Forget Age. I Just Saw Petula Clark Perform at 86 Years Old!

Performing since the age of nine, and with England giving her the beloved name of their Pet, Petula Clark has had a wide and varied career — from singing for the troops during WW2 to an international pop icon, the movies, TV, radio, stage, clubs and touring. It doesn’t seem to be ending soon, either.

I saw Petula sing the day after Thanksgiving at the One World Theatre in Austin. She didn’t need pyrotechnics or props to make her show a WOW.

She was herself, with her music and us, playing to a full house. The audience adored her, and she loved us back. She was more than enough. In fact, she and her performance were stunning in a depth beyond words.

Somewhere in the back of our thoughts was the realization that we were privileged to see her shine at 86 years old. Her voice is strong. She adapted songs to fit her current vocal range. She moved a bit stiffly at times, but she still could do a wee jig as she did in the movie Finian’s Rainbow with another icon, Fred Astaire, while singing one of its tunes.

Following a story about Peggy Lee and herself, she sensuously sang Ms. Lee’s cover song “Fever.”

While she sang some of her classics, she made it a point to intersperse her repertoire with the present, starting the show with a song on happiness and later singing one she co-wrote about living in the now. She doesn’t want to be defined by the sixties and her most famous song “Downtown.”

She shared memories of needing advice when she visited John Lennon and Yoko Ono in Montreal during their Bed-In for Peace. There was no security, and she walked in. There they were sitting in bed. John said, “Hi Petula.”

She wouldn’t repeat his words, but I later read she was troubled about protests in Canada where she was giving bi-lingual concerts.

“I explained what was going on and asked him what I was supposed to do. John replied: ‘F*** ’em.'” He said it didn’t matter, and to let them get over it.

Petula is known as a great interpreter of songs. When she followed this story by singing “Imagine,” she brought us beyond just imagining to being in this imagined world.

When she sang the Beatles’ “Blackbird” and gently, meaningfully gestured with her arms as if they were wings, we were healed and rose up with her:

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Eva Peron talked to us from her heart when we listened to her sing “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” from Evita.

Petula Clark brought with her a lifetime of experience, caring, humanity, intelligence, emotion and sensitivity that a young pop icon wouldn’t know, couldn’t access. Now she can and does blend all of this with her talent and entertainment skill and gives birth to this combined force in a way she never could have done before.

Yes, we were there to be entertained. In addition, we saw a role model who spoke through example. Go beyond tribal thinking of limitation regarding age. There may need to be adaptations, like Ms. Clark did with her vocal range. But her voice is still very strong. What she may have lacked in body movement, she gained with her spirit and emotion that came from the depth of her being.

She is a living example to never give up. She knows life changes, so change with it. Petula Clark demonstrates that age can bring benefits that youth wouldn’t know, and one’s gifts can be shared even more richly.

P.S. Know someone who might enjoy this post? Please share.

I work with people, at any age,
who choose to share their gifts
or business in a BIGGER way
but don’t know how, feel stuck
or would benefit from new tools
or support.

I help them be richly compensated
doing what they love by discovering
their Soul’s goals.

 

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Forgiveness and Gratitude Like This WILL Change YOUR Life

 

May you enjoy this season of giving thanks and the sentiments expressed in the reprint from last year’s Thanksgiving post, found after my today’s italicized message to you.

Forgiveness is a powerful tool to help you break free.

We’re rarely angry for the reason we think we’re angry. How dare they!

That feeling is not about the other person or situation being wrong. The emotion triggered may be from a similar, emotional memory or our perception that may or may not be accurate.

Have you noticed how sometimes people can jump to the wrong conclusion and then become upset by their interpretation, even if it’s false?

Regardless if the other was right or actually the wrongdoer, holding on to a lack of forgiveness or a one-sided, limiting perspective can feel empowering. It can feel validating, proof that you’re right and the other is wrong.

The ego loves feeling right.

There might even be another side of the story that you’re not considering because you’re locked into your viewpoint.

Your Essence knows the trap of self-righteousness and sees things differently.

A mother copped an attitude about erroneous, perceived activity by her senior-aged daughter. Rather than talk about it or seeing proof to the contrary, she set a court date. The whole issue could be easily dismissed, but not even going to mediation altered her perspective.

Replacing her anger, frustration, hurt and fear of what her own mother was doing to her, the daughter began to send her mother love, disregarding any unforgiving attitudes. The mother’s now softening and questioning her hardline approach.

Empowerment through shifting your perspective to love and gratitude are more truly empowering than feeling justification through a lack of forgiveness. Maybe there’s another angle you’re overlooking.

