Mercy Ships Providing Help

With our support, we can change the lives of women who lack access to healthcare and much more Mercy Ships. 

Ships which operate as hospitals, help developing nations around the world through the help of talented volunteers Mercy Ships.

Please visit Mercy Ships to see how our help can provide urgently needed surgeries for those who have no other hope.  Saving and transforming lives through surgeons and medical staff who volunteer their time.  They have helped over 2.5 million people.  

Mercy Ships is a 501(c)(3) organization.

A Way To Give Back

For all the blessings in my life, a way I have found to give back is by donating a portion of the sales from each of my stores to various charities.  There is so much need in the world and although I know I am not even fulfilling a small portion of that need, in my heart, I want to do whatever I can to help others.  Although I must note, this article is not at all about me or what I do, it is about others.  It is about the struggling single mother who has been disadvantaged in more ways than one can imagine Dress for Success San Diego. The parents who are grief-stricken at watching helplessly their child fight cancer St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The serviceman or woman who has gone to battle only to return home injured never to be the same Wounded Warrior Project.  The countless children and adults who go to bed, work or school hungry or are at risk of drinking unclean water No Kid Hungry, UNICEF Tap Project, Feeding America.  Those men, women and children who have no pillow to lay their head at night Friends of Boston's Homeless and the countless, countless need that has found its way to every corner of our world.

Rain in December

As I write this post on December 14th, it is raining.  For a December day it's not quite what one would expect especially in the Midwest.  The Christmas tree is lit, the decorations are up and Christmas cookies are about to go in the oven.  It hardly seems like it is nearing Christmas let alone December with temperatures in the upper 50's and the rain falling down.  Despite the weather, it is the holiday season,  A time for hope.  As we move through our days, hustling and bustling to complete the shopping and make our preparations, let us not forgot what Christmas and the season is all about. It is so easy to get caught up in the commercialization of Christmas and forget why we celebrate this season in the first place.  Let us do what we can to bring the spirit of Christmas, the spirit of the season, to others not just at this time but throughout our entire year.  In a world so desperate for love and mercy, it starts right inside each and every one of us. We must be the light in the darkness and Christmas, this joyous holiday season, is the perfect time to be filled with the spirit and do just that.

Sharing God's Message of Mercy

Divine Mercy

Featuring Wounded Warrior Project

One day while watching TV, I saw an ad for Wounded Warrior Project.  Having family members in the military, it caught my attention.  Their mission is to honor and empower Wounded Warriors.  I found myself immediately making the decision to be a monthly supporter of Wounded Warrior Project simply because of their mission, honoring and empowering our wounded veterans.  These men and women selflessly & bravely walk into unknown territory just to keep us, the United States of America, safe.  We must do all we can to honor them, thank them, empower them and help them for putting themselves in harms way to defend the freedom we sometimes take for granted.

Economic Independence For Women

Around the Nation as well as in the San Diego, California community, thousands of underserved women aspire to economic independence and a better quality of life for their families.  As a single mother who struggles for economic independence herself, I can empathize with these women. For this reason, Dress for Success and most specifically, Dress for Success San Diego has found a special place in my heart.  Despite not having a college degree, I have managed to educate myself through a couple of years of college, on-the-job training and a peppering of miscellaneous online courses. Much of what I have learned has been self-taught.  I am here to say that we all have gifts and talents and with some imagination, desire and determination anything is possible whether securing a college degree or not.  Women have so much to offer and sometimes when life wears us down, it's difficult to feel empowered to make a real and lasting change.  Dress for Success San Diego is the perfect place for women to take refuge and feel empowered.  From interview coaching to career-building programs, a woman can take advantage of the multitude of resources available to create lasting change for themselves and their families.

A Thought to Ponder

Why is it so hard to be kind?  What is it about human nature that makes us sometimes respond to another human being in any kind of manner other than love?  God calls for love of our neighbor. He is a merciful God so why do we not emulate the same?  We come from Him.  We are created by Him. So if God is love, why are we sometimes not?  By the gift God has given us of Free will, we have a choice whether we will lash out or respond with love and kindness when someone offends us.  We are constantly bombarded by news of violence, murder, rage and just seemingly unimaginable offenses to our fellow human beings we share this world with.  What is it going to take for us to wake up and realize we only get one shot?  When our time is up, our time is up. There are no "do-overs" or second chances in life.  Life is hard enough, we do we make it harder than it needs to be?

Praise to God. Trust in God.

Thank You

All visitors who take the time to read my posts.  I hope that I can bring something positive to all who visit here.  

