Healthy Happy Loving Life: Peace Poetry Day

Tags

at choice, Bad poetry, Healthy Happy Loving Life, Kebba Buckley Button, peace within, Saint Therese of Lisieux, spiritual stress management, The life you want

© 2021 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM

Poster © Kebba Buckley Button

We can choose to be peaceful, to have Peace Within, and to cultivate CALM.  Hopefully, the lovely poster above helps you laugh about the fact that these are choices.  We are always at choice.  As yesterday was Bad Poetry Day, it follows that today must be Peace Poetry Day.  And while I have a whole book to help you find and solidify your Peace Within— curiously called Inspirations for Peace Within— today I’m sharing two exquisite peace poems.  The first is in French, which you will really enjoy, if you speak French:

Puisses-tu avoir la paix intérieur aujourd’hui. 

Puisses-tu avoir la certitude que Dieu t’as placé exactement où tu devais être.

Puisses-tu ne pas oublier les possibilités infinies qui émanent de la foi.

Puisses-tu utiliser ces cadeaux que tu as reçu et transmettre l’amour qui t’as été donné. 

Puisses-tu être heureux de savoir que tu es un enfant de Dieu.

Laisses cette présence s’enfoncer jusqu’au fond de toi, permet à ton âme de chanter, danse, glorifie, aime. C’est là pour chacun de nous.

~ Sainte Thérèse de Lisieux (original version)

And this, actually the more familiar English translation of the same poem:

May today there be peace within.

May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities

that are born of faith in yourself and others.

May you use the gifts that you have received,

and pass on the love that has been given to you.

May you be content with yourself just the way you are.

Let this knowledge settle into your bones,

and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

It is there for each and every one of us.

~ St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Go ahead– post that on a mirror where you will read it to yourself at least every morning.  In a week, tell me how your life has shifted.  And that would be you– ever more Healthy Happy Loving Life^sm!  Are you in?

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Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert, holistic healer, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Moving Into Peace Within

Tags

inner peace, Journaling, peace within

© 2021 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

Photo poster by Kebba Buckley Button

Recently, I described the importance and nature of personal peace, or Peace Within (LINK). It’s something I feel very deeply about.  Today, I share more about how to actually move into Peace Within.  Consider these several quotes, and notice how you feel after reading each one.  These are from Chapter 4 of my book, Inspirations for Peace Within: Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire:

Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do and see. Every breath we take, every step we take, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. The question is whether or not we are in touch with it. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

And we know that God makes all things work together for good, for those who love Him.

~ Romans 8:28

Fear less, hope more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more; Hate less, love more; And all good things are yours.

~ Swedish Proverb

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

~ Phillipians 4:8-9

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass.  It’s about learning to dance in the rain.

~Unknown

How do your heart and spirit feel now?  Did one or two of the quotes touch you deeply? Try journaling about what Peace Within means to you, and how differently you function when you are in a peaceful state. Feel your body shift as your heart and spirit shift.  And that’s you, being more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Life^sm!

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Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life. She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Where to Find That Elusive Peace Within

Tags

Healthy Happy Loving Life, peace within, Saint Therese of Lisieux

© 2021 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

Photo © Kebba Buckley Button—from the water garden at St. Phillip’s in the Hills Episcopal Church, Tucson, Arizona

Can we agree that we live in a noisy world these days?  To name a few crises:

Police are killing people over traffic stops, a US President incited an attack on the Capitol and on his own Vice President, militants are moving into Afghanistan as US troops pull out, and Hamas militants are blowing up Israeli/Palestinian sites.  A cyberattack on a US gasoline provider crippled gas supplies for the Southeast US, and gas supplies are only today flowing well again. Normally shrewd evening show host Steven Colbert has lost his bearings and is using the word p-nis many times per show.  Churches are being closed and sold—3 in my area.  The polar bears are looking for better ice, and the orangutans have almost no habitat any more, thanks to replanting to generate palm oil supplies.  The COVID-19 pandemic whines on, and in India, it’s going wild.  People seek a better life by walking across continents, in Africa, Europe, and South/Central/North America.  Children are starving and/or running for their lives in many countries.

