AUTHENTICS: Life Skills by Conscious Design

#7: “Appreciation vs. Expectation” by Sapphire Grace

We meet, we fall in love and our appreciation for the other person knows no bounds. They are intelligent, kind, successful, generous, punctual, funny and to us, they can do no wrong. We love all the same things: walks on the beach, long dinners, sleeping in, working out. We even share the same politics and spiritual beliefs. We are amazed by their sensitivity to family members, children, pets, and humanity. Their jokes keep us in stitches. Their efforts to save a fallen baby sparrow brings tears to our eyes. We love the very look of them; we even love their smell. We brag about them. We count on them. We have found safe harbor to be ourselves.

Before long expectation surfaces and we begin to feel more critical of them. We decide their intelligence may not extend much beyond their chosen profession. They lack common sense. They are on the computer too much and at the office too often. Their sensitivity seems codependent. Returning from the gym smells a bit ripe. They tell the same joke over and over. Their generosity has sexual strings. Flushing a half-dead goldfish down the drain seems thoughtless. Plus, they don’t spend nearly as much time as they used to looking good for us. The safe harbor begins to feel like dry dock.

Any time we are out-of-sorts with someone it is generally because we have lost our original appreciation of them and allowed our expectation to take over. The ten times they were right on time is replaced with disappointment the one time they are late because it is our birthday. Their jokes are corny, or off-color, or too personal. The admiration of a toned body fades into piles of smelly laundry. This safe harbor needs dredging.

To learn more about the art and science of

AUTHENTICS: Life Skills by Conscious Design 

BLUE WATERS SPEAK TO ME, a new book due in late November/early December

by author, artist and spiritual activist, Sapphire Grace,

please continue to visit www.EarthAngelPublishing.com or

www.HubPages/Hub/AUTHENTICS #7: Appreciation vs. Expectation

“Your heart is just like your Chocolate Drawer,” my friend remarks in passing while nosing around my kitchen. I nod my head in the direction of her affections. Her eyes light up; she stops crying.

I pour two fresh cups of chocolate flavored decaf. My dear friend, half heartbroken half relieved, showed up unannounced before dawn. Still in sweats, practicing Yoga with Steven Ross on cable, I answered the door to a tear-stained face seeking solace and comfort.

With a hug and an arm around her shoulder I welcomed her into the sanctuary I call home. I am a Life Skills Coach. With thousands of life-affirming-tools at my disposal, there is one that rarely fails: The Chocolate Drawer. I use it myself. At 5′ 3″ and 120 pounds I alone probably consume twice my weight in any given year. My clients, friends and loved ones use it even more and easily triple that amount.

I hand my friend a piping hot mug but her eyes linger on the milk chocolate See’s rum nougats. “Help yourself,” I offer genuinely. I silently thank the Wild-Divine for small blessings and the power to resist one of my favorites. This time anyway.

Everyone who enters my safe haven is free to try, taste, nibble, eat, gobble, scoff, wolf, gorge, feast, munch, chomp, partake, consume, devour AND take as much as they desire from The Chocolate Drawer. There is only one caveat.

“AUTHENTICS” is the subject of a new book, BLUE WATERS SPEAK TO ME, by Sapphire Grace to be released by Earth Angel Publishing in late November early December 2007.

“AUTHENTICS,” a term coined by author, artist and spiritual activist Sapphire Grace, refers to a set of highly evolved life-skills she refined over a 30-year period.

“AUTHENTICS,” the result of a lifetime of meditation, prayer, study and reflection goes far beyond self-improvement to a deeper awareness and higher consciousness. “AUTHENTICS” creator, Sapphire Grace, is an avid student of spiritual integrity, potent imagination, independent thinking, universal love & compassion, world religion, social discourse, personal philosophy, in-depth psychology, peaceful diplomacy and creative philanthropy.

(copyright 1977-2007 by Sapphire Grace; all rights reserved)