Category: Spirituality

Faith, Gratitude, Homesteading, Religion, Spirituality

Gratitude

Lisa Burbank

First of all, I have to give credit where it is due. The good Lord has blessed my life so richly and I am eternally grateful for the family and friends–both human and humane–who have stood by me through thick and thin. Though there are times when I am tempted to give in to despair, I know He will always bring me through whatever crisis that arises. Sometimes I may not always think so because His plan isn’t exactly according to my plans but, no matter what, He always gives me what I need. Lately, those blessings have been pouring in as each lesson is learned. There’s an old saying that when the pupil is ready, the teacher will arrive. I’m probably paraphrasing that one a bit but the intent is there. He has been bringing me teacher after teacher–and I’m not talking college professors either, despite my recent submersion into acadamia, though I am grateful for each of them and what they’ve taught me each term. It is lessons for living that I am talking about, lessons for getting out of this “stuck” place that I’ve been inhabiting for the last several years and, as my favorite REO Speedwagon song says, “Blazin’ My (your) Own Trail” again.

As I begin my third straight week of blogging, I have received so many words of encouragement and support that I am actually feeling a bit humbled. And thrilled. It is a bit gratifying to know that folks are reading what I’ve written, to know that so many are enjoying it. I’ve also had a number of strangers within the Word Press community start following my blog, some of them reaching out with words of encouragement. I want to thank each and every one of you–friend, family, or new acquaintance–for the kind words and support, for the motivation to keep going. I also want to thank you for your patience as I continue finding my feet in this world of blogging. I know where I want to go but it will take a while to get there.

Of course, while I’m feeling the love and at risk of becoming misty-eyed, I would like to take a few moments to thank a few others who have helped start me on my journey. You see, the last few years have been a bit rough. Financial burdens have definitely taken their toll and I’m still taking 3 steps backwards for every half-step I take forward in getting back on my feet. I’m not complaining, really. I’ve been working with some wonderful people via some financial workshops. One was a partnering between The United Way and the Women’s Business Development Council. I worked with a gentleman named Howard Haberern who definitely helped me to get a better handle on my time management–especially my penchant for always being at least 1/2 hour late to everything. He really helped me to look at this penchant in a different light and I will always be grateful for his guidance, though I confess to silently bristling when he first spoke. I still fall off the wagon from time to time but I am definitely making better strides towards punctuality. I also appreciate the words of encouragement he gave regarding finances, his assurance that it wasn’t my inability to manage money but simply being under-employed. Now that I’m not beating up on myself so bad, my focus is shifting towards the positive and I’m learning to go more with the flow; life always comes in waves. And I know, in time, I will be back on top again. Thank you, Howard! (Not sure if Howard is reading this, but the gratitude is definitely heart-felt)

Last December I decided to take a risk. Though things are still tight, I decided to invest in myself. I have been following the Prolific Living blog by Farnoosh Brock for a couple of years now. I have also been on her emailing list. I’ve participated in a number of free programs that she offers, as well as a small investment back in 2014 in her Positive Affirmations for Life program. Farnoosh is a student of author, Louise Hay, who wrote “You Can Change Your Life” and she has developed a wonderful audio program that I have been listening to almost daily. For those of you not familiar with affirmations, they are simply statements that you say to yourself every day to help overcome negative programming, self-esteem issues, and/or to manifest certain goals. You say everything in the positive. as though it is happening right now. Some examples would be, “I use my skills and talents in the best possible way” or “I am always on time to every event”. Having been battling a bit of depression with my under-employment issues, this program has proven to be a sound investment–as has the Smart Exit Blueprint plan, the program I took a leap of faith into in December. This one has been a bit more of an investment but I have no regrets. It has really helped me to prioritize, to commit to my lifelong goals, and of particular benefit to me, to weed out all of the “busy” work so I can focus more clearly on those goals.

