Love Of A Lifetime

Four years ago today I married the man of my dreams... This was our wedding song and will forever be a perfect expression of our love and our life. Enjoy!

Love Of A Lifetime by: Firehouse

The Story of Rhiannon - Goddess of Inspriaion

Rhiannon, the Celtic goddess of the moon was a Welch goddess.   The goddess Rhiannon's name meant “Divine Queen” of the fairies. In her myths, Rhiannon was promised in marriage to an older man she found repugnant. Defying her family’s wishes that Rhiannon, like other Celtic goddesses, declined to marry one of her "own kind".

Instead, the goddess Rhiannon chose the mortal Prince Pwyll (pronounced Poo-ul or translated as Paul) as her future husband.  Rhiannon appeared to Pwyll one afternoon while he stood with his companions on a great grass-covered mound in the deep forest surrounding his castle.  These mounds, called Tors, were thought to be magical places, perhaps covering the entrance to the otherworld beneath the earth.  It was thought that those who stood upon them would become enchanted, so most people avoided them. 

So it is no surprise that the young prince was enchanted by the vision of the beautiful young goddess Rhiannon, who was dressed in glittering gold as she galloped by on her powerful white horse.  Rhiannon rode by without sparing him even a glance. Pwyll was intrigued and enraptured, and his companions were understandably concerned. 

Ignoring the protest of his friends, Pwyll sent his servant off riding his swiftest horse to catch her and asked her to return to meet the prince.  But the servant soon returned and reported that she rode so swiftly that it seemed her horse’s feet scarcely touched the ground and that he could not even follow her to learn where she went.

 The next day, ignoring his friends’ advice, Pwyll returned alone to the mound and, once more, the Celtic goddess appeared.  Mounted on his horse, Pwyll pursued her but could not overtake her. Although his horse ran even faster than Rhiannon's, the distance between them always remained the same.  Finally, after his horse began to tremble with exhaustion, he stopped and called out for her to wait.   And Rhiannon did. 

When Pwyll drew close she teased him gently, telling him that it would have been much kinder to his horse had he simply called out instead of chasing her.  The goddess Rhiannon then let him know that she had come to find him, seeking his love.

Pwyll welcomed this for the very sight of this beautiful Celtic goddess had tugged at his heart, and he reached for her reins to guide her to his kingdom.  But Rhiannon smiled tenderly and shook her head, telling him that they must wait a year and that then she would marry him.  In the next moment, the goddess Rhiannon simply disappeared from him into the deep forest.

Rhiannon returned one year later, dressed as before, to greet Pwyll on the Tor.  He was accompanied by a troop of his own men, as befitted a prince on his wedding day.   Speaking no words, Rhiannon turned her horse and gestured for the men to follow her into the tangled woods.  Although fearful, they complied.  As they rode the trees suddenly parted before them, clearing a path, then closing in behind them when they passed. 

Soon they entered a clearing and were joined by a flock of small songbirds that swooped playfully in the air around Rhiannon’s head.  At the sound of their beautiful caroling all fear and worry suddenly left the men.  Before long they arrived at her father’s palace, a stunning site that was surrounded by a lake.  The castle, unlike any they had ever seen, was built not of wood or stone, but of silvery crystal. It spires soared into the heavens. 

After the wedding a great feast was held to celebrate the marriage of the goddess.  Rhiannon’s family and people were both welcoming and merry, but a quarrel broke out at the festivities.  It was said that the man she’d once been promised to marry was making a scene, arguing that she should not be allowed to marry outside her own people. 

Rhiannon slipped away from her husband’s side to deal with the situation as discreetly as she could . . . using a bit of magic, she turned the persistent suitor into a badger and caught him in a bag which she tied close and threw into the lake.  Unfortunately, he managed to escape and later returned to cause great havoc in Rhiannon's life.

 The next day Rhiannon left with Pwyll and his men to go to Wales as his princess.  When they emerged from the forest and the trees closed behind them, Rhiannon took a moment to glance lovingly behind her.  She knew that the entrance to the fairy kingdom was now closed and that she could never return to her childhood home.  But she didn’t pause for long and seemed to have no regret.

Rhiannon was welcomed by her husband’s people and admired for her great beauty and her lovely singing.   However, when two full years had passed without her becoming pregnant with an heir to the throne, the question of her bloodline, her “fitness” to be queen began to be raised. 

Fortunately, in the next year she delivered a fine and healthy son.  This baby, however, was to become the source of great sorrow for Rhiannon and Pwyll.

 As was the custom then, six women servants had been assigned to stay with Rhiannon in her lying-in quarters to help her care for the infant.  Although the servants were supposed to work in shifts tending to the baby throughout the night so that the goddess Rhiannon could sleep and regain her strength after having given birth, one evening they all fell asleep on the job. 

