Anything is Possible!

With Love, Hope, and Perseverance

Category Archives: manifesting


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SoCS: Cold Weather and Gratitude

Today’s prompt for #JusJoJan the 24th and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “take another look.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

When our host Linda said the wind chill where she lives is going to be MINUS 40, it reinforced me reminding myself that people in Canada, Alaska, Greenland… deal with way colder temps than we’re going to have this weekend in my neck of the woods. The forecast here is for highs Saturday and Sunday being in the 20s (Fahrenheit) and the low Monday night is expected to be in single digits.

If we have snow, that’s great, but ice is in the forecast, and I’m hoping we maintain electricity and don’t have to move into David’s workshop where there’s a wood stove.

What does this have to do with taking another look? Well, I could imagine we are pioneers on the homestead or that we are lucky to have a roof over our heads. But I could also focus on (manifesting) the electricity staying on and clear, strong, electrical lines. Thinking of pioneers on the homestead makes me grateful for toilets and toilet paper among other things.

This gratefulness reminds me of something I read on the Walk for Peace community page as I learn more about Buddhism.

“Instead of looking at what you don’t have, look at what you don’t have to worry about.”

It’s easy to slip into thinking about what I don’t have and what I want, which makes no sense since I have all my basic needs met and then some. Any worry could be shifted to what we don’t have to worry about.

I worry about the safety of the monks and sweet Aloka the peace dog (who’s back and that’s good news). Wait, this is hard not to worry. Well, I don’t have to worry about the monks having food and places to rest because they have a team who’s figured that out, even if it’s too cold or icy to walk. And they do have a lot of police and other law enforcement people protecting them with respect and even some accepting peace bracelets.

Can I find a video of that?

I suggest watching at least the first 5 to 9 minutes of this video:

The sash worn on the shoulder of lead monk and spiritual leader Bhikkhu Pannakara, was covered by badges and pins given by police departments, sheriff’s and leaders of the communities they’ve passed through, so recently he started a second sash.

Looking at what we’re thankful for doesn’t mean we don’t try to make things better. We do our best without attachment to the outcomes.

Last Saturday afternoon, David and I drove an hour to a small town that drew a big crowd to see the monks walk for peace. I’m letting go of the thought that we were on the “wrong” side of the street, letting go of wishing we’d found a better spot. Instead, I’m feeling grateful for the broader perspective from across the street where I could witness the fast and determined pace the monks kept and feeling grateful for getting to know the delightful couple who offered their front steps during the two hours we waited to see the monks.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

May all beings be well, safe, and at peace.

~~~

For more info on SoCS and Just Jot it January,

visit our host, Linda Hill,

by clicking HERE.


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Good News Tuesday for January 13, 2026: England’s New Animal Welfare Laws, Sober Bar Alternatives in NY, France Bans “Forever Chemicals,” and a Double Amputee Veteran Climbs Highest Peaks on All 7 Continents

Seeking Balance One Tuesday at a Time

England Moves Forward with New Animal Welfare Laws

England recently launched a new package of animal welfare laws which will ban hen cages, the severe confinement of pig farrowing, and puppy farming, the mass commercial breeding of puppies. The new laws are to be phased into effect by 2030. To learn more, see this article from The Guardian.

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Sober Bars Offer Socializing Alternatives

Sober bars are on the rise in places like New York City. Hekate is one example of an alcohol‑free bar, known for its distinctive atmosphere and community-focused approach. This is good news for people who want to get out and socialize, but who want or need to stay sober. This article includes a short video about these venues.

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French Ban on “Forever Chemicals” Goes into Effect

France’s ban on “forever” chemicals went into effect on January 1st and includes certain clothing and cosmetics made with PFAS. Here are the details from Euronews.

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War Veteran Becomes the First Double Amputee to Climb Highest Peaks in All 7 Continents

British war veteran Hari Budha Magar, at age 46, recently became the first double amputee to climb the highest peaks on all seven continents. Hari’s 2018 application to climb Everest was denied by the Nepalese authorities who banned climbers with disabilities. He was later a key person in challenging and overturning this denial in court. He completed his Seven Summit Challenge this month in Antarctica. You can read Hari’s inspiring story in this article from the Good News Network, or listen to the story narrated in the following video with photos.

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Got Good News?

Feel free to share your good news in the comments!


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Plot Twists of Life

 Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “plot.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

We’ may be plodding along (or dancing, skipping, running, whatever) having plotted our course and then something happens we did not expect. It might even be a crisis, or a disappointment. It helps to think of these events as plot twists. Oh great, another plot twist. Another opportunity for growth, or learning some fun new lesson…

The plot twist idea for unexpected challenges is not my idea. I read it somewhere. Seems like it was from someone like Anne Lamott, but I don’t remember. It offers a shift in perspective or detachment when we feel overwhelmed by the change of events.

Could my divorce at the turn of the century have been a plot twist? Maybe in the big picture, I can see that. But at the time, I don’t know if I could have had that perspective. Still, I’d like to remember this for future changes that I don’t like.

On the other hand, why not manifest a positive plot twist, like when I got a FB message from the high school sweetheart I haven’t heard from in 39 years. I suppose if we knew it was coming, it wouldn’t really be a plot twist.

When Mary found out she was pregnant before she got married to Joseph, then saw the angel, those would be big plot twists in her life.

Reminds me of this song.

Who’s writing the story? God, I guess. Yeah, God. But we do have freewill to change our plots and decide how we’re going to react to the plot twists in our lives.

As the sun sets on 2025, here are a few sunsets from our “neighborhood.”

May the plot twists of your life

lead to wonderful adventures

in the new year and beyond!

