Can difficult or even tragic events in life carry a gift in them?

What if EVERYTHING is a gift?

The recent shooting in Virginia Beach, here in the US, got me thinking about this question. This question just popped in to my head and caused quite a conversation with myself.

So, I decided to bring that conversation to all of you. It's not an easy question and it doesn't have an easy answer.

But, in even in the face of tragedy, even when we are in the middle of struggles in our own lives, there can be a gift if we have the eyes to see it. Diamonds, one of the most precious jewels on earth, are created by extreme heat and pressure.

And, so it is with us.

We become those beautiful lights in the world, as we allow the suffering in our lives to purge from us all that no longer serves us.

"What is to give light must endure burning." Viktor Frankl

It starts with us. It starts with love.

With Much Love, Darlene Michele

Links mentioned in this episode:

Women for Women International

Zainab Salbi- TED Talk: Women, Wartime, and the Dream of Peace

Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam

Healing the Inner Child FB Live

*I'm not an affiliate for anyone. These are not affiliate links.

For more goodness, visit Making Everything Beautiful on the Web!  

Join me live every Thursday at 1pm EST on the Making Everything Beautiful FB Page.

* Intro and Outro song by Tamir Leibovich ❤️

We can't give what we don't have.

This episode covers the conversation of how working to heal our own inner stuff is necessary in order for us to bring that healing to the world.

One of the biggest ways to bring healing to ourselves is to begin loving and accepting our inner child. That little one that is just longing to be seen by us.

We can't be for the world what we can't be for ourselves.

World transformation begins with each of us working on our own inner transformation.

For further information about healing the inner child, check out my FB Live on accepting and loving the inner child.

Healing the Inner Child FB Live

I know that working to love and accept my inner child has brought such healing to my life.

In the FB Live above, I share exactly how I brought healing to myself by working with my own inner little girl.

This work has changed my life.

It starts with us. It starts with love.

With Much Love, Darlene Michele

Links mentioned in this episode:

Episode 3: How to Love Yourself and be Your Own BFF

Healing the Inner Child FB Live

Kyle Cease Website

Kyle Cease YouTube Channel

Cathy Heller- Don't Keep Your Day Job Podcast

Eckhart Tolle Website

Eckhart Tolle YouTube Channel

Tosha Silver Website

Outrageous Openness by Tosha Silver

*I'm not an affiliate for anyone. These are not affiliate links.

For more goodness, visit Making Everything Beautiful on the Web!

Join me LIVE every Thursday at 1pm EST on the Making Everything Beautiful FB Page!!

* Intro and Outro song by Tamir Leibovich ❤️

Mother's Day isn't always happy for every mother or every child.

Unresolved pain lies buried in many hearts and clouds the joy that Mother's Day is meant to bring.

Many mothers feel like they have failed their kids and carry guilt, regret, and heartache inside.

They feel like they don't deserve flowers and a Happy Mother's Day.

For those who have a strained or painful relationship with their own mother, it can be hard to want to celebrate their mother. In all these situations, what is needed most is grace, compassion, and forgiveness. For ourselves as mothers and for our own mothers.

In this episode, I share my own biggest mother's heartbreak and the rocky relationship I've had with my own mother.

This is a message of grace and love.

It starts with us. It starts with love.

With Much Love, Darlene Michele

For more goodness, visit Making Everything Beautiful on the Web! 

Join me LIVE every Thursday at 1pm EST on the Making Everything Beautiful FB Page!!

* Intro and Outro song by Tamir Leibovich ❤️

Everything is connected.

Everything is ultimately energy, including us. Even our thoughts and emotions are energy.

And, the energies of all things mingles with the energies all things. To put it very simply.

You can search google for more scientific explanations, if you choose. I prefer to keep it simple.

So basically, what happens in one corner of the world affects the whole world.

Everything we think, say, or do has an energy frequency to it and impacts the other energy frequencies around us and ultimately spreads out into the global collective energy that is swirling in, through, and among us all.

