Speech Tonight at Northern Lights Church, Anoka County MADD

Tonight, Marcia's husband said I am a 'helluva good speaker'.  It's the first time he's heard me speak, despite his setting up Panels with Marcia that I've spoken on.  It's a good feeling to hear a victim speak well of my contributions through speaking.  

I also met a young man who heard me speak "a couple of days ago" for MADD.  He gave me his email and I could tell he was motivated to raise his awareness.

A "Friend of Lois" brought her son to the Panel.  She looked familiar while I was speaking, so I think I've seen her somewhere.  She nodded and raised her hand when I asked if anyone in the audience was familiar with Synchronicity.  She introduced herself aFTER THE pANEL AND I MET HER SON WHO RESOLUTELY SHOOK MY HAND, LOOKED ME IN THE EYE, AND SAID HE WAS TRULY MOVED BY THE PRESENTATION, THAT IT Really helped him.

I sold a book to a totally receptive audinece meber, too.  

Progress in Speaking & Writing

I have many speaking activities set up this month (MADD & a Treatment Center~see my speaking calendar), with proposals to speak to the Minnesota Correctional Association annual Fall Conference, Rotary Clubs, and several other schools and organizations.  

I'm editing my Little Book of Miracles and buying copies after editing is completed.  

Which Plays a Larger Role in Shaping One’s Life: Success or Failure?

The question is a classic philosophical quandary meant to inspire thinkers from all walks of life. Did winning push you harder to be your best? Or did losing motivate continued growth to overcome?

Life is both brutal and beautiful.  Our beauty is more powerful than our brutality.  Forgiveness is more powerful than the offense that required its presence. I was an abused child and yes, I am more than what happened to me. A woman is worth more than the rape infracted against her. I choose to forgive, despite the temperature of my heart. But I needed a miracle for it to happen. I couldn't forgive my Offender without the help of my Higher Power. Most solutions are simple, but not always easy.

I can be as happy as I make up my mind to be, even in the midst of an assault. I've met countless people who are in the midst of the Alcoholic War Zone, but who sing like larks whether the Alcoholic is drinking or not. I know a woman whose son was killed by an alcohol-impaired driver. She hugged the young man in court who killed her son, saying, "I love you and I forgive you for killing my son."

In God's Economy, nothing is wasted. 

The wound that offends is the one left behind, Unforgiven.  Forgiveness always runs deeper than the wound that preceded and required its presence.  Oprah said, "Make your wounds your wisdom."  

Being of a Sober Mind & Heart

Sober CHEERS to taking our power back from negative egoism. Confidence without conceit is a beautiful thing. Truth without compassion is cruelty. Say what you mean, mean what you say, but don't say it mean. But sometimes, IMO, we just gotta say it ANY WAY WE CAN in order to birth ourselves into a Higher Form of living and loving.

Someone's always gonna be offended, no matter what we say or do. I am NOT their problem. Happiness is a choice.   They are their own problem.

As long as it's truly my HEART talking, I am on the right path.  My heart knows who I am, because I surrendered my heart to God and I understand God, and I TRUST a Surrendered Heart over the brightest of human minds.  The mind is a SERVANT of the heart, or maybe its Protector.  Heart and mind should be a Team.  The heart is the feeling part of the mind and the mind is the thinking part of the heart.

Earth School is not always the easiest place to co-exist, but I choose to love and forgive, despite the temperature of any given moment.

"What is Love? Baby Don't Hurt Me, Don't Hurt Me, No More!" LOL!

“Love is the expression of the one who loves, not of the one who is loved. Those who think they can love only the people they prefer do not love at all. Love discovers truths about individuals that others cannot see” 
― Søren Kierkegaard

My rendition: “Forgiveness is the expression of the one who forgives, not of the one who is forgiven. Those who think they can forgive only the people they prefer do not forgive at all. Forgiveness discovers truths about individuals that others cannot see.”

Freedom FROM Speech; Commercialism

I've been writing every day but letting my voice be heard through Facebook rather than on my own Blog/Journal.  No one reads my Blog, really, and that's actually OK.  Over time, that will change.  It's all about hard work and Divine Timing.

I rarely watch the 'Olds', AKA, the News. I got pretty grounded and happy when I took a TV Sabbatical for about 4 or 5 years. One day I found out U.S. Troops were in Iran or Afganistan or something for several years. My daily life was not impacted by politics at all. But when I DO listen to pundits and the like, I get weirded out by all of their mindless manipulation. It's easy to get sucked into the black hole of politics.

Anyway, people still ranting over politics.  Nothing new.  Haters gonna hate.  Everyone wants someone to feel superior to, it seems.  Laughable.  Then add religion to the mix.  

Ah, yes, the grand toxic spectacle of brewing religion with politics, anathema to defenders of freedom from sea to shining sea. Yet if nobody can talk about ANYTHING, then what use is freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or freedom at all? Don't curse the darkness, light a candle sort of a thing? Forgiveness runs deeper than the offense that required its presence. But the human ego loves to hate and lift itself up at the comparative expense of others. Someone has to be wrong, less than, less holy. No one can be president without the consent of those who allow them to run in the first place. One big friggin game of distraction.

Commercialism is Casting the Lot.

Art & Forgiveness

The pallet of forgiveness has islands of offenses in which we dip our brushes and paint our pain and healing. If our artwork is authentic, then it yields freedom & truth, maybe even a sacred connection to the person who has likewise suffered. Then when we step back from our work and see the big picture, we might realize our Life Canvas was a small piece of God's Jigsaw Puzzle. Maybe God uses the Authentic Self to draw us back together as Collective Masterpiece.

