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Communication Is A Two-Way Street

4/13/2021

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Do you find yourself having a one-way conversation with God? A lot of us were taught at a young age to pray through routine dinnertime and bedtime prayers, as well as through ritualistic prayers in church. But, we were left to figure out how to personally communicate with God. 

Minister and author, Michael Bernard Beckwith, teaches a prayer process that has really helped guide my communication. Instead of prayer being a one-way street, he sets up a process for communication being a two-way street. He also offers suggestions for how to ready yourself to receive more blessings. 

​Here are some thoughts on prayer and his prayer process:

1. Prayer is how we communicate with God.

Prayer is the attention of the heart, and what we give the attention of our heart to matters deeply, because we become what we pay attention to. While some of our prayers are intentional, even our thoughts are prayers.

Most formal definitions of prayer speak to petitions, a request to do something. However, this isn't necessarily the best way to communicate with God. Instead, consider asking God an empowering question.

Examples of empowering questions are ... What's trying to emerge in my life?, What's my purpose?, What lesson am I learning?. Disempowering questions sound like this … What should I do?, What's wrong with me?, Why is this happening to me?.

2. Meditation is how God communicates with us. 

Being still and turning the volume down allows us to hear the still, small voice of God guiding us. Have faith that by being still you will hear his guidance. Meditation opens us up to receiving the guidance in many ways. It causes us to be present ... to be vibrationally aligned with our Creator. As we practice, we’ll notice that we are more present and aware of synchronous events, words of wisdom spoken through another person, an intuitive feeling, or even a message in a dream.

3. Be Vibrationally Ready to Receive

You are a vibrational being. Drawing into yourself all the time the vibration that is most like what you are putting out. You cannot have what you're not willing to become vibrationally ... being in alignment is key. 

Let go of resistance and be in alignment with the blessing that’s coming by asking "what if" questions and by visualizing. By asking "what if" questions and visualizing, you are becoming vibrationally ready to receive the blessing. If you come from a place of I want, I want, I want, then that will only create more want and it will block you from receiving your blessing. 

Start asking "what if" questions..."What if all my needs were met, what would I be doing in my life?", "What if everything is really working together for my good?", "What if all of the bad things that happened in my life are leading me to activating some great potential?", "What if God is really on my side?" When you start asking "what if" questions, small miracles will start happening in your life.  

Begin to see, to visualize, the kind of life that you wish to live. Begin to talk about it, to write about it, to dream about it. Talk about the vision more than you talk about your problems. Give it energy, pay it attention. 

I invite you to pray, meditate, and visualize a few minutes daily using empowering questions and “what if” questions and notice what shifts happen in your life. 
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Burst Into The Light

4/6/2021

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The sunlight in the spring triggers leaves to burst out of the buds that they have remained dormant in all winter. During winter trees appear to be bare and dead, but they are not dead, they are just dormant. They are resting and waiting until conditions are favorable for them to be active again.

​Buds are actually on the tree all winter long. If you look at the very tips of the twigs in the winter you'll see buds. At the end of summer, the last new leaves the tree makes will become the buds that protect the tree all winter long. These winter buds contain all the tree needs to start growing again once it is spring.

Buds are on the tips of the twigs all winter long to protect the tree from freezing cold temperatures. They serve as a barrier to keep the cold out and prevent the inner parts of the tree from freezing and dying. In the spring when temperatures warm up and the days are longer the trees begin to come back to life. 

This year we not only lay dormant from the cold, darkness of winter, but also of a pandemic. Have you, like the trees, been resting and waiting for conditions to be favorable to be active again, to come back to life? What has been laying dormant for you that has now been triggered by spring and wants to burst forth? 

Spring is a time of renewal and rebirth. The spring flowers surface and bloom, buds on the trees burst into leaves, grass turns green, farmers plant their fields, and the birds return. Here in Wisconsin coming out from the dark cold winter months, spring is a hopeful time where we're reenergized to see the reemergence of light and life. 

Some of us mark spring by engaging in spring housecleaning. Decluttering our homes and renewing them for the year. It can be a time for the attitude of "out with the old and in with the new." Spring can also be a great time to declutter our minds, our mental energy, our emotional energy, and our spiritual energy. A planting of a new energetic seed. 