All visitors who take the time to visit & patronize my stores Out of the Box, Joshua's Treasures & Jen.Colleen & support through purchases various charities such as Dress for Success San Diego, St Jude Children's Research Hospital & Wounded Warrior Project just to name a few, that I support.  With your generosity through your purchases in my stores, I am able to help those in need. I owe a mountain of gratitude to all support me, my stores & my efforts. Together we make a difference in the lives of others.  

Much gratitude.

In The Spirit of This Week of Thanksgiving...

Give Thanks

If we would spend as much time giving thanks as we do complaining, what an amazingly happy world this would be.

Another Random Act of Kindness "On The Road"

This story about a woman on a New York subway cannot go unmentioned.  I used to work in Chicago and know all too well the hustle-bustle, hurried commotion that rush hour brings. Everyone in a hurry.  No time for anything.  I also remember the homeless and how they just seemed to kind of fade into the background of commuters and travelers as they hurried to get to their next destination. The passersby seemingly oblivious, unaware or choosing to ignore the person there in front of them in dirty, ratty clothes digging in the trash or sitting on the ground against a building asking for someone to spare some change.  I remember one Christmas Eve when I was walking from work to the train a poor homeless woman sitting on the stairs to the train station as everyone hurried past her. I was moved with pity for this poor woman who sat there all alone with clearly nowhere to go or no one to share Christmas with.  I stopped gave her $1 and said Merry Christmas.  I will never forget the gentle look in her eyes and the way they lit up like I had just given her a million dollars.  I could actually feel the gratitude coming from this woman.  I write about my experience because I can relate to the woman who gave her shoes and the gentleman who gave his socks in the sense that the homeless are among us but how many people take the time to notice or more directly even want to bother to notice. My $1 does not in anyway compare to the selfless act of the woman who gave her shoes and walked 6 blocks home in socks.  Nor can I honestly say that I wouldn't think twice about taking my own shoes off for fear of stepping on something, hurting my feet or having them wet or cold.  I think it is only natural to have those thoughts but what we do with those thoughts is where true selflessness comes in and treating others as we would want to be treated  If any of us would only stop for a moment, in the middle of the madness of our rushing here and there to notice the homeless person or any person in need, and think what if that was me?  What if I was the person with no shoes? What if I was the person sitting on the stairs in dirty clothes on Christmas Eve?  Maybe just maybe it would help to move us to simply pay it forward and practice the Golden Rule.  Treating others as we ourselves would like to be treated.

Inspiration

I have been so inspired by the group of best friends @Paveitforward on Twitter that I wrote about yesterday, it has caused me to dig deeper into myself to try and emulate them, albeit on a smaller scale. Being a single mother with a child in school, I cannot pick up and travel the Country for a month although I'd really love to, it does not mean; however, that I cannot do what I can right here in my own backyard.  I really feel that this is the idea this amazing group of individuals is trying to get across. It does not matter where in the world you are, kindness is something we can and must share. Rich or poor, young or old, man or woman, it costs nothing to be kind.  It is what this world desperately needs.

Random Acts of Kindness on the Road

What the world needs, simply, is random acts of kindness to our fellow man.  Now more than ever. In a hurting and angry world where violence is becoming more and more common and the care for human life has become so blase.  For myself I have been amazed to see the reaction of a total stranger as I simply took the time to say, "have a good day" after I held the door open for them or they for me. I've actually have had people stop and look confused almost as if to say, "are you talking to me?" and a hesitation in saying, "thank you." Something so simple can make all the difference in someone's day and ultimately in the world. Kindness spreads.

On social media we find all sorts of news.  Good.  Bad.  What's hot.  What's not.  And on and on. As I was going about my day, across the Twitter feed came something that caught my attention. A group of twenty-something best friends simply calling themselves @Paveitforward.  I looked closer and found that they have taken it upon themselves to travel across the United States doing the very same thing I find myself trying to be mindful of doing, random acts of kindness.  I give them all the applause in the world when most of the time we find people who are only caring about themselves or what they can get out of a situation.  These out of the box thinkers, have taken their love of self and turned it outward doing selfless acts to make the world a little brighter.  I took a chance and thought I'd send them a message to see what exactly it is that they do since they have a site on Facebook Pave It Forward, I'm sure explaining in more detail their experiences and things that they have done but since I am not a member of Facebook, the only way for me to find out, was to reach out.  To my delight, I got a response and found that this young group of best friends from college devised a plan to take a month-long trip travelling the United States over this past summer looking for the opportunity to do something good. They made a list of challenges that they felt would be fun to do.  Dividing them into categories, silly, adventurous, altruistic, random and adventurous.  Then through their own efforts saved for and bought a used RV, money for travel expenses and then $1,000 to enable them to carry out their random acts of kindness.  These best friends simply had a plan to bring kindness to total and random strangers through simple acts and followed through.  They paid expired parking meters, paid parking tickets, gave care packages to the homeless, donated toys to children's hospitals and any place that they found a need and could do some good.  Doing random acts and expecting nothing in return, they are simply trying to change the way people treat one another.  All it takes is one.  One candle can bring light into the darkness.

