At some point in life everyone realizes that “patience is a virtue.”  It doesn’t matter who you are and what you do.  Patience will come in and challenge us all.  I have had these talks with my brothers and my husband.  We all agree that patience is key to overcoming what it is you are facing and struggling with…and if you can do that, you get closer to where you want to be and what you dream of.  I have learned through many experiences that patience may just be the most important virtue of them all.  It’s human nature to get caught up in what you want for your life in the present and future. For me, patience is a tough one to grasp because its easy to get caught up in the big picture of life.  The glitch is that most people look back and wish they could live their journey differently because as they were focused on getting somewhere in their life….they forgot to live it in a way that was still enjoyable.  Life has more to offer then the push to getting elsewhere faster…and there is no guarantee for a tomorrow.  Remembering to enjoy the process and embrace patience as it enters your life is important and vital to all because patience gives us a chance…to live another way again.

There are no limits to life and what you can do.  It all comes from within and you need to have the determination to trust in patience and God’s plan in the midst of struggles and slow times.  Nothing in life is handed to you and “the harder you work the luckier you will become.” You don’t have to come from the most successful family name, or the best education, or even have the most famous background to be the person your heart is calling you to be.  You hold the power to write your script and design what you see for yourself.  Your upbringing, job, and surroundings don’t make you, you make you.  It’s on you to keep on the right track and go off of your inner guidance and not just the outer guidance you have been given.  The outer guidance in the world today can teach you poorly and actually force you to  forget simple life principles like patience.

Patience doesn’t have to be a struggle to attain…it should be taught to be viewed as a blessing.  It can be a blessing in disguise to stop you at moments during your journey and teach you more about you and your path.  Patience leads you to a place where you realize that it’s what you make of your daily life that counts….not what you strive for.  If God isn’t handing you what you want at first, maybe you need to look at the positives to understand why.  For example, look at the many celebrities who became famous young and never got to experience what real and simple life is.  And we all know how many of them have ended up so tragically. Numerous famous and rich public figures struggle with alcholol, drugs, confusion, and depression and many times are in and out of rehab.  In magazines they appear to have it all.  But, they struggle just like the rest of us.  In some ways, it can be a blessing to have patience come in and keep you safe from getting something too quickly in your life. Instead of getting frustrated, take the life lesson out of it.

If we all strived to make a difference everyday in our community just imagine how that difference would effect our country.  It’s easy to think BIG and want more….but there is power in little things.  If you have patience in perfecting the small steps in your goals….then strangely it has a way of opening the doors to the big ones with a little more ease.  This is because patience is strength.  There are many ways in which people view what strength can be defined as.  Physical strength comes from being consistent with working your muscles and body.  I love to be physically strong as you can see from my blog on training!  I love having muscle and physical strength, but that all has proven in my past to not matter at the end of the day if I don’t have inner strength.  I relied on physical strength at certain times in my life for my happiness, peace, and outlet.  I truly believe that is why God took it away from me for a good period of time.  He wanted me to find a much greater strength that I could depend on no matter what is going on in my life.  You can’t pay for or give someone that kind of strength.  You need to be the one to dig deep enough and have the will to hold on to patience and find it, especially at those moments in your life when its easy to get off track.  Inner strength can get you through anything even when it’s a battle. I would choose my heart and inner strength over my physical strength any day.  And I have to remind myself daily to work on that strength as much as I work on my physical strength.

You have to be consistent in your patience if you want to see progress.  Real strength is continuing to keep on the right track when what you want for your life is not happening.  That is the test….to see how bad you really want what you desire.  And remember the blessings that come from being handed patience along the way. I don’t believe in failure. If you are who you really want to be on the inside always remember to remain true to that through the ups and downs.

