Going One Step Further

Thank you to ALL and EVERYONE who has ever read this blog. I am writing this to announce a few changes that will be taking place. Don't worry, this isn't an announcement that this blog will be shutting down since I don't have time to write anymore. Quite the opposite. I have decided to put more time and effort into maintaining this. If anyone gets anything out of it, whether a smile, knowledge, or even some help that saves one of their own animal family members, then it would make all of this worth it. Actually, all of this is worth it anyway, because I get to speak (type) from the heart and that alone makes it worthwhile!

SO - a few upcoming changes:

1) A new domain name! I haven't decided on it yet, but will do so soon at which point lovelifeandthelawofattraction.blogspot.com will point to the new domain (you have to admit, the current one is ridiculously long).
2) I am going to work on a slightly new and appealing layout.
3) And the biggest of them all, is that I want to start adding video blogging to this site. I think it will be a new way to spice things up around here.

Have a wonderful weekend and make sure and spend time with everyone you love, animal, human, or plant.

I love you Mr. T

My beautiful kitten, exactly one year old, died this weekend. I am trying not to look back with regret for not having brought him to the vet sooner. It happened so fast...

It's strange - I miss him dearly, but for some reason feel so surrounded by his presence and his LOVE. I've cried a lot over these last two days. Oddly enough, this is the first death I've really been close to. I've had pets many years ago, but I was a different person then, and their deaths hurt. However, I don't know if I was as close to those animals as this one - Mr. T. He was one of three brothers who was born in my backyard by a stray cat. The mother left them for us, and they were soon coined as "The Klump" or "The Brothers" (nevermind that two of them were female). They have spent the last year together completely inseparable, cleaning each other daily, sleeping, eating, and loving me and my family.

I love him very much. I see how much I've grown as a person and I see so much of me in each of those kittens, especially Mr. T. He was a very shy and timid kitten, but very kind, quiet, and peaceful. As our discussions on this blog have been clear, the things we receive in life are a reflection of us. This couldn't be more true of these kittens. As my mother pointed out, as I considered how unconditionally and deeply Mr.T loved me, he was just reflecting my own love for him back upon myself. I used to be someone that carried around a lot of regrets about things I could have done better. Not so much this time, hence my growth.

I never let a single day go by without spending a lot of time with my kittens and every single night, even if it was 2 in the morning, sitting down with them outside and telling them how much I loved them. Me and Mr.T used to sit down side by side, with my hand on his back, watching up at the stars. I told him every night just how much I loved him. I felt like he really understood me. He just stood quietly and listened to me always. So docile, so loving.

Despite him no longer physically here, all I feel is love all around me. I keep thinking of the line from Ghost where Patrick Swayze says (while he's going to heaven), "it's amazing, the love, you take it with you...". While the backyard seems very empty and quiet, and I know his two sisters are missing him dearly, grieving in their own way, I feel his ray of sunshine upon my soul.

I realized through Mr.T how silly it is, chasing love. How silly have I been over the years, chasing people that didn't love me back. It is incumbent upon us to be like gravity and gravitate towards those that love us and we love. Never try to convince someone to love you - that is not love.

As humans, we love to talk about love all of the time, however we understand it the least of perhaps all living creatures. Mr.T knew what true love was. He gave it to me and his siblings every day. He didn't do it to get anything in return. He did it simply because he had it to give. Love is being in the presence of someone who you can share your positive energy with, and bask in the glow of one another. Love is sharing your positive energy with someone when they're down and vice-versa. Love is not conditional. It is something you give because you wish to give it. I love you Mr.T and I thank you for loving me. I feel like that beautiful feeling you gave me will never go away. Ever.

Quotation from Eat, Pray, Love

“…I’ve come to believe that there exists in the universe something I call “The Physics of The Quest” – a force of nature governed by laws as real as the laws gravity or momentum. And the rule of Quest Physics maybe goes like this: “If you are brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting (which can be anything from your house to your bitter old resentments) and set out on a truth-seeking journey (either externally or internally), and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue, and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher, and if you are prepared – most of all – to face (and forgive) some very difficult realities about yourself….then truth will not be withheld from you.” Or so I’ve come to believe.”

- Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love.

New Beginnings...Again

Well, who would have thunk it? I first started this blog a few years ago to help me recover from a break-up. I'd like to say it was devastating because it rattled my foundations as a human being. The interesting thing is, it wasn't the relationship that did it, so much as it was how the end of it awoke me to the real me, and the issues I had that were holding me back that perhaps had prevented me from being in a great relationship.

Fast forward and a about a year and a half ago I met a great girl! As you can decipher from the dates on my posts, this blog went dead as my heart soared in ways I did not expect. With this new girl, I was able to do right all the things I had done wrong previously. I didn't hide her - she slept over at my parents place, I introduced her as my girlfriend, I was always available for her and I was generous with my time and love. For the first time, I was able to tell someone in english openly that I loved them and she loved me too!

I'm not sure where things went wrong. The only issue her and I ever had was that after a while I always felt like I was tenth on her list of things to do. Don't get me wrong, we talked and kept in touch all day, however it was rare for me to see her in the day, as though we'd only get to do things in the evenings after she had done all of her other stuff. To me that wasn't a big deal, although the bigger deal was when we would have tentative plans and she would forget all about them, almost twice a week! She was so busy managing her family, job and school, that while I would get frustrated, I was also very patient. I was just happy to have her in my life. Ultimately, this was the only thing I would get frustrated and angry about. Otherwise we got along well.

