Revitalize Your Soul - Gratitude Series (repost)

Happy Mother's Day mom!!!

Today, I am thankful for my wonderful mother. She is an absolutely amazing woman, beautiful inside and out. An incredible mom, full of unconditional love, never ending support, the warmest heart, sweet compassion, full of wisdom and healing hands...she means everything to me, she is my best friend, my rock, my “go to” person. She has taught me so much in my life, molded me into a caring, loving and nurturing person. She will baby me when I need it and will give me tough love when it’s necessary. She knows my strengths and my weaknesses...without judgment, without disappointment, she listens to me no matter what state of mind I am in. I am so thankful for the unbreakable bond we share that continues to grow each day. I love you and adore you ma! I am sooo lucky to have you!

What are you thankful for today?

Me and my mommy! :)

The Gratitude Project by Thankasoldier.net

We are so honored to share with you the information on The Gratitude Project brought to us by Thankasoldier.net.

As we all live our every day lives, our brave soldiers are far away from home and often feel forgotten by us. The Gratitude Project has been created as a effort to let our troops know how much we love them and how thankful we are for what they do and what they sacrifice for us.

Thankasoldier.net has come up with this great idea to make a YouTube video that will be send to soldiers serving in various locations around the world. The video will be a collection of photos with people from everywhere (not just their home town), who want to let our soldiers know that they are NOT forgotten. This is an opportunity to come together and express our gratitude. The video will be a filmstrip of photos that will warm their hearts and remind them that they are in our thoughts and prayers…and that we love them.

Here’s how you can be a part The Gratitude Project:
1. Snap a photo of yourself with the word “Thank You” in it somewhere. It can be on your hand, on a sign, spelled out with people it doesn’t matter. PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR LOCATION in the photo somewhere e.g. “Thank You from Boston, MA”
2. Email it to ThankYou@thankasoldier.net
3. If you’d like, you can also include a suggestion for what song should be playing in the background of the YouTube video.
4. Share the YouTube Video with friends to get the word out.
**The deadline for the photo submission is February 28, 2010

Get Revitalized! We are so excited to join this awesome project and submit our photo!

Peace, Love and Light!
~Ami

Revitalize Your Soul - Gratitude Series

It's so uplifting and life changing to take time to be thankful each day of our lives. You can surprise yourself by how many blessings surround you, when you take the time to recognize and reflect on each one. I am beginning a series on our blog that will be dedicated to expressing my deep gratitude to each blessing in my life. I am so excited to share this part of my heart with all of you...my old friends, my new friends, my future friends, my family, my angels. I hope that this will awaken your soul to see all the blessings in your life and will inspire you to meditate in gratitude.

Peace, Love and Light!
~Ami

The Gratitude Project for our troops

Be a part of The Gratitude Project and submit your special thank you to our brave soldiers. Watch this video to find out how.

Much Love,
Ami

Our troops .... Our heroes!

This commercial really pulled on my heart strings. Our troops are our heroes and they deserve to be acknowledged, loved and appreciated. May God bless our soldiers and bring them comfort on a daily basis. As we all enjoy the conveniences and joy of being home, lets always remember to keep them in our hearts, thoughts and prayers.

With the warmest wishes + deepest love,
Ami

The Shift - A movie being made by a movement

Check it out!

Reusable is what they are....

"Next time you go to toss a reusable sandwich bag, think to yourself: Can I rinse out and resuse? They don't call them reusable for nothin', honey"
~Healthy Bitch Daily

Revitalize Your Soul

Forgive quickly. Love without boundaries or fear. Laugh without control. Never stop smiling. Be thankful for all your blessings. Live with hope and positivity. Embrace every moment.

xoxo,
Lovebug

God and Dog

This is so beautiful! Made me appreciate and love my Hannah even more. Can't wait to take my morning walk ... and my walks are also my pray time. This video really touched my heart :)

Red Fridays - Support our troops

Wear your red on Fridays as a sign of support and love for our troops. Lets no longer be silent and voice our gratitude and warm wishes to all our brave soldiers away from home. They need to know that they are not forgotten …that we have them in our hearts and prayers.

By word of mouth, press, TV – we can all come together in making the United States a sea of red on Fridays …. much like a homecoming football game in the bleachers. If every one of us who loves our troops will share this with acquaintances, coworkers, friends, and family, it will not be long before the USA is covered in RED and it will let our troops know that we are all on their side more than ever.

So don’t forget to wear your reds this Friday to be a part of showing the solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect -- and continue each and every Friday until our troops all come home!

The first thing a soldier says when asked "What can we do to make things better for you?" is. "We need your support and your prayers." Please help to spread the word….

Revitalize Your Soul!