When they woke to find the cradle empty, they were fearful they would be punished severely for their carelessness. They devised a plan to cast the blame on the goddess Rhiannon, who was, after all, an outsider, not really one of their own people.  Killing a puppy, they smeared its blood on the sleeping Rhiannon and scattered its bones around her bed.   Sounding the alarm, they accused the goddess of eating her own child. 

 Although Rhiannon swore her innocence, Pwyll, suffering from his own shock and grief and faced with the anger of his advisers and the people, did not come strongly to her defense, saying only that he would not divorce her and asking only that her life be spared. Rhiannon’s punishment was announced. 

For the next seven years the goddess Rhiannon was to sit by the castle gate, bent under the heavy weight of a horse collar, greeting guests with the story of her crime and offering to carry them on her back into the castle.

Rhiannon bore her humiliating punishment without complaint.  Through the bitter cold of winters and the dusty heat of four summers, she endured with quiet acceptance.   Her courage was such that few accepted her offer to transport them into the castle. Respect for her began to spread throughout the country as travelers talked of the wretched punishment and the dignity with which the goddess Rhiannon bore her suffering. 

In the fall of the fourth year three strangers appeared at the gate—a well-dressed nobleman, his wife, and a young boy.  Rhiannon rose to greet them saying, “Lord, I am here to carry each of you into the Prince’s court, for I have killed my only child and this is my punishment.”  The man, his wife, and the child dismounted. 

While the man lifted the surprised Rhiannon onto his horse, the boy handed her a piece of an infant’s gown.  Rhiannon saw that it was cloth that had been woven by her own hands.  The boy then smiled at her, and she recognized that he had the eyes of his father, Pwyll.  

Soon the story was told.  Four years earlier, during a great storm, the nobleman had been called to the field to help a mare in labor, when he heard the infant’s cries and found him lying abandoned. He and his wife took the baby in, raising him as if he were their own.

When the rumors of the goddess Rhiannon’s fate had reached his ears, the farmer realized what had happened and set out at once to return the child to his parents.  Most legends suggest that the badger actually was the enraged suitor that Rhiannon had rejected who had escaped and taken his revenge by kidnapping Rhiannon's infant son.

Pwyll and his people quickly recognized the boy for Pwyll and Rhiannon’s son.    The goddess Rhiannon was restored to her honor and her place beside her husband.  Although she had suffered immensely at their hands, Rhiannon, goddess of noble traits, saw that they were ashamed and was filled with forgiveness and understanding.

 In some versions of the legend, Rhiannon was the Celtic goddess who later became Vivienne, best known as the Lady of the Lake. She was the Celtic goddess who gave Arthur the sword Excalibur, empowering him to become King in the legends of Camelot.  

 

The story of the Celtic goddess Rhiannon reminds us of the healing power of humor, tears, and forgiveness.  The goddess Rhiannon is a goddess of movement and change who remains steadfast, comforting us in times of crisis and of loss.

** I will warn you, the following story covers very graphic material and should only be read by mature readers. I do urge every woman to read it though, even though it's not the "feel good" story most people enjoy. This story has made a great impact on my life and I know if can yours as well... 


If you ever needed proof that your excuses just aren't good enough - this is it! 


Originally published in the November 09 issue of Marie Claire...

Diary of an Escaped Sex Slave

By Abigail Pesta

Sreypov Chan, a young Cambodian woman with a feisty laugh and a love of Kelly Clarkson songs, has a recurring dream: She's being chased by gangsters. They catch her and throw her into a filthy, cockroach-infested room. She knows what will happen next: She will be tortured—whipped with metal cables, locked in a cage, shocked with a loose electrical wire—and then gang raped.

Sreypov has lived this dream.

When she was 7 years old—an age when most girls are going to slumber parties—she was sold to a brothel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital city, to work as a sex slave. The woman who made the sale: her mother.

For years, pimps forced Sreypov to have sex with as many as 20 men a day. If she didn't meet her quota, or if she tried to run away, she was punished in unthinkable ways—burned with a hot poker, covered with biting insects. And worse. "I wanted to die," she says.

Sreypov is among the lucky ones. At age 10, she managed to break free of the brothels and start a new life. Today, she's ready to tell her story, talking openly about her enslavement and escape, and about coming to terms with her dark past.

As shocking as Sreypov's tale is, she's not alone. More than 12 million people are now victims of forced prostitution and labor across the world. The buying and selling of humans is a $32 billion global business, according to the U.S. State Department's 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report.

