The Ultimate Home Retreat

If there is one thing that I'm passionate about... it is spending time at home.

I once read that the objective of all human toil, is to enjoy oneself in their own nest.

We are a people who work hard to accomplish our goals, with the ultimate purpose to revel in the luxury of the sacred moments in our own space, away from the maddening crowds. A time when we can prop our feet on a generous ottoman, read a great book, play with our pet, snuggle with a loved one or chill out with a glass of fine wine and the sounds of a state-of-the-art home entertainment system.

Who doesn't long to create the ultimate home retreat? Regardless of your social-economic status or the size of your savings account, there is a basic human desire to create a comfortable and attractive nest for ourselves.

A great place to begin is with the use of paint. For very little money, we can transform our homes into places of beauty, that are truly reflective of the people who reside in the space.

To find the Price to Paint a House visit the paint experts at CertaPro.

Settle The Question With Paternity Testing

"I think you all need to get a paternity test." The mother of the distraught young man said.

"Well, that would certainly settle the question once and for all."

"You need to know if you are in fact this child's biological father. If you turn out to be his dad, then you have certain responsibilities financially, but you will also have paternal rights that she will not be able to withhold from you."

"I just wish it hadn't come to this."

"Son, everything has a way of working out for the best in the long run."

"Ok, lets go ahead and arrange for the Paternity Testing."

Treasure Hunting For Furniture

Shopping for furniture and home decorative accessories online is always such fun for me. In recent years, I have discovered internet browsing for treasures, is sometimes a much better method for finding what I truly want.

It is good to look at something, while I am actually sitting in the context of the environment, where the item would be placed. Even if the item is for another room of my home, I can print a picture. I love that all the dimensions and details are available at the click of my mouse and that I don't have to depend on a sales associate to do all the work for me, especially when she may already be busy helping three other customers.

Last night I went treasure hunting for bedroom furniture. I discovered Coaster Furniture. I fell in love with a pair of nightstands and a 4 poster bed that would work with all the antique pieces that are already in this room.

Slow Metabolism

"Kathi, I never see you eat very much. I can't figure out why you are overweight."

"I've heard that I have a slow metabolism."

"Girl! If that is what the problem is, then kick-start your metabolism into high gear."

"How do I do that?"

" Have you heard about Metabolism Booster?"

Find Raleigh North Carolina Real Estate 24/7

Find Raleigh North Carolina Real Estate 24/7 on the Internet.

Save valuable time by checking out different properties, without ever leaving your home or office.

Take virtual tours to pre-screen the properties you might be interested in viewing in person.

Check them out today!

Orlando Vacations Spells F-U-N For Everyone

There are so many great reasons to vacation in Florida!

One very popular destination that everyone loves is Orlando. As the home to countless theme parks, plus being the centrally-based headquarters to a wide range of wonderful Florida adventures, it is no wonder that this world class destination is a top choice to folks from around the world.

Orlando vacations spells F-U-N for everyone!

What Is Your Secret? You Always Look Great!

"What is your secret? You always look great!" I said to the elegant, pencil thin lady.

"Well, I watch what I eat. Portions are critical. But it isn't always easy for me. I have a secret formula!"

"You must tell me! I want to be as thin as you!" I said

"Well, I just couldn't do it without the help of Hoodia!" she whispered.

Plan A Trip To Outer Banks North Carolina

For a passionate journey in 2007, why not plan a trip to North Carolina's Outer Banks!

Whether you taste the passion on your taste buds in the delightful coastal cuisine, or on your sun kissed skin as you sunbathe, or in your spirit as you engage in the myriad of activities available to adventurers along the linked barrier islands.

For ideas on where to stay surf on over to one of my favorite websites for Outer Banks North Carolina.

Deciding To Buy A Piece of Raleigh Real Estate

"This is the deal. We are very interested in making an offer on this house. However, we won't have our down payment until Christmas when the annual bonus arrives."