I love writing. But, over the last several years, I have done very little of it because a.) I was always too busy with other stuff to sit down and actually write and b.) I didn’t carve out any specific time each day to write–despite being in a degree program with Southern New Hampshire University to receive a BA in Creative Writing with an Emphasis on Fictional Writing. Thanks to this Smart Exit Blueprint program, I am much more focused on those goals. And here I am writing each morning before most of the rest of New England is even thinking about awakening. (Okay…so I am a little OCD but I’m learning to work with it)

And, before I thank Farnoosh for her excellent program, and the SEB community for their encouragement and support, I do want to say that this “plug” I’ve just given for Farnoosh’s programs is being done independently and not as some sort of required endorsement of either program. Having had a private practice in holistic health in recent years, I know how important positive feedback and word-of-mouth is to a business. It is also my way of giving back a little. This program has real value and I want to share that with my friends and family. If you do the work required, it is worth the investment. We all have dreams. Taking the time to invest in them, to invest in yourself, is worth every effort. If the good Lord has put a dream on your heart, maybe it’s His way of telling you where He wants you to go. I firmly believe that.

Incidentally, the Smart Exit Blueprint is about taking those steps towards doing work that you love…and earning a living from it. You become part of a community where everyone is on a similar journey and so you can support each other. And, what’s nice about the program is that Farnoosh is always actively involved. This isn’t a program where the coordinator/creator comes up with some videos and/or literature and says, “Okay…you’re on your own.” Instead, I received a phone call from Farnoosh when I started and she has answered every email, has answered every question herself in her live webinars. For that I am truly grateful so, Farnoosh, thank you very, very much for this excellent program. Since I started–and I took a lot longer than I thought I would to complete it because this program really made me think and to tackle certain “blocks”, something I was avoiding and, thus, procrastinated on some of the modules–but I’ve definitely taken some strides forward, strides I’m not sure I would have taken, not sure I would have had the courage to take before this program. Some of them include starting a crowdfunding campaign to help start a potential business; contacting a career advisor through SNHU, who has helped me to connect with others in the writing industry, especially, those for the environment; I started blogging; I’ve been taking some baby steps towards developing my homestead and, though it has little to do with either writing or goat wrangling, I’ve found a bit of creative genius inside that has had me painting and drawing again. I actually started a mural in my home office that I know will eventually prove to be an effective vision board (it’s a work in process…just like homesteading). Anyway, I’m not sure I would have shifted my focus to art at all if I hadn’t worked on Module 3 and discovered my passions. Again, thank you very much, Farnoosh, and to all the SEB community! I am honored to be part of such a community.

And, at the risk of this looking like the acknowledgements in the inside of a book or CD sleeve, there are some individuals that have gone above and beyond the call of duty in helping me on my journey: Mom, Shaun & Stef & the girls–my immediate family is always there…they may not always “get” me, but they love me anyway; ditto for extended family; especially Auntie Cheryl for the girls’ days, the holiday dinners and for always being my surrogate big “sister”; to Unc & Cousins, too, for everything; Aunt Sandy and Uncle George–the two of you are so very special to me, I wish we lived closer to each other; Aunt Debbie and Aunt Sandy D. for helping me when I was down and out; Aunt Donna for caring enough to go to therapy with me; to Aunt Judi, I am so happy to have you in my life again, to be in touch again–growing up, you always made learning fun; to Karen, Donna, and Mary–having 3 best friends is wealth, indeed; and I have a wealth of friends everywhere who make my life so special. No, I’m not planning on going anywhere, nor am I near any tragic anniversaries…just expressing my gratitude for each of you. I don’t always express my appreciation. Of course, there are many others who are no longer here physically to thank but the gratitude is no less for the gifts they have given me in life. Of life. And, of course, once I hit “publish”, I will likely remember skeighty-eight hundred more that I would like to thank for their encouragement and support through the years. My apologies to you all; your blessings are just as greatly appreciated and you are loved beyond your ability to comprehend.

May God bless you & keep you!