What kind of person sells her own daughter into slavery? In Cambodia, a deeply poor, corrupt nation still reeling from the bloody genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge regime in the '70s, it's someone especially desperate.

I first met Sreypov three years ago when she visited the U.S.—her first trip out of Cambodia. Seventeen years old at the time, she was so shy, she could barely look up at the people she met. "Sreypov can't believe how friendly people are to her here," one of her travel companions explained. "They look her in the eye."

A year later, I met Sreypov again. A smiling, chubby-cheeked 18-year-old, she greeted me with a giant hug and giggled out a "Hello, how are you?" in her freshly learned English. In her shiny pink raw-silk dress, she looked as if she'd discovered she had the right to exist. Still I wondered: Could she ever really get over her painful past? This year, I traveled to Cambodia to find out.

From the air, Cambodia looks like it's drowning in mud. It's monsoon season, and we swoop through coal-black clouds, then hit the runway in Phnom Penh with a jarring boom. On the ground, my taxi plows through flooded roads that are more like rivers, clogged with motorized rickshaws.

Down a narrow dirt lane in the middle of the city, up a winding flight of stairs, Sreypov, now a sparkly young woman of 20, sits in the room where she lives. The walls are mostly bare, except for a big green plastic clothes-hook in the shape of a smiling bug. A Tom and Jerry comforter tops her bed; there's a framed photo on her desk showing friends on a motorbike, including a girl missing an eye. I learn that a pimp gouged out the girl's eye with a piece of metal when she dared to ask for a rest from clients after an abortion.

Sreypov sits on her bed and begins her life story, with the help of a translator named Chanthan Roeurn. She says she remembers a happy childhood, with loving parents, five siblings, and a house in the rural district of Koh Thom, where her family owned a rice field. "You need to get an education," Sreypov recalls her father saying. She pictured herself going to school one day.

When she was 5, her father died. "After that, my mother changed," Sreypov says. "She was terribly unhappy; all the love drained out of our lives. We became very poor." The family eventually moved to a shack. When Sreypov was 7, her mother sold her, telling her she would be working as a housekeeper in another home. Sreypov felt it was her duty to obey. In Cambodia, Chanthan explains, "Daughters are like property: They are there to provide for the family."

Indeed, Sreypov did do a little housecleaning—for two days. On the second evening, her new employers drove her to another home, in Phnom Penh, where she ate dinner and went to bed. "When I woke up, I couldn't get out," she says. "I was locked in the room. I was crying, trying to open the door." Sreypov's demeanor visibly changes at the memory, her usually warm, animated face turning serious, then expressionless. It was her first night in a brothel.

The road to Kampong Cham, a town about two hours outside Phnom Penh, is a bumpy one; punishing rains have left the dirt thoroughfare dented with colossal potholes. Sreypov, Chanthan, and I are on our way to a center for rescued sex slaves. Sreypov, who once stayed at the center herself, returns often to talk with the girls, all of whom are under age 18. Some are as young as 5.

As we bounce along, we pass oxcarts, open-air homes on stilts, bony goats, and naked kids playing close to the road. A puppy bounds out in front of our car; with no time to maneuver, we hit it with a thud, leaving it dead in the road.

At the center, called AFESIP (an acronym for its French name), several dozen girls are getting a lesson in hygiene from a nurse. When the class breaks up, the girls, dressed in their public-school uniforms—white cotton blouses, knee-length blue skirts—excitedly swarm around Sreypov, practically tackling her to the ground. The girls live at the center, which is run by a former victim of sex slavery named Somaly Mam, and attend a nearby school, as well as learn job skills like sewing and hairstyling.

Sitting on a metal swing with Chanthan on the grassy grounds of the center, Sreypov continues her tale. "At first, it was quiet," she says, recalling her initial days in the brothel. "Then one day, a man opened the door and said, 'Do you want a client?' I didn't know what he meant, but I knew it was bad. I said no. Then he brought me to a room for punishment." She pauses for a moment. "I had to drink the man's urine." The abuses escalated in the following days. She was tied up and covered with biting ants, whipped with an electric cable. Finally, she said yes.

Sreypov stares off into the distance, awaiting the next question. She is uneasy telling her story; it doesn't tumble forth freely, but rather comes in short, staccato, emotionless bursts. It's as if she becomes someone else to cope with recounting her own past.

When Sreypov saw her first client—"an Asian man with a cruel look in his eyes," she recalls—she changed her mind and said no again, and started to cry. Furious at her behavior, the pimp took his abuse to a new level, crushing up a handful of hot chili peppers with his foot and stuffing them in her vagina. Then he took a hot metal rod and jammed it inside her as well. "The pain was so terrible," she says. "I couldn't speak." Soon after, the client raped her.

