Believe: (verb) to have confidence in the truth, reliability or existence of something.

Oh My!  :)

With that is my inspiration, I will pull together some of my beliefs to share with you, my friendly blog reader! (I would LOVE IT, if you would share your beliefs in the comments!!)

I believe in good sleep, great sex and true love.

I believe people who expect the worst will not only find it but end up creating more of it.

I believe being happily married depends on kindness, respect and trust.

I believe in smiling at strangers for no better reason than to see what they’ll do in return.

I believe in the healing power of laughter!  

I believe a daily 4 mile walk will do more good for a persons mental health than all the pills on the market.

I believe in art, music, yoga, aromatherapy, and meditation.

I believe in living well despite the distractions. I believe in peace, grace and resilience.

I believe having faith in yourself is the strongest magic there is.

I believe it’s everyone’s responsibility to maintain hope and show people that we can get along when we try.

I believe people should NEVER give up being kind to each other. Ever.

And last, I believe it is my duty to enjoy life in order to show other people that it is possible and to inspire them to try it for themselves.

Wow, that was fun!!!

What do you think? What do you believe in?

I wish you a wonderful week and will be back on Monday with the Inspirational song of the week.

xoxo Pam

p.s. This I believe, an NPR series, is a wonderful way to inspire yourself, and the ones you love. Click the link to check it out!!

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These are days by Natalie Merchant My girlfriend Debbie and I were shopping at Home Depot yesterday when we heard this song. “It’s true, that you are blessed and lucky!”

It became abundantly clear after last Friday night at the Beets, Beats & Eats, that we are indeed “blessed and lucky”when the storms that were threatening to dump up to 4 inches of rain, slid right past Ortonville! The storms not only gave us a lovely breeze but a STUNNING sunset sky as well!

Check out these photos taken by our wonderful Brenda Timmermans of Simply Candid!

Nice, huh!?  Everyone was standing around staring at the sky, marveling at how awesome it made everyone and everything else look!  Eerie and cool!

These are the days, indeed!!!

Have a wonderful week, and I’ll be back on Wednesday with the Inspirational word of the week!

xoxo Pam

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Enough: (adjective) adequate for the want or need. (pronoun) an adequate quantity (adverb) to a degree that satisfies a purpose.

I was chatting with my Dad on the phone last night and he asked me how that “thing in Ortonville” was going. (Of course, he was referring to the Beets, Beats & Eats farmers market that I help put together and am a vendor at, but he couldn’t remember the goofy name of it!) So I told him that I bring in 2 of my burlap art projects (they’re delicate, so I only bring in two at a time in order to keep them from getting ruined), my Tibetan prayer flags and my massage chair. He was tickled, and not surprised to hear that I make the bulk of my money from the massage chair. This is the man that I worked on regularly as a child. I remember spending as long as an hour every day massaging his lower back because of the pain caused from arthritis. My Mom has a torn tendon in her shoulder from a car accident, so between the two of them, I developed into a very strong masseuse with a lot of stamina. My Dad used to say that my hands were my dowry!

He asked if I do the massage outside of the market and I told him that I usually don’t. “The biggest reason I do the massage is because I know I can make people feel better. Even if it’s only for 5 minutes. If I had to do it during the week, and it got in the way of something else I really want to do, like play a game with my son, or take a boat ride with my husband, I’d feel resentful, and then I wouldn’t give a good massage. This way, the people getting the massage really do feel better, and I’m happy knowing I’ve done some good. That’s enough for me.”

***********

On Monday, I listened to an on-line writers workshop class with Jen Louden.  She talked about setting Conditions of Enough. While unlimited possibilities seems like the best way to get what you want, ultimately what happens is that we don’t know how to define the beginning or the end of what we’re working on. This can lead to frustration and self-abuse because we end up over-working ourselves and getting angry that we didn’t accomplish everything!  (Listening to this part made my hair stand on end because I recognized this in myself. As a classic work-aholic, I been known to work myself into a frenzy, only to be disappointed that the work itself  (like laundry and dishes) is never done. AAAACCCKKK)

By setting our Conditions of Enough ahead of time, we give ourselves stepping stones that show us how to get to where we’re going!  BRILLIANT!!! When we set time limits, borders and realistic goals on our energy, we get a proper measure of how much we’ve really accomplished.

