From Slave Camp To Freedom

“Shared By Carla”

 

I remember the joy I felt when I thought of my beautiful little girl turning two just before the new baby joined our family for Christmas. We were creating our dream of a house full of children and it was a very happy time for me.

But disaster struck in my fourth month of pregnancy.

My husband had a mental breakdown and was institutionalized. I wished, hoped, and prayed that he would get better. As days turned into weeks, then into months – with no change in my husband’s condition – I began to fear that our dream might not turn out exactly as we had planned.

Our son’s birth was a bittersweet moment for me. The doctors thought the birth of his child might help my husband so they sedated him and off we went to the hospital.

Those glorious words, “It’s a boy!” were thrilling and exciting but so very sad because I knew at that moment my husband was not going to get better. Though he was there for the baby’s birth, his mind was somewhere far, far away.

The months that followed were difficult as I struggled to balance being a single parent and a caregiver.  Seven months after our son was born and just five weeks before our daughter’s third birthday, my husband committed suicide. I was devastated.

When he died, I felt like he took all my hopes and dreams with him. I was grieving, I was angry, and I was scared.

How could I possibly raise two babies when I could hardly breath from the crushing pain in my chest?   At first, the pain was overwhelming. But as days turned into weeks, then into months, the pain became slightly less unbearable.

Then I made a decision. I decided I was going to be happy again. Despite the pain that was my constant companion, I began doing things that made me happy in the days before my husband’s illness.

I started taking guitar lessons. I reacquainted myself with my favorite beach and I began to talk to friends, not about how I was doing, but about life in general.

My family was thrilled! When I asked my mom why she was so insistent I join my friends for our weekly fire and sing-along on the beach, she gave me a sad smile and said, “Don’t you realize how long it’s been since we heard you laugh? We thought we had lost you too.”

How tragic it would have been if I had remained the empty shell of a human being that I was for so long – moving on autopilot, just trying to get through a moment. My beloved children would have lost both of their parents.

When I recognized this, I began to search for the blessings in my life. The more I searched, the more apparent it became that they were there all along. My children were healthy and happy, I had a loving and supportive family and I had some really great friends. I began to enjoy and appreciate life again.

Then I met my husband-to-be. We had an instant connection unlike any I have ever experienced. He lost his father to cancer the same week I lost my husband and I suspect our shared determination to be happy drew us together. That was almost two years ago and we are still blissfully happy. Our blended family of six is the large family of my dreams. We are a team in every possible way and I have never enjoyed life more than I do right now.

When I was drowning in despair, I reached out to the Universe and the Universe threw me a lifeline. The very moment I decided to be happy, the road to happiness was shown. That is a lesson I hold close to my heart:

You can’t always choose your circumstances, but if you seek good, even in your darkest hours, you will be sure to find it.

I cannot explain why some things happen in life. I wish I had a magic wand that would wipe away the setbacks and sorrows people face. However, I do know there is always hope and there is always good. You just need to make the decision to find it.

Life can be tough sometimes, but each obstacle you overcome makes you stronger and more alive. Always look for the good, especially in the face of adversity. Search for, find, and appreciate the good in life and you will surely be rewarded for your effort.

 

By Jennifer Vokey

I learned a ton from Jack Canfield in his “CD – Awakening Power” Course. If you see writing articles in your future CD – Awakening Power to Reserve your Course in your future check him out, he really is a good teacher. ==>http://justclicknow.ca/CDAwakeningPower

“Shared By Carla”

 

JoAnna A. is an amazing example of how fast your life can turn around when you connect all the dots together in the right way from getting the guidance you need.

After you hear her story you’ll see that there are no excuses.

JoAnna was a housewife in her 20‘s, a stay-at-home mother to two babies, and wife to her hard-working husband with a blue-collar job.

She had hit upon and developed a unique healing modality that she wanted to launch as her legacy.

She knew this was what she must share with the world and was determined to find a way to get it out there.

Only problem is, she didn’t know marketing or the first thing to do, but she was willing to learn and get help.

She came to my partner, Bob Doyle and me and we did for her what we urge you to do if you want to launch into the world with your message, product, business or service.

We helped shape her vision, we helped reflect back to her what could work and also helped circumvent her potentially going down a wrong path.  We worked with her to craft what made the most sense to bring her the best and fastest results, we guided her to follow certain steps, etc and then helped connect her to others to help support her.

