The Hero Series

Hello Spirit Launchers!  For the next week I will be reconstructing the format of my website.  I will be preparing to introduce, The Hero Series as well as making changes to the format.  So for the next week I will not be posting new material.  Please feel free to go into the archives and review previous articles.  Here are a few of the favorites that I will suggest.  Thank you for all of your support and I will see you again next week!

http://www.spiritlauncher.com/2013/07/our-hearts-and-sleeves.html

http://www.spiritlauncher.com/2013/07/thank-goodness.html

http://www.spiritlauncher.com/2013/07/expectations.html

http://www.spiritlauncher.com/2013/05/a-lions-heart.html

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

©2013 Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.

A Time To Reflect: Thankfulness

Another venture that is new along with The Hero Series that I'm doing with Spirit Launcher is something I'm calling, A Time To Reflect.  My initial plan when I began Spirit Launcher was to give time to my readers to reflect on our own lessons of the week. What was it that we experienced throughout the week, that looking back we can see a path and pattern forming?  My greatest lessons come to me when I am reflecting.  My articles are often times about my own stories and experiences or stories that people have shared with me in order to share a lesson we've experienced.  It doesn't mean that this is the way and only way to the path in life.  It is just one or two ways of endless possibilities.

The entire purpose of Spirit Launcher is to inspire.  It's to inspire my readers to look for the lessons in order to find their own path, to be reminded of our great big Universe in which we are an integral part of, and to tap into our own creative powers in order to fulfill our greater purpose.

Remember this is your own path, not someone elses. Their life could look similar, but ultimately the route could be very different.  Because what we need, varies with where we are within ourselves.  So today is a time to reflect.  I've chosen to reflect on thankfulness this week.  One of the biggest things that changed my life was learning to be thankful and grateful for any and all experiences no matter how powerful they are in happiness or hurt.  To be able to just know they are serving our greater purpose.

So readers I am asking what your thoughts are on thankfulness and gratitude?  How do you utilize these tools in your everyday life?  Are you using them at all?  How have they or could they make a difference in life?  Let's get the conversation started!

My idea for reflecting is in a sense creating a community journal.  Journaling has enabled me to reflect on my daily experiences in order to seek the lessons within them.  Just as we do every Wednesday with our community meditation, let's take time out together to learn from what we all go through every day. And today, what is it we can be grateful we have learned?

I can say that I am most thankful for living within a meditative state.  This week has brought on new stresses with new experiences within my nursing career.  Within these new and very foreign responsibilities, I have been able to walk through any fear and anxiety and be open to what these lessons and experiences are to bring.  Everyday I am so grateful that I have been able to meet and work with my coworkers as well as the patients that share their stories and strength with me.  There is inspiration in everything and everyone that crosses our path. We just have to be able to sift through the stresses in order to be present enough to receive what the Universe is trying to tell us.

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.
Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

©2013 Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.

A Prayer Answered

When we experience growth, 

we have a change in perception.

Our entire world, essence and being changes

within that very miracle.

-Jennifer-

I had a new and surprising vision for my website the other day. One of my most favorite things to do is talking with my guests for the interviews.  There is so much to be said about sharing space with someone who is using their creative powers for the benefit of life and living.  Their stories inspire me to continue on my own path and I hope they inspire you as well.  

My intentional spiritual journey started about a year and a half ago.  I wanted to become closer to my Divine and wanted to find the exact pathway to do so.  I took a job with hospice for my nursing career.  This experience opened my mind and my heart in ways I never could have predicted.  I was also introduced to material by the incredible Dr.Wayne Dyer.  Doors and windows flew open in my life with an explosive shift it seemed like within every second.  The walls began to come crashing down around my heart.  For the first time not only did I feel love that was boundless, I was also able to receive it.

The beauty within this journey often times brings me to tears.  To sit and realize the life I have now and the way I used to live are night and day.  The teachers that I have had along the way are what I consider to be my heroes.  Now I don't define a hero as someone with super powers.  A hero to me is someone that can bring someone out of their own darkness in order to see and live within their own light.  They give keys and lessons to a brighter and more fulfilling way of living.  I have so many teachers that this vision came to me as I was thinking about the premise of my website.  

So I am starting something I am calling, The Hero Series.  My weekly interviews are meant to inspire everyone to read about someone else experiencing life through their own creative leads.  We all have different elements of what we find intriguing and inspiring.  That is why I have interviewed people doing so many different things in life.  If just one person reads an article that inspires them to kick start their own dream in life, then I feel my mission has been well served.  So through this series I will introduce to you the authors, speakers and spiritual leaders who have enabled me to live my best life now.  The very teachers who have taught me that nothing we learn, see, hear or remember means anything, unless we are taking action with these tools within our own lives. This is why I talk so frequently about living within meditation.  It doesn't serve anyone fully to practice yoga, prayer, meditation, or whatever the practice may be, for a certain amount of time, if they enter back into life being lost and flailing. 

Funny enough the inspiration for this series was started when a person from a meditation circle told me that they didn't see how Monday's interview article that I posted had anything to do with their religious belief or meditation.  I was contacted one other time by this person not in concern with this issue and even just through written word I felt a strange energy from this person. As I always say, follow your intuition because it is always telling you something! Looking back, that was my warning sign that something was about to happen.  A few days later I had this question raised about my article.  I wanted to explain that all of my articles are what I call living within meditation.  It is taking the practice and applying it to real life.  This person snapped back stating that the community would not be able to understand my theory and that advanced practicing meditators don't agree at all with this theory.  I was confused as to this person's aggressive demeanor in what I hoped, but felt would not be, an opportunity to bring two very different views together in harmony.  I said to myself I will attempt one more time to explain what my mission is and if it truly doesn't fit the site that is perfectly fine. But I knew I needed to set boundaries and would not continue a back and forth conversation full of negativity. 

Surprisingly, I stayed calm through this entire process.  I knew from a practical stance that this person's antagonistic remarks were not over a simple article posting or my attempt to understand what the community's criteria for posting is. I myself am new to these communities and have been using other sources of social media, so I was simply trying to understand the rules.  I realized when I ended the conversation after a final list of ridiculing remarks were made by this person, that I no longer even wanted to be a part of that community and that I totally agreed with this person in that my material does not belong on their site.  My material is for a community of love, peace, harmony and learning from life in order to live a purposeful life everyday.  I stated to this person that very thing and that I would be looking forward to leaving that space that we shared during the conversation.  It was such a negative space and although I was attempting to understand where this person was coming from and explained that to them, I realized because of their responses their only intentions were to insult my work, my guest author and my beliefs and that is just unacceptable.

I always say look for the lessons in everything.  After the conversation I had an amazing lightness that filled my entire body.  It was as if the heaviness that lay within the conversation was depleted from my body in an instant.  I felt so peaceful and I couldn't at the time find an exact reason as to why that was.  Later in the night I was hit with the lesson itself.  I had just experience a prayer answered.  For months I have been praying and asking while in meditation to help me become loving in a loveless situation. In the past, I've not done so well.  I cannot stand it when people are being hurt and are hurting others. This was the lighthouse I had been seeking. I stayed in my love for the first time while being mistreated.  I never called this person a name, wished them bad, or insulted them in conversation or outside of the conversation.  The night before our final conversation I actually prayed that this person find peace because that type of behavior doesn't come from happiness.