Good morning! And what a beautiful morning it is! Remember to smile today and take time to be thankful for all your blessings. Stop and smell the flowers or (depending where you live) stop and breath in the crisp air and take in the beautiful colors of the falling leaves. Do something nice for a stranger. Tell someone special in your life that you love them or how beautiful/handsome they are. Brush off your challenges...they are probably smaller than you think and soon they will be in the past. For those of you going through any real tragedies, may you be surrounded by love and comfort that will heal your heart and bring you peace.

Sending my warmest wishes to you all!
~Lovebug

Help our wounded soldiers

Give back to those who've given to America by making a donation to the Pentagon Federal Credit Union Foundation. This is a Military Heroes Fund that helps provide emergency financial support for our wounded soldiers and their families. This fund also helps pay for daycare expenses at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for children of the wounded.

Read more about the Foundation's accomplishments.

The Pentagon Federal Credit Union Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Pentagon Federal Credit Union pays all administrative expenses. Every penny you give goes to programs.

Much Love,
Ami

The gratitude campaign

Jessica and I both had the opportunity to watch this video for The Gratitude Campaign before we went to NY on vacation. While we were in the city one day, we passed by several soldiers at Penn Station and we both took the opportunity to acknowledge them, say hello and most importantly ...to say Thank You. They smiled at us and you could tell that it meant a lot to them. It truly warmed my heart and felt wonderful to show my gratitude. I promised myself that I would post this video when I returned to share it with all of you.

Check it out and pass it on to others.....

With deep gratitude, warm thoughts and peaceful wishes to all our brave soldiers!

~Lovebug

Revitalize Your Soul!

It can be so hard not to let each day pass, constantly letting our minds be consumed with the everyday problems that surround our lives and those around us. There are so many thoughts of worry, concern, stress and negativity that we allow our emotions to indulge in on a daily basis.

The fact is that there is always going to be something that we can waste our energy complaining about or stressing about. Life wouldn’t make sense without these constant challenges that we are forced to face. We would be bored and confused and we probably wouldn’t even know what happiness felt like. We need these challenges in order to appreciate all the amazing things about life, earth, love …… and ourselves. It’s just so easy for us to hate these moments…..we sometimes despise them and just want them to go away. However, we usually choose to indulge in these terrible emotions, spreading the negative poison to others and sharing the misery.

So, I say…Lets try a different approach. Lets take these moments in as blessings of growth, lessons to be learned and an opportunity for us to cherish the good moments and remember the beauty of life which far exceeds these challenges. They are a gift….They are what give essence and meaning to everything that matters in our lives.

So bring it on! It will only make me Love Life even more!

Peace and Light to all!
~Lovebug

Revitalize Your Soul - Birthday Time!

Sooooooo, this past Friday, 8.1.08 was my birthday! Happy Birthday to me! This year I turned 29 and I feel DIVINE! As I quickly approach my fabulous thirties, I realize that my thought process and decision making continues to grow and change. This year I have felt maturity and adulthood more intensely than ever before. I have been on my own and supporting myself since I was 18 years old, I have been married AND divorced, I have had several surgeries and health issues in the past, I have traveled a decent amount and have seen, survived and enjoyed all levels of experiences (the good, the bad, the best and the rest). Yet, this is the year…..2008… that I feel the most mature.

This got me thinking…..why after all these years of living an adult life am I finally feeling the most “grown up”? I am really not sure what the answer is, but I will tell you this….It feels Incredible!!! I have gone through so many phases of self discovery in the past 29 years and I feel very accomplished and content with where my life currently stands. There are so many pressures out there as to where we should all be by a certain age. The fact is that no one has the right to tell us who we should be, where we should be and how we should live our lives (especially not according to our age). If I had followed the “guidelines” and “timelines” of this world, I probably would have never gotten a divorce and stayed in an unhappy marriage OR would already be married again, I definitely would already have children, own a house, have my degree and be set in my career. I can definitely admit that these all can be wonderful accomplishments. However, I do not have any of them right now, yet there are so many things I have done in my life that I am most proud of. Things that I chose over everything else and I still have so much to look forward to. I refuse to feel that time is running out. We have been gifted the blessing of life and our sole purpose is to cherish and enjoy all the beauty it has to offer….at free will and on our own terms. I am blessed to have an amazing bond with my mom and brother, I am surrounded by the comfort and support of true friendships, I have a magical connection with the love of my life, I am co-owner of a business that specializes in Wedding Design (the celebration of Love!), I run a charity organization with my best friend, I try to focus on living each day filled with gratefulness, peace, love, balance and bliss that extends itself to all those who are the closest to me and to anyone that comes in contact with me. I am content, proud and at peace with who I am, where I stand and how I live my life. The best part is that I still have the opportunity to live and accomplish so much more. I can marry the man of my dreams (after waiting very patiently for him), I can be a mom at a time that I feel I know myself the best and can give the most, I can see my business grow into a success that becomes my livelihood, I can see Revitalize grow into a huge community the glows with positivity, encouragement and the unending act of giving, sharing and coming together to extend our love to the world.….