Sreypov doesn't know if the client paid a high fee for her virginity; she never saw any money at the brothel. In general, sex with girls can cost as little as $5 (that's less than the $9 I paid to take a taxi from the airport to my hotel), but virgins usually command a far higher price. Clients can pay as much as $800 to $4000, according to the Trafficking in Persons Report. And virgins can fetch that price more than once, as the pimps often stitch up the girls (without an anesthetic) after the first time they have sex, so they'll scream in pain the next time, tricking clients.

After Sreypov's initiation into sex slavery, she spent the next few months imprisoned in her room, with a guard stationed at the door. If she didn't meet her quota of men for the day, she would be shocked with a loose wire from a socket in the wall. "On some days, I was so tired, I couldn't get out of bed. The men would just come to my bed, one after another, like a gang rape," she says. "I became numb. My life grew dark. I thought everything was finished for me."

Sreypov sits silently for a moment. Her eyes, distant a few moments earlier, now seem deeply sad. Chanthan looks over at me; then, as if to explain Sreypov's past, she sighs and says simply, "This is Cambodia." Chanthan, like many here, blames the country's problems on the Khmer Rouge, which tortured and executed as many as 2 million teachers, lawyers, doctors, and city dwellers—about a third of the population—during the '70s, in an attempt to turn the country into a purely agrarian society.

It's late afternoon, and we rejoin the girls in the center to say good-bye. They're entertaining themselves by doing a traditional Cambodian dance, with the older girls teaching the younger ones—among them, Sreypov's 8-year-old sister, Opekha. The girl is mentally disabled, but Sreypov was afraid her mother would try to sell Opekha anyway, so she brought her here. When we try to leave, the girls don't want to let us go. Even though they've just met me, they hug me, tightly. A pretty Vietnamese teenager whispers to me, "Promise you will never forget me."

That evening in the car, I sit in the backseat next to a tiny girl named Sreymach, who was sold as a sex slave a year ago, at age 5. She stares, wide-eyed, out the window as we hit the outskirts of Phnom Penh, its hotels and bars gleaming in the night. She is traveling to the city to visit a health clinic. She has HIV.

Phnom Penh's most notorious sex district is called the White Building, so named for an ominous, decaying, grayish-white structure that stretches over several city blocks. Its tenants are sex workers, many of whom have been booted from smaller brothels because they're either too old—in their teens and 20s—or too sick to be of much use anymore. With no education or job skills, they've had to find new pimps here.

We walk down the street in the shadow of the gloomy building, past vendors selling bright-yellow jackfruit, bike parts, dried nuts. All eyes are on us. A man on a motorbike trails our group a little too closely, watching. Sreypov is here to try to help women escape the sex trade. It's part of a job she took with Somaly's organization, after a job at a local clothing factory didn't work out so well (she worked for seven months there, but received pay for only three). In her backpack, she carries boxes of condoms and soap to give to the sex workers—which is why the pimps let her in. Her face looks remarkably calm for someone who is about to step into a reminder of her nightmarish past.

Down a dim corridor on the ground floor of the White Building, a dozen women have gathered in a cramped room, along with a few of their kids. An ancient relic of a TV blares cartoons. In a sleeping loft overhead, the walls are lined with posters of Thai movie stars and photos of mansions—inconceivable aspirations considering the conditions in this room, where perhaps a dozen women sleep. It's around 10 a.m. and the women are wearing pajamas and earrings, resting from the night's work. They look beaten up. Their garish evening dresses hang in the bathroom, beside a door frame that's been decimated by termites.

Sreypov, in a crisp white cotton button-down blouse, black pants, and white heels with sparkling silver trim, kneels on the floor as the women circle round. Sitting there, with her perfect posture, she looks like hope personified. When she introduces herself and describes her past, a man peers into the doorway. Then another.

Undaunted, Sreypov continues, inviting the women to talk about their problems. A painfully thin young woman with high cheekbones, long legs, and hair swept up in a loose knot says she was approached one night by a group of men. Afraid they would gang rape her, she sought help from a man driving by in a car. He opened the door and let her in, but then later raped her himself. Another woman in pink pj's says her stepfather raped her, then sold her to a brothel.

Sreypov says she understands—she was sold, too. Then she tells the women she can help them get trained for other jobs. The first woman is skeptical. She has kids and doesn't think a job as a seamstress will pay the bills. Sreypov tells her it's worth a try, adding, "My own future has changed." Later, she hands out boxes of condoms; a toddler neatly stacks them up.

It's hard to imagine why men would want to have sex in a place like this. It's joyless, grimy, dangerous. The reasons vary: Some local men believe myths that sex with a virgin brings luck or good health; foreigners are usually pedophiles or men who want to play out violent fantasies they've picked up from porn films. They know they can do so in Cambodia. Prostitution and human trafficking are illegal here, but officials are often paid to look the other way.

