be you

She is my “Lovely” daughter

Posted on by Kerri Elizabeth

My heart with a paintbrush of expression.

When you think it’s too late , when you believe you can’t or you choose “I won’t” for the moment, inspiration will lift you and pull you to your feet. 

Will you listen , will you rise, will you pull up courage and determination, will you work hard, will you strengthen where you feel weakest, will you believe in yourself and encourage your own destiny to be all you want to be and find out you can be even more along the way, will you raise the bar for yourself , or not? 

Here is a story of my 39 year old daughter, she is an inspiration, a light in the world that carries deep pockets of courage and determination and she believes she can and there for she does. 

Many years ago she wanted to be in law enforcement but life had other plans for her to learn from first. She became a very successful business woman at an early age. No surprise there she was determined from day she arrived in the world , actually before that. (that’s another story).

Then she went on to create herself even more success in another career and had two beautiful children. So many changes and so much growth along the way but an unsettled desire to be in law enforcement. 

I’d asked her everytime I called” what are you doing”, she’d answer with reservation “I’m at work” , there was something missing, was it desire, a passion, so one day I asked “if you could be anything what would it be?” She answered , a cop or an English teacher. 

I don’t know how many times in the day she wondered and thought about all this, but I know it all became a decision and off she went. I have no idea if my questions opened a door that she needed a little crack to see through or if something I said mattered.

What I do know is that it’s important to challenge a thought and ask questions, that’s where exploring ideas, sparking dreams and possibilities come from. It isn’t our place to push, it’s our place to listen, ask and open doors where possibly over time we become so settled in what is we forget what’s possible or believe it’s too late.

Her answers prompted me to ask more questions. I could hear her working through it with more than wonder and one day she said “I’m going to take my law enforcement test.” Then she got her book to study and reinforced her love for working out and she made a goal, her dates kept getting moved closer and closer than planned and soon she was done testing , wow the depth of tests and paperwork were amazing. 

I want to tell you this story because her inspiring strength and determination to DECIDE and take the leap is a testament of what inner strength and courage can do, how it’s never too late even if you have already built success, which she did. She could have stayed doing what she was doing forever. 

What is success to you? 

Here is my painted expression highlighting her new courageous journey. May she always be safe protecting our communities with many brave people like her and may her success in all things bring her and her family happiness and a legacy of courage that continues in for generations. 

Gosh I love her so much!!!

Kerri-Elizabeth (Brandee’s proud Mom)

What Defines You

Posted on by Kerri Elizabeth

The titles and education were told would define you when you were younger, go to college, work for this company or that or you won’t amount to anything, you can’t do that it’s not realistic, you shouldn’t do that it’s not who you are.

You need a title at the end of your name, you need to fix your hair this way and weigh this much. When you wear these clothes and cover this and show that you’ll be respected or not respected. Speak this way to that person and that way to this person. if you live here or there you’ll be treated this way or that way.

Learning who you really are and the defining have been passed down for ages. It’s takes courage to speak something different, to be different than what you’ve been told you are your whole life, should and shouldn’t come with shaming and create crevices of emptiness just waiting to be filled by your own strengths.

Learning what defines yourself comes in time, in bravery to learn your own language, have your own experiences, navigate your own way through emotions and decide under all the titles, including mother, father, sister, brother, adult child etc. who you are, with no titles .

How do you navigate between what you’ve been raised to think, believe and do without rebelling against it in pure determination to be something different in pure spite that often ends you up even deeper into someone else’s definition of you. You”re kicking and screaming to the world your NOT that while you become that even more.

Clearing the fog off your lenses takes work so you don’t continually end up in someone else’s definition repeatedly.

“Write It”, write to reclaim your power, journaling your process clears the view , your blueprint created for you and the one you want to create for yourself takes work and takes time , it’s takes effort, it requires strength and determination, patience with yourself and understanding from yourself and others.

Does this resonate with you, or is it just me?

Posted on by Kerri Elizabeth

Posted on by Kerri Elizabeth

Posted on by Kerri Elizabeth

Posted on by Kerri Elizabeth

Separately Found While Always Connected

Posted on by Kerri Elizabeth
Whether separate or connected both become defined purely by experience
and emotion.

~Kerri-Elizabeth~

Present in the connection

River roaring to its chosen audience

Birds performing a soul moving orchestra

Trees adding their own rhythm practiced daily with precision 

While the breeze so eloquently smooths every tune into an inner song

All echoing from the majestic mountains offering a priceless concert

An invitation is not needed

A willingness to enter  is

Intense scents of pine inspire your deepest senses

Sweetly journeying through every fiber of pain transforming it into gratitude

Resting freely a top one of nature’s boulder strengths

Love and connection are found

Separate and clearly joined

Birds sing to one another as if love is all that really exists

Is it…..

