Doing The Work...Nobody Does It For Me

I've heard it been said time and time again: Where there is a will, there is a way. Well, if there is passion in alignment with resourcefulness...watch out!

In any given moment that I am struggling to see a goal through, I realize that I am simply lacking passion and resourcefulness. Me, nobody else. I own the thoughts that are usually down in the swampy gutter. Though if I can interrupt my negative thoughts and stir up enough passion and drive within myself, I can find my way through any obstacle!

Resources such as the internet, money, people that are smarter than me, books or education, and even my own faith all help lift me up to my dreams and aspirations only when I am being resourceful and utilizing them. If I stay stagnant and unwilling to do the work, then forget about it! I've got to do the work to get the reward. Whether this reward looks like a healthy relationship, new career, dream house, fancy car, money in my bank account, doing something I fear but know it will benefit my life in some way...or even through my own soundness of mind-it really doesn't matter. I must do the work...nobody else does it for me.

Is your passion in alignment with your resourcefulness? Who do you want to aspire to be or what do you desire to have in your life? Are you doing the work?

www.cantkeepasobergirldown.com

Always enjoy hearing your thoughts and stories. Just click on the ButterFlySober link below to view my profile and/or send a personal email.

Thanks and have a fabulous day!

Co-Creating Our Lives With God

When you can imagine the most, the greatest and even the best that you can be, just know as you’re imagining that…YOU’RE MORE THAN THAT EVEN! When we are only dealing with our own imaginations, everything is limited. Inside of co-creating with God, there is so much more!

This happened…so that this can happen…so this- that ultimately had to happen- happens.

All my life I’ve been curious and driven. It’s as if I’ve been on a love quest to inspire other people and myself. It's where I find my own personal bliss. Have I had dark moments? Yes. Though my understanding is that there is more at work as to why I am the way I am, and why I’ve gone through what I have gone through. I chose to and had to.

I believe everyone has purpose, or a calling if you will. We are all on the same journey of life: learning, teaching, growing and creating...together. I also believe we are co-creating our lives with God, building our own character and love with Him and others. I do the action of throwing the paint on my life's canvas and smudging it with my energy.

God doesn’t force me…He renews and inspires through a small whisper in my spirit, through miracles or beauty that I see, through awakenings and possibility. This encourages me to start with a fresh canvas when I get off track with the messiness, or just to add to what has already been created-to simply just keep going! Then again, sometimes there is too much dried up paint crusted around the container or on my brush and I've got to do the work and clean it up before moving forward. I dislike very much when this happens, though it's part of the process.

Do you also believe you are co-creating your life with a God of your understanding? Why or why not? Do you feel any inspiring encouragement to move in a certain direction in your own life? Where do you find your own personal bliss?

Always enjoy hearing your thoughts and stories. Just click on the ButterFlySober link below to view my profile and/or send a personal email.

Thanks and have a fabulous day!

What Makes Us All Great

What we have together, that's what makes us great.

We are all in this world together, living the best lives we can or know how to. I believe in standing united with love, compassion and kindness-together.

How about you?

Always enjoy hearing your thoughts and stories. Just click on the ButterFlySober link below to view my profile and/or send a personal email.

Thanks and have a fabulous day!

What A Weekend!

Hello to you all! I hope you have had a fabulous, joy-filled or at least semi stress-free weekend. Weekends are so important to just simply unwind and maybe put on a great pair of sparkled heels, right?

With the attendance of a wonderful Christmas party, then to working with others in recovery, attending meetings, then another party where we created dream/vision boards and going out dancing, to working on my next book on Codependency...I found that I didn't get much blogging done.

One woman wrote in about being passionate inside of the topic of women loving themselves, so I believe that's what I will write about next on here. Great idea! Are there any of you who would like to share your passions with me? I'd be delighted to hear from you!

Video Blogs ~ More Yet To Come
Can't Keep A Sober Girl Down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1t9m2R8cJk

Testimonial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbU4Nxk2GIE

Can't Keep A Codependent Girl Down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xrR55OpssI

Always enjoy hearing your thoughts and stories. Just click on the ButterFlySober link below to view my profile and/or send a personal email.

Thanks and have a fabulous day!

To Be Better and Hang With Great People

My day-to-day mindset is pretty simple: I want to be better and hang with great people!

One of my favorite books as a child was The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper, pseudonym for Arnold Munk. What an outstanding children's book! I think I can, I think I can, I think I can! This story inspired me to never apologize for my internal go-GO juice to be better. For me, it is not about perfectionism, but rather ingenuity.

Surrounding myself with great people helps my engine get fired up so I can learn, grow and contribute to life. Great people believe in, encourage, guide and educate! Go-Go juice percolates above and beyond my wildest expectations when I'm in great company...which all contributes to growth in all facets of life. I internalize this as being healthy.

Better: comparative of good and well. Partly or fully recovered from illness, injury or mental stress.
Great: of ability, quality, or eminence considerably above the normal or average.

Are you also passionate about being better and surrounding yourself with great people? If not, why not? I'd be delighted to hear your feedback!

