Soul Mates

Happy Valentine's Day.
A Beautiful day celebrating love and romance. It is originally a Christian holiday, but like many Christian holidays has been taken over by commercialism. This one being cards, candy and jewelry. Oh and restaurants. That's ok, it's the world we live in.
I still think a day celebrating love and romance is wonderful. My husband got me the perfect card, perfect for a Buddhist. It says I sure hope there is reincarnation....because one lifetime isn't enough to be with you. Go ahead, say awww. It is wonderfully sweet. He bought me my favorite chocolates, that he went to 4 different stores to find, and he made me a shoe rack. Three tiers and shaped like stairs with a heart carved into the side. Why a shoe rack? That's what I wanted. Buddhism teaches the middle way. Not deprivation, not overabundance. However, when it comes to certain things, I struggle with the overabundance part, namely clothes, shoes, purses, jewelry, and perfume. I'm a girly girl. I love these things, I may have attachment issues with these things, also not advised as a Buddhist. Attachment leads to suffering. I'm working on it. In the mean time.....
My husband. I'm so fortunate to have found my soul mate. He compliments me perfectly. We have been together for 27 years. We were 19 when we met. We have something rare in this society, a healthy, happy marriage. We don't argue. We love and support each other. I couldn't imagine life without him. Every day with him is a gift I treasure. He is the reason whatever I write can be put under romance. When you have epic love in real life how can you not give that to your characters. My fantasy wolf shifter books that I'm writing are inspired by my dogs. I give my book characters some of the personality traits of my pets, but the feelings of love, of finding the other half of your soul, that comes from Andy and I. We have a deep love, and commitment to each other. This is why my characters mate for life, and are bonded heart, mind and soul. Well, Andy and I can't communicate telepathically, at least not yet. :) we don't have to. we've had years to get to know each other; how we thinkfortat our hopes and dreams are; what we desire. I cheat and give that to my characters immediately, through a bond. Lucky them!
If you haven't found your soul mate, keep looking, they're out there. If your in a relationship and you want some advice on how to have what I have, here it is. Three letters. HUM-Sanskrit for acceptance of self and others. Accept them for who they are. If you love them, and they love you, as long as there isn't any abuse, verbal or physical, don't try to change someone to fit what you want, either accept them for who they are or move on. You can't have a healthy relationship without it. Also, accept yourself. If you aren't happy with yourself, how can you expect to be happy with someone else.
I became disabled in 2004 after an accident left me partially paralyzed. This was something that was hard for me to accept. I had HUM tattooed on my spine just above my surgery scar to remind me to do this. HUM is a Sanskrit symbol like OM, incase you were wondering, lol. I also have MS, this I had to accept. I have worked hard. Most days I can walk without my forearm crutches. Pain is my constant companion, but I don't let it interfere with my life. I do not give it my happiness. I could wallow in my misery and misfortune, but where would that get me. I chose to be happy. I chose to look at the things in my life that give me happiness. My husband, my two sons, my little granddaughter, my daughters in law, my 5 dogs and two cats, my gift of creating art, my gift of writing and sharing with the written word. All the love I have in my life from family and friends. How can I be unhappy when faced with all that, when I can look out and see all the beauty this world has to offer. I chose to see it. I chose love, and I choose happiness. That's my advice for not only a happy marriage but a happy life. It's out there, go get it! Happy Valentine's day!! Ahmari out!

what happens when you review a book and then demand your cookie, as promised in their book, from a comedic author!!

Unlike ·  · Stop Notifications · Share


Trevor Mcinsley Time spent in photoshop: 5 minutes.
Time spent researching: 30 minutes.
Knowledge that it would take 1.56 million chocolate chip cookies to power a jet aircraft: priceless.
February 6 at 5:10pm · Unlike · 1

Angela Gonyea-Sheffer I love it!!! Thank you very much!!!! Notice I used multiple exclamation marks!!!
February 6 at 5:23pm · Like

Angela Gonyea-Sheffer My husband Andy Sheffer laughed his butt off (not that there was much to start with) and said that we have to much time on our hands, lol
February 6 at 5:28pm · Like

Trevor Mcinsley To be honest I had forgotten all about my offer of cookies. It was either this or downloading one of the tracking cookies from Google analytics and being pedantic...
February 6 at 5:32pm · Unlike · 1

Angela Gonyea-Sheffer Never offer a cookie to an overweight American and then forget about it, that could be fatal, lol. But I am satisfied with my virtual cookie, it has far less calories.
February 6 at 5:43pm · Like

Trevor Mcinsley Don't make me go and work out the energy cost of looking at the cookie photo on a computer screen per minute. That sounds even more complicated and spurious than the cookie powered aircraft was.
February 6 at 5:45pm · Unlike · 2

Trevor Mcinsley It's not often you can end a sentence with 'the cookie powered aircraft'...
February 6 at 5:45pm · Unlike · 1

Angela Gonyea-Sheffer Lol. I was actually eating chocolate chip cookie dough balls covered in chocolate that my daughter in law made so I really don't think I was burning any calories!
February 6 at 6:10pm · Like

Angela Gonyea-Sheffer Now I'm eating Pringles,......I did mention I was overweight
February 6 at 6:15pm · Lik

Other people's shoes

I've edited this from the way I wrote it the first time. Hope this is better!!

I ended up angering and upsetting a person with no idea why. I am such a wonderful, cheery person, how could I have upset someone. Seriously though, I try very hard to be nice and pleasant to people, even when they aren't.

When someone is unpleasant, our reaction is to be unpleasant back, well for most people anyway. Just because I'm Buddhist doesn't mean I can't get ticked off. My father isn't Buddhist, he's Roman Catholic. He insists that, no matter what I call myself, I'm Roman Catholic. It's just his way of picking on me, like telling me I'm a year older than I really am, he was there he should know. He lives to see if he can aggravate me. If my foot starts jiggling, which happens when I'm aggravated, he knows he's won and then he's like a kid in the candy story, all happy!

What have I done in my life to him to warrant him to find joy in rufflling my feathers I don't know...wait, if I think about stuff I did as a kid...hmm, okay maybe I deserve some picking on. Lol. Truly though his picking in all in good fun and with love. Now my family is a mixed religion family as I've just stated that my dad is Catholic, obviously I'm Buddhist, my younger brother Eric is Pentecostal, my youngest brother Brian is Buddhist, my husband is Episcopalian, my eldest son is kinda Buddhist, but doesn't really practice, and my youngest son is Buddhist. I am the only one my father picks on. For example, I had gotten a new Stupta for my alter. If you don't know what that is Wikipedia it, but briefly it looks like a temple and is an alter item to use as a focus when meditating. My father calls it a stupid house., and he gets such joy at his pun, that I'll look annoyed just to make his day.

How have I gone so far off topic....I'm not sure. Well I guess the point of that bit of rambling is that I could get truly annoyed at the picking, and then I'm sure my Dad would stop, but then the fun he has doing it would stop, and I wouldn't giggle inside as I jiggle my foot on purpose, to see him so happy. So what point would it serve.

Back to the person I had upset. I found out later, this person was under a ton of stress, was sick, and everything kept going wrong and then had to deal with something I said that was taken the wrong way, so I put myself their shoes, I realized it wasn't me that they were upset with, I was just in the way, I don't know if I could have dealt with everything half as well! Perspective. Don't let other pull you down, you don't know what's going on in their life. So never take something personal. You control your happiness. Choose to be happy.:)