Then she said “It’s“important to declare to yourself, (out loud even) “I’m satisfied” even if you don’t feel it! By declaring your satisfaction, you define the end of the project your working on.”

I’m so incredibly happy to have listened to Jen’s words of wisdom, my friendly blog reader. I’m relieved knowing that I’m not the only person who’s done this to herself! I’m even more happy to know how to remedy the situation!  Although I have a tendency to fight against “rules” and “structure” I love the idea of stepping stones!

My wonderful son and his friend are asking me to play Monopoly with them, so I’m going to declare this blog post finished and “I’m satisfied with how it’s turned out“.

That’s good enough for me!

I wish you a wonderful week, my friendly blog reader!

xoxo

Pam

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Roll with it by Steve Winwood

I’m trying to learn how to embed videos onto my blog. Let’s see how this works!

“You can make it! Roll with it, Baby!”

Hope you have a wonderful week, my friendly blog reader!

xoxo Pam

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Clarity:(noun)1. clearness or lucidity, freedom from ambiguity. 2. the state or quality of being transparent or clear.

I hope last weeks post about the 9 Basic Human needs helped you to clarify your needs.

It was hard for me to open myself up and share my needs with you, but I felt it was necessary to help you, my friendly blog reader. Although, it probably made some of you uncomfortable, I hope seeing someone else working at getting their own needs met helped to clarify how to go about it.

To be honest, clarity has not been my strongest virtue. I’ve always been more of a “go with your gut” kind of woman. With all of the traveling and moving around I’ve done, focusing on long term goals just seemed like a waste of time. It seemed far easier to just put my head down and handle whatever came my way with as much strength and guts as I could muster. Clarity never really played into it.

However, now that I’m 41 years old, with a home, family and responsibilities, I’ve come to realize that if I don’t clarify my goals, other people will automatically assume that I will always be willing to do what needs to be done because I don’t have anything better to do. They know they can depend on me to take care of whatever needs to be done because I’m strong enough to do it.

Whether or not it’s my responsibility, doesn’t matter. I’m strong and reliable, so they will (unwittingly or not) take advantage of that.

If it continues, it will end up making me resentful and them weak.

That’s NOT what I want.

What I want to do is to inspire people to take care of themselves and become successful in their own lives.

That’s pretty clear.

Now, how do I do that?

By becoming an inspirational speaker as well as artist and writer.

By going out into the world and sharing “The Boat”, my philosophy of Pink and Why is Life so Hard?

How do I know where to start?

I don’t.

Although,I guess I just did.

Didn’t I, my friendly blog reader?

I’ll start by talking with people who already know me, but don’t know that I write and just go from there.

I look forward to talking to more people about what I’ve been writing because somewhere, someone really needs what I do.

I realize some people won’t get it, but I can’t let that stop me.

My message is clear! Speak up or risk letting other people define what my life turns into.
What about you? What are your goals? Are you willing to clarify what you want and go about getting it?

I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments!

xoxo Pam

p.s. I did an on-camera interview last about the BB&E farmers market!  You can watch it here! http://www.moviemole.com/jillsshow-1/interviews/downtown-ortonville/index.html

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I wanna ROCK! by Twisted Sister

And with my 10 year old son banging his head along side me,

I wish you, my friendly blog reader, a Glorious Monday!!!

I’ll be back on Wednesday with the Inspirational word of the week.

xoxo Pam

p.s. A wonderful lady friend, Heidi of Aardvark essentials, is having a contest that ends tomorrow!!!! I just love her stuff and just picked up some Sassypants cream!  It smells spicy and totally helped me get through an on-camera interview this past week!  (I’ll share the link when I get it!)  Seriously!!! Go check out Heidi’s stuff at http://www.AardvarkEssentials.co

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What?! You haven’t heard of Unsip Day?

