Such amazing friends...

First of all...THANK YOU to all of my friends who sent birthday greetings.  Cards, cake, lunches, Facebook greetings, email...etc.  It was an amazing day and I sincerely love and appreciate you all.

I got a homemade chocolate cake from my hubby and a great book...plus, Mom and Aunt Sandra got me some new clothes.  Hard to believe I'm in the last year of my 40's.  Wow...this decade flew by.

I wanted to also share with you a statement I overheard from someone at work a few days ago.  I was having a soda and talking on my cell phone in the breakroom when I accidentally overheard a lady talking to one of her co-workers saying that she felt really empty inside...as if no one cared about her.  Her children, her husband, even her close friends....she felt as if no one really gave a rat's petootie whether she lived or died and the only reason any one would miss her was because of all the things she did for them.  And I thought, "How sad!"  Why would anyone feel this way?  But then I think back to when I was younger and had the same feelings from time to time...and I've been tempted to go down that road emotionally from time to time even today.

My advice to anyone who feels empty or unloved is to first of all learn to love yourself.  Nature abhors a vacuum, so if your heart feels empty it's because you are not allowing love into your life.  We cannot control other people or make them feel anything we want them to feel.  We can only control how we react to certain situations or scenarios in our lives.  If you feel unloved, then love yourself.  I seriously doubt that this lady is unloved...more than likely, she feels taken advantage of by her family and friends.  But I just wanted to shake her and tell her that she should love herself enough to go to her family and share her feelings.  Perhaps they are taking her for granted, but it's up to her to communicate her feelings and give them an opportunity to make amends.  And if necessary, she should take ownership to get out of the situation if it's truly an unhealthy one.

I believe that we all go through difficult times and occasionally, we need to talk about things with close friends or family members; but in the end, the power to change is within us.  Talk is cheap...if we don't follow through with action then what's the point of complaining?

Remember...there is more than enough love in this world to go around.  If we don't feel we have enough in our lives, most likely it's because we are blocking it ourselves.