It's a great time to check in and take a look at what we want to clear out and let go of and what it is that we want to plant. It's a time for transference and manifesting. A time to reflect on what it is that you want to draw into your life.

A time to remember that what you water, what you give energy to, what you give your attention to...grows. 

What is it that you would like to energetically clear out to make space for planting some new seeds to grow? What old story are you willing to let go of, so you can energize a new story ... a new way of being, a new mindset, a new experience? What are those seeds that you would like to plant this spring? 

Take a few moments this week to be still and check in with where you are at. What's going well and what isn't? What would you like to clear out to make room for something different? Step off that hamster wheel of life and reflect, reevaluate, renew, reenergize and rejuvenate.

Be intentional and remember that what you water, what you give energy to, grows. Whatever it might me for you, let the sight and sound of spring serve as an invitation to put a spring in your step to shake off the winter and pandemic and get into the action. 
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Stop, Drop, And Roll

3/16/2021

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Do you remember having fire drills at school as a kid? They taught the stop, drop, and roll technique for putting out a fire that was on you. The stop, drop, and roll technique also works great at putting out internal fires.

Internal fires happen whenever we’re caught up in the heat of the moment and burning to do something...maybe something we know we’ll regret later. This is when we can apply a variation of the instructions kids are taught to do if they’re on fire...we can stop, drop, and roll.

Here's the stop, drop, and roll mindfulness technique:
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Stop. Instead of immediately firing back at the object of our irritation, we can stop, pause and pay attention. Just the act of stopping and taking notice will help us to not be so reactive. 

Drop. Now we can drop into the present and become aware of tendencies and patterns that recur when we’re triggered. Taking notice what we are feeling and sensing, becoming aware of our thought patterns, and whether we’re remembering to breathe. Creating this pause, this gap, allows us to calm our nervous system and to remember that we have a choice about how to handle this moment in time. It's a moment to drop our limiting beliefs and create some perspective. A moment to tap into empathy and compassion. The process, which may take only seconds, ideally ends with asking ourselves “What will serve my highest and best good and the highest and best good of others?"

Roll. Then we roll. Perhaps we roll with it, we surrender or accept it. Or, possibly we roll out a proactive plan (not a reactive one) to handle or change the situation. If we are calm and not reactive we can problem solve and think better, be more creative, we can connect and process. We can roll out the welcome mat to a more mindful approach.

Life will inevitably offer up everything from minor annoyances to heartbreaking tragedies. At these times we can ask ourselves... Am I fanning the flames of conflict? Or, am I extinguishing the flame and dousing it with love, kindness, compassion and empathy? And, am I willing to take responsibility for unpacking my own internal  fire? 

​Stop, drop, and roll your way into internal steadiness and proactive calm, resilience and emotional intelligence. 
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Practicing Gritty Gratitude

3/11/2021

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This past year has been hard. As we mark one year of the pandemic and all of the various challenges that we've faced, I've been reflecting on how I've had to dig into my gratitude practice a lot deeper this past year. 

It can be relatively easy during challenging times to resort to practicing Pollyanna-type gratitude. This is when we mindlessly give a laundry list of "surface things" we are grateful for, or that we think we should be grateful for. Surface things to be grateful  for might include having food on the table, a bed to sleep in, air to breathe, etc. While these things are certainly very worthy of gratitude and for many people are not surface level, when they are repeated mindlessly on a daily basis they don't really accomplish retraining our brain or changing the lens through which we view the world. In essence, this is practicing gratitude on auto-pilot. 

Gritty gratitude, however, is a deeper level of gratitude. Gritty gratitude is messier then the type we display on Instagram or Facebook. This is where we take a challenging experience and shine a light on the pieces within it to be grateful for. It's the disheveled, mucky gratitude buried within those experiences ... the lessons learned or the helpers who came forth. A grateful heart is gritty and resilient, brave and courageous, compassionate and kind.

During good times, it's easy to practice gratitude. During the hard times is where we work to practice, where we have to go deeper. We have to look the challenges straight in the face and peel back the layers ... finding appreciation for the things that trigger us and digging for the source of wisdom. 

As this past year became harder, I held tight to my practice of gritty gratitude, as well as being present with the here and now. I invite you to intentionally practice gratitude by identifying at least three things that you’re grateful for each day. Challenge yourself to have at least one of the three be a gritty gratitude. 

