“The only place you can live in the land of not enough, is in your own mind.”

Debra Oakland

If you are of a mind set that someone has to lose, in order for someone to win, open your mind to a new way of thinking.  Courage speaks the language of “I Can – I Will.” Say “Yes to Life” and you will find life saying yes to you.  Doubt and fear must be removed from the game of life, before courage can act in it’s full empowerment.  What will you replace fear and doubt with?

Love and Light

Courage and Hope

Joy and Harmony

Wisdom and Confidence

Unity and Grace

Peace and Joy

Abundance and Opulence

Health and Wellbeing

Single Minded Purpose and Clarity

Make your own list.  Everyone has different dreams and goals.  Really think about what you want.  Why do you fear what you fear?  Is what you fear true? What steps can you take to release the fear or doubt? Ask yourself some powerful questions.  Use courage when looking into the face of fear.  Fear is a weakling, and only holds the power you give it.  By living from the inside out, you are not giving your power away.  By choosing to create a miraculous life, you will expand.

Work with the principles of life that are your true nature.  Play the game of life to win.  Courageously maneuver yourself into a power position.  As you become an expert at playing the game of life, become a messenger, a teacher to others.  When you bring people into your game, they will learn that no one needs to lose.  That is one of the purposes of the game.  You will be able to provide your fellow players with insight, and encouragement.  They will receive invaluable wisdom into how to play the game of life, where everyone wins.  Inspire greatness in yourself, share it, and people will pass it on.

Debra Oakland @ Living in Courage Online

“The Meadow” Is a novel about love, that covers many thousands of years.  A Tale of undying and eternal love, demonstrating the interconnectedness of the Universe through the expression of two people who live many lives over thousands of years. The authors Mike O’Hare and Elfreda Pretorius come from different continents and knew nothing about each others existence. Details of their story is below, and reads like a novel itself.  I encourage you to read this amazing book of intrigue, meaning of life, eternal love , spirituality, mystery, sex and much more.  Talk about Living in Courage!

Overview of The Meadow

The Meadow is a passport into other worlds, allowing the reader to travel to ancient destinations whilst remaining in the safety and comfort of an arm chair. Philosophically, it is a tale of the struggle between Light and Dark, personified in two root characters that meet and fall in love in antiquity, only to discover that life is imperfect and far too short.
The tale of The Meadow assumes that we slip through the trapdoor of death to live again and again to continue experiencing the magnificent spectrum of emotions and polarities of more lives which enable us to grow spiritually, mentally and emotionally. Precisely how the soul is molded over eons into a sentient being with the ability to feel and experience is a closely guarded secret of Creation. Yet, there are instances of refined consciousness, capable of traversing heavenly realms, which have discovered the Meadow, ingeniously hidden in the astral level or Middle Place. The story of Teuch and Anacaona’s love is woven around just such a concept, daring the reader to delve into the possibility that all is not as it seems and that we bear a solemn responsibility to live our lives in as much consciousness as we are capable of.
Swathed in primordial mystery, the story blazes a trail through four devastating lives and personalities, from ancient Mexica to contemporary Pakistan, before luring the lead characters into the twenty first century, where we meet them as Steve Ballantire and Eva Norman. But they do not arrive here alone. Obsessed with revenge many centuries old, their nemesis, representing the Dark side, is in hot pursuit of the protagonists.
The intrigue intensifies when the British authorities express an interest in Hugo, the brilliant child of Eva, and snatches him and his mother from the clutches of ‘the evil one’ in Tel Aviv, to place him under the tutelage of  Steve Ballantire, an esteemed professor based in North East England.  Due to this intervention of MI6, the lead characters finally meet in this life. However, their fanatical adversary yet again follows them to England, leading to the devious abduction of Eva and resulting in a nerve-wracking international chase across the world; climaxing in the Himalaya Mountains. It is here where a small, but remarkable monk begins to lead the story back to its roots in antiquity, and the boundaries of time are finally erased. Inevitably, ancient identities of past eras emerge into full awareness to force the final cosmic showdown.
Steeped in symbolism and mystery, Hugo, a mildly autistic savant, unravels the enigmas of the story and reveals his understanding of our universe being based in mathematics. The Tibetan monk and the boy independently confirm the existence of the celestial halfway house known as the Meadow, and this leads to Hugo locating star gates which demonstrate the absolute interconnectedness of everything.
This tale is of an ancient dream that had awakened into the twenty first century, where from the smoldering embers of antiquity, it snaked a path through centuries of unspeakable violence, impossible sacrifice and incredible passion to find its way back into the lives of Steve and Eva. Through the trials and tribulations of the characters in the book, the readers are subtly invited to investigate their own lives and evaluate the possibility of having lived before. But that is not where it ends.
Drawn together by unusual circumstances to tell the story of The Meadow are two strangers who live on separate continents. As they created the tale, the authors peered through the kaleidoscope of life, and slowly turning the lens, they wrote about sex, violence, intrigue, betrayal, murder, mystery, politics, religion, suspense, science and physics, spirituality, and even magic. The jury is still out on whether the authors wrote their book from actual memory, or if this all springs from very fertile imagination.
The Meadow is comparable to “The Thornbirds” by Colleen McCullough and “Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follet. The book will appeal to female readers of adult age and interest the growing number of people around the world (male and female) curious about exploring the possibility of life continuing on beyond death.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

