A Life of Your Choosing

Choice: many of us feel we have lots of them; some feel they have little or no choice in one or more areas of their lives.

“The greatest gift Life could have made to you is yourself. You are a spontaneous, self-choosing center of Life, in the great drama of being, the great joy of becoming, the certainty of eternal expansion.” [Unknown]

Everything we think, say, feel, and do (or don’t) is a choice.

The moment we recognize the value of this, we can choose to be more conscious about our choices.

In love relationships or any other area of life, staying where you aren’t “fed” is like starving in a banquet hall filled with food. When you go to a banquet, no one makes you eat. When and what you partake of is your choice. How is this metaphoric scenario any different from life?

Everything we’re experiencing in our lives right this moment is the result of a choice, whether it included action or perceived inaction. When we don’t like our outcomes, we have the power to shift future outcomes at either the inner or outer levels, or both.

If you’re one who works with the Law of Attraction or any other form of quantum-thinking system, it can take a while to switch from focusing attention on what you no longer want, or believe needs fixing or changing, to what you desire to expand more of into your life, and how you choose to feel.

The key to the greatest energy or power in this is to realize you can choose how to feel in any moment. You really can. I’m not saying it’s necessarily easy, but you can do it. This includes choosing to feel as bad as you feel you need to for as long as you feel the need to. Honoring your feelings is not a flaw. Emotional pain happens as a part of life. How you choose to suffer and for how long is up to you (usually long past the event for many).

It’s remarkable what can happen when you make a choice about what you prefer and figure out which appropriate action will move you forward to your desired outcome. For one thing, it takes your emotionally-charged focus off of where it doesn’t belong . . . what you don’t like or judge as not good (or the past), and puts it where it can do the most good . . . on what you wish to create more of in your life.

Perhaps it’s time to recognize exactly how much power you really have in your life, and live it.

Joyce Shafer is a Life Empowerment Coach and published writer. Discover if you’re ready to create more life balance and fulfillment through the power of coaching. http://www.freewebs.com/coach4lifebalance

Wanna-be Hummus

I recently took this recipe to a large get-together with a bunch of women from church, and it was a huge hit. I've never made hummus before. I've never even tasted hummus before. From what I was told, this recipe isn't technically hummus since I didn't use chickpeas in it, but the lady who told me that also told me that my recipe was way better than any hummus she'd ever tasted. And apparently this lady was big into hummus. People couldn't say enough good things about it. It really was tasty.

I formed the recipe from 2 different recipes I got off of Food Network's website. I was researching different recipes to bring and liked elements from both of these - so why not combine them, I thought? And the result was dElIsH.

The ingredients list is really just an estimate. I really didn't measure very well, and you really can't screw this up. I love recipes like that where you can just throw stuff in without measuring and have it turn out great.

Ingredients:
2 cans white beans, drained and rinsed
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons fresh parsley
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon salt
1 can diced petite tomatoes
3 cloves garlic

Peel your garlic, then place in a microwave safe bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave for 1-2 minutes, or until soft. Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender; mix thoroughly until well combined. Chill until ready to serve. Now, my food processor is a lot smaller than I'd like it to be, so I had to make this recipe in batches and then mixed it all by hand in a large bowl.

Serve with a variety of veggies, pita bread, whatever!