When I was growing up there was a collectors plate that was hung over the doorway and you could see it every time you left the house.  It wasn’t particularly pretty but it had a picture of a house on it and some words written along the side.  The words read: “Thank God for dirty dishes, they have a tale to tell, while others may go hungry we’re eating very well”.  I always thought it kind of mean when I thought about all the homeless people out there that were starving and had to rummage through garbage in order to get food.

In these times when many of us are struggling to get by I think we forget that we have more than we realize.  I may not have a job right now and my unemployment is about to run out but I have a roof over my head.  I may not be able to buy steak or order out but I am able to feed my children.  And I may not be able to donate money to all the worthy causes in the world but I do donate clothing and household items that my children and I cannot use.  Though I may not like to wash them I thank God for dirty dishes!

I have the Turkey in the oven and all the fixings sitting on the counter (except for the potatoes which are still in the refrigerator for now).  However, as happy as I am to have my Thanksgiving feast already started and all my preparations made what really makes me happy is that I get to spend this holiday with my children.  As a divorced mother I have to share the holidays with my ex-husband so last year I did not get to have my children sitting at the table.  So today is extra special!  

What does Thanksgiving mean to you?  Is it all about making the perfect holiday meal?  Or does it mean more to you?  I think Thanksgiving is about being surrounded by your family and friends and I plan on savoring every moment of it.  This holiday, to me, is about being thankful for having two wonderful children and a family that I adore.  Not to mention a wonderful group of friends that I couldn’t do without.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s that time of year again. The one time during the year when your actually allowed to sit back and look at the past without people telling you to move on; but it’s the perfect time to find a way to move on. Talking about things that have happened in our past and finding our “thankful” can be very therapeutic. So this year for the holiday I’d like to try and help you find your “thankful”.

So how do we work through things that our hearts don’t really want to look at? The first thing to do is just dive in. Find a place where your comfortable allowing yourself to let go. If it’s alone that’s fine, but sometimes it’s nice to have someone hold your hand, hug you or just give you a shoulder. The important thing is to allow all that rush of emotion to pour out. Talk out loud, yell, scream, cry; do what you need to do to get all those emotions to the surface and let them flow. It can be very cleansing to vent all that you’ve been holding in. You’ll be amazed at the amount of weight that you’ve been carrying due to the lack of release.

After you’ve vented I want you to find one good reason for the loss. I know that when you lose people or things it can be hard to find a good reason why, but we need to. Like the loss of my dad. It was really hard to take. I felt abandoned once again, but he had been sick for 7 years and held out as long as he could. It was time. Plus now, I can close my eyes and he is with me anytime I need him. He is always watching out for me even though I am far from home. So it’s good that he went to heaven cause now I get to be with him all the time. If he hadn’t died then I would miss him more because I couldn’t go home and see him. When God closes a door he opens a window; it’s that kind of concept that we need to look at during the holiday to find out thankful. Once you find your bread crumb of thankful, I want you to keep repeating it to yourself. You will be amazed at what happens. Once you find that one good thing, all the sudden you will start seeing more good things in your holiday.

If all else fails and this isn’t working for you I want you to email me because this holiday my “thankful” is readers like you who spend the time to seek me out. The people who read my work, the people who develop friendships with me, the people who keep me going. I want you to know I’m right here. I personally respond to each email, message and friends request. I don’t have automated systems that shoot you a “I’ll get back with you” message. So be a part of my “Thankful” holiday, I’m looking forward to spending it with you. You can email me at hmweimar@yahoo.com or find me on twitter, facebook, myspace and google plus. You can also join me at Triond.com, share,create and learn. I am thankful for you!

There isn’t an easy way to approach someone who is negative and try to change their focus. It seems like once people are stuck on that negative train it’s hard to derail them. Those tracks seem to be made of steel, going one direction, and you are what you focus on. It’s hard to ride that train and point out that it could be a good thing that you lost your job, can’t pay the bills or the kids are hungry. The only way to teach someone, or yourself, is to find that one thing, no matter how small, and be thankful for it. Find that one tiny bread crumb of hope that could help to turn on the light. I know when I faced difficult times it was hard to find a good reason for it, I felt so alone and couldn’t show my kids how worried I was. I cried a lot when the kids would go to bed and felt so overwhelmed. Once we had no food and no money. I had a friend who worked at a food bank so I asked her where it was and what I needed to do to get help. She told me that she was getting ready to move and all of her things were going into storage; that she would be in a hotel for a couple of weeks and couldn’t take all her food. She asked me to stop by and she would give me a couple of bags of groceries. So I did. By the time I left her house I had $400 worth of groceries in my car. I couldn’t even fit it all in the cabinets. I remember crying and thanking God for such a blessing, not only for the food but to have a friend who would give so much. If I would’ve never been out of food I may never have realized just how many people I had in my life that cared for us. Sometimes when your at lowest it’s because you need to learn to appreciate what’s in front of you. I know people don’t like being alone but maybe that alone time is just what you need to find you. It’s hard to face obstacles in your life but when it’s over it becomes a memory and that memory will help you get through the next one. Now when I feel like alone and overwhelmed I look back at the time when we had no food and how blessed we were because of it. It’s was a huge turning point in my life, my train had finally been derailed and I found that bread crumb, literally, to find my positive.

