A prayer is a peaceful promise to yourself, Dear One – a promise to allow that which you are needing, wanting, asking for, into your life.

A prayer is a preparation.  It is a ritual to help get you ready to receive, to help you shift into a mindset of receiving.

That is why prayers of gratitude are the most powerful.

Just in case you were wondering Dear One, the antidote to conflict is acceptance.

Complete and total acceptance.

Not approval.  Not agreement.  Not compromise.  Not settling.  Not accommodating.  Not pretending.  Not lying.  Not cheating. Not faking it.  And most definitely not resignation.

If you want to diffuse a conflict Dear One, accept what is, exactly as it is, for exactly what it is, as quickly as you possibly can.

And once you do, once you stop pushing, resisting, railing against what is, once you let go of the emotional charge that conflict brings to a situation, then, and only then, will you be in a position (a very powerful one actually) to make a thoughtful, rational, intentional, and heartfelt decision about what you are going to do next.

No one can take more from you, Dear One, than you willingly give to them, be it intentionally or unintentionally.

Your depletion has absolutely nothing to do with them, with their treatment of you, or their demands on you and your time, and absolutely everything to do with your treatment of you, your demands on yourself, and on your time.

If you are feeling depleted Dear One, taken advantage of, knocked around, and no longer in control of your own time and energy, look no further than the reflection in the mirror to see the face of the only one responsible for making you feel that way.

Learning to play the accordion, paint, teach, or split an atom requires practice, Dear One.

So does learning how to be more open, bold, tolerant, loving, trusting, and accepting of yourself and others.

Whenever you are practicing something new, regardless of what it is, we want you to know that it is essential that you also remember to practice patience too if you ever hope to achieve any level of success.

Not because we want you to expect or anticipate that whatever it is you learning is going to take a long time to achieve, because it may not.

We want you to practice patience Dear One, because of your tendency to want to punish, judge harshly, or put yourself down when you encounter something new, when you come across something that you have not yet mastered, when you discover that you do not yet already know it all. (i.e. I can’t believe I missed that, how come this is so hard for me, how stupid of me to have not known that, and so on. You get the idea.)

Why does it matter?

Because you can’t judge yourself, be frustrated with yourself, or put yourself down and grow in any positive way at the same time.

We can see that you have a strong desire to live a more authentic life,  Dear One, and yet… you don’t.

You allow your fear of rejection, being alone, being wrong, being made fun of, disappointing, being less than perfect, or failing, stop you from trying, stop you from speaking up, stop you from being the real you.

Well, its time to put to an end to that, Dear One.

It’s time for you to join the ranks of the fallible.

• It’s time for you to allow yourself to join those who make mistakes, who fall down, who fail, who don’t always do the right thing at the right time, who sometimes get hurt, and who sometimes, despite their best efforts, hurt others.
• It’s time for you to allow yourself to join those who knows that if they fall, they can get back up, that if they fail, they can try again, that if they get hurt, they will heal.
• It’s time for you to allow yourself to join those that know that playing it safe, that not trying, that not speaking up, that not being your authentic self, is and will always be a far more agonizing, frustrating, painful, disappointing and damaging experience in the long run, then not trying ever will be.

Do you want to know one of the best ways for you to get to know yourself better, Dear One?

Slow down, put in the effort, take the time, and get to know them better.

Find out who they really are, what they feel, think, and believe, why they do what they do, why they say what they say.

Make every interaction really personal.

By taking the time to get to know who they really are, instead of spending your time with some superficial version of who you think they really are, you will  be tapping  into a wealth of information about yourself.

Your feelings about them, your reactions to them, and your responses to the real them, will reveal a lot to you, about you.

Remember, Dear One, you don’t have to choose to go with their flow, to get caught up in their energy, to move to their rhythm, to dance to their beat, to take part in their story.

You can if you want to.

You can choose to participate, to get swept up in, to interact with, and respond to their energy if you would like.

And, Dear One… and this is so very important that we want you to pay very close attention to what we are going to tell you next,

…you can also choose not to.

Start by choosing to believe with absolute certainty that everything is going to be okay.

And then, act accordingly.

Because the truth is, Dear One, that it will be.

Friend, boyfriend, lover, wife, spouse, partner, neighbor, sister, brother, cousin, best friend, confidant, significant other, soul mate, buddy, companion, associate, cohort or chum. 

You have lots of ways of defining, categorizing and labeling your relationships Dear One.  And we realize that these measures can be greatly varied, intricately complicated, highly emotional, and hold a great deal of significance for you.   We know that they strongly influence and in some cases totally determine how you act towards someone, how you think, feel and react around them, and your expectations of them.   We get it. We really do understand.

But from where we are standing there truly is only one measure by which all relationships are defined, categorized and labeled — and that measure Dear One, is the amount of love shared.

As we see it, how you choose to define a relationship is so much less significant than the amount of love that you choose to bring to it and allow yourself to experience within it.

So, what is in a name, Dear One?

As far as we are concerned, as long as there is love there, not a whole hell of a lot.

Just like you use your feet to move your physical body in the direction that you want to travel, Dear One, we would like to encourage you to use your thoughts to move your emotional and spiritual body in much the same way.

If you wanted to go uptown to see a movie, you would not leave your home and start traveling downtown and assume that if you continued on in this direction you would eventually arrive at your desired destination, would you?

• If you want to be stronger, choose thoughts that make you feel more powerful, not ones that make you doubt yourself and your abilities.
• If you want to be braver, choose thoughts that ground you, not ones that make you feel out of control.
• If you want to be successful, choose thoughts that empower you, not ones that make you feel as if you are incapable.
• If you want to be desired, choose thoughts that make you feel desirable, not ones that make you feel insecure.
• If you want to feel more connected, choose thoughts that bring you closer to your source, not ones that hold you apart from it.

Like your feet, your thoughts are powerful conveyors, Dear One.

So remember to choose them wisely and with great intention.