Gratitude is a muscle that strengthens over time, changing the lens through which we view the world from a lens of lack to a lens of abundance. It truly is life-altering.
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Limiting Beliefs...Roadblocks to Thriving

3/9/2021

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Throughout the course of my own journey, in conversations and observations with family and friends, participants in various workshops, and client consultation sessions, it became apparent that there are common roadblocks to reaching our full potential and becoming the best version of ourselves.

These roadblocks impact all areas of our lives. They can keep us from achieving success within our personal growth and development, our relationships, our health & wellness, our sense of happiness and joy, our spiritual growth and connection, our business or career, our finances, as well as our capacity to serve others.

One of the biggest roadblocks is our limiting beliefs. Limiting beliefs are thought patterns that we learned as a child and repeat throughout our lives until we believe them to be true. Some of them work well for us, but others keep us from reaching our full potential.

These limiting beliefs could be about ourselves, others or the world. They pull us down instead of lift us up; throw up roadblocks instead of allow us to move forward; disempower instead of empower and make us feel less than instead of more than enough. 

They are the voices and thoughts in our head that convince us that we can’t be, do or have something. They keep us from thriving, being the best version of ourselves, accomplishing our goals and whatever we desire from life. Struggle and angst in life are typically an indication that limiting beliefs are at work.

Awareness creates opportunity for change. Letting go of limiting beliefs that don’t serve you and adopting enlightened beliefs will empower you to make your mission, goals, hopes and dreams a reality. 

Consider how much better your life would be if you stopped believing in something that is not supported by evidence. Most success and happiness exists just on the other side of a negative, limiting belief. The lies floating around in your head have been limiting you throughout your life. The power and positive effects of knowing and believing the truth can set you free. Reversing limiting beliefs is not only possible, it is powerful.

My sister, Kathy, and I have created a new program called Mission Possible. This program systematically challenges these roadblocks and steps you through the process of cultivating new more empowered belief systems that will help you achieve the life you desire. Our Mission Possible Program will lead you through crafting your own unique Mission, identifying your Great Devotion Pillars, pinpointing your Limiting Beliefs associated with each of those pillars, and give you strategies for Cultivating Empowering Beliefs.

Our hope is that this program will strip away the hurdles that keep you from living the life of your dreams and guide you to thrive and gain success in all areas of your life. Reach out to me if you would like to learn more.
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May I Have Your Attention Please

3/2/2021

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Sometimes I feel like getting someone's attention is a huge challenge, like I need to get a big megaphone and yell into it what I'm trying to communicate. I realize that I'm guilty of the same thing though, busy in my own thoughts, in my own world, not paying attention. The phones ringing, text and email messages are coming in, work needs to get done, life is full. I told you about it, no you didn't tell me, yes I told you yesterday, well I didn't hear you...sound familiar?

In today's world our attention is under siege. We are bombarded with multiple forms of stimuli at all times. A lot of us, a lot of the time, are looking down at our cell phones, paying attention to what our phone is telling us versus paying attention to what is going on around us, or to what someone else is telling us. The younger generation has grown up with a technological device in their hand most of the time. They can be sitting next to someone and choose to text or snapchat the person instead of looking up and having a real interaction.

We go and go and go, distracted by the endless to do lists, the busyness of running to and from activities, the mess of thoughts that are running through our head trying to keep track of it all, the hustle and bustle of keeping up with the tasks of modern day life. Sound familiar? If we are so preoccupied with ourselves and with our own lives, and we are not paying attention, we are potentially missing out on some important details in life. 
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When we are not aware, not present, it's hard to have emotional intelligence. Our level of emotional intelligence is critical to our overall success and happiness in life. Your emotional quotient (EQ) is deemed to be a more important indicator of your success in all areas of your life than is your intelligence quotient (IQ). How many of us consciously develop our own, or our children's, emotional quotient?

Emotional intelligence can be defined in multiple ways. Here's one explanation from Psychology Today. Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others. It is generally said to include 3 skills:

​1. Emotional awareness, including the ability to identify your own emotions and those of others;
2. The ability to harness emotions and apply them to tasks like thinking and problems solving;
3. The ability to manage emotions, including the ability to regulate your own emotions, and the ability to cheer up or calm down another person.

How can we be aware of our own emotions and those of others when we are distracted with the busyness of life and not paying attention? A wandering, chaotic mind is an unhappy mind. 

