a deep sense of self and find that place in life where one feels "at home" are the many virtues, like many of us, the four main characters listed above in this movie all searched to find.
For example, Dorothy was very shy, full of fear, unsure of herself, insecure about her place in the world and very afraid to step outside of her comfort zone. So her journey to see the Wizard in Emerald City to help her find her way back home was symbolic of her searching to find her true self. She was really searching to find her true purpose in life and her sense of self...her inner strengths, which she did discover along the way as she followed the yellow brick road, which by the way, was symbolic of following your heart, your inner guide, your intuition.
The Scarecrow represented those of us surrounded by people who try to keep us from reaching our full potential by filling our heads with negative, critical thinking and comments. People who are always telling you what you cannot do rather than encouraging you to do those things you can do. People who are quick to shoot down your dreams by pointing out your limitations rather than celebrating your strengths. People who would rather see us remain followers than become strong leaders. People who hold us back from knowing our own mind by enabling us from using our own mind.
We all know people like this and they are the crows in our lives just like they were symbolically portrayed in the movie as the only thing keeping the Scarecrow stuck on that pole and unaware of how truly intelligent he really was...that is until Dorothy came to help free him and helped him realize those crows with their negative, critical comments were the only thing holding him back from realizing his dreams and reaching his full potential. How many of you have some crows in your life you need to get away from in order to be free to follow your own mind, think for yourself, realize your dreams and reach your own full potential?
Then there was the Tin Man and he represented those of us who have lived life carelessly and made many poor choices along the way, especially when choosing a partner in our romantic relationships. As a result of living his life in a rather "heartless" way and having three failed marriages, he came to believe he simply lacked the ability to feel emotions for others in a caring way and therefore needed a heart. But he too just like the others was proven wrong. As they traveled along the yellow brick road together he proved several times to be a most caring and compassion person and friend.
Like the Tin Man, perhaps many of you have made several poor choices in life and relationships as well that have left you feeling heartless and unworthy of love. But as the Tin Man also discovered by the end of the movie with the help of Dorothy pointing it out to him, he was not heartless or unworthy of love at all. He just needed to be around other people who were better at helping to pull out the compassion in him. Perhaps all you need to let your love light shine is to choose better partners who bring out the best in you too.
Finally, they came to meet the Lion who was in search of courage. The irony to his part of the story was that as cowardly as he felt about himself, he always stepped up and displayed more courage than any of them every time they found themselves facing a threatening or dangerous situation. The lion was always the one to go to great lengths to protect his friends without hesitation, even if it put himself in harms way.
However, in the end he discovered he was not in need of courage at all. He was only in need of being put in situations that allowed him the opportunity to overcome his fear and make a courageous act, which is the true meaning of courage anyway. People who are courageous are not people who lack fear. They are people who feel the fear and do what is necessary anyway despite their feelings of fear. They are people who take control of their emotions and overcome their fear rather than allow their fear to overcome them. This is what the lions character represented in the movie.
Finally as they reach both the end of their journey as well as the final act of of movie, the good which Glinda appeared before them. She brought the moral of the story full circle by explaining to all of them that everything they were in search of and traveled long distances to see the wizard in hope of him being able to magically give them, was always already within them all along. This truth was especially proven true for Dorothy in search of finding her way back home.
I think it's pretty safe to say that Dorothy represents many of us in the movie. Like Dorothy, most of us have, at some point in life, felt lost, unsure of our place in life and desperately wanting to find our way to that symbolic place in life called "home". In fact, I will go even further to say that many of us still feel that way now. Their are many of us well into adulthood just like Dorothy who have yet to find that place where we feel like we fit in perfectly, where we feel confident, whole and complete.
Yet, just like the good witch Glinda (played by the late great Lena Horne) so beautifully conveyed to Dorothy through her classic song in the movie, perhaps all you need to find your way to that place within that is your "Home" is a little faith and to learn how to "Believe in Yourself" as she also advised Dorothy.
With that said, I leave you with that classic song from this 1978 timeless movie with a message that is equally timeless. As you listen to the words I hope you will walk away feeling ever encouraged and inspired to follow you own yellow brick road to find your full potential and the fulfillment of your dreams. And no matter what obstacles, negative, critical people, fears, doubts, challenges or adversities that may appear before you to overcome along the way...never give up. Be determined...Not Deterred! And above all....always..."Believe in Yourself" and one day you'll look up and discover that like Dorothy, you too will have found your way....Home.
To get the full message both conveyed as the point of this Inspirational Love Note article from me to you today and the moral of story in the movie, please a take a few minutes to click both video links below and listen to the prelude to the song and the full song in its original entirety both by Ms. Lena Horne. You'll be glad you did...
As always in closing I welcome your comments and feedback. So keep sending me you Inspirational Love Notes and I'll keep sending you mine.
Until next time...I behold the Spirit of Christ in you...and surround you Love & Light!
A One Love Production
By Anna M. Hendricks
copyright 2011
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