ARE YOU MAKING WAVES OR SAILING YOUR SHIP?
Do you argue just to be right when the outcome is of little importance? Do you walk in happiness or do you live in the shadow of anger? Do you demand for the sake of being in control? Do you create kindness or cause cruelty? Do you judge when you could observe and accept? Do you force your opinion to prove you hold power or do you listen to all sides? Do you feel jealousy or do you celebrate the success of others? Do you take when you could give? Do you spend more time being helpful or harmful? Do you fear and hate when you should love? What if all of these choices were guided by one magical thought? Close your eyes with me now and see yourself as the captain at the wheel of a beautiful ship. The sun lays warmly on the side of your face while with every breath the crisp air circles your lungs with fresh energy. The diamond sparkling water that surrounds you is the sea of your life. Your goal is to safely sail your ship, enjoying the sun, fresh air and adventure without causing danger or damage to yourself or others who are navigating their own ships. Your navigation system tells you there are rough waters ahead. Will you increase speed to aim towards them risking damage to your ship and the cargo you hold close to your heart or will you turn to search for a calmer, safer route? The radar shows a small vessel to the left. Will you blow your horn demanding they move and then stay on your course causing a wake that is certain to overturn the small vessel or will you slow the engines and adjust your route to avoid making waves? You see a flair rocket into the sky...a clear indication that someone is in distress and needs help. Do you set your course to help them and gently guide them to safety or do you steer the other way as quickly as possible-- after all what you don't see won't hurt you, right? And by doing so cover them with a spray of water as you avoid their cries for help? Here is where the one magical thought comes in. If you were the captain of a ship would you put more emphasis on making waves or would you concentrate your energy on the smooth sailing of the ship. That's it! The one magical thought that serves as the lighthouse flashing in front of us guiding us through the storms, frustrations and challenges to reach the other side of life with ourselves, our ship and our cargo feeling safe, loved and honored. There are times on the voyage that there is no choice but to batten down the hatches and go full speed ahead into the sea of uncertainty that life creates for us, but most of the time we have a choice. Do we want to make waves or smoothly sail our ship? With every decision and action in life ask yourself this: "Will this action I am about to take make waves or will it safely sail my ship?" ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie's Life Lesson: "Every moment in life we choose to make waves or sail our ship." ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ YOUR TURN... My intent in sharing this with you is to encourage you to think about your actions and how they affect you and others... use the lesson above to gauge how you make your decisions. Share your thoughts and experiences relating to this post in a comment below . And please feel free to email me at: [email protected]. Thank you! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ All Rights Reserved Copyright © 2013-2017 Pennie Hunt This was written and produced by Pennie Hunt. Feel free to forward this post. Please keep the entire message intact, including contact, logo, and copyright information. If you have any questions or comments, or for reprint permission please email: [email protected]
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USE YOUR WORDS!
The toddler was obviously distraught as he cried and thrashed his arms. His mom, calmly said, “I don’t know what is wrong. Tell me what is wrong. Use your words.” This scene echoed in my mind. It wasn’t the frustration of a two year old that impacted me. It was the wisdom of the mom to encourage him by saying, “Use your words.” How often do we need to be told to – Use Your Words? How often do we allow anger, fear, impatience, disappointment to bring us to the point of tears and outbursts? We don’t express what is at the core of the problem. We don’t share our experience out loud with others allowing our vulnerability to be shared. Use your words! How often do we see others in the adult version of the toddler’s meltdown and push them away without encouraging them to share their feelings? Use your words! How often do we see something we agree with or enjoy on social media and find it easy just to click an automated button that expresses “like” for us without taking the time to write how much we loved it and how it touched our heart—and why? Use your words! How often do we pass strangers in our day’s journey without acknowledging their space in the world… not a “Hi,” “Hello,” or “Have a wonderful day?” Use your words! How often do we pass the opportunity without telling the ones closest to us that we love and appreciate them and just assume they must know? Use your words! From the moment a baby is born we begin talking to them and telling them we love them. When they are able to say their first word we are filled with pride and joy. We are given voices to interact on the most human level with others. Use your words to acknowledge others. Don’t look at the ground as you walk. Look at the faces of those walking with you. Use your words to express kindness. Use your words to express where your fear and hurt is coming from. Don’t lash out with a violent thrashing temper when you are frustrated or angry. Use your words to tell people how you feel. If you love them, say it! Don’t assume others know how you feel. Don’t sit behind a screen tapping an automated “LIKE” button allowing a machine to express your thoughts. Take the time to use your words! Say them, speak them and write them down. Use Your WORDS! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: “Don’t allow anger to explode or fear to silence you. Use your words to express your feelings!” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ YOUR TURN... My intent in sharing this with you is to encourage you to communicate your feelings. Allowing them to fester inside will only cause an explosion at some point. Share your thoughts and experiences relating to this post in a comment below. And please feel free to email me at: [email protected]. Thank you! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ All Rights Reserved Copyright © 2013-2017 Pennie Hunt This was written and produced by Pennie Hunt. Feel free to forward this post. Please keep the entire message intact, including contact, logo, and copyright information. If you have any questions or comments, or for reprint permission please email: [email protected] 
