Great Quotes

"God determines who walks into your life.....it's up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay, and who you refuse to let go."


"Some people, no matter how old they get, never lose their beauty - they merely move it from their faces into their hearts."


"It's unfair sometimes, how the people you care about the most are the same ones who free you to be your worst possible self."

Our Old Soul

This is actually a book that I am trying to write about my baby sister who died of cancer. I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to leave comments.

There's no way to go through life without ever being affected by someone else. Keep in mind that the opposite is also true; anyone who meets you is also touched by you in some way. That's the reason I wanted to tell you about my sister, Karen. During her short life, she touched the lives of our family and friends in a wonderful way. Karen never met a person that she didn't like; I can not remember her ever speaking ill of anyone.

Karen had a great sense of family. She was the one who kept the rest of us talking to each other and getting along. She was the family mediator. I'm not trying to say that she and I never had arguments; we had a lot of them. For a long time, I was jealous of her because I felt she was the favorite child. But, no matter how I felt about her, no one else better bad mouth her in front of me. Towards the end of her short life, she was one of my best friends, and I will always cherish the time we had together.

My parents, a young married couple living in South Florida, wanted desperately to have children and had been trying to no avail. Doctor's told them they may not be able to have children, so they adopted me through a family friend. Three years later, on March 15, 1966, Karen Denise Waldo was born. She would be the first of two children born to my parents after my adoption. My baby brother, Carl, was born in July of the next year.

When she was four years old, my parents were told that Karen had Acute Lymphatic Leukemia. I was only seven years old when Karen got sick. I don't remember much about the early days of her illness, but I do remember feeling resentful that she seemed to be getting all of Mom and Dad's attention. I was never taken to the hospital to see Karen while she was there, I always stayed with family members. When she was released from the hospital, Karen began a strict regimen of chemotherapy, but never took radiation treatments. She was subjected to painful bone marrow tests and spinal taps to test the progress of the medication, but she never complained.

Karen was a tomboy. She was the first girl in our neighborhood to join little league baseball. She never let her illness stop her from doing anything that she wanted to do. When she lost all of her hair because of the chemotherapy, she refused to wear a wig, even though one of our great-aunts had made it for her. She wanted to wear a hat or a ball cap all the time instead. She hated to wear dresses or anything feminine, which led to a good story that I will tell you later on.

In a small way, Karen became a local celebrity in the town where we were raised. There were a lot of articles written about her in The Miami Herald and other newspapers in our local area. My father was a law enforcement officer, and all of his co-workers gave blood when Karen first got sick. They also pitched in and gave Dad their sick leave when he had to miss work. The local firefighters also gave blood for Karen, and at one time the motorcycle group "The Hell's Angels" sent my parents a check to help them with all of the medical expenses.

There were daily trips to the hospital in Miami for the first six months after Karen's diagnosis, then twice a week for about a year, and finally once a week later on. When she was going twice a week, she would have a bone marrow test done and when they cut her down to once a week she would have a spinal tap. Every week we went to the hospital she would have to have her finger stuck so that the doctor's could keep up with Karen's white blood cell count. I can remember one trip to the hospital when Karen had to have blood work done. We had gone into the room and a nurse went to stick her finger and I passed out and started sliding down the wall. My family still teases me to this day about that.

The family moved from Florida to Alabama when we were teenagers. My maternal grandmother had a heart attack one summer, and since my Dad was having to retire from the police force due to bad health anyway, they decided to move. I was a junior in high school and had a hard time acclimating to my new surroundings, but Karen and my brother seemed to fit in just fine. Karen loved to play the drums and even had a set of her own. She was in the band while in school, but ended up dropping out before she graduated because she didn't get along with some of her teachers.

Karen was a free spirit who did what she wanted to do when she wanted to do it, no matter what anyone else thought or felt about her actions. One summer, after she had been in remission for awhile, she went to a summer camp for children with cancer to help out as a councelor and ended up staying in Florida for awhile with a new friend after camp was over. Needless to say, my parents weren't happy about her decision. It was hard enough on them letting her go alone for the camp, but knowing she was going to stay in Miami with someone they didn't know really made them nervous. Every time Karen would call home, Mom would ask her when she was coming back. I envied Karen her independence, and wished that I were strong enough to take that step out of the nest.

