Category Archives: Spirtuality

Wake Up!

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Each sunrise is a gift. http://www.barbaratalley.me

Each sunrise is a gift. http://www.barbaratalley.me

SO, JUST WAKE UP ALREADY!

You can’t wake anyone else up if you are asleep yourself. Signs of being awakened are love, kindness, appreciation, gratitude, and joyousness.  Complaining, backbiting, and pointing out other people’s shortcomings are signs that we too are not fully awakened to your reality and power.  Awakened people understand that the thoughts we hold take hold of us, and so we consciously choose to live in a positive state.  Awakened people realize that negative displays don’t make things better, they just waste their valuable time and energy.  Sadly, most of humanity is asleep to their identity, power, connectedness, responsibility and capacity.  Most think we are just a higher version of the animals destined by some unknown fate. We are so much more!  If only we could see our own nobility and power and that of others, we’d instead focus on educating, encouraging, and envisioning a better future for us all.

When people know better, they do better.

It is irrational to expect people to make changes when they are still asleep and unaware of their power. Mindfulness, alertness, and self awareness are essential gifts that are available to everyone. Unfortunately, so many people are mentally asleep, unaware of their gifts and powers, or are too busy scurrying about to notice the magnificent blessings all around us.  Life itself is a blessing!  Awareness is a blessing!  To have the power to create or re-create reality is a blessing.

We have to train ourselves to be in the NOW, to be aware of the present moment, and to notice what is happening right now.  The majority lives in the past or the present, and so few live in the present.  And the  irony is, CREATION ONLY OCCURS IN THE CURRENT MOMENT! If we want to change our circumstances, we can only do it in the current moment.  But to change, we must be present in the current moment.  Just start noticing and appreciating more and you will become more aware.  You  can train yourself to become more aware by beginning to habitually notice a simple sunrise.

The sunrise is just the beginning of the gifts that the aware will notice throughout their day. The Creator paints the sky each morning and evening with a fresh picture and in beautiful breathtaking colors to remind us that we too are creators and that we are loved and valued.  With each step we take during the day we can learn to appreciate the ability to move.  With each sound we hear during the day we can be grateful for our hearing.  With each smile we give and receive we can be thankful for our ability to touch others and feel their warmth and love.  With each thought we choose, we can be thankful for our ability to create new realities.  Haven’t we been taught that the reality of man is his thought?   With each word utter we can be mindful of its power to influence and we can willing choose the words that encourage others instead of those that depress or sadden them.  We can mindfully choose to spread hope and joy instead of fear and doubt.  As humans, we must always remember that we have a choice, AND that’s what makes us human.  But, with this choice and OUR innumerable blessings come great responsibility.  We are here to grow, mirror the qualities of God,  and make things better.  Today is a wonderful new day and it’s ours to do as we wish.  I’m determined to make mine magnificent, you can too?

You Could Have Been An Onion!

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You Could Have Been An Onion.

You Could Have Been An Onion.

Stop!

Before you complain again about anything, appreciate the fact that YOU HIT THE CREATION JACKPOT.  You could have been an onion, slug, a roach, or a piece of sand. Instead you are blessed  to be human beings, to have the potential to mirror the attributes and qualities of God, and to be so valued and trusted as to be given consciousness, free will, and dominion over this world. Just think about the billions of  creations in this magnificent world of ours.  There are untold numbers of fruits, vegetables, plants, insects, birds, fish, organisms, and animals.  And yet, if you are reading this, you hit the creation jackpot because YOU GOT TO BE  A HUMAN.

“Humans have conscious thought and are aware of their consciousness. With this power, we can create or destroy, love or hate, believe or fear, take from others or serve them unselfishly. Circumstances may not be to our liking, but at least we have the capacity to change things and that’s the miracle and blessing of being a human.  Humans can create new reality.  Humans can make new and better choices.  Humans can willingly choose to change their circumstances through decisiveness, commitment, and focused action.”

Barbara Talley is a professional speaker, poet, and author.  Her presentations focus on vision, values, and virtues.  You can find more about her programs at www.ThePoetSpeaks.com

21 Ways to Make Your Home a Fortress for Well-Being

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21 Ways to Make Your Home Happier

21 Ways to Make Your Home Happier

You’ve heard it said before, “Home is where the heart is.“

But the home is so much more. Home should be where your heart, healing, happiness, and humanity are best magnified. If you don’t show or won’t show humanity, forgiveness, kindness, and encouragement at home, then where?  Your home is your loving lab, where you can make mistakes in a loving environment and grow from them. Your home is the place where you GROW your family and pass on your values.  It gets frustrating worrying about all the bad things in the world and feeling hopeless, so focus your energy on the one place where you can make a difference.  Your home is your first responsibility.  Make it more loving, healing, encouraging, and trusting.