So, never underestimate the power of all the small moments of kindness and compassion that we share every day in our lives.

It all adds up in that collective global energy field. And, the intention is to shift it from one of fear and conflict to one of love and beauty.

We never know what someone is going through, and how our act of kindness shifted their day.

Our world is held together by the tapestry of kindness and compassion that we are weaving every day. Moment by moment. Encounter by encounter.

Keep spreading love and kindness wherever you can. It is vital to our health and well-being as a human race.

In fact, we would cease to exist without it.

It starts with us. It starts with love.

With Much Love, Darlene Michele

For more goodness, visit Making Everything Beautiful on the Web! 

Join me LIVE every Thursday at 1pm EST on the Making Everything Beautiful FB Page!!

* Intro and Outro song by Tamir Leibovich ❤️

My response to the news of the mass shooting in New Zealand today.

What can we do in the face of such hate and violence?

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had something to say about that:

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.... The chain reaction of evil -- hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars -- must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In times like these, we must choose to be agents of love and instruments of healing.

The world is hurting. It doesn't need more hate.

It needs us to respond with love and light. To bring hope and compassion.

To prove that love really is stronger than hate and light really can chase away the darkness.

That there is goodness still alive and well in the world. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead

 We must choose to be those citizens.

It starts with us. It starts with love.

With Much Love, Darlene Michele

Links mentioned in this episode:

Episode 11: How Do We Heal the Conflict That We See Throughout Our World?

*I'm not an affiliate for anyone. These are not affiliate links.

For more goodness, visit Making Everything Beautiful on the Web! 

Join me LIVE every Thursday at 1pm EST on the Making Everything Beautiful FB Page!!

* Intro and Outro song by Tamir Leibovich ❤️

It seems as though the world has lost its mind.

Everywhere we look, we see conflict.

In families, in communities, in nations, and even in ourselves. What is the root cause of all this conflict that we see everywhere in the world?

In this episode we will discuss what this is and what needs to be done to shift the current state of our planet.

It is imperative that we start taking action to change the current path humanity seems to be on.

The future of our race and our planet depends on it.

It's up to us to chose to be part of the solution and not part of the problem.

We must be willing to bring love and healing into the hurting places of the world.

And, it starts with us healing the conflict in our own hearts. Bringing loving to the parts of ourselves that are hurting.

Then we can bring that healing to the world.

Healed hearts, can heal hearts.

It starts with us. It starts with love.

With Much Love, Darlene Michele

Links mentioned in this episode:

Marie Forleo Interview with Tererai Trent

*I'm not an affiliate for anyone. These are not affiliate links.

For more beauty-full goodness, visit Making Everything Beautiful on the web! 

Join me LIVE every Thursday at 1pm EST on the Making Everything Beautiful FB Page!!

* Intro and Outro song by Tamir Leibovich ❤️

We don't always get it right the first time.

Sometimes, we don't make the best choice. Even so, there are always things we can learn when we face the consequences of the choices we make.

In this episode, I share some of my second chances and how every moment is a chance to begin again.

Ultimately, there is no wrong choice.

Each choice leads to new discoveries. New lessons about ourselves, about life, about people, about the world.

Each moment is a chance to make a new choice, go a new direction, or make a new change in our lives.

We are NEVER stuck where we are.

"The minute you begin to do what you really want to do, it's really a different kind of life." Buckminster Fuller

There are no end to the chances we get to choose again or to start over. Which, is something I am sooo grateful about!

May you find as much comfort in that, as I do.

It starts with us. It starts with love.

With Much Love, Darlene Michele

Links mentioned in this episode:

Episode 7: In the Darkness- Living with Uncertainty

Episode 8: How to Respond with Love in Difficult Situations

Episode 9: How to Bring Closure to a Situation and Move Forward in Power

For more goodness, visit Making Everything Beautiful on the web!

Join me LIVE every Thursday at 1pm EST on the Making Everything Beautiful FB Page!!

* Intro and Outro song by Tamir Leibovich ❤️

Are you struggling to move forward because you keep tripping over your past?

