“One word expresses the pathway to greatness: VOICE.

Those on this path find their voice and inspire others to find theirs. The rest never do.” ~ Stephen R. Covey

The power to discover your voice lies in the potential that was bequeathed you at birth. Latent and undeveloped, the seeds of greatness were planted. You were given magnificent “birth-gifts”-talents, capacities, privileges, intelligences, opportunities-that would remain largely unopened except through your own decision and effort. Open these gifts. Learn what taps your talents and fuels your passion-that rises out of a great need in the world that you feel drawn by conscience to meet-therein lies your voice, your calling, your soul’s code.

Q: How do you define “voice”?

A: Voice is the overlapping of the four parts of our nature: our body, our mind, our heart, and our spirit. These also represent the four intelligences: our IQ for the mind, our EQ for the heart, our SQ for the spirit, and our PQ for the body.

To help you find this, answer these 4 question.

1.   What are you good at? That’s your mind.

2.   What do you love doing? That’s your heart.

3.   What need can you serve? That’s the body.

4.   And finally, what is life asking of you? What gives your life meaning and purpose? What do you feel like you should be doing? In short, what is your conscience directing you to do? That is your spirit.

People are internally motivated by their own four needs: to live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy. When they overlap, you have voice-your calling, your soul’s code.

Q: Is finding your voice an evolving process, or can it happen all at once like a light bulb going on in your head?

A: I think that it can happen all at once, but more so, I think it is an evolving process. As people grow up, they are exposed to different fields of knowledge and different experiences. They don’t yet know what they’re good at or even what they will like doing. Once they have this exposure and education and they start getting involved, they start to find satisfaction, and that leads to success as it begins to give them a sense of their voice or what they really love doing that they do well. For some people, it does comes like a flash of light, but it is usually preceded by someone who really deeply believes in them-sees their strengths and affirms them when they don’t see their own potential themselves. This creates an opportunity for that voice to be developed and expressed. This happened with me.

Q: Is the process of finding your voice the same for an individual as it is for an organization that is trying to find its voice?

A: That’s a very interesting question and I think in a very real sense, it is the same. But because an organization is made up of many different individuals who have different voices and a different sense of what gives them meaning and their life purpose, it takes communication processes where people are genuine and authentic with each other in expressing what they really care about. However, people gradually get a sense of what the organization stands for, what it loves doing and does well, and what it feels like it should be doing. So, there is kind of a collective form of the four intelligences that overlaps and develops in an evolutionary way.

Q: How can we help someone find his or her voice?

A: I think if you care about people genuinely, you listen to them and observe them; because this is more than just hearing them speak, it is observing them-observing where their excitement is, where their enthusiasm is; observing where you sense they have potential. Sometimes it is very powerful just to say to them in sincerity, “I believe you have great potential in this area. I see real strengths in you that you may not see in yourself, and I would like to create an opportunity for you to use those strengths and to develop this potential. Would you be interested in that?” Most people are so flattered by someone who sincerely cares for them and affirms their work and potential that they are moved and inspired by that kind of input. It’s very powerful and it can make all of the difference, particularly with people who grow up with a confused lifestyle, bad modeling, and basic education. Often they have no clue as to what life is about or what they are about until someone becomes a teacher to them-a mentor, a confirmer, and a coach. This kind of mentoring is becoming increasingly important in education, in relationships, and in work environments. It can make all of the difference as to whether a person takes a higher road to his or her own voice or a lower road to where he or she is swallowed up by the priorities and voices of others.

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This is my cousin Kimula Stenson Powell.

I introduce her as a sister, my friend and my cousin, because  indeed  she is such an inspirational sister to me who takes risks like none other. Once when my own (biological) sister and I were having some challenges, Kim took the time to work us through what I consider to be a Red Sea challenge.

A Red Sea Challenge is when we become stuck in our lives and cannot see the promises of God staring us in the face, because we are too close. The depth, or often the weight of our seas ( or life) become overwhelming and we begin to sink . We often face  loneliness or  discomfort and so we run from what we know to be truth; because it often  looks as though we shall drown. At the time, I simply could not imagine living at odds with my sister, but I knew I had to remedy the void I’d felt as a youngster , when I felt all alone.

