This morning is Chance’s day off from school. Yes, that’s right. He’s homeschooled and he has Fridays off. Amazingly, he is able to get up nearly an hour and a half earlier today than he was for nearly two weeks of school. Hmmm. I guess he really is a regular kid!

He loves to build. He’ll probably end up being an engineer, creative genius entrepreneur or an attorney (the only thing he does better than build is negotiate – with us – for more, more, more – Chance, it’s time for bed. Give me five more minutes. Okay, but then it’s time for bed. How about 10? Aaaarrgh!)

This morning he showed me his character’s newest outfit in the imaginary building world called Roblox. His hat is a three-tier asymmetrical birthday cake that catches fire and makes the guy twist around. What 9 year old doesn’t want that?

Then he showed me the world he was playing in. Teapots that reach into the sky like a staircase from the middle of nowhere with a sky-blue backdrop that looks like you are hanging mid-air in the clouds. A giant sombrero that works like a trampoline. Wow. Amazing. I’d like to play, too.

Earlier, this morning, I asked Chance to dump the garbage from our master bathroom. He’s pretty compliant and said he would do it. I’m not a micromanager, so I don’t check right away…as long as it is done today, I’m happy.

I’m standing in our downstairs living room behind the couch watching Chance in this imaginary world when Nana walks through with bags of garbage – mini bags that apparently made for really small Barbie-sized bathroom garbage cans. I looked at Chance and said, “Boy, you came into this world blessed. You have so many angels all around you taking care of everything!”

He smiled, giggled and kept on playing.

Nana mumbled something about the bags are thin and flimsy, and she was up there anyway. Chance isn’t the only one she’s offers angelic support to. There’s a reason people call her my second wife. I’m not complaining – she made cornish hens, homemade mashed potatoes, kernel corn, green beans and turnovers for dinner last night. I did the dishes.

But then I thought about it. We all have this much support all around us, all of the time. The only difference for Chance is that he’s open to receive EVERYTHING. And, he’s not afraid to ask for more after he’s been given something (Can I have 10?) He pushes the receiving envelope. That’s why when we have ever taken him anywhere – at EVERY age – he’s ended up being given so much!

Once Mark took him to a fancy to-go restaurant. Remember those walk-up steak take outs where you could order a five-star steak and baked potato for $12 bucks? It was like fine dining for people who want to eat at home. Chance walked in and smiled, and as Mark tells the story, the people in the place – I believe it was called Steak Out – started giving him everything he said he ‘liked.’ He would say, “I like that rose.” They would give it to him. He would say, “I like that cup.” They would give it to him. “I like that pen.” Here you go!

Because we believe in giving and receiving and being a grateful receiver, we don’t say no. Many parents would admonish a child for asking for more – for receiving more. The person decided to give or offer him a gift. He said, “Yes!” We just look at the situation in awe. He not once asked to have anything! People would just give him things he liked.

When he grew a bit older, we would go to Chuck E. Cheese and his charmed life would show up there, too. Wherever he is, there he goes! He would be shy 40 tickets for what he really wanted, and we would redirect him over to the toys he could buy with the tickets he had available. He would say, “But I want that one.” Once, Mark let him have something that the employee said, “It’s fine, here, you can have it.”

That opened up a whole new conversation about how that is actually stealing. The employee doesn’t have the right to give away the company’s stuff outside of the agreement (tickets for toys). Chance learned how to stay in the boundaries and Mark and I learned we can pay for tickets, too. Still, I wondered about that as I have not seen an employee do that, and Chance certainly wasn’t throwing a fit. He was just asking.

Still, this is Chance’s charmed world and we are living in it!

But, what if you were as open to receive as Chance is? What if you said yes and thank you to everything life had to give you? What if you played and had fun, and watched the angels do a lot of the heavy lifting, dirty work (taking out the garbage)?

I bet your life would be charmed, too!