To me this was the most difficult of all of my spiritual lessons.  I've struggled with allowing people to upset me time after time. When we are being attacked usually our first response is to fight back with the same type of anger we are receiving. This time I didn't. I was sad that this person chose to communicate in the manner they did, but I realized they were perfectly placed in my life to show me how much I've learned and have expanded my own heart space. I wrote and article not too long ago called, Of Judge and Jury and stated that this lesson has been a challenge for me.  And shortly thereafter, I was met with that very challenge and I passed the test! So I have nothing to say to this person other than thank you for delivering the lesson.

Not only did this process introduce the idea of The Hero Series, I also didn't let someones agenda get in the way with my purpose and that is to remember to be love.  It was an incredible hidden lesson. A great miracle happened within all of this!  As A Course In Miracles says, a miracle is a change in perception.  I had practiced this tool enough to where I could tackle it within battle. And my spirit shined through to the very end.

Meditation to me above all else has been the very tool that has enabled me to have my ego fall away, to be able to recognize my ego when it's about to come out of its shadowy place, to be open to expansions in love and light and understanding the power of the Universe.  It's enabled me to live in miracles and realize their every day occurrences.  I couldn't ask for a better way to live.  It took me awhile to get here.  But I was determined to make love my home and see, feel and breathe the beauty that is within an answered prayer.

What powerful shift have you experienced within an answered prayer?  Share with us, we would love to hear from you!

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.
Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

©2013 Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.

Living The Dream

The ultimate fulfillment in this life

is living out your own purpose.

-Jennifer-

We hear people all of the time that are living big within their own purpose say the phrase, "I'm just living the dream!"  However, we can also hear people jokingly say this phrase when they are saying loud and clear that they are in fact not.  Have you gotten to the place in life that your true purpose has started to show itself to you?  What did you do?  Did you shy away from it or did you embrace it?  Was it a process of both?

I have many conversations with people who are at a crossroads in life.  Maybe they are picking themselves back up after grief, rebuilding their lives from a divorce, or nothing in particular has happened they just feel lost. In talking with them all, there is one common denominator, and that is they are not living out their dream in life.  There is something hanging out in their hearts that they have put on the back burner for some reason.  Whether it is fear, lack of confidence or lack of faith, whatever it may be, their dream has gone to the way side.  The dream is the hidden key to their own fulfillment.  When I point that out to them, their faces light up.    Some say, "I never looked at it like that."  Others say, "I absolutely agree.  I for some reason continue to put it off and delay it from happening."  One person said to me, "I fell in love and I just gave up my dream."  Yet when he talked about the dreams he gave up his entire demeanor changed.  His presence became a light show of excitement.  I got chills as he was telling me about the love he had in what all he gave up.  Now, the love that he sacrificed his dream for is ending in a divorce.  Could the possible key to lighting up his world permanently be igniting his dreams that are at the way side?  I believe so.

I sympathize greatly with those who are sitting out on their dreams.  I had done it my entire life.  The one dream I never gave up on was my business that I started from absolutely nothing almost nine years ago.  The first two years were such a struggle that most people would have given up.  But this wasn't their dream.  I even had the obstacle of my husband at the time being openly jealous of me having this business and made my life miserable in hopes that I would give up my own dream.  I knew I could never let that happen.  And I didn't.  There were many rough roads but I stayed the course.  Now almost nine years later, I have not only a successful business, but my relationships with my clients are what is at the center of my heart.  Their love, support and encouragement along with my love of my dream, is what lets me know I'm on track.  And I have had haters.  I've had people attempt to copy cat what I was doing, who even went as far as trying to recreate my very craft, & because it isn't their true dream and was just a money venture, it never worked.  When things aren't from the heart, they aren't genuine.  People may not see it in the beginning but the truth is always revealed in time.

It wasn't until I really started to believe in myself and my purpose that my life began to change.  I had sacrificed everything but my business for my marriage and that simply never works.  That is why I had to end that black cloud of a relationship.  I needed to be able to experience blue skies in my personal life just as I was in my professional life.  I thought very simply the key to my fulfillment in life would be the legal finalization of my divorce.  I was sorely mistaken.  The key to my fulfillment in life was my spiritual path.  Honoring through living out my creative process and the truth within myself was what brought me to this life.  My spiritual path was what brought me to writing my first book and ultimately creating this website.

Two major bloggers that I follow who have a beautifully expanding audience receiving their messages, have both mentioned many times throughout their careers in both writing and lecturing, that when your dream is contested by another, one blogger refers to them as "haters", you know you are on the right path.  And are right around the corner for something really big and really great.  I wholeheartedly believe that very thing because I have lived it many times in my life and in my careers.  I hadn't yet experienced it with my website until the other day.  I won't go into full detail, because I want to share an even bigger miracle that came from all of this in a later article. But I had someone from a religious based meditation circle contact me about my interview posting.  This person stated that they didn't see where it related to either the religion or meditation and that I cannot blindly post any and all postings.  I thought to myself, this is clearly a misunderstanding.  So I explained to this person that my purpose and mission is to share inspiration of how to live within a meditative state in everyday life by fulfilling our purposeful creative source.  It is fine to practice meditation in the privacy of your own home, or a studio or wherever, but as with anything, practice needs to be applied and used, or there is no point or purpose to it.  

Long story short I received insults from this person of both my author that I featured on Monday, her writing, and also my own work.  What I realized because of the thread of antagonistic ridicule that was coming from this person, is that clearly they were not living out their own dreams. I tried to find what it was about my posting that had hit such a nerve with them. Then all of this came to me. This conversation wasn't about my post, my featured author, or me.  This was about the other person.  And that is exactly what my bloggers have always said.  Anyone who would lash out at someone over their work is simply trying to discredit and take away from you what they don't have for themselves.  People who live from love and supporting others to do the same, simply do not lash out at others for following their own dreams.  They encourage, support and bring light not darkness to the other person.  

Living the dream doesn't mean the path is going to be easy.  It means that your love for what you are doing will bring you through any obstacle that attempts to come in your way.  As a matter of fact, those obstacles are perfectly and purposefully placed in your life.  It is for you to prove to your Creator and to yourself how great your love truly is for what you are in fact creating.

So if you are living the dream congratulations and stay the course.  As you already know that path is full of surprise, wonder and beauty in all elements.  If you are not yet living the dream, what is it that you can start to do right now in order to make that happen?  And realize that it is a chain effect.  As you live your own dream and walk your own path, you will then begin to light the way for others to do the same.  When we live in love, we live the dream.

How are you living your dream right now?  If you aren't already, how can you start to live your dream?  Share with us, we would love to hear from you!

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter@jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com

©2013 Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.

True Heart Meditation

Welcome back Spirit Launchers for another meditation Wednesday!  This is when we all come together to join our hearts and minds in order to create our truest of heart opportunities in life in order to let our lights shine brightly.  When we put our head and hearts together we can create a love explosion in the world.  Our heart space becomes expansive and we can trust in our own hearts what they are telling us.

