Dr. Loretta Standley P. O. Box 23351 St. Louis, MO 63156 (USA) ----- drstandley@drstandley.com 314.420.5099

Excerpt from the book: "When God was making a change in His plan, He always used 40 days as a period of testing, trial or probation. It was a period of transformation and regeneration. The earth was flooded for 40 days, the Israelites were in the desert for 40 days, Moses prayed on Mt. Sinai for 40 days, Elijah prayed on Mt. Sinai for 40 days and Jesus went into the wilderness to pray it was for 40 days. We also recognize that Lent takes place over a 40-day period."

Even the gestation of a human being is 40 weeks and the TV show, "Survivor" lasts 40 days.

Excerpt from the book: "I propose the reason why 30-day programs have such a low success rate is because they are out of alignment with Divine Order. They fall short of the necessary 40 days for transformation to occur.

Excerpt from the book: "After each story is a page of affirmations that may be used during prayer or any other meditative process. These statements are intended to train the mind in a daily fashion in order to achieve a new state of awareness and spiritual well being.

Excerpt from the book: "Say the affirmation of your choice 40 times per day for a period of 40 days. If you miss a day, the mental pattern has been broken and it requires a restart back to day one. If you break the pattern, ask yourself, why? What made you shift back into an old thought pattern. It is important not to be discouraged if you recognize an old thought pattern. This is an opportunity to be grateful for the awareness, and start again."

Check out and read more affirmations here!

Click on the talking feather
What is a talking feather?

One day my daughter Karmen and I were coming out of Busch Stadium after watching the Cardinal's home opener. It was more than just a cold nose and hot chocolate day. It was a frigid, windy and biting day that required more than a heavy jacket.

After the game we walked with the mass of people toward our car and passed underneath the viaduct. Perched on the cold slope of concrete sat a scrawny, shaggy bearded man and a gaunt young woman. Neither had coats and the woman was lying down on her back with her knees bent. Oddly enough, she had no shoes or socks on her feet.

The man was asking the passerby's for help and not one soul acknowledged their existence. I was aggravated because his pleas had fallen on deaf ears. It's as if they were invisible and only we were the only ones that heard and saw them. Not one person turned their head to look. I wondered what was wrong with this huge mass of people. Surely they could see, even if they couldn't hear.

Suddenly, the cold wind pierced my eyes and brought a vision of the times I had walked past a poor person and gave no thought. At the exact moment that I was passing judgment on others for not seeing, my eyes were opened. I saw all the times I would say to myself, "Why don't they just get a job?"

Who was I that could pass judgement?

We stopped in our tracks as the crowd simply glided around us and instantly we were invisible too. As we looked at the man, his eyes were full of sadness and hopelessness as he asked, "Can you help us?"

About that time, the woman sensed that he had connected with someone. She sat up and flattened out her bent legs and bare feet. In her lap was a little baby wrapped in a dirty white blanket. Mother to mother we knew each other. There she sat cradling her tiny baby and there I stood holding hands with my six-year old baby.

I looked down and quietly said, "Karmen, take off your coat." As Karmen took off her coat, I also took off my coat, sweatshirt, shoes and socks. We walked up to the woman and I asked her to wrap the baby in my daughter's coat. I gave my sweatshirt to the man and my coat, shoes and socks to the woman.

As we slowly walked back to the car I asked Karmen if she knew why we gave our things to the strangers. Her tiny voice replied, "Yes mommy, they needed help and we can always get another coat."

This was a divine opportunity for my daughter to feel the spirit of giving; and participate in the act of giving. It was also a divine opportunity for me to learn about passing judgment.

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