Help for Teens to Graduate High School

If you need a boost in getting through school...
If you can give a boost in helping someone else get through school...

http://www.boostup.org/

is a place to go online to get or give a boost up!

It's a really great idea, so go support someone or ask for support right now.

It's easy and simple: Just click here if you haven't already.

Cheers!
Aunt Laya

Overcoming Fear and Regret

If I could give my previous post about fear a soundtrack, this would be it.

Consider this post a kind of "love note" from me to you.
May you walk in strength and sweetness and joy.
Keep growing!
Love,
Aunt Laya

Message to Teens

Here's my latest video from You Tube:



I'd love to hear what you think.

Love,
Aunt Laya

Not JUST a test

Most things that bug you are a test. Not JUST a test, but a test to help you grow. If life is a game, how do you get to the next level? Tag! You're it!

(see previous post)

love,
Aunt Laya

Say Cheese! ;-)

You can change the world with your smile!

You must know the story about the toll booth guy who was feeing so sad and invisible until one day he was greeted with a great smile. He felt so good that he passed it to the next driver, who passed it along, who passed it along…

There’s a children’s picture book called “I like your buttons” which has the same kind of message. A child tells her teacher that she likes the buttons on her blouse. The teacher passes the compliment on until it reaches the little girls father—who then brings the little girl a kitten because he’s feeling so happy.

Don’t underestimate the power of your smile.

Experiment for the day: Smile sincerely or give a sincere compliment to several people during your day. Try this with lots of people (like someone who helps you at the store, a waiter, someone at the bank, etc.), and also with people who you are close to (like your parents or kids, close friends, even neighbors). Let the kindness go like a helium balloon you’d release into the sky. How do YOU feel at the end of the day?

Love,
Aunt Laya

Start Over

"Start over" means that even if you made a mistake or made a choice that didn't have the outcome you wanted, you can start over. Right now. Just start over. And you can start over any moment that you need to. You still have to deal with the consequences of a not-so-great decision or action or whatever. So? So, that's okay, deal with it, move on, and take the next step. You’re a little bit wiser and you know what you want a little more clearly.

This is a photo of a blossoming walnut tree. It's starting over after a dormant winter of bare branches. It will take the whole summer for the walnuts to grow and ripen until they are ready to eat near the fall.

Blessing of the day: Start over where you need to and enjoy the miracles that surprise you along the way.

Love,
Aunt Laya

Do you believe in miracles?

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Where I live there are signs of spring everywhere. The walnut and fig (photo) trees I can see are giving birth to tiny bits of green life through bear, brown branches. Just have a look at each new moon, which starts fresh as a tiny sliver each month and renews itself into a full celebration of time and opportunity.

If “you see what you look for” and you look for miracles, then what are the miracles you notice? Where is the opportunity to renew—or recreate—in your life, right now?

The miracles of nature do not seem miraculous because they are so common. If no one had ever seen a flower, even a dandelion would be the most startling event in the world. --Author unknown


Blessing for the day: May your eyes be open to the small miracles of each day and may your heart be open to the big ones.

Love, Aunt Laya

True colors

Have you ever spent any time watching peacocks? They are so beautiful and so majestic. But they get a bum rap. When someone is walking around all conceited, people sometimes use the expression, “he’s strutting like a peacock.” I think peacocks are very modest birds though. They are beautiful to be sure. The males are programmed to attract the females for mating but it’s not about ego.

Ego is about people having inflated feelings of superiority. On the other hand, ego can go out of balance the other way when people feel inferior or not good enough. Being in balance is not feeling superior or inferior. Everybody has areas of talent and areas of weakness. How do you value the rose over the orchid or the daisy over the daffodil? The peacock is bluer than an elephant, and elephant is stronger than a fox, a fox is craftier than a frog, and frog jumps farther than an oyster (who doesn’t jump at all), which produces pearls from its challenges.

The ballerina dances and pays the shoemaker for her shoes. The shoemaker needs the truck driver to deliver supplies. The truck driver buys his food from the farmer, who buys his clothes… we humans rely on each other for entertainment, food, shelter, clothes, beauty, strength, comfort.

Truth of the day: Who ever you are, what ever you do, you are a gift to this world!
Blessing of the day: Shine your true colors in the way that only you can do.

Do you want to know a secret?

Your secret is your prisoner; if you reveal it, you will become its prisoner.
(Mivchar HaPenimim 29:6)

I recently saw this quote on another blog.

The next time I went blog-hopping, I found this: http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com/
The (not G rated) art blog where people send in post cards sharing their secret. There can be healing when people know that everyone else has a secret, private place with thoughts they don't want to share with anyone else. PostSecret blog is the place where people can keep their secret "prisoner" and let it out all at the same time.

Another reason I wanted to post the link to PostSecret is because there is link to Hope Line (http://www.hopeline.com/) for people who are thinking about trying to end their pain through suicide. Maybe if people know what other people are holding inside they won't feel as alone. Maybe if people will call 1-800-Suicide (784-2433) they will also know that they are not alone. There are real ways to step out of pain, and there are guides to help you find the way.

Sometimes it's a good thing to share a secret. When my friend told me she had cancer, I could do more for her. Sometimes it's not good to share a secret. Like the quote above, things can come back to hurt you. There are safe places to share secrets and get help. There are lots of wonderful resources. There are lots of people in this world who want to be there for someone in need.

In searching for places that I could connect, share links, network for my own book (which I hope can be a friend to people), I was in awe after just an hour of looking around at just how many wonderful websites there are that reach out to teens and everyone.

Advice for the day: If you need a hand, reach out and ask for help. There will be someone there reaching back.

Blessing for the day: May you always feel the warmth from the Spark of Creation that lives within you.

Er-a-Er-a-Errrr! Wake Up!

This is your very own personal wake up call. What are you avoiding? What are you procrastinating about? Get honest here.

• Do you need to make a phone call? (Call during lunch and it will be short.)

• Have you taken any action toward a dream? A baby step will do.

• Do you need a nap? Power naps are “in.” Or take a gentle nap.

• Have you said “I love you” to someone who needs to hear it?

• When was the last time you said “thank you” with eye contact?

• Where do you need to change your perspective?

• What are you looking for in life?

• Are you being true to you?

• Who are you spending your precious time with?

I don’t know who said this first, but I love the message:
“When you get a wake up call, answer the phone,
and when opportunity knocks, answer the door.”

You have an opportunity RIGHT NOW to take one small action that will make a difference. Just one small thing. Minor tweaking over time has a huge impact! Consider me your very own personal cheering section.

• Read one page of that important book
• Give one dollar to someone that feeds hungry people
• Do one load of laundry
• Contact one business lead
• Say one sincere prayer
• Brush away one tear
• Ease one heart—your heart counts!

You can do this!

Love,
Aunt Laya