A Happy New Year To One and All … Remember we moved! www.beautifulpetals.com

This is just a note to say Happy New Year and wish you all of God’s love and blessings. 

I know some people didn’t get the memo and some of you may have forgotten. Please move with us to our new home … http://www.beautifulpetals.com and continue this journey in life, love, laughter and all things God.

We have new posts such as “Of Chubby Fingers and Perfect Gifts” http://www.beautifulpetals.com/uncategorized/of-happy-new-years-and-resolutions/ and “Of Happy New Years and Resolutions” http://www.beautifulpetals.com/uncategorized/of-happy-new-years-and-resolutions/ and one of my all-time favorites: “Adieu to 2013 … Bonjour to 2014”

For those who moved I know you’ve been enjoying the ride. For those who thought we forgot you or just stopped please don’t – Come along and be blessed as you do.

XOXO: From A-Girl-About-Town

Passion Personified

Move with me to my new home. I’m growing, I’m thriving, I’m loving living life. http://www.beautifulpetals.com or on Facebook Beautiful Petals or on twitter @thebeautifulpetals – See you there! Today’s blog is http://www.beautifulpetals.com/uncategorized/eyeonabp-_-passion-personified/

#ProudlyKenyan #WeAreOne

 

I am now and continue to be #ProudlyKenyan

 

A lot has been said in the past 3 days and a lot will be said in the days to come. My thoughts and prayers remain with the victims still inside, the heroes who lost their lives, the families who mourn their losses, the shujaas still fighting hard, our leaders who have shown unity and solidarity. Above all else, my thoughts go out to the Kenyan People. Our spirit will not be broken. The God of all creation has already and will continue to bless this our land and nation. I celebrate my heritage and I brandish my Kenyan roots with the deepest and utmost pride. I am now and continue to be #PROUDLYKENYAN “WE WILL NOT RELENT ON THE WAR ON TERROR”. “WE ARE AS COURAGEOUS AS THE LIONS ON OUR COAT OF ARMS”. We continue to pray and stand vigil. We take back the Western Gate of this city and win back our freedom so dearly won fifty years ago – The Freedom to live without fear, The Freedom to live with HOPE. Today, know this Kenya … “You are a chosen people, set aside to be a royal order of priests, a holy nation, God’s own; so that you may proclaim the wondrous acts of the One who called you out of inky darkness into shimmering light” [1st Peter 2:9 – The Voice]

 

Beautiful Petals

 

Things change, seasons come and go, some seasons bring abundance and some bring seasons of scarcity. Some seasons carry in their tailcoats tears and some ride on the wings of laughter. This is my season for birthing. It has been extremely harrowing. Sometimes all seems calm but other times the genesis of a dull ache turns into a sharp uncontrollable contraction. It is almost time for the head to crown and everything has gotten more intense. I hot, i’m cold. I want to stand, I can’t stand to sit. The utterances and groanings of my inner man are unintelligible to a normal man but clear as the northern lights on a stark, crisp winter’s night to he who has ears and can hear.

There are things happening within my spirit Man that my physical man is finding hard to comprehend. There are things my physical self is forced to accept that my spirit self must do for me to live, love, thrive and conquer,

So on this the 10th Day of the 9th Month of the 13th Year of the 2nd Millennium, I have made the choice to go a different route and do a different thing that goes hand in hand with this new season. I will no longer be blogging from this page. Instead I am moving to a website. My new home will now be http://www.beautifulpetals.com – I chose that name for various reasons. I have seen the beauty and delicateness in the petals in my life. A Rose bud is not made of one solid entity but carefully constructed and placed together and held together by invisible invincible threads of glue. i am carefully covered and sheltered by the one who holds my heart. He is the one who intricately wove every single thread of my life together. The one who intimately placed the desires in my heart. The one who infinitely loves and protects me with everything in Him. He placed petals in the gems of family, friends, and loved ones around me. 

I see beauty in the sunrise and the sunset. I smell the fragrance of the rain and the dew and they make me glad. I feel the elements against my face and they make me smile. Every precious moment of my life is a petal in itself be it the people I have met and loved, the places I have been and loved of the things I have loved and lost. 