Our White Building visit continues in another sweltering room on the second floor. Sreypov and her colleagues pile their shoes at the door, a futile gesture of politeness and cleanliness in a room where the walls are splattered with stains and the hallway is littered with chicken bones and rotten vegetable scraps. The women here look younger and prettier than the ones downstairs. "They have foreign clients," Chanthan explains. "Some are married, but their husbands are their pimps." In contrast, the women we met in the previous room service local clients.

The mysterious man who followed us on the motorbike pokes his head in and stares—a pimp, perhaps? The women sit on the floor with their babies on their laps; one young mother eats noodles from a bowl. A teenager in a floral cotton top says she didn't have any clients last night and needs money. Another young woman with glittery purple fingernails and an ankle bracelet says she finds her foreign clients in restaurants. Sreypov listens and nods; she hopes that by developing a relationship with these women, they will eventually enlist her help to break free. If so, her colleagues would work with the authorities on a rescue mission or raid. It's a risky business, to be sure. Sreypov knows the dangers of angering pimps, but says, "I just want to help girls get free."

Later, after a lunch of coconut-curry fish with friends, Sreypov admits that it's hard to revisit the sex districts. But, she adds, even if she didn't go back to these places, the memory would still be with her. "I can never forget my past or the cruelty of those men. I'll never understand it," she says, sitting under a pagoda in a friend's leafy garden. "But I use it as power to push for change. I feel better knowing that I'm helping other girls."

Then she returns to the story of her own escape, years ago. "I knew ever since my first client that I had to run," she says. Of course, she also knew what could happen to her if she failed—she'd heard about girls being chained up for days or locked in coffins, covered with live maggots—but she didn't care. "They could kill me if they wanted," she says. "Death seemed better than that life."

One night, when her client was in the bathroom and the guard had left her door, she saw her chance. She bolted from the bedroom and made it as far as the entrance to the building, where she was caught. The pimp marched her to the torture room, where he strung her up, arms spread, "like Jesus," she says, and whipped her with a rattan cane until she bled, then rubbed hot chilies into her wounds. After that, the pimp sold her to another brothel.

As she speaks, a blustery afternoon storm kicks up, breaking the heat. She stares out at the downpour for a minute, then quietly describes her second attempt at escape, which went much like the first—she got captured, beaten, and sold to another brothel.

What gave her the nerve to run for a third time? "I knew if I stayed, I would get sick and die," she says. "I had nothing to lose." So one night, when her guard had left the doorway, she fled again. This time, she made it out into the street. She ran as fast as she could, until she bumped smack into a man, nearly knocking him down. "He grabbed my arm and asked why I was running," she says. "I told him everything."

She was lucky. He could have escorted her right back to the brothel to collect a finder's fee. Instead, he delivered her to a police station. There, she got lucky again: Corrupt police often return girls to brothels as well. Instead, the officers phoned Somaly Mam.

When Sreypov first arrived at Somaly's center for rescued girls in Kampong Cham, she saw the other girls and thought she had been sold to another brothel. "It wasn't until I saw them going to school that I knew I was safe," she says. She was 10 years old.

Sreypov's mentor, Somaly, sits in a bustling, bright-orange beauty salon in the town of Siem Reap, as a pair of former sex slaves brush and braid her hair. Her cell phone rings every few minutes. "My ear hurts," she says with a grin. "But I have to be busy all the time. It's how I survive." Somaly, who is in her late 30s, laughs easily, but she has lived a rough life. Sold into sexual slavery as a teen, she spent more than a decade in the brothels before escaping the trade with the help of a French aid worker.

She remembers Sreypov being angry when the two first met, which is not unusual for newly rescued girls. Some have been tortured so badly, they have deep cuts and welts or, astonishingly, nails hammered into their skulls. Little surprise, then, that they have "problems with authority," Somaly says. "You can guide them, but they have to learn things for themselves." Case in point: After three years at the center, Sreypov wanted to see her mother. The visit was brief, and painful. The mother claimed she didn't know Sreypov had been sent to a brothel. Her daughter didn't believe that.

Since then, Sreypov has formed a replacement family of sorts, with all the rescued girls. As for marriage and children? "I don't want that," she says, shaking her head. She can't imagine herself ever being with men.

To this day, her past haunts her in new and unexpected ways. The week I was in Cambodia, Sreypov's mother returned—knocking on her daughter's door for the first time in years. The mother's motives were unclear: Did she just want to see her daughter, or to sell her? Sreypov isn't sure. The incident left her in tears. But when she has a low moment, she says, she can always call her friends. And the bad dreams are fading; she hasn't had one for a couple of years now. "After I escaped, I tried to keep everything in, and the nightmares were the worst," she says. "But now I talk about it, I help other girls, and I don't hurt so much."

