Appreciate This Day, each moment, each beautiful Breath ~

Prayers for our brothers/sisters

oh yes

and for the humans too

Good and soon to be a bright morning ~ I had a wonderful time on Lily the Black Bears page over the week-end with friends... I could all but hear their laughter as we made for some great memories... the bidding on HOPE's SCAT was the highlight during these stressful times...

It's a great way to spend times of great heartaches, time of stress and some times of worry...

This is my self proclaimed day of APPRECIATION. 
Let me begin by sharing that I appreciate all that I have had the honor of sharing that fun time with this weekend...

During Labor day, my fun, my laughter and sheer enjoyment ... I received news of a heavier kind...

I am asking for thoughts and prayers to lift many this morning... for healing, for a better journey to peace.

My feisty and beautiful Great Aunt Effie lives in NC... she's the one who taught me to milk a cow oh so long ago ~ I have many a quilt that was made by her hand... A no nonsense woman and a woman with great eyes and fierce independence recently moved to a Nursing Home for the end of her life care... Since being there, she is quickly forgetting those she has loved so dearly... now 101 and 1/2 I think she is ready to begin her journey home... but has those moments of clarity... she is quite funny at times I'm told! She sure does love the Godsons', Kamryn recently said he thinks she should live to be "oh about 120 or so" LOL
Aunt Effie has a loving son named Bennie, but these days she has taken to calling him JOHN HENRY or the "old man", Bennie has a beautiful wife named GAIL... and her grandson Jonathan she adores, he has always been so very good to her, and she to him. Now Aunt Effie seems to always know that grandson, her arms reach for him each time he walks into the room, each time he leans over her, those eyes sparkle her recognition of hearts connected...
He visits Aunt Effie often with "John Henry" (the OLD MAN) aka, his Dad... I think that is very funny , don't you??? To know Bennie is to make it even funnier... Bennie, Gail and Jonathan are a loving family, often welcoming our family to their home, their pool where the Godsons have a ball!
The stories that they tell, the memories they share = PRICELESS!!! 
COB and my Aunt Linda visit often also, sometimes she may know them, but often not... she is tired, her work here now done...
Quite a woman this Elder is... I pray her a safe and wonderful journey to heaven's gate...

Then the emails seemed to just keep coming yesterday....

Seems that Johnny Tucker (he's in Healing Heartaches) I do so love those Tuckers, we go back many many years all of my life I'm thinkin... Johnny's brother has just been diagnosed with Cancer...
Please hold him in prayer and thoughts as he begins his battle.
Bobby Tucker, we will be thinking of you my friend, we will be there, along side of you with warpaint on ready to fight... you are not alone!
 STOMP

CANCER SUCKS.......................
Many warriors here will agree and sure do understand that fight...

Then I read:  Tommy Sprakers' dear Mom 89 years old suffered a fall, broke her hip... Tommy has moved back in order to care for her. Tommy Spraker and our family also go back to the times when my uncles and Tommy and Tuck would get bored and throw me as a football until Granny would show up and "faint" after telling them to "put that baby down" LOL
Again, send those great thoughts and prayers to the Spraker family for healing and strength...
We are some strong warriors here...

Many of Lily and HOPES fans are also fighting the fights of CANCER, of life limiting illness, of struggles... of men and women serving our nation....
We appreciate the journey you are on, the battles you are facing...

While we are working on prayers and lifting up others:
I ask that we lift up: in prayer and thoughts
Dennis Carney and his lovely bride
(of many years)Lynn...
Lynn has been quite ill and in a hospital bed with Dennis caring for and loving her through it all ~ Their "mirror twin" kids living now in Europe ~ We are with you both, always ...
Warpaint on, the sister of the creek is thinking of you both ~ STOMP Lynn, may you be well ...

And then:
My aunt Linda has a very very good friend named Pat who has been through so very much recently health wise... she was found this weekend with her head on the table by her son... He called 911 and began CPR... she had a heart attack/ was taken to hospital where it did not look as though she would make it through the night... BUT she did. she is now communicating with her eyes to Linda and her family... The docs call it a miracle, but say the road back will be slippery and is uncertain....
She is fragile, my aunt is devastated and so very sad ~
We hold you all up today, in light in love and in healing ways ~

As hard as it is to feel, as hard as it is to believe and to think during times of great illness/tragedy and sorrow: hold tight to the knowledge that love is binding through it all for all time.

