April is Moving Forward, Are You?

In a bit of a sugar slump after Easter? Can’t get your get up and go to get up and go? I know, some days it feels like it has already got up and gone, right? I might have a few suggestions for you…

April is a month of surprises! If you live in Missouri, you might actually experience all four seasons in a single day in April! Weather isn’t the only unpredictable occurrence for a lot of us. Moods can be a big deal, for a lot of reasons.

If you are a believer in “manifesting”, you might not be too far off the track to keeping your spirits up. Simple thoughts, held in a positive manner, can produce REAL and positive changes in our moods.

Starting your morning off with positive affirmations, regarding your body, appearance, day and life can definitely be a pick me up before you walk out the door. A few simple, phrases spoken kindly and lovingly to yourself is much better than a frantic morning of finding yourself in a fit of rage because you are having a fat day, a bad hair day, or a I don’t really matter day.

Take a few minutes, right now, smile at yourself in a mirror, tell yourself why you love yourself. The words don’t come easy because most of us are not really taught to love ourselves in a healthy way. We are not familiar with practicing kindness with ourselves because we have been busy people pleasing at a job, reassuring a spouse, significant other or partner, that they matter, and you are there to support them. That’s all fine and good, but make sure someone is there holding you up when you need it. And, if that someone has to be you, grab a mirror and let’s get busy learning how to love ourselves!

Certain life lessons don’t get learned as a child. For me, learning is still a daily blessing. I am much more aware of myself these days. Yes, it’s true, I am over 7 decades young, and yes, I have morphed into someone I am okay with these days. Why? Because I have finally accepted the fact that I was never meant to be perfect. Nothing any teacher ever said to me was going to push me into perfection. It didn’t matter if it was high praise, which was somewhat rare for me, or if it was an a** chewing, that I probably richly deserved.

Truth spoke loudly to me. I was not a pretty child, and for a young girl, that was devastating. I was teased relentlessly about a nose, that could eclipse the sun, or if filled with eagle stamps, could make a family wealthy. Even an Aunt who once said at a family picnic, “Rosie isn’t pretty in the traditional way, but I am sure she has other good qualities.” Painful and to some, humorous.

I am grateful, I was not taught to speak ugly about a person and how they looked, or any shortcomings they may have had, or to repeat unkind remarks made by others. I may have been to some degree sheltered a bit, but I held my own in a different way. I grew quiet. I wrote in notebooks. Long letters to myself, poems about life and beauty and many other deep subjects I had no idea about, but wrote anyway, because it relieved some of the pain I carried.

I learned how predators choose their victims. How they hone in on the nervous, anxious, and backward ones. How they demean and embarrass them, single them out, and put them on display for the entertainment of classmates. Especially, when they cannot perform like other kids. For example, I was not coordinated when it came to gym class. Jumping over the “horse” was a rough challenge for me. After many attempts and continued failures, relentless laps around the gym, and laughter ringing in my ears, I continued to fail, so often and so much, I felt myself shrink into almost nothing in that class.

This blog is taking a really long time to write, I know. I still get lost in the muck some days. I have to pray my way through it, and rely on God for confirmation of who I really am in life. And, the fact that in retelling my story may help others along the way, that’s a bonus and a blessing.

I am going to bring this blog to a close with these words, Psalm 139, 13-14:

“For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

As long as I can truly embrace this Truth, and live with God’s Love, I have all I need and this life will have been fulfilled. I don’t need any other human being’s approval, because I belong to the Creator of the Heaven and Earth, and I am Known to Him, and Loved by Him.

And, the same can be true for you. Call on Him, and He will answer.

Happy April, Happy Spring, Happy New Beginning!

RL