Join us this evening at 8pm Eastern and 5pm Pacific time to come together for this beautiful experience of community, love and light.  This is a space where everyone is welcome to come and be at peace and comfort within themselves and the world.

I always suggest reading through the meditation a few times before we meet, in order to get comfortable with the process.  Please get comfortable in a cross legged position.  Close your eyes, focus on your mind's eye and take a long deep breath in through your nose and slowly release.  Repeat this three times.

True Heart Meditation

by Jennifer Fremion

Sit in stillness and silence and just listen to your own breath.

Consciously take in a long deep breath.

Hold that breath at the top for a few seconds and then let it go.

Repeat this breathing technique three times.

Place your left hand palm facing up, with thumb and index finger touching (Gyan Mudra),
and your right hand over your heart center.

Take three more deep breaths in through your nose. With each release 

say in your mind, "I let go of all that is holding me back."

Now sit in that space.

Envision a bright and beautiful light and all of its strength.

See this powerful white light as it enters your heart.

Feel its warmth and loving embrace.

Say in your mind directly to your heart, 

"Tell me what it is I need to know."

Trust in what it is you hear.

Continue to sit in silence for as long as you wish.

Within this silence you enter your heart zone by listening.

Feel the love that has been brought to you,

and then share that love back to the Universe we all call home.

When we share in love, nothing can stop us.

Our truth is revealed and our time is of value.

When we share in love, we experience what it is

to be truly alive.

Our Power of Purpose is free to shine.

Share with us your beautiful light.

This is my wish for everyone to feel 

this very gift inside.


Namaste

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

©2013 Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.

The Message: The Article

This is a message

purely for your heart.

-Jennifer-

I want for everyone who reads this article today to know how deeply and profoundly you are loved.  I have spent the last two weeks in conversations that have unexpectedly turned into coaching sessions.  People expressing hurt in their adulthood that they have carried with them since childhood. None of us are born unhappy.  None of us are born with projecting emotions of hurt.  It is in these instances that we have been sold the rawness of pain by another person.  Whether it is a parent, sibling, friend, neighbor or total stranger, when someone passes their pain and unhappiness onto you, it isn't because you deserve it.  It doesn't define who you are.  It simply means you were in the line of fire when their emotional gun went off.

When we carry the burden of someone else's pain, we have bought into the raw deal in which they've sold us.  This becomes not only our belief and way of life, it becomes our definition of self.  When our definition of self is polluted with someone's misconstrued version of the truth, we have forgotten the core of who we and they are.  That core is the center of our Source, which is love.  When we separate from this, we attempt to carry convoluted opinions of who and what we think others should be, as well as who we think we are.

The truth of the matter is, when we don't identify with our Source, which and of whom is love, we feel we want to be right instead of understand what is different.  We want to get the last word in order to feel right, instead of hearing and learning of another way.  We begin to feel our passion is a righteousness into intensity of proving that one way is the only right way.  We make people feel like outsiders instead of inviting them in. In attempting to do all of this, we are carrying on the pattern of disconnect.  And we in turn are disconnecting not just others, but ourselves from the understanding that we are all connected at our core.  When our core is forgotten, our ego steps forth and divides.

We must bring up and surface whatever it is that lays buried in order to heal.  We must detach the action and the person.  When someone projects pain, it is because they are hurting.  When someone judges and doesn't accept another, it is because they judge and don't accept themselves.  I talked in an earlier article about a meditation I learned from Deepak Chopra, about seeing our Creator in everyone's eyes.  When we learn to bring this practice into our lives as a way of life, we can then see beyond the pain that is being projected, and see the other as a person in need.  A person who is in desperate need of being reminded of their hidden truth, which is love.

I had someone talk to me about the emotional and mental abuse they suffered as a child at the hands of their own parent.  The abuse was never talked about.  It was pretended as if it never happened.  Yet it was relived in every cell of their being everyday and in ways they never realized.  I talked to them about the release of truth when they are no longer bound to holding someone else's secret.  To know that they weren't abused because they deserved it.  They simply were in the line of fire.  The life they have been living is a direct reflection of how someone else taught them to define themselves and life itself.  As a terrible, ungrateful, embarrassment of a child.  These words buried very deeply their own truth.  The troublesome life they have been living is because they bought into what someone else sold them.  At the time of the deal, they were too young to know better.  They trusted that what this person said about them was true.  It was their parent, their hero.  Now as an adult, their parent has become their enemy.

So how do we reconnect?  We reconnect through love and understanding.  We pray for those who hurt others and we pray for those who have been hurt.  We have to build boundaries of distinction between loving actions and thoughtless actions.  But behind both we must make the attempt to understand where each come from.  It starts with knowing that we are love because that is the Source from which we were created.  You may have walked the path of the misguided and then continued on not knowing any better.  You may have at some point made a wrong turn on your purpose.  But you made the right turn at the time for your life's story.  It is all interconnected.  That is why all paths can and will lead to home if we are open enough to allow them to.

We have been given appropriate tests and challenges in life.  It is our duty to sift through what stays and what goes.  Who is light and who is dark.  No matter what the test may be, the lesson lay within understanding.  We will have sign posts to direct our way.  All of our sign posts are different.  Our estimated time of arrival will be different. When we live through acceptance of what is, instead of who is right or wrong or how things should be, we come from a place of understanding the very message that love is the core and center of not only us, but of it all.

How are you reminded of your love?  How do you express that love?  Do you express love to those who meet you with dissidence?  Share with us, we would love to hear from you!

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

©2013 Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.

The Message: The Interview

I'm very happy to introduce to you author Mari Perron as Spirit Launcher of the week.  I contacted Mari through Twitter because of her interesting website explaining some of her past writing techniques.  I was intrigued that she had written a trilogy based upon one of the most important texts I have ever read, which is A Course in Miracles.  She described her experience as being a "scribe" for these writings. I resonated with this writing style because my own writing seemed to come out of nowhere, and it was such a gift and a blessing for me to be sourcing such profoundly heart centered material.  I wanted to know more about Mari's writing rituals and knew my readers would be interested as well.  Here is Mari's story.

Mari Perron is an author based out of St. Paul, Minnesota. She likes to exercise her power of words in her back yard cabin. Mari has written and collaborated on more than a dozen books in her career.  Her latest venture is a groundbreaking piece entitled, "Discovering Feminism".  This is much different from her previously spiritual based content.  Mari stated, "Writing my new book has been so different from anything I have done in the past.  I knew almost nothing about feminism when I started writing.  I'm not an expert on feminism.  This is more of a discovery than anything. I emphatically encourage women to leave behind whatever beliefs, ideas, situations or mystique's that are limiting their ability to find liberation and to bring all they have to give to a world that needs each of us to be precisely who we are and no one else."