HOPE AND A GIRAFFE NAMED HOMER
We were having dinner with our granddaughter. In an effort to make chit chat with a 2-year-old my husband was talking to her about animals and then he said, “I have a pet giraffe.” Her little eyes watched him intently as she listened to his animal stories. When he made that statement she thought for a second and said, “Liar!” The fact that a 2-year-old called him on his outrageous story made us laugh. It spurred him to describe his giraffe, how he lived out in the country, what he ate and oh, his name is Homer. That was the beginning. It has now been over 8 years of close encounters with Homer. The grandkids seem to arrive at our home just after Homer leaves. When he was lost they stood on our front porch calling, “HOOOOMER, WHERE ARE YOU?” Homer has gone on vacations to California when our weather was too cold and visited his family in various parts of the world. Grandpa knows that every Homer story creates smiles and the look of wonder on little faces. Homer sends Christmas cards and gifts of cookies, stuffed giraffes, books about giraffes and the ever popular 3-D giraffe t-shirts. A replica of Homer sits in our sunroom. Over the years, all of the 9, (yes NINE) grandchildren have secretly come to me asking if Homer is real….if grandpa is crazy… and if they will ever see Homer in person. My answer to all of these questions is, “Maybe.” In the meantime they are delighted with the gifts he sends, the giraffe adventures that grandpa shares and the Hope that someday… maybe someday, they will meet the magical creature named Homer. Yes, we love giraffes! So waiting patiently for April, the giraffe at the Animal Adventure Park in New York to have her baby has been exciting! I woke up to find that I was just in time to see this gift to our Universe arrive. I was struck by the synchronicity of timing. How appropriate for this event to occur on Easter weekend! As I watched the wonder of the magic of birth on this beautiful Spring morning I am reminded of Hope. Hope for what is yet to come. Hope for the renewal that Spring brings to us through glorious showers of rain and the budding of nature. Hope that we will live in a world filled with forgiveness, kindness and love. Hope that we will always experience wonder through the smiles and hearts of our children. Hope for new life and the joy of knowing we can always begin again. Happy day of birth to this new giraffe baby. Now the question is…. Will it be named Homer… or maybe the appropriate name is Hope! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: “Hope is found in the faces of children, glorious showers of rain, the budding of nature and in the joy of knowing we can always begin again.” 
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE BIRTH OF APRIL'S BABY I SHARED ON FACEBOOK
YOUR TURN...
My intent in sharing this with you is to encourage you to think about what Hope means to you! Share your thoughts and experiences relating to this post in a comment below . And please feel free to email me at: [email protected]. Thank you! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ All Rights Reserved Copyright © 2013-2017 Pennie Hunt This was written and produced by Pennie Hunt. Feel free to forward this post. Please keep the entire message intact, including contact, logo, and copyright information. If you have any questions or comments, or for reprint permission please email: [email protected] Thank you! 
LET ME LIVE UNTIL I DIE
The taxi ride was uncomfortable. Heat pushed on my chest. From the driver’s window the dry wind blew in my face with relentless force. The driver, looking at me in his rear view mirror, asked me why I was in town and what I do for a living. I quickly gave him my elevator speech. Struggling to send my words through the hot wind I ended with, "I teach people how to Love Their Life- NO MATTER WHAT!" As I delivered the words to him, the smell of smoke from the last passenger filled my nose, a crack in the vinyl seat pushed through my jeans and I realized the situation tested my own mantra. I wasn't loving my life right now! He became extremely interested and told me how his aging mom was very unhappy. Then he hit me with the question that turned the heat of the day into a quiet background of minor distraction. "Can YOU teach my mom how to live until she dies?" Could I? Could I teach myself that? What would it take to REALLY live every day I have? How could I age into the person I hope to be at 80, 85, 90 and beyond? How could "I" live ... really live until I die? I created a wish list... a request....a prayer... LET ME LIVE UNTIL I DIE Please let me age with grace and primp with glory. Let me move with ease, bend to my toes and reach for the sky. Let me wear shiny lipstick and curl my hair. Let my nails be manicured and my eyes shine. Let me wear colorful dresses that swirl when I walk and red high heels that click as I step. Please let me be hold a fearless spirit and see adventure as rejuvenating. Let me be the one who wants to skydive at 80 and ride a Harley at 90. Let me feel the wind of possibility twirl around me never allowing the words, "I can't" to cross my determination. Please let me giggle in girlish delight and blush when I flirt. Let me dance with boys at 90 and dance alone in the kitchen. Let me drop tears from happiness and lift spirits with contagious laughter. Let me be spontaneous with kind encouragement for others. Please let me use the lessons of my childhood. Let me swing in the wind and slide every slide. Let me remember that please and thank you are words of kindness. Let me forgive those who have hurt, harmed or rejected me as easily as I forgive the waitress for my lukewarm coffee or the person who pushes in front of me in line -- when I move too slowly. Let me be grateful for the hands that hold mine and the gifts I am given. Let me be reminded to share my toys in the sandbox and share love with my family, friends and the