A remarkable aspect of The Meadow is that the authors hail from separate continents and for most of their lives knew nothing about each other’s existence. By the time they had completed their mega manuscript they had still not laid eyes on one another and, given their life circumstances and vocations, even a chance meeting was a most unlikely possibility. Yet, with Mike O’Hare who is from North East England and Elfreda Pretorius, who resides in Canada, an interesting but powerful force was at work which would dictate almost three years of their lives. In 2005 an unusual meeting of minds set the scene for an ambitious project that neither author could have foretold, even if they had had a crystal ball.
Mike O’Hare began his career as a compositor in the newspaper industry but with an inherent love of writing, the pen always lay alongside the setting stick/Linotype keyboard and he soon began contributing short editorials for his local paper. In 1969 when Neil Armstrong stepped off his moon ladder, “one short step for mankind” became the foundation for Mike’s article, which set a trend for years to follow, during which time he wrote a series of short pieces for magazines and newspapers.
In later years he lost heart for his trade as it evolved into the electronic era and transferred from the production side of printing to the excitement and trappings that sales offered. Eventually he brokered his way to a comfortable existence and retired early to nurture his love of writing and concentrate his creative efforts on an idea that had taken root in his mind when he was in his late teens. Fearful of ridicule, the idea remained a closely guarded secret, but an unusual meeting with a stranger would soon lead to its blossoming into The Meadow.
Elfreda Pretorius’s field of expertise is communication, expressed in writing, coaching and teaching. As a best selling author in the self-help industry (Stop Struggling and Start Living –  Rules of the Game), she demonstrated her grasp of the human psyche through authoring this book which has become a powerful tool to help change the games of others along with its companion workbook, Ten Truths from the Top of Table Mountain.  Due to popular demand, a self coaching program based on the book will soon be available for download from her personal web site:  HYPERLINK “http://www.elfredapretorius.com” www.elfredapretorius.com.
Similar to Mike, she is intensely interested in the world, the dissemination of accurate information and the evolution of man as he is subjected to various schools of thought. They became acquainted via the Internet, on a web site where just such a meeting of minds was in progress and very soon slipped into a wonderful friendship, as comfortably as one would slip into an old pair of jeans. She learned of his wonderful idea for a book, and spontaneously offered to help him dip pen in ink. Due to a pressing workload, her plan was not to linger for too long, but she never left the project. Through the confluence of their combined creativity The Meadow developed into a narrative neither could have imagined in their wildest dreams.
The entire novel was written via the Internet, through an exchange of ideas and thoughts that defies accurate description. Both authors were aware of a creative force at work in the two and half years that it took to complete a project of which they feel very privileged to have been a part.