With all the pieces now in place (of what had been once been her puzzle), she skyrocketed in amazing and lightening fast ways! And I mean, skyrocketed!

She filled her newly created paid program right away, she got positioned fast as a leading expert and in just a matter of weeks was being interviewed by top leaders in our industry.

Within just months of launching, her healing program/process was such a hit that she was already in the process of certifying coaches and those in the healing profession to use her 4 step healing process (at $6500 a pop!)

Now, literally only months later, she let us know that she is on track to having her husband quit his blue collar job so that he can be a stay at home dad and she can be the breadwinner while staying at home with her family. All this while doing the work she loves, making a powerful impact in people’s lives, and dramatically changing her income.

Talk about Life-Changing!  And talk about the ripple effect that’s now been created because of how many lives she’s helped through this process of hers.

From where she was before, all of this seemed impossible.

Any ‘normal’ person would have been stopped or buried by seemingly ‘normal’ excuses, like, “Oh I’m too young” or “I have no idea how to do this!” or “I don’t know what I’m doing” to “Who am I to do this when I don’t have a degree or any credentials” to “I don’t have the money to put this out there” to “What if I go for it and it doesn’t work or I make mistakes?”, etc.

Ever have any of these thoughts come up for YOU with what you’re wanting to do in life?

She might have had those thoughts but she didn’t let those doubts or concerns or fears stop her and the best part is she knew that the best way to streamline her timeline and get it done the fastest, most effective way was to lean on the shoulders of others who could guide and mentor her.

Whats calling to you in your heart?

What do you love?

Are you even trying to figure out what matters to you? Because you do have something of value, no matter how simple, how small or even how impossible it may seem.

The most important question is: What’s stopping you?

What impact (and income, even) could you make if you let nothing stop you and you went after launching what you love to do and what’s important to you, or even focused on discovering what your unique message or calling is if you don’t know already?

Mentors were the key to JoAnna’s success (along with her commitment to make it happen) and why she launched so quickly, effectively and powerfully.

Mentors are the backbone behind someone’s dream. Mentors have paved the path, they know the way and they can see it for you, perhaps better than you can see it for yourself.

Mentors can give you a map and direction and point you in the way of what you need to do, or even work with you in helping you achieve your vision.

Mentors also know how to help you make important connections and just one connection can open up doors for you that you may never have been able to open up yourself.

Our own Bob Proctor even shares how he went from being penniless and searching for how to turn his life around and how it was through the power of even one mentor that his life became completely changed. As you know, since then, he’s personally mentored thousands through the years. And through the work he does, has impacted millions of lives. He didn’t let circumstance or doubts stand in his way. Imagine if he had…what then?

There are lives out there waiting to be impacted by you.

What action will you take today to move you forward in your dream? To take on your purpose (even if it scares you)?

Don’t wait till you have it all figured out (and don’t try to figure it out on your own either). Take steps to get the help and guidance you need and move forward with action, even if you have thoughts come up that may want to stop you.

You and what’s within you are too important to be held back by any fear or doubt.

What counts is, as the wise saying goes, “Feel the fear and do it anyway”.

The world is waiting for what’s waiting inside you.  Take your next step now…

 

By Lynn Rose

I learned a ton from Jack Canfield in his “CD- BTS Home Study” Course. If you see writing articles in your future CD- BTS Home Study to Reserve your Course in your future check him out, he really is a good teacher. ==>http://justclicknow.ca/CDHomeStudyCourse

“Shared By Carla”

 

There are many things to love about Coronado, California.

There is the bridge. There is the Del. There is Danny’s Burgers. There is the little yellow house by Star Park where The Wizard of Oz books were written. There is the view of San Diego. And of course, there is the beach.

But of all these things to love about the island, my favorite thing is the morning.

Every morning my husband Michael and I wake up in Coronado, he rolls over and says, “Let’s go get coffee.” We put on various layers of clothes, our tennis shoes, walk out the door, and begin the twelve- block walk to Starbucks. Every morning Michael waits in line for his coffee and I walk next door to the bakery where I get a crispy-flaky-sugar-coated pastry disk. Then, with our goodies in hand, we take the “long way home.”

The long way home involves walking down Orange Avenue, through the Hotel Del, and then along the beach. Some days we walk in the sand and others we take the sidewalk. When we run out of shoreline, we wander our way back home taking different routes to admire the many houses that give the island its charm.