world. Please let my mind remember the memories. The people who touched me, the experiences I had, the love I gave and the love I was given. Embed in my mind these visions as colorful oil painted masterpieces that never fade. Let my mind not be so cluttered with details of despair that it fogs the joys of my years. Allow clarity of every amazing moment I've experienced so that I re-feel them intensely and cherish them deeply. Please let me breathe every moment. See every sunrise. Hear every song. Dance every dance. Be kissed by every snowflake and stomp in every rain puddle. Let me joy in the joyous and sing with the song birds. Let me hold tiny hands and hug every heart. Let me marvel in every moment of magnificence, no matter how simple and no matter how grand. Let me run the race to the end, laugh until the credits roll, and love until my heart is stretched and pushing through my chest. Please let me press deeper into peace with every wrinkle and spiral closer to my soul with every year. Let me be patient in the process of living and accepting of the unimaginable purity of love that waits on the other side. Let me see the un-seeable as it surrounds me. Let me joyfully anticipate the unknown ahead as the known I believe it will be. Let me live with sweet peacefulness in my spirit and my soul. Please, oh please, let me live until I die. Pennie’s Life Lesson: “Cherish every moment. Live, REALLY live until you die.” YOUR TURN... Share your thoughts and experiences relating to this post in a comment below . And please feel free to email me at: [email protected]. Thank you! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ All Rights Reserved Copyright © 2013-2017 Pennie Hunt This was written and produced by Pennie Hunt. Feel free to forward this post. Please keep the entire message intact, including contact, logo, and copyright information. If you have any questions or comments, or for reprint permission please email: [email protected] Thank you! 
IT’S ALL COMMUNICATION
We sat in a circle on the floor of my office. My daughter, her three sons, an 8-year-old and twin 5 year-olds, my 10-year-old granddaughter and me. In an effort to slow down the running, romping and squealing that usually occurs after dinner at my home I decided to introduce the Telephone Game. I explained the rules – To begin the first person in our circle would whisper a word or phrase into the ear of the person sitting next to them. They would listen and turn to whisper it to the person next to them and so on around the circle. The last player would then say the word or phrase out loud so everyone could hear. They thought this was simple enough and as each whisper passed from mouth to ear the certainty of what they were saying beamed on their faces. It wasn’t until the first round had been completed and the initial “Gracie the dog is cute and furry” morphed into “Gracie is a hog that eats in a hurry” that the laughter exploded and they understood why this game was fun. Only one word from the original message had been communicated correctly. In a perfect world, every message would be relayed to the receiver with accurate precision. They would understand the full meaning as the speaker expected. The speaker would be confident that their message was heard with the correct intention. This is not the way communication works. I have this line I say almost daily, "It’s All Communication.” Everything in life comes back to communication. We are born as communicators, crying and squealing as we take our first breath. We learn to understand the meaning of words, facial expressions and emotions. We mimic them in an effort to be accepted and to gain what we desire. We learn how to use our voice and body to verbally and non-verbally communicate happiness, joy, love and fear. With age we learn to hide our true feelings and muffle our emotions. Communication begins taking over in streams filling our mailboxes, inboxes and lives. The overwhelming amount of information becomes blurred as it layers in our minds. We try to decipher what is true and what is gossip and repeat what we believe we heard. We repeat second or third-hand stories that become skewed in the retelling. Communication becomes complicated. And so begins the grown up version of the Telephone Game. Listening, repeating, listening, repeating. We assume what we say is understood by the person we communicate with. Many times it is not. We assume we hear information correctly. Many times we don’t. We assume what we hear is true. Many times it isn’t. Communication, the lack of communication or misunderstood communication is the cause for all of life’s problems. Fights, divorce, anger, hatred, battles – big and small all come back to communication. How different would the world be if we asked the person we were communicating with if they understood what we said? How different would the world be if we repeated back to the speaker what we believe we heard and asked for validation that we were receiving the message correctly? How different would the world be if we communicated honesty, trust, respect and kindness? How different would the world be if we didn’t repeat distorted gossip, half-truths and rumors? How different would the world be if the whispers at the beginning of the game were repeated in the exact way it was intended creating a complete circle of accurate truthful understanding? Words have power. It’s all communication! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: “It’s ALL Communication!” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ YOUR TURN... My intent in sharing this with you is to encourage you to be accurate with your communication - sending and receiving. Words have power! Share your thoughts and experiences relating to this post in a comment below. And please feel free to email me at: [email protected]. Thank you! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ All Rights Reserved Copyright © 2013-2017 Pennie Hunt This was written and produced by Pennie Hunt. Feel free to forward this post. Please keep the entire message intact, including contact, logo, and copyright information. If you have any questions or comments, or for reprint permission please email: [email protected] |
AuthorThere is a certain magic about where I live both physically and spiritually – on the crossroads of Spirit and Brave. Archives
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