Kim came to Darryl and I as we were attempting to bond as sisters in adulthood. You know, she was the big sister who was never home, and I was the youngest sister, ( with two boys in the middle) , who often got in our way. My sister was surprised to find me – with Kim’s assistance, during a very transparent conversation one night.

I was struggling with feelings of angst, because my sister Darryl, I felt had abandoned me. I was going through a rough time in my life and  quite frankly, I needed all of my sister. Although I felt as if my sister had always been  there for me, I  didn’t  as though feel  like she always HAD always fully been there for me. And so, I politely told her. With tears in my eyes. And Kim was there to not only dry them, but to  cry with us. There is something about being fully present in relationships and Kimula, just has it.

Kim helped lead us through this marvelous discussion about sisterhood and peace and bringing us into a bond of hope and peace, again. She absolutely led us into the future  that night as one who seemed to have such skill in guiding women down paths unknown. I loved the fact she took the time. We must have talked for several hours, because I cried, Darryl, cried, we laughed and Kim made us love each other more deeply. I found resentment in my heart because there were times during my father’s alcoholism where  Darryl and I remained at a distance, because she  chose to stay way from home and I felt abandoned, because she was often gone from the home  to avoid the  inevitable chaos. She didn’t realize her little sister needed her – and oh so desperately. I found my sister was also vulnerable during that time and she needed someone she could also confide in during that time. She  needed to find a refuge and during that time, she was doing the best she could to cope with our family’s Red Sea Situation. Time away from the home meant she could breathe. She would not be under  the stress and tension.

Truly, this brave soul of a woman named Kimula Powell  - had to value  something deep inside  about women bonding and relationships.  What  I  know for sure  is, Kim always looked up to her “big sis” Darryl, even though Darryl wasn’t “technically” her sister – although I beg to differ.   I believe God creates different kinds of sisterhoods and  being cousins is  simply another kind.  Kim had a chance to experience Darryl at a very needy  teenager time in her life and Darryl was there. Anyone that knows my sister Darryl, knows she carries the mantle of genuine friendliness and warmth. She reminds me so much of my great-grandmother, Mary Traylor and my other grandmothers,Wille Eva McCord and has the humor and sweet smile of my grandmother Leila Mae Stenson.

So I asked her if she remembered that night and if she did, what motivated her help us through this Red Sea?

And here were her answers:

Acquiesce. It means to yield without protest. A lot said in one small word, huh?  I know. I have struggled unknowingly with this concept for several years. I have been known to be a perfectionist  in my latter days. I am much better, now. Thank God. Perfectionists find it very hard to yield. Yielding… has become a way of life for the person who has learned to acquiesce.

Why yield,  you ask…? Well.. yielding allows you to make room for understanding. If you make room for a spirit of understanding, you make way for a heart that is open to being molded and guided in the direction of God’s plans. When tossed about and treated unfairly in the past and even now in the present, I don’t dwell on what’s being done wrong towards me. I ask God instead: Why does this person feel this way? Or.. why are they so confused about my actions?

I  have been in some places where yielding may have actually saved my life. Everything…and I do mean everything, used to be a protest. If I didn’t like it, I would say something. If I didn’t get it, I would tell someone why I thought I deserved it. It was haughtiness, for sure.  Some , may call it arrogance. I called it wanting what I wanted. When I didn’t get it, I would protest. To God, man , friends, family – whomever… and then, I’d have a pity party because I felt sorry for myself. But the Bible says in Proverbs 16:17-18 “…he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul. Pride cometh before a fall and a haughty spirit before destruction.” I am committed to “keeping my way“. Even when I don’t know or trust where (my way) is going.

How about you? Another definition  of acquiesce means: to agree with reluctance. Reluctance to me, was a VERY big word.  What are we usually reluctant about? When things don’t go our way, when we feel slighted, when we feel we aren’t heard, validated or we are ignored. Interesting…yes.. although we hate to admit it, choosing to acquiesce may mean you make room for a humbled heart.

