Author Archives: admin

The Role of Free Will and Choice

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I came out of the other side of damage. I was not beyond repair. Through it all, I have learned important truths. I want to thank my family for showing me what I didn’t want to be.

 

I could break the cycle. It could end with me. Like in the movie Collateral Beauty. My favorite line is, was and always will be, “Shed your skin. Find your life.”

 

Remember to keep the circle positive, peaceful and loving. ©

 

Written with love.

 

Joy M. Mills
Copyright © 2017

 

*This article is not intended to provide and does not constitute medical, legal or other professional advice. This article was written to support, not replace medical or psychiatric treatment. Please seek professional care if you feel you have a condition.

 

An Open Letter

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LOVE IN A BOX

 

I pushed forward with fear

And hoped you would see

All the love and support

That could come from me

 

I thought about a box

Propelled by unseen hands

The secret is that it had been

Wrapped with love and encouragement

From a far away place

 

Something that bounced through

My heart and my brain

I needed you to feel what your

Destiny is and will always be

 

Strength and determination

When life beat you up was

Enough to propel you forward

To help you rise to meet the challenge

That would be tough

 

My dreams had foretold

Everything in that box was manna

From heaven

Filled with gold

 

One step closer to that finish line

It was off in the distance

I was sure it would come

More love than you ever could imagine

Or your heart could hold

Now you know

 

I knew you could do it

A reminder that you not only could

You would

I wanted your tears to dry

If you cried at all

They could be happy and glad

 

Without uttering a word

I knew you were doubtful

And questioning things

It was far beyond me

You were brave

You reached for my hand

I reached for yours too

 

Those boxes hold every memory

Of a time tucked away

A secret between us

That is precious and perfect

 

Even when life had gone wrong

And the past had beat you up

The box was enough

When getting through was tough

 

I had already walked the road you were on

It was my turn to pay it forward

My job is far from done

You are normal you see

Not that much different from me

 

I wanted to help you

Hold back monsters that

Flowed through your brain

As all of us have had

A moment of fear

We all need hope and

Support at times

 

In the darkness when doubt creeps in

The fear deep inside

A genuine and loving voice

Who you knew so well

Saying

I will walk this journey with you

 

Your memories of that box will

Always remain

With your lovely smile

You might think

To yourself

Someone was right

I deserved to feel better

And understand for a moment

It is okay to get excited and

To make your plans

 

My heart was open

Connecting me to you

I am grateful for this

And all of the love from

That simple cardboard box

And all it represents

 

You are precious and kind

And one day you will share

With another who believes

What were they thinking

They don’t dare

You will remember from a

Time back

One day you will pay it forward

It always comes around

And how we begin again

 

You will think about the

Love and the box

Can be shared through history and time

But for now

It has connected your heart to mine

 

© Joy M. Mills

 

Remember to keep the circle positive, peaceful and loving. ©

 

Written with love for a very special person. You know who you are.

 

Joy M. Mills
Copyright © 2017

 

*This article is not intended to provide and does not constitute medical, legal or other professional advice. This article was written to support, not replace medical or psychiatric treatment. Please seek professional care if you feel you have a condition.

 

 

Food for Thought

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We shouldn’t live with regret. We don’t want our journey to be a road full of broken promises that cause broken trust that doubts the truth of what is said. So mean what you say by honoring your love, words and keeping your promises.

 

Many acts made our relationships and lost by only one. I suspect many of us can relate to clinging to a grievance when we have felt angry and indignant despite wanting to forgive.

 

Fast forward through the confrontation, the lie, the evidentiary finding and no plea for forgiveness. The loss of confidence, mumbo jumbo is a fancy way of saying you don’t trust them at all or conversely you are not trusted.

 

Pain is temporary. Suffering is optional. Trying to return to a peaceful feeling when someone has hurt you is difficult. It isn’t the laughs and the smiles that have changed you but the pain that forced you to grow.

 

If you look at past failures as an opportunity, they are no longer obstacles and peace will find you.

 

Remember to keep the circle positive, peaceful and loving. ©

 

Written with love.

 

Joy M. Mills
Copyright © 2017

The Role of Free Will and Choice

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Chaos should not be the status quo for the rest of your life. I prefer to sharing the love with those around me instead of demanding happiness. When you go from needing support, love and affection to fill a hole in yourself to sharing love and happiness from a place of fullness, you have to be a friend to have a friend. It should not be draining.

 

Cause and effect do not translate in the spiritual world very well. Our action and responsibility to ourselves and others do.

 

Selfish people don’t care about your emotions and would dump their problems on you without a second thought. They are challenging and frustrating. They make fundamentally poor choices. Relationships with dramatic people require a lot of work.

 

Here is what I know for sure:

 

Be an observer. Not everything needs a reaction.

 

The question is what are your values and who should be the beneficiary of those values? There is no secret or shortcut to get around dramatic people.

 

After all, what you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it.

 

Remember to keep the circle positive, peaceful and loving. ©

 

Written with love.

 

Joy M. Mills
Copyright © 2017

An Open Letter

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Hi, it’s me again.

 

If you have forgiven someone, doesn’t that mean you have moved beyond it and let it go?

 

You can’t rewrite history. None of us can. You can’t take out a chapter in your life and replace it with something else. People are always waiting for the perfect moment, another time or waiting for a perfect opportunity to remind you of everything they have done for you or everything you have done to them since the beginning of time.

 

The best thing to hold onto in life is each other. God does not promise tomorrow. Why do people bring up the past over and over? With it comes the same angst and a good amount of grief.

 

My prayer is that we can get beyond all of the finger pointing and blame without anything traumatic being the impetus. We have to have confidence in our world view and our relationships. Unfortunately, other people’s idea of what that is doesn’t match up with reality. Then choices have to be made.