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This morning I dropped by Starbucks to pick up some coffee and Perfect Oatmeal (it really IS perfect – yum!) I walked in with a mommy and her little girl. While I waited in line, I watched the little girl hold up a package of chocolate cookies and mom’s response, “No, let’s stay with those you normally get, those are too messy.” As mom paid for the vittles, I commented on the little girl’s sandals (silver, with diamond rhinestones and ultra sparkly – we love that), “I love your sandals – they are so pretty!” The little girl looked at me, thought about what I said as she looked down at her sandals, then proclaimed, “Look at my nail polish!” I looked at her little tiny nails painted a vibrant rose pink and thought, ‘Wow, I love that color.’ I said instead, “Oh yes, they are SO pretty.” [Note to Self: Choose some different adjectives for chance encounters with little girls who are ultra fashionable.]

She looked down at her finger, studying the color in a thoughtful way – admiring the color – just as I was. Suddenly, I felt overcome with emotion…how beautiful this child was as she admired her fingernails. I could feel how much she really loved those colored fingernails. I’m sure her mother thought I was a loon when tears filled my eyes as her daughter started telling me about how she got her nails done at a birthday party and even the real Sleeping Beauty was there!  The little girl (who seemed to be not older than four or so) said in a very grown up way, “I thought the real Sleeping Beauty lived in Florida!” I dabbed at my eyes as I enjoyed the joy radiating off of this child. The real Sleeping Beauty… indeed. Here’s to pink nail polish and the joyful admiration of it!

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So, I just hung up with a client today, and am so EXCITED about feedback in her experience. Why excited?

Well, without going into great detail, when I first work with a client, we establish a baseline… a ‘best’ for each person. We come together to reach this ‘best’ and then break that ‘barrier’ to go for unlimited possibility.

Today, she hit that ‘best’ and now we are in the possibility zone!

For many, the possibility zone is too scary to live in because you can’t possibly KNOW what is going to happen there (it’s all open – ANYTHING is possible) and you can’t know the RULES there because there aren’t any. As I say often, it isn’t for everyone, but man what a rush!

She has systematically applied the Rapid Success principles and lived in the moment to achieve a super fast response… I’m so proud of her and so excited for her too because what I know… from working with many others just like her… this is an amazing place to live in boundless creativity and Truth. I want everyone to be able to live here!

Wow… SO EXCITED!

Missing in action is one way to describe ourselves when we ‘go missing.’ Sometimes we go missing by checking out, going into the ditch and by unplugging deliberately as in vacations and play.

But what about Missing in Bliss? Ah, yes, that’s what I’ve been… hanging out in the upper planes since I went to San Diego to teach our newest workshop material that offers you a simple way to live a hi-frequency life. I took off on the 11th and had the most amazing experience ever. I’ve promised to cover these stories on my blog, so I’ll be writing about the trip in seven parts… seven stories guaranteed to lift you and your spirit!

Yes, I’ve been away… but always connected to you and your beautiful hearts. Know that I pray for all of you and love you from afar!

Have a really Happy Thanksgiving… truly, and love your family wherever they are and for whoever they are today. It is a gift that you give to yourself!

Big hug-

Once upon a time I lived in a house with a woman who was CRAZY about art and creating lively, cool things.

She made the MOST WONDERFUL Halloween costumes (surely the reason why Halloween is one of my MOST FAVORITE holidays – and it IS a holiday – of the year). Her costumes were elaborate and full of imagination.

She made wild, crazy art in her 30s, and into her 40s. THEN, (insert tire screeching sound), in her 50s, she decided ‘enough’ with this stuff I LOVE to create. I’m going to follow the money train.

Soon, this artistic woman’s body began to break down. Her heart lost its vibrancy. She couldn’t sleep. And bears (yes, bears…like the big grizzly bear kind) started coming to her right before she would close her eyes to go to sleep each night.

Bear energy is all about the inner dreamland. Bear comes when we need to go inside again.

Night after night she would blink her eyes praying that big ol’ bear head would GO AWAY! AAAAaaaaaah! She would pull the covers up over her head and then peek outside and there it was – still hanging over her looking at her.

One night she said, “What do you want?”

And the bear said, “I want to invite you to dream again.”

That’s when the artist began dreaming again, and she began to play again with her art and she danced with the ideas in her head and made many wonderful creations that touched the lives of the people she met.

What’s the moral of the story?

Follow your art… not the money. The money follows your art and your art comes from your heart.