Mari's writing journey began in the mid-nineties, with A Course of Love Trilogy.  This is where Mari explains she was used as a "scribe" to write these books. "I have experienced three different feelings and processes with writing.  One is the "scribing" which was an unadulterated act of "receiving" the words from Jesus.  There was no question of source, no question about what we were up to .  He had a "course" he wanted taken down and I was the ears, the hands and the heart that would do it.  I didn't ask questions.  He didn't answer them (even through my questions were being answered).  The most amazing thing about the experience to me still, as a writer at least, is that we wrote three books in three years that were so interconnected and flawless.  What I mean by that is, when I had completed the receiving and went back to actually just "read" what had been written, I was stunned by many aspects that were so far beyond anything I could have done with intent of even an outline."

"I have also published some "channeled" writing, "The Grace Trilogy" with Hazelden Publishing back in the mid-nineties.  This was a record of the start of my spiritual journey.  A journey I shared with two other women with whom I worked with.  I had been raised a Catholic and was introduced to what was then a really new type of spirituality because one of my friend's lost her baby daughter named Grace.  She had questions that became "our" questions.  Questions of loss, love, grief and God.  I was surprised to begin to hear from an angel named Peace.  I basically kept a journal too.  I would ask questions.  Peace would respond.  This was a very different process than the receiving of A Course of Love."

"And finally, I wrote, "Creation of the New, " which felt much like a work that was being  "given" and yet that I knew was not from an external source.  Its source was within me and it came more like a vision in word images."

You have published both traditionally and through self publishing avenues. What would you recommend for someone who is just getting into the world of publishing?
"My first suggestion would be for someone to look for a local agent and then also a local publisher if possible.  My first book was published by Hazelden Publishing here in Minnesota.  My editor and I sat at my dining room table and edited my book.  He sat with me and cried while reading it.  They just have a very personal investment in what you are doing, which can be very different from larger publishers.  With New World Library who is based in California and a much larger publisher, I never met my publisher or my editor. So just like with many things in the world today the intimacy of personal contact is fading a little bit.  So if you can go with a local publisher and can be present face to face with people, I would always say go that way."

"Self publishing is much different. There are many different companies out there that you can use to either do printed work or ebooks.  The time it takes from finishing a book and then putting it into publishing can take only months as opposed to using a traditional publisher that could take years.  And self publishing is becoming more acceptable now.  You have control over prices, exposure and you don't have to worry about your book being pulled due to low sales volumes."

You sound very much in favor of self publishing.  Can you tell us more about that process?
"I really like using the site, https://www.createspace.com/.  I find the site very easy to use.  Your first step is to fill out a form telling how many pages you have and what kind of binding you want. They will then prompt you with detailed questions that if you've never been published before you wouldn't know to look for and do. After you have filled out your information on your proposed book, they will go over the price point with you. For most writers self publishing is much more lucrative than going with a traditional publisher.  With self publishing you set your own profit margin.  With traditional publishing you will make a very low profit until your sales are high enough usually around ten thousand units."

What advice do you have for new writers who may be looking to be published in the future?
You have to really love the work that you are doing and feel it is necessary to the world to really go through everything you have to go through to sustain your creativity.  You have to be passionate about what it is that you're writing about.  It is like birthing a baby, I always say.  You have hopes for your book like you do your own children. If you really love what you're doing and believe in your work, you will find your way through the entire process."


Thank you so much Mari for sharing your story and being so generous in sharing all of your knowledge of the publishing world.  Your graciousness in all of the time you put into researching information is much appreciated. Thank you for all of your beautiful writing and lessons in love!  For more information on Mari and her work go to http://acourseoflove.com/.

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.
Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

©2013 Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.

Thank Goodness

Thank goodness nothing is ever set in stone.

Thank goodness there is always plenty of room to roam.

Thank goodness this life isn't short and sweet.

Although each day can seem like a passing fleet.

Thank goodness our dream's have a mind of their own.

Thank goodness we always have each other to hold.

Thank goodness is a reminder, we are never alone.

-Jennifer-

The very thing that has always struck me with utter magnificence in meditation is not just the peace and tranquility during each session.  To me it is the messages that just magically seem to appear when you least expect them.  When I first started meditating it was purely for stress relief.  I started with very simple guided meditations that would set me into a very deep sleep, which at the time was a miracle in itself. I was only sleeping a matter of a few hours a night due to my insanely overwhelming schedule, a divorce and the heartache that goes along with completely losing who I was.  Although my time was limited to practice, I always felt better and it became something I looked forward to doing almost daily.  I used to say thank goodness for meditation and yoga when I get home today!  It was my life saver in my most challenging time.

What I have learned in the last year is to live in that meditative state.  To experience the wonder that is this practice, it doesn't have to be for just minutes for a limited session.  I've learned that this state is to be practiced to live in.  That this is where life not only starts to happen, but is also really being lived.  Meditation to me is a relationship between me, my Divine and all the guardians looking over me.  They are in my heart as well as in this world. Thank goodness I came to finally realize such miraculousness.

What I have learned is you don't have to be an ancient Guru to meditate.  You can actually be the most uptight, condescending, unhappy person in the world, and it is still possible to meditate.  And one thing is for sure, if you do it regularly, your life will change for the better.  Meditation is one way of the Divine to show you your way no matter how lost or broken you might feel.

I had a fantastic conversation yesterday with a client I hadn't seen in some time.  She began immediately telling me about how she is currently in the process of buying her own hair salon.  She is working on the finalization process right now.  I can say that I was totally surprised because I didn't realize that was even something she was interested in ever doing.  My excitement for her and this new adventure is brimming over.  To hear her vision, her enthusiasm and her determination for greatness, is the exact reason I am writing this blog. My wish is that someday we will all participate in life with this vision.  My purpose of sharing interviews weekly is not for the article to be read and then forgotten.  It is to ignite the spark of greatness within you.  We all have it, but unfortunately not all of us use it. I want people to jump up out of their seats and figure out what it is their hearts are telling them to do and lead with that.  Don't sit around wondering how great it could be.  Actually get up and do something about it!

She and I didn't just talk about her business venture.  We went into a long heartfelt conversation about life and how it is we can lead a wonderfully fulfilling life, or we sit on the sidelines and watch time go by wondering what it would be like to be the star player on the field of life.  This is a topic that I could talk about forever.  She and I talked about how life hasn't always been easy. But  how those times of struggle are what created some of our strongest attributes.  As I was going through my divorce my grandmother said to me once, "How many times does one person have to get thrown down onto the ground in life?  And you just keep getting up and wiping yourself off to move ahead."  My answer to that at the time was, "I guess this is just going to be my life.  I'm always going to have to fight.  Things will always be hard."  Now my answer to that is, "As many times as it takes to realize and understand the lesson at hand." When we have faith and believe in what our hearts are telling us, that is the very moment  life happens. Life becomes good.

What the practice of mediation and yoga has offered me is being able to not just have a physical and mental workout.  It has been applying these tools to real life.  Yes I feel great after my practice sessions.  But I feel out of this world phenomenal when I am participating fully in my own life.  These practices have taught me to look for the bigger picture in everything I do.  Breathe through challenges instead of resisting them.  And to live for the moments that are this life.