 

Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, we cannot live without a spiritual life or God. After all, it began with love and forgiveness.

 

Remember to keep the circle positive, peaceful and loving. ©

 

Written with love.

 

Joy M. Mills
Copyright © 2017

Food for Thought

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ENDLESS FEAR

 

Listen in the silence

That is where you will hear

Not all of the whispers

Of the people around you

Taking in their fear

That is contagious

No good can come

Of that

 

There are questions

You are allowed to ask

And some you wouldn’t dare

 

If you didn’t know

Life pushes you along

Without the chance

To stop and think

 

A place of risk and

What you see as danger

Or the land of broken hearts

I have learned actions

Speak much louder than

Anything you can say

 

Find your voice

Speak your truth

You only have today

 

If you jumped into the

Lake right now

I’d put money on it

You would hold your

Breath

 

It makes you believe you

Never would do anything

Of substance with or

Without a plan

 

If you soak it in and

Allow that to stay

Then of course

You will never

Find your way

 

What we do in between

Is the interesting part

 

Walk that path

To the Journey’s Edge

Let go of all that fear

Today is the day

Get started

 

Don’t be

Afraid of your

Life as it is

Be afraid if you

Never begin

 

 

Remember to keep the circle positive, peaceful and loving. ©

 

Written with love.

 

Joy M. Mills
Copyright © 2017

The Role of Free Will and Choice

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“In the end, only three
things matter:  how much you
loved, how gently you lived
and how gracefully you let
go of things not meant for you.”
~Buddha

 

The greatest truth about anxiety is that it is a message. Anxiety is not the real issue. It is the voice of something else lying beneath that is calling out to you. The message is simple:  it is just four words – take care of yourself.

 

The good news is that it is an illusion. Until you catch on, start listening and heal the source of the message, it will keep trying to spin you around so that you are facing it long enough to understand what it is trying to say.

 

Here is what we shouldn’t do, like most people I know, spend a lot of time in business that is not ours. As a recovering control freak, there are three things I know for sure about trying to control things:  1. We try to control things because of what we think will happen if we don’t. In other words, control is rooted in fear.  2. Control is also a result of being attached to an outcome. When we trust that we are okay no matter what circumstances come our way, we don’t need to micromanage the Universe!  When we let go, we can open ourselves up to possibilities.  3. The energy of surrender accomplishes much more than control.

 

Fear is a mile high and a mile wide but only paper-thin. You must walk straight through it.

 

Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.

 

Remember to keep the circle positive, peaceful and loving. ©

 

Written with love.

 

Joy M. Mills
Copyright © 2017

 

*This article is not intended to provide and does not constitute medical, legal or other professional advice. This article was written to support, not replace medical or psychiatric treatment.  Please seek professional care if you feel you have a condition.

 

An Open Letter

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Hi, it’s me again.

 

Today I was having a conversation with someone, and we were talking about division versus addition, not math. However, if you think of it in terms of math, when we are dividing numbers, I think of reduction. When we are adding numbers, I think of enhancement. For instance, if I am balancing my checkbook and find an error and I get to add an amount, I am thrilled.

 

Which brings me to family and friends (represented by a house); it cannot be stable and strong by itself when divided. Here the division refers to various mentalities and perceptions of different members of the group. If they all think alike, they will be united forever and no one can do anything to break it. However, if they keep fighting and disagreeing with each other all of the time, the group will eventually break.

 

People can light up the whole sky. Many people think solid relationships of any kind are based on feelings. It has to be based on camaraderie, love, mutual respect, and most importantly, trust. On one hand, we have a great feeling like sunshine when certain people are around – even though we would like for it to be sunny every day, the truth is that the amount of sunshine changes regularly. Some days it is nice and sunny; on others, it is partly cloudy and the things we think and feel are barely there at all. So, when I hear someone say I don’t care anymore, take it for what it usually is. They are not willing to make the effort required to maintain the stability of any relationship.

 

Instead of backing away from any relationship, we could try to bounce back from the lowest of times and make the best of times. The times you look back years later and burst out laughing. The times you will tell your kids so that they too can learn to appreciate people and the world around them.

 

What you gain is something priceless. You never know in a family, friendships or any relationship, you could be someone’s hero.

 

Remember to keep the circle positive, peaceful and loving. ©

 

Written with love.

 

Joy M. Mills
Copyright © 2017

 

The Role of Free Will and Choice

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There comes the point when you have to choose between turning the page and closing the book. Remember, everything is a balance on this journey of ours, and usually the balance is what we can and can’t control.

 

The statement we make to the world around us is how we live our life. We have to work through the pain and some of us take longer than others. One day the pain will make sense to you.  Sometimes it takes the worst pain to bring about change. The strongest people grew because of the pain they once faced and conquered. It is just a matter of focusing on the road ahead. Remember, how you rise to meet life’s challenges is no one else’s business but your own.

 

Even when we are at our worst, and it hurts the most, we have to be kind to ourselves, never quit and be mindful that we are capable of making progress.

 

Remember to keep the circle positive, peaceful and loving. (c)

 

Written with love.

 

Joy M. Mills
Copyright (c) 2017

Food for Thought

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At times feeling lost is when we rediscover our lives and realize there are small miracles every day. So, slow down and stand in awe of the fact you are alive and that you have the ability to rediscover your life at any moment.

 

Look for people that are a constant source of wisdom, comfort, guidance and inspiration. These are positive qualities. We have to figure out how we can become a beacon of hope for ourselves and the people we encounter on our journey.

 

If people are not supporting your journey and you feel drained, then it would be time for introspection. A little soul searching can go a long way.

 

Remember to keep the circle positive, peaceful and loving. (c)

 

Written with love.

 

Joy M. Mills
Copyright (c) 2017