Self-love Never Hurt A Greyhead, Yet

DISCIPLINE and SELF-LOVE = STRENGTH and POWER

Too many times women, even men, of Grey Divorce (who I often call Greyheads) suffer needlessly in the areas of esteem, and various self-disciplines. Their strength wanes until they are not much good for themselves, let alone another. However, I've learned that SELF IS FIRST, not a new 'other' or the one who left you behind!

Let's face it, divorce over forty, fifty, and beyond, is a grungy place to end up. It's like living under an eternally starless night. What a weakening place to be!  

But, THERE'S ALWAYS LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL 
(but you gotta keep walking)

THERE IS FRESH AIR IN THE MIDST OF SMOTHERING GRIEF, TOO.
(but you gotta dig for it)

  THERE ARE STREAMS IN THE DESSERT
(but you must trust and believe it)

And, THERE IS STRENGTH and POWER IN LOVING YOURSELF
(but you must [we must] never give up)

These possibilities all point back to you and me, however. There is no proverbial six-pack, or real one, without discipline, which is nothing more than self-love. This is a lesson I'm learning with you!

When I ran across this article How to Grow Self-Discipline, by Robin Sharma, I had to share it with you. Take the meat and leave any bones, of course, but check it out nonetheless. Don't just be inspired there in your seat, either. Get up and do this in the name of self-love. That ballerina above didn't get that way by giving up, lacking discipline, or not loving herself, that's for sure. Let's do this together!

Nhatsbooks.com

 

She, The Tree

Women have long since the beginning of time endured and overcome. Some have endured and succumbed. The changes that life bring can be a joy and a culprit; excitement and heartbreak, or these changes can serve as education and preparation!



When a woman is as snug as a bug in a rug, the stable warmth that surrounds her cannot be compared to anything else. I'm telling you there is nothing better; nothing like it, and once it is disturbed; rattled, or destroyed, a piece of that woman is, too. Her spirit is often crushed, compromised. Her soul wanders, changes, and sends out feelers often to wolves in sheep's clothing, and she has no idea. Of course the evil unseen plot is to finish the woman off as her grief aids this process along. Nothing bleeds like a broken heart, and, oh, how the wolves pick up the scent immediately!

How can a woman protect herself while weakened by grief?
How can she protect herself when she's never really had to before?

Now that she's been spotlighted and all enemies see her...
Now that she's been spotlighted and all her friends have run away... What is her next step?

• She must heal her own wounds lest the wolves of life lick them dry for her... Then she's indebted to them. 

• She must dry her weeping eyes lest they blind her to the harsh wall before her... A collision that could take her out for good. 

• She must welcome strength to her legs to walk the path before her... She must walk and not die on the path.

• She must live by what she knows to be true, not by what she feels and by what looks impossible today.

No matter what, the woman is spirit and it's in the spirit where she must dwell. Her empty purse is not the problem. Her bleeding heart isn't either. Not even her lonely nights, or the empty plate on the other side of the dinner table, is worthy much of complaining. Her spirit is her restart place; it must be re-built... re-loved... and yes, recruited by the love master that has been there all the time. She must not resist but move in trust and obedience. What has she got to lose? If she doesn't have that answer, she must at least know what she has to gain!

There has never been a majestic tree anywhere that didn't first grow for years beneath the ground, in moist darkness, as its roots spread sometimes for miles through crowds of other roots in the dirt, before it began its ascension to break through the earth as a sapling. Then within months, a few short years, it grew to be an unstoppable tree unlike any before it. The roots of a tree determines its stance, strength, and longevity. Think about that when it comes to you!


That's likened the woman in recovery. Preparation is often:

Dark (no outside interruptions there)

Dank (there's actually living waters nearby)

Dirty (no construction site is clean) and

Crowded (with many questions and temptations until you decide to quiet yourself and focus on the journey) but your outcome is majestic.


Only God can grow a tree they say. Let the One who made you, re-do and re-grow you. How?
Note the tree...

And, I suggest that you:
*Note Ruth...
*Note Leah...
*Note David...
*Note Daniel...
*Note Joseph...
*Note Proverbs...
*Note Sarah...
*Note Hagar...
*I don't know a better note than Jesus who never said a mumbling word...  He just knew.

Nhat Crawford, author