Hi, it’s me again.

Our mind can be our best friend or our worst enemy.

I believe human nature is competitive. It can cause us to be very successful, or we can convince ourselves there are obstacles we can never overcome. Think about the difference between what is urgent and what is important or you can do what a lot of us do and do it later or someday.

Today stop making excuses for why you can’t get things done and start focusing on why you should make it happen. Persistence is the mother of all productive effort. The strongest people I know don’t always succeed, but they are the ones who don’t give up. They brush themselves off and start over.

Every day is a new challenge for all of us. That isn’t necessarily bad. We just have to continue to pick ourselves up and try to keep sadness in perspective and even shedding an occasional tear is okay.

Realize with every day that passes we have more wisdom and strength under our belts. It is the path to self-fulfillment, and our soul knows when we are trying and when we are not. You are stronger than you think.

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

Written with love.

Joy M. Mills
Copyright (c) 2017

If the Grim Reaper showed up and said you have five minutes, what would you do?

Have we been draining our happiness? Is it that other people and outside events influence us? Happiness is ultimately an inside job. Peace comes from your soul out. You have to disconnect external forces and give yourself permission to be happy in each moment without the need for anything more.

I guess it would depend on what you think about it. Will you be grateful for what you have and find peace in that or concentrate on what you don’t have?  The choice is yours to make.

Although there is nothing you can do about your past or lost happiness, there is plenty you can do about the things to come. Here is what I know for sure:  if you are feeling lost and as if you are in a sucking swirling eddy of despair and you keep circling that drain, you have to start asking yourself, “Are the people around me helping or hurting me?”

A big part of who you become in life has to do with who you surround yourself with, and it is better to be alone than in bad company. You simply can’t live an active and fulfilling life if you continue to surround yourself with negative people and naysayers.

Intuition is an infallible guide for letting you know when you need to change and also, what direction to take. If you feel bored, uninterested or drained, that is your intuition communicating change is necessary. Go in a new direction.

Life is short. If you think about it, it is brief and fleeting. Wouldn’t you rather live it peacefully?

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

Written with love.

Joy M. Mills
Copyright © 2017

Hi, it’s me again.

At what point do we go from actively involved parents to a complete role reversal?  Parents don’t want their children to have to wipe away the stalactites of drool from their mouths or have to hear the same story repeated over and over.

You might be justifiably annoyed but take a step back for a moment.  Consider how seniors feel when they have diminished capacity.  In particular, when the person first starts slipping and they are aware of the loss and are often terrified, scared and saddened.

I don’t believe on their laundry list of things to do that at the top of the list was to become a burden to their children?  I want to be the one intent on forging my path as a parent and don’t want my caregiving to dominate my children’s lives.

I heard once you could have a code word if you start to witness these things happening.  We could use the code word, Montana.  In other words, once you are on the way to the nursing home, you could bail out, keep on driving and flee to, let’s say, Montana; the free and vast skies of Montana.   It’s tempting, nonetheless.

A voice at the center of my being would tell me that I belong not in Montana but with my parents.  What voice was this that I would hear?  For me, it would be God’s voice directing me to accompany my mother and father in their decline.  For a lot of us that have been in the bowels of this time, would feel the God of that caregiving period is not a caring presence.

If you are a caregiver, you will find there are days you cannot summon up the Supreme Being who provided you with a vision of possible order and goodness in the world.  How would such a Being allow old people, much less a young person to lose their minds and allow a disease to ravage the core of their character or body?

You are trying to look on the bright side and make the best of it.  If so, does that mean you are telling yourself the story has ended?  First of all, kudos to you for staying on the sunny side of the street but shame on you for giving up so early.  Just because things don’t manifest in the frame of the perfect picture you have in your mind, not all that glitters is gold.

Think long and hard.  It is going to be us one day.  If you have a powerful mind now, think how you would like to keep your dignity.  Share your stories.  You can pray as hard as possible.  You can throw coins into a wishing well.  You can spout endless affirmations – all with the goal of maybe not getting old or you can make your plans now, so you don’t have to arrive in Montana or send your children to Montana looking for you.

In loving memory of the young and old alike.

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

Written with love.

Joy M. Mills
Copyright © 2017