ISSUE DATE: March, 2005

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Ø ARE YOU LOST OR ARE YOU FOUND???
Ø OKAY NOW, TELL THE TRUTH!
Ø EXCITING UPCOMING EVENTS

ARE YOU LOST OR ARE YOU FOUND???

It was one of those nights where the clock wasn't in sync with my schedule. As I was finishing getting ready to go out for the evening, the clock was telling me I should already be there. Maybe you've experienced them - those time warps where great chunks disappear and no one lets you in on the secret until it's too late.

So, I started out late. Traffic was heavy but I entertained myself by having a great conversation with a friend on my cell phone. I was confident heading to downtown Los Angeles. After all, this IS my city and I'm at home here.

As I took my exit and tried to get to The Standard to celebrate my magnificent friend Elsa, I ran into one obstacle after another. All kinds of roads were barricaded and blocked. I didn't realize the city was set up for the Marathon the next day and, frankly, at that point I didn't care. Friendly traffic people were out waving me on to go in directions I didn't want to go. I have to be honest here and admit that I waved back at a few of them with a gesture that I haven't used in years.

I was confused and lost, feeling blocked from my destination. It was right there and I knew it, but the traffic gods weren't on my side this night and I was about to give up and go home.

So close and yet so far away.

Then I called Elsa's cell phone to let her know I was at the end of my rope. She passed the phone to my angel friend, Monica, who stayed on to guide me through until I got to the parking garage. She gave me clear, specific directions to follow as I got out of the elevator - TURN LEFT and I'd be there.

So, as I turned right, not once but twice, and found myself stranded on a dark street corner, my beautiful friend called me again and came outside to bring me in. (Thank you, Monica!)

As I looked back on this experience, I was amused to see that it was a great metaphor for life.

Sometimes we get lost and confused. We know we're REALLY close to our destination or goal. We can feel it, see it, taste it. We're excited about it and yet, for whatever reasons, our way seems to be blocked and we feel we are being forced to take endless detours.

The simple truth is that sometimes we need to ask for and be willing to receive help. Sometimes we need to be willing to be guided and shown the way. Sometimes we need to be open to the idea that there is a different, better way for us to receive our great good. Sometimes we need to remember to stay teachable.

Our goal, our destination, our success IS right there waiting for us. We just may need to take a deep breath and be willing to go a different way than we had originally planned.

Delay is not denial. Barricades are not impenetrable barriers. We just need to open our eyes to see things from a different perspective, to seek the solution instead of focusing on the problem. We need to have people around us who have been where we're going and are willing to show us the way.

Now the truth is that I am blessed with incredibly gifted, talented, intelligent, brilliant, loving, caring and successful friends. Like my Higher Power, they are amused when I get my "knickers in a twist" and go off track a bit.

And, yet, maybe that's the biggest blessing of all. To know that we don't have to do this thing called life alone and that maybe - just maybe - our way isn't always the only one. To know that the guidance and direction and clarity we seek is right there for us whenever we become willing to ask.

Sometimes on the road of life we become frustrated, angry, and confused. We may be ready to give up on our dreams and just turn back to the familiar. In those moments we are almost blinded by the haze of illusion that blocks us from seeing the truth.

We can always make a different choice. When we're on the road of life and are about to give up, that's the precise moment when we may need to take a deep breath, relax, and ask for help or guidance. Holding our vision strong, we can then stand in the faith that we are fully supported and that everything we need will be provided. Absolutely everything.

Because while we know what lies behind us, without the courage to move forward we will never know the miracles and the magic that lies ahead.

Don't leave before the miracles happen. YOU deserve them!!!

With prosperity and blessings,

Debbie Friedman, C.Ht.

"It's not what's happening to you now or what has happened in your past that determines who you become. Rather, it's your decisions about what to focus on, what things mean to you, and what you're going to do about them that will determine your ultimate destiny." - Anthony Robbins

OKAY NOW, TELL THE TRUTH!

It seems I am constantly being reminded that we need to have people in our lives who love us enough to tell us the truth with kindness and caring. I had put new curtains up behind my bed and Blanca, my cleaning woman, looked at them, shook her head, and said "It makes me sad." She didn't like the color. Well, since I don't particularly want to have a "sad" bedroom, I went into a lengthy explanation about how I was trying to pick up the color in the chair to try to talk her out of her opinion. She didn't buy it. Again, she shook her head and said "It makes me sad."

The curtains are a different color and we're both happy now, but this brought to mind my wonderfully wise and strong friend, Alana, who has given so many the gift of a new phrase to use in communicating honestly with others: "This just doesn't work for me." No anger, no recrimination, no long tirades or withholding patterns. Just simple, easy, honest, direct, and effective communication.

While we need others to be honest with us, it's probably even more important that we're willing to be honest with ourselves. Which leads me to the REAL point of this section…

We all know that we create our lives. We are either creating our life consciously or unconsciously. Now, we probably all know, too, the importance of starting our day on the right foot or, rather, with a positive frame of mind. We all know that what we expect is what we get.

We know about the Breakfast of Champions and nourishing our physical body with fuel that is good for us so we have energy for the day ahead.

Let me ask you to be honest with yourself now - tell the truth! What are you doing each morning to champion yourself MENTALLY to create a great day? What actions are you taking each morning to fuel your mind with all the rich, wonderful, exciting possibilities for an amazingly powerful, positive, abundant, and joyful day ahead?

Tell yourself the truth now. If the truth is that you're short-changing yourself in this area, that your morning routine "just doesn't work for you", I'm going to encourage you to give yourself a new option to consider.

"The imagination is literally the workshop wherein are fashioned all plans created by man. The impulse, the desire, is given shape, form, and action through the aid of the imaginative faculty of the mind. It has been said that man can create anything which he can imagine." - - Napoleon Hill in Think and Grow Rich

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