The Rooms

Your thoughts are like the tenants in your home.

Only they are renting space in your mind. 

Are you letting Doubt and Self-Pity bunk upstairs?

Have you seen Shame and Guilt crouching in the corner?

Do you see Discontentment lurking in the foyer?

Have you noticed how Low Self-Esteem has been running the house?
Isn't it time to give her an eviction notice?

Why are Anger and Resentment in the kitchen, banging pots and pans?

Have you seen Distrust and Hurt Feelings living in the master suite?
What happened to Love and Forgiveness, the previous tenants?

Envy is nothing but a trouble-maker.
It's time to kick her to the curb and send her packing.

It's time to rearrange your thoughts.
Renovate your rooms.
Toss out Old Habits. Throw away Grudges.

There should be no rooms in your home for negative emotions.
Invite Laughter into your home. She is lots of fun and will make you smile.
Welcome Joy and Gratitude and give them the extra keys to your home.
When Peace and Contentment knock on your door, don't turn them away.
Invite Compassion and Understanding to live in your home.
 Evict Sadness and Disappointment and if they return, show them the "No Vacancy" sign.

Your thoughts are like the rooms in your mind.
Walk through them and eavesdrop on your tenants.
What are they whispering?

Blessings, Anita

My Mother's Garden

When Spring finally arrives it always brings thoughts of my mother. She loved Spring

and loved flowers, especially Pansies. She passed away 12 years ago, but I think about her often and the simple pleasures she taught us to appreciate. I recently spent a weekend

compiling some pictures of my mother onto a CD, to give to my sisters

and my uncle in Germany. 

I added the song, "Edelweiss", which was my mother's favorite song.

This was a little garden on the side of her house.

My mother had the chance to visit her sister in Germany two years before she died.

This is my mother (sitting) and her oldest sister, Anna,

who lived in Nurnberg, Germany.

 My mother had beautiful skin and hair and never looked her age.

I think that God knew that she wasn't going to reach old age.

This old castle in Germany is near the town that I was born in.

This was taken in Gatlinburg six months before my mother passed away.