Daniel Goleman, author of the book Emotional Intelligence, Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, believes that the way to increase your EQ is to be mindful. He believes that mindfulness is about getting intentional about your attention. Getting out of what Goleman calls our "urban trance". 

Compassion has been a big theme lately and Goleman also believes that the road to compassion starts with pure attention. Compassion begins with your own emotional hygiene. Once you get yourself in order, you are then able to open your heart so you can be compassionate toward others. Research has found that if we are preoccupied with our own busyness, we will be much less likely to be compassionate toward others. We see suffering, such as a homeless person, out of our periphery vision, but we choose to keep them in the periphery.

This week I invite you to up your emotional quotient by being mindful and intentionally paying attention. Pay attention to your own emotions and to the emotions of those around you, to get out of our urban trance and pay attention to what's in your periphery vision.
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Living A Heart-Centered Life

2/20/2021

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Did you know that scientist have discovered that our heart is a "little" brain? Our heart contains sensory neurites that cause it to function as a second brain. Our heart carries memory of our experiences and has its own intelligence. Growing evidence suggests that the heart and brain work together. 

As Gregg Braden states in his book, Resilience From The Heart, "A growing body of scientific evidence now suggests that the pumping of the heart, as important as it is, may pale in comparison with the additional functions that have been recently discovered. In other words, while the heart indeed pumps blood powerfully and efficiently through the body, the pumping may not be its primary purpose."

Our heart constantly sends signals to our brain, however our brain sends much fewer signals back to our heart. By harmonizing our heart and our brain (heart-brain coherence) we can tap into deep intuition, heart-based intelligence and wisdom. 

Signals generated from our heart to our brain determines what chemicals our brain tells our body to produce in response. Our body can produce stress induced chemicals or chemicals that promote feeling good, health, well-being and social connection.

Signals generated by the heart have the capacity to affect not only ourselves, but others around us as well. Our heart creates an energetic field which travels out from our body impacting the outside world. 

For me, living a heart-centered life means tapping into this "little" second brain, this heart-based wisdom and intelligence. It means working to set aside my ego and approach life from my heart-center, which is a place of love and compassion. To be heart-centered is synonymous with tapping into our higher-self. Living from this state of being is optimal for health, healing, wisdom and intuition.

To stay heart-centered is an actual physical practice, and like all things by practicing we get better at it. We build strength and stamina. The practice includes pulling your awareness, from your head center (or your ego) to your heart center (or your higher-self). 

The heart center is the area behind the sternum/breastbone, up to the top of the sternum (just below the Adam's apple) and back to between the shoulder blades. This whole area is considered your heart center. 

​Where you touch your awareness goes. Simply by placing my hand over my heart center for a few moments brings my focus and attention to my heart, which automatically creates a natural shift in my thoughts, feelings and energy. Where  attention goes, energy flows. Go ahead and give it a try and see how it feels. 

Now that your hand is over your heart center, steady or slow  your breathing and bring into your heart space feelings of care, gratitude, compassion, or love for someone or something. Conjuring up these feelings, embracing them, savoring or sustaining them in your heart space while placing your hand over your heart center is key. 

​Next, if you would like, ask your heart a question. Maybe there is a decision you are trying to make but can't decide what you should do, ask your heart for the answer. Instead of making a list of pros and cons or using our brain's intellect, our heart-based intelligence knows what is in our highest and best good.

The wisdom of your heart already exists within you. It can be trusted and relied on to guide your life. It holds the key to your deepest truths. I invite you to practice using your heart-center more to guide you through life versus relying on your brain power. The wisdom carried in its guidance will best serve your highest and best good. 

Gregg Braden, author of Resilience From The Heart, offers the following steps for accessing your heart’s intelligence:

Step 1: Focus Your Heart
Action: Allow your awareness to move from your mind to the area of your heart.
Result: This sends a signal to your heart that a shift has taken place—you are no longer engaged in the world around you and are now becoming aware of the world within you.

Step 2: Slow Your Breathing
Action: Begin to breathe a little more slowly than usual, allowing five to six seconds for your inhale and exhale.
Result: This simple step sends a second signal to your body that you are safe and in a place that supports your process. Deep, slow breathing has long been known to stimulate a relaxation response of the nervous system (the parasympathetic response).