Miracles Continue for All of Us

If God can work through the likes of me, anything is possible.  God uses the worst of us to help the best of us. 

King David screwed up big time, but God allowed him to turn his heart in love back to God. 

Paul killed Christians w/o the slightest concern for wrongdoing until Christ came and performed a miracle to turn his heart. 

I am but an instrument of His Mercy & Peace.  Miracles continue in my life, but in less visible ways these days.

What's ironic, is that so many people don't believe in miracles, but have been walking on water and bitching about it for years.  

To To Convenience Themselves, They're Willing to INCONVENIENCE Others

People feel undervalued and feel they are entitled to undervalue others, as in employment settings where a person feels their pay is low and use it as an excuse to undervalue their employers and customers.  The problem with this is that "values" are externalized.  When a person feels the right to be rude to others because of only making Minimum Wage, for example, does that make this person inferior to someone who disrespects them by paying Minimum Wage?  Giving or receiving Minimum Wage is besides the point of respect.  RESPECT is an INSIDE job.  

Anger & Imbalance

Synchronicity often shows the way out of perplexing dilemmas. There is a light shining in the darkness, but the darkness doesn't know it's there. If your standing in darkness, turn back toward the light and your shadow disappears from sight. We are usually our own problem.

UFO's, Born Again Atheists, Agnostic Bigots, and The Art of Learning

Born Again Atheists are such a joy to behold; such militants birth excuses for every close-minded agenda disguised as an attribute of teaching but is indeed proof of not being teachable. The courage of our convictions is FINE (Friggin Insecure Neurotic Emotional) if that's what one needs to feel good enough about oneself, but the courage to QUESTION one's convictions, whatever they may be, is the great source of freedom. One can learn from ANYONE, regardless if they are 100% mistaken about anything or everything.

Open your heart, and your mind will follow. 'Who pays any attention to the syntax of things' (thank you, ee cummings) will never wholly love others. In a chess tournament, the best players respect the moves on the board and don't distinguish from whence they derive.

The good is the enemy of the best.  “Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.” Voltaire

When I was a teenager, I had a person who was in possession of an IQ of under 60 say something shockingly profound.  It almost seemed like a genius spirit inhabited his consciousness for about three-seconds, spoke, and then stared at me waiting for a response.  I was speechless but in possession of an experience that never left me.  I from that day listened to everyone, no matter what.  If Satan Himself dropped out of a UFO and said something I believed, I would run with it, regardless of the source. 

Another two experiences helped me toward open-mindedness, AKA, Objectivity. 1) In my early 20's, I had a Mentor who was a certified genius (MENSA).  He was my chess teacher, boxing trainer, martial artist instructor, and life coach.  I was 100% convinced of a particular truth, and in a moment, this Mentor proved I was 100% wrong about it.  2) The very next day, he disproved another idea I relied upon 100% and thereby helped me to suspend my beliefs in the exercise called 'consideration.' 

Lastly, I heard a college professor talking about Nietzsche, and how his mind questioned everything.  I've had other items help free me not to have a box to think outside of, but sufficient unto the day is the reasoning thereof.

Occasionally, an Agnostic Bigot burns a metaphorical question mark on my lawn, but I'm not their problem, and they aren't my problem.  "There's no such thing as reality; there’s only perception," said Dr. Phil on the Oprah Show. 

I'm in charge of what I say, while others are in charge of what they hear.  Like the Buddha said, when the student is ready, the teacher appears. 

The lead singer of Metallica summed it up nicely:  "Boredom comes from a boring mind." 

Take what you like and leave the rest. Alas, "human survival and well being is ultimately a collective responsibility." Taha Aljamrah

Forgiving My Childhood Sexual Abuser, Chapter 11

God put love in my heart for the person that abused me as a child, doing for me what I could not do for myself. Forgiving My Childhood Sexual Abuser, Chapter 11, from The Little Book of Miracles, Stories from the Incomplete Skeptic.

"Forgiveness runs deeper than the offenses that requires its presence."

We need to take our eyes off of the abuse and focus 100% on God, but only God can make that possible. We mere mortals struggle daily with injustice, meanness, abuse, war, deceit, etc. Focusing on the dark side begets more darkness, but there is a light shining in the darkness, and while the darkness doesn't comprehend the light, it shines in darkness nonetheless.

Forgiveness runs deeper than the offenses that requires its presence. God maketh a table for me at my enemies' table, but they are my enemy while I am not their enemy.

The Bible describes Satan as the most beautiful angel in heaven and 1/3 of the hosts of heaven followed him. His EGO thought to reign over God and seeks to supplant our trust of God with outrage at the world. EGO:  Edging God Out.

Don't believe any story that doesn't empower you.

To the pure of heart, all things are pure. If anything pisses Satan off, it's that no matter what he/she does, we align with God because our earthly problems belong to God. 'Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven'.

Look for Heaven. It is everywhere surrounding you, permeating your very existence at the deepest level, deeper than anything this world can throw at you.

More on Transparency & Healing Gender Separation

Ever problem starts small, with acquisitions surrendered, one successive approximation after another, until the solution seems impossibly distant. But solutions also surrender to success and it might take a while to unknot the generational impediments to healthy relationships once again.

It's none of my business what others think of me.

Seeing each other as we REALLY are is key. We can regain our innocence, and help others to do the same. Hurting people hurt people, I've heard it said, but I'm not willing to give that much room for play. Healed people 'heal people' is what I would rather focus on. Healed people were once hurting and needed healing. Someone had to touch their hearts for that to happen. Let's touch each other's hearts by running a complete virus scan and then purging the computer of the infected files. So what if we lose "programs" in the meanwhile? There's not a "price to pay" large enough to justify injuring people's hearts.