Links to “The Meadow”

http://themeadownovel.wordpress.com/

http://themeadow.ning.com/

The Meadow Group Fan Page http://tinyurl.com/ylks9qo

Amazon links for UK, US and Canada to purchase the book. Also available on other Amazon sites, as well as all main on-line stores

http://tinyurl.com/ntqluz
http://tinyurl.com/nfnlyx
http://tinyurl.com/l2e5qf

If you love to live your truth, tell your story, feel your pain, express your joy, take what you need, and give what you will – You will love Owning Pink.  This is an amazing online community, that supports, offers guidance, inspiration and ideas.  This is done through posts, workshops, and the Pink Posse forum.  This is a safe place, free of facades.  Owning Pink allows you to reclaim your mojo, and tap into your most authentic you. Owning Pink roars courage to me.

Lissa Rankin created this space for you.  Here is some information about Lissa from her blog – Lissa Rankin is an OB/GYN physician, author of the forthcoming What’s Up Down There? Questions You’d Only Ask Your Gynecologist If She Was Your Best Friend (St. Martin’s Press, 2010) and Encaustic: A Guide To Creating Fine Art With Wax (Random House, 2010), a nationally-represented professional artist, a mother, and founder of Owning Pink, a website and series of workshops committed to building authentic community and empowering women to get their mojo back. She is also a dog walker, a spiritual seeker, a wife, a yogini, a chauffeur, a cook, and a music fanatic. First and foremost, she is a woman, and like many women, she once thought she had to put herself into a box and choose who to be. She now accepts that, while she is all these things, no single identity defines her. She is more than what she does. She strives to be authentic, in all aspects of her life, and she encourages others to do the same.
Lissa practices holistic women’s health at Clear Center of Health in Mill Valley, California. Her nationally-recognized abstract encaustic paintings and sculptures are represented by galleries in San Francisco, Santa Fe, Boston, Atlanta, Laguna Beach, Houston,and Bethesda. She currently resides in Northern California with her husband and fellow artist, Matt Klein, and their daughter, Siena.

Here are some links for you to connect with Lissa, Owning Pink and The Pink Posse:

www.owningpink.com
www.lissarankin.com
www.lissarankinart.com
www.clearcenterofhealth.com
Owning Pink Community: http://www.owningpink.com/forum
Twitter ID: lissarankin
Facebook: Owning Pink http://www.facebook.com/owningpink
Facebook: Lissa Rankin http://www.facebook.com/lissarankin

And introducing The Pink Effect:
www.pinkeffect.ning.com

I hope you visit Lissa and the Pink Posse, you will be thrilled you did.

Debra Oakland @ Living in Courage Online

Making mistakes is how we learn contrast, how we discern what we want, and don’t want in our life.  As they say, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and move on.  Everyone makes mistakes, has challenges, bumps in the road.  Everyone.  Looking back with regret, blocks our movement forward to bigger and better things.  Your future is up to you.  Create it in each moment.  Every breath you take, gives you a choice.  The first time you attempted to walk, how did that work out for you?  I bet you are an expert now.  Never give up too soon on something you truly believe in.  You are a creator in training.  The future is in your power to create. Walk forward courageous in your choices.

Debra Oakland @ Living in Courage Online

I had the pleasure of watching Emeril Green, on Planet Green recently. Emeril visited a courageous little town in Hardwick, Vermont.  I am courageously dis-attaching from the global food system, and moving to organic small sustainable farms for our food. As Dan Rather asks in this video, where do we get our food and what are we eating? A down on it’s luck, old mining town in Hardwick Vermont started answering those questions by designing a 21st Century food system. The town has been transformed into a community wide farming circle. The global food system is killing our planet, communities and people.  Processed products that are shipped on airplanes, contaminated, injected, full of chemicals, grown in bad soil with poor seeds, stored for long periods of time and who knows what, are just bad for our health, and well being  Let’s participate together in making this planet a better place for all.  We need more communities like Hardwick around the globe.

