Use the Storms of Your Life

I really love this picture. We had gone down to Chincoteague, VA and there was an awesome storm. As you can tell, I am not the world's best photographer, but what can I say. I was literally standing at sunrise in the middle of this horrendous storm, surrounded by telephone poles and the main road cutting through. Another day, we went out on a boat for the pony swim. Let's just say that the digital camera fell in the bay (oops) and it probably took a year or so for that camera to turn back on. (Luckily, I wasn't really thinking and left it sitting on my desk plugged in. One day it just turned on. Yea! Anyway, this picture was there and it just really hit home to me. Instead of thinking of storms as the hardships of your life, I am going to focus on the energy that is available to you through those storms.

Everyone was sleeping and I was out there all alone. The power that was blowing around with the wind was amazing. I could feel that power just filling me up. Giving me the strength I needed, but felt I didn't have, to make some changes in my life. Unfortunately, I didn't make enough changes and for quite a while, I have basically remained stagnant in some areas. I tended to focus on how I got to where I was in my life, instead of accepting what I went through, and moving on and reaching for what I know is right around the corner, within my grasp.

A lot of people do this. It's so much easier in life to blame someone else for our situation. Yes, some things were not in my control, but I can't change them. I needed to accept the past and just move on. Live with today. Build for my future. It was easier to go with the flow, try to make everyone else happy with who I am. Let me tell you this. The ONLY one that you have to make happy is yourself. That may sound selfish, and yes, it's great when you can make others happy too, but not at the cost of YOU.

Don't sell yourself short. When we are younger, I think all of us have been asked what we wanted to be when we were older. I wanted to help people. A worthwhile ambition and through this blog, I hope I help lots of people. Who knows where it will grow? However, if I help one person, that's something to be grateful for. Back when I was younger, I sold myself out. By the time I got to high school, I knew that I was done with schooling. It wasn't for me. (I'll talk about that another time.) My parents told me to be a secretary because it was short training and well, I already knew shorthand and typing. (I was actually pretty quick at both, but I didn't like that, at all.) I wanted to help people, but since I didn't want to continue on for more schooling, I would told to forget that dream and pick something more realistic. Then I had some other guidance that mission work was where I should go. Help through the churches and other Christian organizations. OMG. Again, they wanted the continued schooling. Yeah, I was more the hands on learning. Learning by doing, by experience.

Anyway, over time I just gradually gave up on my dream. It was a dream that wasn't going to happen. Even after I had a website, that dream was gone from my life. I gave up. Then, I was hit with a huge storm, the worst storm of my life. My youngest daughter decided at 22 that she didn't want to live in this world anymore and took her own life. I'd say I had no energy because I basically lived in a fog. I was also told shortly after I shared the notice for friends and family that Heather was no longer with us, to write everything down. I did.

Thanks to my Mom, I type faster than I write. Thanks to my life's experiences, I basically had a personal blog that I started to use to share our story. I shared it with others. We may not have a huge following, but it grows a little more each day now. Years from when I first had my dream about helping others, it is starting to become a reality.

I do talk with God more these days. I have finally realized that I am not strong enough to weather the storms without Him. He does help. Writing about it actually helps. When you read these posts and share them, that helps me too! I also now have a record of what I've been doing for the past 19 months. I know many of you have read the posts, but shortly after I write them, they really are gone from my mind. I know my posts have helped many others, I'm going to use them and help myself too. While doing that, I will also be modifying the site. I want to make it easier for all of you to get the most from the articles.

It's time to get some other things done. Little things, like sleep that I haven't gotten around to yet. (I'll probably regret that in about 3 or 4 hours when Carter is wide awake. LOL) I hope all of you have a great day. Use your storms and harness the energy to make your life a better one too!