Fun sayings, positive affirmations and powerful quotes:

Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of the pieces.

-Judith Viorst

American poet

Part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles, but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory.

-Norman Vincent Peale 1898-1993

American Author, The Power of Positive Thinking

You don't know a woman until you have had a letter from her.

-Ada Leverson 1862-1933

English writer

This is one of my favourite positive affirmations statements:

What is the most powerful thing you can add to the process of creating what you want? Ask for others as you ask for yourself. An easy way to do this is to ask for ALL, which of course includes you. Ask for a good life for all, peace for all, abundance for all, health for all, love for all, and happiness for all.

When you ask for others, it comes back to you, so the law has it ALL covered.

-Rhonda Byrne

Creator of "The Secret'

Here is an excerpt from Deepak Chopra M.D., Creating Affluence -Wealth Consciousness in the Field of All Possibilities

"J" stands for the fact that it is not necessary to judge. When we relinquish our need to constantly classify things as good or bad, right or wrong, then we experience more silence in our consciousness. Our internal dialogue begins to quieten when we shed the burden of judgement, and it is then easier to access the gap.

It is important therefore, to get away from definitions, labels, descriptions, interpretations, evaluations, analyses, and judgement, for all of these create the turbulence of our internal dialogue.

A lovely quote by Author, Louise L. Hay-

"Can you imagine how wonderful it would be if you could live your life without ever being criticized by anyone? Wouldn't it be wonderful to feel totally at ease, totally comfortable? You know what? You can give this to yourself."

Have a beautiful day,

photo: 'toward the light' PKM

joy,

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

The charm of a camp fire story

Finally a sunny warm beautiful day.

The summer of 2011 has really turned out to be counting the nice days on the fingers of my hand. It certainly increases the gratitude quotient when an outdoor dinner party coincides with sun and t-shirt weather. It is even more of an event when friends get together and after a wonderful exchange of food and spirits the day then leads to the magic of a beautiful evening and campfire. The real charm of these memories is when everyone somehow gets to share a story that brings out something that everyone can relate to in feeling.

Such is my experience on this special gathering of friends and memories. It usually starts with the casual question; what high school did you go to? Where did you go to College?

Then someone gets up and throws another log onto the fire and everyone takes in that moment. Have you ever noticed the pause after someone puts some wood on the fire? It just seems like that pause is forever and the forever feels good. It's the unspoken feeling that it is all right to just "be".

I unconsciously slump into my lawn chair a little more and know that this is all to be expected of myself. These are such precious moments to be aware of and take note of and then my man does the campfire protocol thing and slips his hand into mine. Holding hands and campfires - love it...

" I grew up with horses," one of the quietest of women at the gathering pipes up out of the darkness.

On the other side of the fire another woman dinner guest chimes in- "I rescued a miniature pony once but it bit me so many times I had to find a foster home for it."

I sit up in my seat with genuine interest and ask.

"Where did you find a rescue home for a miniature pony? Was that hard to do?" The gal sharing her story said it was actually very hard to do because the pony was a biter and nobody wanted him. "Nobody wants a mean miniature pony." Finally she found a Llama rescue farm that just shelters Llamas in Montana and they took him in. The story has a happy ending though as the Llama farm owners discovered that the pony had a bite problem and his teeth were digging into his gum when he closed his mouth and he was in pain. A pony vet dentist filed and reshaped his teeth and now the miniature pony is the King of the Llama farm sanctuary.

He is the unquestioned King because every other animal on the farm is a rescue Llama.

With that story the gates open and everyone shares their stories, but I am going to highlight the original horse story that was offered by the quiet woman at the dinner party who spoke up first.

This story is of a fourteen year old girl who loved and owned a horse named Sir Francis Drake. He was a big Morgan breed and the girl loved him with all her heart and this story was how her Dad sold her horse.

The family lived on a farm and the acreage had an elbow turn at the end of the property that sat beside a local county road. It was on a slight hill and on one wet rainy night a car backfired at the edge of the curve on the roadside where Sir Francis Drake was standing inside the fenced property.

Sir Drake was deeply startled to the point that he must of thought it was a rifle shot because he ran straight for the fence and broke through it and ran down the road.

The unfortunate part was that all the cows on the property ran down the road after the horse Sir Francis Drake. The father rousted all of his children out of bed to come help collect the cows including the young girl who was narrating the story. It was pouring rain out and with just a sweatshirt on over her pyjamas and rubber boots - off she ran to find her horse.

