I want to dedicate this Watercolors Friday to YOU.  To all that is YOU.  I hope that you think about that.  You are more than the sum of your parts – you are a special creation.  You are more than all your roles; you are more than all your labels, and you are more than all your thoughts and dreams together.  Together … to be.  All the possibilities that your being – your creation – gives you.  I hope that you celebrate yourself today; I know that it is not easy to do this sometimes.  Many times, we forget to celebrate ourselves because we are too busy celebrating others – or what others want in our lives.  Sometimes, we do not want the same things, but we are afraid of saying NO.

It is easier to say YES than to say NO.  It take guts to say NO because we are afraid of what others will think of us – and that is pretty much it, we care too much about what others “will think” or “feel” and we end up forgetting about our feelings, wants, and needs.  We stop celebrating ourselves.  At extreme, we end up living unhappy lives, lives that belong to others.

Saying NO doesn’t come easy; it takes time and training/practice.  I remember the first time I learned to say NO and being conscious of it – as a decision.  I was two and a half (my memories start at that age).  My Mom wanted me to play with two little girls that lived across from us (by the way, we lived in a haunted house – no kidding here).  I hated to play with them because they would not let me play with their toys – they wanted me to sit and watch only.  One day, I had it.  I waited until their Mom came to ask my Mom to let me go and play.  I waited until they started playing with their beautiful plastic horses – tons of them.  I wanted to play with a light caramel  horse.  I reached to grab it, and they took it away from me.  That instant it clicked (I remember the moment like it was now) – I swiped my hand across all their horses and scattered them all over the living room – then, I could not stop doing it, and horses of all colors and sizes flew up on the air.  I was free. I said NO.  The girls started crying, and their mom took me home.  That was the last time I had to go there; I was happy.

Over the years, I stopped saying NO and learned to say YES more often, until another dramatic day … It was like that for me for most of the time until I grew up and later in life, much, much later, I understood that I did not have to say Yes, when all I wanted was to say NO.  That is when I started celebrating myself.  Today, I am confident saying NO when I mean to say it, and that is when saying YES will make me unhappy.  It is better to say NO than say Yes and do what it is that you said yes to with an unhappy and unloving feeling, or doing it half-way, with no passion, or to do a crappy job at it – just because NO was what you were supposed to say.  That only disrespects the other person, who is counting on you.

There are many times that we will have to say Yes when we rather say NO; however, this happens because we truly want to help someone – and that is honorable.  However, it is when we prolong the Yes, and it starts affecting our happiness that it matters to say NO.

Happy Watercolors Friday! Celebrate YOU!

Reminder:

I will be giving away three copies of Ramblings of the Spirit, the first book of the trilogy The Dinorah Chronicles.  To enter for a chance to win one of the three copies, just like my Facebook page (link at the right of the screen on this blog) and that is all you have to do.  I will announce the three winners on May 20, which is the birth date of the person to whom I have dedicated this book – my maternal grandmother.