An acquiescent nature can be very accommodating, affirming, supportive or just plain grateful.  Throw in a bit of humility and graciousness to the picture and you will have a spirit of cooperation. Who wouldn’t want such skill added to our relationships? Sadly enough, we tend to see  less and less of these gestures in our everyday lives.

I look at these words (above) and I think about God’s mercy towards me. I really messed up this past week with something bad. But God is so loving with me, He simply desired I repent and once I was back in right standing with Him and addressed the issue at hand with humility, I was fine. Jehovah Tsidkenu is His name. The Lord our Righteousness. I even had my peace of mind back. Quickly. I am continually praying for God’s grace and mercy to follow me~ all the days of my life. Without it, I am not able to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s intervention when it’s needed. Having  the Holy Spirit’s involvement in your day to day affairs can mean the difference between relationships healed, mended, forgiven and renewed – or living life full of misery fear, and desperation.

Trust God, today- and in the spirit of being obligated towards God to think on pure things ( Phil. 4:8) , pledge to God today that you will be committed to His will, His ways and His word. Acquiesce.  Let God show you how submission can be a crown on your head and His peace –  a jewel on your crown. In His Light, you will begin to feel more efficient  and sufficient than you have ever known.

Job 29:14
“I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.”

When I find a new antidote to keeping my mind and body rested, I try to note it some place and come back there to help me find it. I have a few books on cultivating the art of rest and one two of the best I have found are : ‘breathe‘ and ‘rest ‘, by Keri Wyatt Kent. Kent just seems to have this haven built around the art of how to find center within individually, as well as  within our  families. She recognizes the coziness around how special it is – but not only that, she helps others see how it can add to family serenity, quality time and growth. Families often forget to spend time together and I believe  her suggestions and how she frames it all in the guise of   introducing the Sabbath, makes it all the more sacred.  She often speaks of  and interviews other in her books about  how  finding rest  - just once a week – helps keep her sane, closer to  her family and also  to God. Her books seem to help you focus on what’s important in life and what creates  special memories… and who doesn’t want memories?? I  have found it a practice now I relish in just taking an entire day to  spend time to reacquaint myself with myself.  I don’t have to leave my  home, regroup find a new spot necessarily, if i don’t want to.  I don’t have to go to a cafe,  leave the comfort of my own home and spend time with someone else. I can create it in the midst of my family time and honor God  and my passion for relationship with my family in  my  own  quirky,  little peaceful way.

So many people are not comfortable with developing enough space in their life for true rest. Some  are not even aware of the need for space.  I sometimes ASK for the space i need to “be” and  believe me, the ‘art of being’ has to be cultivated. I too, struggle with being in the  ”get it done”  zone, and I tend to forget I even  have a need for space. We all struggle with this but does it mean we neglect other times and spaces to be alone, or we just arrange our day differently and plan for “not being busy”? If you are one who finds it extremely hard to  do this, it may at  first take a few tries. because I just want to get things over and completed. Yes, sometimes  it’s really good to “finish”... but we shouldn’t always make it  primary.

Nothing does the body more good than a good rest and rejuvenation. Not only do you have a chance to relax your mind, but I often find that’s when my creativity soars the most. I have also found this time special for being able to reflect with my family and dream and plan new activities. We have a chance to find time to  re-consider what we are missing out on as a family and we need to do more often to cherish our time together.

We could miss out on one of the best opportunities EVER to bond with our child or family and/or take time to open the door for a special ritual to develop with a loved one when they have been struggling with something that’s been really challenging to deal with. The time you take to spend with them, could be life-changing and lend unto them advice, wisdom and  add immensely to their growth and insight.

Remember, GOOD Rest equals:   the wonderful opportunity for rituals, relaxation and reflection.

My father in a very relaxed state of mind.. a blessing, indeed.

