For me this means that whatever I choose to do, I first have to know what is in it for me. And – second – that answer must be truthful, so that I can hold firmly to it throughout the process. Because somebody may ask me what's in it for me, and I could instantly fabricate an "answer" that I'll forget a couple of hours later. The latter is certainly not what I am striving for.

Please enjoy Lady Elizabeth's very real sharing!

With all my love,
(BH)
Milen

~~~

My dear friends,

Happy Month! Happy June!

Our Theme for June is the "Warrior chooses his battle".

Not that long ago my cousin J asked me to help him source a pedigree bull mastiff to help him protect his ever-increasing adopted human youngsters🙂 Through a special ISM friend in New Zealand this was subsequently made to happen and little Tyson with the big paws arrived to much fanfare by all.

Recently J and his closest sibling T made me aware that their parents are outliving their pension and medical savings and that a family intervention may be necessary.

J’s parents have always opened their hearts and their home to me, in particular since Théun passed as since then, most of the time I have lived with them off and on for half of the year when I am in Cape Town. I asked J and T to include me in the discussions as an honorary sibling.

What I discovered is that my monthly contribution to rent and car hire is now the difference between the parents being able to afford to stay in their home or not. So in the months I am not here the cash flow takes quite a hit.

I was sitting with this impact when T picked me up on the way to the siblings meeting at J’s house this week. T took the opportunity on the way to open up about her own financial situation and by the time we reached J’s house she had asked me to help her consolidate her high six figure credit card debt over the next 10 years!

Whilst I empathise with T’s challenge, I must say I felt somewhat ambushed, even though T indicated the loan could be covered by an imminent (2/3 Years?) inheritance from her recently deceased partner’s mother.

At J’s home I sat down on the sofa in the living room as the siblings worked through all the numbers to get to the parents’ monthly shortfall. Sitting there quietly I searched my feelings about my relationships with this special family in my life, I came to the conclusion that I can support the parents to retain their home by continuing to pay the rent when I am not here – and with respect to T’s request, to take my time working through all implications.

As I shared my offer, “little” Tyson walked in and sat down on the couch next to me as if to confirm my feelings about friendship and loyalty.

His appearance and presence confirm for me which battle I am choosing to fight – today.

"Choosing the battle does not mean that a warrior chooses to fight some battles and ignores others. Every challenge is important in that it brings us a gift of power, and therefore we cannot ever afford to ignore any battle. What this statement means is that we must be clear on what constitutes the real battle. Depending upon our level of perception, any challenge can be viewed in several different ways, and each of these different perspectives amounts to a battle. People generally speaking have so little clarity on the issues in their lives that they mostly tend to concentrate on the ‘wrong’ perspective of a challenge, and consequently end up fighting the ‘wrong’ battle."

Have fun with choosing your battles this month, my friends.

PS L’il Tyson is a failure as a guard dog lol. He loves everyone! 🙂

With all my love and warm en-couraging hugs🙂
Elizabeth