Love Be-ing A TeacHer!

I'm so lucky to be a teacher!

hEy tHeRe!

Many teachers and kids do the countdown to summer toward the end of the school year--so excited for summer, right? Well;, I'm at work this morning as an 8th grade English teacher at Valley Middle School and guess what?

I LOVE IT!

I mean, what could be better than 

hanging out with kids all day?

(the groWn-Ups are okay, too, I guess . . . LOL!)

Honestly, I feel super lucky and blessed to have a job I love, and to tell the truth, teaching actually found mE. Here's the super no-coincidence story:

Once upon a time in my twenties after college, I was in my room late at night reading a college course catalog (yes, I was working at a department store in the mall with a 4-year degree, living at home with my parents . . . and that's okay . . . I just didn't have a direction, or a focus, and I wasn't sure what to do with my life, hence the college course catalog). I turned a page open and vwah-lah (is that how you spell it?), out popped a section in the catalog for a teaching license program for English (which was my degree in college).

I was like WHOA! COOL! I could be a teacher! and looked farther down the page. I needed two letters on reference from college professors, a copy of my college transcript, an essay explaining my interest in the program, and a filled-out application form. Not a problem, really . . . but then I looked at the deadline: 

iT was 

DuE the

vEry nExT dAy at 5:00 p.m.

I didn't know it at the time, but this was one of the very first times I felt the Universe leveraging itself for me. I knew I was going to be a teacher after I saw this program, and I knew I was going to meet the deadline.  

So, I stayed up all might long writing my essay and filling out the application, and in the morning right away, I called two of my favorite professors the and asked for references THE VERY SAME DAY. They agreed! (of course) . . . 

That very same day (fewer than 24 hours since I had read about the program), I headed down to the University of Minnesota with my application; I picked up the references from my two professors; I went to the transcript office and got an authorized copy of my college grades; AND, I hand-delivered my entire application at (you guessed it!) around 4:55 p.m.

I made the deadline!

Anyway, that is the story of the beginning of my love affair with teaching. I feel so blessed to be a teacher and to have a job that I absolutely adore. Deepak Chopra, in his Seven Laws of Spiritual Success describes The Law of Dharma in this way:

"Everyone has a purpose in life . . . a unique gift or special talent to give to others. And when we blend this unique talent with service to others, we experience the ecstasy and exultation of our own spirit, which is the ultimate goal of all goals."

Do you think your work is connected to your dharma?

Let's continue tomorrow!

Blessings!

Dana

rEsIsTanCe iS fUtiLe; aCcEptaNcE iS PreSenCe!

Star Trek: Resistance is Futile

When you become defensive, blame others, and do not accept and surrender to the moment, your life meets resistance. Any time you encounter resistance, recognize that if you force the situation, the resistance will only increase. You don't want to stand rigid like a tall oak that cracks and collapses in the storm. Instead, you want to be flexible, like a reed that bends with the storm and survives.

Completely desist from defending your point of view. When you have no point to defend, you do not allow the birth of an argument. Someone once told me, "The past is history, the future is a mystery, and this moment is a gift. That is why this moment is called 'the present'."                              

~Deepak Chopra

Dear FunFreePeeps:

Most of us have experienced another person persecuting us, verbally; in other words, people are talking s#!+ about us. It's interesting how we humans do that to each other. And guess what? It meets some serious needs for the person who is talking s#!+.

Let's take a closer look:

• If I talk about you, I take the spotlight off of myself and what it is about ME that I need to change, shift, or look at.
• When I focus on YOU, I ASSume I know what's in your head and what you need. SUPER-DUPER LIE! 
• If I talk about being "worried" about YOU . . . I am ASSigning meaning to your life which is frankly, . . . NONE OF MY dA(m)nG BUSY-NESS . . . 

Which brings me to the idea of BUSY-NESS.

Have you ever noticed that people who are focused on the business of others do not look at their own business, and they create more and more BUSY-NESS out of their own habit of keeping up with what's going on with everyone else? 

