On this glorious spring day when the Bluebonnets are popping through the rain-soaked, north Texas dirt in their annual explosive birthing process, B Here Today announces its second birth.
Behold! Nearly two years after its inception on May 20, 2010, the second coming of this blog, my child, my dream.
The description may be a tad bit dramatic, but when you’ve waited half a lifetime for a vision to come into full clarity (assuming I live to the age of 102), a little drama seems appropriate.
It would take several football fields filled with Bluebonnets in my adopted state to match my excitement over B Here Today’s redesign.
We’re not just talking about a blog, dear readers. What we have here today is a fully integrated suite of thematized (Don’t care if that’s a word!) products: check out B Here Today on Twitter and Facebook (@bheretoday and B Here Today, respectively).
I owe a heaping helping of thanks to the incredible design talents of Stephanie Wetzel at Blue Elephant Creative. Steph entered my life several months ago in a God-inspired fashion and I am so grateful for her skills, her counsel and her friendship. You’re the best, Steph!
You may be wondering why I elected to undertake a site overhaul.
Here’s the easy answer: I want to play with the big kids. After writing blog posts regularly for two years, I decided it was time to either Go Big or pack up my toys and go home.
B Here Today has a message and it’s time to shout it from the skyscraper tippy-top:
Simply put, every day is filled with a whole bunch of choices unique to each of us. Some of us are in recovery from addictions; some of us don’t struggle with addictions but do want to live a deeper, more grounded spiritual life. Regardless, the consequences of our choices are determined by our ability to align our inner world with what is going on outside of us.
I don’t know about you, but for me, keeping my psyche in alignment is about as easy as keeping my spine perfectly aligned day in and day out.
Joining the B Here Today community is a much better return on your investment (since it’s free!): I should know since I’m currently paying a chiropractor–albeit a holistic one–a significant amount of money to whip me into shape.
Invest here and your return is regular sharing about how to bring the peace, joy, harmony and love that you see “out there” into your everyday existence–where you B!
I’ll send you regular info on how to apply Principles of Presence to even the smallest corners of your life. Heck, I even wrote a post once about relating to a bug in a corner . . . check it out here: http://74.220.215.210/~bheretod/2010/06/bug-lesson/
You’ll see some heavy-hitting bloggers guest posting here as well. Like I said, playing with the big kids . . .
In short, B Here Today is about community. It’s about supporting each other as we manuever through the nooks and crannies of living life on life’s terms. Yes, I originally launched as a blog for people in recovery, but I quickly learned that the message is universal; folks in recovery don’t hold the deed to all of humanities feelings.
We can all use a dose of wisdom every now and then.
I’m not implying that I have all the answers; remember this is a community AND a solid community needs the input of all its constituents. Don’t be shy! Lift your voice–sorry, tap your electronic keys–and let your community hear you.
So stay tuned; we’re about to have more fun than you can shake a stick at!
If you like what you’ve read, be sure to sign up for regular updates. When you do, you’ll receive my free e-book, B Here On Purpose and an additional seven daily emails all designed to address specific areas of purposeful living.
B Well & Inspired!
- Forward to a Friend:
- Email
Coming soon to a web screen near you . . .
Happy Mindful Monday!
It was a breakthrough weekend for me after attending a fabulous seminar on Saturday. I’ll reveal more about the seminar giver and the message very, very soon; he was so fun and enlightening that I want to save the juiciest parts for the B Here Today relaunch. So, hold your horses!
I can tell you that for me, Saturday was all about choosing love over fear.
I don’t know about you, but my fears spend a great deal of time trying to sabotage the good in my life. Fears throttle themselves into high gear and try to drive a wedge between me and the people I care about the most.
On Saturday, prior to leaving for the seminar, I spent some quiet time meditating on being open to receive the messages I was about to hear. One of the things that came to me was the simple notion that love is bigger than fear.
I’ve shared with you that love is my highest, all-encompassing prayer. I will love through all the dramas and traumas, until the people or persons can love themselves and appreciate themselves as I do.
The trick lies in holding onto the feeling of love.
