I’m still feeling that Christmas spirit and it has a lot to do with a few “Christmas Miracles” that I was blessed to have.
One of my very close friends gave me one of her crystals, one that meant a lot to her. She passed away a few years ago yet I kept this closer than ever…until I couldn’t find it for the last four years. I looked everywhere and no luck. As I was finishing up decorating my living room on Christmas Eve, I noticed that one of my glass bowls had broken. I decided to empty it out and throw it in the trash. As I was taking out the contents of the bowl, there at the bottom was the pendulum. Imagine my surprise that it had been inside of my house, right near my desk, all along!
Christmas Day brought even more miracles! My sister and my nephew drove up from Virginia to surprise my family! My brother had traveled from New York with his family and it was the first time in over 25 years that my parents had all three of their children together for Christmas, not to mention 8 of their 12 grandchildren! As for me, I was blessed to have 3 of my five children with me.
I woke up the day after Christmas with the same feelings as the day before. I was filled with excitement and joy, love and light, and more importantly, I was filled with gratitude for all that I was blessed to receive.
I’m so excited about these last few days of 2019 and I intend to make the most of each and every minute of them. It’s the end of the decade with a new one right around the corner. Make it the best ever!
I believe in miracles. I believe that dreams do come true. I believe that anything and everything is possible.
I woke up this morning feeling grateful that I’ve been given another day to live my best life.
I was thinking about the people that I’m blessed to have in my life: my family and my friends.
I was thinking about all the things that bring me joy: my home, my writing, and my life at the Jersey Shore.
I was thinking about the smallest of things that bring me peace: my morning coffee, the smell of the salt air, the sounds of the ocean, the sunrises and sunsets.
So often we lose sight of all the beauty that surrounds us because of the “ugly” things that try to blind us.
Keep your eyes open to see the beauty that surrounds you and let your light shine.
Everything begins with you…and I can’t say that often enough to you. There are moments even I have to remind myself of that.
And those moments seem to come when we place more value on others than we do on ourselves, and when that happens, well, everything hits the fan!
We find ourselves seeing the true colors of friends; we see that they weren’t who we thought they were; and when that happens we find ourselves feeling betrayed, hurt and angry. We wonder why they couldn’t be as loyal to us as we were to them; we wonder why they turned their back on us; we wonder why they crossed our boundaries of friendship.
We wonder what happened, why things went the way they did, and what did it all mean…in other words, we want to know WHY it happened.
No one can control another; no one can make another loyal and trusting to you; no one can make someone love them.
We can only control ourselves.
And that’s a great power to have: the power to make decisions that are best for YOU!
You see, you lost sight of how valuable you are; you valued someone else so much that you forgot to value yourself; you placed way too much importance on someone who hurt you.
If you can’t see how valuable you are, how do you expect anyone else to?
It all begins with you.
Walk away from those who bring you down; wish them love and light, be grateful for the lessons it taught you, and move forward.
Let go of the negative people you’ve allowed in your bubble and make room for the positive people to come in.
Did you ever wake up one morning only to realize that the situation or relationship you’re currently in just isn’t working? What was so wonderful for a time no longer holds those feelings; the good times are replaced with stress and drama, hurt and heartache.
We’ve all had a moment or two of that, yet what do we do?
We know that we want more and we deserve more, and we still hold onto the hope that the situation or relationship will change…but it doesn’t.
It’s served its’ time, taught you some lessons and made you realize that you were settling, and truth be told, it was holding you back.
There’s always some pain at the loss of something you thought was the right thing, yet I’m here to tell you that once you heal and get past those emotions, the world opens doors for you that you didn’t even know were closed.
Keeping negative things in your life, no matter what or who it is, will always keep out the good things just waiting to come into your life.
Love yourself enoughto know that you deserve all good things; wish the situation or person that you need to walk away from lots of love and light, and thank them for all that they taught you.
My next book, “My Collective Soul: ThingsI Know Without Knowing Why” will be released on 2/23/18! This book is a collection of short storie and essays on how to live your life to its’ Highest Good! I’m beyond excited to see another of my “dreams” become a reality! I’ll keep you all posted on my upcoming “adventures” for the release of my new book!