"That should not be a problem. We can schedule the closing after you receive your bonus."

"Let us talk it over tonight. We will call your office in the morning. We just want to be sure that we are making a good decision."

"That sounds great. I know you will love owning your very own piece of
Raleigh Real Estate."

Inspired Meals In An Orlando Vacation Rental

When I go to Orlando for vacation, I love to taste the local cuisine.

"Where is the best place to eat?" is probably my standard vacation line. It is true that I want to know all about the absolute best restaurants and eateries in the area.

While there is never enough time, meals, or budget in the course of a vacation week to eat everywhere, I have found that I can do something equally satisfying without over extending my budget.

What I do is peruse the different menus online. That way I can select a perfect sounding entree. Sometimes I even get so inspired by a entree listed on a menu that I want to experiment with my own interpretation. That is why I always make sure that there is a fully equipped kitchen at my Orlando vacation rental.

Passionate Gardening

Pasionate Gardening is available just a click away at Agape Cove Books at www.agapecovebooks.com


Publisher's Description: In this gorgeous and informative book, the reader gets not one but two powerhouse gardening writers who estimate that together they have grown around 3,000 species. Lauren and Rob work in different settings--one in the city, one in the country--and by traveling through the seasons, they reveal their secrets to handling almost any gardening challenge. Beautiful photographs, engaging text about their varied adventures, and the joy of gardening under any conditions spring forth from the page to the delight of all readers.ISBN: 1555913482Publisher: Fulcrum Publishing Hardcover: 336 pages

The Passionate Journey ~ Resource List

I'm starting a collection of resources that will be helpful in pursuing The Passionate Journey.
These materials can be checked out at your local library or purchased from a book store.

I will provide a link back to my bookstore. While naturally, I would be delighted for you to become a patron of Agape Cove, I certainly don't expect you to do so.

My objective in The Passionate Journey as well as many of my other blogs is to freely share the things that God is putting on my heart. At times I might make some recommendations that I believe might be helpful to you in the journey. I would love to hear from you! Your thoughts and suggestions are well received!

The idea of creating workbooks has been dancing around in my imagination. Please let me know if you would be interested in participating in a focus group.

You Are Invited!

You Are Invited!

This is the timeless invitation that was extended two thousand years ago, and has been extended every year since Jesus breathed these passionate words offering freedom.

"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light." Matthew 11:28-30

What was Jesus referring to in this passionate invitation? Was it the heavy loads of religious traditions that the Pharisees and scribes laid on the people?

What are the heavy loads that you carry? What burdens do you want to lay down? Jesus is inviting you to come to him and HE will give you rest. He will free you of the heavy baggage
you have been carrying.

How can someone laden with baggage ever be free to live a passionate existence? I don't think it is possible to live a passionate life when you are so burdened with a heavy load. We live during a time that places a premium on the busy life. The message being sent into the world is a distorted one that says that overload is a badge of honor to be displayed with arrogant pride. How is it that our culture has come to associate "the busy life" as an "important life?"

What is of vital importance... is for you to connect with your true power source. In that relationship, you will discover the essence of why you were created and you will be given the freedom to let go of the heavy bags that have nothing to do with your purpose here.

If you are so busy carrying those old bags, you are rather useless to God. But you don't have to be. Every human being was created with a magnificent purpose. Wouldn't you like to learn more about how to live out that purpose? Your decision to accept the invitation is the first step in The Passionate Journey.

When I embarked on my own Passionate Journey I began with:

1.) A Box of Kleenex
2.) A Life Application Study Bible
3.) A Journal
4.) An Open Heart
5.) A Collection of Praise and Worship Music
6.) Incense
7.) A Latte
8.) A Willingness To Go Where The Holy Spirit Led Me

I am now several years into The Passionate Journey, in the process my life has gone through an amazing transformation. My career and the baggage of my life had burdened me down so much that I literally didn't know the person I had become. She was so far from the one who whispered
in the depths of my soul.

