Judith Iris Quate's Blog, page 10

A Perfect Day….

is a day when you wake up slowly, taking the time to allow your eyes to rid the haze, allowing your soul to return from the deep world of the unknown that placed you in the magical world of imagination.  You lay there quietly contemplating the dream you experienced.  You slowly begin to stretch your arms and legs carefully performing range of motion to each joint, one at a time.

You are awake and properly stretched, climb out of bed and look out the window to watch the sun slowly rising high in the sky with all its glorious beauty.  You feel the warmth of its shine and know it will be a warm day.  You scan around with your now awakened eyes to see the large trees surrounding your house and the bird nest sitting on the branch of the pine tree not far from your line of sight.  The mother bird is feeding her babies their morning nourishment.  Oh my, you see the neighbor’s dog wandering around the yard looking for his designated reserved spots to relieve himself.  You giggle thinking how obvious the spots are compared to the rest of the beautifully trimmed and well cared for grass.

You are now dressed and in the kitchen enjoying the aroma of the sizzling coffee pouring into your favorite mug.  You wander into the family room, turn the TV on and curl in the molded, favorite spot on the couch that fits you to perfection from its long worn life, sipping your coffee and feeling peaceful.

You are playing with buttons on the remote and maneuvering them from one show to another until you find the one you want to watch.  You pick up your electronic device, either an iPad, iPhone, tablet or laptop, to check the emails you may have received since the last time you read them.

 You finished your coffee, breakfast and are cleaning up the used dishes and return to your bedroom to wash up, dress, make the bed and then realize the hamper is full and you begin to load the washer.  Chores are always waiting to be done, but you realize they are part of your everyday life and they won’t get done on their own  However, you have planned them out so you can complete them throughout your week.

If you want to, you may go to the gym for a water aerobics class, work out on the treadmill or bike.  You may realize a workout at a gym or taking a long walk three times a week is hard but certainly healthy for your body, mind and soul.  It helps clear one’s mind of negative thoughts and negative people.

The TV announcer assured you earlier it will be a full sunny day, low 80s; perfect!!!  You may enjoy the warmth of the sun and the cool breeze on your face blowing your hair just slightly.  Yay, no humidity today.

So what are you going to do for the remainder of the day.  You may consider calling a friend to meet for a lunch date, or  enjoy a few hours working at a favorite hobby such as painting, drawing, knitting  or needlework.  You could  take a cold drink or another cup of coffee out on your deck,if you have one, and enjoy the newest book you were reading the previous night before your eyes became heavy with sleep.

So many choices.  No one to tell you what you should do.  So much freedom to do what you want, when you want and how you want.  No fears of loss of your personal freedom, idenity, space, loss of peace and most importantly, no controlling and fear of self worth.

This is certainly a perfect day…. If only???

The Origin of a Smile

Did you ever hear the expression, “your smile lights up a room?”  It is true.  There are some people who have that special smile.

People tend to smile for many reasons such as to mask a deep wounded soul only a smile could hide.  Robin Williams appeared to hide deep depression with his smile along with a great talent to make us laugh and express a smile.  He was extraordinary in his wit and charm to fool the world for so many years.  I will miss him and his ability to make his fans laugh in joy, if we only knew the real pain he was hiding behind his smile.

This makes me wonder what is hidden behind the masks of clowns.  They bring smiles to young children’s faces with their crazy antics in circuses and private parties blowing up balloons and making them into different shapes placing delightful smiles on children’s faces.  What is hiding behind their masks with painted on smiles?  Are they really happy people or do they hide deep, dark secrets within their souls?  

I have to believe not everyone who smiles genuinely is hiding anything behind their smile.  There really are people who want to smile with no preconceived purpose other than wanting to spread happiness for their own delight. There really are truly happy people around us every day; you only have to look into their eyes because they smile with their eyes as well.

The premise for this post is to tell you, my friends, my son learned to smile at an early age.  He developed his first cognitive skill, if he smiled at someone, he would get a smile in return.  Therefore, he smiled all the time because he loved the attention he would get.  He smiled with his eyes as well.  Some would say his smile did light up a room. He could have received a gold metal with his smile.

Later on in his life I realized it was getting harder for him to smile.  You see, he smiled through a lot of pain.  It was getting harder to hide his pain through his smile.  When he no longer had the strength to smile, I truly believe this is when he knew it was time to leave.

My Guardian Angel

My sweet child is working his magic again.  I am finding myself in situations totally out of my control.  I feel his presence with me all the time.  There are too many coincidences occurring in my life.  

