Category Archives: Spirtuality

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.

Cleanliness Is Next to Godliness

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Most are familiar with this quote and who doesn’t want to be more Godly and closer to God?  While many attribute this quote to the Bible, in fact, it is not in the Bible. However cleanliness (purity) is attributed to most spiritual practices, e.g, ablutions before prayers, baptism, etc. Cleanliness means to be pure, free from dirt, marks or stains. The body and our surroundings can be dirty. Our unkind words and deeds can leave marks on our soul and the hearts of others.  Our shameful deeds can leave stains in our memories.  So where did the quote come from? John Wesley spoke in a sermon:

“Let it be observed, that slovenliness is no part of religion; that neither this, nor any text of Scripture, condemns neatness of apparel. Certainly this is a duty, not a sin. ‘Cleanliness is, indeed, next to godliness.’ Sermons No xciii,” On Dress.”

How clean is your mind, body, and soul? The first thing we see in an individual is their physical appearance and that is what many react to, but cleanliness and purity must be present in all things, our dress, our speech, and our deeds. The Baha’i Faith teaches:
“External cleanliness, although it is but a physical thing, hath a great influence upon spirituality (1).”   Cleanliness and sanctity in all conditions are characteristics of pure beings and necessities of free souls.  In all his actions and conduct there must first be purity, then beauty and independence. The channel must be cleansed before it is filled with sweet water. The pure eye comprehendeth the sight and the meeting of God; the pure nostril inhaleth the perfumes of the rose-garden of bounty; the pure heart becometh the mirror of the beauty of truth.”(Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i World Faith – Abdu’l-Baha Section, p. 333)