Author Archives: admin

Sharing Our Gifts

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I woke up today thinking about yesterday’s post where I wrote about Sanctuary One. 
I am so inspired by the wonderful ways they are helping animals, people, and the planet. 
I believe that we all want to be of service in some way. We all want to help others. 
And maybe we are clear about how we share our gifts. 
Or maybe we need a bit of guidance to figure out what we can give, see what our talents are, and learn how others could benefit from them.
Dan and I were filling out some paperwork yesterday for an authors’ program that we are a part of. We came upon the question, “What can you do to help others?” That is – what gifts do you have to offer that are unique and beneficial? 
We really had to think about it (and are still thinking about it, actually). The answer didn’t just flow out for either of us, which got me thinking about how deep this question really is and how important it is to really feel and be able to embrace what we are able to give to others and to the world.
This seemingly innocuous question really has us thinking about our lives and going within to find out what gifts we are truly able to bring to others. What talents do we possess that will ultimately help others live their ideal lives? What can we offer in terms of skills, talents, personality traits that will be of service somehow?
. 
We will be spending the day really thinking about this question, and I thought it would be great if we could all think about it together. 
What gifts do you bring to the world?
What do you have to offer that would be helpful and make someone’s life better?
It could be a specific skill that you are trained in (e.g., computer knowledge, editing, etc.)
Or it could be a personality trait that you have (e.g., listening, compassion, etc.)
How do you use your gifts to help others? 
How could take it a step further and use your special talents to reach more people?
Opportunities to go within and get to know ourselves better sometimes appear unexpectedly, such as this questionnaire. And staying open and seeing it as a way to learn and grow is a great way to embrace your own inner wisdom and learn what your gifts truly are. And once you know what your gifts are, you can share them with the world! 

Grateful for Caring Souls and Sweet Animals

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It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time to write a post about gratitude! 

Feel free to click here (or below) to learn more about our Gratitude Project. 
Okay – now for today’s post:

Yesterday, Dan and I visited Sanctuary One, a wonderful farm here in southern Oregon. 
For those of you who remember, Sanctuary One has a very special place on our hearts. With the help of over 100 people last year, we rescued three steers who were scheduled to be killed. After we saved them, Sanctuary One kindly adopted them – even though they had never before adopted steers. I honestly don’t know what we would’ve done had they not taken them in, and I will be forever grateful for their kindness. Since then, the steers have been adopted into their permanent home where they live a peaceful life on 40 acres of lush grass. They are definitely happy there! 

For those of you who aren’t in this area, here is a little background on this magical place (in their own words):
 Sanctuary One at Double Oak Farm is the first care farm in Southern Oregon. Care farms are farms where people, animals, and the earth work together for mutual healing. We envison a future where care farms are as commonplace in the United States as libraries, hospitals, and colleges.

With your help, Sanctuary One can provide a safe and caring home for needy animals; we can do something about the nature deficit disorder that more and more people are suffering from because they are constantly plugged into a computer instead of outside interacting with nature and animals; and we can teach others how permaculture can convert a traditional farm into an organic and sustainable food forest.

***

It had been a year since we had visited, and I was absolutely amazed at how much had changed in that time.
They built two cottages where dogs and cats can live in while they are waiting to be adopted. The work they have done on the land is astounding – planting, composting, building fences for the animals – the list goes on and on. 
  
Robert (the executive director) and Sansa (the animal care manager) have such open, kind hearts and their love for the animals and this farm shows through in everything they do. This all started with a dream Robert had – in fact, his master’s thesis was basically a business plan on how a sanctuary such as this could work. And now it’s a reality! (A great lesson for all of us to make sure we have a clear vision for our goals and dreams – that’s how our ideal lives come into being!)
My favorite part of visiting the sanctuary by far is seeing and interacting with the animals. 
It was so great to see some our friends again:
Lisa the beautiful pig
 Stevie the sweet goat
Rosie, the sweet and grumpy pot-bellied pig
And we got to make new friends, too!
Cookies and Cream
Bryan (a one-week old lamb who absolutely stole the show. We even got to bottle feed him!)
Plus there are horses, ducks, more goats, sheep, chickens, and geese! 
It’s such an amazing place that is doing so much to help animals, people, and our planet. 
If you live in the area, please call to schedule a visit so you can experience this wonderful place firsthand. They love volunteers, and your help would make such a difference!
If you aren’t able to visit, there are still ways you can help!
You can sponsor an animal.
You can help them win an entire fruit orchard.
(To vote, click on “list by state.” In the Oregon section, click Sanctuary One. Then follow the instructions to “Plant My Vote.”
You can donate an item from their wish lists:
Animal Care Wish List
  • Straw bales
  • Metal food bowls
  • Dog and cat collars and leashes
  • Cat litter
  • Towels (any size)