The path Sreypov has chosen isn't easy, she openly acknowledges. Telling her story will always be a struggle. But, she says, turning to me with a steady gaze, "If no one knows, nothing will change."

For information on the Somaly Mam Foundation, go to somaly.org.

365 Ways to Live the Law Of Attraction (Day 44)

A Response for Skeptics

While some critics shrilly denounce the Law of Attraction as being pure bunk, others temper their remarks with a reminder that positive thinking and instilling hope is a good thing. If believing in the Law of Attraction inspires one to have a better life, set some goals and reach for treasured dreams, so much the better. French-born diarist Anais Nin once remarked that a life shrinks or expands according to one's courage. Sometimes it take courage to just believe in something and allow for its unfolding is your life.

Taken from the book 365 Ways to Live the Law of Attraction by Meera Lester (available in the Inspired Mama Goddess Amazon Book Store)

**My Two Cents... So many people require proof in order for belief that it's hard to take things like the Law of Attraction at face value. They want physical, reach out and touch it proof that the Law works. The law is at work for them too. However, for those of us with enough faith in the law regardless of physical proof, will be the ones to get it!

365 Ways to Live the Law Of Attraction (Day 43)

Get Closer to the Source

When you calm your mind, cultivate a positive mood, center your thoughts on the outcome you desire, and love what you are doing you are in a position to optimally manifest that which your heart most desires. Wallace Wattles, writing in his 1910 book The Secret of Getting Rich, noted that when you live closer to the source of wealth and abundance and align yourself in harmony with that, you get more of what you seek from the source. Living closer to the source, as Wattles calls it, might suggest to some readers to think of that unnamed, unknowable source of all with appreciation, gratitude, and love. Such emotionally charged thought attracts more of the same to the individual.

Taken from the book 365 Ways to Live the Law of Attraction by Meera Lester (available in the Inspired Mama Goddess Amazon Book Store)

**My Two Cents...  When you love what you do, it becomes much easier to be happy and positive! So make sure you are always doing what you love... Or at the very least, loving what you do!

An Irish Blessing For You!

May the blessings of light be on you—light without and light within.

May the blessed sunshine shine on you and warm your heart until it glows like a great peat fire—so that the stranger may come and warm himself, and also a friend.

And may the light shine out of the two eyes of you, like a candle set in two windows of a house, bidding the wanderer to come in out of the storm.

May the blessing of the Rain be on you—the soft, sweet rain.

May it fall upon your spirit, so that all the flowers may spring up, and shed their sweetness on the air.

And may the blessing of the Great Rains be on you: may they beat upon your spirits and wash it fair and clean and leave there many a shining pool, where the blue heaven shines reflected—and sometimes a star.

And may the blessing of the Earth be on you—the great round earth.

May you ever have a kindly greeting for those you pass, as you're going along the roads.

May the earth be soft under you. When you lie out upon it, tired at the end of the day. And may it rest easily over you, when at last you be out under it. May it rest so lightly over you that your soul may be quickly through it, and up, and off, and on its way to the Gods!

365 Ways to Live the Law Of Attraction (Day 42)

Love Promotes Creativity

Some artists, who have not yet experienced success, may feel a love for their craft but do not have the optimism, confidence and sense of expectancy that they can create something unique and exceptional. Perhaps their love for their craft is not as strong as their sense of defeatism or failure, which can sabotage their efforts. And yet. others use their pain and suffering as images in their work. Love pulls them into their work and passion serves as the catalyst that ignites their vision for what they desire to manifest. Such artists may become highly successful, turning out magnificent and unique works as their gifts to the world.

Taken from the book 365 Ways to Live the Law of Attraction by Meera Lester (available in the Inspired Mama Goddess Amazon Book Store)

**My Two Cents... When we love what we do, success is just an after thought!

Overcome Fear, 7 Steps to Free Yourself from Fear’s Stronghold

Article by Dani Johnson

The plague of fear is a huge epidemic that stops people daily from reaching their goals and dreams. Whether it’s fear of failure, success or anything in between, you need a step by step method to break free from this nasty demon. I’m going to cover some of the most common fears and give you the steps to breakthrough them for a lifetime.

The following fears apply to business and life in general. None of us are immune to these fears but we have the ability to not be controlled by them. The most common fears are fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of humiliation/looking bad and fear of making mistakes.