My Mom and Karen had a special bond that made them seem more like sisters. They palled around together after Karen dropped out of school. They were both heavy into crafting and going to yard sales. Karen was very artistic; she was skilled at calligraphy and drawing. She actually designed and built a bed for our nephew that was shaped like a race car. She also made a beautiful quilt with cats faces on it, and one with Mario Brothers on it. Karen painted a pair of shoes for my Mom and I that we dearly loved. She took a plain white pair of canvas shoes and painted a beach scene on them. She also painted a sweat suit for my brother with the Miami Dolphins logo on them.

I wasn't very close to Karen when we were young. She and our brother, Carl, hung around with other kids in the neighborhood. I was a loner, an overweight bookworm who my parents would punish by sending outside to play. Karen and Carl rode their bikes out to the strip pits, built forts and played baseball in the empty lot in front of our house. My passion was reading, give me a book and leave me alone. We had the usual sibling rivalry, but we always took up for each other.

One weekend when we were kids, my parents took us to stay with our paternal grandmother. Ma, as we called her, went to church every time the doors were open. Karen wanted to wear her black canvas high top sneakers with the dress Ma was making her wear, so my grandmother told her to get in the closet and stay there until the rest of us got back home from church. I worried the whole morning that something would happen to her while we were gone. I remember going in and feeling that the television screen was warm when I went to turn it on, but I didn't tell on her because I was upset with Ma for leaving Karen alone in the house. Karen later confessed to our Mom that she waited until we left and then came out of the closet and watched television until she heard us pull up in the yard, and then she turned off the TV and ran back to the closet. We all got a laugh that she pulled one over on Ma.

Karen had a beautiful calico cat named Gracie who she raised from a kitten. She and I had driven to the Humane Society in town and I drove us home while Karen bonded with her new baby. That cat was her responsibility, and she loved her like a child. Gracie only ate dry cat food because the vet had told Karen it was healthier for a can than feeding them table scraps. The only exception was when Karen ate a bowl of cerel, she would let Gracie have the left over milk.

Karen's second and final bout with cancer began for us on my birthday, April 17, 1991. Mom and I were in the kitchen. Karen had gone upstairs to the bathroom. When she sat down, her back broke. Of course, we didn't know that at the time, we just knew that Karen had cried out in pain. We rushed upstairs to find her in the floor. We took her to the emergency room, every bump we hit in the road on the way there causing her more pain. The doctor at the emergency room felt that she had just pulled a muscle in her back from picking up our nephew. They sent her to an orthopedic specialist just to be sure.

Karen never complained even though she had to have hip replacement surgery and learn to walk all over again. She had recently found out she was pregnant, and had to have an abortion because the doctor's couldn't promise her that the baby wouldn't be born with what she had. It was a difficult decision for her to make, she wanted a baby so badly. She and my Mom even discussed letting the doctor's keep her on life support long enough for the baby to grow to term and then letting Mom raise the baby. However, she didn't want to take the risk of the baby being sick and suffering, so she agreed to let the doctor's take it. It was not and easy decision for the doctor's either since she was staying in a Catholic hospital, and abortion was not normally allowed.

Karen was given an epidural of morphine as her cancer progressed. The pain and strong medication made her paranoid sometimes. One day when I was alone with her, standing at her bedside, she grabbed my hand and begged me to sneak her out of the hospital and take her home because whe felt that everyone was against her. I told her as gently as I could that I couldn't do it because she was too sick. She started to cry, and I tearfully told her I was sorry. She said it was okay, but I will always remember how bad I felt that I couldn't do what she asked of me.

When Karen was in the hospital and we knew she wouldn't be coming home again, the doctor got us permission to bring her cat Gracie to the hospital to cheer Karen up. I was the one who took up the challenge, and it proved to be no easy task. I made it only halfway between home and the hospital and decided that I didn't want anymore cat mess all over my car, so I stopped by the Humane Society and explained my situation to them. The person who ran the place was kind enough to let me borrow a pet taxi. Gracie still wasn't happy about travelling, but at least she was confined to messing only in a small space.

When I arrived at the hospital and got to Karen's floor, a nurse gave me a sheet to put over the pet taxi while I was carrying it through the hall so noone would stop me. There was still no mistaking that an unhappy cat was being carried through the hospital. When we entered Karen's room, however, and I let her out of the carrier, that cat was fine and became the queen of the room. Karen was thrilled to see her and actually perked up a little, and I think it did Gracie good too. I learned later that Karen made the comment to my Mom that she was surprised that I wasn't mad because Gracie messed all over me and my car. Truthfully, I wasn't mad, I was happy to do something so special for my baby sister who was lying in that hospital losing the fight for her life.

