Choosing Courage.

The key to freedom is always in front of us: Courage! But sometimes we allow our fears to blind us and instead of us ruling our future and our plans, we let our fears do that. Sometimes because somewhere in the past we’ve tried before but hadn’t accomplished exactly how we wanted. Is it worth staying in a life we don’t want to, just because of the fear we have to fail or to get rejected? If we want to accomplish something in life we need to face of fears and be courageous.

To succeed with our goals we need to take risks. Courage comes out of taking action and no matter how big the risks are. If you really want to do something you love to do, but doubt it might go wrong, dare to take risks and swim through all the fears that’s overwhelming you to get on the other side where a new future is waiting for you. No one is born with fear, so we all can learn to overcome fear. 

 

“I might have a long journey ahead and it might be turbulent on the road, but my courage helps me to continue.” This is what I told myself a few days ago before I took that big decision on choosing a new direction in my career, trading assurance for the unknown. I choose for what my heart really desires, happiness, challenge, inner peace. I know there’s no assurance for the unknown and I can’t go back, but that’s o.k. ’cause I don’t want to go back. What’s done is done. I am thankful for all that I’ve learned, for all that I’ve experienced, for all the good moments but also for the less good moments. I learned from the less good moments and they helped me to be strong. Now I want to move on and reach one by one my dreams I once left aside. I have patience. I am the one to give myself the chance to shine bright again. Doing something with passion makes us happy and it leads us for sure to the greatest moments in our lives.

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“Courage is never to let your actions be influenced by your fears.”

Arthur Koestler

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Being happy by being yourself!

Sometimes we only hear and believe what people tell us. Maybe not to get rejected or not to be too different from others, but can we be happy when we compromise too much or pretend to be someone we’re not? Not really, only if you’re honest to yourself and only if you accept yourself the way you are, you can have a pure mind and a pure heart. True happiness comes from a true heart. 
 
Choose to be happy and you will feel happy. Refuse to believe anything that can take away your happiness unless it’s something reasonable to believe. But even then, remember to stay strong and be yourself. Don’t allow all the sad moments to control your life. Control them by making use of the positive thoughts above the bad thoughts.

Sometimes when I’m unhappy I choose to replace the sad thoughts for positive ones and my mind feels the good energy, picks it up and then I really do feel happiness, even when the circumstances seem otherwise. Of course the truth will always be there but luckily we have the ability to discern the truth.

Make sure your thoughts and words are in line with who you really are. As I already mentioned, use your positive energy to change the negative feelings and always remember: The secret of being happy is accepting who you really are in life, letting go of what you can’t control, counting your blessings everyday, always listening to your heart and give back love to people who really love you. 

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“When you are no longer afraid is when you can be yourself.” Quote by Shannon L. Alder

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Letting go is the start of a new life.

I have written so many interesting and wonderful stories in the past months, but couldn’t post none of them because of one topic controlling my life. How could I post something different while having this one topic influencing my mind and my life constantly? Today I finally decided to write about it and to post it without making any use of the writings I did before as they were too long and too much in details.

There comes a time when without wanting and without noticing we lose our strength. What happened with all those positive thoughts I used to have? They started fading away, like smoke.

Something I really never thought about reached me a few months ago. If I say I’m a mother of an 18 year boy the chance is very big that you know exactly what I`m referring to. Yes, The little child isn’t there no more. In fact, the big boy is even somewhere out there in big Europe discovering the world.

I needed some time to accept and to let go of my son and it didn’t take a day or a week for me to reach that point, but months.

So, was it that bad and that hard to let go? I would almost say it was, but ultimately it’s not. There is this one moment in life when we all have to “leave” and then we’ll never come back. That for sure is the hardest moment. So, My answer is that it’s really not that difficult.

