Happiness Heals

Look for Joy
 

...if it's hiding... find it.

Hi Friends,

I spent a long weekend in the hospital. No, I wasn’t the one in the hospital bed, it was my adopted mum. She was in again, because her counts were down. She has cancer. She’s had it for a long time, but it went into remission for years. We celebrated. It came back. We felt sad. She’s been taking chemo pills. Her hair has fallen out and grown back in. She now has the super cute style that seems to be all over Vogue. It just grew in that way.

Mum is an amazing person. She was the first petite models back in the day. She has endured horrific abuse, domestic violence that also ripped her daughter’s life apart. They survived. They found freedom. She loves Jesus with all her heart. For most of her life she has been a social worker. Working right in the heart of a system we know is corrupt, CPS. She has the attitude, If someone good isn’t in there doing their best, the whole thing will fall apart & it’s the best we’ve got right now. I’m going to do my best to make it better. And she has. Even at the hospital, she was talking about wanting to be at work... for the children. She did not want to be at the hospital & everyone who walked in the door knew it within a few minutes.

I was there when her beautiful Middle Eastern doctor came in and gave her the bad news that her counts were going the wrong way. She held my hand, pulled me close & said, “Madi, I’m scared.” I held her tighter. I knew she was, inside we all were. But we had to face the fear with courage. Because fear never cured anything, only Joy does. They gave her a platelets drip & I said, “Let’s imagine these platelets are little ninja angels going in to wipe out the bad guys and heal your body, making more, happy good platelet guys, so your counts will go up.” She smiled. Closed her eyes & said, “I can see them…”

My girlfriend (her original adopted daughter), her birth daughter & I were all there with her. We were laughing so much & being silly in the crazy yellow gowns they made us wear. She said we were better than TV. Laughter is truly the best medicine. I felt better.

The next day I was like a busy beaver. Mum was cold…she needed a fleece blanket (I’m a wiz at making them now). & She was sad… her room wasn’t helping. So I took a full sheet of watercolor paper and made her a “card”, the one in the picture. My girlfriend & I delivered them that night after she got off work in the emergency room.

Mum sent us a text: “My girls, my heart is truly filled with happiness and gratitude by the love you show me, I love you both to the moon and back for always and forever. Mom”.

Guess what!?! Mum got to go home the next day. Happiness heals the heart & the body follows.

If you’re feeling sad, find something that makes you happy. If someone in your life is feeling down, do what you can to lift them up. Creator heals us through Joy, Laughter, Happiness, Love. If you need something happy on your wall, I’d love to create something just for you, with your favorite word…or you can get a print of the one I made for Mum at my website www.MichalMadisonArt.net/galleries.html

If you’d like to learn more about the important work that my adopted mom has dedicated her life to, visit www.ButterflyDreamsAbuseRecovery.com. It’s something Trish McKnight & I are also passionate about…you know, ending violence.

Happy Joy,

Michal Madison

being tiny

"There are moments in all of our lives when we forget our true greatness & allow others to make us feel small. when that happens, think of all the magical things you could do if you really were tiny. & soon you'll remember who you really are..." 

here's to your greatness!" 

Being Tiny 

I Feel Small… It’s definitely not a feeling I would choose, if I had my choice of feelings. But here it is. Seriously, how can feeling “small” feel so big? Small should just feel small and insignificant. But it doesn’t. Feeling Small and insignificant is usually huge and overwhelming! Have you ever felt really, really small? You know, someone said something or did something and in an instant you feel smaller than Tom Thumb inside! 

I’ve felt that way many times throughout my life. I’m trying something new. I’m trying to embrace whatever emotion I’m feeling. Emotions never stay forever, so I’m trying to make friends with whatever emotion happens to be in my life at the moment. So I ask myself, ‘is feeling small really all that bad?’ 

There are moments in all of our lives when we forget our true greatness and allow others to make us feel small. When that happens, I'm choosing to think of all the magical things we could do if we really were small. You know, discover the wonder of small. 

Think of all the small things that we just love! Like babies, kittens and puppies, well, little baby anything, tiny flowers, hummingbirds and butterflies, ladybugs and… the list can go on and on, because I love little things… dainty earrings, thin tiny paintbrushes for painting the details in eyes and small spoons to savor every little bite of ice cream! Yes! I like small spoons. What small things do you really like? 

So, I imagine myself magical, like a flower fairy, or Thumbelina. I'd really like to try out being tiny enough to hide under flowers, dance with bumblebees and fly on the back of a sparrow! Life would be totally different from that perspective. Wayne Dyer says, “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” That is so true! 

Thinking about how fabulous and fantastic teeny tiny small is, we soon remember who we really are... we remember our greatness. 

I realize I'm changing the way I look at what happened and why I've been feeling small, I'm able to see from their point of view. These people are going through their own personal “stuff” probably feeling ‘small’ in a not-so-magical way. Their decisions are a reflection of their life, not about me. Regardless of how I feel, it isn’t personal. 

On top of that, my feeling small, really has nothing to do with this situation, it goes back to childhood wounds. I always felt seen for what I could do, but never seen for who I was. That simple fact made me feel very small and insignificant as a child... maybe invisible! So what happened in the present triggered that response from a long time ago. Now I can easily and completely forgive these people whose actions simply triggered a something from my past. They had no idea. It really is MY deal. Now that I understand, I can heal. 

Next time someone hurts your feelings or you find yourself misunderstood, or misunderstanding another person’s actions, try looking at your situation from a different perspective — maybe from under a flower or on the wings of a sparrow! You may be surprised at what you see from a new point of view!