It’s no secret to those who know me that my dad had an alcohol problem for several years. He is now a recovering alcoholic and has been in recovery for about 33 years. ( Yea dad!!)  In about two weeks I will have come full circle as I face the part of my life that once held me hostage. I become a substance abuse/alcoholism therapist. Work with this particular population as social worker,  has always been a sore spot for me. I guess it’s true when they say you have to rid the skeletons out of your closet befor eyou can live freely again.  I have had so many things I had to face personally in my life and overcome in order to accept this task before me today. Low self-esteem,  confusion, hurt and pain and even some abuse in past relationships. Problems making good decisions, c0-dependency issues and issues with my weight – and a host of other things. Now … looking back, I see I have endured these things in my life in order that someone else might benefit.

 Wow… if I  only knew to what degree!

 Now, I look forward to life and embrace it every day because I have overcome these hardships. what do I take away most? I take away my sense of fortitude (my courage and bravery);  my self-confidence is back , and I also have  a strategy for those who  have endured similar hardships.

 I look at my dad today, and I am very proud of  who he has become. I am even prouder that I am who  I am today, and because he changed his life, so God has changed mine.

Selah.

 I had some trouble posting this video, but if you desire to see it and hear more about the power of forgiveness and confession of wrongdoing, just hit the link here….or catch it on the side bar – The Power of Making Amends.

Listen to your heart. The things your heart tells you.
Listen to the beat, as it undulates. Moves smoothly. Find its cadence. Find its rhythm.

 What’s Calling Your Name?    

I chose this picture because it gives a summit view, in a beautiful place. The things that call your name are set with a beautiful background. They aren’t always  beautiful journeys though, to get there. You have to make a PATH sometimes to get  there.

 I will answer this question for myself: It appears at this moment women, children and families are calling my name. So I serve them.  I have found the people in these groups have lost their voices, yet have loads to say! I can help them.

• The young girls who light up the world and are beams shining in the world.
• The mothers hopeless yet trying to find out their purpose in the midst of raising children,
• The kids who live to know their friends and what they are doing in this life and live lives vicariously through their friends with keen sense of awareness nor identity.
• The women who seek to influence in some way and need to be applauded.
• The lost souls who cry out to God for purpose.
• The little influences seen through the eye of a camera
•  The beach… in all its fullness  – wind, water, and sun.
• My Dad… as he sits in a hospital bed and I pray for him and his longevity of life. ( 8/2010)
• My nieces and nephews their futures and their babies futures.
• To lead women in retreats, conferences, identity, purpose and self-confidence.
• A silent get away like this one at: Lebh-Shomea ( a house of prayer) , in Sarita Texas.
• A new place, a new time, a new mission.
• Africa!! ;0)
•  A retreat for women on how to perfect self-evaluation.
• Motherhood.
• Babies who lack smiles because they have not been loved.
• The sunrises and sunsets of everyday.
• The ability to find my voice with regularity and consistency and helps others find theirs.
• Love, Love and to BE LOVED!!
• Friendships with common passions.
• My daughter(s).
• Red Seas – ( the Book) ~  and its desire to be published!
• My husband… all the time. ;0)
• Oklahoma! ( can ya believe it) 11/2010
• Wounded hearts and families of addiction. 11/2010
• Families to obtain knowledge through my magazine: The Kamau Voice.

So… what’s calling your name?

Do you spend time with yourself to hear it resound off the pages of your life?

Do you contemplate over life and living to this degree; preserve them on pages you can eventually return to and reflect?

Anyone with breath to breathe has something important enough to say – how you CHOOSE to say it , is what’s KEY. Anyone with life in their body, has something IMPORTANT TO DO; they need to prioritize their passion.

 Is  what you have to say  important enough for others to consider? What would it take for you to say it??

* ( This is one of my favorite posts! Please comment so I’ll know your’e reading! )

 Continue to return here… you may see this list GROW!

 

Yay! It was a special time for me!   A time to move in a strategic pattern towards launching my book! 

Soon, I will be ready to show my true colors as an author! No one knows this, but I was a nervous wreck this dau, but so excited as I prepared to  literally “  let my light shine.”

