trust

40 and 41 OWC

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3 + 8 = The Road Not Taken

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A Robert Frost original….

Today’s lesson on love:  Love sometimes takes us through an unknown path.  Love is a choice.  Learning to go the way that others are not and rising above this infatuation thing is key when learning the ways of love.  Know God.  Trust God.  Put God first.  Put your SELF second.  It is the way to truly live a life of love. It is through our love of God we learn to love our brothers and sisters to the fullest.
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

Why you should never go to bed Angry

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I have had a couple of hard lessons learned days.  I know that good will always come of our mistakes, but sometimes it is just like “Come ON Cat?!  Not again!”  Well yesterday, I woke up in a ball fire of fury…lesson 1, do not go to bed angry, even if YOU are the one that misconstrued everything.  I blew up (I mean so embarrassed, mortified, and all because I said some pretty hurtful things).  This sleep text conversation occurred at 6am.  Who does that?  A girl who went to bed angry because she is hurt and has “clammed up” again.

When I clam up, I am almost as bad as an insecure little school girl!  I start assuming, making these elaborate false stories up in my head, jumping to conclusions, and over all not being my confident self as I revert back to process mode of all the wrong things.  This friend I blew up on had a valid point…I seem to focus on how I can help or figure out others to avoid addressing my own down falls.  I do a lot of processing of my own problems, but apparently he didn’t feel like that was where my heart was.  He was exactly right…again.  I sucked it up and immediately felt the guilt of shame and that I was the one in the wrong.  Well the thing is maybe in some regard I was out of line, but I learned a lot from it.  Needless to say I immediately drafted an email.

I recognize in myself that when I get stressed out, I react and spaz out.  I get this honestly.  This has been the task at hand most recently as this situation is similar to two others I have faced.  One where I blew up on someone, another where they blew up on me, and reverting back to the first one a great apology.  I need to be patient with myself.  I knew I needed to apologize as I hit a nerve.  I said way too much in my draft so I let it lie and focused much energy back on my work.  That helped clear my head.  It didn’t help that I started yesterday off with a migraine either.  I was still hurting.  The hurt caused by this one person is such that I can only describe it like having an ulcer on your heart.  It is deep and consistent.  I have been praying for healing.

I listened to my gut then started again…uttering those humble words of “I’m sorry”…simply stated.  I ramble when I don’t simply speak.  Not good.  Well, even though I sent an apology via email, tried calling, and even texted an “I’m sorry” note to him…it was no use.  I spent a Holy Hour (http://www.catholic-church.org/kuwait/eucharistic_adoration.htm) over lunch and I felt so much better.  I always do.  Just an hour of silence and beauty to gain insight and composure.  I felt as though a few things there were confirmed: 1. Trust in God as He will bring so much good out of this blurp.  2. He needed to hear what you had to say this morning.  He needed to see you spaz out.  He needed to see you at your worst…God used me to be the deliverer.  3.  I need to have more patience with myself as living life is a series of lessons and perfecting.  4.  I have now identified the source as this little ulcer on my heart that he caused that needs addressed and healed.  That is another great affirmation for me.  The anger was driven from this point of hurt…the anger slipped out…but now I can mend the wound and use this situation as a building block for a stronger foundation.  Everything happens for a reason whether that is known or not.

It is hard and those challenging days are the worst when we don’t decide to pick ourself up from all fours and we have to crawl back to standing position. We fall flat on our face, humiliated…discouraged as we are there is always up!  I felt so humiliated that I conducted myself in such a manner.  Who was I to have done that?  Well, we are only human!

 

Grass and cement burns on my knees, ego which was definitely in check (now), and a realization that was priceless in this journey to get my emotions in check, have a deeper better relationship with my friend and my lessons are learned.

Seeds planted.  Moving on…..today will be a better day!

For your listening pleasure:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdIvFxu9jJQ&feature=related 

❤ CatMan

Oh to be yourself…Go walk naked!

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“To be nobody but yourself in a world that’s doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting.”  –E.E. Cummings

So I am really struggling right now blog friends.  I am finally starting to understand how much really loving people…not like your average gushy mushy love, but really pouring forward all emotions and heart into others is very hard.  This means practicing understanding, patience, kindness, trust, and knowing eventually this period of love will pay off, Right?  Practicing and encompassing all gifts of virtue and yet, strange enough that is not enough for a person to come to grips with how much love you are giving to them!  Love is so foreign people who reside on the surface.  They try to walk 100% away from this “love” thing because it is a vulnerable foreign feeling found only at the very core of our beings and when we were children.  As adults, this is a feeling that is a rarity and seemingly so distant in our current live style.

Our hearts can become hard.  Our attitude callused.  And then when we find someone to which is willing to pour forth love and give you anything/everything you need for success–we are confused, tormented, and fearful as to WHY?  Why me?  Why do you have this invested in me?  What did I ever do to you?  Well the simple answer is you didn’t have to do anything…it is just because I love you!

As hard as this feeling of love is in demonstrating it to others…I think it can at times be hard to be yourself in such a world that can be cold and cruel.  One should be themselves and have the strength and courage to do so to the best of their ability.  Just simply being yourself is hard.  Being yourself doesn’t mean being misguided like these “little rebels” can be…but, being yourself means stripping the fluff off and developing what’s left.  That is the real you.

What a confusing, sometimes bitter cold world we live in today.  Despite the negative, we must strive to ALWAYS find hope.  There is still a lot of that in this world.  Although you might have to dig a little deeper to find it.  It will be well worth the scavenger hunt when the treasure: HOPE is found.

 

Last night, I was asked if I had ever been “skinny” dipping.  (gasp!)  Well not in the way he was thinking, but I have started walking naked more often.

Go on a walk today.  Naked.  I dare ya!

“Oh…but I can’t!”  (you respond)

“Oh…but you can and you will probably love it!” says the CatMan!

(The crowd GASPS…….)

Strip yourself down to your core and walk around naked.  You might actually like that version of you.  That’s the hope I am talking about!  You might feel smut free then and you may actually feel better about letting yourself out!  Get to know the real you and embrace!  Once that naked beautiful person comes out of the hard shell they were in, you could just discard that shell (as you won’t need it anymore).  Don’t be afraid!  The real you is not so bad.

 

We do it to Pistachio nuts all the time.  They are considered elite nuts and when shelled they are beautiful!   Precious green goodness.   Just remind yourself that when you are second guessing “going naked”.  🙂

That is all,

❤ The CatMan