With everything Karen went through, the whole time, even when she knew she was not going to survive, she put all she had into trying to get well. She hardly ever cried, and she demanded that no one else cry around her. She said that what she was going through was hard enough on her without seeing what it was doing to us. I struggled with my own bitterness towards God for what I felt He was allowing Karen to go through. I mean, be fair, she had already faced death once with Leukemia as a child. Now here she was fighting bone cancer and several other kinds of cancer as an adult, it just didn't seem right.

I never talked to Karen about how she stood with our Creator, but most of the time I feel she must have been very close to Him because of the way she took everything so well. She was never bitter and never felt sorry for herself. Our pastor at the time told me that Karen had affirmed to him that all was well with her soul and she was ready to go to Heaven.

Karen was well loved by everyone at St. Vincent's Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. Every nurse on every shift had to stop by and check on her every day. I believe they took her illness as hard as the family did. My Mom stayed at the hospital day and night the whole time Karen was there, she rarely left the room even to get anything to eat. She was at Karen's side holding her hand when Karen took her last breath. Karen died peacefully, but it was still very hard to let her go.

My Mom insisted on doing Karen's hair and makeup because Karen always wore very little makeup, and Mom was afraid that some stranger would put too much on her. I went with her to the funeral home and we were admitted into the back where the embalming is done. Being in that area of the funeral home was not a pleasant experience for me, but I didn't want my Mom to be alone during this process. It was a shock to see Karen lying on that cold steel table with only a sheet draped over her. I sat there and cried while my Mom put makeup on Karen's face and styled her hair.

The day of Karen's funeral was clear, if I remember right, we were all pretty much shell shocked at her loss. I was okay during the services, but when they closed the casket and went to roll it past me I started to cry. My Uncle Ronnie was holding me, and I felt like if he hadn't been I would have thrown myself on the casket. During the procession from the church to the cemetery, we had a police escort for awhile. At his stopping point, the officer got off of his motorcycle and stood at attention with his helmet off and his head bowed as we went by. The sight of his show of respect for my sister sent shivers up and down my spine. As the procession went by our house, it slowed down to honor the fact that Karen had always wanted to go home from the hospital, but never made it.

At the cemetery, after the graveside services were over and everyone was dismissed, I made myself watch as the men lowered Karen's coffin into the ground and covered it with dirt. Even doing that, it took me a long time to admit to myself that Karen had died. I always pretended to myself that she had gone back to Florida to live. Denial was my way to deal with her loss and the guilt I felt at not being able to tell her how much I loved her before she died. Sometimes I still worry that she didn't know how much she meant to me. I regret all the wasted years that I resented her when we were young.

I've had friends, relatives, and even a psychiatrist tell me that the resentment was normal. Knowing that still doesn't ease the heartache. I can tell you from experience, do not let a day go by that you don't tell your loved ones how much they mean to you because it may be the only chance you have.

Quotes on Friendship

There is one friend in the life of each of us who seems not a separate person, however dear and beloved, but an expansion, an interpretation of one's self, the very meaning of one's soul. - Edith Wharton

A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out. - Walter Winchell

Friendship isn't a big thing - it's a million little things. - Unknown

The best kind of friend is the one you could sit on a porch with, never saying a word, and walk away feeling like that was the best conversation you've ever had. - Unknown

When you truly care for someone, you don't look for faults, you don't look for answers, you don't look for mistakes. Instead, you fight the mistakes, you accept the faults, and you overlook the excuses. Never abandon an old friend. You will never find one who can take his place. Friendship is like wine, it gets better as it grows older. - Unknown

A friend is one to whom one may pour out the contents of one's heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away. - Arabian Proverb

The miracle of friendship can be spoken without words...hearing unspoken needs, recognizing secret dreams, understanding the silent things that only true friends know. - Unknown

A friend is one who knows us, but loves us anyway. - Fr. Jerome Cummings

A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words. - Donna Roberts

Real friendship is shown in times of trouble; prosperity is full of friends. - Euripedes

Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys and by dividing our grief. - Joseph Addison