Remember, I said that’s just a few.  There are others.  Whatever your belief system, you cannot stay in crisis mode! It is imperative that you find and solidify your internal base of personal peace: your Peace Within.  You will not find it in CNN e-updates.  You will not find it in the words of shattered clerics. Mom passed away awhile ago. Your partner is freaked out also.  Where can you turn for peace?  WITHIN.

A young French nun, now a saint, wrote this:

May today there be peace within.

May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

May you not forget the infinite possibilities

that are born of faith in yourself and others.

May you use the gifts that you have received,

and pass on the love that has been given to you.

May you be content with yourself just the way you are.

Let this knowledge settle into your bones,

and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

It is there for each and every one of us.

~ St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Are you in? Practice letting Peace Within settle into your bones. Then that’s you, being more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Life^sm!   More on this tomorrow.

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Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Revealing Your True Nature in the Worst Times

Tags

Amish Grace, Anger, choices, Forgiveness, Grief, Grudges, Healthy Happy Loving Life, Resentment, responsible, Revealing your true nature, stress, stuck, unstuck

© 2020 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

On October 2, 2006, a pickup truck backed up to the front door of an Amish school.  It was the West Nickel Mines School in Pennsylvania.  A man who was angry at God went into the school, shot 10 girls and then himself.  Five of the girls died.  This small Amish community could have been devastated and could have shouted about discrimination, invasion, and revenge.  They could have been consumed by resentment and hatred. They could have written books about their pain and sold the movie rights.  They could have sued their way around the court system.  They did no such thing.

Instead, they revealed their true nature: forgiveness.  They forgave Charles Roberts, the gunman, who had been their milk delivery man.  One of Roberts’ children had died the day she was born, and he could not forgive God for that loss.  Amish leaders went to Roberts’ widow’s home, told her they had forgiven Roberts, and offered comfort for her and her children.  Later, they took the widow toys for her children.  Citing their faith, the Amish gave up any burden of hatred or resentment, embodied compassion, acted out their forgiveness, and fulfilled reconciliation.  They went to Roberts’ funeral and stood with his bereaved family.  They leveled the school and built a new one on a different site, calling it “The New Hope School”.

Roberts’ widow came to the dedication celebration, only 6 months after the shootings.  The community had revealed its true character, values, and nature.  It had declared a healing.  A movie version of the story, Amish Grace, ran on the Lifetime Network, and Lifetime reported it was the most watched movie ever broadcast by their network.  Clearly, people are interested in forgiveness, unburdening of grudges, and the grace of reconciliation.

The Amish story raises afresh the question of what forgiveness is.  A great definition is “giving up resentment or any claim for recompense for the wrong that has occurred.”  This doesn’t mean one has to forget the wrong ever happened.  In the Christian faith, Jesus taught that no limit should be set on the extent of forgiveness (Luke 17:4).  Also, an unforgiving spirit is regarded as a sin (Matt 18:34-35 and Luke 15:28-30).  In teaching The Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:9-13, Luke 11:2-4), Jesus instructed the Disciples to pray,  “…and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  So one will be forgiven by God only to the extent one is forgiving to those who have wronged oneself.

Normal forgiveness commonly takes years, and research suggests it takes a toll on your mind and cardiovascular system.  The field of psychology is not yet in total agreement on the exact definition of “forgiveness”.  But many are promoting the practice for individual, community, and world benefits.  If we can forgive personally and locally, can we forgive globally as well?

What do the worst times reveal about your nature?  Are you holding any grudges?  Would you like to feel better?  Think of Amish Grace. Try forgiving someone today, and notice how well you sleep tonight. Now you’re in the realm of Healthy, Happy, and Loving Life^sm!

