I am a blessed being. Everyday when I arise from the comfort of my bed in the comfort of my home with all the necessities of life, I feel blessed.

My thoughts go to those in society who are not as blessed as I. Those who sleep in the elements and stress about how they are going to survive another day. This takes my thoughts to us imperfect beings and our misunderstandings about what it means to live.

Our world is not meant to be disgruntled. It feels all wrong this need to step on others heads to get somewhere in life. It is literally choking the life out of us as we abuse one another and the earth on which we live.

I've never been one to follow the crowd. Mostly because I have been a deeply intuitive person from the time I was a child and I understood the downside to being a follower. It's impossible to think for oneself when you follow the "norm". When you step outside the norm, the truth rushes in fairly quickly about how naïve human's truly are. 

Freedom comes with understanding this truth. Freedom to think. Freedom to feel. Freedom to trust. Freedom to live. <3

There was a time when I felt distress because I wasn't in the know about my life's journey. I think we can all relate to this feeling. Now that I know it was fear that was instigating those worried thoughts, I can change my mind if feelings of uncertainty creep in. I can do this because I am the master of right thinking. 

James Allen - As A Man Thinketh - 1903 - "Mind is the master power that molds and makes, and man is mind, and evermore he takes the tool of thought, and shaping what he wills, brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills: - He thinks in secret and it comes to pass: environment is but his looking glass".

If you ever get the chance to read his book, please do. Like many of the current day gurus on manifesting, he understood fully that we are our thoughts, what we think we become.  

James Allen - As A Man Thinketh - 1903 - "Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself; he also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace. By the right choice and true application of thought, man ascends to the Divine Perfection; by the abuse and wrong application of thought he descends below the level of the beast. Between these two extremes are all the grades of character, and man is their maker and master".

Man (woman) is made or unmade by him/herself. Everyday I ask myself, how will I continue to "make" myself? By doing this I'm less concerned with the journey's outcome and more concerned with the now, because now is all that there ever will be. <3

What do I know for sure? I know that human's are gullible. Me included. We are gullible because we are imperfect. There is no perfect human. And that is okay.

The thing that isn't okay is not being able to accept one's own imperfections while at the same time judging the imperfections of others. The only way it is possible to do cease judging yourself and others is to let go of one's ego and to instead embrace one's soul. 

You are your own worst enemy because you let your ego control your mind when you actually have the ability to allow your soul to control your peace of mind. (Read that again).

The sad part about ego is that it has no interest in allowing peace. It's purpose is to distract you with the shiny objects that you see around your external self. It is loud and obnoxious. Your soul's purpose on the other hand is to ease you towards inner peace and only speaks in whispers. 

When an imperfect human has the aha moment that their soul is the watcher of their mind, it can be startling and liberating all at the same time. You are not the noise inside your head. You are the watcher of the noise inside your head. 

After this is accepted as truth, the work begins to shush the noise and listen for the whisper. This takes work. The ego is a strong opponent and won't easily go silent. Once you've silenced your ego, you will still need to override its attempts to take over from time to time. Tell it to shush and listen instead for the whisper. The whisper will never make you feel insecure or fearful. 

Do your soul a favor and learn all that you can about the Reticular Activating System (RAS) that every human has in their brain. The Reticular Activating System is responsible for our wakefulness, our ability to focus, our fight-flight response, and how we ultimately perceive the world. It can control what we perceive in our consciousness, essentially a gatekeeper of information. It is your ego. 

Understanding this brings about the wisdom that a soul does have the ability to override what the ego uses to keep you under its thumb. The soul wants freedom, the ego wants oppression. When you can fully understand this, there is only one way to go after that. <3

My book has 37 chapters. Each chapter is an explanation about faith and the importance of searching for one's soul. Once found, the soul must be used to help other's to find their soul. This is done through love...the love of self and the love of others.

Excerpt from Chapter 15 - Bricks, Mortar, Soul, Cornerstone from The Sun Neither Rises nor Sets.
​Go to church if you want to hear the answer, but take the time when you get home to hear the whisper. He does not just speak for fifty-two hours out of the year; He speaks every single day, but it is up to you to hear.