I babysat for my two nephews last night who are seven and five years old.  As we were in the back yard playing with bubbles, playing frisbee and then later in the night as they were asking me to tuck them into their blankets as we watched a movie, each moment struck me significantly.  These are the moments to live for. These are moments full of love and gratitude for life being exactly as it is in that exact moment.  When they are all grown up, these are the collection of memories I can look back on.  And to know that I was consciously aware to take the time out to acknowledge the beauty of these moments for exactly as they are.

So thank goodness for the big and little things in life.  The hard times and the fun times.  The little things that inevitably add up to greatness.  For all of the heartache and struggle.  For all of the smiles and laughter.  As we look back at our lives, we can see the path that has been laid out for us.  We know that if we stay the course that greatness will come.  We must be focused, diligent and simply believe in what our own hearts are telling us.

What is it that you are thankful for at this moment in your own life?  Share with us, we would love to hear from you!

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.
Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

©2013 Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.



Time Is Precious

Time is precious.

Use it wisely and with

all of your heart.

-Jennifer-

I was thinking yesterday after telling my life's story to many people this last week, how precious time really is.  When I share with everyone all that I've done and been through thus far in my life, the response is always, how do you have the time to do everything that you do?  This is a valid question.  One would think with working a full time and part time job would be difficult enough.  And yet I have added the new ventures of writing my book and starting Spirit Launcher.  On top of that starting a strict yoga practice involving a daily morning and evening meditation.

The interesting thing is, since I have started to do all of this, I feel I have more time than I ever have before.  Time moves so slow.  Especially once I started writing, it was almost as if the Universe slowed time down for me in order to make enough time in the day to get everything done.

I feel the importance in all aspects of what I do.  Whether it is my writing, nursing, or skin care, I know these are all elements that put me in the realm of service and that is where I belong.  In helping others, I have grown leaps and bounds within myself.  I look at every and all situations as being tests and lessons that continue to guide me on the directional path I was meant to be on in life.

I am happy that I made the decision to put my yoga teacher training on hold.  As much as I feel it is my calling to teach this life changing practice, I knew that it was not the time.  As much as my instructor was telling me now is my time, I chose to follow my intuition and not have it be skewed by what someone else thought I should be doing.  This was huge for me because in the past, I was so easily guilted in to doing things I didn't want to do, just because someone else told me I should.

It occurred to me when I was being pulled while making that decision, that I had worked desperately through nursing school, working full time between two jobs, one of which was running my own business, and attempting even more desperately to finalize my divorce, that I needed to take time out and enjoy this wonderful new life I had worked so feverishly to create.  To throw a new commitment in the mix just didn't feel right.  Although my nursing supervisor agreed to work with my schedule, I just knew this time around was not my time to do this.  I wanted to not only live in this calm and peaceful space in my world, I wanted to be able to enjoy the yoga teaching experience for all of its beauty.

I was talking to a few people this last week about the massive amounts of people I have known who went through a divorce around the same time as I did.  And how many of them were so unsettled with not being in a relationship.  So instead of making themselves comfortable within what was new and uncomfortable and taking time to figure out how to repair the hurt from the previous relationship, they immediately jumped into a new relationship.  Only to find out weeks, months or years later, they were with a different person, but in the very same scenario that precipitated their divorce in the first place. Many times, they just continue with this pattern of knowing that the person they have in front of them isn't what they need, but they want a relationship so badly they will expend their energy into trying to create a facade to themselves and the world in hopes that this person will eventually turn into what they wish they could be.  And this never works.  But they continue to do it over and over again because they haven't taken the time to understand their own patterns.

The preciousness of time is that we get enough of it to evaluate our own actions.  We're not perfect and that shouldn't be the aim of anything we do.  We should be working with ourselves and the Universe in order to create the Divine order in which is our life's path.  If we feel we are going against the grain in life, more than likely it is because we are.  In one of the most life changing texts I have ever read, A Course In Miracles, describes life as, "If a miracle hasn't occurred, something has gone terribly wrong."  And it has.  If we can even just start with this statement and lead our life from that, things will change for the better.  If we look at every person, experience, circumstance as a learning curve and a lesson, our life will immediately get better.  Things fall into place.  I always say look for the lessons in everything.  Especially when life gets hard and you have been massively hurt.  The answers behind these lessons are often times the big ones.  The game changers.

My marriage was a game changer for me.  It taught me that the way of life I had chosen and was living was not going to get me the life I dreamed of having.  No matter how hard I fought the Universe and tried to demand circumstance and opportunity, life didn't get better until I started working with the Universe. It was within my own surrender that I found peace.

Now I look at my life in complete awe. With every person, experience and opportunity that comes my way, day after day I am blown away by how joyful life is.  Don't get me wrong, things can still be tough, but I will say, knowing there is a reason and a lesson hidden behind everything, I am always up for the challenge.  Life then reveals to me the beauty hidden behind the challenge at the most perfect of time.

Time is precious.  Don't waste another second wondering if things will get better.  If you sit quietly and listen to what your heart is telling you, you will realize you have all of the necessary tools inside to make change and make life into what it is intended to be.  If you've given up on your own dreams in the past, start making them your dreams in the now.  Don't just think about doing things, do them.  When you open this window to life, life will open its double doors to you.  Time will make room for all of the surprises, joy, beauty, and light in order for you to be successful.  It will be all for your taking.  You just have to acknowledge how bad you want it, how hard you will work towards it, and it will all be yours and more.  This is a life worth living.

What dreams have you given up?  How can you start living out your life's potential?  Share with us, we would love to hear from you!

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

©2013 Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.

Another's Heart

Empathy is seeing another's 

heart as our own.

-Jennifer-

I talk quite a bit in my articles about the significance of meditation and how it has changed my life in ways I could have never thought imaginable.  One meditation in particular given by Deepak Chopra created a shift in me so significant, it was as if the Universe's light was ignited within my heart.  His assignment with this meditation was for one entire day to look for our Divine in everyone's eyes.

I practiced this meditation before I went on the floor to work as a nurse on the Oncology unit.  This was my last night on the floor before I started my new nursing position in ICU.  I had six patients all with uncontrolled pain and nausea, medications scheduled every hour and no nursing assistant to help.  The entire floor was chaos.  That being said, there was a calm that stayed with me from that meditation.  My night was hectic, and unmanageable, yet I kept going.  My focus was purely on my patients.  One patient was an older gentleman.  He was called the grumpy old man on the unit because he had been yelling at the staff all day. I knew he would be my challenge and my test for the night.  Although he wanted to consume most of my time and I had very little, I gave him the time he needed.  His yelling stopped, and at one point he looked at me with the most gentle eyes and said, "Whether I live or whether I die, I will never forget you.  You are one of the good ones", as he shook his finger at me smiling.  

I remember his eyes being so warm and beautiful that they pierced right through my heart.  Throughout my shift he had stopped yelling and began sharing his life story with me.  I realized when he said those final words to me before I finished my shift, that we weren't having a human to human conversation.  That was a spirit to spirit conversation. Not only did I see him for the loving spirit he was, I saw my Divine in his eyes as well as myself.