Perhaps, given an opportunity, you can clear the energy through discussion or seeing things from another viewpoint.

Even if others are wrong, you can be emotionally free.

With gratitude,

Virginia

The reprinted post:

I rudely interrupted myself while grumbling in my head about things I didn’t like.

It’s when I remembered that I recently found out that three people, who played significant roles in my life, left the planet a few years ago. In addition, at least 56 of my high school classmates passed on.

Yet, I’m still here, and I am gifted with another day to make more mistakes, learn, change, grow, love and Be.

You’re reading this, which means you and I are in the same gifted boat. Even if your life has a few or lots of things going on that make you feel like you’re riding on choppy water, you’re alive. There’s definitely hope. Life can get better and greater.

Here’s how you can turn the tide to flow in your favor even more.

Gratitude is a powerful energy that shifts our focus away from what we don’t have, what’s not working, who done us wrong or who’s missing in our lives, how goofy the world is and everyone’s woeful inadequacies.

When we redirect our attention to gratitude, in spite of appearances that seduce us to believe the opposite, we open ourselves to receive beyond our wildest expectations. The impossible becomes possible.

I wondered how different people and religions value gratitude. With the upcoming American holiday of Thanksgiving, and my interest in sharing this attitude of gratitude with you, here are some quotes I found.

These also reflect why gratitude affects your success, money, relationships, life, health, happiness… and everything! As like attracts like, it’s Law of Attraction at its finest

Be sure to keep reading, because soon I’ll share a way of giving thanks that, when you practice it, WILL change your life.

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Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.“ Melodie Beattie

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When I gladden my heart, I awaken the energy of gratitude. It is an energy that elevates and expands, and brings me to a deeper place in my heart. By opening my heart, I can feel gratitude deeply. Gratitude shifts the moment by shifting me. Nothing around me changes; I change.

Things do not create gratitude; the energy of joy inside of me creates gratitude.“  Deepak Chopra

[By the way, just like the sun shines above cloudy skies, underneath the funkiness you might feel at times is joy. Joy is always present; you’ll see it if you choose to look in its direction.]

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Be not like those who honor their gods in prosperity and curse them in adversity.  In pleasure or pain, give thanks!“ Judaism.  Midrash, Mekilta to Exodus 20.20

 

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[Here’s why focusing on what you don’t have creates lack. With gratitude, you focus on what you have.]

For whoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that he has.“ Matthew 13:12, American King James Version

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[Look how similar this is.]

“If you are grateful, I will give you more.”  The Koran 14:7

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[Don’t wait to be grateful one day of the year.]

And if your gratitude is strong and constant, the reaction in Formless Substance will be strong and continuous; the movement of the things you want will be always toward you…

It is necessary, then, to cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you; and to give thanks continuously.“ Wallace D. Wattles, The Science of Getting Rich

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What’s the life-changing way to have gratitude?

During a group discussion of the above-mentioned book by Wattles, I suddenly heard this in a new way. It’s not just occasional gratitude; it’s living in a state of gratitude, continuous gratitude.

Gratitude, continuous gratitude, will change your life!

I made a decision for this moment, and then extending it to this minute (more moments), this hour, today, this week, lifetime and beyond, to give thanks continuously.

Will you join me?

I know I will get distracted from my choice to live in continuous gratitude.

However, when I catch myself, I can shift my focus away from lack, my pity pot and what’s not working to being grateful.

It won’t matter how many times I’ll fall off my wagon of continuous gratitude; I can always get back on.

So can you.

Happy Days of Gratitude and Giving Thanks!

 
P.S. Know someone who might enjoy this post? Please share.

I work with people, at any age,
who choose to share their gifts
or business in a BIGGER way
but don’t know how, feel stuck
or would benefit from new tools
or support.

I help them be richly compensated
doing what they love by discovering
their Soul’s goals.

Copyright © 2018 Soulgoals, All rights reserved.

What Do You Have to Have?

 

What do you have to have? It might be more money, love, health, harmony, happiness or anything.

You feel you need this so much that inside your head you’re practically begging for it.

Consider this quote by Abraham-Hicks. Even though the focus is about money, it applies to whatever you want.

“Most people have put anything that earns money in the category of the things that I HAVE to do. And that is why the money often comes so hard.”  

Have ta, gotta. Seems quite desperate. Sounds obligatory, not fun… and hard to get.

“Have to” makes what you want so BIG that it can seem a very daunting task to ever get it. A goal you want but can’t possibly achieve.