It is my prayer that The Passionate Journey will help you in extraordinary ways to become the person that you were created to be, not the one that the world conforms you to, but rather the
truest form of you as intended by your creator.

copyright (c) Kathi Dameron January 5, 2006

January 4, 2006 ~ With All Your Heart, Soul, Mind, & Strength

"One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, 'Of all the commandments, which is the most important?'
'The most important one,' answered Jesus 'is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one.' Love your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these."
Mark 12: 29-31 NIV

This is a call to passion! This is a call to ignite and unite our heart, soul, mind, and strength in love first to God and second to others. In activating this form of divine love, the synergy that is created transcends any quick fix substitute that this world has to offer.

The model for this love, while it stands above the scope of human understanding can be witnessed by the choice to embrace a relationship with God. Have you made that choice?
Would you like to make that choice? Do you know how to make that choice?

Without the activation of this vital relationship, the soul will always be empty. This is an emptiness that is far too common in our world and yet there is a divine solution. The solution is available to every single human being. It does not matter who you are or what you have done. It doesn't matter how wretched your past has been. God has a solution for your life that transcends anything the world has to offer.

Nothing else will ever compare! Nothing else can truly satisfy the soul. Have you experienced an emptiness deep inside your being? Maybe an emptiness that calls you to do something you really don't even want to do? For me the emptiness often manifested itself in shopping trips, overindulgence of gourmet food, the constant hunger for something more, and in my earlier years in sordid relationships with men that were all wrong for me. Please let me make myself clear... this is not the passion of which I speak. Hollywood mistakenly paints short term romantic liaisons as something enticing, but the bottomline reality is that a string of romantic liaisons will ultimately strip you of the very essence of true passion and leave you with a deeper gulf of inner emptiness.

It is tragic when human beings compromise the passion that their soul hungers for with worthless imitations. And yet the very society in which we live, is embedded with quick fix solutions that only intensify the problem.

What is the ultimate solution? How can you protect yourself so that you can live the life you were created to live...A life of good passion, filled with dynamic synergy, and the opportunity to be transformed into the best possible version of you? The answer is so simple. By making the decision to activate a personal relationship with God, your deepest yearning will be fulfilled. It is vital that the connection is not superficial. The connection must be a passionate daily surrender to loving God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. Do this and in so doing you will learn how to love yourself and how to love others.
This process will allow you to engage the passion that was planted in your soul long ago.

Agape!

copyright (c) Kathi Dameron January 4, 2005

January 3, 2006 ~ To Embrace The Questions

To embrace the questions that we dare ask. How many times have we stuffed the questions, squashing them from ever raising to higher states of awareness? In the very act of stuffing we deny the true authenticity that longs to be expressed.

As I engage in the journey before me, I ask a foundational question that will represent the light to proceed. The light at the juncture offers three options: red, yellow, or green.

In my own mind this is the first step in the journey to discern for myself if there is indeed value in this pursuit or shall I set it free? My mind is like that: so many ideas and as the gardener of my endeavors, it is my responsibility to know which ideas to cultivate and which to pluck. I know that on my own I am incapable of the superior discernment that I need. To a higher power I must turn if I have any hope of accomplishing anything of lasting value. For it is this higher power that is the enabler of all breath, of all life, of all created things. It is my steadfast belief that all life was created for a mighty purpose, not as to be carbon copies, but each to be supremely unique and created for a purpose all its own.

The Pursuit of Passion is a risky endeavor to anyone who fears transparency. Yet, in it's highest form the pursuit of passion embraces the opportunity that it is through a passionate journey that the splendid and divine soul is made visible for the best possible good.