We finally made our one year anniversary. We enjoyed a fantastic weekend going to the aquarium and being together. She was head over heels and so was I. Then the next day, she became very distant. For the whole week we did not talk much. When I finally managed to get her to answer her phone, she seemed odd. She said she had felt so close to me and dependent that she wanted to see what it would be like to be without me for the week, and she ended up missing me. I, unfortunately, got mad and told her that it seems like she just wants to break up, so let's just break up. Although I regretted it immediately and apologized, she took it and ran. Either way, I had been very patient and nor am I a laboratory animal to experiment on!

Ultimately the relationship turned into an electronic one - we were broken up, kind of, sort of, but she would only communicate through text. She wanted to meet one day, but then ditched me. It has been a roller coaster these last four months, trying to understand her signs. I have felt every emotion from sadness to anger to overwhelming love for her despite everything. She kept giving signs but ultimately she was always too afraid to express herself fully and perhaps me too, as I had felt that I kept reaching out, and she would just recoil. Yesterday however, I finally gave it one last go, and got the closure I needed...through text message no less.

She repeated what she had said before - she wasn't happy anymore with her life and didn't want to drag me down in the process. Talking wouldn't have changed anything. She said I am better off without her, and that her life is so crazy right now. Whatever her motives are/were, I replied with no games, telling her that I loved her very much and all I had ever wanted previously was to at least talk to say goodbye if nothing more. I sent lots and lots of love her way and told her she is very dear to me.

I could have said nasty things, but what for? She did things the way she knew how and I know she did nothing out of malice. Perhaps she got afraid at the one year mark. And yes, we are at two different points in our lives, that's for sure. I feel so lucky to have been able to carry myself out of the fire two years ago and love again. I did not expect myself to wind up here again...but I know that I do so a much stronger person than before. I am grateful to be surrounded by many projects, many people and great family. And I realized that the real love of my life has to be myself.

Book Review: Chicken Soup for the Soul: Count Your Blessings

Well it's been awhile, but I thought it was time for another book review. This time, after hearing so much about the series, I finally picked up an edition of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Count Your Blessings. I have seen this book everywhere over the years, and always found the name of it to be a bit odd, but despite that my only excuse for not having picked up one of its many editions is because I never got around to it.

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Count Your Blessings, is a compilation of various short stories of situations people have gone through. They are all real events dealing with everything from people who lost their jobs, to their families, but were able to find a way to stay positive by focusing on the good things that they had in their life instead of dwelling on the lack, or what was missing. People began to realize that all that mattered was their peace of mind and humility.

The book is broken down into several chapters including "expressing gratitude", "silver linings", and "recovering from adversity" to name a few. Each chapter accordingly contains a number of real life stories from average people who were able to find their way and count their blessings, persevering through the tough things that life can bring out.

All in all I really like this book and am already heading to the library to borrow another one on finding love and chance encounters. The great part of this book is that you don't have to read it from front to back. You can read one story here, another there, and it still makes sense since each story stands on its own and is only a few pages long. There are 101 stories and for anyone who is going through a tough time in any regard, I highly encourage you to pick it up and realize that life is abundant!!! While you focus on the things you don't have, you forget the great abundance that you already do have and that is what matters most.

Speaking It Into Existence

Be careful not only of the thoughts you carry in your head and in your heart, but also what you say. You can speak things into existence by a mere word. Just recently, I had difficulty in a dear relationship. For the whole year, things were blissful, however so good were things in my life I started to say that sooner or later, my great ride was going to come to an end. I don't know why I started saying it, but I did. When shopping for a gift for our one year anniversary, I started planting the seeds of destruction by telling the sales clerks at jewelry stores that it was a word record for me to have achieved a one year relationship.

Within days after our first anniversary, without a word, and for reasons that someone remain a mystery, my relationship began to unravel. For those who have followed this blog, they know the pain I suffered last time, but the great wisdom that arose from that pain. One parallel I found was that we can in fact "jinx" things by thinking the wrong way and speaking the wrong way. Remember, the Universe is always listening.

If this is the demise of another relationship, I take the blame. I spoke it into existence by anticipating an end, and even speaking it. I do hope everything works out and am changing my tune. Nonetheless, I encourage everyone out there reading this to guard not only what you think, but what you say. It will most definitely come true, in one way or another.

Daily Quotes

Celebrate the successes and victories. Acknowledge and mourn the losses, and allow the energy of disappointment to become the energy of faith and transformation. And always honor the journey.

Enjoy the Sunset

The 14th Century Poet Put It This Way

Consider how corrupted the human mind can become. I use the word "corrupted" in the sense that we are born with the freedom of the mind to do, be, and have anything we want. As we grow, societal pressures and "norms" (whatever that means these days), make us bury all of the things we long for. But the truth is, we still all have within us the dreams and ability to have everything we want.

We sense that there is some sort of spirit that loves the
Birds and animals and the ants.
Perhaps the same one who gave a radiance to you in your mother's womb.
Is it logical that you would be walking around entirely orphaned now?
The truth is you turned away yourself, and decided to go into the dark alone.
Now you are tangled up in others, and have forgotten what you once knew.
And that's why everything you do has some weird failure in it.

Set yourself free.

Peoplejam.com - Find some great articles on the LOA!

Hi Everyone,

I know I don't usually do this, but I want to recommend those who are interested in more spiritual living and law of attraction articles to visit PeopleJam.com Not only can you start to find some of my articles there, but you'll also find a lot of other great independent authors talking about similar subjects! Enjoy!