That’s not surprising because this is the very first one!  A wonderful lady named Bernadette Jiwa has put together a site called Unsip.org to raise awareness and gather support from people who want to make a difference in the world.

By donating the cost of a cup of coffee to a favorite worthy cause and sharing the idea with others, you can be a part of something wonderful!

Make something good happen! Small change can make a big difference!

Go check out Unsip.org.

You’ll be glad you did, and you’ll probably want to tell a friend about it too!

I just did!

Have a great weekend!

xoxo Pam

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Last week, I talked about my top 3 needs here,  and although I didn’t link to it in the first post, I also wrote about one of my basic needs, Acceptance, in the Inspirational word of the week here.

In no particular order, the 9 Basic Human Needs are

• Security = Asks lots of questions and demands more information.
• Adventure = Always looking for a new way of doing things.
• Freedom = Needs to make their own choices. Resists rules.
• Exchange = Works well with others to share values.
• Power = Strong leadership tendencies. Good organizers and accept responsibility.
• Expansion = Needs to build and grow. Recognizes value.
• Acceptance = Friendly and tolerant. Smiling and whistling is normal.
• Community = Likes to be around other people. Nurturing and helpful.
• Expression = Creative with words, art, or even computer stuff.

Last Friday night at the Beets, Beats & Eats Farmers market, with a great deal of help from my friends, we held the very first Enjoy the Process Coloring Contest!  Wweeeeeeee!!!!  It went so well!!  Our winner is a lady named Gayle Dodds, a new artist, and vendor at the BB&E.  Out of the 26 entries, her piece received the most votes from all of the people in the park. The prize was a collection of all of the entry fees, which totaled $26.  (My prize was seeing her beautiful smile light up the park! )  She had never won anything before, and she was absolutely tickled pink!  She happily floated around for the rest of the night and promised to enter into next years contest as well!  I couldn’t be happier for her and I’m completely thrilled with the excitement and enthusiasm of all of the people who participated!

So next year I’m planning on adding categories for different ages as well as mediums, including glitter & glue, beads, seeds, stones, fabrics and mosaic tiles! It’s great to have something fun to look forward to!!!

“It’s good to be doing what I’m supposed to be doing with the people I’m doing it with”

When I first read through the 9 Basic Human Needs, I first thought I needed Community because I like to be around people, (which is one of the requirements), but later, as I continued reading, I realized that I have more of a need for Exchange because, according to Barbara Taylor’s article “People with a need for exchange are concerned about the flow of energy in all types of relationships. They like to see things “moving” in some way that expresses balanced equality, integrity and an equal exchange.”

When I decided last November to put together this coloring contest, I had no idea that this was because of my need for Exchange. It just seemed like something I’m supposed to be doing. I needed to give people something special to do in a fun atmosphere. Ever since I had my epiphany in Mexico, I’ve hosted art classes for kids and grown-ups, as well as English and cooking classes while I was living in Brasil. That was when I started writing this blog.

Which leads me to my 3rd basic need, Expression. My need of Expression first manifested itself when I started making my burlap art in Mexico. I took a simple project I had first done in the fourth grade and expanded on it by making and adding beads, fur, flowers, leather strap, hand-made paper and lace.

I use art and writing as therapy to help me get through the really tough parts of life. And unlike pharmaceuticals, art therapy works most of the time with very mild side-effects. For instance now I have a dresser full of scrap material, my friends always give me cool stuff they’ve found, and my art cabinet is stuffed with beads, pine-cones, seeds, stones and other found items! Those are way better side-effects than dry-mouth, sleepiness or oily discharge!! :)

“Art builds community and the community creates value for all.” Seth Godin

Art and writing have given me something beautiful to focus on as well as a chance to express myself and make friends.