P.S. This is based on a very TRUE story. Bear and all…

Some of my favorite heavenly artists…HEAVENLY!

http://www.inspired-art.com/inspiredartworks/home.html

http://www.nanoel.com/

Is this a sanctuary or what? Nancy’s use of light makes my heart smile.

I wrote about guitars last week. Wow, what a difference a week makes.

I took ACTION and FOUND a sweet PATIENT guitar teacher who lives TWO minutes from my house. Coincidence? You decide.

Yesterday was my first lesson. I SO ENJOYED it! I was so present…so attentive, so ALIVE!

What a happy birthday present to me!

The hour FLEW by! I really feel like I CAN do this! It feels FUN. It feels ENERGIZED.

I’m so happy…in my heart.

What’s your heart asking you to do?

Mary sent this to me! She is an amazing designer and creator of super crafty, wonderfully artsy things.

Isn’t it sooo cute?

Can you read what it says? Open Your Gifts…time with you via email or phone or in person is my gift.

Thank you!

Oh wow… look at that. Another year has gone by. Lots of years have passed since I first sprang into this world – 41, in fact.

I find that I really don’t think much about age until someone brings it up, or until I talk to someone who doesn’t know much about the 80s (when we get to ‘explain’ the jokes or how funny things were back then).

The older I get the more I realize life really is all about love. And we all have our special brand of it.

It’s perfect, really.

You are perfect, really.

So am I.

Let’s celebrate together!

Chance drew this for me…I love his drawings! I would have never thought to have balloons coming OUT of a mouth… so CREATIVE! And these words… crazy…yummy…party…love you…yay!

So sweet!

Yes, it IS July in Texas, and it is HOT. Did we say 105 degrees hot? Yes, it is H-O-T.

But then Mr. Chance Ferguson decided he wanted to go to Six Flags. True, his wonderful parents DID take him in 101 degree weather TWICE already this SUMMER.

The truth also is that we told him we would not go again for the rest of the summer due to the heat (or, rather, threat of heat stroke). This is where the story gets funny…

So I hear Chance in the other room talking to God asking God to make it rain so he can go to Six Flags. This is not unusual for Chance as we’ve taught him to ask and talk to God about EVERYTHING, and he has seen so many times that his weather requests are granted, he can boldly say… I asked for that!

Sure enough… about a day later, the rains come in, the clouds billowed in, the temp dropped to 75! And Chance is positively BEAMING and announcing that it is going to be cool ALL WEEK LONG!

I have to say… I love his spirit. He rarely will take no for an answer… and even when we arrived at Six Flags and he saw that the coaster he wanted to ride was closed due to clouds, he just asked for the sun to come out, which it did, then it got hot, so he asked for the clouds to come again, which they did, then it sprinkled, and another coaster shut down, so he asked for it to stop raining, which it did, and he manifested an entire day exactly the way he wanted, riding every ride he intended, and leaving well after his parents wanted to.

Isn’t it fun?

I enjoy watching it… and watching the clouds move in and out.

On the way home, we watched the most gorgeous sunset. The clouds were iridescent pink and purple. I can’t remember a more beautiful sunset.

Then Chance asked… “Mom, aren’t the clouds beautiful?”

I said, “Mmmm, hummm, yes, they are… they look like a painting.”

Then Chance said… “God made it just like that.”

Yes, that’s perfect.

We spent the entire day and most of the night with my mom “out in the country.” She and my step dad have lived out there for nearly 20 years, and most of the time growing up we lived ‘out in the country.’

I have never loved ‘living out in the country.’ My mother refers to me as her ‘concrete baby.’ And I’m not sure why I didn’t like the country as most of the time growing up you could find me outside, walking here, walking there, roaming in the jungle in Guam, trekking miles each day to and from friends’ houses.

I guess the reason why is that the country is a place where you make your own place. You aren’t plugging into another person, another activity, something else to ‘keep you busy.’

The day had two focuses…I would help my Lelon clean out his woodworking shop (he’s a craftsman that makes stunning rustic furniture), and Mark would help mom and Lelon come into the 21st century with high speed internet. It was a very big day out in the country to say the least!

