Birthday Wish- Plenty of Yes

Hello My Dear Fellow Travelers, This week's inspiration comes via my heart to yours, by way of Birthdays. This week marks the end of an era, the completion of a span of time and a step through a doorway of a new decade of life. As I prepare to leave behind the past years, and step through the doorway into unknown territory of the future, my future, I invite you to come along. In preparation, I have been furiously writing and contemplating. I have been saying thank you to my past. I have been looking fear in the face, taking it by it's cheeks and saying...Fear, you are nothing but- Facing Everything And Rising. I am saying Yes to my future, and this is how fear has met its match. In saying Yes to the unknown future, I have discovered a new way to look at my past. Fear does greet us at every new turn. Each new day, with its unknown experiences lurking can be a daunting way to face life. While fear has never stopped me from living a full life, and healing and growing and facing death, it has in its sly ways, come to nest within my sacred, healing nest. What is this fear that has come and what is its anecdote? This Birthday Anniversary has created quite an inner clamor. This is what I have learned. I am moving on, I am growing older, I am leaving behind something valuable. The past. The fear of leaving behind that which I am not finished with, the fear of sudden loss, all mask the greatest fear. The fear that I would leave this planet without really sharing my voice, my story, my life. The fear that life would pass me by as I tended to life. The fear that my pain, my sorrow, my joy and my messages would somehow be washed away, as I grew out of one phase and into another. The fear of not mattering. This fear is a deeply human need, and a spiritual need at that. Each human being matters. You matter. What is your story? I want to hear you, I want you to share your voice, your life and your heart. Share it with Life. See what happens. Say yes to life. This is the anecdote of fear. Say yes to your future. In saying yes to my future, and all that it holds, I have found a great treasure. I have found a profound truth. This truth is setting me free. It is emboldening me with a power gained only through living the years past. What I have found is the many Yes's I have already said. The Yes's of my past have laid the foundation for my present, and my future. In remembering the Yes's of my past, I have found my power.  I have said many yes's to life. I have said many yes's over the years. Each one propelling me forward, inward, out of and free from, all the No's that the world shouted back at me. I said Yes, to the teenage mom that I would become. I said Yes, to creating a family with my teen husband. I said Yes to giving Life my signature, in so many awkward and challenging ways. I said Yes, to the studies that fascinated me. I said Yes, to expressing my passion. I said Yes to this over and over. Much to the societies No's. I said yes to my budding spiritual self. I said Yes to my knowing and wisdom, although I was so very young. I said Yes. I said Yes, to raising two babies alone. I said Yes, to starting anew. I said Yes, to my infant son, born with a serious heart condition. I said Yes, to being his advocate, over and over and over. I said Yes, to raising five children. I said Yes to raising sons without a father. I said Yes to keeping my children safe and teaching them to be themselves. I said Yes to leaving a marriage that was full of dangerous No's. I said Yes to myself, my truth, my voice, my freedom, my healing, over and over again. I said Yes to the hardest thing ever. I said Yes to living through the loss of my youngest son. I said Yes to grief. I said Yes to the time to grieve. I said Yes to what I needed when I had no idea what that was. My Yes's deflects the No's that others flung at me during this time. My Yes's brought me the right healers, the right medicines, that were fed the miracles of forgiveness, and empathy and grace. There are a lot of Yes's in my past. I am sure there are a lot in yours also. Count the times you have said Yes. I invite you to find the treasures that all of your Yes's have brought to you. What I have found in doing so, is that Yes's have turned me into a victor. Yes's shift my experience from victim, to victor. Yes's created the foundation upon which I live. My Yes's heal me. My Yes's help to create a healing life, a foundation of self-love, self-appreciation, self-respect and self-value. What have your Yes's brought to you? How have they made you strong and brought you face to face with You? I said Yes, to being unconditional with myself. Say Yes to being unconditional with yourself. Try it. Saying Yes to that which is right and true fueled my courageous heart. A courageous fiery Heart, is what leads me forward now. Of course, there have been many, many No's spoken. Feeling the power shift from all the No's I have spoken and been told, to all the Yes's I have spoken and created from, changed everything. No feels empowering, and necessary, yet we create with the Yes's. We create full, thriving lives with the Yes's.  Saying Yes, was sometimes loud and bold, sometimes soft and quite. Saying Yes is always compassion in action. Saying Yes to rest and healing. Saying Yes to discovering my own values and living them. Saying Yes to devotion to what I believe in, how I live, and what I must do. Saying Yes is an acceptance of what is and a way forward, when the way may seem so very impossible. Saying Yes is a boundary. It creates a combustion of energy that fuels miracles. I say Yes to my future. I say Yes to the process of life, with its mighty twists and turns and rises and falls. Won't you join me? Have a blessed week. Use the energies of this time to fuel your Yes's. Love, Mary

Mid Century Modern Baby (notice the pink flamingo behind me). She is saying Yes to rockin the frilly baby bonnet, and sweet cheeks.