Personal Note

My most valued possession is my family. Even if you are living in a box somewhere, and you have the love and support of your family, you will always be wealthy. Love really is all you need. From love, great things will emerge. From your thoughts, you can create greatness.

This is what I need to remind myself of everyday to be the best person that I can be. Live your life with gratitude. Be thankful for all that you have everyday, even if it is your eyes to see or your ears to hear or your feet to walk or your hands to create. Understand your place in this Universe; how infinitesimally small you are, but how huge a contribution your Spirit is. Don't wear blinders to the world around you, you're not the only one here. Be kind, considerate, don't be judgemental, love others, and yourself. Know that you are perfect inside; that you are love.



Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Year!

My hope for the coming year is for everyone to have peace. Real peace...in themselves, in each other and in their lives. For you all to be able to do what makes you happy and successfully change what needs to be changed in your lives to become happy. To live satisfied, joyful, prosperous lives and to be a beacon of hope to yourselves and to others. I would like to see us all try for kindness and find success in all of our endeavors. I wish everyone Love and Happiness in the New Year.
Nanette Stein
12/31/2011

Friday, December 30, 2011

@Nanettestein13, 12/30/11 11:44 PM

Nanette Stein (@Nanettestein13)
12/30/11 11:44 PM
"There are so many beautiful things out there...why not be one of them?"
--nanette stein


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How to find Enlightenment in the most unlikely of places

I just watched American History X. If you've never seen it, it's rough, but worth a watch. It's about extreme racism that is unfortunately not so extreme any longer. It's a movie about mainstream problems with race and twisted ideas born from anger, frustration and ignorance. The story is rough, but it has a definite message, you have to be objective and wait it out. It shows one side more than the other at times, but both are represented, I think. Both sides of the sickness of everyone insisting that they are right and the other is wrong. Both sides of the hatred. In each other. In themselves. While I watch this movie, I see the sickness. It makes me sad. But by the end you find a bit of that ray of hope. That people can change. That something can awaken in everyone. That bonds can be forged in the most unlikely of places. Knowledge of this kind of hatred out there makes my soul ache for mankind. But the healing that happens throughout, the enlightening moments, give a ray of hope. Even with the bitter ending that leaves you feeling saddened and wronged and like the cycle continues, you can start the change by asking yourself
"has anything you've done made your life better?" and begin there. With you.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

My Daily Realization

It really is important and beneficial to be in the now. To stay in the present moment and not anticipate what is to come or give power to the past. You really do eliminate your pain when you just remain in the now and not harm yourself with worries of what's to come or regrets of what already has been done.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Wishing upon stars is not just for children...

I haven't written anything in my blog in a while because I've been dealing with some personal internal struggles lately. Months go by and  you don't realize how much time has passed. You get so caught up in your problems, your situations. It's on my mind constantly that I need to sort it out, write about it. Maybe someone else out there will read it and be touched by it, that it will help them or help myself by getting it all out. I don't want to lose hope. I don't want to lose faith...in myself, or the Powers That Be. It's just a struggle, sometimes, to be able to sort your thoughts and feelings when there are so many of them to sort through.  Then, the other night, on the way to work (I drive in a pretty dark area, and at a certain point I have a large open sky ahead of me) I Saw a "falling star." Now, I realize that it was not actually a star that I was seeing, but a meteorite, a bit of space debris, burning up in the atmosphere as it plummeted to Earth. It was still a beautiful and magical thing to behold. I had just happened to be cresting a hill and there was a lot of sky in front of me, and there it fell. I was very big, very bright. It fell for so long that I actually started to think it might just touch the ground. It was a moment that made me realize that I need to take the time to go over all the things I should be grateful and thankful for, all the things I could still hope for.
When you are a child and see a shooting star, you make a wish. So, I pondered over all my many wishes I would like to see into fruition, but it also reminded me, in that moment, to be grateful for all that I already have. I try to do that as often as I can remember, but my memory has failed me recently. And in that very moment I saw another falling star. It wasn't as bright, and it didn't fall as long as the first, but it was in the same spot. That almost never happens. And, of course, in the back of my mind I thought that if I saw more, that this is either a meteor shower I didn't know about, or that something else was happening...
I saw no more shooting stars that night, though I kept watch as best as I could while driving. The sky was very clear. It was quite cold out. I saw a planet, Venus probably, twinkling brightly in the sky. Whatever the atmosphere was doing that night, it was making this planet twinkle with such clarity. Blue, red, yellow.
It was a pretty enjoyable drive to work, as I was able to focus on my hopes and dreams, thanks to these celestial events.
What I give thanks for now, in retrospect, is the opportunity that I was given to become more centered, more grounded. To realize that we need to remember to be grateful every day, even in the midst of our hard times. We get too wrapped up in our own heads. I try to remember that I need to not get too wrapped up in myself so that I don't lose sight of what I should be doing each day. I try to always live by the tenet that 'things' don't matter. Belongings don't matter. I try to remember the words that I have read that have really resonated with me, that have helped me so much along my journey. The things that have helped me to figure out what my life is supposed to be. One of those tenets that I had learned is that...even if everything disappeared, all of my belongings, all of that 'stuff' we accumulate, even if it all went away, I could still be at peace. I may not be entirely happy about it, but I could be at peace, because I would still be the Being that I always have been. That can't go away.
I read in a book once, and this has become a popular saying now as I've seen it pop up more frequently, that "we are not human beings having a Spiritual experience, we are Spiritual beings having a human experience." As much as I hate overstated, cliche-type sayings, I feel that this one is appropriate enough to mention.
That's what I try to remember. That we need to separate ourselves from our human experiences once in a while and remember what we actually are. That our 'things', our 'titles', even our families, do not define who we are. And in the middle of my turmoil that I had been trying to sort through, a piece of that turmoil has been worry over the fact that I have not been blogging and writing down thoughts and feelings, and that I might lose that which I have been trying to obtain and retain: Creativity and Thoughtfulness.
I had wanted to start this blog so that I could have something every day that I could tap into that would help me to remember what's important. Gratitude, Thankfulness, Love, Thoughtfulness, Spirituality, Kindness, Compassion, the ability to take blinders off to the world around me. To be Present.
So, I'm glad that I saw the two 'falling stars' as they were ending their journey. I thank the Universe for throwing those right into my atmosphere, right in  front of my eyes--to help me to remember to continue beginning mine.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