Sometimes what we want and what we need are two different things. Sometimes losing your job may even force you to change to a direction that ends up being the best thing that ever happen to you. I can name a few things that happen to me that at the time I was frustrated, depressed and thought it was the worst thing that ever happen to me. Later I realized how strong they made me and that each moment I thought was a failure, wasn’t really a failure at all. It was just simply a stepping stone to the place I needed to be. When I had my kids young I thought it took away all those years in my 20’s that I was suppose to be finding myself and being free. Now that I’m in my 40’s, kids are grown, I realized that being a Mom is what I needed to do first so I could be prepared for the life I would live now. It gave me insight that not a lot of people my age have. Now, living my 20’s in my 40’s, I’m ready to face life with a different perspective than I would have had if I would’ve lived my 20’s in my actual 20’s. When we were down I always told my kids that someday all this stuff we didn’t like, that made us struggle, would all be a memory, we would get through, and we did. So if live is kicking you a bit, remember, someday all of this will be a memory and you will find what you need. The tunnels of darkness your going through now will end, just keep that engine moving forward and the light will appear.

I’m not sure that we could really change the whole worlds view about negative and positive, but if enough of us can start finding the positives in our lives, maybe, just maybe, the positives will start to spread. If we all share our positives with at least one other person and then that person shares, well, eventually everyone will have someone positive in their lives. The world may find a way to at least spend sometime on the positive side of life. Maybe all this congestion of trains in those tunnels will start to let loose and more of us can move forward. It does take a really strong person to stay positive while the person in front of you is trying to pull you down with them. Don’t be a savior, just a friend. As a friend it’s important to stay supportive and not get frustrated. The last thing people need at that moment in their lives is someone turning their back; but be careful, because people who are having these issue can feed off of people who try to help them. They can use more negative to try and pull you in. Point out ways to make positive changes but don’t be judgmental of decisions they’ve already made. Remember, you can’t change even the last second, it’s already happened, move forward. Let them make the choice to step forward, give them hope and reason to. Feed their engines with the positive pieces in their lives and get those wheels turning. Those steel tracks of negative don’t necessarily have to be derailed, they just a new perspective, a new direction and when they’re finally coming out of the tunnel, they will shine. Have faith, remember where you’ve been, remember what you’ve survived already. This will be a memory too.

Thank you for reading my article today. I hope it has shed some positive light, helped you find that positive perspective or at least got you moving to the end of the tunnel. If you would like to share your positive story about how you found your bread crumb, you can comment below or email me at hmweimar@yahoo.com. I answer every message personally. You can also find me on twitter, facebook, myspace and now google + , or join me at Triond.com, share, create and learn.

When we reach avdream or successfully own something that we really wanted, human being is naturally tend to forget its value and turn it into business as usual. This happened not only to material things we purchase but also successfully reach certain goals.

People tend to compare what they have with others and always feel their owned less valuable than others have.

Those who had owned BMW  feel Mercedes more comfort and luxury.

Those who had owned Mercedes feels BMW more sporty

Those who is living in mountain missed coastal beach to swim everyday

Those who is living in coastal beach feel living in mountain will be fresher

Those who always travelling feels better stay at home or feel homesick

Those who always stay at home dream to travelling around the world

Those who has many children feel crave and thinking that one or two seems easier.

Those who has one child dream to having many children to make their home warm.

Those who work as employee feels entrepreneur has more freedom.