Abuse, Alcoholism, Faith, Frugality, Gratitude, Holistic Health, Nature, Religion, Spirituality, Yoga & Fitness

Recognizing the Little Miracles

Lisa Burbank

This morning 3:30 was a bit of a struggle. My body isn’t quite settling down to sleep at the earlier bedtime needed to support such an early rising. But I know it won’t be much longer. I feel myself waking up just minutes before the alarm and I am waking up on my own. This morning–barely! I was tempted to make a quick trip downstairs to the loo and then give in to the temptation to go back to bed for another hour…or two. But I drew a deep breath, pulled on the big girl pants and got on the yoga mat instead.

And my favorite yoga video–A.M. Yoga for Beginners with Rodney Yee (Gaiam)–broke. I popped the VHS tape (yes, it is that old, that beloved) into the VCR (yes, I still have one–two, actually) and there were all these squiggly lines across the TV screen (the TV is an analog, btw…) then the VCR actually shut off and ejected the tape–almost. It would only come out so far. So I turned the VCR back on and pushed it back in, hit rewind. It rewound. I hit play. More squiggly lines and, after another moment or two, the VCR shut off again, spitting out the tape; again, halfway. So I tried to extract it. And the tape snapped. Judging by the accordian-like folds in it, it has seen its better days.

Normally, I would throw a little temper tantrum; the peace of my day would’ve been totally spoiled. This would be “proof” that I should have gone with my first instinct and gone back to bed. But I think the combination of Al-Anon daily literature and Positive Affirmations for Life, “Affirmations for Living a Complaint-Free Life” (Farnoosh Brock) program is finally being absorbed somewhere in the DNA, or at least the psyche, because I had only a fleeting moment of calmly thinking “That sucks” and then I reached for a lesser-used yoga video, “Stress Relief Yoga for Beginners” with Suzanne Deason (Gaiam). It proved to be a nice change of pace and helped release some of the shoulder tension I had been holding onto. I remembered why it has also been a bit of a favorite of mine and I came away from that half hour feeling totally relaxed and energized…which is how one should feel after a yoga workout. So there’s the first little miracle of my day. I overcame a personal, well, not exactly a hang-up but I didn’t allow this little hiccough to overshadow everything else. I didn’t view it as “the end of the world”. (It’s funny because I usually maintain calm in major calamities (i.e. true crises) but its the little things like this that usually frustrate and irritate me to no end)

However, as I sat down to pray the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy, I started thinking that replacing it with the DVD version probably wouldn’t be all that expensive; I would really miss this video. It’s a very gentle series of stretches that really wake up the body-mind, helping me to focus. And, without it, those times when I’ve been lazy and given into that temptation to catch another hour or two of sleep, I find my joints really starting to ache. Yoga, in general, has been like food and water for me–I need it to feel healthy and strong each day. Again, I would really miss this one. So, despite trying to keep my spending to the barest minimum, it would be worth the investment. After my prayers, affirmations, Mind Movies (Natalie Ledwell), and meditation (another small miracle–I reined in my usual impulsive nature), I went online to http://www.gaiam.com and looked to see if this video was even still available. It was given to me in 2002 by a friend so it is at least 15 years old but, apparently, it is a popular seller because Gaiam still carries it.

And here’s the third little miracle of my day: Gaiam is hosting a big sale of their DVD’s. You could buy 4 DVD sets (i.e. more than one DVD in each) for just under $19. I had mentally budgeted myself that if A.M. Yoga for Beginners was over $30, I would just have to make due without it. Now I have 3 other DVD sets coming with it; should be here in a few days. Even with shipping and handling, I didn’t exceed the $30 cap. And this actually answered another longing in my heart. I’ve been thinking I would like to try some new yoga routines and here I have several coming to me. Proof that He really does give us what we need…and maybe even a few of the things we want. Earlier this week, my favorite juices, bananas, frozen strawberries, and Sunbutter (for making smoothies) all went on sale at Big Y–and that seems to be a regular thing. When I really need something, He provides a sale so that I can afford it.