How we bring closure to the events or situations in our lives impacts our ability to move forward in our lives with power.

When we don't complete things in a healthy way, we bring the energy of all those loose ends with us wherever we go. They stay in our mental and emotional space.

In this episode, we look at how all the incompletes in our life drain our energy and keep our future filled with past events and situations.

We look at how all those things that we never dealt with are tripping us up and keeping us from moving forward.

So, how can we clear the space to create something new? We take a look at this question in this episode.

Cleaning up and clearing out the incompletions in our lives creates a beautiful, clear space to create new and beautiful things in.

It takes courage and bravery to clean some of the really messy incompletes.

But, the freedom and clarity gained in the process are, oh, so, worth it. If we want to be able to bring our best in service to the world, we must clear out the stuff that is in our way and holding us back from living life from pure love, joy, and power.

"Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in. Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered by your old nonsense." Ralph Waldo Emerson

It starts with us. It starts with love.

With Much Love, Darlene Michele

 Links mentioned in this episode:

Episode 7: In the Darkness- Living with Uncertainty

Episode 8: How to Respond with Love in Difficult Situations

 For more beautiful goodness, visit Making Everything Beautiful on the web! 

Join me LIVE every Thursday at 1pm EST on the Making Everything Beautiful FB Page!!

* Intro and Outro song by Tamir Leibovich ❤️

We often find ourselves dealing with difficult people or with situations that seem unfair.

Responding with love is many times the last thing on our mind at the time.

Our mind is going crazy thinking up all kinds of things to say and do to get even or get the upper hand. We feel diminished in some way and we just want to blast them!

In this episode I share how we can move past our hurt and pain when we are treated rudely or unfairly and respond with grace and love.

Every response puts out energy into the atmosphere of the planet. The question to ask ourselves is, "Am I blessing the planet or adding to the pollution?"

I share a personal story of how this is playing out in my own life this week and how I chose to respond.

Our responses matter. It takes practice to master being in control of our responses.

The good news is, life gives us LOTS of opportunities to practice! If we want to live in a world of kindness, compassion, and love, we must be contributing that energy to the world ourselves.

Every time we choose to respond with love and beauty, we shift the planet a little bit more.

It starts with us. It starts with love.

With Much Love, Darlene Michele

Links mentioned in this episode:

Episode 7: In the Darkness- Living with Uncertainty

Eckhart Tolle Website

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

The Success Principles by Jack Canfield

*I'm not an affiliate for anyone. These are not affiliate links.

For more goodness, visit Making Everything Beautiful on the web! 

Join me LIVE every Thursday at 1pm EST on the Making Everything Beautiful FB Page!!

* Intro and Outro song by Tamir Leibovich ❤️

We often find ourselves thrown into situations of uncertainty.

It's such an uncomfortable place when you can't see how a situation is going to work out. Can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Is there even an end to the tunnel? It doesn't feel like it when you are in the middle of a dark, scary tunnel of uncertainty.

In this episode, I talk about my own dance with uncertainty that I'm currently faced with and share with you the secrets I've learned over the years that have taught me how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable and move powerfully though uncertain times.

Life will continue to challenge us, in order to cause us to grow. Yet, we can choose how we view the challenges and that makes all the difference in the outcome we experience.

We can use these times of uncertainty to go deeper within ourselves and connect with the true source of power, joy, and abundance.

"It's in the uncomfortable, the uncertain, the unpredictable, unknown, unfamiliar, unreasonable places in life, that the unbelievable parts of life show up." Darlene Michele

This isn't some cheesy, fluffy, puffy, gobbley gook.

I'm referring to the only place where you can access the resources you need to move powerfully through any dark tunnel and come out the other side.

No gobbley gook required.

It starts with us. It starts with love.

With Much Love, Darlene Michele

For more goodness, visit Making Everything Beautiful on the web!

Join me LIVE every Thursday at 1pm EST on the Making Everything Beautiful FB Page!!

* Intro and Outro song by Tamir Leibovich ❤️