I decided I needed a code of conduct to help me stay in the love ballpark (can you tell its nearly baseball season?). Instead of sharing five inspirational quotes with you as has been our custom for more than a year, I’ve decided to share the five points of my code of conduct.
See if any of these ring true for you. As you contemplate them, please make a note and send it to me here; I’d love to hear how you transcend fear with love.
1. I will love AND leave the room if rancorous conversation begins.
2. I will love AND not participate in negatively charged comments about each other or other people.
3. I will love AND choose silence over defending myself to win an argument or make a point.
4. I will love AND breathe deeply even when the air is highly charged with tension.
5. I will love AND remember that I am responsible for meeting my needs, not taking care of someone else’s.
Love is a giant balance beam. When we allow, love can lift us so that we are held in suspended balance between the muck of fear-based hell and the ecstasy of wild emotions.
At any point on the beam, we can mis-step and start falling one way or another. But if we hold to love–with smiling tenderness–AND we hold each other loosely, we will be okay.
First, there’s love–the highest prayer. I feel that fact firmly this morning.
God, please let us know the full measure of your love today. Teach us to feel love’s weight and breadth and depth. Teach us to let love, not fear, overtake our hearts, minds and emotions.
Show us how to balance on that beam in the joy, glory and splendor of your love.
B Well & B Love,
Beth
- Forward to a Friend:
- Email
Coming soon to your web screen:
I adore the first sensory sensations of spring, don’t you?
Texas affords me the chance to see and feel and hear Mother Natures’s awakening much sooner than did all those years in Missouri. Around here, the Bradford Pear and Redbud trees have blossomed, tulips are in full bloom and I saw my first patch of bluebonnets the other day.
More than the sights of spring, I am addicted to the renewal of spring, to the symbolic meanings of hope, re-birth and do-overs.
During this time of year, all things are once again possible because all things are brand new again.
Another cycle of life is spinning. Out of the drab season of winter when everything from plants and animals to thoughts and ideas lay dormant, comes the regeneration of all things beautiful.
Soon–right around Easter–my own beautiful dream will spring forth, representing decades of hopeful anticipation.
I knew that I would one day be a professional writer; in fact, I achieved that status years ago with my first published articles in trade publications. But with the relaunch of B Here Today, I feel like I am that person I’ve waited to become.
Why did I wait? I firmly believe that our choices create our circumstances which become the definition we wrap around our lives.
I chose circumstances that created safety for myself for many, many years. I believed I was happy, but the problem with safety is that it confines. My dreams never grew; they remained buried in winter and eventually became the winter of my discontent.
Then, quite suddenly, I changed my mind. Those circumstances were no longer acceptable to me. I knew I needed a new life-defining wrap, something that still provided a bit of safety but also held me loosely enough so that the growth of my dreams could sprout through.
Now, I am definitely bursting out!
I want you to have a similar spring-like experience!
So my question to you is three-fold:
1) Are you making good choices for yourself today? Is today–Thursday, March 8, 2012–filled with heart-centered decisions that you, and no one else, has made for yourself? If not, then it’s time to take charge of your day because this day is the only day that is guaranteed.
2) Are you satisfied with your circumstances or are you wildly excited about them? Please, please, please don’t ever settle for anything less than the very best for the circumstances of your life. Enough said.
3) Is the wrap around you–the definition of your life–too tight, too loose or just right? I know, it sounds like The Three Bears story, but seriously, sometimes we need to check our life garments to see whether they need resizing. If you need a bigger size, go shopping for something that is beautifully just right!
And one more question: In this 2012 spring season, are you ready to burst out in bloom? If not, get ready, my friends! There is no time like the present!
- Forward to a Friend:
- Email
Coming soon to your web screen:
I am constantly gifted with choices.
I’m not talking about external choices like deciding between two movies or between different restaurants or even what clothes to wear today.
I’m referring to my conscious choices as they relate to my thoughts.
How often do I allow my mind to tumble and fumble along the path of today? How often are my thoughts like a person scared to get on the long and curvy slide at the water park? Like the ride, when I’ve made a choice to be afraid of anything, I am tense and my body slams against each twist and turn of the journey.