I’m going to shoot for the stars now. With a little help from above, maybe someone will have a sale on a good pair of walking sneakers in the not-so-distant future. A little cardio would be a good thing and I have 20 lbs. extra to shed. You never know. Little miracles occur every day. And these are just the material. If we look closely enough, we may begin to see those little miracles everywhere. I’m going to keep looking for those little miracles. And be grateful for each and every one of them.

May God bless you & keep you!

Animal Rights, Animals, Environment, Faith, Friendship, Healing, Herbs, Holistic Health, Homesteading, Politics, Prayer, Religion, Spirituality

The Introduction Continues…

Lisa Burbank

I got broad-sided in my last post as I hit on one of my passions–feeding the hungry and feeding them well. But also, taking away the opportunity to “sponge” off of our government and the kindnesses of others. There are too many who abuse our system but the answer is a difficult one. Too often we find adults taking that advantage but, if you took away the benefit they are abusing, it is the innocent children who pay for it later on. And that is the dilemma our federal and local governments have wrestled with for time in memorium.

The environment is another big issue I could go on about ad nauseum. We damage our planet greatly by our dependence on fossil fuels; the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and household cleaners; the use of lawn treatments such as Scotsgard and TruGreen (Sp?); our over-consumption of electricity and water waste. Then there is the over-use of convenience foods and convenience items such as plastic cutlery and TV dinners that not only harms our rivers and streams but also our bodies. I read in Cunningham’s “Environmental Science: A Global Concern” that by 2020 there will not be enough fresh drinking water for everyone–even in the United States!  2020. That’s just 4 years’ away.  How scary is that?  Ironically, a major culprit in the contamination of our water is the plastic, single-serving bottle through which our water is sold on most supermarket shelves.  It actually takes the equivalent of 5 bottles of water (or 60 oz if the bottle is a 12 oz) to produce one of those plastic bottles. And, once created, the water used to make it is unfit for consumption.  Not only is it a waste of money–there is usually nothing worse coming out of our taps, and bottled water companies likely get it out of a tap somewhere else–it is a waste of life’s most precious resource.  As a holistic health care practitioner, I am grateful to see so many people adding more water to their daily intake but a reusable travel mug would work just as well, save tons of money each year, and millions of gallons of clean drinking water.

Another environmental hazard today is the K-cup coffee machine. Mom and I figured it out one day. We took the large metal canister of coffee she buys at the supermarket for $5 and change, which lasts her a full month of 4 cup pots of coffee each morning, and divided the sticker price by, roughly, 120 cups (30 days X 4 cups) and came up with .05 cents per cup of coffee. Then we divided the sticker price of a box of K-cups by 20, which is the average number of cups in a package, and came up with .75 cents per cup so, by making coffee the old-fashioned way, you save .70 cents per cup. When you factor in the plastic K-cups themselves and how much water is contaminated to make them, the aluminum covers–aluminum has to be mined out of the earth and creates more water and soil pollution than I care to speak about in polite company–and the likelihood of having to replace the K-cup machines more frequently than the standard drip coffee maker due to our modern society’s obsession with the latest technologies and, the only thing I can ask is, does any of this make sense from either an economical or environmental perspective?

And, yes, this is obviously a pet peeve of mine. I have many others. As an herbalist, the list of side effects from modern pharmaceutical drugs is frightening. Oftentimes, the side effects are worse than the malady the drug is supposed to control (Note I said “control” not “cure”). There was one in particular that has always stuck with me. Sadly, I cannot remember the name of the drug but only its use for treating headaches. One of the side effects was “gas with an oily discharge”. Eeew! I think I’d rather deal with the headaches…or seek a different treatment, such as an herbal tea or a 20 minute nap or a modification of my diet. This is just my honest opinion, of course. I am not a licensed doctor so I am not asking anyone to do away with whatever he or she has prescribed. I am simply wondering how good for us these prescriptions really are. These are our bodies and, while I applaud the pharmaceutical industry for providing this information so we can make our own intelligent choices for our health, still, our health is ultimately our responsibility and we do have a choice in what goes into our bodies.

