Today, pictures that show the trauma that singer Rihanna allegedly suffered at the hands of her boyfriend singer, Chris Brown were released. If it is true that these are authentic police pictures; someone is going to lose their job. It is awful that someone could profit from providing this picture to a media outlet…whether they profitted for fame, for money, or purely for the ability to be in control over the picture. When it is discovered, through the internal police investigation, who the person is who released it…they will instantly become a very unpopular person. It must take a tremendous amount of lack of compassion and integrity to give yourself permission to profit from someone else’s pain and misery! (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘healing’
Someone’s Going To Lose Their Job
Posted in abuse, birthday, career, celebrity, compassion, control, crime, domestic violence, emotions, entertainment, Fame, joy, law enforcement, legal, media, mental and physical health, news, observations, pain and misery, prayer, relationships, Uncategorized, tagged abuse, birthday, Chris Brown, compassion, compensation, control, domestic dispute, employee, ethical, Fame, healing, healthy, integrity, investigation, job, joy, legal, legal issues, lose, media, misery, MONEY, news, pain, photo, picture, police, proceedings, profit, relationship, Rihanna, society, trauma, violence, wellness on February 21, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Can We Stop Hurting The Ones We Love? Suicide Prevention!
Posted in abuse, anger, children, crime, death, depression, divorce, emotions, encouragement, family, fathers, finances, friendship, Frustration, grief, health, help, husband, ideas, Impact, life, loss, love, medical, mental and physical health, mom, mother, murder, news, observations, opinion, pain and misery, protect, relationships, sadness, suicidal, suicide, Suicide prevention, support, trauma, violence, tagged anger, caring, children, clergy, community, confusion, counselor, depression, despair, desperate, emotion, family, feelings, finances, guilt, healing, health, help, hurting, lifeline, love, loved ones, medical help, mental health, murder-suicide, national suicide prevention, neighbors, news, prevention, resource, revenge, sadness, stop, struggles, suffering, support, survivors, tragedy, violence on January 30, 2009| 1 Comment »
Ok, I am going to rant a bit for a minute. Twice this week the news has hit us with two terrible stories about families that self-destructed through murder-suicide. Two families that were destroyed. One family in particular left a suicide note allegedly saying that the reason they were dead was because both the husband and the wife lost their jobs…were in debt…and were rejected by their employers. The other family’s reasons have not yet been announced. The family members allegedly say that there was no clues to this tragedy. What i want to know is…can we stop families from hurting the ones that they love? Yes we can, encourage them to seek help: http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ Each time something like this happens…those who were lost leave behind friends, family members, neighbors, acquaintances and community members who are hurt, confused and saddened. We have to take care of each other and learn to be more in tune with those around us. (more…)
Between Fear and Faith
Posted in attitude, cancer, courage, diet, elderly, emotions, Faith, family, fathers, Fear, finances, health, Heart, help, history, hospital, life, loss, love, medical, mental and physical health, mom, pain and misery, patience, relationships, support, surgery, tagged attitude, blessings, cancer treatment, challenges, compassion, complications, courage, discouragement, Doctor, Faith, family, Fear, finances, God, healing, health, hospitalization, isolation, Jesus, love, medical tests, mercy, negative, patience, positive, purpose, sharing, strength, support, surgery on December 27, 2008| 1 Comment »
As a Christian I am struggling with the line between fear and faith. My parents are both cancer survivors. However, right before Christmas they both had tests done that have come back with suspicious results.
I listen to my mother say that she is not going to get worked up until she talks with the doctor about the results. In general, I agree with that. My mother is pretty much a positive thinker, which is a great thing.
My father is cut out of a different cloth. He automatically thinks negatively; he can’t seem to help it. His mind goes to the worst case scenerio. It is experience related…he has had the worst case scenerio happen to him before…so he just expects that to be his luck. Both mom and dad will be meeting up with their respective cancer doctors before the first week of January is over.
I am a product of both of my parents. I am at times a positive thinker….and at times, automatically hit the negativity zone. I don’t like it that that is true; but, it is honest. I work hard attempting to focus on the positives.