Decision, commitment and action are your best tools for overcoming fear. Decide what you are going to do, commit to doing it consistently and take immediate action. Where there is no commitment, fear and doubt set in.
I decided that Network Marketing was my chosen profession and that I would do what it takes to get good at it. I had the same faith of a medical student who knows that he won’t see a patient solo for 8 to 10 years.

The doctor knows that if he commits to developing the skill every day that he will eventually master his craft and own a practice earning a professional income. The beauty of the home business industry is that you can earn just as much or more than a doctor in much less time. Making up my mind that there was no turning back, I burned the bridges of doubt and fear. Within 2 years I was earning as much or more than most doctors.

 Here are 7 steps to overcome fear:
1. Doubt – don’t open the door or make an agreement with it. Make a decision whether you are going to agree with faith or agree with doubt.
2. Be 100% committed. Commitment destroys fear and doubt. Stay with your plan and fight through adversity.
3. Surround yourself with like-minded individuals, people with vision and dreams who are awake and stirred to do great things.
4. Keep yourself moving forward in action mode. Lack of action creates idleness which opens the door to fear.
5. Stay involved by plugging into tools that increase your skills and feed your belief system. Listen to conference calls, CDs and attend seminars. Protect and feed the growth that you are experiencing.
6. Practice prospecting and giving presentations daily. The more you talk to people, the easier it gets.
7. Make the decision to never quit. Once quitting is not an option, there is no room for fear.
You can’t afford to live in fear. The future of our families and our nation are relying on you stepping up to your potential, taking action and building a future. Get the skill you need to get more and do more and you will fear nothing.

365 Ways to Live the Law Of Attraction (day 41)

Love is Magnetizer

Love can serve as a powerful magnetizer for manifesting.  Here's the way it works. Because of the hormones that are released in your body when you are in love, your thoughts become highly magnetized. When you first fall in love, you may feel crazy and even somewhat obsessive. All you can think about is your beloved. The other person may, in fact, be thinking of you in the exact moment that you are thinking of him or her.

Whether altruistic, romantic or compassionate, love seeks expression. Passionate love is the driving force behind magnificent works of art, architecture, literature, and music as well as procreation. Many of us became the expression of our parents' love for each other. Love can draw into your life a romantic partner, meaningful work, pets and friends.

Taken from the book 365 Ways to Live the Law of Attraction by Meera Lester (available in the Inspired Mama Goddess Amazon Book Store)

**My Two Cents...We can all understand that emotion causes drive... We all have been so emotional at one point or another that exhaustion took over...  So, the idea that emotion only increases the energy we put out is an easy leap... Love is the greatest of all emotions, and therefore only increases the strength and power of our own natural energy.

365 Ways to Live the Law Of Attraction (day 40)

Love Is Essential

Humans require love to flourish. Love energizes thoughts, empowers individuals to dream and follow their bliss, and enables their efforts to manifest. In his best selling book, Think and Grow Rich, author Napoleon Hill explained that it is by our predominate thoughts that we thrive. Many people might agree that when thoughts are of love they leave a deep "imprint" in our psyches and hearts. We become powerful creators when we learn to transmute appreciation, and then magnetize our thoughts with love.

Taken from the book 365 Ways to Live the Law of Attraction by Meera Lester (available in the Inspired Mama Goddess Amazon Book Store)

**My Two Cents... Love is the strongest of all human emotions, even stronger than hate. Love transcends all reason, time and lasts lifetimes. With the strength of love, there is truly nothing we can accomplish. When we love, we are loved and when we feel loved we feel as if we can rule the world... Well, in some ways we can!

Religion and The Law of Return

I have touched on this in previous posts but I wanted to devote an entire post to this subject because I believe it's a very important one. As someone who greatly believes in the law of attraction, has great faith in her religious beliefs and enjoys studying other religious beliefs, this is a subject that has occured in study and conversation many times over.

The Wiccan Three Fold Law teaches that whatever we do returns to us thrice. Generally the rule is spoken of concerning magic. However it works as a good law to live ones life by. The idea is that when dealing with Magic one must be careful, for energy put out in anger or sadness will return to us three times or at three times the strength. By using this rule as a general rule for life we are going to promote positivity and do our best to keep negativity to a minimum in all things we do.

The Christian teaching found in Mathew about "Do unto others what you would have them do to you." Puts a purely outgoing spin on the idea. Where many other versions of this rule strive the positive return for positive actions, this idea is simply to be good to others in the hopes of a good return. However, the basic idea is the same. While the teaching of return isn't there in writing it's greatly implied that if we are good to others, they will return the favor.

