Dedicated in wholehearted gratitude for Alan (Allie) and Pam (Pammie). Rest in Peace, my beloved heart friends. Death will never take you from me. |
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Well, friends, it is birthday month again! Ever think they come around fast? For the last several years I have used my birthday month for philanthropy goals. While I don’t presume you or others want to give me a gift or even think to, it is clear several do, and will. Therefore, I request the gifts be directed to organizations that are providing essential services in innovative and meaningful ways. Last year, approximately $3500 was donated in honor of my birthday and I matched the same amount to www.waterstep.org. They are so blessed by this generosity, they react in delightful ways, filled with joy and gratitude. Last year they said, “we wish every month was Martha Creek’s birthday.” Many of you have been part of that miracle-making. My wholehearted thanks are again UPLIFTED in unspeakable words to and for you. If you want to join this year, you may give through the website link above or through the FB project that is set up on my page.
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Friendships are defined: as a state of enduring affection, esteem, intimacy, and trust between two people. In all cultures, friendships are important relationships throughout a person's life span. NOTHING could be truer to and for me.
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“Friends are very good medicine."
— Martha Creek
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How would you define friendships? I notice my list is really, really long. Forgiveness, Mercy, Tolerance, Constant Force toward Life, Living with Integrity, Trustworthy, Dependable, Loyal, Empathic, Challenges Me with Heart Leading, Listens, Confident and confidence building, Feels good to be together, and the capstone of all of it as I get older — Easy. Yep, easy, at least most of the time.
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Friendship is categorized into four types: acquaintance, friend, close friend, and best friend. Over time, an increase in mutual respect and the degree of reciprocity builds up and strengthens friendship.
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More types of friendships: In philosophical discussions of friendship, it is common to follow Aristotle in distinguishing three kinds of friendship: friendships of pleasure, utility, and virtue. I can clearly see myself in all these types and I have to be careful NOT to demand pleasure over utility for example.
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A different way of categorizing friendship is by applying “The Three Cs”. There are three basic types of people with whom we interact: Constituents, Comrades, and Confidants.
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"Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you; spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life."
— Amy Poehler
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What are the true values of friendship? How could I ever measure? |
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Good friends are vitally important to our mental health and to the quality of our life. To live and to love are inseparable from each other. Friendship is an opportunity to love, learn about ourselves, mature as human beings, and open up to the fuller experience of life. While I can’t give adequate words to it; I KNOW FOR SURE, they are essential to my well-being. |
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Friends are one of life's truly great joys. Deep friendships like mine offer solace during hard times and laugh-til-your-face-hurts happiness other times. Even if we’ve spent the past year or months apart, our friendship picks up right where it left off. |
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If this is true for you, don't wait until their birthday to send a special "I'm thinking of you" note. Gather up your friends and take that trip you’re wanting and keep your healthy heart as you continue to make the world a better place through friendships. |
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“Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it’s all over.”
— Octavia Butler
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And from my current favorite poet, David Whyte:
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“Friendship is a mirror to presence and a testament to forgiveness. Friendship not only helps us to see ourselves through another’s eyes, but can be sustained over the years only with someone who has repeatedly forgiven us for our trespasses as we must find it in ourselves to forgive them in turn. |
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A friend knows our difficulties and shadows and remains in sight, a companion to our vulnerabilities more than our triumphs, when we are under the strange illusion, we do not need them. An undercurrent of real friendship is a blessing exactly because its elemental form is rediscovered again and again through understanding and mercy. All friendships of any length are based on a continued, mutual forgiveness. Without tolerance and mercy, all friendships die.
In the course of the years a close friendship will always reveal the shadow in the other as much as ourselves, to remain friends we must know the other and their difficulties and even their sins and encourage the best in them, not through critique but through addressing the better part of them, the leading creative edge of their incarnation, thus subtly discouraging what makes them smaller, less generous, less of themselves.
Friendship is the great hidden transmuter of all relationship: it can transform a troubled marriage, make honorable a professional rivalry, make sense of heartbreak and unrequited love and become the newly discovered ground for a mature parent-child relationship.