We can become so barreled down with worry, hurt and consuming fear sometimes, that we forget we are all connected by Divine energy.  We are all of one source.  When one of us struggles, we all struggle.  When one of us hurts, we all hurt.  When one of us celebrates, we all celebrate victoriously.  We must not forget this.  And if this is the first time you are hearing this, keep it close within your heart and carry it with you always.  

When we look in the mirror not only should we see ourselves, we should see ourselves as the Divine creation that we are.  We should also see our Creator in our own eyes.  As we should see ourselves in another's eyes and feel ourselves in another's heart.  Could you imagine a world where we all realized this and it became our way of living?  I feel this world every time I go into meditation.  My hope for myself was that one day, I would never have to leave this space because the beauty within it is indescribable. 

That one lesson from Deepak enabled me to do just that.  I realized in talking with that patient that I had entered into this ethereal format just by being present and aware and looking for my Divine within him.  Ultimately, I saw myself within him as well.

Think about this concept the next time you are challenged with someone pushing your buttons.  Let go of the defensiveness and the barbed wire around your heart.  Look for our Divine within that other person and then look for yourself.  Feel how your heart opens.  Feel yourself within that very moment change into pure and abiding love.  No words will be needed because I truly believe there are none big enough for this experience.  You will feel the Universe inside of yourself and your heart will open to endless possibilities and wonder.

How has feeling another's heart opened your own heart?  Share with us, we would love to hear from you!

As always with love, 

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

©2013 Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.

Of Judge And Jury

To judge others, is to

deflect our own insecurities on to 

another person. And puts

a spotlight on our own secret pain.

-Jennifer-

I thought it imperative for me to write this article.  Last weekend I was invited to a party by a friend.  When I arrived I could feel a very strange energy.  The more people that arrived the more I became uncomfortable and I really wasn't sure why. I inevitably ended up leaving the party early because I just didn't feel right being there. The next day, I found out from this friend that there had been a blow up between her and another person at the party.  This friend was apparently over heard making a really horrendous and uncalled for projection to this other person at the party.  This tension had been building all day. After everything was said & done, I was simply picking up on the negative energy that was coming from my friend.  In essence, this incident ruined the party for all involved, including me and I left before it even happened.

This entire incident was so upsetting to me because as this friend was explaining what happened, she was also justifying her actions by using a previous situation that wasn't even involving the other individual.  This friend of mine became a bully at the party.  She became an instigator, trouble maker, and just a down right mean girl.  This is one of my biggest disdains in life is for another person to be hurt by words or actions carelessly made by another.  People should never be mistreated, but unfortunately this can be common practice.  

Now this was not the first time this person has been at the center of a giant storm created by the careless words that come out of her mouth during an angry rage.  Time will tell if this will be her last.  I didn't want to judge this friend of mine, although it was my initial reaction. But I didn't want to see her judgement through the eyes of judgment.  I wanted to see it through love, compassion and understanding that could bring her to a positive solution.  I know this person comes from a very dark and unhappy place due to many stories going back even to childhood of not feeling loved and feeling inferior. Which explains where the behavior is coming from, but ultimately doesn't excuse it.  Because those issues have been suppressed for so long, they tend to come out at the people who are closest to her.  Her biggest mistake was that she was willing to pass her own pain onto someone else.  Her other mistake, she was willing to misrepresent her own truth.

We all have a heart of gold.  But through the experiences and feelings we harbor inside throughout our lifetime, we can tend to misrepresent ourselves by expressing through anger, rage, hostility, passiveness, aggressiveness or whatever the misguided emotion may be.  If we are not coming from a loving place, then we have residual pain that is our problem to deal with not someone else's.  We can choose, and it is a choice, to walk through life being bitter and angry or being full of love.  Our attitudes, actions, words and energies express how much we have become connected to or are disconnected  from our golden hearts.

We have all made mistakes and have said or done the wrong thing in life.  We are human and this is allowed.  However, what is it that we have learned from these tests and lessons?  If we are learning, then the experience wasn't wasted.  But if we continue to make the same mistakes over and over again with complete disregard of how our actions are effecting others, then we are carelessly flailing through life and missing the entire point.  When we feel it is our right to avoid our own pain and become judge and jury onto others in order to deflect our own problems, we really need to self evaluate.

I have had many people in my life who suffer from severe anxiety.  They are so unsettled in who they are and that tension and discomfort begins to build within them.  It doesn't matter who is in the line of fire because they become so frayed with the discomfort of that emotion they have to find a release.  Often times, that release is directed to the people closest to them because they are pretty positive that after the dust settles, they will be forgiven.  However, after a period of time, these relationships begin to suffer.  Is it worth expressing your pain in a volatile way in order to get the release needed from this stormy emotion raging inside of you?  The answer of course is no.  This is a mechanism for destruction.  And over time, you will deconstruct anything good in your own life.

As I talked my friend through this experience, I wanted her to know that she needed to find acceptance within herself.  And this judgement was placed on her own back by her own insecurities. Sometimes we hit our heads against the same brick wall a few times before we make a crack big enough to let some light in.  It is the people who are hurting the most in life that often times will try to put up a tough front that everything is fine and they've got things under control.  When in fact their internal world is so out of control, everything is falling apart at the seams.  This is the time to let some light into the darkness and work to get back to that golden state of mind.

I believe in change.  And I know we are all capable of it.  If we are capable of straying away from our golden hearts, then we are capable of doing the work to come back home to them. The question is, how bad do you want it?  The reason doubt of change exists, is because we have yet to prove to ourselves and others that we can be consistent and persistent in our venture for betterment.  The words "I'm Sorry" are only the introduction.  Your actions of dependability of love is the solution itself.

Be careful and cautious of who you are hanging around with.  If you are finding companionship within a group that gathers and tears down other people, reevaluate those relationships.  Don't for a second think that when you get up and leave the room, those people that you call friends, aren't judging everything about you when you're not around.  As we learned from a young age, treat people how we want to be treated.  And if you don't have anything nice to say, not only don't say it, but evaluate why it is you are spreading pain and hurt in your world.  Where did all of your love go?

When we become brave enough to show the world our truth, we become brave enough to start living.  Everything else, is a lie that will continue to bring heartache and disappointment to every situation. Lies are darkness and within them we recede.  Truth is the light in which we come out of our own darkness, and can see and be seen with the utmost clarity.

What have you learned about judging or being judged?  Share with us, we would love to hear from you!

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter@jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com

©2013 Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.

Calling In: Meditation

Welcome back Spirit Launchers to another meditation Wednesday!  This week we've been focusing on our abilities to heed the call in our own life's purpose.  Big or small we need to have a still mind and open heart in order to receive the call in the first place.  We need to be open to any and every possibility.  We need to stay focused on calling in love to our lives by giving love to everything we do and everyone that crosses our path.

Today's meditation we will be calling in whatever message it is for us to receive in this moment.  We will learn to trust our heart center and begin to call in love.  Once we are able to receive the message of love, our vision of life follows.  I always recommend reading the meditation a few times before we meet at our designated time of 8pm Eastern and 5pm Pacific time.

Please sit in a comfortable crossed legged position.  Close your eyes and begin to breathe deeply in and out through your nose.  Concentrate on the feeling you have as your body fills and empties with each breath.  Notice the change in your body, how it relaxes and your mind soon follows into the same relaxed state.