In order to think like, that I first had to remember how many loved ones I lost that I’ll never see again in this world. And I had to convince myself that I could be proud of myself that I got the chance and for getting at the stage where my child got independent, grown up and ready to discover the world. There are people among us that will never get that opportunity, so I am very grateful and feel really blessed that I did get that chance.  Remember to stay positive and look at this big change in your life as a new episode starting, a new life filled with new opportunities and things to discover. I know quite a few, and I got like filled up with lots of positive energy as I discovered which one of my dreams set aside I could re-wake now. And the good news is that in the meanwhile I started working on them. I won`t share them for now. Let it be a surprise. 

In a few months my son will return and I know we won`t be spending much time together as in the past, but even if it would be just an hour, for me it will be like a fabulous treasure. Moments like those lasts longer then it does in reality. I’m thankful to God for the times I can still be with him. Just writing this makes me happy again! And strange but true…. Just after writing this post I felt l more relieved and free.

Thank you all very much for taking your time to read out what I wrote. 🙂

You make your own Good Luck!

Some say you don’t seek for luck but it’s luck that seeks for you. In some cases it could be right, but I think that if I would always sit and wait for luck to reach me, I would have to wait for ages.

Sometimes we search and try many things but we don’t tend to find our good luck. But apparently we’re not focusing good enough on the small details. We tempt to be inpatient and that’s how we reach the stress zone and tend to make the wrong choices that can take us further away from our luck.   

 

Luck can be find even in little tiny details, but don’t just focus on too much things at the same time. Grab the ones you know will bring you the most of joy and hold on them tight. Helping others for example will help you find your good luck for sure, without even seeking for it. Because you always get something nice back, just when you didn’t expect it. 

Having a good plan is also a way of getting good luck, ’cause how can you start something if you don’t even have a idea on what you’re doing and wherefore you’re doing it. Once you have a good plan, start seeking for Good luck and you’ll find it. Your plan doesn’t need to be perfect and neither do you, but stay focused and allow the mistakes to strengthen you and lead you to your luck. Because it’s you that make you own luck and it’s always at your side.

Just one of my experiences I’ll carry with me

me my whole life

remembering me how to find my own luck.

Do you have the ingredients for a happy life?

If you’re missing an important ingredient to live a fulfilling life, pick that one and make the most of it. If you can’t pick just one, then take all the ones you need. They are all good reasons to live a wonderful and good life.

Important is that first you accept yourself the way you are, because you’re the recipe for the ingredients. And together you are life, the happy life you want to live.

My leap of faith!

Changes aren’t always without difficulties. I have had many changes in my lives. A lot of them turned out to be good, but some turned out to be wrong. I moved from one to another country and all I hear people saying is ” Wow, you moved a lot of times” or ” Are you moving again?”.
I can be so surprised sometimes when people reacts on me with indignity. If it was me, instead of reacting as if I heard a crazy plan, I would encourage that person. Because I think when one has come that far to take a decision that will change ones life for sure, that person deserves some respect!  People who dare to face the unknown even if it scares them off, are the most successful. People dont’ realize that but it really is. Because they have a strong will to follow their heart and even if it may take long before they finally reach what they aimed for, they will reach it. Why? Because their heart’s will, their hearts desire is tied to a very strong emotion that no one else understands but themselves. Some things are just to difficult to explain sometimes.

So, shouldn’t we encourage people to pursue their dreams, of course as long as it’s something realistic?  But that’s just the thing. There are people among us that doesn’t believe enough to know that there’s more than only what they see.  They’re just surprised that I don’t stay in my comfort zone and if I allow it, it feels like entering the court and replying on all the “why’s. And that’s exactly why I gave up explaining people everything I do in my life.

Once someone told me, I better write it like this: Someone remembered me (because I think this person assumed that I forgot) that I’ve failed in the past and that I could fail again.  The moments that I failed, I see them as learning points and some of those I even see them as moments when I had to ” gamble”  to survive. We cannot look in the future, so there’s for sure some uncertainty. But, if you dare to take a step in your life to make those changes you want, there’s a big chance that the uncertainty turns out to be the life you really wants filled with joy. And you’ll look back and think that it wasn’t as scary at all as you thought. Am I scared? No I’m not.