The sound of the river takes no space, instead joyfully takes ownership of its existence to nurture presence

It carries wounds down that never return

It erases hardship without asking

The aroma of the river and pine create a tea for you and nature to thrive upon

Each needle left upon the ground leaving a legacy of its time here

Burn marks upon the trees carry a wisdom into healing and regeneration

Sunshine

Unbroken Wave

Posted on by Kerri Elizabeth

Gentleness and strength co-exist for good, where cruelty lives within its own anguish and storm of core weakness it must persevere to overcome.

~Kerri-Elizabeth~

Approaching the wind within a storm

In the dusk of night

An unbroken breeze blows by in a rush

Protection and honor stand near

Weakness lurks through the clouds

Roaring with counterfeit strength

Danger is uncovered

Revealed under the moon

Dusk is broken and starlights glimmer

Must a wave be broken to fall

Must brokenness be inevitable

Stars erupt within another cosmic space

Still seen with openness and grace

Gentleness is strength often mistaken for less

Where cruelty is another’s weakness at best

True kindness is organic unable to repress

Courage is fierce and needs not to impress

Must grief dive so deep it shatters open the skies

Yes, it must

It will be the shattering that inpsires your strength

It will be the grief that erupts your soul into its truest self

It will be the inevitable brokenness ravaging your heart

Before you start to see that grief is a gift you will need 

TO LIVE COURAGEOUSLY UNVEILED

Sunshine

To all my readers, it is with a grateful and full heart I thank you for supporting, reading, encouraging and becoming my dear friends over the years. Thank you to you all.

My writing is always evolving and changing as it has over the years as life changes and healing happens and challenges occur. I am always most inspired by the deepest challenges in life and write my best when life is cracking me wide open.

It is within the cracking open I have my biggest growth spurts and see deeper and deeper, showing me we are truly infinite energy with no end.

As we all know, energy can be used for good or for cruelty to ourselves and others, make no mistake their are both kinds and both cross paths and it is in that we will learn to be more alert, to find our deepest truths, tap into our believe system at a deeper level, It is not within churches or people but straight from the arms of our Creator.

Breathe in all your pain and all your grief and then breathe it out in fiercely placed courage and let it empower and strengthen your entire life and others, it is not for borrow or buy , it is not to be taken or left, it is yours always. USE IT or someone else will abuse it!

Human Design

Posted on by Kerri Elizabeth

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In the letting go, you’ll find, holding on was just a design leading you back to letting go!

~Kerri-Elizabeth~

In the heat of the day
The sun pours its radiance upon you
Reminding us we don’t need anything to shine
The rays carry the breeze effortlessly
Filling your lungs to capacity
Offering sustained healing
Creating space to shine
Nature is where harmony lives
Peace is what nature gives

Sunshine

 

Being lead into nature is always the calling on my soul, where I find my center, where I ground myself and find peace and letting go is always the process. I realize that life is just that, a continuation of letting go. It’s designed that way, a continual trial and error and learning and growing. 

Reaching your best is part of reaching your worst and allowing yourself to know the difference. To choose your destination and your attitude, to find solutions under the sun and give yourself the grace you need to get there.

 

Beautiful and Wonderfully Made

Posted on by Kerri Elizabeth

 

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When we are able to sit in the pain and in the muck of life, there is where we see what were made of!

~Kerri-Elizabeth~

To give honor and respect to another

Honor and respect must first flow through you

To build a secure foundation for oneself inside

Requires tenacity and determination

To love oneself through the highest and lowest of times

Requires oneself to experience love

Love is continually gained and lost before we understand its significance

Even then there is an unknowing

An unknowing opens up vulnerability

To stand in the muck of life and be vulnerable 

Is where we gain our best self

It is where we find what we’re made of

Where we get to see where we paid attention

Where we have gone and what we took with us

Shows up

SUNSHINE

 

I realized after I lost my 24 year old son two years ago now, that pain really is inevitable, it happens to everyone and can happen without warning. We can be in our most vulnerable place inside and something happens and splits you wide open. You weren’t ready, you weren’t prepared and the honest truth is NOTHING could prepare you.

So then what? It is there where everything in our lives that we either let go of or held on to, shows up. Every lesson and every heartache is remembered and the wounds are fresh again. However in that moment where the heart remembers the pain it also remembers the healing and how you gave that attention or not.

If you didn’t put the work in and ignored it and allowed it to heal shut without acknowledging and entering into it, it will continue to walk you through it until you do, and then it will challenge you to make sure you learned. Its inevitable!

The lesson from something profound and often something so small can trigger all the same emotions. It is simply when you can feel the chaos of the moment and stand in it with freedom you are not in the chaos of this experience anymore. Reflect on the familiarity of being here before and what was learned and how honor and love are applied