A priest once told me that he had the job of putting thousands of people to rest in their last hour.  He said that when he asked what people looked back on in their life and wished they would have done differently that the answers for all were the same.  It wasn’t the failure that came to the minds of thousands before they passed away…it was the not trying that they regretted.  They had wished they worked harder at achieving what and who they really wanted to be every step alone the way.  Life is too short to not go for what is pulling on your heart, not what others have taught you to be or do.  Failure needs to start being looked at as a roadblock set with fear to keep you from living a life of freedom and peace.  And during the ride on a path to a dream….the roadblocks that come in the form of patience are the only ones you want to see.  These are the roadblocks that won’t block your progress…but teach you growth along the way.  They can teach you who and what is really true in your life.

Oprah has said, “ Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.”  Failure is only failure if you define it that way.  And patience can show you what and who matters in your life.  If you enjoy the process there is no failure.  And the hard times can define for you who you are and whether your story will be one of patience and persistence…or one where you look back wondering what would have been different if you had just stuck it out and tried.

It has been unbelievably windy in Florida over the last week!! So windy that if I wasn’t fighting against it a little nature’s strength could have literally pushed me into the ocean!  Wind is one of those tantalizing forces that can make you fight back even if you don’t realize it.  Especially… if you want to keep standing strong. I definitely feel that there is a flow to life, kind of like “breezing along with the wind.” But, that’s not to say that a strong wind wont come at times to try to push you off your life’s true course.  I believe these inevitable times come into our lives to teach us how bad we really desire something.  It’s up to you to prove to life and the universe that you do.

One of the reasons I fell in love with sports at a young age was because beyond being athletic, I saw the great story that all real athletes share.  It’s very seldom that a successful athlete doesn’t have a strong and inspiring story of perseverance and heart.  The real athletes to me are the ones that find a light in their path that guides them through the winds of adversity….to a place where they overcome the odds to see how bad they really did want to be that champion.

After the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl we all heard Drew Brees’s story and became fans.  It’s hard to feel connected to someone as special and accomplished as Brees.  (Super Bowl quarterback now and all.) But, when you hear the ups and downs he went through and the questionable times in his career and life you realize he is just human like all of us. Yet, he rose up during the struggle and kept going when he was unsure why his career was struggling and not going in the direction he had imagined.  He didn’t just breeze with it and let it take him down…he created who we all know as…WHO DAT Champion Brees!  If he would have just quit or stopped…and let the winds of adversity take him off course he wouldn’t be here today healing a city like New Orleans and taking home a Super Bowl ring.

When an athlete has a windy patch of weather that is the test to see if they have the will to rise against it and overcome the odds….or whether they go with the wind and let it float them in another direction. During the Olympics we hear and see numerous stories of athletes who overcame the odds, injuries, and life traumas to come back and obtain their dream.  But, they didn’t do it without bumps in the road and adversity that attempted to keep them from accomplishing it.  Or, asking them in their soul how bad they wanted what they felt in their intuition.

This sort of strong wind can be looked at in many different ways.  And sometimes when that force, or strong wind comes battling its way into your life you have to rise against it.  Putting up a good fight can be what you need at times, if it is for the right reasons.  You have to fight the adversity and bumps in the road that are always going to show up on your path towards a dream.  This is what will keep you on the right track during the hard and doubtful times. But, to realize the power of a dream, is to realize that nothing…no winds or no storms…can keep you from not continuing to push and…rise when you fall….until you capture that vision that guides you through the eyes of your heart…to your dream.

I’m now in the sky and writing this to you as I face my fear of flying head on.  It probably sounds crazy because I have to travel so much, but what it comes down to is that this forces me to face my fear.  I could definetly do without ever stepping on a plane again.  But, in order to get to where I want to be in my life I have to keep taking off and trusting that it’s out of my control and in the hands of something so much greater then myself.  Because truly everything is out of our control…..it’s kind of silly for me to think flying is the only thing I don’t have all the power over.   Being on the ground is no different – my mind just tells me it is.  At any moment anything could happen to change my life.  It’s not my call… I definetly believe it’s Gods will controlling that side of fate.  Not to say that we don’t have control over certain choices we make, but ultimately God controls the destiny part of the bigger picture .  So, as I look out the window and see clouds beneath me and sky above me… I remember even more then ever how precious life is.  I might get anxious when I fly, but it always seems to help me  reflect on the things that I have to be thankful for in my life.  Life is a miracle in itself when you really look around.  We just usually don’t notice it during a typical day because we haven’t been taught to.

