Nikki Rosen's Blog, page 9

Thankful Thursday - Peace.

"We have to acknowledge sometimes that this moment is enough. This place is enough. I am enough." Sue Monk Kidd.

The best is being in a place of peace....inner peace...a deep feeling of contentment. It's what I hungered for most of my life....to be....to stop the yearning, the craving...the hunger rolling over in my heart. I finally got it....that place where I feel it's really all good. 

I battled hard and won the fight to stand in my own skin and like who I am. And it's because He loved me enough to stay and always have my back. 

Peace - inner peace....it's real and it's the best feeling ever. 
Happy Thursday, Guys.

Thankful Thursday - Kindness.

"A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles." William Hazlitt. 

I know what Hazlitt said to be true. So today I choose to walk in kindness....paying forward all those who have been kind to me. 

Happy Thursday, Guys. Have an amazing day out there.  

Thankful Thursday. No Pressure.

“There’s a crack or cracks in everyone. That’s how the light of God gets in.” Elizabeth Gilbert.


I used to think I needed to be 'perfect,' in order to be loved, to be accepted, to belong. I drove myself crazy trying to fit in, trying to be what someone else needed, or wanted, or believed was acceptable. 

I know now there's not a person in the world who is perfect. We're all trying to live our best lives and sometimes fall way short of what we could be or want to be. That's okay, because I've discovered it's in my weakness, in my not being 'perfect' that He shines.  

I love what Gilbert says, "Embrace this glorious mess that you are. We are all just sloppy stupendous champions."

Now that takes the pressure off. Happy Thursday, Guys. 

Thankful Thursday - Love

"The honorary duty of a human being is to love." Maya Angelou.

Loving someone isn’t always easy. Sometimes it's incredibly  hard...especially if that someone has hurt me or has done something that's left me scratching my head because of their hard stance. But I know I'm called to love my enemies, which, for me, can sometimes be like climbing mount Everest. 

Thoughts of revenge pepper my mind more than loving the person who hurt or betrayed me. 'I hope they get what they give out. I hope something bad happens to them….to teach them. That's it...to teach them a lesson.' No love in that. But it's where my mind goes. 

And then time happens and I start to think that I don't really wish them anything bad. Payback. It's not where I want my life to go. The thing is, Love changed me. Love made the difference. I want to live kind no matter what. I've learned that there's a process that needs to happen before I always end up in a softening place of choosing to forgive, choosing to love and choosing to be kind. 

Happy Thursday, Guys.
  

Thankful Thursday - Think.

"Never be afraid to sit a while and think." Lorraine Hansberry. 

I'm a thinker. People have always told me that. I tend to reflect about stuff long and hard and usually pepper my thoughts with the whys, the whats, the hows. 

Sometimes I can overthink things too much but in the past I did the opposite - I'd impulsively jump into situations without giving much thought and it usually ended in disaster.

Taking time to think through a situation gives me insight into it. I start to see the whole picture, not just one side. And seeing the whole, helps me know what to do and how. 

The biggest thing though, when I take time to really reflect,  especially if it's something that worries or scares me, I eventually start to feel hope.....hope that everything will work out.....hope that He's got a plan.....a purpose in everything. I don't have to jump or react. He's got everything under control. 

Thinking through, piecing things together, hope eventually always falls into place. 

Happy Thursday, Guys.

Thankful Thursday - Ordinary

"We meet no ordinary people in our lives."  C.S. Lewis.

Sometimes when I'm driving my daughter to school, we play a 'game.' I'll see a person walking, or sitting or running to catch the bus, or two or three people chatting, laughing, young, elderly or middle aged, and I ask my daughter, make up a story....tell me who they are, what they're doing, what they're thinking....and her and I are off running with one wild story after another about the ordinary people walking the streets. 

By the time I drop her off we're both laughing about how crazy or in depth our stories have spun. When I drive home, our 'game' always reminds me that there are no ordinary people. Everyone's life is woven in a living drama, peppered with good times and bad. 

It's easy to pass people on the street and not give them a second thought, but when I look at them, really look, I wonder what their life story is. 