It is my hope that by sharing this story about these amazing individuals that I just happened to stumble across, it will inspire others like it has me.  It truly is possible to change the world by one random act of kindness at a time.

Gratitude

In the spirit of this month of November and a time of Thanksgiving, what are you thankful for?  If we count our blessings instead of our sorrows, it is a proven fact that more good will come our way for what we think about expands.  If we all live each day with an attitude of gratitude, over time, we will watch the world change for the better.

Change Starts With Our Own Selves. Each One of Us As Individuals

In light of the most recent sad events of terrorism in Paris, I reflect on how precious life is.  Here one minute.  Gone the next.  All we ever have is the moment we are in.  We all have a choice on how we will live those moments.  I believe in the good of man.  I try to look for the good in everyone.  I believe it has to be in there somewhere in each and every one of us because God only creates good and beautiful things.  It is our free will that causes us to go astray.  If we would all just stop in the moment we are in and realize the precious gift we have been given-life what a beautiful world this would be.  Focusing on good.  Only brings more good.  Each and every one of us has the power to change the world because it starts with our own selves.  How we choose to live and conduct ourselves is ours and ours alone.  We can only control our own selves.  Looking inward instead of outward, we have the strength and power inside of ourselves to do good.  It starts with us.  I strongly believe that if we as a whole would look inside ourselves and not at what our neighbor is doing, saying or believing, in other words, live and let live.. we would find peace within ourselves, our homes and our world.

Featuring Dress for Success San Diego

This post is Featured For and In Support Of Dress for Success San Diego.  

Dress for Success San Diego is a non profit organization with a mission to empower women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and developmental tools to help women thrive in work and life.

Women in general have an extremely tough role.  Being a wife, mother, caregiver, homemaker, employee and the list goes on they must be the source of comfort for their children and sometimes the sole breadwinner.  It is no secret that women also make less in the workplace than their male counterparts which can also pose challenges when trying to raise a family alone. It can feel sometimes like there is no way out of the hole but with a strong desire to succeed anything is possible.  Dress for Success San Diego is just one of many affiliates of the worldwide organization Dress for Success.  Being a single mother who is no stranger to being the sole breadwinner, I have found that the resources available through Dress for Success San Diego as well as all affiliates associated with Dress for Success are numerous and extremely helpful.  Not only do they help with clothing but also with job readiness and job retention.  While their inventory need is ever changing, the one thing that is always the most helpful is the monetary support they receive which helps to underwrite programs and purchase whatever clothing items are in the greatest demand at the time.  Women need support.  Dress for Success San Diego and all affiliates, not only support but empower women to be the best that they can be.

Thoughts to Share

Originally when I started this blog, it was intended to be about the struggles and difficulties of being a single parent.  I have come and gone with posting here over the years as I guess my life has changed and taken me in different directions.  It is interesting to look back and ponder over the choices we've made or where we once were in life and think, wow, I got through that experience, or how did I ever survive that "thing that happened" or I can't believe I actually went through that!  For myself, I really can take note of the things that I've been through and say without a doubt those experiences made me a more grateful, appreciative, God-centered person. At the time going through those difficulties, never in a million years did I ever think that I'd be able to find gratitude or happiness or even worship and pray as much as I find myself doing now.  Something in me changed for the better and I now find myself more conscious of others and the world around me.  I have always told my son that this world is not about us, it's about others.  We are all here to serve others, help others, put others before ourselves, all for the glory of God.

I have given some thought to this blog and resurrecting it with a change as I have changed and now be focused on what is near and dear to me, giving back.  I will still write about those challenges we face as single parents but more so now about what we are all called to do as children of God.  Give back.  Think of others.  Help others.

I hope that you will find my writing insightful and inspirational and that it will awaken in you the desire to give back if you do not currently do so or if you do, to go deeper and try and live with the attitude of gratitude and giving at the forefront of your mind.

Please feel free to comment or write to me.  I will respond.

I'm proud to be an American. Thank you to all those who have served, are currently serving & to those who have paid the ultimate price for freedom.

Balancing work life, home life and "me time" is a challenge we all face.  It is important though that we take time for ourselves to rejuvenate or we will be no good to anyone let alone ourselves.  Taking even 5 minutes to just "breathe" can make all the difference in the world.