A Christmas Eve Blog

It's quiet... REEALLY quiet in my house tonight.... my children are away with their dad for Christmas break this year so I am relaxing at home alone. It's not looking, smelling, or feeling like Christmas normally does for me, but in an odd and perhaps strange way, if I had a fireplace and snow outside it would honestly be perfect. I was invited to a few gathering's tonight and although grateful that I have such amazing friends in my life, I decided to hang out with myself instead; I needed it. The past 6 months have posed a huge shift... another transition that will ultimately lead me to more amazing things in 2015. Sometimes it is necessary to be alone... to reflect on all that is around you and I am truly thankful for this time right now to do just that. So... I sit here with soft music playing, a fresh cup coffee and homemade chicken soup simmering on the stove, reaching out to inspire you tonight. No tree, no decorations... but I am content.

Happiness and contentment in life is all about perspective... it's not about material things, or people making you happy. As I have said many times, over the past several years it is about YOU enjoying time with yourself, liking who you are, being confident in that and not needing anything or anyone to put a smile on your face. It is about being thankful for what you have, where you are and appreciating your journey no matter how rough the road gets. As I was out at the store today grabbing a few things to make chicken soup, I could see the stress on people's faces... the scurrying around getting last minute gifts and groceries... people honking horns on the roads with frustration in their eyes; it was literally a zoo. I walked with peace... a smile on my face and actually felt kind of lucky to not have so much to do. I have two weeks before I will be celebrating Christmas with my beautiful kids but I will not be caught up in the craziness. I will be able to enjoy myself, the time with them once they are home, and not be in a hurry for anything.

Christmas Eve for me this year is about reflection... about remembering why we celebrate this holiday; it's all in perspective for me tonight. I still have a few bumps ahead as the new year approaches but I have learned so much about the rewards that await once the storms are over and I look forward to what lies ahead. The clouds always lift, and the sun will always shine again. No matter what you are going through, no matter how lonely you may be this holiday season... know that you are still blessed beyond words. Do what you can to be thankful, to be happy and to fill yourself up with Christmas spirit by getting right within your heart, with others, with yourself and with your Creator. I have made MANY, MANY mistakes in my life, I am FAR from perfect and am constantly looking to improve... but when I am in the midst of a storm or when I have feelings in my heart or people in my life that are trying to steal my smile I simply bow my head and pray for the strength to keep everything in perspective. Funny thing is it always works.

Tonight on this quiet Christmas Eve, I share with you PEACE through a blog post and a Christmas poem that I will write on a whim in real time; so here it goes....

A Christmas Story

A feeling, a smile, a moment of truth,

A time, a place, the laughter of youth.

A tree, a twinkle, the smell of a fire,

A family, a gift, a heart's desire.

A song, a star, a child was born,

A purpose, a life, a ring of thorns.

A man, a God, your life to live,

The story, the meaning, the reason to give.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! 

May your hearts be filled with peace and joy

Until next time...

xoxo

Shells

                                                   

                               

                                                          

I HOPE THAT YOU WILL:

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Good Vibrations....A Birthday Blog

As a young child, I was very kindhearted, warm, friendly and funny. However, as the years went by, circumstances, people and heartbreak hardened my spirit quite a bit. I became afraid to let my guard down, I was afraid to trust and lots of times felt that I could not be as nice as I wanted to be because people would either take advantage of me or think I was strange considering that most people simply AREN'T nice. I am glad that feeling has changed now, simply because I discovered myself again and realized that you truly do reap what you sew. Never failing... if I do something that I know in my gut may not be the best choice, but do it anyway, something negative always follows. Likewise, when I do something  good or nice for someone... amazing stuff comes my way. I still make mistakes and bad decisions... we all do from time to time, but my goal is to touch as many lives with positive energy, warmth, love and smiles as I possibly can; there are way too many great people out there not being appreciated for who they are. Do not judge people for their past... choose to look at them for who they are now or who they hope to become. We all have the ability to change who we are and everyone deserves a clean slate.

If there is one lesson that I have learned over the last several years of my life (of course we ALL know I have learned more than one) it is that what you put "out there" you definitely get back. That has proved itself over and over again in my lifetime and was proven to me once again today when I got to my hotel room and opened up my laptop and was overwhelmed with messages. I took an hour of my evening before heading to dinner for one in the hotel restaurant and graciously replied one by one to each of the 300 + happy birthday messages on my Facebook page.  To all of those reading who left me a message, know that you made my 41st birthday really special, thanks for the good vibrations.

Now, I know that Facebook reminded people that it was my birthday... and I know I said something similar last year when 200 people did the same thing... but there is something to be said when someone takes the time to click the birthday calendar and then type out a private message to you, or post a card or a photo of cake or candles that makes me feel that I am doing something to make a difference in this crazy world we live in; that the things I put out there is having an impact on those who watch my posts. I also got at least 20 text messages, some from people I have not heard from in a long time that reminded me that you never know who's life you are touching, but they will let you know at some point that you matter.