~~~

For more about Stream of Consciousness Saturday,

visit our host, Linda Hill

by clicking HERE.


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Snowflakes and Seeds of Love

Little things add up into big things in time. Like snowflakes. Still, we can appreciate the little things themselves. Aren’t snowflakes wonderful! Unique and symmetrical. Delicate and delightful.

Little wisps of hope combine over time to manifest our heart’s desire, or something even better. Trust the timing. Seeds planted long ago may grow when the time is right. I manifested reconnecting with my high school sweetheart. It took 39 years for us to be ready to meet again. I looked for a house in the mountains for a few years until I found one that was a good fit. We don’t have a mountain view unless you go upstairs and look through the trees, or walk up the hill to the back of the property. So, yes, we do have a little mountain view… and an awesome workshop for David.

Sunday, we had our first snowfall at the new house.

Our first snowfall at the new house

It’s Friday afternoon and our second snowfall has started. The first one came on Sunday on our way home from church. We saw a couple of cars on the side of the road. I don’t think anyone was hurt. Loving big fat snowflakes, I texted my daughter who lives 20 miles away, and asked her, “Do you have big fat snowflakes?”

She texted back: “I’m okay.”

What does that mean? I wondered. Then she texted me a photo of her truck on the side of the road next to a rocky slope. The front bumper was halfway off with one headlight hanging from a wire. After leaving work at the state park, Ayla had hit a patch of ice and spun around and hit the rocky hillside bordering the road. She was shaken and had to walk a bit to get cell phone reception, but she was okay.

A day or two later, I saw my daughter had posted this on Facebook:

“I’d also like to thank my truck, and the spirit of my grandfather, James Otto Macco (whom it originally belonged to) for guiding me to the rocks on the left, rather than the ravine on the right side, because I’d probably be dead.”

Her words moved me deeply. My father who died in 2017, was always strong in spirit. He had been a marine for 20 years and later became a devout Christian. My daughter and son do not consider themselves to be Christians. It’s okay with me if they don’t call themselves “Christians.” (I don’t even like to call myself that anymore since the label has developed a negative feel being used by people who do not follow the teachings of Jesus, particularly when “Christians” act and speak the opposite of Jesus’ teachings of love and compassion for outcasts and the poor.) But I have hoped and prayed that my adult children will leave room in their hearts for Jesus and his forever love.

When I read my daughter’s words of gratitude for her grandfather, I felt a wave of gratitude that she recognized and honored my father’s spiritual strength, his power to protect and guide her.

Ayla’s truck had belonged to my father until he died in 2017. I gave it to her when she moved up here, because I wanted her to be safe driving on mountain roads. I know that my father’s spiritual energy is still somehow in that truck, maybe reinforced by the Semper Fi stickers. I feel his presence and hear his voice often.

Thanks, Daddy. I love you.

Mom, too.

Mom is there, beside him nodding her head with a knowing smile. I feel their love. My parents planted a lot of seeds, seeds of love, that took a while to grow in me. I know they were worried about my rebellious agnosticism in the late 1970s and early 80s. But their seeds of love continue to sprout and grow. Who knows what may blossom?

These photos are from the first snowfall:

The barn is David’s Workshop
Snow pocket in tree
David working hard

~~~

ps: we had a lot of snow yesterday and last night, so this is this morning:

Saturday Morning

***
Today’s prompt for #JusJoJan the 11th and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “it’s the little things.” Take whatever the phrase “it’s the little things” brings to mind and use it in your post. Have fun!

For more on Stream of Consciousness Saturday,

visit our host, Linda Hill

by clicking HERE.


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SoCS: Wishing I was back to “Normal”

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “wish.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

I don’t know if I can do this wonderful prompt justice. The truth is, I wish my vertigo would go away. Go Go Go away now and don’t come back!

I’ll take the “normal” aches and pains of being 69. You know, the ones that are manageable and don’t hold me back much. Funny how we don’t appreciate those normal everyday ailments till something worse comes along that keeps us practically glued to the couch. I do appreciate my husband helping out a lot. Left alone, I’d have gone through all my granola bars by now. I’m also grateful for easy TV and movies I’ve recorded to distract me.

There are loftier wishes I could make, but right now, that’s the one that is forefront in my life. I tried the maneuver and got worse. Maybe didn’t do it right, but not willing to try again right now. It’s worse than ever before. Got a primary care appointment for Monday and a full evaluation with an ENT in February since I’ll likely still have my tinnitus then. Anyway, I don’t feel like typing anymore. Pass the ginger candy.

How about a song.

