Happy Thanksgivukkah

THANKSGIVUKKAH: 

You have probably heard this on TV and asked 

"WHAT is THAT???" 

Well, HERE is the "scoop" on Thanksgivukkah!!!!

                            For the first time since 1888, 

               Thanksgiving and Hanukkah will converge, 

        marking the first joint celebration of the two holidays                         

                        aptly named Thanksgivukkah.

This year Thanksgiving Day will mark the first day of Hanukkah – the eight-day festival that celebrates the rededication during the second century B.C. of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, when Jews revolted against their Greek-Syrian oppressors called the Maccabean Revolt. Since Hanukkah starts on Wednesday at sundown, the second candle will be lit on Turkey Day. ...

“I think it’s a nice way to integrate the two holidays,” Lori Rashty, a teacher at Detroit’s Hillel Day School, said. 

“Since we’re not going to see it again for 79,000 years, it’s kind of an exciting way for the kids to realize that it’s a special occasion for them.” 

From:  Thanksgivukkah 2013

This gives those who have never learned nor celebrated Hanukkah a reason to celebrate. So whether you observe Thanksgiving Day on the last Thursday in November; here in the United States or Hanukkah any where in the world...

we warmly and genuinely wish you a 

HAPPY THANKSGIVUKKAH!!!

Finding our life's purpose

I enjoy making "posters" with helpful messages and encouraging thoughts for our healing journeys. Sometimes I get inspired by these posters; sometimes later rather than at time of creation, and write about them HERE. I was musing about creativity and WHY I blog and administer a FB page. WHY do I want to write, share and communicate with others who may be "where I used to be" on my healing journey??? Why not just move on and go and begin to work on my "next dream" in my life??? 


I guess that I have "found my niche" in life; though it is not a paying position; I don't expect to get rich or famous but I know that I am following my heart to DO what I love...to bring beauty into my life and the lives of others who have known the depths of sorrow, the mind bending, soul crushing and heart wrenching pain of abuse. I realize that I was worth doing it for and so is everyone else.

I began GREATER LIFE PAGES GROUP on Facebook to bring together other like minded and like spirited (non religious, non political and no sales) inspirational Facebook pages who truly desire to live a Greater Life and share their wisdom, talent and positive energy with the world. I realize that my focus is to SHARE beauty where ever I go; maybe because I realize that so many people, many due to abuse or even mental illness, are not able to enjoy it unless someone "share" it with them.

Sometimes 
we just have to see someone else living their dream 

before we start to believe that ours is possible.

It seems that while I was "in the midst" of abuse, I sought to "find my purpose"...I had not yet begun to think that "finding MYSELF, healing from abuse and learning to dream again" was a process of healing; I wanted a "quick fix" and to feel that my life had meaning was just enough for me to "hold on" and work through the issues before I realized that we could all be "Singing a New Song" after living with abuse in our lives. Sometimes we turn the desire outward rather than inward. We want to CHANGE THE WORLD...when really all we need to do is change ourselves. Change our outlook. Change our expectations. Allow ourselves to evolve and embrace the newness of our lives without a constant "purpose" in mind.

I know that I am rambling a bit in this entry but I can't help but think that what we think is good for us at the time, is usually NOT what is best for us overall. We tend to look for "something" to believe in, a "cause" to throw ourselves into, a purpose that seems to be higher than ourselves but sometimes it can turn out to be nothing more than a distraction from our healing; a time consuming journey that takes us AWAY from what we are really seeking. 

I believe our greatest purpose in life is to BE who we are; continue to grow and change face ourselves honestly and care for others and ourselves deeply and genuinely. This is my heart, my purpose and reason for starting this blog; Singing a Song Facebook page and Greater Life Pages Group Page.

Are you fulfilling your "purpose" in life? If you don't feel that you have found it; you might still be looking for what fulfills and completes you; what satisfies your soul as well as your mind. That is why we "find ourselves, heal from abuse and learn to dream again" here at Singing a New Song. I believe that ONCE WE FIND OURSELVES; embrace the wonderfully imperfect people we are and look deeply into our hearts and stop denying the pain and wounds that we find, that we will be on our healing journey toward Singing a New Song.

We are worth it!

Music and healing from abuse

♫ Even coffee sings to me. ♫


The latte hums a happy tune 

as it bears the signature of its muse. 

It might have started as I sang along with Petula Clark's "Downtown" as the chair became my stage and a spoon became my microphone. Or it might have been in my first grade music class where I "belted out" Peter, Paul and Mary's "If I had a hammer". Talk about emoting!!! Overall, my memories of music reminds me that MUSIC is a vehicle of expressing my life and individuality.  