Home is a safe place to dream and expect encouragement and support.  We are truly in a sad state of affairs if our homes do not restore us to wholeness. Even worse, when our homes are the cause of our sorrow, depression, fear, and self-devaluing. Your home must become your fortress for well-being, the place you go to heal, restore, and flourish.  It should be the one place where you can let your guard down and be able to trust. It should be the one place where you will have the most influence. What you DO in your home affects its power to heal.  These are 21 Things we do to make our house a home.

  1. We do second chances, and sometimes third, fourth, fifth, sixth…….infinity
  2. We do grace.
  3. We do real.
  4. We do trust.
  5. We do loud; Sometimes, we do real loud!
  6. We do encouragement.
  7. We do mistakes.
  8. We do, “I’m sorry.”
  9. We do hugs.
  10. We do, “I love you.”
  11. We do prayer.
  12. We do faith.
  13. We do forgiveness.
  14. We do gratitude.
  15. We do service.
  16. We do laughter and lots of it!
  17. We do, “Please!”
  18. We do, “Thank You!”
  19. We do “Excuse Me!”
  20. We do, “Let me help you!
  21. We do, “Let go and Let God!  (a whole lot)

I’m Barbara Talley,  The Poet who speaks and inspires.   To find more about me, check out my promo sheet or visit  my website.

Moving Forward Means Letting Go

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“Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.” -C.S. Lewis   

Whether your current moment is merry or miserable, you must let go of it if you are to move on to the next.   The miserable moments are only miserable when we label them that way. The merry moments are only that way because we decided that they were merry.  This morning I was reflecting on last December and the changes that have occurred since last year this time.  There have been so many.  For one, there were people in my life last year that are gone this year.  Two years ago at this time, we were mourning my nephew’s tragic and untimely demise at age 32.  Everyone was wishing that they’d spent more time with him or that they had said and done things to let him know how much he was loved while he was there.  Last year it is my step-mother who passed in July. She lived to be 85-years old.  This morning I was reflecting on how she did not spend the holidays with us that last year before she passed.  There were many reasons, but mainly our collective somber mood and the weather.  Little did I know that we would not have another opportunity.

“It’s not life’s big planned events that make the big difference, it is the simple, intimate, and sometimes spontaneous things we do for each other.” Barbara Talley

While there has been significant losses, at the same time there has been significant gain.  I am not the same person I was last year or the year before. I’ve been tested by trials and as they say, “The tree most pruned bears the best fruit.”  Last year this time there was a fear and hopelessness that has now been replaced by faith and expectation.  I have new relationships, new opportunities, and a new sense of valuing life’s little moments.  I am better, mainly because I chose to be better.  I know from my more than a half century of living that we must seize every moment.  We don’t love, laugh, and enrich the world in the past or the present, we do it ONLY in the current moment.  So seize it.  I sure plan to!

I’m Barbara Talley, the poet who speaks and inspires.  To find out more about me check out: What Does Barbara Do? or visit  my website.
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How Much Is A Black Youth Worth?

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black youthI want to bring your attention to three recent tragedies that seem to have three things in common, their race, age, and gender. They were all young, African-American males, who were attacked because of their race.  Most recently seventeen year old, Jordan Russell was killed by a white man in Florida because he was playing his music too loud.  Ironically another seventeen year old unarmed Trevon Martin was shot dead in February in Florida holding nothing but a can of iced tea and a pack of Skittles.

Twenty-one year old, Chavis Carter was shot in the head with his hands handcuffed behind him while in the back of a police car in Arkansas in August.  While the police say that he committed suicide, the evidence does not support how the left-handed Chavis shot himself with his right hand while handcuffed.  He was with two friends when the police apprehended him. They were let go. They just happened to be white. He was arrested for giving a false name and reports say he had  $1o worth of marijuana on him.  Some states have now made that legal, but too late for this young man is dead.

How much is the life of a black child worth? These stories are not isolated cases.  There are others.  But it seems the frequency or severity of these types of atrocities do not faze people anymore. They just shake their heads and go back to their regularly scheduled programming.  Few will even comment and show that they care or feel anything.  I empathize with the mothers who are mourning their children today.  Today I think about those lives changed forever or snuffed out entirely and I try to make sense out of senseless brutality, hatred, and cruelty.  I appease my own conscience by shining the light on these cruel injustices so that their pain was not in vain and that they are not forgotten.  After that, I too shake my head and think, what now?

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.

(Quote by Martin Niemoller)

I’m Barbara Talley, The Poet who speaks and inspires.   To find more about me, check out my promo sheet or visit  my website.