The problem is…fear. I fear hearing the situations that they are facing will possibly return them to the medical world of tests, surgeries, treatments, complications, and hospitalizations. This is a world that is both isolating and overwhelming, with people. 🙂 I realize that that sounds contrary….but, it isn’t.
You are surrounded with people in the medical field….this specialist, that oncologist, the anestesiologist (sp?), the radiologist, the pharmacist, the dietician, the family doctor, the nurses, the insurance company…the list goes on and on. The isolation comes when you must seperate yourself from the general population because of the possibility of infection. The isolation that the patient feels when heading in for the surgery or the treatment…no-one else can do those things for them. It is in isolation that fear takes root and does it’s dirty work. Discouragement can set in…thwarting all of the good and positive things that are at work in the healing process.
The thing is, once you have been a survivor…your history can limit treatments. It can also be eye opening to the types of situations you may be facing this time around. My mother has developed conditions that can be life threatening, since the last time around. Both my mother and father had difficult side effects and complications from their various treatments, in the past.
I am a firm believer that God is in control of everything. I don’t claim to understand the mind of God. But, i know that he allows things to happen that are very difficult to go through. If left to our own devices…most human beings would opt out of the difficult things and shoot straight for the easy path…myself included. My head knows that much can be learned during these hard moments in life…that God has things for us to gain in those moments. I know he has things to be accomplished during those moments…he puts people in our path for us to connect with and to share with. We will do our best to bring glory to his name throughout. For he is worthy of praise in all things.
So, I will work at praying that God will have mercy…that he will guide and direct us as we face these additional challenges. I will ask for wisdom, clarity, patience, faith, courage, strength, healing, financial blessings, and any area of lacking; that we may need to overcome in the face of these trials.
What i am thankful for, is that we don’t have to pray for love or sharing; or, willing family members to help out. We are blessed in those areas. We are a family that knows how to support one another; and, whoever is in need around us, at the time. Roomates have often been the recipients of the overflow of our big family. There have been roomates that had no one to look out for them…they were alone in their journey. My family is nurturing in nature. I am thankful for that compassionate part of our family.
I am thankful for those in the medical community who also have compassion, skill, knowledge and who are sensitive in the way that they go about promoting healing to their patients and their family members. They are our allies in the war that has been declared on our loved ones..they are on the front lines of battle trying to help our loved ones to have a full and healthy life; so we pray for all of them who will have contact with us. We respect their skill and dedication.
We have so much to be thankful for…and, we are. Are we greedy to wish for health and financial blessings to meet the demands put on the family as we go thru these things? I don’t think so. I know that God has a purpose; I pray that we realize it and make the most of it as he would desire us to do. I am just selfish enough to wish, as Jesus did on the cross, that this cup would pass from out of our hands; if God so desires.
Again…the line blurrs between faith and fear that these medical challenges may not pass from us!
A New Day, A New Week, Soon To Be A New Year
Posted in crime, culture, emotions, encouragement, Fear, finances, giving, hopes, life, news, Opportunities, violence, tagged encouragement, Evil, Fear, good, greediness, healing, hope, kindess, mankind, possibilities, promise, selfishness, spirit, violence on December 1, 2008| 3 Comments »
It is a new day, the beginning of a new week; and soon, it will be the beginning of a New Year. It is easy to get caught up in the ugliness in the world. The financial crisis, the rising cost of food, gas, oil, health benefits…you name it. Crime is rampant. Each news day is filled with violence, with fear, with selfishness. I try to wrap my mind around the possibilities in each new day.
Today is a fresh start…a do over…a new beginning. It is not that the things that went before don’t exist; it is that they do exist, and because they do…things must start anew. Otherwise, it would be nothing but a downward spiral into a cesspool. There has to be hope. There has to be a promise that things will get better. There has to be a chance to change the course of evil. Each new day brings an opportunity to break away from the things that try to drag us down.