Start looking around at the things you typically don’t see. Face your fears during the travels in your own life.  I promise you if you start with one and conquer it, you will be ready to face more and more and see the positive and powerful changes it brings to your life.  And use little unique tools to help you during the process.

JP got me a stuffed animal monkey a year ago and named him Dangles.  He has angel wings and I bring him on the road with me.  JP said he is like my guardian angel.  And looking at my smiling monkey actually helps me to remember that I have my own guardian angels watching over me and that they are with me even if I don’t see them.  I can still feel them when I try.  The best things in life are sometimes those we can’t always see….so we should keep taking off no matter what fears we have because life is about living!

“Peace.  It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work.  It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.”

My desire to help “heal hearts” might sound funny at first, yet it’s as simple as this quote states. It all starts from within the heart.  And all the writings I have done and still do come from that place within my heart.  I was very fortunate to have people lead me many times when I needed it in my life.  We as humans start and end in our heart.  And if we could all learn to go there first when facing lifes demands, then there would be nothing on this planet that could stop us from achieving our own happiness and overcoming any limitations.  Whether its playing sports, graduating college, desiring to obtain a dream or wanting to help someone or yourself heal from a disease or hurt effecting quality of life….you just can’t do it without heart. You could even have all the success or money in the world, but if you go home at night to a hurting or empty heart nothing will feel right.  And eventually it will catch up to you.

Truth comes from within and if you can hold on to the strength of knowing who you are in your heart, then nothing on the outer surface can take away your inner peace and knowing.  In a world where there is so much trouble, hurt, confusion, and chaos I wanted to make a place where people, especially kids and young adults could come to and feel hope in knowing that someone out there cares about what challenges and hardships they are facing.  A place that I would want my younger brothers to be able to turn to when they are facing their own life struggles. So, I will offer what I wish I would have known in the beginning in my writings to spare you the trouble.

We are all searching to find our own happiness and peace. And today it can be a struggle to hold onto it as we are all facing ups and downs and hard times.  Who knows – maybe I’m writing this because I’m facing those same sorts of things myself.  I see why so many people turn to the negative things on the Internet or in life and I wanted to create something thats real, positive and fun (I promise the other blog will be more fun, because although you have to be real to heal- I also have learned you need to compromise it with laughter and fun.  Life is all about balance!) So much of what we are being taught on a daily basis seems to only lead people down destructive paths that take them off the true “right track.”  I created a blog connecting to healing hearts called “keeping track” (which will be the more light hearted blog) because I want to show people who don’t know me a little more into my life. So, you can see a glimpse into the realness of the life I’ve lived and am still living.

Through all of my experiences I have learned that you can go off of what other people tell you to do or who to be….or you can follow your own calling in your heart.  People are going to hate on you and always and try to get you to be a certain way.  This will never change.  But the only way to be happy in your heart is to be who you want to be.  And when you do that you can sustain being happy and it makes brushing off the haters pretty easy. People are negative when they aren’t happy and that’s why they put others down. When you realize this….you can smile still when don’t agree with others. And you start to realize that if you speak from your heart and be respectful to others, you will experience more good and positive things start to happen in your own life.  But, if you are falling into the trap of bullying others then life will give you back more negative things that you really don’t want to be dealing with.

Be real to who you are and trust those instincts.  Remember we all come here from the same place and have more in common then we see, we just for some reason separate ourselves.  We need to start acting like we are on the same team rather than opposing teams.  Because my husband and I are athletes I like to use the analogy of teams.  Jp and I, like in the above picture are on the same team.  Team JP and Heather Howell. If we acted like we were on opposing teams we would never get along.  And although we all have our separate lives we are really living here together.  So we should all start acting like we are on the same team to make life a little more peaceful.