It is to be appreciated, to be celebrated that is IS, that it has been rather than feared that it will end... You have been blessed ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvkbja_OQYs&feature=related


Appreciate this day…
"I arise in the morning torn between the desire to improve the world, and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day." Elwyn Brooks White.

NOtice how the light is changing??? Not sure that I like it... but it IS...

Good Morning to all. It’s a great day to be alive. The sun shines. I am filled with precious memories, looking forward to the future, living my dream…

Ah but what about today? This very moment? Will I let it rush by, missing what today has to offer while I wait for the promise of the future, or dwell on days gone by?

Sounds silly, and it is. For today I must savor every moment. Today is all we really have. This day. No guaranteed promise of tomorrow. Hope, yes. A promise? Humm…


So with coffee in hand, I listen for the sounds of this morning. Enjoy this perfect sunrise when she rises. Smell the grass beginning to push it’s way to the sun.
Birds chirping in the background.
 The four leggeds beginning the ruckus of their day. For whatever this day brings, I will bring to it my appreciation, a kind deed whenever possible.
Loving thoughts and actions. I will laugh in living color~
I will celebrate this day as it unfolds. I will strive to create some good, somewhere, everywhere... yep, that's what I'm goin to do. Settled.

We get out of life what we put into it.
Today I will pour all my good energy into this day. Will you join me?

Even as I review my schedule for the day, work looms large, I will take a good outlook to work with me.
 Put a smile purposefully on my face.

 Greet each colleague and stranger with cheer and kindness.

And so, today will be wonderful because I have set out to bring about this specific result.
 I will look for the best I see in others. I will give the best of myself.

Adversity will have no hold on me today. NOPE.. not on me... Adversity, be gone with yourself, you are not welcome here.

If it rains on my parade, I will throw up my umbrella.
 Or better yet, toss it away and dance in the raindrops.
 For somewhere in the rain there is the cleansing the water brings.

I don’t want to lose the message in metaphor, but it is a matter of choices.
 Making lemonade out of the lemons we are handed. Knowing that if indeed, this day brings some lemons, I’m ok with that.
NOW... speaking of lemons/lemonades and all that jazz, where has Chris our boobless warrior been? I do know she was off to NY to have a check up since leaving the "girls" aka boobs with Cancer there ... BUT, she usually checks in here, usually comments too...
So, anyone see our warrior CHRIS... tell her to check in with us... We need to know she is doing great now that she is back in the swing of things!~

Gotta love Chris, she didn't just make Lemonade when Cancer came... she looked it in the face and said, "CANCER SUCKS/STOMP/GET OUT OF MY LIFE... and with attitude she did what was needed, after having both breasts removed was caught making her own bed in the hospital less than 12 hours after surgery!"
She is an inspiration to all ~ And now... like it or not, she has a new favorite color... PINK...
and she now makes Lemon Trees rather than lemonade ~ Martha Stewart eat your heart out!


I promise that it won’t be all lemons, or instead of making a pitcher of lemonade, I’ll open a lemonade factory! See how easy that was? A solution instead of a problem. Am I painting a picture here?

It is all about choices.
 Our lives are formed by the moment by moment choices we make. Let’s chose to make good choices today.
Choose joy, choose laughter. Celebrate today!

Squeeze every bit of joy out of this day. Create the day you want to have.
Today, I will spend my talent. I
invest in some pleasure, find something funny in the day. Of course, I will have to jump on Lily the Black Bears page and taunt/tease and make others laugh there ... it will give us a respite from the stress of worry that our bears are safe during this hunt season, a moment to laugh about :
MOES Brew Thru and Pastry Too
GET yours and SCAT

Laugh. I'll Dance to the music in my head and celebrate, really celebrate!

I hope that you too will create a wonderful day. Be thankful for the opportunity to invest in your life.

 Know that you are in charge of your attitude. You may not be able to change every outcome, but you can influence the outcome.
You write your own script. This day take charge. Have the right attitude.
If you can’t change the circumstance, change the way you feel about it.