The very best part of being ‘out in the country’ was watching Chance be with mom in her workshop, watching Food Network’s Cake Master Bake Off, and remembering what it was like when it was me in the chair next to her watching some chick flick for the 20th time (Baby Boom, A Star is Born, etc., etc.), and how the more things change, the more things stay the same.

Plus, we had banana pudding that was to die for…and Chance made a pillow with big long beads on it that he has named “Charm,” which reminds me how much our life is charmed no matter what is going on when we drink in these precious moments.

Oh, and mom lives with her windows open, so there’s always a cool breeze that blows through the house. I love that feeling of air on my body that is cool from outside coming through the room. Simple things, simple life.

This is too funny not to share. I can’t *WAIT* to get photos to put up here! My mom called me a few weeks ago, and was so excited I thought she might actually PEE her pants!

Anyway, she was gushing about something or other she found at First Monday Trades Days over in Canton, Texas (just east of Dallas). She goes on and on about how she can’t WAIT to give me my birthday present. She knows EXACTLY what she is going to give me, and she just has to have me go pick out THE ONE I want, but she can’t TELL me what it is because it is a SURPRISE!

So, last weekend we went out to see Dusty Rose (a.k.a. mom) and she is as excited as a little puppy at 12 weeks old (and you know how much they wag their tales and all that. She is nearly SQUEALING as she shows me what she is going to get me, but NOT like the one she has because it is just TOO SMALL, and I need a BIG one.)

So what is it?

It was an iron heart with wings. But not just any heart… THIS one was SHINY and SPARKLY and PINK! Yeeee! Happy, happy, happy days!

Then, after she caught her breath, she took one big inhale, and then blurted out that SHE is ALSO going to get a gift when we go TODAY to get my birthday gift (she can’t wait until mid July to give it to me), and guess what she is getting?

You guessed it… or maybe you didn’t!

A FLYING PIG! But not just any ordinary flying pig, THIS flying pig is polka dotted! (And, of course, we have lots of pig stories in our family, including the CONCRETE PIG mom gave me 20 years ago that weighed 150 POUNDS! No, seriously…doesn’t everyone have a garden pig?)

Now, I think I’m just about as excited as she was, and I’ll try not to pee my pants until I get there to see them! More photos to come!

Belinda’s Dream – Our backyard… pre-treatment

I know, I know, I talk about roses A LOT! But I just can’t help it! I LOVE them!

What am I noticing these days? ROSES – they are *EXPLODING* in our backyard, they are FULL of the goodness of all that is divine, and I feel like this rose energy is within me, too.

On another post, I believe I shared about planting a ton of roses a couple of years ago. I began dreaming about them nearly every night for weeks. I found myself in front of roses in all sorts of ways. Oprah had a show about HER rose garden. I picked up a magazine, and there they were. I closed my eyes to meditate, and the roses would appear in my meditations. Some part of me was asking for the energy vibration of these beautiful creatures. I literally couldn’t ignore them.

We trekked to the Rose Capital of the world, which luckily for us, is only about an hour and a half away. After talking to the owner of Chamblees Nursery in Tyler, Texas, he fixed us up with a new breed of thornless rose called a Jefferson Rose (called that because he found this little gem underneath an Oak tree in Jefferson, Texas. These beauties grow EVERYWHERE – even under an oak tree in the shade). This bush type rose blooms from March through November with these luscious tiny tea cup white roses (yes, these are the ones I saw in my dreams).

We planted them along the fence that borders our pool area and, now, just two years later, they are HUGE! As we pulled into our yard last night and I saw them sparkling in the dark, I felt so happy, happy, happy. The energy of the rose is unmistakable … soft, gentle, yet powerful, rolling, healing.

We also have some other rose bushes – Belinda’s Dream (see photo above), which are pink roses with these luscious layers and layers of petals. They look like a fluffy rose, and then we have some ‘unknown’ varieties that we bought by the side of the road because we ‘loved’ the colors. Like, seriously, we were driving BY, and they REACHED OUT and said COME BACK…Chance saw the first one and I heard the next one… and the one I heard is now in the back of our fence, it has grown two feet by two feet, and the blooms are SIX INCHES WIDE on these gorgeous long-stem roses. What color? Of course, PINK, as I believe the only one who loves pink more than Elle Woods (Legally Blonde) is ME! They come out this HOT, SHOCKING PINK color and then, they turn light shell pink (see below)…it’s like getting TWO ROSES in one!