So here is to a renewal in the spirit of mankind, a breath of kindness, a balm of healing attitudes, the pursuit of goodness over evil, the heart of a giver over those who express greediness in our cultures, the potential of each step forward…let these areas of opportunities be contagious; and, an encouragement of others to infect every person that comes into contact with the idea of improving the world we live!
An Attitude Of Thankfulness
Posted in emotions, family, life, tagged attitude, children, choices, divorce, encouragement, family, friends, fullness, future, gift, grattitude, happiness, healing, joy, life, love, marriage, misery, parenting, rebuilding, regrets, relationships, resentment, sympathy, Thankfulness, thanksgiving, wallowing, wishes on November 29, 2008| 2 Comments »
Have you ever noticed that people who have an attitude of thankfulness in their heart are much more pleasant people to be around? That fact was brought home yesterday, when I knew that we would be surrounded with family who has that view on life. It is not so much that life is perfectly happy and content…it is an attitude of grattitude. Knowing in your heart that things can get better when they are not the way that you wish them to be. The future has a way of working itself out when living situations are not as you want them to be.
The point was driven home that it is a choice to experience life to it’s fullness by a phone call. It was a person who is going through a very difficult thing in life…divorce. He had called the night before and was very morose and abrupt. He SAYS that he called to wish us a Happy Thanksgiving. But it didn’t feel that way; and my husband was not available to talk to him till the next morning… on Thanksgiving.
So my husband calls him back to return the “good wishes” only to be greeted and treated to the same monotone voice that i heard. He was filled with despair. When wished a Happy Thanksgiving…he actually replied; “What is there to be thankful for?”
Then he said, that is why i called you yesterday; to AVOID the whole Thanksgiving Day thing! Then why call at all? Did he really mean it that he wished for us to have a Happy Thanksgiving or did he want to let us know, that while we were having a Happy Thanksgiving, he was miserable?
I asked him the night before what he was going to do on Thanksgiving after trying to support him through the short conversation; only to become disconnected on the phone. Or that is what i thought, until the next day when my husband experienced his phone call with this person. He too experienced a disconnect with him…co-incidence?
I don’t think it was…i think he was hanging up in his misery. That is sad, it is disturbing, it is heart wrenching. It was also angering; because, he does have much to be thankful for. He has a job, he has a place to live, he has children for which to be thankful for. The phone calls were a blantant bid for sympathy; and, an opportunity to dump his chosen mood of misery on other human beings. How we choose to live our lives is just that, a choice. You can “let life happen to you” or you can choose to wring every last joy or pleasure out of it while you have it.
It isn’t that we don’t care about the misery that he is going through in his divorce. But the truth is, that no one else can give you happiness or peace. You can’t put life on hold or it will pass you by…leaving you with a plate full of regrets!
Now there is more suffering. It is unavoidable at this point. There are two choices…to accept the ending and move forward…or wallow in the misery and resentment. This person still has children to be a parent to; siblings to have relationships with; and, the person is still young enough to learn from their mistakes and rebuild their life with another person, if he so chooses. This person is a good person. I wish for him happiness. I wish for him healing and joy in life. If i could box it up and give it to him…i would…but i am afraid…he doesn’t know how to accept it.
Life is short. We must approach it with care. Is life always going to give us what we want, when we want it, the way we want it on a silver platter? No. Can we still choose to live joyously and fully? Yes, i believe we can. Let’s help each other along by giving encouragement, when we are ALLOWED to!
Have you ever noticed that people who have an attitude of thankfulness in their heart are much more pleasant people to be around? That fact was brought home yesterday, when I knew that we would be surrounded with family who has that view on life. It is not so much that life is perfectly happy and content…it is an attitude of grattitude. Knowing in your heart that things can get better when they are not the way that you wish them to be. The future has a way of working itself out when living situations are not as you want them to be.
The point was driven home that it is a choice to experience life to it’s fullness by a phone call. It was a person who is going through a very difficult thing in life…divorce. He had called the night before and was very morose and abrupt. He SAYS that he called to wish us a Happy Thanksgiving. But it didn’t feel that way; and my husband was not available to talk to him till the next morning… on Thanksgiving.