Karma is a belief originating out of Ancient India that simply put, states that what we do returns. This concept has taken many forms through out the incarnations of many Middle Eastern, Indian and Oriental religious systems. While some teach that Karma will return to you in this life, others believe that our actions in this life affect our place in life in the next life or in an afterlife. In any form the idea that if we are generally good people we will benefit if a common thread. Whether we believe we are going to profit today, tomorrow or a lifetime away, the idea is that by being positive and focusing on positivity we will prosper.

The Law Of Attraction states that like attracts like. When we focus our energy on positivity it only sends more our way, but when we focus on the negative, that is what we get.

So, what is my take? Why do I feel it's so important to post this information? Because while I am a great believer in the Law Of Attraction, I have heard many people who simply can't accept it as a fact. They are, in many cases, very religious people, but they can't understand that the Law is a teaching that even their path teaches. Maybe it's not always called the Law of Attraction, but that doesn't mean it's not taught. In fact, the Law shows up in every form of religion in one form or another. We simply have to be willing to accept it.

For me I tend to take my beliefs a step further. Many people on my path, or similar paths have a great faith in the Three Fold Law. However, many of them think about this belief only when when applying it to magickal doings, and not to every day things. I believe that everything we do, everything we think even, comes back to us three times. Why three? Well, it's not simply because I read a book about Wicca or even because my beliefs closely resemble Wicca. It's because I firmly believe that each of our actions have three layers to them and that the Law of Attraction applies to each part or layer or our action.

Firstly, before we do anything, we think about it. And generally, if we do something that means that we have focused our energy on making it happen - otherwise it would have been no more than a passing thought and wouldn't happen. The energy put in to that initial thought and the focus to motivate us to actually get up and do it, go out in to the universe and start to work for (or against) us from the get go. So, if our intent is negative even at this most basic non-acting level it's sending out and will in turn bring back like energy.

Second, of course, it the action itself. We can all understand that if we do something harmful we are going to get hurt in the long run. We all understand the basic idea of "be nice or no one will be nice to you." Well, again, our actions create energy, which again, returns...

And Thirdly, the aftermath. We are not alone in this universe. There are other people, animals and even the earth and universe itself. When we put out negative energy, it returns to us. However, just like our energy affected others and the world around us, so does the energy and actions of others affect us. It would be naive to believe that we could act recklessly and cause harm to others without some type of backlash... Well, I believe this backlash is the third layer of the Law...

While I use negative actions in my example, it's actually more important to understand that the law works just as well for positive outcomes. When we do good or focus on the positive aspects of life, we again, will see the same in return. I generally use negativity as an example because it's easy for us as people to focus on the effects of negativity, they tend to make a more noticeable affect on our lives. This too, however, is all up to us. If we are willing to focus on the positive and learn to be grateful for even the little things in our lives, we will also see a great deal more coming our way.

Survivors are nothing special!

I am a big fan of Chalene Johnson, in one of her speeches she said something that knocked me down! She said that there is NOTHING SPECIAL about being a survivor. And at first, I was offended, I thought, who is she to tell a survivor they aren't special? She doesnt know what they went through... But then, I listened to what she was saying, and she was right!

We are ALL survivors. We woke up this morning, which means we survived whatever we have been through. And all of us have been through something in our lives... Every last one of us! Some have been through things that I can't imagine, lived through horrors that make my life look like cheesecake... But the fact that they survived really isn't special at all.

It's only those that are willing to conquer those things they have been through that are at all special. It's those that look at their past and say "That's the past, it's over! I've been there, I lived through that, I've learned from it and I've become stronger" that are really and truly special.

It's those people that can say, I am stronger today, because of what happened yesterday that are special! It's those that take their experiences, no matter how horrid, and create something positive... create something better... It's not those that simply survive that are really and truly special when all is said and done... It's those that conquer their past and themselves that are special...

So, are you a survivor? Or a conquerer? No matter what you have lived through... Whatever is in your past... It's the past, it's over. Surviving was the easy part. Now it's time to become stronger, hold your head higher and conquer your life. Make it your own! Stop letting the past dictate the future...

We all survive... Only a few CONQUER!

Become a Conquerer!!

The Boiling Point of Water

At 211 degrees, water is hot... VERY HOT! Add just 1 degree and water boils, producing steam that can power a steam engine locomotive! One extra degree makes all the difference. 

Imagine how just one extra degree of effort can build your new life. One extra hour on the tread mill, one more prayer, one more healthy dinner...  Doesn't seem like a whole lot when you look at it individually. But add it with all the other steps you are taking along the way... the other 211 degrees... and compound over time. You'll be amazed at the momentum you can build and results are sure to flow!

Just Do It!

Are Excuses holding you back? Do you have a list of reasons why you can't live your life, your dreams or be who you want to be?

No More Excuses!

So, what was your EXCUSE?