So there it is, my friendly blog reader, my top 3 basic needs and how I figured them out.

What do you think? Do you know what your top 3 basic needs are?

I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments!

Have a wonderful week and I’ll be back on Monday with the Inspirational song of the week.

xoxo Pam

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What a wonderful world by Louis Armstrong

It never fails!  I cry every time I hear this song! Good tears that help cleanse my soul and remind me how truly lucky I am!

I hope you enjoy this too!

Here’s a link to check out a video my girlfriend Debbie shot at the BB&E last Friday night! Thanks Debbie! xoxoxo

The coloring contest was a smashing success too!

Gayle Dodds, a local artist and vendor at the BB&E won $26 dollars!  I’ll post pictures on Wednesday!

Have a wonderful day and I’ll be back on Wednesday with part 2 of the 9 Basic Human Needs.

xoxo  Pam

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I found a newsletter on-line when I was home-schooling my son while we lived in Brasil in 2008-9. It was written by  Barbara Taylor, a management consultant with 25 years of experience helping people. (Click the link on her name to see her very impressive qualifications!)

In an effort to help figure out what it is we actually need, my friendly blog reader, it’s important to first understand what those needs are.  Barbara has been kind enough to simplify them into this article here.  (click the link to read the whole thing)

In no particular order, they are

• Security = Asks lots of questions and demands more information.
• Adventure = Always looking for a new way of doing things.
• Freedom = Needs to make their own choices. Resists rules.
• Exchange = Works well with others to share values.
• Power = Strong leadership tendencies. Good organizers and accept responsibility.
• Expansion = Needs to build and grow. Recognizes value.
• Acceptance = Friendly and tolerant. Smiling and whistling is normal.
• Community = Likes to be around other people. Nurturing and helpful.
• Expression = Creative with words, art, or even computer stuff.

According to Barbara, each of us has three primary needs, meaning three needs that are more important than the other six needs, which we also have, but to a lesser degree.  When people don’t get their needs met they can become agitated, belligerent, or pushed to use the negative aspects of their needs.

Each person is responsible for seeing that they get their own needs met — this is an “inside job”, not something that is fulfilled by another person.

Two people who don’t share at least one common need will feel little connection with another person and have a hard time relating to them.  Close friends and partners will usually share two or three needs in common.

In order to figure out our needs, we need to be honest with ourselves when we look at the above list.

For example, my top 3 needs are Acceptance, Exchange and Expression. Now, admitting this is rather difficult, because I feel like people will judge me for needing to feel accepted. However, in order for me to get my next two needs met, Exchange and Expression, I need to be accepted by other people. In fact, I need to accept the fact that I need to be accepted. Make sense?

I’ve found that when I get mad at myself because I’m not learning something fast enough, I become frustrated and angry which creates a vicious cycle of self-abuse. When I let go of unrealistic expectations and accept myself for who I am, I start to relax and focus on the task.

When my family and I first moved into our house, I felt lost and unhappy. My darling husband was on project in Venezuela, while I was here in Michigan. (click the lost and unhappy link to read more about this) Our neighbors weren’t as accepting as I had been told they would be, so I felt rejected and  jealous. (I must tell you, my friendly blog reader, that this is really hard to share, but I will continue on because I believe that somehow, this will help you). In order to make myself feel better, I focused on taking care of my family and home, worked on my art projects and went out and got involved in my community. Although I didn’t realize it until many years later, these actions helped me to fulfill my need of being accepted.

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Here is where I need to take a break, my friendly blog reader. There are many responsibilities I have yet to tend to, so I must stop for now.

I’ll be back next week with Part Two.

Have a great weekend!

xoxo Pam

p.s. One of those responsibilities is the Enjoy the Process Coloring Contest at the Beets, Beats & Eats farmers market this Friday night!!!  WooHoo!  If you’re in Ortonville on Friday night at 6pm, I’d love to see you there!  

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