Step 3: Feel a Rejuvenating Feeling
Action: To the best of your ability, feel a genuine sense of caring, appreciation, gratitude, or compassion for anything or anyone.
Result: The key to success here is for your feeling to be as sincere and heartfelt as possible. As described previously, it’s the quality of this feeling that fine-tunes and optimizes the coherence between your heart and your brain. While everyone is capable of this experience, it’s one of those processes that you may need to experiment with to find what works best for you.

Step 4: Ask Your Heart Intelligence a Question
Action: The previous three steps create the harmony between your brain and your heart that enables you to tap into your heart’s wisdom. As you continue to breathe and hold the focus in your heart, this is the time to ask your question.
Result: Heart intelligence generally works best when the questions are brief and to the point. Remember, your heart doesn’t need a preface or the history of a situation before the question. Ask your question silently as a single concise sentence and then allow your heart’s wisdom to respond in a way that works for you.

Step 5: Listen
Action: Become aware of how your body feels immediately as you are asking your question. Make a note of any sensations such as warmth, tingling, ringing of the ears, and emotions that may arise. Everyone learns and experiences uniquely. There is no correct or incorrect way of receiving your heart’s wisdom. The key here is to know what works best for you.
Result: For people who are already attuned to their bodies’ and their hearts’ intelligence, this step is the easiest part of the process. For those who may have less experience in listening to their bodies, this is an exercise in awareness.
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Spirit Love

2/16/2021

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Continuing on this month with the theme of LOVE, this week's post focuses on Spirit love. What do I mean by Spirit love? Spirit love means the care and nurturing of our love of our own Spirit. 

I firmly believe that our overall health, well-being and happiness is dependent on intentional practices that build a strong body, mind and spirit.  If one of these areas is out of balance, it could limit your ability to thrive and to create an overall state of health and happiness.

Are you feeding your Spirit? What are you currently doing to nourish your Spirit? What does your Spirit long for? Does it long for ease, or connectivity, to expand and grow, to be creative, to be adventuresome, to be inspired, to love deeper, to explore more fully your hopes and dreams? Have you paused to notice?  Is your Spirit starving for attention? 

Here are a few ways to feed your Spirit:
  1. Connect with something bigger than yourself. Ramp up your practice of meditation, prayer and spiritual reading. Practice being present and mindful. Building your spiritual practice will go a long way toward nourishing your Spirit. 
  2. Connect with nature. There is so much beauty in nature at all times of the year. Feel it's energy, bask in it's beauty, breathe in the healing oxygen and delicious smell, soak in the sounds. Allow yourself the time to connect with nature and feel its healing power. While connecting with nature, try practicing gratitude, some deep breathing, or a loving kindness meditation filling your mind, body and spirit with it's wonder and beauty. 
  3. Connect with supportive, positive, caring, growth-minded people. We are only as strong as the company that we keep. Your health and happiness are directly impacted by the 5 people that you most closely associate. Connecting with supportive, positive, caring, growth-minded people will nourish your Spirit and propel it to greater heights. 
  4. Do more of what you love and are passionate about. Knowing what fuels your Spirit, what you are passionate about and love to spend your time doing is not only important, but a deep spiritual practice. Regularly checking in with how you are doing balancing the things that matter most to you is a powerful way to feed your Spirit.
  5. Connect to your breath. Just the act of being still and paying attention to our breath can go a long ways to feeding our Spirit. Jumping off the hamster wheel of life and pausing to breathe and to listen. Listen and tap into what your Spirit is trying to tell you. So simple and yet so powerful. 
  6. Practice gratitude. My favorite, and one of the most powerful spiritual practices, is the practice of gratitude. Within it contains the ability to energize and fill your Spirit with hope, abundance and fullness.
  7. Be of service to others. Practicing generosity and being of service to others is a great way to nourish and fill up our Spirit. 
Pausing to notice how we can nourish and love our own Spirit is a wonderful expression of love. A strong and vibrant spiritual practice is a powerful way to maintain wellness. 
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Loving Practices

2/9/2021

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The essence of who we truly are is love. Loving practices that guide us to remembering this truth not only fill us up, but help to spread this loving energy out into the world. 

A loving practice that I use and share with others is a heart connection meditation. This type of meditation connects us to the energy of Source love and blossoms this loving energy out to the others...connecting us together.