Here’s another point. Think about someone, imaginary or real, who has to have you in their life. They need you. Chase after you. They just gotta have you or else their life will fall apart.

Makes you want to run the other way, right?

Same thing applies to money, love, happiness or anything.

Desperate energy repels the very thing you want.

“Have to” can make you feel like a rebellious kid running away from what you believe you have to do.

Hard feels like a daunting task that you might not be up to do.

Instead, be empowered.

Choose.

Annoyed, a woman challenged me when I told her this. “I have to have a job because I have to have money. What do you want me to do, lose my house?”

I responded to choose to keep her house. “Shift your focus, and your desperation won’t chase away prospective employers who could hire you.”

She found a job.

Like attracts like. What is your energy attracting?

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Break the habit of saying that you “have to” have or “have to” do something.

Instead, substitute the word “choose.” By doing this, you tap into a higher, creative energy within you to make more money or achieve any goal.

Test the difference now by using these words in a sentence. Think of something you desire. Put it in a sentence by using a variety of words, found in the examples below.

• I want more money. (This is pretty weak and generic. Not a strong statement.)
• I gotta have more money. (Sounds a bit desperate with underlying energy to match.)
• I have to have more money. (Feels like you could add “or else all is lost” – desperate again.)
• I don’t know what I’ll do if I don’t get more money. (Poor little, pitiful you.)
• I choose to have more money. (Can you feel how this determination is empowering?)

When you feel empowered, you have the energy to find clarity and do what it takes to attract, create or find the money or anything you choose!

Create a new habit of stopping yourself, even mid-sentence, so you speak words in a conscious way.

Every word you speak is an affirmation. Your energy and words are attracting whatever you say. From your lips to God’s ears.

Additionally, you’re reprogramming your brain to shift to actually having what you choose instead of just wishing you had it or feeling desperate or like a victim.

When you tune into this energy more and more, you’ll naturally stop your language of limitation and replace it with those that manifest results.

Be vigilant with your words because they reflect your thoughts and feelings and thereby create your outer world.

Wonder why you don’t quite get what you want or have to have sometimes? Learn how to recognize and change the words you speak.

 

I work with people who choose to share their gifts or
business in a BIGGER way but don’t know how, feel stuck or
could use new tools or support.I help them be richly compensated doing what
they love. 

Copyright © 2018 Soulgoals, All rights reserved.

Do You Have a Shortage of What You Want?

 

There’s a saying that goes like this: from your lips to God’s ears. Do you realize the power of your words and thoughts, even casual ones? Do you realize your own power? You are not a victim of life’s circumstances. Most people have a habit of talking about what they don’t have, don’t want, what’s too expensive, how they can’t afford something, what they hope for but wonder if it’s possible that it could happen, or simply complain about what’s not working. Where’s the focus? On lack. On shortage. As Job said in 3:25-26 of the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible: What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me. I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.” Buddha is quoted to have said: “The mind is everything. What you think is what you become.” The good news is that you can change your circumstances starting now by shifting your perspective from lack, shortage, fear and worry to focusing on what makes you happy and what you choose. In doing so, you’ll discover your ability to shape your outer world to enjoy what you really, really want. First, believe in yourself and realize, the best you can in this moment, that you have access to a power that creates all the universes and that which it contains.  Below are quotes from two teachers who add more perspective. These ideas are applicable to money or anything!   ABRAHAM-HICKS “Continuing to tell stories of shortage only continues to contradict your desire for abundance, and you cannot have it both ways: you cannot focus upon unwanted and receive wanted. You cannot focus upon stories about money that make you feel uncomfortable and allow into your experience what make you feel comfortable. A different story will bring different results.” “If you are feeling a shortage of time or money, your best effort would be to focus upon better-feeling thoughts, and do more things that make you feel good.”   BOB PROCTOR “One thing you should never, never do, is worry about whether or not you’ll get the amount of money you desire, because we tend to manifest that which we focus on, so if we’re focused and worried about not having money then we tend to attract more of that way of life, as opposed to if we focus on what we do want and what’s possible and what we can achieve, then we tend to gravitate towards that.” “You will attract everything that you require. If it’s money you need you will attract it. If it’s people you need you’ll attract it. You’ve got to pay attention to what you’re attracted to, because as you hold images of what you want, you’re going to be attracted to things and they’re going to be attracted to you. But it literally moves into physical reality with and through you. And it does that by law.” I work with people who choose to share their gifts or business in a BIGGER way but don’t know how, feel stuck or could use new tools or support. I help them be richly compensated doing what they love.

Copyright © 2018 Soulgoals, All rights reserved.