However, when I choose to relax and enjoy the thrill of the ride, my body no longer resists the water’s flow and I glide through all the curves.
Choosing my thoughts is a similar process.
When I become aware of how my thoughts create a smooth flow of circumstances or a wild, frantic ride, I am better equipped to change them.
Case in point: Conversations that involve politics or the federal government. Yesterday, I realized that there are times when my sweetie and I should steer clear of these topics. Our basic viewpoints are too different and more often than not, one of us comes away from the conversation with our hackles raised.
So, I’m making a conscious choice to limit these topics of conversation. They aren’t productive, they usually are not positive and they invoke a winner/loser outcome. Plus, I don’t know enough to soundly present my case so I grow frustrated and irritated with myself.
So I choose to step away from those conversations, or at least not initiate them.
They nearly never garner peace, love or joy which are my three conscious attributes for living these days.
When I have peace, love and joy in my life, politics and the federal government lose their appeal.
I can choose to listen to the subjects without responding.
I can choose to not get whipped into a frenzy around divisive issues.
They just don’t matter to me. Peace, love and joy matter.
Today, I choose the latter matter.
For this Mindful Monday, please enjoy these five quotes about choosing your thoughts.
B Well & Choose Your Thoughts Well!
Beth
By choosing your thoughts, and by selecting which emotional currents you will release and which you will reinforce, you determine the quality of your Light. You determine the effects that you will have upon others, and the nature of the experiences of your life. ~ Gary Zukav
Thoughts are boomerangs, returning with precision to their source. Choose wisely which ones you throw. ~ Author Unknown
Keep your thoughts positive, because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive, because your words become your behaviors. Keep your behaviors positive, because your behaviors become your habits. Keep your habits positive, because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive, because your values become your destiny. ~ Gandhi
Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. ~ Abraham Lincoln
Life consists of what a man is thinking of all day. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Forward to a Friend:
- Email
I can hardly contain my excitement because B Here Today is fixin’ (as we say in Texas) to bust out in a big and beautiful way.
Watch out Universe!
BHT began nearly two years ago with the idea of helping folks create balance between their inner and outer worlds. Our initial messages were directed toward the recovery community before we quickly learned what those of us in recovery know: our principles are universal.
Our humble beginning now goes much deeper that finding balance. What do you do with balance once you find it?
Now we’re going to take all the stuff of the inner and outer worlds–all the painful, gloppy stuff as well as the joyous, beautiful stuff–and learn to B with it.
We’ll learn to breathe and feel compassion for the stuff that seizes us when we least expect it.
As we sit with whatever the stuff is, more and more practicing being in the moment, we grow in our ability to accept the pain (or whatever the seizing positive or negative emotion) and eventually learn to see it as our guide.
Please, take what you need and leave the rest. I’ll continue to share my experience, strength and hope and invite you to sit in these B Here moments and watch our community grow.
Interact. Comment. Offer your brand of support. Let me know if you’d like to guest-post.
It is my prayer that our community will grow infinitely as we B Here in Compassion, B Here in Courage, Be Here in Audacity, In Worthiness, In Dignity, and of course, In Love.
Welcome to the space we’re holding for the re-launch of B Here Today. In many ways, this feels like the most important work we’ll ever do as we learn how to B Together.
Our universe is having a tough time right now. Far too many people live their lives overloaded with misery and pain. Rather than feel pity for them, rather than feel better than them for growing past our own pain (and do we ever, really?), let’s work together to see us all as one. Hold each other’s traumas and breathe out peace for ourselves and others.
The 12 Steps would ask, Are these extravagent promises?
We definitely think not!
Peace is our birthright!
I once wrote that my purpose is to be an open channel for peace, love and joy.
Keep your eyes peeled because those channels are expanding . . .
- Forward to a Friend:
- Email
In July of 2009, I had an epiphany. For about a month prior, I was emotionally distraught, increasingly depressed and having serious thoughts of drinking again (after 18 years of sobriety).
I struggled to wrap my arms around what could possibly be wrong with me. I had all the trappings of a good life, one others would love to emulate--great job, dream house, traveling for a living, a life mate . . . the list goes on. 