Debra Oakland @ Living in Courage Online

Visit these sites in Hardwick Vermont:

High Mowing Organic Seeds

Jasper Hills Cheese Cave

Claire’s Restaurant & Bar

Center for Agriculture Economy in Hardwick, Vermont (non-profit/educational)

Buffalo Mountain Co-op

Pete’s Greens – Pete Johnson

High Mowing Organic Seeds on “Dan Rather Reports” from High Mowing Organic Seeds on Vimeo.

While cruising around online, I found a very interesting article by Steve Pavlina about 11:11.  Many people are openly talking about it now. For some it takes courage to share this phenomenon.  I have been overwhelmed with 11:11 visuals for over 20 years. Some interesting 11’s started showing up in my life 24 years ago, when I married Cody, who is 11 years younger than me.  My son Wade (from my first marriage) was 11 years younger than Cody.  My mothers husband Jim, (now passed on) was 11 years younger, and I was told my great grandparents were 11 years apart in age as well.  This number shows up everywhere for me in many combination’s.  My friends are asking me why they see 11:11 on the clock all the time, and what it means.  Why do they happen to notice that time or number, and why more than any other time or number?   I am so used to 11:11 being a part of my daily life, and did not realize it was happening to people everywhere, around the world.  Many questions have been raised as to the meaning of this number combination.  A site dedicated to answering some of these questions is Eleven:Eleven at http://1111journey.com/

When I saw Steve Pavlina’s article today, I wanted to share it with you.  I will share a small excerpt from it, in hopes you read the whole article, as it is an interesting read.

Debra Oakland @ Living in Courage Online

What Is 11:11? By Steve Pavlina

There are many levels on which to explain 11:11. I’ll start with the most basic physically observable level and move up from there. This will take a bit of explaining.

11 is a number of course, and 11:11 is a time on a clock. Some very small percentage of people will begin to encounter 11:11 as well as the number 11 more often than chance would indicate — so much more often that you may think you’re in the midst of some crazy conspiracy once you begin to notice it.

If you’ve seen the Jim Carey movie The Number 23, there’s a similar concept behind it, although that movie is far removed from the actual experience. You may indeed think you’re going a bit nuts at first, but that will eventually pass, and soon you’ll be lead to some fascinating new insights about reality.

Numerologically speaking, you can take any number that appears in your life and sum up the digits. If you end up with a number greater than 11, keep re-summing the digits until you’re at 11 or less.

For example, my ZIP code is 89138.

8 + 9 + 1 + 3 + 8 = 29, and 2 + 9 = 11.

My previous ZIP code was 89129

8 + 9 + 1 + 2 + 9 = 29, and 2 + 9 = 11.

My current phone number is 991-1252

9 + 9 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 5 + 2 = 29, and 2 + 9 = 11.

If we include the area code, my phone number is (702) 991-1252.

Those digits sum to 38, and 3 + 8 = 11.

The fascinating thing about 11:11 is that it runs backwards and forwards through one’s life. So when you first start noticing the 11s in your life, you’ll find they run through your past as well as your present and future.  Read More ….

As I look back on 2009, I do so with the realization that we are all creators.  Collectively, we have created the world we live in.  Personally, we create our own environment mentally, physically and spiritually.  2009 has been a year of transformation for the majority of people around the world.  I have seen a great number of people looking back on 2009 in a less than enthusiastic way.  Blaming, criticizing and judging the what, why’s and how’s of our current economic climate from every angle.