"The End Is Near" may only be the beginning....

I just watched Nostradamus:2012 and, while some of that intense and extremely scary information that I was inundated with is some that I don't buy into, it got me thinking, nonetheless.
My thoughts are these...
This is all going to be over soon. We don't know when, we don't know how. Some of the speculation out there is pretty scary. People believe what they believe, and if an ounce of some of that is true, we might just be screwed. So, we better get our crap straight. Treat each other better, treat ourselves better. Get your priorities in order. And I don't necessarily mean bills before shoes, here. I mean pick your battles. Gauge your reactions. Up your kindness and compassion meters. I don't mean this to be a preach-y "dooms-day" message. As many may already know, I am not a preacher. I am not even religious, conventionally speaking.
 On the other hand, it might be beautiful, this change afoot. A beautiful Shift of Consciousness instead of catastrophe. A Spiritual Rising, instead of a hateful uprising.
  Either way--will you be proud of what you've done and how you've done it when your ending comes?

Friday, September 2, 2011

C.G. Ward Photography : Regarding the facebook "Breast Cancer Awareness Games"

NS has sent you a link to a blog:

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Blog: C.G. Ward Photography
Post: Regarding the facebook "Breast Cancer Awareness Games"
Link: http://cgwardphotography.blogspot.com/2011/08/regarding-facebook-breast-cancer.html

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Thursday, September 1, 2011

Friday, August 26, 2011

@takingbackearth, 8/26/11 9:11 PM

Benjamin Jacques (@takingbackearth)
8/26/11 9:11 PM
"Every new day is another chance to change your life." -Unknown


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@takingbackearth, 8/26/11 6:13 PM

Benjamin Jacques (@takingbackearth)
8/26/11 6:13 PM
"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to a better understanding of ourselves." -Carl Jung


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@takingbackearth, 8/26/11 5:24 PM

Benjamin Jacques (@takingbackearth)
8/26/11 5:24 PM
"The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands." -Robert M. Pirsig


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@Change_today_, 8/26/11 4:53 PM



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@takingbackearth, 8/26/11 4:40 PM

Benjamin Jacques (@takingbackearth)
8/26/11 4:40 PM
"There are no failures. Just experiences and your reactions to them." -Tom Krause


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@takingbackearth, 8/26/11 4:27 PM

Benjamin Jacques (@takingbackearth)
8/26/11 4:27 PM
"Genuine sincerity opens people's hearts, while manipulation causes them to close." -Daisaku Ikeda


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@takingbackearth, 8/26/11 4:21 PM

Benjamin Jacques (@takingbackearth)
8/26/11 4:21 PM
"To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don't need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself." -Thich Nhat Hanh


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@takingbackearth, 8/26/11 4:16 PM

Benjamin Jacques (@takingbackearth)
8/26/11 4:16 PM
"Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend." -Lao Tzu


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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

@TheNoteboook, 8/23/11 6:30 PM

The Notebook of Love (@TheNoteboook)
8/23/11 6:30 PM
I will not allow myself to be annoyed by the instability and ignorance of others. I will continue to be myself because that pisses them off.