Chapter 15 isn't about the 52 hours a year that some will spend at church on Sunday's. It's about the other 27,000 hours in a year that aren't spent in a church on Sunday's. 

It may surprise people to know that I don't regularly attend church. I've been to church, I understand the purpose of church, and I'm all for people going if that is what they choose. For me, I am more interested in how I can spend my every waking moment being the very best version of myself that I am supposed to be.

Go to church, don't go to church, it matters little to me how you find your peace, just find it. And once you've found it, hold on to it, and use it to help others to find theirs. That is why we are here anyway. <3

The laughing on my part is done out of freedom. Freedom to just be. I don't have to play any of the mind games that us imperfect humans feel is necessary to belong to....????...what?

When it is important to you that you conform in order to "belong", you will forever be unhappy. Nothing feels right when you sacrifice your peace to ensure others have theirs. That is not the way it works, at least that is not the way your soul knows that it works.

Your soul was given life when you were given life. It's that "whisper" you have when you are grappling with right/wrong good/bad decision making. You are also equipped with an ego which roars when you are grappling with right/wrong good/bad decision making.

Your soul's connection is to God, Creator, Universe, Higher Power. Your ego's connection is to the imperfect dribble of information you have absorbed throughout your lifetime. Which of these do you think has the most power?

The only way to know the real truth is to recognize your soul and recognize your ego. Your soul is you, and your ego is everyone and everything that has attached to you. If you choose soul, you choose peace. If you choose ego, you welcome chaos. Unfortunately, most choose ego/chaos over peace.

It is impossible to have soul and ego at the same time. Either you want peace or you want chaos. 

The next time you are feeling like the odd person out, ask yourself if it's because you have chosen to be answerable to God, Creator, Universe, Higher Power, or if you have chosen to be answerable to other imperfect beings? Discerning carefully on this will determine why you are laughing. <3

This is happening. It still feels surreal that I am going to be a published author. I've had to say "I am a published author" about a thousand times for my Reticular Activating System (RAS) to believe it as the truth. More on the RAS in my second book! :-) 

My publisher is FriesenPress and the book will be ready soon for purchase through them before it makes its way to all the other purchasing locations it is destined for:

FriesenPress   https://books.friesenpress.com/store/title/119734000315303097
Barnes & Noble 
Chapters/Indigo
Amazon.ca
Amazon.com
Kobo
Kindle
Apple Books
Nook Book
Google Play

A reminder of the review that the book received from Kirkus Reviews: (the excerpt in red will be included on the back cover of the book):

Longstreet’s book of rhymes and meditations on faith also chronicles a painful childhood filled with abuse.
In this religious memoir, the author chronicles her journey overcoming loss, pain, and abuse while moving toward devout Christianity. When Longstreet was a child, her father abandoned the family, and her mother died in a plane crash. She and her brother were raised in foster care, where they worked on their uncaring guardians’ property and were regularly beaten. In this period, she relished the hour a week spent at the local church, where she could finally find some peace and a way to feel unconditional love. “I cannot tell you what God looks like, but His presence was a warmth you cannot see with your eyes,” she writes of the intense spiritual feelings she experienced. Her chaotic upbringing left her without a high school diploma, but she succeeded in passing the equivalency test and completing a secretarial course. Briefly married, she had a son and granted him what she never had: a stable childhood. Now a devoutly religious person, the author writes in both verse and prose about religion and how it helped her (and can help the reader) to overcome adversity and lead a fulfilling life. Longstreet’s story about her early years is certainly harrowing, and she vividly conveys the idea that she “suffered abuses that a child should not know.” It is compelling to read how she persevered through such difficult circumstances and how she ensured her son would never know the same. The epiphany she experienced as a child is an illuminating and potent center to the narrative. The structure of the book, alternating rhymes and prose, is appealing, and the religious message is convincing and heartfelt; however, though each line is thoughtful, the text can get too repetitive.
A true tale of adversity and a fervent (if redundant) call for readers to embrace religion.

Life is good. <3

Early on in my son's struggle with his substance use disorder, I came up with these four words (phases/steps) as a mantra/motto for us on his road to recovery.

