Seven Spectacular Ways to Make Monday ROCK!

Hey tweeps, phritters, phriends and all others :-) Here are seven *spectacular* ways to make your Monday rock - and I bet they get you off to such a great start the whole week will rock too!

1. Take time to set your mind. A little time in prayer, meditation or just reflecting on all the amazing blessings you have does *marvelous* things for setting your mind and spirit in a great state to start the week.

2. Stretch! Stretching does *great* stuff for body. It promotes blood flow, it works out kinks and aches and it makes you feel more flexible. And really, when we're more flexible and we feel good our minds are more flexible too!

3. Do a bit of exercise. You bet. Strong bodies help build strong minds. Get those endorphins flowing, build muscle, feel buff.

4. Picture your week. Create the image of the week that you're starting - and see it all going GREAT! See it just the way it should be. Don't worry, even if things come up, you'd be amazed at how easily you can adapt those surprises in and help make them part of how great the week is!

5. Make today's to do list. If you haven't already done it the night before, do one now. Don't make it exhaustive and don't make it for the rest of the month. Today's list is fine. Then find one thing you can get done straight away and get your first check mark!

6. Smile and say hello to everyone (yes, even "them") that you work with on the way into your desk/office/cube/work station. You'd be surprised at how much starting with a smile will make both their week and yours better!

7. Be *positive*! For realz. This is pithy, but true. Look at things with a glass half full - heck - even go 3/4 full! - mentality. Sure, stuff happens, but look at it as an opportunity! Yes, I hear some of you thinking that you're a "realist" or " too pragmatic" for that. Well, guess what! The most pragmatic thing you can do is to change the reality by going after those opportunities by unleashing your creative mind with a positive outlook for creative solutions with enthusiasm!

There you go, seven spectacular, sure fire ways to make your Mondays (and your week) ROCK. Have more? Let me know in the comments!

Someone with Everything... and Nothing

Well, the official report is out. Anna Nicole Smith (America's latest obsession that took over the news channels - how sad is that by the way) died from an accidential drug overdose.

No, it wasn't drugs like cocaine or something like that, it was the OTHER nine prescription medications that she was taking that did her in. Medication for pain (serious medication for pain). What pain was she in? What had she done to her body - other that the huge implants that I'm sure massively stressed her back - that would cause that much pain? But, I'm stopping too soon.

It seems that Anna Nicole was also taking a couple of different anti-depressant/anti-anxiety drugs, and had been at least since the death of her son. Of course, being that she just had a baby, I could see something for a couple of days to deal with post-partum - but NOT a couple of weeks for the most part. That just isn't normal.

But we're not done yet. Anna Nicole was also taking human growth hormones - for longevity. Think about that. She was taking weight loss drugs - this a woman who had just had a baby 2 weeks earlier. Folks - that's wrong. Oh, yes, and one of my favorites was the drugs she was taking for alcohol withdrawal. So, hmmm, was she drinking right up till the birth of her baby? I mean if you're still taking the drugs for withdrawal - that makes it a pretty recent event - yes?

And still, there are more contributing factors. For example, Anna Nicole had an abcess in her *butt* from all the shots she was getting. Now boys and girls, I've been in the hospital for surgery. I've gotten so many shots in my butt that they had to flip me over to the other side because they ran out of places to put a needle in. Here's the thing. The abscess didn't form in the past couple of weeks. It indicates long term abuse. Constant shots of whatever kind that she was getting.

Lastly, it seems that Anna Nicole was fighting a fever and some intestinal problems. OK. Is anybody really surprised at this? Considering the massive abuse that this poor woman put her body through - I'm surprised it didn't happen earlier.

Now, am I happy that this poor creature died so young or so suddenly? No. But I also don't think it was sudden either. Anna Nicole Smith was the creation of US popular culture. She was everything that a star was supposed to be. She was beautiful (even without the implants - she was a pretty woman), she was a porn star - now something seemingly idolized by American Pop Culture, she had money, LOADS of it. There was literally nothing this woman wanted for, except one thing. And that's why she had everything - and nothing.

The one thing that Anna Nicole Smith, movie star, paparazzi magnet, millionaire and mother didn't have was something you can't buy. It was peace. She was a woman with no self-esteem. She was lost without the cameras following her. She wallowed in every excess, some to attempt to satiate lust, some to attempt to drown the pain that her lusts caused her. She drank to kill pain, she drugged to stop drinking. She was in pain because of the way she abused her body - she drugged to stop the pain. She was emotionally unstable, and she drugged to find some type of normalcy. Her life rather than being a triumph of a small town girl that made it big - is a tragedy of a small town girl that chose the wrong path that led to her literal destruction.

This ladies and gentlemen is the reason why the tenants of Christianity loom so large in this day. Love. Love for yourself the way God loves you. Abstinence from premarital sex. Moderation in drinking (though some would argue it's even better not to drink at all), and for that matter moderation period. Humility rather than attempting to be idolized. If Anna Nicole had just been able to grasp that God's love for her would help her, that his instruction would benefit her - she might still be alive. Of course, in order for that to happen, someone in the body of Christ would have had to live their life out loud. They would have been able to not be a caricature. They would have had to love - and carry the presence and love of God in a big enough way so that Anna Nicole would have asked about it.

I don't think we did. So, tragedy happened.

A little baby will never know her mother. The mother's life ended prematurely. But we can make it so that the other Anna Nicoles out there don't suffer the same fate. It's not just the famous, it's the people all around us that need us to LOVE LARGE. Don't preach, don't witness, don't where a "top ten reasons to be a Christian button" - LOVE. If we love, people will notice. When they do, love more. They'll ask. Then tell them why you love.

Now go get em.