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Kebba Buckley Button is a stress solutions expert and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She also has a longtime natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

UpBeat Living: Quick! Say A Proper Goodbye to 2013!

Tags

holiday stress, Kebba, New Year, New Year's Resolutions, stress, Stress Management, UpBeat Living

UpBeat Living: Closing Out 2013

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Image by Microsoft

It’s the last day of the old year, 2013, and already people are wishing each other a Happy New Year.  TV networks have aired video summaries of the most colorful events of 2013.  This morning, Arizona time, as people watched those videos over breakfast, Sydney, Australia had already crossed into the New Year and celebrated with fireworks.  You have to watch those pesky time zones.

But wait!  Have you properly said “[G]oodbye” to 2013?  Before you launch into your New Year’s resolutions—and you know you will—how about first making your own summary list of all you accomplished or weathered or observed in the old year?  My husband held a great-granddaughter on his lap for the first time.  I finished the second edition of my newest book, Peace Within, and officiated an interfaith prayer service in a Catholic Church (think about it—I’ll wait) for International Day of Peace in September.  A new Pope was elected, an Italian-speaking Hispanic, who embodies God’s love and goes by “Francis”, after St. Francis.  And CBS says Esquire Magazine has named the Pope Best-Dressed Man Of The Year!  For a Pope, he dresses simply, in white.

Why not make a list of all the frustrations and victories, disappointments and joys, that were there for you in this outgoing year?  Take a piece of paper, or a word processor document, or create lists in your phone.  Make 3 columns:  what I didn’t like, what I did like, and what happened in the World that affected me.  Take just 15 minutes, or more, if you realize it’s a powerful thing for you.  You’ll notice a lot of accomplishments.  Be proud.  Celebrate the good.  Toast to the wonders of the Old Year, and wait until midnight to ring in the New Year.

——————

● Kebba Buckley Button is the author of the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition).   Keep this book with you constantly, to quickly recharge your Peace Within, with quotes, photos, and poems that take you directly there!  Kebba is a corporate stress management trainer, and she also has a holistic healing practice.

● Liked this blog?  Why not buy Kebba’s books?  Just click the links!

• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition)( http://perfectboundmarketing.gostorego.com/authors/kebba-buckley-button.html)
• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). 
• Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Oh Christmas Tree!

Tags

Christmas tree stress, Effective living, fulfilled, HolidayStress, Kebba, stress, The life you want, UpBeat Living

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

A Tabletop Tree.
(c) 2013 Kebba Buckley Button

Do you love Christmas trees?  In the US, a passion to put a tree in the living room and decorate it is widespread. I know Christians, Jews, and Buddhists who love to get a tree and decorate it, then leave it up for a couple of weeks, at least.

At least as early as the 18^th Century, Germans and Scandinavians were decorating pine trees, outdoors or indoors, for the Christmas season. Straw and fabric ornaments, and lighted candles, gave way in recent decades to metal and glass ornaments, with strings of electric lights.  People now can choose between natural trees and artificial ones.  Artificial trees may look exactly natural or may look like spun metal. And the newest ones have branches that fold neatly as you slide it into its special bag for storage until next year.  There are trees taller than most living rooms and trees as small as the tabletop Nativity set.  Some families make an annual tradition of going to the tree lot or even to the National Forests, tree-cutting permit in hand.

If you haven’t yet settled on a tree for this year, consider a natural tree, to be recycled, or “treecycled”, or a reuseable manufactured tree.  If family members are allergic to pine fragrance, then the choice is clear:  artificial is best.  Get the tabletop size and you can just pop it into its box to store for next year.  Some come pre-lit and pre-decorated, so that’s much less holiday work and stress.

