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Thursday, I resumed workshops at The Cabin Path...including the Home School Workshop Thursdays. It's been a long winter. Late last fall, I lost my only sister to ovarian cancer. I stayed with her and her husband that last month when she went home under Hospice. I had cancelled all of my workshops...my busiest time with Native American units, and pioneer days at the log cabin. I also cancelled the Thanksgiving Cabin Dinner, a fun, but realistic event with a deep appreciation for pioneers times! I decided to shut down through the winter...a time to heal for me and our family, including our 93 year old Mother.


Winter in Atlanta has been extra cold and snowy this year! I'm sure our northern neighbors only laugh, but it seems to go on and on! It snowed again on Tuesday, and my workshops began on Thursday. I almost cancelled again..I felt I had lost my groups...they had found other places to go...it was too cold...all the excuses I heard parents make when I would invite them to workshops! I decided to have the workshop anyway.


Cold, windy morning...but our group grew and grew! Old friends and NEW faces, and many with questions like, "Will there be any snakes?? I don't like snakes!" I soon found myself totally enthralled with my love of nature and its wonder...explaining that most snakes are more afraid of us, and they could feel vibrations in our footsteps long before we would see them. We walked the trails and discovered signs of spring, and when asked if they wanted to take the short trail and head back to the Gathering Room, parents and children all voted to go on! We saw deer, squirrels, and birds. We saw animal homes and sat and listened to the trees swaying in the wind and the bird songs that seemed to surround us...It was a magical time that renewed us all. One Mother even remarked, "I didn't even think I liked the outside!"


Back to the Gathering Room, we talked about more about plants and the importance of saving and protecting habitats. They all want to come back to see more animals and the new wildflowers and watch for leaves..and yes, even snakes! They all taught me today. It was a wonder-filled day. I realized that the very thing I had been avoiding was the most important thing that I needed. Yes, the Workshops at The Cabin Path are back, and I'M BACK, and I felt my sister right there with us!

"In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back."
~Charlie Brown~

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Winter Blues?? An article of interest:



Checkup on Health: Go outside to cure the winter blues

Posted using ShareThis

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Cheryl and I were big believers in positive thinking..the "Secret"...that the "mind" plays a huge role in the way things happen in this world. For that reason, it has been especially hard to accept Cheryl's death...she worked hard all of her life, she helped so many, and her life ended so abruptly and too soon. We both had our vision boards and movies...I replayed mine over the weekend....I have picture of her with me on the cabin porch, and my caption is "Long, Happy Lives!"
I still receive many "Vision Movie" emails.. to try this and that new product..and I usually ignore them, but one over the weekend caught my eye. It actually gives some good common sense ways to start back up...

How do you figure out what it is that you really want? by Brian Wong

"So many peo­ple have no idea what they want or just haven’t taken the time to seri­ously think about it. They aim for noth­ing and hit it with amaz­ing accuracy.

The first and very impor­tant step to achiev­ing all your goals is actu­ally hav­ing a clear pic­ture of what they are.

Once you are clear you can start to take action in the direc­tion of your goals and fash­ion a plan that will get you there.

So let me ask you…

•Are you some­one who just can’t decide from the mil­lions of choices avail­able to you?
•Have you sat down to write out your goals but just draw a blank?
•Are you some­one who sets and achieves goals in one area of your life but falls short in others?
•Are you some­one who has no idea where to start?
Well let me share with you some hints to make this process quick, easy and rel­a­tively painless…

1. Divide your goals into 5 com­mon key areas in your life:

•Money and mate­r­ial possessions,
•Rela­tion­ships and Partners,
•Health and Weight Loss,
•Career and Business
•Per­sonal Devel­op­ment and Spirituality.
2. Draw 3 columns on a sheet of paper and title the columns as…

What I Don’t Want, What I Do Want, Why I Want It.

* When fill­ing in the “What I Don’t Want” col­umn ask your­self “What don’t I want based on past experiences?”

Some­times it is eas­ier to iden­tify the qual­i­ties you don’t want in a sit­u­a­tion because they have been your focus. This is espe­cially true if you have just left a job, busi­ness or rela­tion­ship. Write these things in col­umn 1 then write the oppo­site, pos­i­tive state­ment of this in col­umn 2.

For exam­ple:

•I don’t want to be broke – I have an abun­dance of money
•I don’t want a job I hate – I love my job
•I don’t want to be alone — I am in a lov­ing relationship
•I don’t want to be fat — I am trim, taut and terrific
* When fill­ing in the “What I Do Want” col­umn ask your­self “If I had $10 mil­lion and I knew I couldn’t fail, what would I do, be and have?”

This col­umn con­tains the oppo­site state­ments from col­umn 1 and your dreams and desires.

For exam­ple:

•I have $1 mil­lion in the bank.
•I am the num­ber 1 sales­man in my industry.
•I cheer­fully exer­cise every day.
•I have a full­time housekeeper.
•I donate 10% of my income to wor­thy charities.
* When fill­ing in the “Why I Want It” col­umn ask your­self “Once I achieve this goal, who will ben­e­fit? How will that make me feel?”

