Posted on by SOWE

Have you made your list? Have you checked it twice?

If you follow my blog, you know that I am a list maker.

I make a list for the day, the week, the month, the year.  I go over it each day and check off my daily, monthly, and if I’m so lucky my yearly accomplishments.

I challenge you to create a list of goals.  Write them without limitations and fear.  Write them out with confidence, no matter how outrageous.  Make some reachable for small wins.  Make some that seem unreachable these goals make us work harder and give us the greatest satisfaction.

Trust your heart in 2019.  Love the unlovely.  Make new friends. And it’s also okay to let some friends go.  Learn something new.  Make time to volunteer.  Enrich your spirit with God.

Many and most of these give us the most peace.  Life can be challenging, and sometimes we need to create and make intentional choices to live life out loud, be vulnerable, and be teachable.  Share your failures and your lessons.  Share your hurts and your joys.  Share your time.  And just listen.

2019 is my Year of Miracles.  I don’t know what that means nor what it’s going to look like.  I just know that in my heart I will grow and it will expand my mind and soul.

I want to say Thank you to all my followers and those that occasionally pop in to read what lives in my heart that’s written in my blog.

Merriest of Christmas and a very Blessed New Year!

‘Til Tuesday in January of 2019

-Annette Ortiz Mata

Posted on by SOWE · 3 Comments

Just when you think no one is watching…they are.

She placed my life in perspective with these words.

“…I beg to differ… It might not have been a strong year in the ways you may have hoped for it to be strong, but you and Tio damn sure have become stronger. You chose to walk in forgiveness with a family that treated you terribly for years and years. That’s strong. You lost your father in law, and by the strength of God you pulled together a powerful service in his honor and held your husband together. The fight with you and Little Robert. That took a hell of a lot of strength to get through. And then having to have to figure out living life loving him but keeping serious boundaries to love him well. You started school and received clear direction from the Lord on letting go of Table for 5. That’s going to take some serious strength because that was a major part of your life. Choosing to pack up and go to a foreign country to be with your husband…. hella strength because that’s a long ass flight. And in the midst of all of that dealing with a mass shooting right by you, devastating fires, & then making a choice to help others and give of yourself, your time, and resources. From the outside looking in Titi… That’s a damn strong year. Some of it your very own and a lot of it, I’m sure, the Holy Spirit. No better strength than that!!! In case you didn’t know.. I could not be more proud of you. I’m honored to call you Titi!”

In one quick text, she put my life into clear perspective.  What I considered to be a “not so strong” year was more than my own preconceived notions.  It was strong in ways that I could not utter because it required me to get up each time that I had fallen down.  I immediately understood what living life out loud meant.  

What showing and sharing your vulnerability meant and how it is truly a strength and not a weakness.

 These words crumbled me in a good way.  You see, all along someone was watching how I was walking through what I thought was my “not so strong year.”  Someone noticed and chose to differ. And for that, I am grateful and humbled.

Lesson:

Remember, someone is watching and learning. Be strong.

“Til Tuesday