….My life is in my hands and I choose to be guided by my faith, spirituality and heart.

Big warm hugs to all!
~Lovebug

Continue to be Grateful

Exactly a week ago today, I got Lasik Surgery done on my eyes after years of consideration. I can't believe it is finally done and over with. It is absolutely amazing that 4hrs after my surgery I could see the world with brand new vision...... Clear, crisp, sharp vision.

I have never known what it is like to wake up in the morning and just see everything clearly without having to put on my glasses or contacts (oh those dreadful contacts...ugh!). It's only been a week and I have adapted so quickly to my new vision that I already can barely remember what it is like to not see clearly. Isn't that insane? It's made me think about how afraid I am that I will completely forget. Why? Because I feel I will take my new vision for granted, if I forget what it was like before I had it.

This really made me think about many other things. It made me realize how much I don't appreciate things about myself. How often I concentrate on the things that I want to change that I barely acknowledge the things I am grateful for. The things that are such natural blessings to us that sometimes other people do not get to experience in their whole lifetime. My hearing, my ability to walk, my mind, my health....on and on

So as I continue my journey of a grateful life, I will try not to forget the little things, the simple things ...which are in fact the most marvelous of all!!!

With warm hugs!
~Lovebug

Friends – How Many of us Have Them

Friends RULE!

Today I feel especially warm in my heart. I have been thinking a lot about each person that is the closest to me....that has a strong impact on my life. Although I always have you in my thoughts, today seems different. I feel a new sense of realization on what each of you mean to me, my life, my survival of everything. You are my angels, my joy, my love, my strength. I hope you all know how much you mean to me and I will always do my best to show you. I LOVE YOU!!!!


xoxoxoxo
~Lovebug

Gratitude

Today I am grateful for.........

Take the time everyday to be grateful. Grateful for all the beautiful things, experiences and people you have been blessed with. I promise it will make you smile.

Today I stepped out of bed, took a deep breath in and the first words out of my mouth were "I am so grateful to be alive". It was the perfect start to my day. As I walked to the bathroom to do the daily routine, I kept reminding myself of everything I am grateful for. As my day continues, I continue to be grateful. And as I continue to be grateful, I continue to have a peaceful heart and a smile on my face. I am SO lucky and SO grateful for SO many things. My goal is to make this a daily routine, that will keep me from ever forgetting how great life is no matter what bumps I hit along the way.

Give it a try. It feels wonderful!!!

Much love always!
Lovebug

Take your life, and ENJOY it!!!

It is so easy to get caught up in the monotony of the daily grind. I have been getting used to this again. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday – they're all the same. Wake up, run, breakfast, work, home, meetings, sleep.

Sometimes, my head is so bogged down in this schedule that I forget to pick my head up to enjoy the roses.

Although I go the same way to and from work everyday, I've been trying to open my eyes just a little wider, and notice something new. The other day, I saw this beautiful estate on a lake that I never saw before! It added a breath of new life to my once drab drive.

I am applying the same attitude to my life…by opening my eyes just a little bit wider; by expanding my peripheral vision, I am making an attempt to enjoy my life that much more. I am listening to what the birds are chirping about on my morning run, laughing more instead of getting upset over something silly, and just trying to make the most of everyday.

You, too, are alive, so take your life and enjoy it!! You were born with the right to be happy, to love, and to share your love. Just to be – to take a risk and enjoy your life – is all that matters.

Much love,
Jess

Aren't true friends the best??!!

I don't know what I would do without them. I am so lucky to have some amazing people in my life. Someone to turn to no matter what is is that I am dealing with at the time. Someone who will listen, give me strength, give me hope, remind me of the important things I can sometimes forget about. They make me feel special and loved. They lift me up when I fall and lead me back to myself when I am lost. They wipe my tries and give me hugs that brighten my day. They keep me wanting to be a good person and help lead me in a path that brings me closer to the person I want to become.

They are pieces of the puzzle I call my heart. It is a love and bond so special that I can't even begin to express what it means to me. I promise to always give my all to these sweet souls. I promise to express the love I have for them in every word I speak, in everything I do and in how I live my life. Friendship is another reason that life is so GREAT!

True friends ARE the BEST!!! Together we can make it through anything!

Know your true friends, love them, appreciate them, hold them close to your heart forever!

xoxo
Lovebug