Video Blogs ~ More Yet To Come
Can't Keep A Codependent Girl Down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xrR55OpssI

Can't Keep A Sober Girl Down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1t9m2R8cJk

Testimonial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbU4Nxk2GIE

Always enjoy hearing your thoughts and stories. Just click on the ButterFlySober link below to view my profile and/or send a personal email.

Thanks and have a fabulous day!

The Beautiful, Triumphant Heart

Your heart will tell you everything you need to know...just listen to it.

I believe we all have treasure chests filled to the brim with abundant love, tragic pain, lessons learned and a variety of memories. The beautiful, triumphant heart feels our every emotion and event. It keeps us alive and radiates with boundless energy. It's almost as if it speaks with an intense desire and, provided we treat it kindly, the heart will remain a treasure in our chest which aches until its needs are met.

The heart is a magnificent, miraculous creation! I believe I've heard it been said that the heart is similar to a gentle global positioning system, always bringing us back to the person we want to be.

Video Blogs ~ More Yet To Come
Can't Keep A Codependent Girl Down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xrR55OpssI

Can't Keep A Sober Girl Down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1t9m2R8cJk

Testimonial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbU4Nxk2GIE

Always enjoy hearing your thoughts and stories. Just click on the ButterFlySober link below to view my profile and/or send a personal email.

Thanks and have a fabulous day!

Wisdom From A Chinese Poet

“If you can’t see what you’re looking for, pay attention to what’s already there. That is enough.”-Chinese Poet

A Woman's Intelligence

A woman's intelligence is sexy to both women and men, I believe. Guys even speak of how bored they are! Stupidity might work for awhile, though it looks inferior, fake and unattractive.  

Unfortunately, I hear many women uttering these three words all too much: I am stupid.

I used to say this too, so I get it. I love all of the women and even men who have called me out on it and thank you! This talk undermined my own sense and completely skewed my perception of who I was!

Today I understand that to speak this way about myself means that I am wasting an opportunity to be myself. I am being less than what is true on the inside of my soul. It worked for a short while, but oh how I got sick of not being my full, authentic self! I now know that it derived from a place of fear of not being accepted or 'liked'...sometimes even loved. I made poor choices and was Fake.

Anytime I choose to pretend to be someone other than who I truly am authentically, I am choosing stupidity: lacking intelligence, common sense and/or good judgment. I am also not allowing people around me to truly know who I am. That is no longer a direction I am choosing to follow, for in the past it dimmed my light and my life. It also created distress in the people around me, and for good reason.

Over 43 million hits! Hopefully we women can start sharing our 'stupid girl' experiences with younger girl generations so this cycle doesn't continue. Silence keeps them in the not-knowing. When we know better, we do better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR4yQFZK9YM

Always enjoy hearing your thoughts and stories. Just click on the ButterFlySober link below to view my profile and/or send a personal email.

Thanks and have a fabulous day!

Praying For Inspiration

If you're going to pray, don't bother to worry. And if you're going to worry, why bother to pray? Praying opens the heart and centers.

Definition of Pray: (v) a request or expression of thanks; act of worship.

I can't really do both at the same time, I know that! Praying for inspiration lifts my spirits almost immediately and it always seems to work. I believe intercession is a gift of love. So, if I trust that God loves-which I do-then there really is no place for worry inside of that.

When I doubt, it is usually because things are not going the way I think they should. When I am present to this, I pray that my controlling thoughts be lifted. How about you? Do you trust that prayer works?

Always enjoy hearing your thoughts and stories. Just click on the ButterFlySober link below to view my profile and/or send a personal email.

Thanks and have a fabulous day!

How I See Love

I ran across this verse tonight: "To who much is given, much is required." -Numbers 18
It propelled a thought in my mind about how I see love and thought I would share.

How you know someone loves you: When they invest in you, knowing there is no guarantee, and yet they love you anyway.

Always enjoy hearing your thoughts and stories. Just click on the ButterFlySober link below to view my profile and/or send a personal email.

Thanks and have a fabulous day!

I'm In Love With Truth

I am so passionately in love with truth.

I'm going to keep this blog very simple. People, including myself, are not used to people telling the truth...so sometimes the truth can be disarming. Though it is so incredibly refreshing!

The truth may hurt and yet it is authentic, real and for the greater good. I'm in love with truth.

Embracing Thriving Instead of Surviving

Being a Survivor: quality of embracing life. Even for a moment.
Being a Thriver: quality of growing vigorously, while embracing life; despite any circumstances at hand.

How to Thrive:
Create a goal.
Lay out the steps needed to be taken. Get specific.
Ask for help from someone who's completed the goal (why try to reinvent the wheel?).
Work vigorously on progressing through the steps.
Complete the goal.
Help someone else by sharing your experience.
Revel in gratitude.
Repeat!

 

Always enjoy hearing your thoughts and stories. Just click on the ButterFlySober link below to view my profile and/or send a personal email. Thanks and have a fabulous day!

I Learn A Lot From Movies

To see the written word come alive in film, wow!

I have learned a lot from movies over the years. They have helped raise me, inspire me, create a paradigm shift in my thinking all while entertaining and evoking emotion. Movies are my great escape from time to time and usually I walk away after the ending a little different from when I first sat down.