To the petals in my life, it is now time to open up and let the sweet nectar of the center of the bud flow and give life to another season. The seed grew into a bud, the bud has blossomed into a flower. Let us move together as we dance in the wind like daffodils in an English meadow. 

You are a beautiful petal, as am I and together we make up the intricate, delicate breathtaking beauty of the blossom that is life. See you on the other side … http://www.beautifulpetals.com

What’s in a name?

I have searched high and low in my 36years on this wonderful planet and only in these past two weeks have I finally begun to comprehend what God has in store for me. I have finally looked into the mirror and caught a glimpse of what He saw in the begin of time before He physically created me while He breathed his Rua breath into my spirit. His breath of life gave me life then and today I have a new name. My birth name suits me perfectly. I never thought another name could suit me more. I love seeing the deeper meanings of names and studying tediously to see if they match the personality types and character traits of the people. 

Then I noticed something in the Bible. Every time God wanted to use someone in the Bible, He first changed their name. Last week I got my new name. I was renamed. My new name means “I have found the precious one who I am to care for” and was given to me by someone I greatly admire and respect, someone who means a great deal to me. Someone who has entrusted me with a great vision and trusts that I will carry this vision with them and see it come to pass. 

God gave me a new name. By giving life to another’s vision, God has given vision to my life. I see better now that I have been given direction. I have direction now that I am called by this new name and the new name gives me cause to seek out that direction and find it and do whatever I can within my power to get to my desired destination. In the words of the great Sir William Shakespeare, What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet; … Your essence, your authenticity, your uniqueness does not change because of your name. Your flavor remains the same. What changes is how long you linger in peoples’ minds and on their hearts after you are gone, and how how long your scent stays on God’s green earth once you are gone. The one who gave me a new name understands my destiny and also understands what role they have to play in helping me achieve my destiny. I am precious – a precious one (not one in a precious few or one in a precious many) and they understand by the grace of God that part of them achieving their destiny is tied to caring for me and helping me achieve mine. This is a sign and the next one who hears that name and latches onto the greatness of the name and the weightiness of it’s meaning will be the one to cover and protect me even as this one who named me cared for me up until the point when the future one comes to cover me. It may sound confusing to some but this word is not for anybody and everybody. Those who have ears and hear this word and it resonates in their hearts will begin to seek God to bring them to the one who will give them that new name that will give vision to their life even as they give life to the vision of another. Those who do not will not. It’s a simple as that. So my earthly parents gave me this one name and the one who is birthing a new vision in me has given me this new name and the one who is my covering will complete the process and give me another name even as I take on his name. I am thrilled and excited. Today I see the pieces of the puzzle fitting so much better now that I have direction and am called by a new name. It has helped me move that one step closer into my destiny. I know my name … Question is,Do you know yours?

My Cup Runneth Over

I spent some time in the presence of my mentor yesterday. I have seeded my week to the worthy cause of carrying and growing his vision. Sometimes when you are pregnant with your precious vision, there will come a time when like Mary, you go into hiding, find your Elizabeth and feed on her vision – or let her vision feed yours. Let the baby in her womb leap and affirm your own vision and the heaviness of what you are carrying.

It’s not always easy to sit under the authority and experience of another and carry his / her dream. But passion demands that it succeeds at whatever cost. Therefore sometimes it will cost you the experience of another. There is no need to pass the same path another has passed and enter the same potholes along the way. Mentorship does not mean walking in the footsteps of another but learning from the path followed by one more experienced than yourself(in both success and failure).

The more profound thing about mentor-ship is that you cannot have someone pour into you and you remain the same and not empty your own jar to be filled again. Therefore you need to empty of yourself into another. The most amazing thing about my meeting with my mentor yesterday was that I wasn’t alone. I was with someone I have walked with and poured into for the past few years. She calls me mentor and had a chance to meet with my mentor and understand where I get it. Where I am filled. Where I am challenged and pulled out of my comfort zone and where I am more than comfortable to stretch beyond my limits – in a safe place.

Beloved, our capacity to grow is limited not by how much we can carry as we receive, but by how much we can empty into another and feed their vision. Every time I spend time with my mentor, I come back, not full to the brim, but with my cup running over.