The good news was that the horse stopped just down the way by the roadside and was chomping on some grass he had probably been eyeing for sometime and was led back to his stall. Not was the case with the cows though as they ran and never stopped until the family caught up to them. The first cow the father put a halter over and asked his daughter (now a grown woman telling her story) to take back to the farm was Bossie.

Bossie was not that easy to handle or that willing and she had to pull Bossie by the rope towards the farm in the dark and the pouring rain. The cow halfway back though realized that they were going home and went from being pulled onto a full on trot and now the fourteen year old was running behind the cow all the way down the road back to the farm hanging on to dear life - yelling- "Bossie slow down"!

The horse Sir Francis Drake was sold for breaking the fence and leading the cows astray. The girl cried and cried. Her father realizing that maybe he had acted too hastily took her to the horse auction to buy her another horse. He ended up buying two horses that day. They were a black stallion they called Prince and a pinto filly that she named Daisy.

Prince did not last long at the farm though because they did not realize that he was a wild stallion. Apparently wild horses when sold for auction can be drugged to calm them down so that they can be trotted around the ring to show and sell. When the drugs wear off the owner then has a wild horse on their hands. This is what happened with Prince the stallion and he only lasted a few months with the family.

When they got Daisy the pinto filly home to the stall it was realized that her whole body was infested with ticks that had burrowed in under the young horses hide. Every day, for two months or longer, when the teenager came home from school her Dad would soak a cloth in kerosene and rub Daisy's coat. Finally one by one the ticks backed their way out of the horse's body.

It is such a beautiful story of compassion and love and that this young horse did not die and they were able to save her.

When Daisy got to be a yearling her young owner had a talk with her and told her it was time to have a saddle and she actually handled that horse into a bridle and saddle all by herself.

Daisy the pinto became her best friend and lived on to twenty years of age. The girl, now a full-grown woman shared how it made her whole life to have had that relationship and companionship with her horse.

I took it as one of the more beautiful father daughter relationship stories I had heard in a long time.

Sometimes I wonder what it must be like for people in northern California who have a temperate climate and the ability to sit outside by the campfire and share stories all year round.

Have a beautiful day,

joy,

Photo: PKM

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com

Feng Shui home

From time to time I receive from the t.v. division of braveheartwomen.com updates to my email box. I noticed from one of their earlier broadcasts a ten-minute segment on energy and the interaction of a Feng Shui home with your life energy.

I thought it was pretty interesting from the standpoint that although Feng Shui is a lot more mainstream than it was when I was first introduced to it - this ancient Chinese art still needs to be prefaced with the good it can do for you.

The main speaker being interviewed on this segment was Marie Diamond and I feel they did a stand up job of conveying the overall offering of Feng Shui in your life. Marie Diamond was included in Rhonda Byrne's book, The Secret. The book explains how to work with the premise of the law of attraction.

I am uploading the video for you to view and it moves pretty fast. However, I harken back to my readings of Dr. Sha who mentions diet and health in his health books but also includes Feng Shui for a home health life. Dr. Sha mentions Feng Shui as a complement to a healthy aligned lifestyle. I agree with him completely that Feng Shui without inclusion of proper diet and exercise of mind and body is like a puzzle with a missing piece.

This is most evident in the "prove it to me crowd", with nose up and gufaagh laugh when given Feng Shui ideas of enhancing their sanctuary with pleasing art and furniture placement. It is the attitude of arms folded and mindful resistance to placing two birds in your love sector of your house will bring you love without any involvement on the participant's part.

The good news is that even though you may be depressed while making those love enhancements, you will receive the beneficial energy you are expending on yourself. However, to rely on just Feng Shui you need to be reminded that according to the philosophers of ancient years,it only makes up 33% of your life results.

Including thoughts of thank you, thank you, and love, compassion, fighting your selfishness, and having so much fun as you journey through life practising your joy will exponentially increase your Feng Shui results.

Adding on diet and exercise will strengthen your mind as well and every day you will want to do better and better, and you will become stronger and make you available to open your door to be with the world.

My own life experience to date has shown good results when including the art of a mindful thought into my day.

Enjoy the video:

Have a beautiful day,

joy,

photo: 'fresh air' PKM

Rena

www.talktotheturtle.com