Add joy to your life and the life of others.
 Use your talents.
Be of good cheer, and most of all, embrace today’s possibilities.

"At the end of my life, I want to know that I do not have even one drop of talent, one bit of goodness that I did not spend. One opportunity to laugh, to love, to sing, or dance left in me. For in so doing, I will have lived a good and full life."
Appreciate today as I appreciate you! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpmILPAcRQo   

The fire is burning brightly the smell of sage is filling the air, with thoughts being sent on the wind ~ ~ ~




We are together in thoughts and prayers ... Sending hope in healing and light ~ ~ ~ warm and wonderful light!

Matt in Radford VA is a member of the
National Guard there... He has a wife named Christina and three children ~
Matt is leaving in a few days for IRAQ for a year... Please hold this young man in prayers and thoughts, his wife and family as well. Thank you Matt for serving our great Nation, be safe soldier, and come home to your family and your country safely! We will be praying for you and we thank you ~

God bless you and God Bless our Troops.

To those who are serving this great Nation, I thank you and your families, I want you home safely.

We are together in prayer, in thoughts of all that is needed to remind you out there, we are WARRIORS...
We are always alongside the journey with you, along with some powerful angels... May you find comfort in knowing we are with you always:

for that I give thanks, and so it is!
FOR:Tampa, our Mayor Iorio, Chief Jane Castor, Tampa PD, all who serve:

HOLDING UP IN THE LIGHT; IN PRAYER;

Christina, Matt and children, Freda, Linda Katie, Pat D, 2Wolves, Tink..and Mitch, Jerry, Trish, Barb, Anastasia, Mary, Rylee, Lindsay, Ann, Sarah, Ruth, Johnny, Bobby and the Tucker Family, The Spraker Family, Aunt Effie and family,
The Kocab Family, baby Lilly Nicole Kocab, The Curtis Family, Tarpon PD, those serving here and there in Uniform...
Mylee, Mikey and family in DC, Jack M & Janis in OC, Stephen, Stuart Wittel in Pakistan and his parents,
Lavie Coltrane and her loving family, Pat in Southwest VA, Andrea Gasse and family here and in New England, Ali and family, Randy and Winnie in New Mexico, Jill Wheaton, Dennis and Lynn,

Irene M, Bernice, Eileen and family, Dorothy, Angela, Elijah, Ode, Linda M, "Southwest VA",

Vicki, Matthew and family, Chris, Lovie, Our new adopted family in BRAZIL,

Our Black American Bears Lily and HOPE, their spunky spirit, Jill, the folks at the NABC, Joseph, Cathy Madden and her family., Cindy in NC Cindy, Liz, Lee, Molly, Joanie, Jude, COFA,Judi, Matthew, Natalia, Matt, Mark's family and many friends , Pat, Irene, Kevin, Dr D, Deb, Randy, Dr B , Charlie and family, Jean, Julie, Rhonda, Victoria, Mildred, Andi and family, Faith, Denise, Jim, Tom, Joey, Shelby friends and family, Judi, Phylis, Joyce, Gina, Tonya, Beverly and Family, Janeth, Melissa, Pam, Virginia, Stacey, Elizabeth, Nita, Gary Siegal, Adrienna,Brian Mawbey, the Boyan Family, Jean R and friend Christy Rider, Victoria and hubbie, Stephen, Gayle, Steph, Chris, Erica, Eileen, John, Mindy, Jack, Susan Werth Becken, her brother Mike and family, Craig James Lightfoot and his family, Kenny, Audrey,

Ed Saner, Patty Crowley, and ...

(please feel free to let me know if you would like to add your/or a friends name to our list)

Please lift these friends family and loved ones of these people in your hearts and prayers ~

Just because you have the power and choose to to join with us there are some powerful warriors on this page and in the next place along with some awesome angels ~ together we have banded together with the energy, love and support to facilitate healing and hope for so many along their journey... and for that you should feel pride and great love in connection ~
That is the HOPE in Healing Heartaches ~

Walk In Beauty,

DRSES

Healing Heartaches, Stories of Loss and Life
http://www.drsherryeshowalter.com/