Soul Carving

Most expensive item here was 8 bucks.        Money can't buy happiness, they say. But if you play your cards right, it can buy you a whole trunk-full of new maternity clothes, which, to a woman expecting her sixth child is pretty much the same thing.        A while ago I got together with some good girlfriends for a thrift-shopping trip. Many of them are fans of Carol Tuttle's Energy Profiling program, Dressing Your Truth . It's a helpful system which explains 4 basic types of human energy and educates you on how to live and dress according to the energy you connect most with. In our group of 6 we had a good mix of 3 of the 4 Types and had a ball helping each other find clothing that reflected our respective types.         A cousin of mine was in the group and shopping with her was reminiscent of shopping with my Mom -- she can always find the perfect outfits for me! She's also a novice thrifter. She has...

        The way I see it, we're all soul-searching. No matter who we are or where we live, at the most basic level, what we are all truly seeking is to be happy. And it is my humble opinion that this quest is not as complicated or challenging as we often make it out to be.         Abraham Lincoln is attributed with the wise words, "Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." The  concentration camp survivor and  author of "Man's Search for Meaning", Victor Frankl said, "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." And in the classic children's novel "Pollyanna" by Eleanor H.Porter, the reverend Ford is inspired by these words, "When you look for the bad, expecting it, you will get it. When you know you will find the good - you will get that."        I'm not saying th...

  "I don't want to be somewhere else anymore. Not waiting for anything new to happen.  Not looking around the next corner or over the next hill.  I'm here now.  And that's enough."        The above quote is from the movie Shadowlands , one of my mother's favorites. Anthony Hopkins portrays C. S. Lewis in the love story between him and his wife, Joy Gresham who is terminally ill. Mr. Lewis, or Jack as he is affectionately called in the film, says that this is his kind of happy - complete contentment with the now. Sounds good to me. Yet, not so easy to come by.        I'm sick. Not terminally ill - thank heavens. But what started out as a raspy sore throat has developed into a rousing cough and red swollen eyes with a profuse goopey discharge. I feel so toxic - as if others will get sick just from looking at me! I really don't have time for this. Not with homeschooling t...

HAPPINESS IS. . . . . . feeling the smoothness of my baby's cheek next to mine and inhaling his sweet baby smell. If I close my eyes, I can almost believe he's still a newborn. . . . soaking up the warmth of the sun's rays into my Winter-weary skin. If I sit long enough in this pool of light that pours in through the windows, I feel like I'm floating - I'm ascending, getting nearer and nearer to the sun until I start glowing. I become light . . . . suggesting math practice without evoking the tsunami of rage and injustice. "Wait, did you just say, 'Okay'? You mean I can come out from the bomb shelter now and I won't find any debris to clear up?" . . . taking a deep, steadying breath when my little one needs to tell me "one last thing" (for the 3rd time) before they go to sleep. Then the reward for my calm response: a heart-felt, wide-eyed expression of love and gratitude -- "Mama,...

     The morning had not started well. I'd made the mistake of saying good morning to the children and telling them it was time for breakfast. This was met with outbursts of how unfair it was that they never  had any time to play and how I was always  interrupting their games with such trivial things.      Well, excuse me for living.      I felt the anger rising in me. A dozen accusations bubbled in my mind, threatening to spew out in spiteful words from my lips. It was early enough that my husband had not left for work yet. So, biting my tongue and clenching my fists, I burst out the front door and into the morning air in hopes of releasing that pent up frustration.      I walked briskly, determination in each step. I'm so sick of this! How can they be so ungrateful? The list of injustices began to multiply in my mind. But I knew, I had a choice to make. I could continue my tirade and succeed in making this a long...