Life experiences and ideas written creatively by a writer, then packaged with directors, producers, actors and crew to be brought to life on film...what a transformation in itself. No wonder why so many movies inspire and evoke a wondrous list of emotions! I am in awe and in absolute gratitude for movies.

Some of the movies that have passionately changed my life
This years' favs were The Butler, Stuck In Love, Silver Linings Playbook and The Place Beyond the Pines

Angels in America
Eat, Pray, Love
Field of Dreams
Lady Sings The Blues
Dirty Dancing
Crazy, Stupid Love (So funny and true. Plus, what woman wouldn't stand by a man who fights for love-and with Ryan's 6-pack abs to boot?!)
Good Will Hunting
Girl, Interrupted
Mermaids
Great Balls of Fire
Vertigo
North by Northwest
The Elephant Man (as a child, this movie moved me to refrain from judgment and embrace humanity)
The Shawshank Redemption
A Bronx Tale
Seven Samurai
The Departed (brilliantly done!)
Shakespeare In Love
What Dreams May Come
Ever After
Miracle on 34th Street
City of Angels
Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken
To Kill a Mockingbird
A Walk to Remember
Dead Poets Society
The Wizard of Oz
The Little Darling (Mary Pickford, what an inspiration!)
Love Actually
Training Day
Thelma & Louise
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Serendipity
The Breakfast Club
Philadelphia
Crash
Westside Story
Center Stage
Save The Last Dance
Dream a Little Dream
Snow Falling on Cedars
Days of Wine and Roses
E.T.
Malcolm X
Fight Club
The Notebook
My Name is Bill W.
Gandhi
Forrest Gump
The Pursuit of Happiness
When A Man Loves A Woman
National Lampoon movies for sure!
Out of Africa
The Bridges of Madison County
Fast Food Nation

Always enjoy hearing your thoughts and stories. Just click on the ButterFlySober link below to view my profile and/or send a personal email. Thanks and have a fabulous day!

So, Why Are You Single?

I am pretty certain that this question is thrown at me on daily basis. Mostly from men. My usual response? "Because God is my main man right now and I'm putting all I have into my writing. I don't have time for a relationship."

Below is my thought process behind my usual response, my own personal truth.

Okay, so I truly believe that God has a plan for a future relationship that does not include any of the following:
Crying in my pillow for hours on end-without compassion from the man
Being lied to consistently
Cheating on me with booze, drugs or women
Emotional, verbal, mental or physical abuse (especially not gaslighting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting)
Flip-floppity indecision and confusion
My partner speaking to women with hinting or blatant sexual innuendos
I want to marry you, I'm falling in love with you, you're the woman of my dreams, I love you...wait, I don't know what I want
I was too busy to call you (and it's been a whole day)
No accountability for inconsideration
Bad mouthing my family or friends
Expectation of sex before there is a promise of love

Oy vey! I've battled with a good portion of that list for too long! They just weren't right for me or we weren't right for eachother, or or or the puzzle should simply be left on the freakin' floor and I stay single! Honestly, I just recently wrote a poem to a guy who wanted to be my guy, letting him know that my heart was a bit hardened from past experiences. So, obviously, I'm not ready to step back out there yet.

Are my expectations high? I don't believe so. My standards are though, most certainly.

I used to be Miss Pollyanna of love. I believed...I trusted...I put in a lavish amount of effort based upon how I felt, how many times I heard the I love you's or other flattery and by how many thoughtful gifts I received...even before several months into the relationship. Only did I ever listen and believe from the men, "Oh, my ex had issues." I could have kicked my own butt several times for not trusting my own gut that something didn't feel right.

I've heard it been said that When You Know Better, You Do Better. Well darnit, I'm looking up and trusting that God is in charge of picking and I'm not to go into any relationship full-force with a Pollyanna veil of lust and infatuation wrapped around my brain. I want to marry my best friend who puts God first, preferably sober, highly intellectual and can make me laugh and dance until the sun rises from time to time.

So, that is my perspective on why I am still single. Plus, women are absolutely amazing and way more fun to hang with and confide in at this time in my life. And maybe, just maybe, Bradley Cooper will be single by the time my friends and I go see him perform on Broadway next summer in the play The Elephant Man. He is damn smart and sober! Ha! A girl can always dream. :)

So, passionate ladies, can you relate?

Always enjoy hearing your thoughts and stories. Just click on the ButterFlySober link below to view my profile and/or send a personal email. Thanks and have a fabulous day!

Coming Soon

You asked for love stories (anonymous ones of course ;)

Well, this blog is all about full self-expression! Love, dreams & goals, wonder, best friends, travel, mystery...everything/everyone I am-or have been-passionate about, experiences, lessons and even things that tick me off. No holds barred! Please come back. First blog will be up by 12am CST on November 16th.

I am incredibly excited to share my 'dramatic diary' blog because, as all you passionate ladies already know, ya Can't Keep A Passionate Girl Down!

Hopefully you'll share here, too. I've heard absolutely fabulous stories so far and thank you kindly for sharing.