~~~

For more info, visit our host, Linda at the link below.

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Dec. 21, 2024


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SoCS: Like a Warm Blanket

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “blanket.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!“

Like a warm blanket. Christmas movies! snowflakes! These are a few of my favorite things. It’s been years since I’ve seen snow, and I hope moving four hours northwest will let me see some. Cast Away is not really a Christmas movie, though there is a Christmas dinner scene and gift exchange early in the movie. It seems like there’s mention of a warm blanket in the monologue toward the end. Let’s see….

Yep, the warm blanket feeling that told him he had to stay alive and keep breathing….

Cast Away came out at the turn of the century which was also the time of my divorce from my first marriage. I was devastated by that divorce, and this monologue helped, because who knows what the tide could bring? Well, about 11 years later, the tide (God/the Universe) brought my first love back to me when we were ready. What had devasted me in the year 2000 turned out to be something good in time. God took something bad and turned it into something good – we made room for something better, after I learned to love myself again.

During the lonely years in between, I remember sitting in the back of my church, feeling very down, and then I felt God’s love wrap around my shoulders like a warm blanket. It was palpable. I’ll never forget that moment. It took several more years of healing before David found me, but that feeling of God’s love, gave me hope that God had a plan. I learned to accept that it might mean me staying single. I could live with that as long as I had a dog or a cat. But God’s plan was better than I could have imagined. I just had to work on me and trust the timing.

May you feel the unconditional love of God/The Universe/Your higher Power,

wrapped around you softly like a warm blanket.

~~~

For the gallery, I typed in warm, blanket and comfort. The middle photo is a painting I did back in those in-between years.

A warm fire
Art by JoAnna
Mama Cat in carrier w blanket

And here’s David and I at the local Masquerade for Mutts. Sort of a Grandmother Nature and the Farmer…

~~~

For more streams of consciousness,

visit our wonderful host, Linda Hill

by clicking HERE.


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SoCS: Recipe for Manifesting Your Heart’s Desire

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “recipe.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

Some people talk about a recipe for disaster. I’d rather talk about a recipe for success or happiness or peace.
In cooking I often bypass the recipe, but in life, it helps to write things down if you want to manifest good things.
My second book, From Loneliness to Love, which is the short version of Trust the Timing, (see sidebar or below) is a recipe in retrospect of the steps I took that manifested a healthy relationship. Experience taught me to Clarify my heart’s desire, Enlist help from my higher power, Love myself well, Focus on friendships, and Imagine the best. The book has practical exercises on how to do these things, like baking a cake recipes explain how to mix the ingredients, only my exercises are at the end of each chapter.
I’m still learning and getting reminders to apply the recipe to any dream or desire. Writing my hearts desire and trusting my higher power did help with finding the new house. We’re delivering a truckload there this weekend, and Im typing this on my phone. Not sure how available the internet will be, so please be patient.

Here are some recent cloud pictures I took. I wonder if the one above Los Portales grocery store is a portal. Anything is possible. 😉

An Angel
A portal?
what do you see?
sunset bridge

These clouds remind me I want to get back to painting angels.

Peace and blessings to all!

~~~

To learn more about Stream of Consciousness Saturday,

visit our host, Linda Hill

by clicking HERE


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SoCS: The Loan Application, the Closing, and the Big Backyard

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “loan/lone.” Use them any way you’d like. Bonus points if you use both. Have fun!

Loan! The word looks strange when I type it here. But loans have been a big part of our lives for the past month. The loan for our new house in particular. The “paperwork” was crazy at times. Preliminary after preliminary had to be signed online. I did my best to read the fine print before signing and asked what they might have thought annoying questions, but I don’t like to just sign things without having some inkling of what they mean. By the time we got to the closing on Wednesday, I had seen almost everything already so, after a quick review, initialed and signed where the attorney said to. The stack of papers was daunting, but we got through it in half an hour. Whew! I would not want that job.

One cool thing about the closing is that they let Marley come in the conference room for all the signing. I had confirmed this ahead of time, and that’s why we went in person. He was a very good boy!

Now, we get to the moving which will probably take a couple of months and multiple trips since DIY Dave likes to do things himself. He often says, “I’m not frugal, I’m cheap.” He’s also a very hard worker for which I am grateful, most of the time. Two months will give me time to process and adjust to moving across the state after having lived in this same house for over 35 years.

My favorite part of the new place is the big backyard. For most of my life, I’ve dreamed about a backyard like this. All it needs is some fencing. And mowing…. The “barn” is really a workshop for David. In this picture below, you might be able to see David and Marley in the distance near the greenhouse. It’s going to be a lot of work, but I’m sure I’ll like doing it much more than paperwork!

View from the back deck

The gallery includes an old guitar I painted, an eastern click bug on my mailbox, the sunset coming home from the closing, and a turtle with a cracked shell that I took to a local wildlife rehabilitator on Sunday. There was a lot more blood underneath than you can see in the photo. The wildlife rehabilitator thinks it will heal in a few weeks.

old kids guitar
Eastern Click Bug
She must have moved her head.
Sunset on Drive Home
Turtle with cracked shell