Hope: Never lose this.
Honesty: Be truthful about why you are struggling.
Healing: Heal what is causing you to hurt.
Honor: Sobriety must be chosen daily.

Now that he is on his recovery journey, I started to wonder how these words could be used in any aspect of life. I found that they all ring true as a process for pretty much anything that we do. Let's take praying (manifesting) as an example. 

Hope: Never give up on what YOU (your soul) knows is right for you. Ego will try to deter you.
Honesty: Ask for exactly what you want (no waffling!) and know that there is no ceiling in place for that ask. 
Healing: Acknowledge your ego's roar and replace it with your soul's whisper. Ego is the noise; the roar in your head. Soul is the whisper you can hear but is drowned out by the ego. 
Honor: Each day is a choice to trust your soul over your ego. Affirm each day.

All things will come to us if we focus on how we need to get there. The trouble with us imperfect beings is that we doubt the power of the soul that we each carry with us every moment of everyday. Instead, we allow the ego/voice/noise inside our head to dictate our reality. 

Find your soul. Set your 4H's. Do the work to make them happen. Choose to trust your soul.

Remember: A soul does not discriminate. It cares very little what the outside world thinks of you or anyone else. It only knows the true you. Find your soul...you will know what I mean when you do. <3

As I've been doing the really hard work to shake my mind awake, I've had to gain a level of maturity where I can say "agree to disagree" and genuinely mean it. 

There are so many things that us imperfect humans are going to disagree about, and that is okay. What is not okay is forgetting that we are ALL imperfect humans born free and equal in dignity and rights. Yes, even those that you have judged as having a different mindset than you. 

Somewhere along the line of no longer being an infant someone labelled you as being worthy or unworthy of dignity and rights. Think about that. You were born to be labelled by another imperfect human as qualified or not to be free and equal, with dignity and rights. Kind of mind blowing isn't it. 

What I know for sure is this: We are free, we are equal, we have rights, we are imperfect beings.

There is no human alive that has the power to determine your life. They can certainly try, but they have zero power when it comes to that. It doesn't take power to oppress people, that is done out of fear. Fear that the sleeping minds will awaken to the truth about the power that each soul carries within each imperfect being. Used properly that power could deem all imperfect humans to be free and equal, with dignity and rights. 

I'm very much looking forward to fulfilling my purpose on this planet as a free, equal, imperfect being who just so happens to have awoken her mind. <3

Yesterday I was in line at the grocery store and while I waited, I looked to my left and right a couple times to see how those lines were progressing. It occurred to me that maybe I'd switch lines if one was moving quicker. Than I smiled to myself thinking of what was said to me once about indecision...waffles are for breakfast, make up your mind and stick with it.

Firstly, what was the rush to be done with this task? I had nowhere to be or anything urgent to get to. Secondly, why was I second guessing my decision if I had the other lines to choose from in the first place. 

That is life. We are constantly presented with choices that require a decision. Unlike the grocery store though, you are not given many choices to choose from. You are given choice A or choice B which is to do the right thing or do the wrong thing. The waffling comes in while deciding on a choice, because we know we will receive a reward or a consequence for our decision. 

We can't always be right and we can't always be wrong and that is perfectly fine. That is the way it is supposed to be. We are imperfect beings after all. 

What is really important is that you own the decision you make...right or wrong. Learn from both. Become a better person because of both. Know that you will be given many opportunities to figure things out if you will just stop waffling. Find your soul and listen to it. Making decisions becomes easier after that. <3

Destine: intend or choose (someone or something) for a particular purpose or end
Destined: certain to meet (a particular fate)
Destiny: the hidden power believed to control what will happen in the future; fate
Destination: the place to which someone or something is going or being sent

It is my understanding from God that our destination here on earth is to arrive at our soul. When the soul is accepted a hidden power will be found there. A timeline has been set for this soul searching to take place. We were all equipped with a purpose prior to leaving our source of power to which we will return at some point.

The purpose of each and every soul is to assist imperfect human's to find and use their soul for the good of each other that it was intended for. The time has come to evolve some more.