I’ve always been a bit nervous about any kind of criticism.   I am aware that’s the perfectionist in me, but this event really made me jittery, because I had no idea how it would be received.

As I prepared for my event  in October of 2010, (literally, my birth month) I was in great anticipation as I  presented my book to the world. My safety net and group of writer friends were present and I was reminded by my friend Carole, who released her a book a few years ago. (See below)  We were all smiles as she made her way into the “author world” and fully supported her vision and how she planned to launch her book. My book, however, has yet to be launched, but here are pics from my proofreading party!

So what’s a proofreading party, right?

I know… until I heard of it, I wondered the same. It’s a time for the writer or author to present her book for editing help and feedback. I had no idea how it would be received, but I did have a safety net of friends who were eager to read it. Two years ago I began this awesome feat: I spent  time with a group of women in a safe haven of a group called Write Now! and Write Direction! These groups are a part of my life, because I belonged to an awesome church – Covenant Church, in Aubrey, Texas - that encouraged groups to develop life teams. We met once a month and facilitated each other’s goals for writing.

These groups have been the best! In these groups, we gather together and are encouraging and offer information, speakers and guidance and even receive praise reports surrounding those who are planning on writing in any form. We have some who write songs, and others who write books, and poetry, etc. As writers, our influence can be vast and we love the groups because we get to come together and create and share our energies and spend time with other like-minded individuals. I have found a refuge in them. They get” my language , my thoughts, value my input, my prayers and reservations, and they understand also and pray for my struggles with writing. I am so grateful to have them in my life. In fact, wherever I end up and  in whatever city I go to, I have already decided, I want a group very similar to this one!

I just wanted to share in the spirit of such supportive sisters, I believe anyone who has a talent and desire to grow and share any of their talents and treasures they have as passions should have a similar group! This is why I created Expressive Voices. The energy in the room is so encouraging and so greatly inspires us all,  I wanted to create a ministry towards helping those with innately creative voices that desire  and help to develop the voices of those who desire  to  reach for their dreams and walk in accountability!

Here were the wonderful pictures of our event held in November of 2010 and …here are my writers friends and Carole’s book signing!

My friend Terri

It’s so funny because I  read a blog about this movie “Eat Love, Pray” and the writer  had such similar thoughts as I do. So freeing…  I was trying to think of whom to call and watch the movie with because I heard Oprah say it was going to be a “girlfriend movie” and we needed to all go together…well I ended up going alone and cherishing the fact I did, because I was able to gain SO MUCH MORE out of it. This was a first for me…I was so anxious about going to my VERY  first movie showing BY MYSELF. Now I know I will practice the very experience  a LOT more often, because of what I gained!

 Here’s the life lessons I learned from it:

1. “ Sometimes to lose balance for love is to LIVE a balanced life.”

 I was able to lose balance and fall deeply in love with all my vulnerability! When I realized I could let go and Love.. BALANCE really DID come into my life! How true!!

2. “Forgive yourself. Don’t live in an ocean of regret.”

 I’ve been here in fact I sat her for at least a few years in my life. And then, I realized that all of life is meant to be embraced. Even IF we have made some mistakes that are life changing! Life was meant to be loved, and one day I woke up and realized that if I wasn’t happy, then I shouldn’t be living that kind of life. Forgiveness of self brought me my greatest lease on life!!

3. “ Ruin is a gift. Ruin is the road to transformation.”

Wow… I believe this, but don’t know how to explain it… all I can say is ruin was my Teacher. It taught me what I didn’t want, and would never accept again.

4.   We must all learn to exercise “the sweetness of doing  nothing”. (Check,.. check check!) This is definitely me! Smile. I never feel guilty for feeling my own vibe! Life is too short not to enjoy and even if I get a little lazy, that’s okay, because if I’m smiling it’s well worth it all…

5. “You must know where you are at every moment.”