So my husband calls him back to return the “good wishes” only to be greeted and treated to the same monotone voice that i heard. He was filled with despair. When wished a Happy Thanksgiving…he actually replied; “What is there to be thankful for?”
Then he said, that is why i called you yesterday; to AVOID the whole Thanksgiving Day thing! Then why call at all? Did he really mean it that he wished for us to have a Happy Thanksgiving or did he want to let us know, that while we were having a Happy Thanksgiving, he was miserable?
I asked him the night before what he was going to do on Thanksgiving after trying to support him through the short conversation; only to become disconnected on the phone. Or that is what i thought, until the next day when my husband experienced his phone call with this person. He too experienced a disconnect with him…co-incidence?
I don’t think it was…i think he was hanging up in his misery. That is sad, it is disturbing, it is heart wrenching. It was also angering; because, he does have much to be thankful for. He has a job, he has a place to live, he has children for which to be thankful for. The phone calls were a blantant bid for sympathy; and, an opportunity to dump his chosen mood of misery on other human beings. How we choose to live our lives is just that, a choice. You can “let life happen to you” or you can choose to wring every last joy or pleasure out of it while you have it.
It isn’t that we don’t care about the misery that he is going through in his divorce. But the truth is, that no one else can give you happiness or peace. You can’t put life on hold or it will pass you by…leaving you with a plate full of regrets!
Now there is more suffering. It is unavoidable at this point. There are two choices…to accept the ending and move forward…or wallow in the misery and resentment. This person still has children to be a parent to; siblings to have relationships with; and, the person is still young enough to learn from their mistakes and rebuild their life with another person, if he so chooses. This person is a good person. I wish for him happiness. I wish for him healing and joy in life. If i could box it up and give it to him…i would…but i am afraid…he doesn’t know how to accept it.
Life is short. We must approach it with care. Is life always going to give us what we want, when we want it, the way we want it on a silver platter? No. Can we still choose to live joyously and fully? Yes, i believe we can. Let’s help each other along by giving encouragement, when we are ALLOWED to!
Good Morning America-Steven Curtis Chapman Family Anguish & Hope
Posted in adoption, celebrity, charitable organizations, children, communication, culture, death, depression, disaster, emotions, encouragement, entertainment, Faith, family, fathers, Fear, grief, Heart, inspiration, kids, legal, life, loss, love, media, mental and physical health, ministry, mother, music, news, pain and misery, parenting, relationships, religion, Remembering, RobinRoberts, sadness, safety, stress, tagged accident, adoptive parents, anguish, Christians, compassion, emotions, Faith, God, Good Morning America, grief, healing, hope, Impact, interview, legal, loss, love, music, music ministry, Olympics, Robin Roberts, Steven Curtis Chapman, teenaged son, trauma, understanding on August 5, 2008| 6 Comments »
I am looking forward to tomorrow on Good Morning America. Robin Roberts is going to interview the Steven Curtis Chapman family about the loss of their young 5 year old daughter, Maria, in a tragic car accident involving their teenaged son. Their daughter was adopted from China. With the Olympics in China in the media, it is a good time to underscore the connections of the human spirit and relationships formed around the world.
I fully expect there to be anguish…how can you go through something so traumatic as loosing your daughter, at the accidental hands of your teenaged son, and not have anguish? Then to have the eyes of the world on you as you grieve; it has had to be extremely stressful. Not to mention the threat of legal proceedings against your teenaged son, hanging over you while you are going through your loss. There are so many messages that could be presented to the world through this experience, love, loss, safety, spirituality, depression and the list goes on. God says, he will make good come from all things.
This experience would be horrendous for anyone…let alone a Christian family, just because you have the added responsibilities of not wanting to let God down, or fail to encourage others; however, human beings are just that…human…we often fail, even with the best of intentions. The Chapman family is a family who has brought hope and healing, through music ministry for years; not to mention, opening doors to financial guidance for adoptive parents, creating another avenue for God miracles to impact lives. Their struggle to find peace in this very difficult time continues…there are things that grief to the surface…questions that demand answers for. It is as their daughter Emily said… Grief is a very windy road. It is a struggle to meet all of their children’s emotional needs as they navigate their own ups and downs; but, at least their family is trying to heal together.