Those who work as entrepreneur feels they don’t have job security

Those handsome man still comparing with brad pitt

Those beautiful lady still wants to be as sexy as Jennifer lopez

In conclusion, we normally never been feel ultimate happiness and self satisfaction because everything looks beautiful at the first time we own or possessed it. However, when everything becomes normal not so many challenge or feeling we felt previously. Meaning we only thinking what we do not have and never thankful with what we have and always ignoring the benefit and positive feeling on it. Hence we should not comparing with others and always build thankful with what we have and we will live happier than before.

By remember those feeling when we owned it first time rather than complaining and comparing with something that not guarantee to be better than what we have now. If someone says first love never die then we can use it same way. When we could do it then we can achieve happiness in the long run.

Another reason to be thankful for is the fact that we are still alive and away from disaster and calamities that other people are experiencing. We still have a home to live while others are living in evacuation centers because their houses are damaged by earthquakes, tsunami, fire and flood. We still can sleep with comfort while others have to share their sleeping area with other victims of calamities who have no place to go.

We must be thankful for the food we have in our tables in spite of the tough economic situation we are in, We still can eat three times a day. There are people who have a hard time eating even once a day. Is this not a great reason to be thankful for? Think of those who lost their properties and homes due to natural disaster, for sure some of them are suffering from hunger. We must be thankful that we have food  to eat everyday.

We must be thankful that we have family and friends who are with us through thick and thin. Some people have no one to turn to when they needed support. There are lots in the world today who are abandoned by their loved ones and has no one to share their burdens. We must be thankful that we have families to lean on when we need support.

These are some of the good reasons to be thankful for to the Lord because of these blessings in our lives.

Picture Source

Today, my artistic vision and character was tested.

Recently I was asked to write an article about something that I agreed to do, but then realized upon further discovery that it didn’t reflect the overall theme and artistic message in my heart, that being: one love, uplifting, inspirational and hopeful. While there was a part of me that was afraid to stand up for what I believe in, there was another part of me that knew that I had to. In the past four years, through hardwork, perseverance and a passionate belief in my dreams and the idea that “you must (truly) be the change you wish to see in the world” (-Mahatma Gandhi), I’ve proudly developed the reputation among my readers, fans and fellow writer community as a person who will only represent like messages, artists and people.

It’s a reputation that I’ve worked tirelessly on and as a result, will guard with everything in my heart. In fact, for the past two I’ve prayed for only true angels, true angels, and all my dreams to come true. I know my prayers are being answered because in the past two months I’ve received more writing projects, requests and writing attention than I’ve ever experienced outside my online writing pursuits than I have in my life.

As I’ve mentioned before, I sincerely believe “God only continues to bless those who continue to bless other people” and because of this everytime God gives you a new blessing, He either puts you to work to or finds a way to someone how test you to prove that you deserve that blessing.

Well, I was tested today. Metaphorically, if a landscape photographer is suddenly asked to capture pictures of black and whites stills something that wasn’t his passion and love and didn’t represent who he was, understandably this would most certainly upset him. So, with this in mind, I stood up for my vision and the message in my heart and thankfully, it was returned with understanding and people who showed me that they share the same vision and hope for the world expressed through their artwork and designs, and for this discovery, I’m truly blessed. The interesting thing is… I would never have found this out had I not questioned what seemed to be something not in alignment with the visions and dreams in my heart. It was a risk I took that could’ve either strengthened a new business relationship or even possibly erradicated it. But I took the risk anyway, because I was acting on faith. Faith that because God knows the true message in my heart, He’d only keep the angels in my life that truly have like dreams. I’m truly grateful and blessed.

Always stand up for what you believe in, guard your reputation with everything in your heart, and live your life without fear knowing that God is always watching over you, paving your path with only the most beautiful miracles and blessings for always. When He knows you completely have faith and trust in him, He will thank you by answering every prayer in your heart. I also believe that God sends you new tests every single day. When you pass them He’ll offer you a new test, blessing, etc to keep moving you forward in life. If you don’t, He continues to test you on the same thing until you’ve learned your lesson or proved that you’re worthy of more. He knows what He’s doing, trust me.

Be good to yourself and each other.

Joie Schmidt © Copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved.