Farm and Garden Wish List

  • Picnic tables
  • Work gloves
  • Compost, potting soil, and clean fill dirt
  • Metal garbage cans
  • Heavy duty garden hoses
  • Gardening and farm tools

You can fan their Facebook page.
You can join their mailing list.
I am so grateful for Sanctuary One.
Dan and I are proud to be affiliated with such a wonderful group of people.
If you do visit, be sure to buy some of our notepads and notebooks that we made especially for them – 100% of the proceeds go directly to Sanctuary One! 🙂

Choosing to Change

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(This was originally posted on 5/12/11. I’m so thankful that it wasn’t lost when Blogger reprogrammed their site. Here it is again!)

Today’s writing prompt comes from Journaling Within: 50 Prompts for Self Exploration:

If you could change one thing about your life, 
what would it be?
What I love about this question is that it empowers you to look at the possibilities for your life. It puts you back into the driver’s seat and allows you to create the life that you know you are meant to live. 
It’s so easy to shy away from change and think that you couldn’t possibly recreate your circumstances. You may feel that there are just too many external factors working against you, too many reasons why it’s just not a good idea to change. 
Maybe it seems too overwhelming and too scary. 
Maybe you just don’t feel strong enough to mix things up and break free of the constraints you have put on yourself. 
When we take responsibility for our own lives, stop blaming everyone else, and find the strength to change whatever isn’t working – miracles start happening. 

If your inner voice is telling you that something needs to change – listen. 
If you feel that a part of your life just isn’t working the way you would like it to – act on it. 
If your soul isn’t being nurtured and fed in every part of your life – do something about it. 
If you are still breathing, you have the power to change. 

And yes it can be scary, but that’s how we grow and learn.
And that’s also how we build up our own self worth, 
which is the key to true and lasting happiness.
So get out there and start consciously creating the life of your dreams! 

Following Our Hearts

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As many of you know, Dan and I are about to do something that we’ve never done in the history of our company: stop production for one month to focus on our writing. 
This is a really big deal for us and a big lesson in faith. 
Our lives revolve around working with our wonderful customers, making products, and filling orders. Our livelihood depends on this.
And while we feel completely grateful that we have been able to live in this way, we have also realized that our lives are very much out of balance. 
We realized that we work for our business instead of having our business work for us. 
We wake up thinking about journals, make them throughout the day and late into the night, and then dream about making them while we sleep.
And so we knew needed to do something – to actively change the way we work – or things would always stay the same. 
So we are taking this month to be quiet, reflect, go within, and see what comes out in the form of words. 
We are getting back into the driver’s seat of our own lives.
And believe me, this transition hasn’t always been the smoothest. 
Even today there are lessons to be learned and little tests put in front of us where we have to really go within and think about how much we want and need this change. 
We are so used to reacting and saying yes to anyone who asks us to do something. 
The need to please runs very deep. 
And now we’ll turn that need to ourselves for one month and see how it feels.
I can’t wait to fill up my own tank.
And hopefully I will be able to give you all more of me when I return.
We are just waiting to tie up a few loose ends today, and then our shops and business will officially be in vacation mode for the next month. 
Our ebooks will all be available though (it’s an instant download), and they are all 1/2 off this entire month!
We are so grateful for all of your support.
Thank you for honoring us on this journey and encouraging us to follow our hearts.
I would encourage each of you to do the same and see where it leads…