Calling In Meditation

by Jennifer Fremion

Bring your hands into prayer position.

Say out loud, "I bless this time that I have right now."

"Show me what I need to see in this moment."

Place your hands palms facing up on your lap.

Touch your index finger and thumb together.  This position is called

gyan mudra which provides us with inner knowing.

Take a few more long deep breaths in and out.

Focus on your mind's eye.

Say in your mind the words,

"I call in the light."

Repeat this eleven times.

After the repetition, sit in silence and breathe

in the strength of the call. Repeat this
breath two more times.

Now say in your mind,

"I see the light."

Repeat this eleven times.

Breathe in deeply and release the breath.  Repeat

this breath two more times.

Now say in your mind, 

"I am the light."

Repeat this eleven times.

Again breathe very deeply three times.

Now say in your mind,

"I share with you this light."

Repeat this eleven times.

Breathe deeply.  Sit in silence as long as you wish.

Wait to hear the call.  

You may receive the message immediately 

or at a later time.

Either way understand that it is on its way

to your heart.

Namaste

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

©2013 Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.

The Call: The Article

The call is the biggest

voice we can ever hear.

And it lives inside of us all.

-Jennifer-

Yesterday I introduced to you Michael Kitts, a Division I college basketball referee.  As he told us, he came to referee by total chance.  A referee during one of Michael's own basketball games dared him to take the test to officiate.  Michael took the test, passed and continued down this path.  Looking back now as he approaches retirement after an almost forty year career, he realizes that he heeded the call.  Had he gone off this path, he really didn't know what life would have been like.  And since he stayed the course, he stated his life has been beyond his wildest dreams.

How is it that we receive the call in our own life?  We're asked from a very young age what it is we want to be when we grow up.  This thought process can immediately get us to thinking of a direction or it can confuse us until we lose all possibilities of defining what it is that we want to do.

Could it be that the real call in life isn't just for one thing?  Yes it could be a career, but couldn't it be as simple as meeting someone for the first time and building a relationship, being at the right place at the right time in order to help someone else, being called to be of service to help others? This list could go on forever. But couldn't the call really be a trail that we are led on to put the peaces together that cumulatively lead us to our greater purpose in this life? As Michael explained in his own story, he started off at the high school level of refereeing, but over forty years little by little the opportunities became bigger and bigger.

My own path I have had countless experiences.  Whether it be in my nursing or skin care professions or my newest venture of writing.  That being said, my personal life has taken so many shifts especially in the last year, it left many people wondering, what I was doing.  Many thought I was lost.  Many thought this new spiritual path I was on was just a phase.  Many just didn't understand why every time we would see each other my life had a dynamic and dramatic change in very short periods of time.  I could feel the judgement and I could hear their questions even without them saying a word.  I started to become defensive in a sense and then I realized, this is my journey not theirs.  I am simply following my heart on my path and heeding my own call in life.  If they don't understand or don't see it now, someday they will.

So recently, now that I am finishing my book and my blog has been up and running for a few months, although most people now are amazed at the miracles that occur daily in my life, there are still those that are questioning me.  And I'm okay with that. Because I can talk about this experience all that I want.  But the most important part of all of this is that I follow through in action.  My actions will speak for themselves.  So if doubters want to sit back and question me that is okay. Eventually, they will see what it is that I am doing.  And even after that, they can accept it or not.  

I've learned through this process to not worry what anyone else thinks.  I think that was one of the hardest lessons especially because I have had a lifetime of being a people pleaser and a peace maker.  Now, I demand peace in my own life and my outside world is reflecting this very change.  I don't do drama.  It doesn't serve me or anyone else.  I've learned to live the life that best serves me by helping myself and being of service to others.  I will only surround myself personally with people who have this same view of being peaceful and loving. This doesn't mean perfect.  It just means their intentions are of peace and love.  If someone is about creating and living in havoc, I won't be a part of it. I will do my best to help them see the other side of things but the rest is up to them. One lesson I've become better at yet is still a challenge for me, is to not judge them for their own dysfunctional actions. But to send them blessings instead to figure out their own way and their own path to their very own beckon call.  In the moment where someone is out of control and lashing out at others and ultimately themselves, it can be difficult to separate yourself from that in order to send them loving thoughts and prayers. That being said, that is exactly what they are in need of in that very moment.

Life can seem tricky to figure out.  Why are we here?  What are we supposed to be doing with our life?  What if I make a wrong turn or get lost or even worse, fail?  The trick in all of this, is to become still enough in our own mind in order to hear the very call that awaits us.  Meditation has been my gateway and pathway into hearing the calls more and more clearly.  Just last night I had another transformational experience during my evening meditation. It is so stunning to me still after almost four years of practicing meditation, the significant shifts I experience.  It seems the shifts are quickening by the minute anymore not just by the day.  I've learned to not just be still in meditation, but to be still in life.  Be the calming center during every experience and especially during every storm.  That sounds warm and fuzzy doesn't it? In the beginning it can seem like an impossible feat.  Stay with it.  Keep it up and you will heighten your gift of hearing your call loud and clear.

We all have our own way of learning and communicating.  My wish is for everyone to find their own pathway in order to be ready and willing to receive their call.  This happens by experience, by thinking of situations that have come and gone and what we could have done better, future experiences, the list goes on and on.  Each moment is a call that we must receive the lessons and learn to expand on what we already know. Our call is moment to moment. All of them add up to become our greatest purpose. Say goodbye to what isn't working and bring forth what is new and challenging.  Open your heart space to make room for wondrous growth.  With an open heart we can hear any call.  We can lift our spirits and launch them as intended to live a miraculous life, so our life's song can sing on forever.

How do you heed your own calling?  Share with us, we would love to hear from you!

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

    ©2013 Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.

The Call: The Interview

This week's Spirit Launcher is Michael Kitts. He has been a college basketball referee for close to forty years.  I chose his story because it is so different from anyone that I personally have met. Michael's story is the perfect example of allowing life's experiences to take us wherever it is we need to go.  This is his story.

Born in Syracuse, New York, Michael's officiating career began as a bet made by a referee while he was playing in his own college basketball game. Michael admitted, "I was always really hard on the referees when I played basketball.  I was always complaining and questioning their calls.  During one game a referee got tired of hearing me complain and said to me, if you think you know so much why don't you take the test? So I did."

Michael began officiating at the high school level.  He began at the freshman level and then moved to Junior Varsity and Varsity games.  After building a name for himself,  Michael took another test and was able to apply to the college level and was accepted.  Michael was at the time officiating D-II and D-III games.  "When I got into college refereeing it was called lower D-I.  At the time it was called the ECAC North Atlantic. I was thirty four years old.  That was my first D-I league. And I went from there to the Big East, which I officiated there for twenty six years.  I got into a little bit of a disagreement with the office and told them that if they didn't rescind a decision I was going to quite.  I quit and got picked up by the Big Ten.  I've been in this league for about eighteen years and the last three years I've had the Big Ten final basketball tournament.  This upcoming year which will be 2013-2014, is going to be my last year refereeing. There is a supervisors job and you can't do both, so I'm going to retire this next year from refereeing altogether."