~~~

To learn more about Stream of Consciousness Saturday,

visit our host, Linda Hill

by clicking HERE.


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SoCS: Prayer, Response, and the Radon Result

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “show.” Use it as a noun or a verb. Have fun!

As you may know, the house we are hoping to buy in the mountains (piedmont really but there is a small mountain range nearby) tested positive for radon in the basement. Since then, I’ve been reading a lot about radon. I know that it decreases by half with each floor you go up and that it can be safely mitigated from the air with what some people in rocky areas call a “radon vac” which is sort of what the system is. I also read a lot about radon in well water and all the different levels, risks, and systems to mitigate like aeration.

Water quality is extremely important to me, so I requested one more test for radon in the well water, thought our realtor didn’t think we needed it since radon levels in water have been low in her experience.

And I prayed.

Me: God, let it be safe.

God: I would not have led you there if it wasn’t safe.

Really? I thought. (How can I ask God, “Really?”) So, I tucked the response away, hoping it was really from God. Sometimes I get a very clear response, and this was one of them. God likes to show us things. Still….

While visiting the hills last weekend to get the lay of the land so to speak, David and I discussed at length our possible responses based on what level of radon showed up in the water. If it was over 10,000 pics per liter, aka piciliters (PCi/L), we would walk away, regardless of the due diligence money and inspection fees. Water quality is that important to me. Under 4000 pic/liter is safe. 4000 to 10, 000 is a gray area. Each state has different recommendations. Risks include….never mind. I read all about the risks.

I prayed for clarity. Again, and again. Clarity, please.

Finally, on Monday, we got the results.

There was ZERO radon detected in the well water. Zero. That’s pretty clear. But really? Yes, really!


I still believe I did the right thing in the getting additional test. God used this to show me, I don’t need to worry so much, and that David can be very supportive and patient.

Really.

After lunch in the small town of Pilot Mountain, we took the easy trail at the bottom of the “metamorphic quartzite monadnock” known as Pilot Mountain.

I love murals
State Park Visitor Cent
David and Marley

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For more streams and SoCS rules,

visit our host, Linda Hill

by clicking HERE.


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SoCS: Bound for a New Adventure

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: ends with “ound.” Find a word (or words) that ends with “ound” and use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

Well, I guess I better pound out something for SoCS, but it might not be profound. I’m behind on responding to comments and reading other blogs, but there’s no rule about that I know of. We found a house, and our offer was accepted. Now we are in the thick of the process of inspections, blah, blah, blah. Not to be disrespectful, (inspections are very important) but I don’t like paperwork/bureaucracy/red tape as it used to be called. Why red? I don’t know. It’s late, Friday night, so I probably won’t look it up. But the paperless paperwork does sometimes threaten to overshadow the excitement and nervousness of a new adventure.

Still, I am grateful for the opportunity, for the possibility of a new adventure.

Anything can be an adventure if we frame it that way.

I might have lost a single pound and would like to lose about 9 more. It is definitely harder to lose weight when we get older. I imagine myself doing yoga out on my new deck in a couple of months. It’s not a done deal but imagining is okay. It’s like manifesting which I believe was helped by certain getting ready actions – painting an old window in my kitchen, getting rid of the rusty flat-tired bike I haven’t ridden in years, picking out books to donate…. the decluttering continues.

Now lots of ound words are running around in my head. The sound of music when our old hound Doodle used to bay when I tuned my guitar. I miss that girl. Maybe one day, Marley will sing with me. I’d like the sound of that.

~~~

It’s now Saturday morning and a group workday at the Farm Animal Sanctuary, so I’ll be back to WP later this evening. Thank you for your patience. I’ll catch up on comments eventually.

May peace and blessings abound to you and your loved ones.

~~~

For more streams and rules for SoCS,

visit out host, Linda Hill,

by clicking HERE.