Hold a true friend with both hands. - Nigerian Proverb

A friend is someone who reaches for your hand, but touches your heart. - Kathleen Grove

You can never lose a true friend. - Sable

A friend is one who knows who you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still gently allows you to grow. - William Shakespeare

The greatest challenge in being a friend is not listening when words are spoken, but hearing and feeling even though there is nothing but silence. - Unknown

Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer. - Ed Cunningham

A true friend is one who is there for you when he's rather be anywhere else. - Len Wein

I didn't find my friends, the good God gave them to me. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

When it hurts to look back and you're scared to look ahead, you can look beside you and your best friend will be there. - Unknown

A friend is a gift you give yourself. - Robert Louis Stevenson

A good friend remembers what we were and sees what we can be. - Janette Oake

A friend is one with whom you are comfortable, to whom you are loyal, through whom you are blessed, and for whom you are grateful. - William Arthur Ward

When being together is more important than what you do, you are a true friend. - Unknown

Friendship may, and often does, grow into love, but love never subsides into friendship. - Lord Byron

Life is to be fortified by many friendships. To love and to be loved is the greatest happiness of existence. - Sydney Smith

It's friends that become the deepest love. It's like one day someone flicks a switch and you wake up and your best friend becomes the person you could never live without. Love is finding that single most important being to ever grace my existence. - Dawson's Creek

Friends are kisses blown to us by angels. - Unknown

Though miles may lie between us, we're never far apart. For friendship doesn't count the miles, it's measured by the heart. - Rozina Hasham

Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget. - G. Randolf

A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be. - Douglas Pagels

The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him with his friendship. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quote From "Guilt by Association"

Home was like a pair of old slippers that you could snuggle into and be totally comfortable, and it didn't matter how you looked or what you said or even what you did, because you were loved and accepted.

Quotes on Love

I love you because you taught me how. I feel because you ignited feelings in my heart that I never knew were there before. I breathe because you give me reason to live. - WNR

If we deny love that is given to us, if we refuse to give love because we fear pain or loss, than our lives will be empty, our loss greater. - Unknown

Love is a symbol of eternity. It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end. - Unknown

Sometimes we make love with our eyes. Sometimes we make love with our hands. Sometimes we make love with our bodies. Always we make love with our hearts. - Unknown

Soul mates are people who bring out the best in you. They are not perfect, but are always perfect for you. - Unknown

The test of a great love is not what it demands, but what it is prepared to do without. - Unknown

True love hears what is not spoken, and understands what is not explained; for love doesn't work in the mouth, nor the mind, but in the heart. - Unknown

The heart that truly loves never forgets. - Proverb

People love others not for who they are, but for how they make them feel. - Irwin Federman

He drew a circle to shut me out, heretic rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win, we drew a circle that took him in. - Edwin Markham

In real love, you want the other person's good. In romantic love, you want the other person. - Margaret Anderson

Love is not a matter of counting the years, it's making the years count. - Wolfman Jack Smith

Love grows by giving. The love we give away is the only love we keep. The only way to retain love is to give it away. - Elbert Hubbard

The best proof of love is trust. - Dr. Joyce Brothers

Love is, above all, the gift of oneself. - Jean Anouilh

You can't force someone to love you; all you can do is become someone who can be loved; the rest is up to them. - Unknown

Who travels for love finds a thousand miles not longer than one. - Japanese Proverb

Love is too strong a word to say it too early, but it has too beautiful a meaning to say it too late. - Kurt Spiteri Corrish

Lust is when you love what you see. Love is when you lust for what's inside. - Renee Conkle

Love is first friendship and then commitment. - Jacques Pierre Ribault

Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes habit. - Peter Ustinov

Sex is a momentary itch...love never lets you go. - Unknown

What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us. - Helen Keller

Love is the seed of all hope. It is the enticement to trust, to risk, to try, to go on. - Gloria Gaither

True love is spelled G-I-V-E. It is not based on what you can get, but rooted in what you can give to the other person. - Josh McDowell

Love is what is left in a relationship after all the selfishness is taken out. - Nick Richardson

To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best. - William M. Thackery

Love does not die easily. It is a living thing. It thrives in the face of all of life's hazards, save one - neglect. - James D. Bryden

We find rest in those we love, and we provide a resting place for those who love us. - Saint Bernard of Clairvance

Love is always bestowed as a gift -- freely, willingly, and without expectation..We don't love to be loved, we love to love. - Leo Buscaglia