I believe that I have always had this "Inner World" of music. I hear and try to create what I feel, hear and see in my mind and "heart". This has always been a "safe place" in my life and only trusted "other musicians" have been welcome to enter. I could "rest" within the safe walls of "My World of Music". 

My World of Music; listening to music, singing, playing music and writing songs has always provided me a mood changing, mind altering and spirit lifting "place of refuge". In my world, I can "be whoever I want to be" and retreat from the abuse, pain, stress and cares that others have used to burden, oppress and depress me for their own purposes. I have refused to allow most people "inside". There have been only a very few chosen, respected and truly valued musicians; whom I have had the joy of collaborating within songwriting. 

Singing in choirs have served to allow my spirit the wings to exercise within music; to keep my voice "up" and my sight reading and musicianship sharp. We truly all need to know what is valuable in our lives; what makes our lives worth living and allow us a "place of refuge"* where we can "BE ourselves". It is a consistent and ever present "strength" in ways; a fortress that NO ONE can enter without my permission. In many ways, I have set boundaries that I will allow no one to violate and this has helped me understand the need of personal boundaries in healing from abuse. There are many hymns that have the words "my refuge and my strength". I see how "My World of Music" have always been these for me. 


* And this is where the FB page and blog title of "Singing a New Song" originated; it has married my healing journey of "finding myself, healing from abuse and learning to dream again" with the actual world of MUSIC; my love and muse. 
We all deserve to be "Singing a New Song". 

Disclaimer: ALL images have been borrowed and I claim NO ownership in any way. 
Thank you for the use of your wonderful pics. 

Depths of Sorrow, Heights of Joy

When you are joyous, 

look deep into your heart

and you shall find 

it is only that which has given you sorrow 

that is giving you joy.

When you are sorrowful, 

look again in your heart

and you shall see that in truth 

you are weeping for that 

which has been your delight.

~ Kahlil Gibran ~

Everything begins and ends with the heart. Without it, there is no love. With it, there is pain as well as joy. The heights of its joy can only be exceeded by the depth of its sorrow. The heart is what life is about.I have found Kahlil Gibran's poem to be so very true, painfully true. Through what and whom I have received the greatest heights of joy, I have certainly also felt the deepest sorrow and grief that I could not even have imagined. 

The cost of love. Yet, I cannot see our lives being truly wonderful without the heart. The most fragile and yet strongest "member" of our being. Only when we give our hearts the freedom to feel the pain, the sorrow, the pleasure and the joy will we be "Singing a New Song". The journey of "finding myself, healing from abuse and learning to dream again" required that each and every turn would open another part of my heart; part that had been closed by fear and darkened by pain.

Healing is worth it...and so are you!

Heartache

Doesn't everyone experience heartache at one time or another? Abuse survivors are NOT exempt from heartache; matter of fact, from my experience and the experience of many other abuse survivors, it seems that abuse survivors have lived WITH heartache possibly even more than we have lived without it. It is unfortunate, that such loving hearts are so hurt continually, but that is the nature of abuse...it brings heartache to the hearts that love. 



The song (you can listen here; will open in a new window): Total Eclipse of the Heart: Bonnie Tyler (You tube) reminds me of loving a person who is experiencing abuse. Why do I say that? Because I truly believe that without abuse, heartache like this could not fully exist. I would only hope that no one else would ever experience the mind-bending, soul-crushing and heart-wrenching effects of abuse. 

I have been in an abusive marriage. To this day, he denies that he ever verbally abused me and that was only the tip of the iceberg but I never pushed the issue to "make him see the error of his ways". Matter of fact, he accused me of abusing his daughter whom I loved dearly and was "close to" for the first eight years of our marriage from the time she turned 8 years old. He even tried to charge me with abuse during our divorce proceedings which had NOTHING to do with our divorce so I "let him say what he wanted" without any defense or reply.

Losing my ex step daughter was a "total eclipse of the heart" for me. Learning that her father had done so much to sabotage our relationship; things that I could hardly believe that anyone could ever consider doing to another human being, that I fell into depression. My heart ached so badly that I could hardly bear to feel anything from it. When we have heartache, it means that we "love". I am not sorry for loving nor will I ever be. I will acknowledge that the pain of heartache was an abusive act by an unloving person toward one who had loved them...me. 

Finding ourselves, healing from abuse and learning to dream again, in my experience, does not immunize us from heartache. Matter of fact, it may be that heartache, maybe due to LOVE, is the motivator for healing. I believe this to be true anyways and I am hopeful that someday, my heartache will lessen but I will never forget how I LOVED and I will never regret it.

Climb every mountain...