It's okay. Like I wrote earlier, this is a need-seeking behavior. We all have a need for significance and belonging, and sometimes we feel significant when we have "THE (made up) GOODS" on someone else, and we stir the pot to create chaos and deflect focus from ourselves and our own stuff. HOW Convenient. Thanks, Church Lady (Dana Garvey from SNL). CLICK BELOW!

For those of us who have done this (and I, for sure, am guilty . . .) I invite you to kindly and firmly KNOCK IT OFF, and

LOOK IN THE MIRROR:RORRIM EHT NI KOOL 

People, frankly,

do not want to get sucked into your

s#!+STORM;

(note poop-brown color)

it's not interesting,

it's draining,

and it lacks integrity.

For those of us who have been the recipient of such diatribes:

• RELAX. Breathe. It's not about you!
• As Chopra said, DO NOT DEFEND YOURSELF. "Completely desist from defending your point of view." Everything in the Universe is energy, and in these situations, we need to conserve our energy for ourselves. Defending takes your energy away. 
• Know that this is need-seeking behavior (not about you) and try to have compassion for the person who persecutes you; remember time when you have done the same.
• LOVE YOURSELF EVEN MORE--WHATEVER THAT LOOKS LIKE FOR YOU. Here are some ideas that work for me:
• take a salt bath.
• exercise.
• change your environment.
• meditate (don't medicate . . .)
• write.
• scream into a pillow.
• rest.
• watch your favorite stupid show.

What are your feelings and thoughts about these emotional VaMpIrES?  How do you handle them in your amazing Life?

Let us know in the comments!

MonSTer (but not vampire) LovE!

Dana

trAnsFoRmAtiOn . . . and rE-bIrTh (Happy Easter!)

Metamorphosis is naturally destructive.

~Danielle LaPorte

One summer, a bUtTeRfLy landed on me, and then I kept seeing them over and over. I took this as a sign from the Universe of a newly arrived tOtEm: 

bUtTTerFly! 

Happy Easter!

(also a time of transFORmation, transMUtation, and change . . .)

The butterfly reminds us about biRtH and reBiRtH . . . and also gently whispers to us:

The only constant in

life is

cHaNGe! 

I don't know about you, but when I was a teenager, I sometime felt downright awkward, sluggish, and well, kind of wormISH, in a way (sometimes still feel like this, btw!). If you think about caterpillars, they are kind of the same 

. . . gross and not-so-good looking, perhaps?

Can you believe that yucky wormy caterpillars transform themselves into beautiful and amazing butterflies?

Do you think caterpillars realize their existence

in the dirt with the other worms and bugs is actually

preparing them for their 

most miraculous life 

above the ground in free flight?

Can you imagine the view--

the difference in perspective?!

(gOoSeBuMp alert!)

What if yoUr existence now--with all the good stuff and the yucky crap, too, is doing the same:

preparing you for yoUr

most miraculous life

above the ground in free flight?

Here's a reveal of a 

butterfly's

first emergence

(nice outfit!)

If you've ever watched a caterpillar spin a cocoon and emerge as a butterfly,

 you may have noticed a couple of things:

the process of

transformation

takes 

t . . . i . . . m . . . e

and

trUst

that

nAtUrE

knows what she's doing!

When you were born, just like any other creature, you had to trust that when you arrived, you would be caught and cared for, right?

Guess what?

You are still caught and cared for, . . . even if it may not be showing up the way you want.

Love it all,

Dana

CrEaTe Ur LiFe of POSSIBiLitiEs!

Move ForWarD iNtO yOuR fUtUre

hEy funfreePeePLEs!

Today will be a bit short, but I just want to mention that in moving on and finding me, I've had to let go of some relationships and patterns from my past . . . and other people don't always appreciate that or like that about me. 

And that's actually okay . . . it's part of growing. After all, snakes shed their skins, trees lose their leaves, and we replace the cels in our bodies as we grow and live.

So, what do we do when we have to set boundaries and move on? Not anything so dramatic. . . 

Here's a video from MarieForleo TV that talks about people holding you back (which is actually made up in your mind...) check it out!

Let me know what you think about her message! What pretend stuff holds you back? And, how do you you overcome it?

Thanks & so much LovE!

d-dog

Happy Monday!