Real love begins when nothing is expected in return. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Love is when each person is more concerned for the other than for one's self. - David Frost

Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other. - Unknown

Love is to feel with one's whole self the existence of another being. - Simone Weil

Love endures when the lovers love many things together and not merely each other. - Walter Lippman

Physical love is total intimacy. It is the sign that the lovers have nothing to refuse each other, that they belong wholly to each other. - J. Leclercq

We forgive to the extent that we love. - Francois Duc De La Rochefoucauld

Holding the heart of another in the comforting hands of prayer is a priceless act of love. - Janet L. Weaver

Love comes when manipulation stops; when you think more about the other person than about his or her reactions to you. When you dare to reveal yourself fully, when you dare to be vulnerable. - Dr. Joyce Brothers

Love is a force more formidable than any other. It is invisible--it cannot be seen or measured, yet it is powerful enough to transform you in a moment, and offer you more joy than any material possession could. - Barbara DeAngelis

Where we love is home; home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses. - Ann Landers

The quickest way to receive love is to give it; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep love is to give it wings. - Unknown

If you have reasons for loving someone, than you are using your mind, but if you love someone for no reason, than you are using your heart. - Unknown

Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition. - Alexander Smith

You know what's the most terrifying thing about admitting that you're in love? You're just naked. You put yourself in harm's way and you lay down all your defenses. No clothes, no weapons. Nowhere to hide, completely vulnerable. The only thing that makes it tolerable is to believe the other person loves you back and you can trust him not to hurt you. - Unknown

We all want to fall in love. Why? Because that experience makes us feel completely alive. Where every sense is heightened, every emotion is magnified, our everyday reality is shattered and we are flying into the heavens. It may only last a moment, an hour, an afternoon. But that doesn't diminish its value. Because we are left with memories that we treasure for the rest of our lives. - Unknown

When we love something, it is of value to us and when something is of value to us we spend time with it, time enjoying it and time taking care of it. - M. Scott Peck

When the one man loves the one woman and the one woman loves the one man, the very angels leave heaven and come sit in that house and sing for joy. - Brahma

Love is not finding someone to live with, it's finding someone you can't live without. - Rafael Ortiz

The strongest evidence of love is sacrifice. - Carolyn Fry

Love is when you are kept awake at night with thoughts of him...and when sleep finally finds you, he is waiting there in your dreams. - Unknown

Love is not measured by how many times you touch each other but by how many times you reach each other. - Cathy Moraney

Giving someone all your love is never an assurance that they'll love you back...don't expect love in return; just wait for it to grow in their heart but if it doesn't, be content it grew in yours. - Unknown

Once you have loved, you will always love. For what's in your mind may escape, but what's in your heart will remain forever. There is not instinct like that of the heart. - Lord Byron

A person's actions depict the heart, not the words they say. - Brian Lee

My mind tells me to give up, but my heart won't let me. - Jennifer Tyler

A dream is a wish your heart makes when you're fast asleep. - Cinderella

To love someone when there is no chance of that love ever thriving, that is romance. - Dawson's Creek

Romance is about the little things -- small loving gestures, hugs, saying "I love you" ( and meaning it), and sincere compliments. - Gregory Godak

If you love someone, say it. Say it right then. Before the moment just passes you by. - My Best Friends Wedding

When the people we love are stolen from us, the only way to keep them is to never stop loving them. People die, buildings burn, but eternal love lasts forever. - The Crow

I love you for the man you are, I love you for the things you do, I love you for the things you say. But most of all I love you because you love me for the woman I am, for the things I do, and for the things I say. I love you. - Magnolias

Love is passion. Obsession. Someone you can't live without. Someone you fall head over heels for. Find someone you can love like crazy, and will love you the same way back. Listen to your heart. No sense in life without this. To make the journey without falling deeply in love, you haven't lived a life at all. You have to try, because if you haven't tried, then you haven't lived. - Meet Joe Black

Love is the free exercise of choice. Two people love each other only when they are quite capable of living without each other but choose to live with each other. - M. Scott Peck

True love is not how you forgive, but how you forget; not what you see, but what you feel; not how you listen, but how you understand; and not how you let go, but how you hold on. - "Lovely"

True love is not about the hugs and kisses, the "I love you's" or the "I miss you's" but about the chills that hit every part of your spine when you think about him. - Lauren P.

