The Mosaic of Life

I'm not really the artist type. Matter of fact, I often tell people, "I can't drawn a straight line with a ruler." My artistic skills pretty much stopped at coloring inside the lines. I can appreciate what other are capable of and I applaud their efforts. I have been to museums and I love to look at all of the wonderful paintings, sculptures, drawings, and the assorted works from such talented people.

Many of us have had things happen in our lives that we consider to be broken. Broken families, relationships, careers, marriages, and hearts. These things can have such lasting effects on our lives. They can cause us to distort our view of life. They can keep us from being truly happy in life. Worse yet, they can severely limit our possibilities of ever having a healthy relationship, marriage, or career again. We refuse to let go of the hurt, the grudges, the disappointments, and scares left behind. We carry around the baggage left behind by there things like they are a badge of honor. We love sharing these battle scars with whomever will listen. Looking for someone to justify our feelings and join our pity party. 

I believe that there is another option. Much like an artist, we can choose to make something beautiful out of the broken pieces. I am pretty sure that we have all seen what a mosaic is. It's where you take what looks like a bunch of broken pieces, glue or concrete them together, to make a new and more beautiful picture than before. The colors are more arrayed, the pieces are now where you want them instead of how others have placed them. When we take charge of our lives, and begin to place the pieces where we want them, then and only then are we truly the artists of our own lives. We have to choose to make something beautiful out of the the pieces that we have. Sure it's not always easy. It will take some time and some glue, but the end result is worth it. The glue is the things that are right in our life. The people, career, dreams, and passions that drive us to be at our best. Find the glue in your life and begin to build your life mosaic.

I have had my share of things broken in my life, but I had to come to the point in my life where I decided that making something beautiful was more important than finding the next guest to attend my pity party. Pick up the pieces and make a new life and create a beautiful mosaic with those pieces. Those pieces should remind you of the good times and what can be done differently this time. I have learned so much from my past and I have created the beautiful life that I now live. I know that it will only get better, as long as I stay committed to creating beauty from the pieces.

Dream Big...Pursue Big...Live Big

My Unattended Bushes

I really don't have a green thumb and yard work is not my favorite thing to do. But I understand that if I don't take care of what I do have, weeds and vines can take over. What inspired this blog was, I was out cleaning up the bushes in the front of my house today and realized that I had let things get way out of hand. The neighbor has ivy growing in her yard and it has crept onto my house and around my bushes. Now sure it's pretty but, unattended, and it quickly gets out of control. As I was doing a massive trim job on the bushes, I also found trash under the bushes.

Our life is a lot like this area in the front of my house. When it's well tended, it looks beautiful, but left unattended and allowed to grow wildly, bad things can happen. We have to spend time tending the garden that we call life. We have to make sure that the things and people in our lives, are well nurtured. We have to take time to exterminate the weeds and remove the junk that others leave. Life demands constant loving care. Outside circumstances and people will leave junk in our lives. It it our responsibility to keep it cleaned up. They want to drag their drama into our lives and leave it there. We have to be very mindful about those kinds of people. Sometimes, we allow situations and things into our lives that were innocent enough to begin with but we have left them unchecked and now they have taken over the more beautiful things on our lives. Sometimes, things like TV, partying, social media, and hobbies, just to name a few. All these things, that we have allowed to stay in our lives, can and will eventually kill off the things in our life that are most precious if we allow them to run rampant, much like the neighbor lady's ivy.

Only you can decide what needs to flourish in your garden of life. For me, it's love, relationships, my passion, dreams, and my job. All of these things bring happiness into my life. I have learned what things I need to moderate in my life, so that it doesn't begin to stifle the growth of those things that are most important to me. I have also learned, that even those things that I want to dominate my garden of life, need to be trimmed and pruned from time to time. My relationships need to be kept in check, because they too can get out of hand. The dead parts need to be cut off so that it may grow and bloom more effectively. I do the same with my passions, dreams, and my job. I regularly check those things, what had become the dead parts, what needs to be improved upon, and what needs a little extra care.

As I was finishing up my yard work, the neighbor with the ivy, stopped to talk. She said that she knows that the ivy gets out of hand and that I could spray some roundup on it if I wanted to. She also commented how much the likes the way the bushes bloom in the summer. I told her that I was going to trim them way back this year, so they might not bloom like they have the past couple of years. But in trimming them way back this year, it will give them new growth, and a better bloom next year. How does your garden grow? What parts need cleaned out? What do you need to trim way back so that it will bloom even better next year?

Dream Big...Pursue Big...Live Big

Just Wait

Patients has been one of the hardest lessons for me to learn. I used to get stressed, angry, upset, and depressed when things didn't happen when I wanted them to. Many times it was probably because I had my hopes set to high. There is nothing wrong with high expectations, but you have to remember the universe is on your side and it has great plans for you. Sure is still get discouraged, but I don't let it get me down to the point where I want to give up. I keep my faith in me strong and I keep the knowledge, that I will make my life it's best, my predominant thought. To many times, I would let my impatience get the best of me and try to make things happen, and sure enough, it screwed things up. Patience, has never failed me, but I can't say the opposite. Every time that I waited, the door that was best suited for my life opened and great things happened. 

Sometimes we have to wait because we are physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually not ready for what is about to happen. Maybe there is some knowledge we need to acquire, some ailment that we need to get past, or some personal development that we need to take care of before we are capable of handling the next chapter in our life. Many times, because all of our lives are connected, the universe is getting everything in order to create what needs to happen. But when everything is in place and you have been patient, the results will be amazing. 

Patience, doesn't mean that we have completely stopped. It means that we are still doing what we can, where we are, with what we have at our disposal. Stopping only prolongs the wait. It will only add to any frustrations that you might already have. When the time is right, the right door will open, and you will have no reservations about stepping through it and you will be well prepared for it.

This week's blog is a perfect example. There is usually about seven days between my posts and I haven't posted in about twelve. I knew that I needed to write, but nothing was coming to me. I waited and waited and waited. Nothing. So tonight I decided to just begin a blog, with not real topic, and see what happens. This is what happened. I hope that this helped you.

Dream Big...Pursue Big...Live Big