I was blessed enough to be interviewed by my publisher, Morissa Schwartz, owner of GenZ Publishing this morning. It was an exciting experience and hope that you enjoy it! You’ll learn a little bit more about my life as a writer and about my life as “me.”
I hope you enjoy it!
Wishing you love and light,
~Anne Dennish~
Anne Dennish – Author
Morrissa Schwartz – Owner of GenZ Publishing
Author Anne Dennish and Morrissa Schwartz, Owner of GenZ Publishing
If you’ve been following my latest blogs then you’ll understand this story. Last weekend someone made a comment on one of my blogs. It was hurtful and untrue. As I looked at the IP address I realized that it belonged to the same person that did the same thing to me in August, commenting on me personally rather than on my writing.
My heart sank on Saturday morning when I saw a degrading comment about “me.” I traced the IP address to the vicinity of where it came from and realized that it was from the same one back in August, and sadly, it’s someone I know.
I appreciate and welcome any comments about my writing…I appreciate comments to tell me how I can be a better writer. I don’t take offense at construction criticism about my writing, but I do take offense to being publicly slandered about “who” someone says I am. And I’m hurt to know it’s someone I know and that “someone” knows I’m not anything that they said I was. My character was defamed, my reputation slandered. And I was hurt because I couldn’t understand, let alone wrap my head around why this person would do that to me.
Yet something made them do it and it hurt. They hid behind false names and false email addresses, yet an IP address doesn’t lie. I knew who it was.
Some may say I took the comment too personally, yet I felt slightly threatened and definitely slandered. Since the comment was made public on my website, I’ll share it with you:
Did it ever occur to you that you reflect all that you are, that perhaps you create all these situations because of your own self loathing?
You seem to gave a central theme in all your blogs that portray you as a victim, not as an enlightened, loving spiritual being. Good luck on your “project” …looks like you have a lot of self work to do.
I deleted the other comments the moment I read them in August, but the theme and the tone were the same. It was a direct attack on me as a person, not me as a writer. It was the voice of someone who hated me and the life I’m living with my love, Rob. It was someone that is so angry with me that they wanted to publicly slander me.
And the truth is, I’m not any of those things. I’m not self-loathing and I definitely do not play a victim. I try and take all my experiences I’ve gone through, the good and the bad, and share them with others in the hope that I can help them through when there was no one to help me. I want to inspire and motivate people; I want to spread kindness and hope; I want to make a difference in the world and in another human beings life; I want to try and make the world a better place.
When I saw that comment on Saturday morning it felt as though someone punched me in the stomach. When I realized it was from the same person from months ago, my heart sank…because it was then I realized who it was.
I spoke to the police and knew what I could do, but then I thought about the rest of that family. They shouldn’t pay for that person’s feelings towards me. I was angry and I was hurt. Even as I write this I would love to sit down with this person and ask them why they did that to me. Why did they hate me so much?
And then I realized the answer: some people are so unhappy in their own lives that they take it out on others; they want what someone else has and if they can’t have it, they’ll try and ruin it; they’re jealous, they’re insecure and they’re lost souls with no direction. They don’t understand that they can have all those things on their own but they can’t or won’t because they don’t love themselves, don’t respect themselves, and would rather play the martyr than to do the work on themselves to have the best life they can have.
I’m not angry anymore because I forgave them. I had to. Holding onto the anger keeps it alive and gives that person and what they did control and power over me, and I won’t have it. So I decided to forgive them, and let go of the anger. I didn’t call them or let them know I forgive them, I forgave them for ME! And once I did that I realized that there was no more anger, and by forgiving them I took back my power and my control.
Today I forgave them but I’ll never forget the three comments they wrote about me. I’ll forgive them but I’ll never forget what they said. Never.
And now you know why I am on a mission of spreading the word to all of you to be kind to one another.
The world will never get better with hate and jealousy, but there’s a good chance it will change with kindness.
Anne Dennish - Writer/Author 