While I am on the pharmaceutical subject, another pet peeve of mine–actually, an issue that I am as passionate about as our environment–perhaps more so–is anti-vivisection. Vivisection is the use of animals to test drugs, household products, medical procedures, military weapons, and anything else science elects to experiment with this month. If these poor creatures could speak, would they choose to be the, um, well, guinea pigs (pardon the poorly-chosen pun) for these experiments? I doubt it. What makes their lives any less valuable? What makes it ‘okay’ to maim, poison, injure, infect or kill them simply because some members of our society view them as “lesser” life forms? And how accurate is the data from these animal experiments versus the comparison with human DNA? How many drugs get recalled after testing “safe” for animals because, when given to a human animal (yes, we are animals, too, not vegetables or minerals…) they cause serious side effects, even death? How many rabbits have to blinded before we can say this mascara is safe or we should avoid getting this bleach/pine cleaner, etc. into our eyes? How many goats must have their limbs blown off for us to understand how traumatic combat wounds are to our soldiers? And how many chimpanzees will be lost in space so that we can find another planet in our solar system (or a different solar system) to pollute beyond the capacity to support life? We say they are lesser life forms but it is Mankind that is often the true beast when such cruelty is so easily inflicted and justified for our own selfish gains. Again, there are other choices. And we can support those choices by electing to buy cruelty-free products and electing government officials who support both cruelty-free and eco-friendly practices.

If we could find a candidate who also has faith in God, what a blessing that would be. This one is a tough one because I have the utmost respect for other belief systems. I cannot, in clear conscience, “condemn’ or judge someone as “wrong” or “bad” because they worship Buddha or Goddess Diana or even Allah. Our beliefs are at our core. They are the foundation of our very lives (unless, of course, we are talking about atheism but even that tends to be deeply rooted). However, here in the United States, our very culture is being stripped away as our First Amendment right to freedom of religion seems to include every other religion EXCEPT Christianity. If I pray openly in school, I am at risk of being expelled. If I pray openly in a public place, well, I may not be arrested yet but I may be asked to leave if it makes the other patrons uncomfortable. Why? Does it remind you that you have forgotten Him, whatever name you attribute to your Higher Power? Government buildings can no longer have pictures, slogans, etc. that reverence our Christian God though He is the foundation for this government. And, yes, before we go further, I am one of the First Americans, with my Narragansett and Mohawk heritage, and well aware that Christianity is not truly the first religion practiced here on these shores. I cannot change what my European ancestors did when they took over this land but would it make sense to allow history to repeat itself so that yet another culture is all but destroyed? And, I believe in my heart, that losing Him, hiding Him, removing Him from the foundation of our government is why we see so many without work, losing their homes, and we see so much violence in every form. Yes, Christians have committed some bloody acts in history, too. But, without faith, there is no balance, there is no compass point to keep us straight and true. And, while it is often the actions of Christians–especially Christian officials–that turn people away from Him, we should remind ourselves that priests, pastors, ministers, Jesuits, etc. are merely human beings. They are not God. Though most of them sacrifice everything they have to follow Him and to lead others to Him, they, too, are subject to all of the human failings and, while it may be difficult to do so, it would be wise to remember this lest our faith be shattered by those human failings. Faith in God, not in priest, pastor or otherwise. As for those individuals who share different beliefs but still come to these shores? Our First Amendment welcomes you and invites you to stay true to your beliefs but it does not give you the right to take away mine, to tell me or my government that we cannot print “In God We Trust” on our American dollar or place a manger scene on the lawn of our town hall. Instead of protesting, petition this same government to include symbols of your beliefs on the front lawn during your important holiday celebrations. I will not be offended to see, for example, a Menorah during Hanukkah or, for 2016, pictures of monkeys to commemorate the Year of the Monkey for the 2016 Chinese New Year. In fact, I welcome these sights as they provide the opportunities to learn more about you, my new neighbor. And, perhaps, if I greet you with such love and respect, you won’t feel as threatened by my God when I share Him with you as well.

God bless you & keep you!