As for this comfort zone, just because one has this job that pays good, but even being unhappy, one stay? Is that money really more important than getting to where one really want to be? I think it’s fear that keep people trapped in their comfort zone, fear created by themselves.
And by the way, why do people call that their comfort zone? For me it’s not at all. I call it prison! And that’s just why I’m not afraid of the unknown. I want to be free, always! To live my life with a mission, to laugh, to love, to be loved, to have fun with my loved ones, at any place and anywhere. We live only once and that’s exactly why I think that one should really do what one wishes to do in ones life.

If you trust your heart and believe, you can make any changes. I survived every moment I took changes. And I am thankful for every moment that made my soul an experience richer. The people that really love me, never let me down. And that, I thank God for having those wonderful people in my life. I couldn’t wish better.

So, here I come again. Taking the leap and this time with everything I have: Faith that God will be here to help me and believe that the life that’s waiting for me is not a dream but real.

*** “Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the staircase”. ***

Martin Luther King

I dedicate this post to my little brother who just moved to one of those beautiful places in Spain. After many years of hard work, studying in many different directions searching for his passion, he finally got his degree for something he found out he always loved to do: cooking! I’m very proud of him.

I carry your heart with me.

This morning I wrote a poem for my Mom because I wanted to give her something today, something special, words, on this day that she’ll bring her Beloved brother and my Dearest Uncle to his last resting place.
When I started writing I remembered a few words from a few poems I read yesterday, just like my Uncle would say, that his heart is ours. I decided to use those words ’cause that’s what I wanted her to remember about him.

I know it’s part of life. I know it is, everybody knows that! But still, everytime we lose a loved one, every time we see someone we love in sorrow, it hurts.
But we need to remember that we’re never alone. Our loved ones that left us, are in our hearts, they are at our side. We need to accept that God wants it to be that way.

Forgive me that my post has a lot of sadness in it this time, I hope you see the positive part of it and thank you very much for reading.

 

The less you expect, the less disappointed you’ll be.

Usually when we give away kindness, we get it back. The reason why we for example smile to other people is because it feels good and it even makes others happy. But it should only be done without any expectations. If someone doesn’t smile back to us we shouldn’t be disappointed. In this beautiful world unfortunately we don’t only have people with good hearts. I’m not saying that someone who doesn’t treat us with respect is a bad person. There are among us lots of people that don’t even realize they sometimes hurt us just because they talk or act without using their mind. Some of them are good people, they just haven’t had the opportunity to learn to take others opinion into consideration. Others are not being honest and they abuse our trust, but for us it’s to remain honest and knowing that we did good. That empowers us to stay the good persons we are. Knowing that, makes us strong and gives us back that smile on our faces that we tend to lose sometimes.

Of course it’s impossible to say that one will never ever be disappointed if one starts expecting less. There are moments that we’ll be disappointed anyway. Unfortunately those moments do exist. 

I lost my best friend many years ago. After she passed away, during the first years, I didn`t know how to deal with the fact that I had the idea that God let her and me down. I really expected her to get better and she herself was also convinced it would happen. But suddenly she was gone! It took a long time before I understood that I shouldn’t have blamed God. I was so convinced and I prayed and begged but also expected that He would make sure she would get better. She didn’t, so I felt this deep disappointment. It would have been wiser if I would have been more realistic and prepared myself for the possibility of the big disappointment I could encounter. 

But on the other hand, a few years ago I almost lost my Mom and all I did was hoping and asking Him for help. No expectations at all, just gratefulness for the moments spent together with her, and what was the result? She got better! So you see, one can get happiness also without having any expectations, but by being positive, very positive! Positivism brings happiness in our lives. 

As long as we live we have to enjoy our lives and we shouldn`t focus on bad things and people that let us down or disappoints us. 

Within the years I learned a lot, I felt many times, stood up again and started expecting less from people. After my best friend passed away I was giving a lot of trust to some of my other friends and doing everything they wished me to do even if I didn’t really like it. Seeing others satisfied made me also happy, at least, that’s what I thought at that time.