Christians are not immune to tragic circumstances…in fact, i believe that they are given to everyone. No one is left out of doses of misery, despair, sickness, loss, financial stress etc. But the Christian bears an extra burden during those times as they are living their lives, as a testimony before others, about God’s grace and mercy. How to explain the unexplainable? The old question, why does God let bad things happen? Oh, King Solomon i am sure, would have an answer to that as he prayed for wisdom and was granted it by God…but truly, only God knows the whys of things. All we can do is struggle to hang on to our faith and try to grow it through the struggles of life.
I know that Robin Roberts is a Christian…she has had her own struggles, this past year. I am most interested in this interview, as i believe that God will impart compassion, grace and understanding in it, to others who are going through their own difficulties. I pray that hearts will be touched and moved. Watch tomorrow on good morning america for this moment of heartfelt grief and love and hope. It will be worth your time!
When The Past Threatens To Destroy Your Future
Posted in anger, emotions, family, Frustration, future, goals, Impact, life, loss, love, mental and physical health, pain and misery, relationships, respect, sadness, spiritual, well-being, tagged acceptance, anger, care, circumsances, control, destruction, emotional, forgiveness, fulfillment, future, happiness, healing, home, hurt, love, past, patterns, personal, physical, relationships, respect, responsibility, sadness, school, self esteem, spiritual, threat, understanding, verbal abuse, work on June 30, 2008| Leave a Comment »
We are all born into circumstances that we have absolutely no control over. The best that you can hope for is to maximize the positive and to minimize the negative events, circumstances or experiences. All of those things, both positive and negative, help to shape us into the person that we become.
If we start to experience problems in our relationships at work, home, school, or on a personal level with someone special; often, we will discover at the root of the issue, are things left over from our very beginnings in life that are unresolved or unhealed. When the past threatens to destroy your future you must take time to figure it out; for your well-being and for those who care about you.
Understanding what the problem is and where it comes from is a turning point. Don’t get stuck there with excuses why your life isn’t turning out the way you want it to…you don’t have to continue to be held hostage by the past! (more…)
Cancer is a Thief
Posted in cancer, children, courage, death, health, Impact, mental and physical health, tagged American Cancer Society, American Cancer Survivors Network, blessings, breast cancer, cancer, chemo, clinical trials, community, courage, death, disease, donate, educate, Faith, focus, healing, heart aches, illness, Impact, loss, lost, mother, prayer, radiation, Relay For Life, stealing, stolen, surgery, teacher, thief, world on June 3, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Well, another life was stolen by cancer. Today, we found out that a person that we loved and admired was taken too young by breast cancer. She was the mother of a young 3 year old son. She was the wife of a strong upstanding positive man. She was the teacher of my sons and so many others; and, she was and is a blessing to all who knew her.
My heart aches because of the loss. She was one of those people who just made such an impact on all who knew her. I thought she was going to beat the aggressive disease…i really did. She fought it with all she had and she didn’t dwell on negatives. She got into a clinical trial and was making progress. Through surgeries, chemo, radiation and prayer and faith…she waged the cancer war on every level. Her battle was courageous and focussed on healing. She truly engaged all of those around her with a positive energy. I can’t tell you how much this world has lost today. I know how much her friends, family and community has lost.
Cancer is a thief…stealing so much joy, brillance, compassion, energy, laughter, sensitivity, education, potential, love, understanding…and the list goes on. Help to fight it in your own way. Donate money, donate time,donate your skills, donate your experience, donate help, donate your free time, donate your educational/research abilities…because, cancer doesn’t just steal from those who can afford to lose extra people in their lives, every life is valuable, cancer steals from us all. See what you can do: www.cancer.org/ or www.relayforlife.org/ . www.acscsn.org.