However, if you really love natural trees, get the freshest one you can, and set it up with a water container under it, to help the branches stay moist.  Decorate and enjoy.  And when you know it’s too dry to stay up, take all the ornaments and icicles off, and recycle it for mulch.  Call your Public Works Department, or put “Christmas Tree Recycling” in the search bar on your computer or your phone.  This year, the City of Phoenix offers this link, for pickups of Christmas trees:  phoenix.gov/publicworks/recycling/christmastreecycling.html‎.  Oh, and take your natural-pine wreath too.  Staff  run your tree through a huge shredder, creating mulch that is then used in parks.

If you got a natural tree in a container, certain types can be replanted by your Parks Department!  Wouldn’t it feel good to have your family’s memories, and your Christmas tree, go on to live in a park for many years?  Whatever you decide, it should bring you less stress and more joy.

Happiest holidays from UpBeat Living!  And this year, may there be Peace on Earth.

——————

● Kebba Buckley Button is the author of the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition).   Keep this book with you constantly, to quickly recharge your Peace Within, with quotes, photos, and poems that take you directly there!  Kebba is a corporate stress management trainer, and she also has a holistic healing practice.

● Liked this blog?  Why not buy Kebba’s books?  Just click the links!

• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition)( http://perfectboundmarketing.gostorego.com/authors/kebba-buckley-button.html)
• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). ● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Finding Your Peace Within

Tags

at choice, Effective living, Feeling energized, happy, Kebba, peace within, stress, Stress Management, The life you want, UpBeat Living

If you are not feeling perfect peace within right now, read on.  If you are stressed, if you have any aches, pains, loss of concentration, or relationship damage from stress, read on.  If you ache for internal quietude, read on.

Peace Within, Second Edition. Photo by George Rocheleau.

Peacefulness comes from being balanced, from being clear about your beliefs, and from living in that clarity and in your connection with the Divine.  Peacefulness is supported by perfect health, whatever that means for you.

Peace within generates peace in your relationships and anywhere you go in your world.  It generates peaceful vibes that others can feel, and that they respond to.  So when you are peaceful inside your body, mind, heart, and spirit, you breed peace wherever you are.

People love a pleasant person and a pleasant experience. So a person who is quietly radiant with inner peace will be receiving positive, gentle and  enthusiastic connections with others.  Now what if everyone in the World were cultivating Peace Within?  Ghandi famously said, “[B]e the peace you want to see.”  That is the way this works.

——————————————–

● Kebba Buckley Button is the author of the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition).   Keep this book with you constantly, to quickly recharge your Peace Within, with quotes, photos, and poems that take you directly there!  Kebba is a corporate stress management trainer, and she also has a holistic healing practice.

● Liked this blog?  Why not buy Kebba’s books?  Just click the links!

• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition)( http://perfectboundmarketing.gostorego.com/authors/kebba-buckley-button.html)
• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). ● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Don’t Wait to Exhale

Tags

Breathwork, Exhaling, peace within, stress, UpBeat Living

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Photo by Kebba Buckley Button

Today’s headline in The Arizona Republic, Phoenix’s main regional newspaper, riveted me.  It read, “BOSTON EXHALES.”  I was so riveted by the headline that I took a photo of it (here, to the left).  Everyone knows what this headline means.  It means the worst is over and Boston can now relax, with the first bombing suspect dead, and the second in hospital custody.

We have a number of expressions about breath, in this country.  We talk about “holding our breath” while waiting eagerly for something.  In a strong attraction, we may say, “[S]/he takes my breath away.”  After a big event, sometimes we say, “oh, now I can breathe easy, knowing it’s all taken care of.”  We sometimes talk about being “just a breath away” from some desired goal.  A Buddhist-oriented 12-Step program is called One Breath at a Time.

Many well-meaning people advise others who are stressed to “take a deep breath”.  A popular 1995 movie is called, Waiting to Exhale.  In that movie, the 4 main characters each reached points in life where they were now relieved that the suspense was over, and they were better able “to exhale”.  So during most of the movie, they were “waiting to exhale” as they were “up in the air” as to where their primary relationships were going.  And by the way, it was a great movie!