The heart is a portal to our soul, our higher self, to our intuition, and ultimately to God. So often we defer to seeing the world with the eyes of our mind, our intellect, our social conditioning, our ego. It can be a challenge to pause and have the courage to take the 18 inch leap from our head down into our heart. What might the world look like if we saw it with the eyes of our heart versus our head? How would the world shift, change and soften?

Dropping down into our heart opens up the portal to a higher state of consciousness. Inviting our higher self to guide us instead of our ego. Seeing the world through the eyes of our heart we can make decisions based on love, empathy, compassion, forgiveness, gratitude, peace and joy. These are the igniting force of the heart.

Here's how you can practice a heart space meditation and ignite the loving force of your own heart and shine it out:
  • Sit comfortably, close your eyes and bring your awareness to your breathing. Don't attempt to change your breathing just notice it for a series of inhales and exhales. 
  • Allow your awareness to shift to your heart space. Envision your breath moving in and out from the center of your heart space. Sit with this for a few minutes.
  • Bring to mind someone or something that you feel love, care, compassion, gratitude, or appreciation for and allow this feeling to fill up your heart space. 
  • Repeat the following words 2-3 times each allowing them to blossom the feeling in your heart space...Peace, harmony, laughter, love. 
  • Take this loving energy that you've blossomed in your heart space and envision pushing or expanding it out to fill the entire room, then the neighborhood, city, country and ultimately the whole universe. 
  • Sit for a few more minutes basking in and soaking up the beautiful feeling of this energy surrounding you.

I invite you to take time this week to engage in loving practices that serve to remind and connect you to the essence of who you truly are and spread this love out to the rest of the world.
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What Does Self-Love Mean?

2/1/2021

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In the month of February my blog posts typically focus on the theme of love. This week I want to share with you some thoughts on self-love. Self-love and changing our belief system about ourselves are topics that I spend a lot of time discussing with clients. 

What the heck does self-love and loving myself even mean?  Does this mean bubble baths, pedicures, and massages? Self-love is more than just pampering ourselves. It's the active practice of accepting, caring for, and encouraging oneself. Honoring your own well-being and happiness. Being committed, devoted, and honoring of yourself and your needs.

Most of us, instead of nurturing our relationship with ourself, spend a lot of our time up in our head doing the opposite... creating and spinning negative self-talk. Can we truly love others if we don't love ourselves first? 

​A lot of us don't truly love or even know how to love ourselves. We may occasionally "treat" ourselves to massages, baths, special food, etc. under the guise of "self-love", when in reality we are trying to fill a void inside our hearts. Not that these acts of self-love don't have their place, but they typically don't fill the void or help learn to love ourselves. They don't change our thought patterns and inner dialogue. 

The most important relationship that you'll ever have is with yourself. We need love from ourselves as much, if not more than we need it from others. Self-love begins with being able to appreciate you for you...all of your imperfectly, perfect, unique, glorious self. Seeing yourself completely, recognizing your value, your strengths and your weaknesses. It's knowing your worth, what you want and need and holding true to yourself with both your inner choices and outer choices. Self-love is not a destination, but rather an important intentional practice to cultivate.

Self-love requires the courage to reflect on where you are and consider where you want to be and the devotion to be a work in progress, striving to be the best version of your true self. Recognizing your self-worth and fostering your on-going, continuous lifetime of self-growth.

There are a lot of ways to cultivate self-love. Two of my favorite go to practices include:

1. Interrupting negative thought patterns - When my inner critic rears it's ugly head, I intentionally choose to acknowledge that the thought comes from my inner critic, that it doesn't serve me, and then either affirm something more positive, or reverse it with a phrase like "up until now" or "that doesn't apply to me". 

2. Self-appreciation practice - Every night before going to bed reflect on three to five new things that you appreciate about yourself. This can be something that correlates to the past 24 hours or something that is a trait or characteristic of yours. It can be something small or grandiose, it doesn't matter. The practice retrains our brain to identify positive things about ourself.

​Cultivating self-love and ultimately changing our belief system about ourself is an on-going work in progress. It requires intention and devotion to heal ourself and open up to the fullness of love for ourself and others. 

“Self-love requires you to be honest about your current choices and thought patterns and undertake new practices that reflect self-worth.” ~Caroline Kirk
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