Upon retirement from officiating, Michael will then take over the supervising position with the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.  "Never in my wildest dreams when I started refereeing at twenty four did I think I would be where I'm at now," stated Michael. "I initially starting refereeing just to prove the ref wrong that was challenging me to do it.  I've always been like that.  Someone tells me I can't do something I'm going to prove that I can.  Little did I know when I started doing it, that it would lead to where I'm at today."

What was it about officiating that made you want to stick with it?
"It's almost like a competition where you don't want to miss a play, but the game of basketball you have so many variables involved it's really hard to have a perfect game.  You just have to get to the point where coaches and players feel comfortable with you.  I'm at a level now nationally where all of the coaches that I deal with know who I am, and its really self satisfying that you go out and do a game, you do a good job and they appreciate it."

"The relationship doesn't happen over night.  It's doing a good job by creating a level playing field.  Even if it's the home team playing, and say you're at Indiana and they're playing Michigan. I really don't care that Indiana is the home team.  I need both teams to have a level playing field so anybody has a chance to win.  I think I've developed that over the years and that is what has made me successful in what I've done in officiating.  It's been a really good career."

How do you remain a sports fan, yet be able to stay unbiased as a referee?
"I can go into a game and I don't care if Kentucky is playing Indiana or if Duke is playing North Carolina. It's something that you want to do that you give both teams a chance to win.  When I am officiating I don't care who wins. I really don't."

How is it different when you are watching a game as opposed to refereeing?
"When I'm watching I am so critical of referees.  I don't want to see referees mess up. I want them to get every play right and I don't want any controversy and just want the game to end fine.  Sometimes it doesn't happen like that. You hope it doesn't happen in your games.  The media is so involved in college basketball anymore that if you screw up, you see it on ESPN for days after.  When I'm refereeing the last few minutes of the game I'm saying to myself, don't screw up or you'll be on ESPN for two or three days (laughter)!"

How does it feel when you make a call that the fans don't agree with? How do you make a hard call?
"I know when I referee a game there can't be anymore than two or three calls that I think I should have called or didn't call.  So when I go back and look at a game there are only a few plays that enter into how the game is going to come out.  I just want to make sure I get them right.  Sometimes I miss them though, I'm human.  I'm not perfect.  It's an instinctive reaction when you see a play.  You don't think what should I do?  When I make a call it's something that I see visually and in my brain I think this is what the call is going to be, I have conviction and then I make the call. It doesn't matter who is going to be upset with me by what call.  I always make what I feel at the time is the right call."

Since you are getting closer to your last games refereeing, and now you are coaching upcoming referees, what are your hopes for the future in refereeing? Who did you look up to when you were starting?
"I'm going to have clinics and I'm a good instructor so I just want young referees to do well and aspire to be where I'm at someday. The only person I looked up to is a gentleman by the name of Hank Nichols, who I watched coming up.  Hank ultimately took over the NCAA tournament, which I refereed Final Fours for him. He had all the big games and there was just something about him, a confidence and people were just drawn to him. He is a personal friend of mine today and he is one of the best referees of all times.  He was recently inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame."

What advice would you have for new referees just getting started?
"I always tell young referees, you have to be a good listener, have patience and be able to communicate.  If you think that you have all of the answers and you're going to justify every call that I question you on, then I really don't want you refereeing for me.  You have to be able to take constructive criticism and self evaluate yourself.  If you can't do any of those things then you're not a referee that I want."

Thank you Michael for sharing your story.  Your story is proof that no matter what you are called to do in life, if you have heart and are persistent, life beyond your wildest dreams becomes a definite reality. For more information go to http://maacsports.com/.


As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter@jfremion.
Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

                                    
                                     ©2013 Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.

Lead And Be Led

Be at the forefront of everything

that you do.

Be open to any and all possibilities.

As you will come upon the

meaning of your purpose by

following both plans.

-Jennifer-

I was talking to a public relations executive who contacted me the other day about my current and future plans with Spirit Launcher.  Where it is that I want to go and what it is that I'm being called to do.  My mission is simple.  Spirit Launcher is a platform for everyone to express their deepest purpose and explore their greatest potential in life.  It is a place to heal, to grow and just be.  I told the executive that I have many plans for Spirit Launcher, but that I am also allowing myself to be led on this journey. And during an appointment with a client yesterday, in a flash I was given a window into what my future will be.  My job in all of this is to be a leader in my own dream and let that dream take me wherever it is I am to go.

This project for me was to be able to make a point to write everyday. Although I was writing my book at the time, I was being called to write even more.  So Spirit Launcher was launched and I never looked back. Along with my book, the daily articles on my site are such an example of leading with fire your true desires, but also knowing to be open to being led.  This daily practice for me has enriched and deepened my life in ways I could have never seen coming. I never know what exactly I am going to be writing until I start writing.  I begin with the attitude of understanding that my writing will take me wherever it is that I need to go.  I have faith, I trust and then I let go.  I am being led into this entirely new world. I know that this is all part of my greater plan and I am beyond excited to be on this path that I have begun so innocently not too long ago.  I am excited for life as it is right now and for whatever the future holds.  There is much going on and there is so much that is to be.

My book is going into final editing this week which I am ecstatic about.  I cannot wait for this work to be read and experienced by everyone.  It has changed my life and has given me the openness to trust in my own path more and more with each step forward. I feel my heart expanding with each and every beat and I feel life expanding with every breath I take.  This process for me although very painful in the beginning, has led me to an understanding that life has the perfect plan.  No matter what it is we expect out of life, the Universe has something waiting for us that is bigger and better than any dream we could ever have. 

I've learned that leading with faith, we walk daily into surprises set out for us around every corner. And that we must be open to that faith allowing us to be led by something bigger than ourselves. And not only do our hearts open, the world opens up to us. 

The past year has been no exception. For me, allowing this to be my way of life has turned my life into every waking moment being so grateful and so excited to see what will be laid out for me each day.  I've let go of any expectations other than for something to happen that is completely outside of the box.  No details needed, just knowing that greatness will come my way. I've learned that putting myself in new and uncomfortable situations that I normally would have avoided, has helped my heart grow courage, love and acceptance. Not only of myself, but of others as well.

I listened to a lecture the other night where Marianne Williamson was a guest speaker.  She made a statement that made my heart beat so fast with excitement. She said that when we learn to love everything in life, that is when love comes to us tenfold.  That summed up this last years journey for me.  I realized at that exact moment that I was doing just that. I have fallen in love with life. My eyes have changed with what I see because my heart and mind have changed rhythm. If we listen with our hearts, our mind will follow.  After all, our heart is our spirit's mind. We just have to learn to think differently.  I've exhausted judgment, shame, neglect and embarrassment in my old way of being.  Today's way of living is being open to any and all experiences because I know that this will allow me to lead my life with love and purpose and be led to my ultimate greatness.  This is me, living my best life now.

How do you lead in your own life?  How do you allow yourself to be led?  Share with us we would love to hear from you!

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

                               ©2013 Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.