When I run workshops, the participants are all very ordinary looking people, but when they begin to share their life journey, I am amazed at how far someone's come, the traumas they've overcome or striving to overcome, the losses that almost broke them, their incredible resilience and courage, and in spite of everything, their dreams and hopes and aspirations. 

Yep. It's true....we live on this planet with no ordinary people. 
Happy Thursday, Guys. 

Thankful Thursday New Year

The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. ” Melody Beattie.

I love the start of something new. New beginnings. New ventures.  Even changes from what was to something entirely different.  

Beginnings excite me. They give me hope and joy, because they're a clean slate. Untouched.  Anything can happen. Anything can be. 

I have dreams, ideas, goals, purposes. They live inside me, itchy to become, to take shape and with Him in my corner.....the sky's the limit. Everything and anything is a possiblity.

2016 - It's gonna be one fabulous year!!!

A very safe and Happy New Year, Guys....from my heart to yours!

Thankful Thursday Christmas.

“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!” Dr. Seuss.

Malls are packed. Parking lots at every shopping outlet are full. Last night on the news I heard that on average people spend $600 on Christmas gifts and that after Christmas there are long lineups of people returning or exchanging items and even gift cards are shoved in a drawer and forgotten and never spent.   

I like the lights, the decorations and feel of Christmas, but something about forced spending makes me wonder what is it about Christmas that makes people go out and spend so much money to buy things most of us don't need or even want. 

Imprinted in my heart - the time I was in the hospital, dying from the lifestyle I had been living, and He touched me....broke the chains that held me prisoner...freed me....gave me life. Turned all the sad into incredible joy. His Light shone in the darkness and His Light still shines.  

The reason for the celebration of Christmas in my mind - the birth of Jesus, God's incredible love, a peace and joy that can never be snuffed out and freedom. Complete and absolute freedom. 

Chag Molad Sameach  חג מולד שמח  Merry Christmas, Guys. 

Thankful Thursday - Words.

“There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner, wind themselves around your limbs like spider silk, and when you are so enthralled you cannot move, they pierce your skin, enter your blood, numb your thoughts. Inside you they work their magic.” Diane Setterfield.

Words are incredibly powerful. It amazes me how they can tear a person down to nothing or lift them up and fill them with hope.  I love words. I love the sound and feel of them. And I love stringing them together to form stories, and even letters to my daughters and people I love.
Writing is a gift. It's been a way to have my voice. To speak what I couldn't say. To look at things that happened and see them for what they really were. On paper my mind explodes with the truth. Seeing them in print, reading them aloud, becomes a path for me to walk free. 

And it's not just my words, but other people's as well. Their stories, their truth, their words impact my life. They give me courage and hope. 

Words are power. They carry freedom. When I hear them, see them, read them, they get inside me and do their magic. They change me from the inside out. I always want to use my words to give hope....

Happy Thursday, Guys. 

Thankful Thursday. - Everyone Matters.

“History isn't about dates and places and wars. It's about the people who fill the spaces between them.” Jodi Picoult.

I love reading about people who lived before me and learning how they faced their demons and overcame tough stuff. Rosa Parks, Eli Wiesel, Corrie Ten Boom, Maya Angelou. The list is endless. And I like listening to those in my community, the old and the young, hearing their stories of what they lived, the experiences that shamed them, made them who they are today. Their stories fascinate me. 

Everyone has a life story. Everyone's life is worth something. 

When I was in grade six, my teacher turned me onto the love of history. I was quiet, never talked, and she helped me put voice to words through writing. She told me about Thomas Edison. She talked as if he was her best friend, like she really knew him. Then she asked me to write about him. I remember finding tiny little light bulbs and putting them all over my paper and I saw him, really saw him as a person, a human being wanting to discover something. He became real to me too. 

Since then, I've loved history and the people that fill the spaces. To me, everyone matters. Every life is a gift. Some people do extraordinary things like Edison, others overcame hatred, bigotry, bullying and abuse. Others simply show kindness to help those less fortunate hold onto hope. The focus of each life is incredible.

The thing that changed my life was when someone said, I mattered. What I wanted mattered. Who I was mattered. What I thought mattered. It took a long time for me to get that but now that I have, everyone I look at, everyone I listen to, I see the same about them.

Happy Thursday, Guys.