The question I ponder is whether or not to embark on this transparent adventure. It is one thing to pen my thoughts in my journals, yet quite another to post them in a space that they could be read by others. The song that sings deep in my soul, suggests that posting my words in a remote spot of the internet provides the setting to take my work to another level. I recognize there are many fears. There is always the fear of being misunderstood. I know that the fear of being misunderstood has silenced my voice from being shared many times in my life. In the process I opted out. Remaining silent as though snuffing the light within.

We are sojourners in a world that frequently prizes one's ability to restrain their emotions. Presenting a cool exterior surface is seen as a sign of discipline. The cool and detached facade provides a shield of protection. But in this forty eighth year of my life, I question that shield. What is lost or what is gained by the cover of a facade?

If the very seeds of divinity were planted in the soul of life, then what is the willful shield of mankind withholding from the world? These can be sobering thoughts when contemplated in the light of eternity.

It is without doubt that I accept that all of mankind, regardless of race or religion or social economic status ... is created in the divine image of God. Precious creations... one and all! All with the seeds of the divine planted into their very essence.

Passion in its rarest form is mocked and has even been murdered in an attempt to keep the status quo. For the ultimate example of this one need only to turn to the Passion of Jesus Christ who was and is the truest embodiment of Perfect Passion.

When I consider the concept of passion, I see Jesus Christ. I see the extraordinary love of God and If I am so blessed I might be able to inhale the beautiful breathtaking divine essence of the Holy Spirit behind the shield. There is an intoxicating perfume behind the facade longing to be released.

Jesus Christ endured the cross so that you and I and all our brothers and sisters around the world would be free of the facade. The veil was forever removed! It is gone and was replaced by the perfume of His Love. It is your choice to decide. It is up to each person to make the decision.
In the Free Will that God bestowed upon us, we have the right to decide. Will we lock our perfume away or will we send it out into the world for the best possible good?

We are not living in Old Testament times. Yet any correlational study done between modern day life and biblical times would beg to differ. Watch any news program or engage in any sociological study and apart from historical cues, much is identical in the scope and sequence of man's response to God. Our society today is not all that different! Just a modern day Babylon. Our deepest needs are still the same as people throughout history. Our greatest need is the need for a savior. Not just any savior though, but the authentic Savior. The Savior that God sent that embodied the true essence of HIS passionate love for HIS Creation.

Today if a facade exists, perhaps we should realize that the facade is the handiwork of the enemy who will do anything to try to prevent the beautiful manifestation of God from being released into the world. It is spiritual battle between the forces of good and evil. I see a big score board in the sky, as though the forces of good and evil are playing a sports match. Whose team are you supporting? How passionate are you for your team? Are you as passionate for God's Team as you are for your college football team? Are you as passionate for God as you are for your materialistic belongings? Are you as passionate for God as you are for your husband or wife or date du jour?

On this journey, the passion that will be explored and considered a prerequisite to all other passion; is the passion of the divine. For it is my belief and the belief of many that without a foundational passion for God, we are empty vessels starving to be filled and incapable of offering much good to our world. The little perfume within us would quickly be consumed and in order to be replenished would have to be drawn from the divine source from which it originates. The problem is at some point we would have tasted that divinity and we will always be searching to replenish it within ourselves. Along the journey we may find many cheap imitations and become temporarily filled. But eventually the quick fix substitute fails to satisfy and we are once again searching for replenishment. The emptiness within too painful to endure. We shop, we collect, we go from relationship to relationship, we indulge, we become over performers, over spenders, workaholics, approval addicts, alcoholics, compulsive eaters, drug addicts, sex addicts. You fill in the blank. The addictions of man are many for the simple reason that every one of us has a desire to fill the emptiness within our souls. Unless it is addressed on literally a daily basis, the emptiness has the power to shipwreck us in places we were never intended to go.

The purpose of the Passionate Journey is to show that God is the answer. God is the source.
God is the Perfect Passion from which all good passion flows. God is the Safe Harbor that will guide you to loving out the destiny to which you were created.

copyright (c) Kathi Dameron January 3, 2006