Life is too short to live on standby… why not life it with vigor and full intention! Smile. I believe this wholeheartedly, because my lease on life came through self-reflection. Twenty five… maybe thirty years of it! There are times I’ve earmarked the page of my life and said: “my journals” have literally SAVED my life… and now I know the truth of it all… they help save the lives of others, too. Social work may have become my profession, but not by chance~ truly  it was by divine intervention! Smile.

 Life lessons, indeed. This may be the first movie I ever took notes on while watching it. I also can’t recall the last time I went to a movie by myself and I highly recommend EVERYONE try it at least once, with a movie they have been anticipating on coming out. (Smile)

I tried to decide how to best post this movie.. but I couldn’t decide, so I am sending pics and video clips, all in one!

Here’s the link: right here.

Thanks for letting me share! ~ JenRene

jen about to take some serious risks and climb a 25" pole!

I was arrested today. I didn’t expect it.It was very unusual how it happened too. I was making plans to go about my day, and I had BIG plans, too – in fact I thought: : “Wow, I have all this time… I should…” and began to create my list of things I could do, because I was “on vacation.”

As I stopped and contemplated  my options, I realized that I didnt have as much liberty as I thought.
I heard a still small voice within say:  Have you thought about the plan in its entirety?  What plan?, I thought, isn’t the whole purpose of being on vacation to spend time and do “nothing“! Why plan?? Well… I  say - there is always opportunity wherever God is. 

To Arrest means to: accommodate, apprehend, capture, commit, confine,  and constrain. Interesting words. I think about this in the sense that not everyone wants to accommodate anyone else… but isnt God ALWAYS accommodating us? He never thinks our inconveniences are His own. Doesnt when He desperately needs our attention, He grabs us – or we have something that brings us to an amazing HALT ?  has God ever used something to capture your attention? Hasn’t commitment always been the hallmark of a dedicated soul?  hasn’t God taken some very inconvenient times to  constrain you, and yet bring you to amazing resolve through that experience and what you learned from it?  I remember once,  I missed a plane going south. I was visiting with family before I made it to the airport, and the stay over was an entire night.  No more planes were leaving til the next day. that night, my life was transformed, because  new light was shed on something I’d never realized.  The deeply intense conversation we had, unraveled some of the mysteries I’d had about my family and led me to pursue some things for them in prayer. Today, I stand in a much better place, as well as my family, because I missed that plane and had that conversation in my cousin’s home. I rfer to that moment at the day “The Lord messed up my plans. “ Then this makes me consider whether being arrested by God – even during a ‘seemingly inconvenient time’ – can be a blessing, indeed.

Its funny, because we often take such liberty when we go on vacation to forget about anything else but God. But it helps to consider a few things: 1) Who made it possible for you  to have the money to go?  2)  Who gave you the peace in being able to go? 3) Where do you gain the strength to have the “get up and go” to make it possible to enjoy your trip?  and lastly,  4) What if God wanted to make it even better?

I was grateful to be “vacating”, but what was God’s plan for my vacation?  Many times we get to our destination and  forget  to take time to REST.  We end up coming back home just as tired as we were before we left!  Why not take your vacation time to think about  God, yourself  and relaxation  this time? It’s so important to remember to  consider this - and God’s purpose in your going. There may be something He wants to work with you on, and maybe you might just be on assignment. Maybe there’s something He wants to show you about the people you are going to visit. Maybe He wants to corner you and have you get away - so He can speak to your heart  in a quiet place.

For example, I love flying on a plan and writing. Some of my best stuff has been written some 30,000 miles up in the air!  Nothing like having God arrest you when you are in your groove, doing your best thing -  and feeling good about where  you’re going! As I continue to self examine myself this week, I find myself  finding God in some unfamiliar places. I find Him having a willingness to connect with me all the more , because I consider Him. It’s a pleasure to have God “arrest you”, because it can be an extremely good thing.

 So I sat down today, after being arrested and spoke to God about what I desired to get out of this trip, and I  listened to what He would have me to do. Selah. ( Pause and calmly think of that.)

 Do you want to add a little more self-examination in the mix? Where are YOU headed?

 Consider this link.