For a complete e-book of poetry by Joie Schmidt, for Kindle readers: “Dreams of the Heart” Amazon’s Kindle (special price $2.99) or for non-Kindle readers: “Dreams of the Heart” (Adobe Reader) 

For more great reading:

• You Must Lift Others Up to Be Successful
• Successful People Open Their Own Doors
• Why Gratitude is Essential to Your Growing Success
• Creating a Dream Board is Essential to Your Success
• Why Keeping a Daily Gratitude Journal Will Change Your Life
• Why a Success Method is Essential to Achieving Your Dreams
• Powerfully Inspiring Quotes to Passionately Drive Your Dreams Forward
• Why You Need to Start Thinking About Your Online Articles as Pages in a Book
• As an Indie Artist Do You Really Need a Website to Further Promote Your Dreams?
• Creative Marketing Success Strategies for Independent Artists and Anyone Following their Dreams

Do you have a story, poem, artwork or photography you’d like to share? Please check out this site to earn limitless income for life: Triond

What is the secret to being successful? How come some people know it and others don’t? Who is it that decides what is successful? Can I be successful without knowing it?

There are loads of questions asked about being successful. Being successful is something that can only be decided by you. There are loads of scams out there that will promise to tell you how to be successful (for a small fee of course) but do they tell you what “being successful” actually is. How can you aim for something if you have no idea what you are aiming for?

You need to decide what you think being successful is, and don’t listen to anyone else, as what you want to achieve may not be what others want to achieve. You cannot compare yourselves to others. For example, I know of someone who has achieved a lot, she has done some travelling, now owns her own business and her profits have increased a lot in the last 4 years. However she has never found someone who she has fallen in love with, and therefore has never married. So she doesn’t see herself as successful. Whereas most people who look at her from the outside would think she is very successful, they see the nice house, nice car, the amount of holidays that she takes every year. They see all this but they don’t see what she really wants in life, they don’t know, and they don’t understand why she doesn’t have a big smile on her face everyday.

There are people who never will see themselves as successful, they make a million, but they wanted to make two. They have a big house, but they wanted one with 7 bedrooms and not 6. So take a step back and look at everything you have achieved. If you have children, then realised that you have achieved something that a lot of people are unable. If you have a roof over your head, then realise that you are lucky as these days many people are homeless. If you are able to wake up every morning and get out of bed, realise that some people are not able to do this.

Look at everything you have and work out what you already have that makes you successful. There is no harm in wanting more, however make sure you are already thankful for what you have, otherwise you will never be happy.

But for no apparent reason

I remember you the most

Each Christmas Season,

Maybe because it’s your natal day

And to remember me,

You were never delayed,

so refined, always in time.

I wish you’d never grow old grandma

So you will forever celebrate your birthday with mine,

So I never have to ask nor whine,

What I wanted, what I needed.

Thank you grandma for loving me..

Unconditionally and lavishly

Your love will help me grow,

Into the man, you will forever know.

I wish you’d be alive longer to see

Children I will have

Kids for you to love

A moment to treasure, forever in pleasure.

I went to the airport the other day and watched as men and women in their military uniform made their way to their stations all over the world to protect us. I was on a mission from my fellow readers to deliver my new book to them “He died for you and me and He died for all shades of humanity.” I was stopped because a terror threat came in and all vehicles had to move immediately! My heart skipped a beat and a little fear tried to fill my heart and I felt an even deeper appreciation for the horrible things the soldiers must be going through as threats like this become a daily dose of terror.  I am offended when I hear other people attempt to blame the soldiers for the war, while they are warm and cozy enjoying the freedom that most of the world is not! SPOILED…..and UN-GRATEFUL comes to mind when you hear the judgement that those, that never had to endure captivity or had their freedom taken from them. Close minded people think America is detached from the rest of the world and what happens “OVER THERE” has nothing to do with me. Well, that is so selfish and really a bit un-educated, the entire world is linked and GOD made it as a whole and we must care about what goes on “The right and wrong OVER THERE” will become “right and wrongs OVER HERE” eventually!

I don’t like war one bit and I do not enjoy hearing that soldiers have died in a war that is ver un-popular at this time.

I am praying that GOD will bring each and every one of them home safely and keep their families at home save too.

The other day I watched a newscast and people where picketing a soldiers funeral…..what a absolute travesty, that these folks think they have a right to hurt the hurting. There is a very special place for them i am sure…..btw that is not heaven I don’t think. God !!!!! Is  nothing sacred to the Americans anymore…..they abuse the very freedom that the soldier has fought for and picket a funeral. Pray people, pray because this is evil doing at it’s best!!!

I am thankful and will continue to do my best to support the troups, that make it possible for me to speak and write  freely about my mulit-racial family. We are a retired military family and we will forever send our love and deepest gratitude to those that endure for the ones that appreciate it and guess what, for the ones that don’t.

Love and peace

Author Cornelia Brown    www.mrscorneliabrown.com books that clebrate multi-cultural diversity!!