Several months ago I found a Women’s Business Group formed for the purpose to support women in careers in business either as part of the corporate world or opening their own business.  

At that time I was struggling to create a brand with the qualities I had with my life experiences and my talent as a self taught painter and fabric artist.  I walked into this room by myself not really knowing why since I always struggled with shyness.  However, I strongly felt like someone was guiding me and I needed to follow.

I listened to the speaker for that month, awkwardly stayed after the meeting not knowing what to do but feeling the pull to stay.  I was told there will be a meeting after the speaker and anyone was invited to stay.  Again I found myself sitting around in the circle and joined the meeting.

To my surprise, again I had no preconception what I was doing, I walked away after the meeting finding  I had volunteered to be their treasurer.

Several months later after getting to know many of the wonderful members of this group, I gained so much knowledge, my self esteem is much improved and  my confidence is getting stronger each month.

If my sweet guardian angel didn’t guide me that day I would never had met Esther who has become a friend and a great trainer, teaching me how to tell my story as a motivational speaker and Molly, who is a very talented web builder and is helping me to build a powerful website.  Molly is a delightful woman with two beautiful children, working on building her business.  By helping me she is gaining experience.  It is a win win situation for all three of us, Esther, Molly and myself; we are women trying to make a mark in the business world competing with the opposite sex.

Now back to my guardian angel who appears to be working overtime these days.  I feel my life is changing again, I am not sure in what direction, but I am putting all my trust in him because he trusted me for 28 years.

A revelation

You  may have noticed changes in my blog both physical and content.  For example, I changed the name of my blog to Jude’s Inspirational Wisdom.  I believe it reflects the metamorphosis of my life since I retired five years ago.

For the past five years I truly believe I was in the process of finding who I was as a wife, mother, sister and friend. Something happened to me unconsciously controlling my every day actions, thoughts, motivations and mental health.  I was beginning to see myself in a different light, one who could be successful, loving, and a good friend.

If you are experiencing similar feelings of change like this, please stay with me and listen to what I have to say.  You just may find it very valuable to your future success.

Almost forty-four years ago the only ambitions I had at the time was to get married, work in a job I enjoyed and have children and live the rest of my life raising my children.  I was fantasizing the characters in Leave it to Beaver where life was perfect.  However, that was not reality. I was living in an unrealistic world.

On September 8, 1979 my unrealistic world changed to reality which hit me hard and almost knocked me over.  I had the choice to forge ahead or walk away.  Of course I took the correct road and this is when my unconscious self took over and slowly turned me into the person I really was born to be but didn’t know it.

Are you confused?  No worries, I will try and help you understand.

I was born with the gift of nurturing, caring, supporting and all the values one needs to care for a child with severe disabilities.  I thought my subconscious self came out of its hiding place and took over.  For many years I felt I was living outside of my body and acting like a bystander while my subconscious did its duties.

I get it now after two years in therapy.  I wasn’t living in a dream or through rose colored glasses outside my body, it was the real me.  I found myself on September, 1979 and only realizing it now.   My glasses are now very clear.  I see myself for the first time as an intelligent woman whose passions are very strong.  I believe in very strong issues that are cramming my mind trying to be verbalized in words, actions and speech.  I have a very strong itch that needs to be fixed, so to speak.

I want to share my wisdom of life with the world and help those who do not yet know who they are.  I want to share my beliefs in a diverse world and teach parents how to accept their fate and having to care for their precious special needs child.  There is so much I can share from my life experiences.

My book, Our Special Child:  Jason’s Story is about my life connection with my son.  This is the beginning of Jude’s Inspirational Wisdom.  I will share inspiration on this blog, in writing and through motivational speaking.  It is my destiny with my guardian angel by my side.

This book is available for $15.00, free shipping from my website 

http://www.scrapperjudedesigns.com  

Diversity in My Words

According to Dictionary.com, diversity is defined as difference of opinion, individuals representing more than one national origin, color, religion, socioeconomic stratum, sexual orientation and diversity of the workplace.  The key phrase in the definition is a point of difference.

POINT OF DIFFERENCE

As human beings we all represent ourselves in different manifestations.  We look different in stature, shape of our bodies, color of our hair, eyes, nose, and mouth. 

 We communicate in different languages, accents and in the way one communicates if one is deaf and uses sign language.  A person may use facial gestures, eye movements or expressions to communicate if this is their only ability to be understood.

There are those who are different in their ability to present themselves in actions such as their personality for which can be expressed in a negative way because of a life experience.  We all are different in our ability to communicate, either expressing our thoughts aggressively or passively.  

