Count your blessings 2012

Life has it's many twists and turns and the older I get the more I realize that sometimes to just listen to an older person can sure give you some wisdom and it truly blesses them. I love listening to my mum's stories of her childhood and listen to her talk, it makes me feel a part of her past. The other day I was on about money, she added "some days Lisa I have nothing but two pennies in my purse, but I am happy, sure I would like to win the lottery but I am happy.What is it to work your whole life and never been happy". I love her I wish to God I could see her. If I had a fairy wand that is where I would go. I took so much for granted going home every two years. Never did I think that there would be a time when I could not get to see her. She is amazing, sure she has her faults. But to me through it all I see a woman who has been through so much. Maybe others see her in a different light. Sometimes it is good just to stop and see what you really have. The other day I was in a preschool and looked at the children and parents coming in and I was so thankful that I got to stay home, at the time I just took it for granted but as I watched those little children I thought of how blessed I truly was.How many of us go through life not realizing how blessed we are until it is gone or that person is gone. We hold a grudge, were fearful of saying sorry or been hurt again. Perhaps if we saw the world through a child's eyes, and forgave more quickly life would be more blessed. Just a thought Please have a cup of tea with me today.

Single parenting not for the weak at heart.

Next week I start a new job working 30 hours and hopefully I get to work at my old job every other Saturday as I loved the customers. Single parenting in my eyes is not for the weak at heart. I loved been around my children all the time. I think that has been the hardest thing, you balance reality of money and you have to put to the side your own desires. Many work full time and that might be their choice or not. But when everything stops at you it is a tough road. From what will be cooked, to missing your family in England, to toilets blocked and siblings bickering, it falls on the single parent. Weighing up what is more important shoes for yourself or shoes for your child. Listening to every noise from the A/C unit,fridge and car and praying to God that it does not break, as there is simply no money to fix it and praying to God that some how one day your make home with your children to see your mum before something happens. It's a tough and Christmas is worse and not knowing when I will go home is a tough one. I have had many advice and many people say what others have had to do. But the reality is, is we are all different, each child accepts or does not accept divorce in their own way. Truth be known I wished I had parents to go home to. Some fall back and live with their families, I did not have that option and I will have to say, the longing for a family over here is great. But there has been many a moment when dancing in the rain and laughing at life makes all the heavy burdens just a little lighter. Throwing flour on the floor and drawing pictures in it. Who would guess little me, would find pleasure in such things. Life does not always hand us blessings, but it is in seeing beyond that, that we find them. So if you are a single parent or even if your not. Look and see your blessings in what sometimes you think are not. Because I have looked and I have found that I am blessed through many trials. Please have a cup of tea with me today.

The Grocery store, lesson.

As a child I use to visit this small grocery store, this owner every time you said you wanted an item she would say Thank you, Thank you very much. In my world she became the Thank you, Thank you very much lady. I have worked in a super market for the past two years plus. I use to go there with my hair up and blue ribbon in my hair, that went after a few months. At times I grumbled and complained and even felt ill treated when my hours were cut for no reason. But i decided to see beyond the cash register. See items per minutes count it is everything and memorizing numbers of fruits and veggies means all to profits. But in my world I saw the customers as an opportunity to reach out and make their day better. Making children laugh or help me with getting their food through the line, making sure that older people received a few minutes to listen to their heart. A hug to a person who had lost their wife seemed in my world to make my problems so little. It has been a place where I decided to leave for the most part, my issues behind and become like the Thank you, Thank you very much lady.I wanted to make someone smile. I wanted to be the one that someone knew I would give my best.Maybe no one saw that, I was so blessed in many ways at my supermarket job, I got no praise from management no award on a wall,no hey we wished you could stay or promotion. But I did it because in this world when everyone does something for ME ME ME I wanted to do something for someone else. I wished all those who have come through my line could know sincerely how many have blessed me. From the hugs, the laughs and high five's from the children, I have been blessed. A man calls me Lady Lisa of Tryon Village means nothing to anyone but everything to me. See life is not always about us. Even in a supermarket God can do amazing things. He certainly did with me.I am a better person from the love I tried to give out to others and the smiles and love that often was so freely given. From a woman writing we miss you already to a mother saying we will miss you to a hug of a child,to the man that when I found out he had lost his wife my heart broke, you see in my broken world they have given me hope and as I type this I am a little scared that without them will my world be broken again. I hope not because they made me believe in me.

Look and see what amazing things can happen to you if you just look with eyes wide open. Please have a cup of tea with me.

Lessons in Grief.

Life is very short. A friend of mine has just lost her son. I will have to say I hate death. There is this empty feeling left and a hope in your mind that,

you will see them again. But your heart is sunk and few around seem to know what to say. In death life can come. I have way more compassion since my brother died and as I say, I am thankful for that just wished I had learnt it another way. But death comes in my ways doesn't it. I work now and I use to stay at home, it has been a hard road and one I still hate. The best job I have ever had is been with my children. I probably took it for granted though. I never wanted to be divorced yet another death and here I am. I miss my mum and my amazing friends back home, yet another death. Yet in it all. I see that God has changed me. I wished it had been another way, I do with all my heart. But I have meet some amazing people, got to pray and hug some people that years ago I would of walked the other way from. So in death what have I learnt. That it is seeing beyond your tears and seeing how God can use your deepest pain, to bring comfort to another. And for that I am thankful. Please have a cup of tea with me today.

Beauty is more than we think.

I love drawing but beauty is in the eyes that can see beyond have you been watching the Olympics? I have, many have not one a gold medal. To me the beauty is in the person who keeps on trying the man with no real legs who runs a race and keeps on going. The woman who runs for her country and has no medal in her hands to go home with but

keeps going. It is in moments in our own lives when a child stops and see's the magic of splashing in a puddle or drawing with chalk on a path. A child hugging another child and saying it is alright. Beauty is in a cob web, it is in the hardships of life and still a mother or father keep going. It is in running the race and keep on going when others all around seem to have won gold and you have nothing. Yet you keep on going. A teenager or a child doing what's right while others seem to have fun. A single parent or widow or older person offering food to another when they do not know where their food is coming from. It is in many moments that I have walked that their is beauty. So don't be deceived there is beauty all around you just have to believe. Please have a cup of tea with me today.