Three hours later, our walk-to-get-coffee is complete.

And while nearly every trip around the island is breathtaking, there is one walk I’ll never forget…

It was shortly after the holidays and Michael and I were in the middle of our Coronado morning routine. Michael had his coffee, I had already finished my crispy disk, we were finished at the Del, and we were walking the sidewalk that framed the famous beach. Despite a chill in the air, the sun was out and people from all over the world were also out on the sidewalk that framed the beach—young couples, old couples, couples with children, joggers, walkers, dog people. It was a little crowded, but festive and cheerful.

As we maneuvered our way down the sidewalk, two children stood out. They were a young sister and brother who had obviously been told to wait by the lamppost while their parents rummaged around in the minivan parked next to them. To entertain themselves the children were playing a game they had just created, a game I assumed was called, “This is My Pile of Sand.” They took turns standing on the tiny piles of sand that had accumulated on either side of the lamppost. The sister would yell, “This is MY pile of sand,” and the brother would run to her side, stick his foot in the pile and yell, “No! This is MY pile of sand!” The sister would then run to the other side of the lamppost, stand in the tiny pile on that side and yell, “This is MY pile of sand.”

I watched these barefooted children battle each other as we walked. It was all out war. They fought hard and loudly just to wiggle their tiny toes in “piles of sand” not much bigger than ant hills. Nothing could break their focus, not even their mother yelling to play nicely.

As we passed the children, I couldn’t help but look to my left….

There, filling the two hundred yards between the sidewalk and the sea, sprawling miles down the waterscape in sheets of winter cold-glistening white, were limitless tons of classic Californiasand.

Some was spotted with footprints from tourists, some lay smooth, and still more lay in waves—textured by the wind. Finally, immediately in front of where the children were playing “This is My Pile of Sand,” towered the Coronado Dunes; dunes that were big enough to exhaust a high school water polo team forced to run them during early morning practice. Dunes that would sort the men from the boys during Navy SEAL training. Dunes that, from the sky, clearly spell the word C-O-R-O-N-A-D-O.

Enormous piles of sand. Just a few feet from where the children played.

Soaring piles of sand to satisfy their every sand-filled dream. Piles the children never even noticed because they were too busy fighting over the tiny accumulations around the base of the lamppost where they stood.

They never even looked up. The thought never even occurred to them that more sand could be waiting just moments away on the other side of the concrete path.

Now, to their credit, they were children—children who were no doubt told by their parents not to so much as look in the direction of the beach. They were children who had no choice but to keep themselves busy while waiting for their parents to take them by the hand and lead them to their next adventure. They did the best they could with what they had without being tempted by what was around them.

They were children.

But what is my excuse?

On more than one occasion I have found myself entirely wrapped up, fighting and frustrated, stomping around barefoot trying to stake my claim on a tiny, insignificant pile of sand—the sand of relationships, the sand of social status or money, the sand of a career… whatever. I have been deeply consumed in games of King of the Mini Mound that leave me oblivious to the beautiful beaches around me. Beaches with unlimited sand, possibility, and happiness. We’ve all been there. Investing our energy in small things while the big ones lay untouched on the other side of the sidewalk.

As Michael and I walked past the children, I lost myself in these thoughts. Startled by my silence (an unusual occurrence), he asked what was on my mind and I told him about the dueling brother and sister and their tiny piles of sand and about how ashamed I was that I am sometimes one of them. He nodded – he was too.

Shortly after passing the children, the sidewalk became a little too crowded and we strayed from the shoreline. We began weaving our way back through the Coronado grid—streets of letter and number. As we wandered, passing block after block of gorgeous houses built by dreams realized, we talked about the beaches of sand waiting for us, beaches we might not have noticed, sand it was time to explore.

By the time we turned the corner onto the block we called home for the weekend, the sun was high and the day was warming up. Afternoon was approaching. It was time to say goodbye to another morning—my favorite thing about Coronado—and to look forward to the many mornings, spent on vast beaches, ahead.

By Kindra Hall
I learned a ton from Jack Canfield in his “Book- The Success Principles for Teens” Course. If you see writing articles in your future Book- The Success Principles for Teens to Reserve your Course in your future check him out, he really is a good teacher. ==>http://justclicknow.ca/TSPTeens