Acts of kindness, gratitude and appreciation go very far... so my heart was truly warmed. It's those little things that most take for granted that I hold so dear because they are more valuable to me than any amount of money; I know there are other people in the world that feel the same way.

Okay... I am beginning to sound like a Hallmark card so I guess I better control the mush and just say goodnight. The bottom line?

 BE NICE. BE REAL. REWARD OTHERS for the GOOD that they do and ALWAYS, MOST DEFINITELY BE YOU!

Until next time...

xoxo

Shells

                                                   

                               

                                                          

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The First Step To Being Happy is YOU

For several years, all I wanted was to be happy...I was very broken, felt unloved and extremely unimportant. Part of that feeling came from the lack of ever having a loving relationship and lots of disappointment and the other part came from the fact that like many people, I was fooled into thinking happiness was only defined by having a loving relationship, a fancy house, an expensive car and money to buy all the things I wanted. I would look at people around me who seemed happy and they had loving marriages, were dressed in the best clothes, and had lots of "things". They were taking fabulous family vacations, giving elaborate birthday parties and their Christmas's were like the ones you see on TV commercials with extravagant trees, beautiful decorations and loads of gifts. 

I often felt like a failure with all of this around me, and always wondered why it was not my life. I worked very hard, had so much love to give and yet here I was a single mom who had been divorced twice that struggled to give my kids all of the things that I wanted to give them no matter how many hours I worked because I was doing everything alone for quite some time. We rarely had the money to go on big shopping sprees for back to school like I did when I was younger and I always felt bad for that. We never took a family vacation because I was afraid to take the time off of work. When you are self employed and take time off there is no paycheck waiting for you when you get home so I always allowed that fear to stop me from doing it. Seeing happiness around me made me really sad and I had a hard time being happy for other people who had what I wanted.

Then one day after reading a passage in one of my self improvement books I realized a truth... a fact that changed my life. That fact was that the first step to being happy was loving yourself. I had a self realization moment that very second. My whole life flashed before me and in the end I concluded that I was not happy with who I was at all. I had low self esteem and very little self worth because I allowed things from my past to haunt me. There were decisions I had made that left me feeling unworthy of love and success and because of this I was unconsciously manifesting a life of unhappiness and struggle. I was unknowingly punishing myself for all of my mistakes.

The most amazing moment in all of this was realizing that I was in control of my happiness... that all of the "things" that I thought would bring me the happiness I desired had nothing to do with it at all. That began my path to all that I had ever wanted; a path that I am still traveling Slowly, but surely my attitude began to change. I started learning how to love myself despite all of my mistakes, faults and imperfections and decided that spiritually I was perfect.... a perfect disaster maybe, but I learned to be proud of all that I had done wrong, all that had happened and I started to move on from it all. It was then that I was living in the lowest point of my life and it is also when I decided I would share my story with the world... I wrote my first book.

I began to love who I saw in the mirror and thought that perhaps one day, a special someone would come into my life and appreciate me for who I truly was and what I had gone through in my life. I found happiness in finally knowing and accepting who I was. I no longer hid all the ugly things from my past pretending to be perfect, I became proud of them because it had formed who I was and who I would eventually become. 

Even though I still hope for love and acceptance from someone that I can share my life with, I love and accept myself... and that is the most important thing you can do when looking for happiness. God loves us with all of our imperfections and if He does, so should we. Love yourself like He does and life just gets better.

Something else that happens when you learn to love yourself... you begin to love and accept others for who THEY are... your heart truly changes and when you look at someone, you look at their imperfections and mistakes with admiration, understanding and compassion. When you have accepted your own faults and imperfections you simply begin to judge others less. The most freeing thing was when I stopped caring about what other people thought of me and instead began caring what I thought of me. We will never make everyone else happy, someone will always disagree with our actions, choices and lifestyle but we CAN make ourselves happy; trust me, that is a much easier task. When you realize that happiness is a choice, it's an easy choice to make; it takes no arm twisting. 

So....you have two choices in life. You can get swallowed up with all that is now or you can begin to imagine and glorify all that can be. I ask....which will you choose? 


Have a wonderful Monday... and a wonderful week. Pass this one along, I am sure many people out there need to love themselves a little more, and we ALL need to find happiness.

Until next time...

xoxo

Shells

                                                   

                               

                                                          

I HOPE THAT YOU WILL:

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Follow me on Facebook

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Follow me on Twitter

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WWW.SHELLEYGIARD.COM

IF YOU LIKE MY BLOGS, YOU WILL LOVE MY BOOK

To purchase a signed copy 

click here>> www.ineedthehappyending.com

OR to read reviews and purchase it on Amazon

                                                       

click here>> http://amzn.to/1oki1qR