Blessings in Disguise

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A writing prompt from Journaling Further Within: 50 More Prompts for Self Exploration.
Sometimes the hardest times in our life turn out to be the biggest blessings.
Can you think of a time when you struggled
but are now thankful that everything happened the way it did?
Spend some time today looking back at your life. 
Think of a hard time that you went through. 
Can you now see anything good that came from it? 
Were you able to learn any lessons from it?
Are you a better person somehow because of it?
Are you stronger? More sure of yourself? Wiser?
We all can grow from our past hurts and past experiences.
I believe that everything happens for a reason. 
We can grow from and learn from each situation that comes into our lives. 
Just like you, I have had some really hard moments in my life where at the time I truly couldn’t imagine them as a blessing. But having perspective can really change everything, can’t it? 
Wouldn’t it be great if we could take that perspective and apply it to our lives while we were in a hard situation? 
Instead of waiting until everything was healed and good again, what if we could look for the lessons while we were experiencing the difficult time? What if we stepped out of ourselves for a moment and looked to see how we might be able to learn and grow from this situation? 
We can all turn struggles into blessings – we do it all of the time. 
By changing our perspective and looking at each experience as a way to grow, the struggles become lessons instead of hardships. 
Give it a try in your own life and see how it goes. 
P.S. – All of our ebooks are 1/2 off for an entire month! Yay for sales!

Expanding Your Horizon

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We live in such a vast universe with so many possibilities. 
And because we are all creatures of habit, we don’t always realize when we may have boxed ourselves in or gotten stuck in a comfort rut. 
I had the great fortune to speak with Star Ladin  from Star Marketing Media a few months ago. She is a branding/marketing expert and really loves to help women entrepreneurs take their businesses to new levels of success. While she had tons of great advice and observations, one thing she said really stuck with me. We were talking about Etsy, which Dan and I have had some success with. At the time, our products were only available for retail sales on our Etsy site. We had just been the featured sellers and were feeling pretty great about how things we going. 
The observation she made that day was that while Etsy was great, it was only a small drop in a world filled with endless possibilities. Why were we limiting ourselves to just one avenue of reaching people? 
I was blown away by this comment – it was a true aha moment for me. 
I had boxed myself in and gotten comfortable with the ways things were. 
I wasn’t even aware that there were more avenues to go down.
This was such an eye-opening experience for me. 
We have since started selling our journals on our own website and have begun to truly expand our horizons in so many other ways!
I am so grateful for Star’s advice that day! 
Take some time today and look at your own life. 
Is there any part of it where you are boxing yourself in? 
Are your beliefs limiting your true potential without you even realizing it? 
How can you expand your horizon? 
When we get real with ourselves about everything in our lives, we can begin to consciously create our ideal life. And the best part about this process is that the possibilities are infinite! Have fun expanding your own horizon and staying open to what’s to come. 
P.S. – Today is the last day to order before our one-month writing sabbatical begins!  
Here are our shops:
thisisit – journals, notepads, jewelry, and wedding goodies
soulful journals – writing prompt journals
quality craft supplies – handmade paper and beautiful beads
Use coupon code “love25” for an additional 25% off, too!

Saturday Selection – Many Lives, Many Masters

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I am a spiritual skeptic.
What that means is that I am open to the many wonderful possibilities that our universe has to offer, and I recognize that there are many sixth sensory experiences and phenomena that I am not yet able to understand. It also means that while I am open, I still view new experiences through a lens of healthy skepticism. I am not someone who just believes for the sake of believing. I believe after I have either experienced it firsthand or been shown enough proof that it’s harder to not believe than it is to believe. 
I think because I naturally live my life in this way, I was especially drawn to Dr. Brian Weiss’s book: Many Lives, Many Masters. He is a well-respected psychiatrist who recommends that skepticism is a necessary part of life, and he still uses the scientific method in his own work today. 
In his book (which I just finished and absolutely loved), he recounts his experience with one particular patient of his in the 1980s: Catherine. She came to him for various phobias and anxieties, and while he was trying all of the tools that medical school gave him, nothing seemed to help her. He ended up trying hypnosis to see if he could get to the root of her problems and in doing so discovered an entire world that he never believed in and certainly was skeptical about in the past: the spiritual world, reincarnation, and past lives. 
Throughout their sessions, Catherine would describe in detail what she experienced in her past lives – she knew such specific information about the time and period – things she couldn’t have studied or read about or known without having actually been there. But beyond describing these lives, she also was able to relay messages from the masters – those in the spiritual world who had lessons and wisdom to teach Dr. Weiss in the hopes that he would spread their message of love and immortality throughout the world. 
It’s amazing that by going through some of her past lives, Catherine was completely cured of her phobias and anxieties. And Dr. Weiss has spent the last 20+ years spreading the masters’ message to anyone who is receptive. 
I am staying open to receiving these messages and allowing the possibilities of all that are around us seep into my soul. I’m sure that there is so much in our universe that I can’t see and can’t understand at the moment – and I am staying open to what is out there. I will continue filtering every new experience through my own skeptical mind.  
But I have to say that after reading this book, my soul is open to the possibility…
I have experienced so many miracles recently that I am at the point where not believing is harder than simply believing. 
This is where faith comes in, which doesn’t seem like such a stretch any more.