As a practitioner who teaches the power and practice of therapeutic breathing, I want to boldly suggest that you never wait to exhale!  You need to breathe, right?  So why not make your breath work well for you?  In a minute or so, your inhalation takes oxygen to your blood through the lungs, and the blood circulates the oxygen all around your body.  Carbon dioxide is picked up by the returning blood, and the process begins again.

At the bottoms of your lungs resides a build-up of residue from urban pollution.  So, while most people take only relatively shallow breaths, all can benefit from deeper breathing and expelling that residue.  To make more room for new air, exhaling is key.  Try this:  pick a note, and sing “haaaaaaaa…” out to the end of your breath.  You will know you have found the very end of your breath when you reflexively gasp as your inhalation.  Do this three times and then return to ignoring your breathing.  Notice how much better you feel.  You may feel a little “high” for a few minutes—that’s oxygen!  When you want to relax, don’t “take a breath”, have an exhale, and then inhale into the lungs that have made room for new air.

Do you want to live alert and energized?  Take charge of your breath.  See what happens.  And don’t wait to exhale!

 

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● If you enjoy this post, please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column.  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

 

● Kebba Buckley Button is a Master’s Degree scientist, a minister, and the award-winning author of  the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (http://tinyurl.com/abd47jr), and also Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br).  She also has a natural healing and stress management practice and is a celebrated public speaker.

 

● Your comments are welcome!

 

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

 

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

 

 

 

UpBeat Living: Coping With AAAGH!

Tags

Dealing with stress, energy, exhaustion, Gratitude, inner peace, peace within, stress, Stress Management

 © 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Sometimes, you just have One of Those Days, right?  This morning, I had an appointment, then needed to prepare handouts and look great for a professional group meeting.  I felt pushed to get everything together on time, but by dropping the manicure, I did make the meeting on time with all my bits and pieces.  The meeting took surprising turns, yet, there was a lot of interest in my upcoming classes.  Someone even registered right away.  Toward the end of the meeting, my phone signaled silently that my neighbors were ready for me to come by; I took the call, dashing out of the meeting room to start talking.  I told them I could come by in about 45 minutes.  I gave thanks repeatedly, for the goodness of the meeting, and for the new registrant, all the way home.  The repetition of the Thank You was very calming.

Photo by Fotolia

At home, I changed into jeans and went to help the neighbors move.  They gifted me with a carload of garden pots and décor.  I was exhausted from lifting and carrying.  Heading back to my door, I saw the plumbing van.  Within a half hour, I was in full swing as Immediate Past President of the HOA, negotiating settlement of a sewer overflow issue, hiring remediation, planning a hotel for the resident, signing a contract.  I called my husband and asked if, by chance, he would like to go out for dinner?  I was too exhausted for stand and cook—although  I love my own cooking—and I still had writing to do in the evening.  We had a lovely quick dinner nearby, and we toasted to Us with margaritas.

Whew!  So when you have a really full day, loaded with changes, what can you do to manage your stress and not just SCREAM?

1.  Actually, screaming would be good, if you had a pillow and a bathroom to retreat to.  You can actually scream into a pillow and discharge a lot of stress.  Unless someone hears you.  They worry!
2. Keep alert for things you can drop.  I dropped the manicure and just quickly filed my nail tips.  That bought me 40 minutes that I dearly needed.
3. Have a long, slow exhale to the end of your breath.  Imagine any negative rolling right out of you, with your breath.  Then take several slow breaths.  This will shift your metabolism to alkaline, due to the new balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide, relaxing you within 60 seconds.  Cool, huh?
4. Wherever you are, roll those shoulders in a stretching movement, in any direction.  Notice the warmth in your feet?
5. If some of your stress is FEAR of something, gently massage your forefinger.  Notice how your fears seem less urgent.