Here is where you focus on your moti­va­tion to achieve these things. Focus­ing on your WHY gives cre­ates a “vol­cano” of burn­ing, inter­nal moti­va­tion espe­cially if your WHY is some­thing out­side of your­self, greater than just you alone.

For exam­ple:

•My part­ner falls in love with me all over again.
•I make my par­ents proud.
•I have the love and respect of my children.
•I attract my per­fect partner.
•I have the free­dom of choice.
3. Next step is to arrange col­umn 2 and 3 into a list of short, pow­er­ful, present tense statements.

When you read and recite this list each day you want to achieve the feel­ing that these things exist NOW (which they do) and it’s just a mat­ter of time before they mate­ri­al­ize in your life.

For exam­ple:

•I drive a Mer­cedes 500SL
•I earn $20,000 per month
•I am gen­er­ous with fam­ily & friends
•I am in a joy­ous, lov­ing relationship
Con­grat­u­la­tions! You now have a clear and con­cise list of exactly what you want to achieve. This puts you ahead of the major­ity of the population.

Believe me, this is a very excit­ing and empow­er­ing accomplishment.

Now don’t worry, actu­ally you can expect this…you may find your­self want­ing to make changes to this list espe­cially once you visu­al­ize these things exist­ing now.

Noth­ing here is set in stone and you will find your­self mak­ing fre­quent changes to this list, espe­cially once you start to tick things off!

Being clear about what you want and com­mit­ting this list to paper is Step 1 in a 4 Step suc­cess process…this is all that stands between you and the con­trol over the hap­pi­ness and pos­i­tive out­comes in your life."

May or may not help you..but thinking about goals and life and planning the future can't be a bad thing! Hope to see you at the next Patch It Meeting! ♥

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Here's a link that may help....

http://thegiftofkeith.org/info/grieving/things_i%20_have_learned.html

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May the stars carry your sadness away,
May the flowers fill your heart with beauty,
May hope forever wipe away your tears,
And, above all, may silence make you strong.

Chief Dan George

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"Patch It".....that's what our hearts and souls need at times...just a little patching. The purpose of this Gathering is not a cure, but just a little time out in today's hectic pace. Life gives us challenges, and at times, it seems more than we can take, but yet as we go further on our paths, we realize that life lesson were learned. It's sometimes hard to face these new lessons, but we are all here for a reason; a journey, a path. If you have reached that point that nothing seems "worth it" PLEASE seek professional help! If you just need a little patching, read on!



When my Mother was a little girl, (back in the 1920's) they lived on a farm. My grandparents were farmers and school teachers. Times were hard, and money was short! (sound familiar?) I believe the biggest difference in then and today was a sense of community. The community was the wagon hub, and families were the spokes that made "life" work. Neighbors reached out to each other, and they shared what little they had. I have grown up with stories from that time and that community. The club name, "Patch It" comes from my uncle. He was once given a jacket..the "most beautiful jacket" he had ever seen! It was homemade and a hand me down from someone in the community. It was made of wool with little colored threads woven in the gray background, and it was riddled with moth holes. The holes didn't seem to matter to him because he turned to his Mom (my grandmother) and said, "Patch it, Mama, just patch it!" She did....and he wore it everyday that winter..and the next winter, too! It was then passed along to another family..with a few new patches. Whenever things in my life come unraveled, "Patch It, Just Patch It!" comes to mind.

The Patch It Club had its first meeting last Thursday night. It was a rainy and cold night, but yet we met. I believe that there is a need for this club...maybe my belief is so strong because I lost my sister, Cheryl last fall. It was such a shock. She had always been so healthy..so health conscious, but yet in late September, she got sick..and was soon diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Despite yearly check ups, the cancer had grown and it took her life one month later. I had stayed with her and her husband for that last month, and I watched as she grew weaker and weaker. The feeling of helplessness and seeing her pain increase daily still haunts me. Sadness, anger, and guilt that "I am still here and she's gone" have all been emotions that I have felt..and I am still feeling. I have struggled with it, and our 93 year Mother is also struggling.

Hospice has offered counseling and support groups. I soon realized that although I felt alone, there are many right around me that are also struggling and suffering with loss, addiction, depression, problems, and they, too, are feeling all alone. Our group does not demand that you share..if you want to, that's fine, but we will share our time and friendship and give you places to go for help and numbers to call..and we'll offer a LIFE line...and a couple of hours to talk and do some projects. I brought out my new boxes of crayons, scissors, and paper at our first meeting, and they inspired hidden talents, and best of all, they sparked laughter!

Join us every first Thursday night from 7 PM - 9PM. We will have guest speakers from time to time, but most of the time, we'll just do a little patching. Our next meeting, we'll plant a few flower and vegetable seeds. They will be yours to keep and nurture and plant in your own garden, and we'll also walk the trails here at The Cabin Path as the days get longer and the temps get warmer. Tell your friends, bring a friend, and hopefully, the Patch It Club will make a difference!