Some of us have differences that are hidden such as a mental condition for which they have no control of or a physical disability that could be very apparent such as loss of limbs, inability to use their limbs, deafness, blindness, severe physical disability that is difficult for one to accept when approached.

Finally, we are different in our nationality, religion, culture, who we choose as mates , race and difference in customs within our family traits.

I can go on and on pointing out the many diverse differences amongst human beings.  However, the point I am expressing here is we need to understand we are all going to have differences but what we in this difficult world we live in, somehow need to learn how to accept each other’s differences in order to change our attitude with each other and within ourselves.

We may be different on the surface but inside our bodies we are all human beings on this earth.

Peace my friends,

Jude

Values

I am still working hard realizing I am soon going to officially be a senior.  Starting in August I will be on Medicare.  Also in August, it will be five years since I retired and ten years since I moved out of the city I lived in since birth.  August will be a great month to party!!!

One would think I should slow down considering the challenging life I lived for so many years.  It isn’t in my personality to slow down.

I realized I learned very important values from my father.  Many years ago after I found my first job as a medical secretary, I celebrated the enormous salary I earned, which was $85.00 a week.  I was ecstatic and told my Dad I wanted to buy a car.  

My father taught me very important values.  If I want something, I need to work to earn the money.  My goal as a young, newly employed person was to buy my first car.  Because my father was proud of my achievement and I understood the important value of earning money to achieve my goals, he offered me a deal.  If I buy the car and make the payments, he will pay for my insurance.  I didn’t hesitate to take that deal.

Now back to the present day.  I still follow the same values my wise father taught me.  I worked hard all my life.  The values I learned so many years ago is still very much part of my life.  I knew if I did the best I could to care and advocate for my son, I will suceed in life.  Succeeding doesn’t need to be in a monetary value.  For me, it is paying it back.  

Writing my book, posting in my blog, creating inspirational art for other people to enjoy, and training for a career as a motivational speaker is how I will pay it back.  This is how I will spend the remainder of my life and will continue to follow the positive values my father passed on to me.  I already know my father’s wisdom passed through generations because my son also appreciates the value of earning money in order to make his life and family happy.

Virtual Hugs Friends,

Jude

This Video Represents My Blog

It is the simple gestures in life that inspires all of us.  Many lessons to learn from this video.  Enjoy and remember to pay it forward.

I checked out the source of the video which was shared on Facebook.   I do not approve of their site.  I find them to be somewhat vulgar to my taste.  Very surprised they posted this video.  However, I was inspired by this video and wanted to share with you.

Jude

A Great Movie – MAX

My husband and I were alone for the holiday.  We realize we are in the senior stage of our life together.  Our son and his own family are making their own memories and the remainder of our extended family are either in heaven or scattered throughout the country.  All we are left with are our wonderful memories of past holidays.

Not wanting to feel sorry for ourselves, we planned a great day.  We saw Max at a nearby movie and stopped for a wonderful dinner after the movie.

When I saw the previews of the movie I knew it would be something we both would like.  We are dog lovers.  I will not describe the movie because you need to see it for yourself and would not want to be a spoiler.  However, if you really are lovers of dogs you must see this movie.  We both walked out very proud and gained a new respect for the amazing dogs who sacrifice their lives along with our brave men and women in our armed forces.

It is a must see movie.  No worries, you will walk away with love and honor for our four leg furry friends and not too many tears.

Hugs

Jude

WHAT INDEPENDENCE DAY MEANS TO ME

To me , Independance Day is represented in this video.  Before our country was integrated with immigrants from many various countries seeking refuge to a place that represented freedom, we should not forget the natives who lived here before the migration of foreigners.  They have their rights to freedom as well and should be respected.

My grandfather traveled via ship from Russia in 1902 fleeing from a war his religion did not believe in.  He came to America to seek freedom of religion, speech, and the right to live with his family in freedom.

As we celebrate with our families on this day, lets not forget the true meaning of this day and not take it for granted.  Remember our veterans who sacrifice their lives for our freedom.  Remember the people who are different in some way and accept them in our lives.  Respect the different cultures, ethnicities, religions and the choice of the right to love who you want.

We live in a dangerous world.  We must be diligent in what we do or see around us or on the Internet.  We must keep ourselves  and families safe from harm.  I feel we are starting to lose the rights we all take for granted.  Let’s try to hang onto our rights for freedom and independence.

Taking you with me at a Flea Market

Today is Saturday and I am in my car heading for a half day selling experience at a flea market in a nearby town.  Luckily I woke up early enough to quickly munch down some breakfast and coffee for fuel for the day.  No doubt I will buy something I should not eat later on, but we won’t talk about that