Do any of these things, and you can beat that sensation of “crazy” on a busy day with a lot of changes.  And scream privately!  It helps.

———————————————————–

● If you enjoy this post, please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column.  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

 

● Kebba Buckley Button is a Master’s Degree scientist, a minister, and the award-winning author of  the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (http://tinyurl.com/abd47jr), and also Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br).  She also has a natural healing and stress management practice and is a celebrated public speaker.

 

● Your comments are welcome!

 

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

 

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: What’s Your Excuse?

Tags

at choice, choices, Effective living, energy, Excuse removal, Excuses, Kebba, late, Relationships, responsibility, responsible, stress, stuck, unstuck

Karen Gridley- The Excuse Removal Expert

© 2012 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved

When you were a kid, you probably remember some other kid telling the teacher, “[T]he dog ate my homework!’  The kid’s excuse was the reason s/he gave for not having the homework done, or at least not having it to turn in.  The “excuse” was offered in the hope of being exempted from responsibility for the commitment, in this case, arriving with completed homework.  The kid was not taking responsibility.

A friend produces an e-newsletter every week, for a large group.  Between list maintenance and editing the event submittals every week, she spends an average of a half day a week on the e-newsletter.  She finishes the newsletter event section each week, when a particular entertainment event submittal comes in.  That event depends on newspaper event  listings, which come out early a particular day each week.  Recently, my friend received an email request, just as she was finishing sending the week’s e-newsletter.  The requester wanted her to send out an event announcement for a couple of days forward.  My friend e-replied that she had needed the event information by the night before, or at the latest, by 9 am that morning.  She said, the e-newsletter has already gone out for the week.  The Editor highlighted the section of the e-newsletter that gave the deadline.  The requester wrote again, asking if the Editor couldn’t make an exception just this one time; the Requester said she had been waiting for the entertainment listing to be determined, so she would not create a conflict with the entertainment event for the same date.  The Editor had received the entertainment event information  5 hours before the late request.  She chose not to waste her time and energy replying again.

The Editor was curious as to what the late requester was doing during the 5 hours between the time the entertainment event details were emailed to her and the time the requester emailed the Editor.  And why did the requester not dial the phone and ask the Editor to “hold the presses”?  The Editor’s phone number is conveniently listed in every week’s e-newsletter, as well as in the print newsletter, and on the group’s websites.  If  you think the late requester could have been more effective, then you understand that “waiting for the entertainment event details” was simply an excuse.

If you love making excuses, rather than taking responsibility for making things go the way you want, then you will love this website:  http://madtbone.tripod.com/, or, “The Mother of All Excuses Place”.  The site was inspired by a wealth of excuses people in a particular workplace offered, for not coming to work for the day.  The collection was so entertaining that it expanded to include sections for:  missing school and homework excuses, police or accident excuses, kids excuses, getting out of family events and holiday functions, breaking dates, doctor excuses, doctors note, missing church, wedding, diet excuses, why I ate that, debt excuses, tax excuses, not paying the rent, getting out of home repair excuses, unwanted house guest excuses, jury duty, defense excuses, not voting, no sex, miscellaneous excuses, excuses for becoming addicted to online slots, excuse related humor, and more.

Professional coach and speaker Karen Gridley is known as The Excuse Removal Expert^TM . Gridley takes a kind, yet no-nonsense approach to excuse-making.  She wants you to take responsibility and see life as what you are creating.  She says excuse makers collect excuses and talk a lot about how their outcomes are out of their control.  Whereas, she says, recovering excuse makers continue to examine how their own thoughts, beliefs, and actions (or non-actions) actually created their outcomes.  Gridley says those who give up making excuses experience freedom and empowerment.

Is there something that didn’t come out the way you would have liked?  What was your role in creating that situation?  Ask Karen Gridley and she’ll tell you to take responsibility, in order to reap the rewards.  Why?  Because, after all, it’s your life.

__________________________________________

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