 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!” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie Heart to Heart 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 © 2013-2018 Pennie Hunt This was written and produced by Pennie Hunt. Feel free to forward and share this post. Please keep the entire message intact, including contact, logo, and copyright information.
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 OPENHEARTED For many of us winter is long, cold and isolating. This kind of cold makes us hunker down in our homes curled tightly in a “protect me” position. It is human nature during any type of cold to do this. Weather, anger, rejection, betrayal, grief, fear all create feelings of cold and isolation. The tight “protect me” pose closes our body posture in a way that tightens around our heart secluding it from others. When the end of winter is in sight and the journey through life challenges comes to a close we see the sun fill our lives once again. As the warmth rejuvenates us, we stand up taller in a happier stance. This strengthens and stretches our lives in a more openhearted way allowing love to flow through freely. This openheartedness creates a glow that not only warms us, but everyone we interact with. By pulling back the layers that protected us from the cold, like Superman pulling back his shirt, we reveal our heart and come alive once again. Pay attention to how and when you fold into “protect me” position. Pay attention to how and when you break free of your cocoon to spread your butterfly wings for all to see. There is a time for both. Power comes with knowing when to curl and when to fly. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: “There is a time for both the caterpillar’s cocoon of safety and the freedom of butterfly wings. Recognize when it is time to be safe and when it is time to fly.” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie Heart to Heart OPEN-HEARTED YOUR TURN My intent in sharing this with you is to encourage you to think about when you have been in "protect me" position and how did you work through it? Or are you still in a cocoon? 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 © 2013-2018 Pennie Hunt This was written and produced by Pennie Hunt. Feel free to forward and share this post. Please keep the entire message intact, including contact, logo, and copyright information. 
DO YOU EVER THINK ABOUT LOVE?
We talk about love all the time. We love this thing and we love that person. Yet, how often do you really THINK about love? Most people spend more time deciding what to have for dinner than thinking about love. Shouldn’t this intense feeling of deep affection rally more than an occasional thought? What is love? What does it mean to love and be loved? Who do you love and what makes you love them? Who loves you and what makes them love YOU? How do you show love through actions, words, expressions and service? Are you showing it in a way that makes that person FEEL loved? What makes YOU feel loved? How do you feel when you GIVE love? When you begin thinking about Love and asking these questions your ability to express love and feel love will increase. That only makes sense, right? Take some time to study your habits of love. Study the way you love the ones closest to you and how they love you. Study how you show love to the clerk at the grocery store or the co-workers you interact with all day. Study how you treat yourself. Are you loving to yourself? It is easy to create a habit of nonchalant loving without ever thinking about LOVE. Maybe it is time to begin nurturing the way you love. Tell others that you love them. Show others that you love them. Start planning LOVE into your day. Don’t forget to love yourself in the process! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson: “Do you ever THINK about LOVE? Maybe it is time to begin!” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
YOUR TURN
My intent in sharing this with you is to encourage you to think - really think - about love and how you can better nurture it in your life. 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 © 2013-2018 Pennie Hunt This was written and produced by Pennie Hunt. Feel free to forward and share this post. Please keep the entire message intact, including contact, logo, and copyright information.  TURNING 60 I had a plan. It was the last year in my 50’s and I was going to make sure it was AMAZING! I had a list. A list of what I wanted to do before I turned 60. It would be fun. I would kayak. I would stand in a field of sunflowers. I would try indoor skydiving. Try a new recipe every week. Take a CPR class. Pay for coffee for the person behind me in the Starbucks drive through. Get 10000 steps per day. Lose 10 lbs. Exercise daily. Stay in my pajamas for a full day- yes, that was on my list. Take care of me. Forgive someone. The list went on. I had never felt my age, so there was nothing I was afraid to try or do. I wanted to do it all. I wanted to have fun! It was going to make a great blog post when I was done. I was making progress! Yoga classes 3 times a week. The new recipes were delicious. I taught my dog to roll over. I felt good paying for a stranger’s coffee. The check marks were systematically being added as I waded through my list of 60 things to do before I turned 60. Then, life happened. Everything stopped. Being in a car accident was not on my list. But it happened. I was hurt. I was sad. And counter to my personality I struggled with anger and fear. My list became doctor appointments, physical therapy, sleeping- all in an effort to rebuild my strength and recover from a concussion, whiplash, nerve damage, vision issues and back pain. Most of the plans on my 60 list I could no longer physically accomplish. Even reading and computer time caused pain. I felt my age. I felt old. My birthday arrived this week. Sixty candles. Sixty years. And an unfinished list of fun. Historically, for me, the years that have ended in ‘9’ have not been good years. This one continued that trend. But now I have a shiny new decade to look forward too. The next ‘9’ year is a long way off. I plan to continue to work toward healing. I have time to accomplish the fun stuff. I believe that things happen for a reason. Maybe I needed to learn that more than one full day in pajamas is not all bad. Maybe I needed a refresher course in how to process anger and fear. Maybe I needed to learn how to forgive the cause of my pain. Maybe I needed to learn lessons in order to be a better teacher. Who knows, maybe my 60th year will be the best ever. It will make a great blog post when it’s done. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie’s Life Lesson- “Life happens. Not always the way we expect, but life happens.” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pennie Heart to Heart |
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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PLEASE NOTE: This page does not provide medical or legal advice, professional diagnosis, opinion, treatment or services to you or to any other individual. Through this site and links to other sites, Pennie Hunt provides general information for inspiration, encouragement and educational purposes only. The information provided in this site, or through links to other sites, is not a substitute for legal, medical, or professional care, and you should not use the information in place of a visit, call or the advice of your lawyer, physician or other healthcare provider. |