Every time I meet with my mentor, he speaks life into the womb of my vision and revives and resuscitates. Yesterday was no different. He spoke life into a dream I never knew I was pregnant with until I met him. Since then he has been the midwife to this dream, helping me feed, nurture, protect and expose the vision in due time. Today I pray that I can give life to the dream of another, one precious to me and close to my heart. One who has given me the honor of changing my name to mentor and has humbly sown seed into my vision so that it can grow even as hers is put on hold.

@Fela Durotoye [https://www.facebook.com/fela.durotoyeiii?fref=ts], I am honored to call you mentor. Thank you for cheering me into my future as you allow me to sow into yours. Your vision is bigger than you and your legacy will carry not just your name but the banner of the most high!

@Shiku Kusero [https://www.facebook.com/shiku.kusero?fref=ts], I am humbled you call me mentor. The Lord bless you and keep you and cause His face to shine upon you now and forever more,

Because of you both, I can honestly say that my cup truly doth run over.

Psalms 23

Hitting Rock Bottom

Soul-2-Soul

I will not claim to know where you are at, I won’t even say “I feel you”, No, I do not know what you’re going through…the one thing I do know is the feeling of hitting rock bottom. Hitting rock bottom is HARD. Sometimes the thing you’re going through causes you so much pain, you honestly think you could die. The thought of releasing what caused you to sink is unheard of! And just like the top, rock bottom is a lonely place to be. Naturally as human beings, we gravitate towards the positive. We go where we feel happy. So as you’re going through the pain, you lose friends you were so confident of. But here’s the thing about rock bottom, there’s no where to go but up! Yup! Rock bottom has HOPE. Hope for healing, hope for growth, hope for starting afresh. Hope to let…

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Ham, Eggs, Passion and Seasons

Passion means Committed. It means that you eat, sleep and breath this dream in your heart. It means that this baby you are carrying takes priority over other things that used to be number one in your life. Remember, “The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed.  – Martina Navratilova

Commitment doesn’t mean that you will always hit it and you will always be on top. It means that even when you feel at your worst and don’t produce your best, you are still in this game and you are in it to learn and to get to the top. Commitment is an in-going effort in your pursuit of you passion. Most times, it is not how you score along the way that counts, it is that you kept going and gained a little  day by day – that is what makes all the difference.

How committed are you to your cause? How committed to your dreams and your passions? What are you willing to sacrifice in order to make sure you succeed? Abraham was committed to his God. Despite having waited 100years for a son, he was willing to sacrifice Isaac upon the instructions of the Lord. What is your Isaac and are you willing to lay it down? Are you willing to sacrifice whatever it takes in order to get to wherever you need to go?

Commitment doesn’t always make sense. Some days commitment will seem futile. Some days it will look to the outside world like you need to give up and go another way. Some will tell you to be practical and some will tell you to grow up. Some will tell you to quit your foolish ways.  What I have learned is that:

1. My vision doesn’t need to make sense to everyone so long as God keeps confirming it
2. My vision doesn’t need to be known by everyone
3. My strategy is right if I have peace with God – the rest, He will take care of
4. My baby must be protected and only revealed slowly until God decides the moment of its unveiling
5. I Must continually and consistently revisit my vision, and re-dream your dream. It is only in doing this that I will be able to remember where it is God and I are headed and keep myself in check from going astray.

The story is told of Elizabeth who after years of being barren conceived. Everyone began to talk about the baby and discuss the name, but God had already named the baby. When her husband doubted it, God confirmed it but shut his mouth to teach him a lesson. When the time was right and the baby was to be named, God opened his mouth and allowed him to speak the name that had been ordained for the baby.

Another story is told of Elizabeth’s cousin Mary who conceived supernaturally and ran to hide in Elizabeth’s home until she was bold enough to return home and be on her own.

• Sometimes God will require you to stay put as the baby grows despite what the world says [SUMMER]
• Sometimes He will require you to shut your mouth despite what you want to say [AUTUMN]
• Sometimes He will allow you to hide in someone else’s shadow as you learn and grow [WINTER]
• Always the time will come when you have grown enough and are bold enough to stand on your own with your baby. [SPRING]

In the Summer you will sow; In Autumn you will store; In your Winter you will hibernate and in your Spring you will spring forth.  Which season are you in and how committed are you to seeing this dream through? Are you the Chicken who is involved or are you the pig who is committed? Have you made a choice to observe or are you making a decision to invest?