I am grateful for 2009.  I believe we will all look back on this last year and find a place for gratitude in our hearts and minds.  2009 was a profound year because it began a process of healing for all of us.  Great shifts and changes for the earth, and the people living on her surface, came visibly alive.  In spite of what may “appear” to be happening in the outer world, there is a momentum of movement toward peace, positive change, new ways of doing business, awareness of the consequences of our collective behavior,  new ideas around government, education, science and technology moving into place. The wheels of change are in motion, the people are responding.  Our hearts are opening as never before. I see choices for joy and happiness, there is a renewed value and appreciation for family, friends and peaceful unity.  As I look back on 2009, it was a year of  awakening to new possibilities, change, hope, accountability, integrity, courage, honesty and appreciation.  It was also a big year for disclosure and secrets revealed – dislodging the agendas of many on the world stage.  The internet is a powerful source of truth.  We are just seeing the beginning of exposure.

2010 holds the promise of a new standard of living from the heart in a courageous way, that will move us forward in the coming years.  We are entering an amazing time on earth.  A time each of us will have to make powerful choices and decisions.  We each have a point of power inside, that guides and directs us.  As more people begin living from the inside out, versus the outside in, our world will transform.  What decisions will you be making?  A daily choice for love, peace, joy, abundance, health and happiness will transport you to a new world of magnificence.  I will not even entertain the choices on the opposite side of the fence!  Each hold great power.  I choose the power of Love & Unity.  I look forward to the future with enthusiasm and anticipation.  I am the master gardener of my consciousness, as you are of yours.  Pull the old weeds and plant new seeds.  Water them daily, pull the weeds when they come up, and plant new seeds in their place.  Walk in your garden, breathing in the beauty and perfection of every place and space of it.   2010 will be an exciting and fulfilling journey for a great many people.  A journey that can take us into and beyond the door to “Everything.”  Blessings to you for living 2010 and beyond courageously.  From my heart to yours…I send you love and light.

Debra Oakland @ Living in Courage Online.

We all could use more patience.  It seems we are hardest on ourselves.  Many people expect others to live up to their expectations, and more often than not, are disappointed.  Looking at our own imperfections and those of others, are judgments we would be wise to let go of.  Judgment, criticism, and all forms of Dis-Couragement only hurt us, they never help us expand as a kind and loving person.  Every moment of every day, you have a choice.  Each day you can begin again.  Live in Courage. Try new things, change your daily routine, get out of habits. This is a good practice to get into.  Brush your teeth, throw a baseball, write, or whatever comes to mind with your non-dominant hand.  This opens new neural networks in the brain, assisting left/right brain function.  A good book for this is Whole Brain Power.

I quote from the Whole Brain Power website

“Michael J. Lavery’s theories about how large and small motor-skill development of both right and left hands, is directly linked to development in the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Michael is revolutionizing our understanding of how best to train the brain. His theories are based on years of personal development of his own astonishing ambidextrous skills as a golfer, baseball player, tennis player, hockey player, painter, and guitarist, as well as his daily practice of memory drills, perfect penmanship and Da Vinci-style mirror-image handwriting with the left hand.

Over the past few years he has been transferring these skills to other people of all ages who have found rapid and phenomenal skill development as athletes in a variety of sports, including tennis, golf and baseball. But his theories go far beyond just turning good athletes into great athletes, for Whole Brain Power™ training methodologies combined with proper nutrition and an understanding of the damaging effects on the brain from television and video games, may have breakthrough implications for preventing obesity, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, ADD, and ADHD.

Furthermore, there is evidence of the correlation between the endogenous production of hormones with those who have followed all of Michael’s skill development regimens, including, ambidextrous hammer and ball drills, mirror-imaging penmanship and intense memory drills. The potential implications of Michael’s theories on the science of memory degeneration and hormone replacement are enormous. By reading WHOLE BRAIN POWER you will learn how the brain and body can be transformed through Michael’s simple ambidextrous skill training, penmanship and memory drills. Get ready to become part of the revolution in wholebrain development in the 21st century.