I wasn’t complaining about anything, in fact, I was accepting everything! If I would give an idea and it would be ignored, I wouldn’t start a discussing ’cause I wouldn’t wanted ruin the good ambiance and as I was learned to be thankful with what I have, I was able to accept fast. I was living up their expectations. But, in the meanwhile in my heart I wished sometimes that the day would come for them to give me an act of kindness back. Then, one day I realized I was wishing for something that can not be and that I could never be really happy if I kept thinking and hoping for people to treat me the same way as I was treating them. Probably I was expecting my closest friends unconsciously to be like my best friend, which was impossible! At that point I opened my eyes. I was lucky to have known this special person that looked like me, thought the same way I did and loved things I loved. But not everybody is the same. So, from that moment on I stopped expecting unrealistic things to happen and I started seeing the differences in people and learned that everybody is different. Choosing for myself was the biggest and the toughest change. No expectations but only honesty and facing that suddenly the same people couldn`t bear that I was being the real me. So I lost many people around me, but real ones stayed. One is fairer than another, one kinder than another, some living in their own world without “giving something back when they always get from others” in a natural way but I choose to see the good in them and not to expect too much and that made my life easier and nicer.

Once in a while when you forget not to expect too much and when this thing in life called disappointment reaches you and you get off track, react on time and see it as another lesson learned. A little scar might be left behind, but consider that scar as a proof of what you’ve learned. 

Nowadays, the area where I encounter disappointments frequently is respect. I’ll never understand why it’s difficult for some people to naturally respect their fellows, but I have accepted that it’s part of life. Since I started expecting less, I noticed I get more positive surprises coming my way.  

Precisely at moments you don’t expect anything, joy and success comes easily. They won’t only make you happy but also stronger and they’ll make you understand things better and see the value of things and people in life.

 

The Sunshine Award.

A few weeks ago I was nominated by Don from  doncharisma for my first Sunshine Award. Thank you very much Don for nominating me! If you haven’t visited Don’s blog yet, you should. I’m sure you’ll love it! 🙂 Don is a kind, helpful and encouraging person. 

Another sunny thanks to Don for being such a great and awesome blogger. I understood that the Sunshine Award is especially for bloggers to get to know each other and for those who bring sunshine and inspire others in the blogging world. 

Rules to accept the Award;
-Announce in a post that you received the Award and display the Award icon in your post.
-Thank the blogger who nominated you.
-Write 10 interesting things about yourself.
-Nominate 10 great and inspirable bloggers to receive the Award.
-Link your nominees and let them know they have been awarded.

Ten interesting things about me;
1. Love travelling.
2. Cooking is one of my biggest passions. Might be because my Grandma teached me how to respect and enjoy food. And besides, cooking with my own hands feels like creating something special of my own.
3. I see the nomination of an award as a way to show appreciation to someone who has inspired me with words created by themselves.
4. I’ve always loved the French language so I’m glad I finally dared last Summer to start following French classes.
5. Vacation? I could go right now! 😉 Where? Preferably on a small island in the Caribbean known by many people as Diver’s Paradise.
6. Spending quality time with my family is one of the most important things in my life.
7. I’m proud and very thankful to have a 17 years old son. Sometimes I wonder how come he’s smarter than his mom. 😉
8. I love sunsets. And I love to see when the sky changes into different beautiful colours.
9. I still have the movie ” The Dallas Buyers Club” on my list “still to watch”.
10.  I love roses. They are beautiful and I find them romantic. I think it’s clear now why I named my blog Words and Roses. 😉

I wish I could nominate everyone ’cause I consider you all as wonderful bloggers. But, this doesn’t take away that you all are special to me!
If your blog doesn’t accept Awards I apologize. Also if some of you may have received The Sunshine Award already, for that my apologies. 