On this 4th day of July 2013, I challenge you to sit down, re-read the vision God put in your heart; re-examine the passion He laid in your soul and re=evaluate the dream He gave to you. Write it down and then decide: in this ham and eggs buffet, are you the chicken or are you the pig?

XOXO

From: A-Girl-About-Town

Practically Impassioned

Passion does not ask for permission. Passion does not wait to be allowed. Passion runs over you like a train over tracks. It takes control of the environment and changes the atmosphere. But passion outside of the practical is purely a hobby. The best days of your life are ahead of you if only you will allow your passion to grow and flourish. But the worst times in your life will destroy you if you do not mind and honor reason in your pursuit for passion. It has often been said that you cannot eat passion. But I know that without passion, it does not matter what else you eat.

Today I met up with some awesome friends. And as though God had whispered my desires into their hearts their words set in motion the chug-a-chug-a-chugging motion of my passion and desires. I now want to run with this new aspect of my passion. Long have I dreamed of it. But I know that I must pace myself. The Bible tells me to write my vision and make it plain so that those who see it may run. The vision is clear in my head and my heart – that is passion. I must take that passion and write it down. I must be the first one to poke holes through it to make it hole-proof. I must have a Research and Development Department which will constantly and consistently look for ways to improve and impact that environment. That is Reason.

Passion will command respect but only when married with reason. Passion will captivate the authority of the environment but only when practical foundations have been set. Passion will drive economies either up or down but always and without question, passion will be the deciding factor. Passion knows not fear and passion is daring, most times willing to risk it all rather than sit cautiously and lose it all.

I put it to you that while you may be busy reasoning out the practicalities of the vision, a Moses will part the Red Sea, a Joshua will bring down the walls of Jericho and a David will slay Goliath. Carefully consider the consequences but after doing so, JUMP! You will fly because you are an eagle and you were created to soar, not peck on the ground with the chickens. Have a Reasonably, Passionately Practically Wonderful destiny! This is your season!!!

XOXO – From: A-Girl-About-Town

The Fight For Your Life

The fight-or-flight response  is a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceivedharmful event, attack, or threat to survival.^{[http://www.wikipedia.com]} 

In the fight for your life, you are going to have to decide if what you are fighting for is worth it. You are are going to have to decide if your opponent can be taken down or if you are willing to die trying.

I am in the fight for my life. I am backed into a corner and I have two choices. I can buckle down, fold my body into a fetal position and wait for the death blow, or I can fight back. I am swinging blindly, not knowing where my opponent is or what he has coming my way.

I will not take flight, no matter  how much easier it is. I am in the fight for my life and I must change my strategy. What worked in the last battle will not fly during this war.

I have a 6-step strategy:

1. Protect the baby. Don’t let the baby be compromised or harmed. My baby is my vision, my end goal, that which I was created to do and must achieve no matter what.
2. Remain Focused. Keep my eye on the prize. Refuse to compromise or be distracted
3. Refuse to fall; Refuse to fail. I must dig in my heels, take a dominant position, a stable stand, and refused to be brought to my knees or fall flat on my face.
4. Consecrate myself and seperate myself for what lies ahead. Not everyone was meant to hear the strategy and not everyone was meant to go on this journey. Pick your generals wisely; Some have carried you long enough, bless them into their future.
5. PRAY PRAY PRAY PRAY without ceasing for this is the will of God
6. Seek forgiveness where necessary. As you ask others to release you, it will break the shackles of the bondage of bitterness and unforgiveness leaving your mind alert and your heart clean.

[Luke 14:28]“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— 29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’?31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace.”

I am in the fight for my life and I have considered it all. I have counted the cost and my destiny is my cause. I will not take to flight. I will stand and fight.

My question to you today is: What is Your Cause? Have you counted your cost? Is it worth it?

XOXO – From: A-Girl-About-Town