Birthday Bliss

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Happy birthday to my sweet, kind, wonderful, loving and wise husband!
Today he turns 40.
I am so excited to have shared the last decade with him, and I am even more excited to see what this decade brings. He is more himself than he has ever been. His essence is strong and solid and grounded and filled with wisdom. I feel so blessed that I get to stand beside him as he continues to grow and continues on this journey. I am so blessed that we get to share each day together helping each other along the way. 
I love this man more now than I ever have.
Happy birthday, Dan. 
You are truly the love of my life.

Grateful for Miracles

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It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time to write a post about gratitude! 

Feel free to click here (or below) to learn more about our Gratitude Project. 
Okay – now for today’s post:

Dan and I were on a telesummit yesterday for an upcoming program that we are participating in. There were 23 people on the call from all over the world, and we were all taking turns introducing ourselves. It was so interesting to “meet” everyone and learn more about them.
So many wonderful serendipitous events have occurred recently – all leading me on a path that feels like home, even though it is scary to stretch and leave my comfort zone. Almost daily I feel and see miracles that help me know that I am right where I need to be, which is so reassuring and completely necessary right now as I journey into this new world. 
Yesterday’s miracle was the biggest of all. 
I am still spinning and trying to wrap my brain around it.
I am so in awe of this wonderful universe and all of the gifts that it brings.
So back to the telesummit…
About five people had introduced themselves, and we were anxiously awaiting our turn. 
And then the miracle happened. 
One of the participants started speaking, and I recognized the voice as my long-lost best friend/brother from high school! What are the odds???
This person has always been very special to me and my family. We met because I was the exchange student liaison at my high school, and Won came from Ethiopia. 
Immediately we hit it off. His positive energy and wonderful laugh were contagious. We had an instant friendship and were together often. We were theater partners, and he helped me break out of my shell and put it all out there during our performance. He was always at my house, and my Mom thought of him as her son. He became part of our family.
Here we are back in the day. 🙂
And then life took over. We went to different colleges and tried to keep in touch, but by then I had moved across the country, and he got married and had a sweet baby. Sadly, we lost touch. A year ago he found me on Facebook, and we caught up, which was so amazing! We knew we could never lose touch again! 
I had no idea that he had joined this program. And I haven’t told anyone that I joined. 
It’s complete serendipity. 
We will see each other again soon for the first time in almost 20 years!  
There are so many reasons why he is just perfect to reenter my life at this moment. 
It’s just one more sign that I’m on the right path. 
And for that I am extra grateful.

Dream It. Act On It. Live It. Enjoy It.

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Have you ever said you were going to do something that you really wanted to do – that you really needed to do for yourself – something that nurtured your spirit and felt so right – and then life got busy, and your declaration of self care turned into a pipe dream – pushed aside for another day? 
There is something very sacred about honoring our word to ourselves, especially when it involves self care. 
Usually when we dream or say things that seem far fetched, it’s our higher self reminding us that we matter – that our needs are just as important as our loved ones. It’s our inner wisdom letting us know that we can go for our dreams – even if they seem far in the distance at the moment. 
Just one action a day will lead you that much closer to realizing your dreams.
I have been feeling an inner pulling for the last several months – my inner voice has been telling me that I need to take time off from production to focus on writing. My higher self has assured me that this is exactly what I need to do – and I feel it with every part of my soul. 
This seemed like a distant dream when I first started thinking about it several months ago. Taking a month off to write seemed so luxurious and decadent. And it didn’t help that my worrying self kept popping up to tell me all of the reasons why this may not be a good idea – we make our living from the orders we receive, and if we put a halt on production, how will we live? 
And then I remembered why faith is crucial when a dream is so new and fragile. 
I remembered that my higher self would not lead me astray.
I remembered that in order to live my ideal life – the life that I was born to live – I would have to take risks and get out of my own way sometimes. 
And so it is.
We are taking one month off to write starting on May 18th. 
And I’m so excited to see where it leads!
Spend some time today thinking about your own dream.
Have you been pushing it back and not allowing it to blossom? 
What is one thing you can do today to take action and lead you closer to making this dream your reality?
Dream it. Act on it. Live it. Enjoy it. 
🙂