writing, inspiration,

“Accept Yourself As You Are” by Joan Y. Edwards

From June 19, 2020 to July 3, 2020 my husband, Carl, was in the hospital. He is now in rehab. He had a severe infection in half of his colon which caused his blood pressure to drop dangerously low. He fell and I called 911. They took him to emergency room and put him in ICU for 2 days. They cleared up the infection with anti-biotics. No surgery needed. Thank you, God. Then neuropathy set in and still low blood pressure. They gave him medicine to build blood pressure and to keep neuropathy away.

Why am I writing this post? To remind you to love and accept yourself as you are right this moment. Every day of your life, it is vitally important to accept yourself with all your frailties, imperfections, all the things you are capable of doing, and all the things you are not able to do because of things out of your control.

There are certain times in your life it may seem like you are powerless. I felt that way many times during the past two weeks and three days. You want to make people feel better and cure their ailments, especially those you love. However, God is in charge of that. He puts all the people and resources in your life and the life of those you love to give them everything they need at this moment.

Prayer is very powerful. Many people prayed and asked God to heal Carl. His infection is gone. He didn’t need surgery. He is in a great skilled nursing facility with physical therapy and occupational therapy. Thank you, God. Thank you to all those who prayed for Carl.

What I had to accept: That the resources were not available at this time to give Carl the help he needs to get better at home. That God wanted Carl to be in the skilled nursing facility where he has people and resources to help heal him.

I also reminded Carl to love himself as he is. I told him everyone goes through times in their lives when their bodies aren’t doing what they want. I told him that everyone has to remind themselves to love themselves as they are each day of their lives. To say to themselves, I am getting better every day.

I love myself as I am right now.
I can do everything that God wants me to do right now.
I am good.
I am safe.
I am getting better each day.
God loves me very much.

COVID 19 added much stress but thank goodness, things are in place to better protect employees, visitors, and patients in hospitals and skilled nursing facilities. Thank you, God, for all these employees who take risks every day to help others.

Say to yourself:

I love myself as I am right now.
I can do everything that God wants me to do right now.
I am good.
I am safe and well.
God loves me very much.

There are many other great hints that I learned from caring for my Mother to help you care for yourself and for your elder in my book, Joan’s Elder Care Guide: Empowering You and Your Elder to Survive

Copyright 2016 Aidana Willow-Raven and 4RV Publishing

Never Give Up
Joan Y. Edwards

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“Can Your Faith Be Seen?” by Joan Y. Edwards

Can you see, smell, touch, hear, or taste your faith in yourself? There are positive effects of getting an object to represent your dream coming true. This object will symbolize your goal in the completed state when it becomes reality. Visualize an object that you think symbolizes one of your goals. Can you buy it or create it?

A writer/illustrator can visualize winning the Newbery Medal or the Caldecott Award. She can see herself being declared a New York Times Best-Selling Author. When authors see these awards in their minds, it will help them achieve the praise-worthy awards.

Let me explain further. For instance, Joel Osteen said a woman and her husband bought a baby’s outfit. They didn’t have a baby yet. They were “hoping” to have one. Every day they looked at the outfit and thanked God for the baby He was sending him. Funny thing about this. The couple did have a baby many years later.

It reminded me of a few times when I’ve used as an object as a symbol of my belief:

When I was caring for my Mother in the year 2000, I was distressed because during the previous five years, she had been in the hospital two times for a long stay. I wanted to keep this from happening again. I created a mini-hospital bag: a gift bag filled with bandaids, Neosporin ointment, and gauze. I told Mother and Carl I was going to keep this as my mini-hospital so it would keep Mother from having to go into the hospital to stay. It worked. Mother never had to stay in the hospital again until a month before she died. My mini-hospital-being able to furnish my Mother’s needs worked. I believed it would work. It worked.

When Carl and I went to Colorado this summer in the midst of all the fires they were having, we were terrified. I told him that just because we stayed home wouldn’t mean there wouldn’t be problems. I told him I asked God if we could take rain to Colorado. I also told him I was going to buy N-95 Particulate Masks to protect us from the smoke, if we got into it. I told him that the masks would work sort of like having an umbrella to keep the rain away. We did take rain with us. It rained in Colorado and put out a lot of the fires while we were out there. God answered our prayers and the prayers of all the people in the world who have prayed for rain in drought filled areas.

Sometimes I cut words and/or pictures out of magazines to represent what I wish for…my dreams. Funny about it, when I look back on them later, many of those dreams have come true. In 2004, I cut out a picture of a house I liked. In 2006, the house Carl and I bought was similar to it. John Assaraf, in the movie, The Secret, put a picture of a beautiful Hollywood home on his “Vision Board.” Five years later he discovered that he not only got a house similar to the one in his picture, but he had actually purchased the exact same house and was living in it.

Believe that you will receive what you wish. The universe has an abundance. God has an abundance for you. Expect and declare what you desire. Choose words or an object to represent your dream. I believe in you. God believes in you. Believe in yourself. You are more than worth it.

Thanks for reading my blog. Please leave a comment. Share symbols you have for your dreams. I’d love to hear from you.

Never Give Up

Joan Y. Edwards

Writing, Inspiration