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@TheNoteboook, 8/23/11 9:30 PM

The Notebook of Love (@TheNoteboook)
8/23/11 9:30 PM
Maturity doesn't mean age; it means sensitivity, manners, and how you react.


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@Change_today_, 8/23/11 9:51 PM

Hamza (@Change_today_)
8/23/11 9:51 PM
The Science of Self-Esteem http://t.co/vmEIdDE


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Sunday, August 21, 2011

@TheNoteboook, 8/21/11 9:30 PM

The Notebook of Love (@TheNoteboook)
8/21/11 9:30 PM
Being nice to someone you dislike doesn't mean you're a fake. It means you are mature enough to tolerate your dislike towards them.


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@tinybuddha, 8/21/11 11:12 AM

Tiny Buddha (@tinybuddha)
8/21/11 11:12 AM
Letting Go of Insecurities with Two Realizations http://t.co/CLqJmuM


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Hypocricy is not an all encompassing term...

Why are we so cruel to each other? It's not just a bad habit. It's like a disease. One we can't stop or cure easily, much like drug addiction or alcoholism. It's like Cancer: It eats away at you and others.
                                                                                                           --Nanette Stein

I recently decided to stop posting pictures of unsuspecting people and their bad clothing choices on Facebook. That I needed to stop practicing my amateur photo journalism skills because it might be mean. But this is who I am. Not mean or intentionally hurtful, but opportunistic, maybe? I enjoy entertaining others, maybe? I am trying not to be a hypocrite. That's what this post is about. I have good feelings of potential enlightenment inside of me, and I want to share these insights, yet I create comic relief at others unwitting expense. I am big enough to admit this, and humble enough to want to change it.

Sometimes I give off that I have a very rough exterior. So maybe things that I write don't match up to the persona that  I give off, to the ideals people have of me. Sometimes my work, and by work I mean J-O-B, brings out the worst in me. Sometimes dealing with the people that I have to deal with at my job brings out the worst in me. Sometimes I bring out the worst in me. I don't steal, cheat, bestow physical violence onto others, road rage (any more), or park in handicapped parking spaces...So, what is my worst? Speaking derogatorily against others. That, I feel, is what I do to be at my worst. I have a "rough" exterior. I AM trying to change it. It comes and goes, my success at it. I know what I believe in my heart, and I practice it diligently, much of the time...but I am often forgetful. I am not perfect, and I feel my greatest lesson is that I remember that none of us are.

Being as it may, and me being as I am, I had a slight worry at first that people might be confused about what they may read in a lot of my posts. That it doesn't match up to the personality of the person that they "know" from being acquainted with me. I know I have and will continue to write about positive thinking, visualization, gratitude, feelings of love, compassion, understanding.
But I am trying to figure out what this is. This need for us to please everyone (and we all do it, no matter what we tell ourselves). Why do we feel the need to sometimes pretend to be someone that we are not? Are we really all just chameleons changing who we are to meet our needs? The needs of others?  I know that I do that. I change who I am to adapt to the situation that I am in. I adapt to the environment, the people that I am with at the time. I am very good at that. It makes them comfortable. I am not, however, being deceptive. At least, I don't think that I am. I am changing my hat, as it were. But am I true to myself? I believe that IS myself. When does it get to the point where I am adapting to please others too much? I don't think I do that, either.  I don't do anything I don't want to do. Not really. That's the glory of maturity. Age. I don't have to be around you if I don't want to be. But I digress. This is about you being confused about me. I hope you aren't. I hope you see that in me, is you. That we all have quirks. We are all "different". We are all OK. We don't have to please everyone.
This is just all a part of my quest to find myself. Who I am. Who I want to be.
I am sarcastic and snarky, but I also love and have compassion. I am not ashamed of it. I am trying to understand it better. But, why? To make sure I'm OK? I know I'm OK. All is well and everything is falling rightfully in it's place. So, am I a hypocrite? My initial response was "aren't we all"? But, now, I think it's more like "I think we are all just like infants. We don't know better until we are taught. Who that teacher is, we will find in our own time. It is NOT an individual process. It takes each other, like stepping stones, to mark our paths".

"Our path is laid before us, we just have to dig through the weeds"--Nanette Stein

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Trust is not a dirty word....