The dynamic of friendship is almost always underestimated as a constant force in human life: a diminishing circle of friends is the first terrible diagnostic of a life in deep trouble: of overwork, of too much emphasis on a professional identity of forgetting who will be there when our armored personalities run into the inevitable natural disasters and vulnerabilities found in even the most ordinary existence…
Friendship transcends disappearance: an enduring friendship goes on after death, the exchange only transmuted by absence, the relationship advancing and maturing in a silent internal conversational way even after one half of the bond has passed on.
But no matter the medicinal virtues of being a true friend or sustaining a long close relationship with another, the ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the self nor of the other, the ultimate touchstone is witness, the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another, to have walked with them and to have believed in them, and sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a span, on a journey impossible to accomplish alone.
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Excerpt From ‘FRIENDSHIP’ in CONSOLATIONS: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words.
© David Whyte & Many Rivers Press
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“Close friends are truly life’s treasures. Sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves.”
— Vincent van Gogh
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I am devoted to friends, to friendships, to well-being, and to integrity to my own soul as they come, go, rise, pass, linger, memorial, fade, birth, increase, decrease, get close, take space, open, close and demonstrate the full range of humanity. |
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Thank you, beloveds for your gift of friend, friends, friendships, and the enormously generous way you are. I love you and bless you always. |
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Martha Creek
502-905-0783
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Check out the cruises I’ll be taking in 2023 and join in if possible:
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Join the daily Science of Mind Insights for a dose of reflective thinking:
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My February 2023 Special Gift for You! |
And here is my special gift to you this month.
Click on the box to open your gift.
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Birthday Gift
for the Month of February
Martha’s Pearls reading, and some additional “commentary” (can’t help myself).
I desire and take action toward getting “Empowering teachings to the whole of the planet.” Many copies of the books have been sold, downloaded, given away, and handed out at churches and conventions — a true miracle. Now, how can I/we extend the reach? Read the book aloud, record it, and offer it out is the current inner divine idea.
A chapter will be released daily through the month of February. You are welcome to listen, reflect and/or use any way you can, and invite others to the teachings by sharing them.
If interested in co-inspiring with me, click on the link below for the daily readings (and bookmark the page in your web browser so it's convenient to return to).
https://www.marthacreek.com/marthas-pearls-daily-reading/
Happy Birthday to me — to you — every day.
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Join me at the ANTN retreat conference on Oct 2– 6 in 2023 at the gorgeous Unity Village near Kansas City. www.antn.org/event-4960280. It’s a tremendous week of renewal, learning, and joyful connection.
http://www.danielnahmod.com is our musician. https://jeffonseely.com is a keynote speaker. It includes the largest labyrinth in the US, hand-carved/hand-laid stones, exceptional retreat, and conference keynotes, and the dearest community gathering of New Thought friends in all the land.
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PLEASE SUBSCRIBE
Please subscribe to YouTube channel for immediate notice of all new videos, interview series, etc. Please “like” and “share” postings from Martha Creek public figure media platform.
YouTube handle: YouTube.com/@marthacreek
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Purchase the book below: Kindle version $1.99, Print copy (black and white) $11.99 or Full color — loads of photos ($24.99). PLEASE PLEASE leave a review on Amazon to continue to further UPLIFT these teachings.
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Read what someone wrote about the book:
Martha's words are wise, honest, real and come from her heart. Each "pearl" opens my heart and mind to possibilities, to a lesson for me told in her own loving, and very often humorous way. They bring laughter and tears, and a deep gratitude for the wisdom that she shares from her own experiences. Martha's precious personal stories bring her experiences right off the page into my world, allowing me to remember stories of my own. Every page gifts me with an idea, a truth or a lesson that I know will bring me closer to the truth of who I am.... and for this I am eternally grateful.
Bunches of love, Mary
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"Life is the Dancer. You are the Dance.”
— Martha Creek
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Please consider a donation to continue the teachings of Martha Creek. Many of the classes and workshops are offered by donations only, with suggested donations amounts included in the class or workshop description. We welcome your support. |
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You do not need a Paypal account to make a donation. You can use your debit or credit via PayPal if you don't have a Paypal account. If you choose to send a check, please send it payable to Martha Creek and send it to PO Box 1081, Louisville KY 40201.
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