My nominations include food lovers, readers, poets, mothers, fathers and also students. Here they are;
1. Wendy at share with us @ clouds n cups.
2. Clarissa at http://dishingitoutwithclarissa.com/.
3. Shivendra at  Da Write Chick.
4. Charles at ItyCharles.
5. Ajaytao at Ajaytao 2010.
6. Shannon at Doodles Invigorate
7. David at David Emeron.
8. Keli at kelihasablog
9. Afsheen at afsheenanjum
10. Alissa at great2escape

The Beauty of Blogging.

I’m glad I’m back blogging and I’ll do my best not to “hide” again for a long time. There were various reasons why I couldn’t be blogging constantly, but I’ll spare you the details ’cause I want to stick on the topic I’m writing about. But, I will share one of the reasons ’cause it will bring me anyway to where I want to go with my story. 

 

My laptop broke down and I felt like I was in the stone age so I tried using my I-Phone more instead of using it only for text messages, calling and making pictures. But unfortunately I couldn`t manage to become good friends with it, so I made a wish list and waited till Santa came in town and I was lucky ’cause just before he left he fulfilled my wish and I said goodbye to the stone age. 

But before I got my gift I visited many stores looking and comparing some notebooks and wondering which one I would receive if I was lucky. 😉 There was one store where I ended up in a conversation telling the vendor why I needed a laptop so bad. One of the reasons was the blogging. And so I felt like a storyteller ’cause he was very interested in the blogging story. He told me I sounded like a passionate blogger and I was flattered by his remark. I said: ” Blogging is not just surfing on internet. Each blogger is a human being and it feels like you’ve always know each other. Maybe it’s because you have the same passion.”

 

Then suddenly this man who was standing and listening to us asked me” How can you say you love blogging and have a connection with other bloggers you don’t even know.” 

His words: ” How can someone that has never seen you in real life, that’s not even a part of your daily life touches you or respects you. How can strangers on a blog site touch your heart with theirs words and stories more than someone you know in real life? Strangers can be kind but they can never touch your heart. ” 

 

My first words that came out was: ” I never see them as strangers. That feeling doesn`t even come up into my mind. At this moment you are a real stranger to me, while you’re standing here in front of me.” He said. ” Only real friends can touch your heart. And besides .. you might keep hanging in those words and by the way ..it’s just a blog.. with words you must be very clever if you can touch someone with your words. “

Wow, you might be surprised but it felt like it was a test to define my limits. If you know J.D. from the medical comedy t.v. serie Scrubs, you’ll understand exactly how I felt. I saw myself pulling out his hair and then walking away. But instead I took a deep breath and wished I could explain to this person what the blogging is really about. 

 

First I wanted to convince him that he might find something interesting if he would try it out. Whether if it’s something to laugh about, or something inspirable or an educative topic, there’s always something nice and something meaningful to read about in the world of blogging. The one better than another, but each one in their own way! But I ignored him and continued my conversation with the vendor. 

  

What I’ve experienced during that conversation was that not everybody is positive about the blogging. In other conversations people I know and even friends do like it, but they always say they don’t have time to blog. And when I mention that with a full time job, being a single mom that also workout 3 to 4 times a week at the gym, following a language course once a week at night and travelling regularly to visit friends and families in the weekend, I have never said I don’t have time for the blogging. And then…. Silence is all I hear. 

It would be easy to say that I don’t have time to blog, but I won’t, ’cause since I started doing it I love blogging and I really am glad I once discovered the World of Blogging. Of course, I have to admit that I won’t always be able to do it on a frequently bases, but it’s not the quantity that matters but the quality. I might make mistakes, but I learn from them and try becoming better the next time. 

Every time I post something, I share a piece of me and I am very thankful to all the bloggers that are interested in my posts. I’m happy I can be part of this world called blogging where there are so many beautiful people, from all kind of fields that are being themselves, sharing beautiful, strong, educative, funny, inspirational and healthy stories, poems and topics.

At this point I can’t imagine being without my blogger friends because they are very special to me. So I want you to know, when you don’t hear anything from me, I’m missing you for sure! And that’s what I call the beauty of blogging!