I don't let people in easily. I've been told that by a few people, at least. I was shocked to hear someone be brave enough to say it. That I'm intimidating-at first. Or that I seem that I don't like you-at first. That it takes a while to get to know me. I say shocked because that is not necissarily the vibe I intended. Maybe I subconciously do that because I feel there is "no possible way you could like me" so maybe I'm not trying to put my best foot forward just to be rejected anyway. Maybe I don't feel "good enough" so, by my silence, I am staying inside my safe shell. I don't trust right off that I am likable. I have trouble feeling that I am desirable to be around. What do I have to offer? I'm sure many of us have these feelings. Maybe they're left over from childhood inadequecies. Then, when we get older, we find ourselves in repeated relationships that compound these feelings.
We need to get up and brush ourselves off, as they say. Cleanse ourselves of the sticky cobwebs of a dormant life. We need to realize that we, and no one else, are responsible for our destiny. We are the Creators in our own lives. It is all there for us, in our very Souls. It's all within our grasp. We just have to reach out for it. And trust that it will reach back.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Please don't misunderstand...

Just because I "tout" love and gratitude, doesn't mean I'm all white-light and fluff. Yes, I believe in what I say. I believe in what I believe. But there is such a wide range to my spectrum...I am also a die hard cynic. I question everything. I don't trust easily. I am NOT religious. I don't follow man mad (oooh, type-o. I meant made, but that might actually be Freudian, if I believed in Freud's theories, which I don't) organized religion. I DO believe in self creation, and quantum physics, and Universal thought. I am not an avid fan of The Secret, but I do follow Eckhart Tolle, Wayne Dyer, Louise Hay. I have respect more for Eastern thought than Western, Hindus rather than Baptists. I don't know why. Maybe I feel they judge less. But I am none of these, so how would I know? I try not to be judgmental myself, I say I won't, but I'm sure I will come across to many that I am, and I probably do. It is not my blatant intent. I'm just trying to figure it all out. And just because I believe in being grateful and remembering to be well, and do well, doesn't mean I do well and remember to be well. I, myself, am a work in progress, as well. I DO believe in God, The Source, A Higher Power, The All. Whatever you may call it, I may not call it, and vice versa, but I DO believe. I believe in the power of meditation, but don't do it nearly enough. I strongly (STRONGLY) dis-like when other religious groups, for lack of better phrasing, "hate-on" each other, and other human beings, different from themselves. I think that we, as a race, are otherworldly, and need to find that which is in ourselves that makes us so. And also what makes us so ...alike. I think we are ALL equal; that God has made no mistakes. I absolutely do not feel being gay is a mortal sin, so please, just cut it out all ready. (God doesn't make mistakes, remember?...) I am pro-choice, whatever that choice may be for you, but that you must be the one to live with that choice, so choose wisely, for the Universe does not suffer fools easily. I hope for the future; I want to see good things. I want to see us treat each other better. I see the acceptance of so many things as a step forward into the light or enlightenment, not a step into damnation. I believe in phenomena of many kinds. (Aliens and Pyramids, anyone?) Enough so to probably label me a weirdo in some circles, but hey, aren't we all? There are so many different sides to me, that this is what I feel the need to do to figure it all out for myself, and hopefully, someone else will feel that they are okay, too, after all, by reading my journey to self discovery. We are all, each of us, an enigma, waiting to be un-puzzled. We must be brave enough to take the steps ourselves.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

I Think, Therefore I Am.....

I never looked at a blog. Never participated in one. I didn't really know how they work. I don't know the etiquette. There's just something I knew I needed to do. Wanted to do. Writing is it. And this is the information age. If you have something to say, the best way to get it out there is the net, right? Ours is the best time for mass information/communication. I feel I have a lot to say. Some of it will be important. Some of it completely random. Some completely crazy. Crazy to who? Crazy even to me, I'm sure. But I've made this commitment to myself to do this, and so I shall. I want to say what I'm thinking. What some of you might be thinking, but that we are too afraid of what other people might say or think when we say it. Not all of it will be heavy.  I have alot of opinions, about alot of things. But none of it is to judge. I will step into a thought process with a wonderment. A curiosity. That's what this blog is. My confessions, my analysis of anything that comes to mind. Most of my friends don't know many things about me. Most would not believe that I believe what I believe. Most of my family don't know these things, either. It's hard, sometimes, to explain certain things to people with words from your mouth, spilling from your brain as they come to you. Trying to get them to understand your feelings as you feel them. Believe your beliefs as you believe them. Not that I would try to get anyone to believe what I believe, but to see it as I see it. This is all just stuff I think about. I think alot. I am a thinkaholic.