The Elle Woods Rose – I just named it that!

I hope you are loving something as much as I’m loving the gift of these beautiful roses! They sing to me, they speak to my soul, and they make life so, so, so sweet.

Happy Earth Day – Again!

When I was little, my mom would pack my brother and me up and head to the movies. It wasn’t every week for this single mom, but it was at least a couple of times per month.

My mom says raising me was like trying to parent a little old lady. I totally can relate as parenting Chance – even from the time he was so little – was like being in the room with a little old man. That said, one day my mom took us to see A Star is Born, and right in the middle of some love scene, I leaned over and said, “Mom, this isn’t an appropriate movie for kids to see.” I was just eight at the time.

Now, looking back, I can see how she could be torn between reaching out for a taste of magic and being hit right in the face of being the 28-year old single mother of two children. I could sense the difference in my mother after the movie, though. She seemed lighter, happier, reset in some sort of very good way.

It would be many years later that I would begin to know what my mother found in the movies. I can remember vividly going to the movies to find that ‘feeling’ of ‘total possibility.’ I would pay my $3.25 and practically run into the movie to drink in all the feelings of ‘yes, this too is possible for you.’ I even wrote reviews for my school newspaper in 8th grade. Describing the fine points of each movie in almost excruciating detail, loving the movies so very much.

In my mid 20s, I went to see a movie…some chick flick I can’t even recall. I remember feeling so depressed. Where was my magical feeling of ‘anything is possible?’ Where did it go? At the time, I was married to my first husband and we would pick apart the story lines. This didn’t make sense, and who could even BELIEVE that plot?  I would talk to my mother about movies and she would say, “Geez, Tina, can’t you just go to a movie and WATCH it? Does a movie have to be so complicated?” I didn’t tie two and two together (my feeling of depression to being overly analytical) until many, many years later.

Her simple nature was bumping up against my big brain – the intellectual side of me that is quick, keen on seeing patterns, strategic for sure, and hungry for a challenge. The truth was, my life had lost its magic and its challenge. I was bored on many levels, and everything reflected it – including the movies.

Jet forward nearly 15 years (don’t you love hindsight?) and about eight months ago, as I laid in bed half meditating and half wondering about things. I wondered…where is the magic of the movies I had when I was a kid? I so want to feel that feeling again. I began to notice how I felt when I would watch a movie. The anticipation of the delicious nature of it, the enthusiasm for the feelings I would get from it, and ultimately whether or not these matched up with what actually happened. Little by little, I could feel the magic coming back. For one, I reached more and more for movies that make me laugh. For silly, ‘not thinking’ kind of movies, and those about romance. I’ll share more about what guidance I also received about capturing the magic in another post.

The result is that I’ve been in my spirit a majority of the time, and I am happy to say that I just got back from seeing Monsters VS. Aliens and that feeling is BACK! I laughed so easily at the jokes – even the jokes in the previews for upcoming movies – and that delicious feeling of magic enveloped me. At various moments I had thoughts of the people who created this movies and how much work they must have done, but how proud they must be. And another of how grateful I am for this amazing feeling of being uplifted!

As we got up to leave, I realized that it is like the book Polar Express … the magic doesn’t leave us, we leave the magic. The magic is always there – the connection to that feeling is always calling to us, always asking us to come home – because that magic is who we really are. When we are apart from that magic, we are disconnected from that love, that magical sense of possibility. And, that is why movies are a great reminder of what is possible…even outside the movies.

Oh, and mom…I’m not over-thinking the simplistic plot, the formulaic monsters (taken from old favorites from the fifties), the reference points to other alien-type movies put out by Spielberg (Close Encounters of the Third Kind), and the improbability of monsters captured by the U.S. Government being set free. Nope…I’m just staying with the magic. And it feels GREAT!

Monsters VS. Aliens, DreamWorks Pictures

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