A priceless moment is when the person that you have fallen in love with looks you right in the eyes to tell you that they have fallen in love with you. - Monica

True love doesn't just fill your heart, it overflows into your whole body and soul. - Jen H.

You will know that you love someone when you want him or her to be happy. Even if that means you're not a part of their happiness. - Kim

I love you not because of anything you have, but because of something that I feel when I'm near you. - Unknown

True love is not finding someone else, but finding your other half. - Miss Flo

If I had to choose between breathing and loving you, I would use may last breath to tell you I love you. - DeAnna Anderson

It takes a second to say I love you, but a lifetime to show it. - Unknown

Loving someone takes courage; fearing it could end at any moment and yet having faith it will last forever. - Unknown

You know you love someone when you cannot put into words how they make you feel. - Unknown

For you see, each day I love you more. Today more than yesterday and less than tomorrow. - Rosemonde Gerard

Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep burning and unquenchable. - Bruce Lee

True love stories never have endings. - Richard Bach

Just because somebody doesn't love you the way you want them to, it doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have. - Unknown

The difference between friendship and love is how much you can hurt each other. - Ashleigh Brilliant

You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. - Dr. Seuss

They invented hugs to let people know you love them without saying anything. - Bill Keane

There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love. - Bryant H. McGill

If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you. - A. A. Milne

You can't stop loving or wanting to love because when its right, it's the best thing in the world. When you're in a relationship and it's good, even if nothing else in your life is right, you feel like your whole world is complete. - Keith Sweat

If you have to think about whether you love someone or not then the answer is not. When you love someone, you just know. - Janice Markowitz

If you love it, let it go. If it returns to you, cherish it; if not, it was never truly yours. - Proverb

In true love the smallest distance is too great, and the greatest distance can be bridged. - Hans Nouwans

Love is the hardest habit to break and the most difficult to satisfy. - Drew Barrymore

True love doesn't happen right away; it's an ever growing process. It develops after you've gone through many ups and downs, when you're suffered together, cried together, laughed together. - Ricardo Montalban

Holding On

As long as you are holding on to what you have, your path of possibilities is blocked. The holding can be mental, emotional or physical. In any case, it is a sign of fear. If you are afraid to lose what you have, it means your consciousness is grounded in lack. Somewhere in the back of your mind, there is a belief that there is not enough to go around. There may also be a belief that when it comes around, you will not be on the receiving end.

Holding on is not the same as taking care of what you value or protecting that which is yours. Holding on is what most people do when they are afraid they don't deserve more. Holding on is what we do when we settle for less than we want. Holding on is what we do instead of asking for what we want and then taking responsibility for creating it. When you really believe that you are worthy of the best, that you deserve the best and that there is enough of the best for you to have plenty, there will be no need for you to grab or clutch or squeeze what you have. You won't worry about what you have. You will not watch over what you have. You will no longer live in fear that by losing what you have, your life will somehow be diminished. When you can stop holding on, you begin to realize that your blessings cannot be taken away, nor will they go away until the Universe is reay to up the ante.

Until today, you may have been holding on to things and people in fear that they could not or would not be replaced in your life. Just for today, allow yourself to imagine what your life would be like if your hands and heart were to receive something better than what you are holding on to right now.

Place Full Confidence in Your Prayers

When you least expect it, the very thing you want, the thing you have been praying for with all of your heart is going to come to you from nowhere. The thing you have wanted for so long is going to drop right into your life without your having done or having to do anything. In fact, it will probably show up on the very day you did not pray, the day you did not work yourself into a frenzy trying to make something happen. In fact, it will probably slip into your life so quietyly, with such grace and ease, you may not believe it at first. It is frightening to think that life could be so easy, so graceful, so almost uneventful as to have the thing you have been praying for show up without you rough riding it!

You may not believe that just wanting it was enough because, in order to accept that notion, you would have to believe that you don't have to struggle or work hard in life. You will not believe that after all of your effort and trying, this thing shows up--just like that! When you weren't looking, watching, working or waiting for it to happen. You might think to yourself, No way! No way this can happen like this for me when I didn't have or don't have the money to make it happen. This can't be happening! But it is. And when it does, your reaction will answer a very important question, how much confidence do you place in your prayers?

Until today, you may not have accepted that one prayer is all it takes. Just for today, try praying for something with all of y our heart and soul, then don't do anything else.