“We have been raised to fear the yes within ourselves, our deepest cravings.” - Audre Lorde

Love this song. LOVE.IT.

Ended my work day listening to it. Started my day with it this morning, letting it set the tone and atmosphere for what is to come.

Say YES.

Say YES to this moment, the one that is NOW. Be fully present. Only then can you be fully effective. And less AFFECTED.

Say “YES”.

That’s powerful. So many times in life, we’re told to say “NO” (and rightfully so) to things that wear us down, zap our energies. Things that aren’t good FOR us OR TO us. Things that are familiar – not necessarily “comfortable” – but familiar. There are times when we don’t say “NO” often enough or when we don’t simply leave it as “NO”.

I think there are probably even more times when we don’t use a resounding, heartfelt “YES” either. But think about it – if you are clear about what you’re saying “NO” to, shouldn’t you be equally as clear about your “YES”?

Say “YES” to what moves you ahead. What serves your highest good. What makes you laugh, makes you smile. Not to what will make you laugh, smile, happy “WHEN” – when you finish school, when you retire, when you get married, when you have kids, when your kids are grown, when you’re debt-free, when you loose weight, when you write that book, etc.

Say “YES” to taking that first step, no matter how big or how small. No matter whether it’s towards what you want or away from what you don’t want.

Say “YES!” to living your dreams live and in color, out loud and on purpose.

Say “YES” to putting yourself first today, to doing something loving for yourself. Say “Yes” to sinking into five minutes of quiet time, even if it means you simply sit in your car before going into work or into the house. Say “YES” to true quality time with friends and family. Say “YES” to walking in the park. Say “YES” to a quick weekend getaway. Say “YES” to dancing around the living room to your favorite songs singing as loud and off-key as you want to. “

Say “YES” to being happy. Say “YES” to being content. Say “YES” to joy and know that no circumstance can shake that away from you. Say “YES” to those people, places and things that feed your soul and nourish your spirit. Say “YES” to those people, places and things that challenge you to dig deeper, think deeper, see more clearly.

Say “YES” to knowing, honoring and loving who you are, where you’ve been and where you’re going. Say “YES” to walking in the fullness and power of the person you were created to be. Say “YES” to being your authentic self – flaws and all. Say “YES” to the truth and beauty of who you are – unvarnished and without apology.

Say “YES” to both your EVOLUTION and your REVOLUTION.

Say “YES” to what’s staring you in the face today, right here, right now, in this very moment.

Say “YES”.

Say “YES” - with your mouth. With your heart. With your spirit. With your actions.

Say “YES”.

YES-sing all OVER the place,
*~* MsJayye *~*

(Saying “YES” to redesigning this site - among other things. LOL)

**Don’t mind the clutter ’round here. We’re reconstructing the site…*sigh* **

In the past (and present), I’ve been called a perfectionist. I’m not. (A ‘recovering’ perfectionist? Perhaps) While, I’m not a perfectionist, I do like things to “flow”, to run smoothly, to be “right”. And yet, I’m flexible and wise enough at this place in my life to know that “right” does NOT equal “perfection”.

I can recall being in situations – personal and professional – where I worked myself into a tizzy trying to make sure everything was ‘perfect’. I literally wore myself o-u-t. I suppose that was my initiation into the ‘Art of Perspective’. Perspective is a beautiful thang. Yes indeed.

Once you gain perspective, you understand that perfection (like so many other things) is subjective. Everybody has their own standard for what’s “perfect” and too often, we measure our energies by someone else’s scale. Can I tell you something? That rarely works. Working towards a scale that isn’t balanced for YOU will pull you left of YOUR center. You may hit ‘their’ “perfect” mark but did you do it as your authentic self…or as the person THEY deem you to be?

Can I tell you something else? Seeking perfection is a crutch for many people. A sneaky form of procrastination. Until every little thing falls into place, they can’t do X, Y, or Z. A poorly built gateway used to usher in or orchestrate our own failure. Self-sabotage at its finest. No sense in even trying when you already know you’re going to fail, right?

This is real life. Stuff happens. Regardless of how well you plan. We learn to roll with the punches. And the pinches. Focusing on perfection can lead to a severe case of tunnel vision.

This can slow (or freeze) our reaction time to unforeseen issues or blind us to better ways to accomplish our goal. We can have a solid plan with alternative and back-ups to handle what we didn’t see coming. And yet, this being real life, we can’t possibly plan for it all. What we CAN do is plan well, do our best and give ourselves room to maneuver.

Don’t get it twisted though. While I think we should strive for EXCELLENCE in everything we do, please know that there are no reported cases of ANYONE being born with MEDIOCRITY in their DNA.

In the end, the ultimate goal isn’t really perfection but rather a level of personal excellence. To always do YOUR best and walk away knowing that you gave it your all.

When you operate from this perspective, you realize that as long as what you’ve done is “perfect” enough for you, that’s truly all that matters.

Perfectly Imperfect & more than FINE with it,
*~* MsJayy *~*

Maaaaan- Can I tell you how good life is right now?!

I don’t know why. Nor do I need to! I’m just going with the flow. Learn to accept what is as just that – what is. Live in THAT for a minute. Don’t add anything on to it and don’t take anything away.

I don’t know why – if I shared with you a few of the hurdles I’m dealing with you wouldn’t think it was “good”. Honestly, not long ago, I would have been right there with you.

But Life and its sidekick Time have taught me a few things. Chief among them is that it isn’t always what you’re looking at – it’s what you see.

Too many times we look at things with our ‘normal’ vision. And even those of us (well, those of YA’LL) with 20/20 vision find things to be blurry around the edges.

Sometimes in order to see things more clearly we need to look at them from another perspective, from a different angle.

Maybe we need to check our filters. Each of us brings to the table a set of filters based on who we are, where we are in life, where we’ve been in life, what we’ve experienced. If we don’t know how to hold those filters correctly or learn when they need to be changed or cleaned, we can skew our vision.

And quite frankly, many of us are afflicted with seeing what we want to see which isn’t always the same as the reality before us.

It can be a challenge to balance the concept of “Say it until you see it” or “Call those things that are not as if they were” with the reality of your physical vision.

When we’re faced with difficult situations, maybe we need to see them through the vision of our heart. Or sometimes we have to go to a more creative side of our mind and let our imagination conjure up all the possibilities inherent in whatever mess stands before us.

Other times, we have to face that fact that sometimes, what you see is truly what you get. It is what is is. Just know that, if that’s the case, it’s okay. Deal with the reality of the situation no matter how bad it looks. Deal with it and be done with it so that the next time you look at it, all you see is the beauty of what you created from rubble.

Sometimes you just have to slow down enough (your mind AND your mouth) to see clearly and then move from there.

And on that note? I’m heading off to sit in the sunshine and “See what I can see”. (Hope it’s another chapter of my novel-in-progress.)

Smooches!

*~* MsJayye *~*

~*~ QUOTABLE ~*~

“When you see it, you’ll believe it!” ~ Wayne Dyer

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.