Gathering My Lessons
I am constantly learning from my life. Someone special to me said that I could glean a lesson even from a recipe.
Which is what I did in my post, When The Recipes Must Go.
I call them Ahas. I can also stand on a Soapbox every once in a while.
And I learn some pretty big stuff from some little people in my life. The good and the bad and
the happy and the sad. My friendships are very important to me. The past holds some wisdom yet to be learned.
And my husband’s lessons are occasionally shared by his voice here. I may repeat myself, but guaranteed,
I’ll get you to think about life just a little differently.
My New Fitness Goals
While I mull over possible new work/art goals for the coming year, using my new word of the year “Focus” to guide me, I have taken other proactive steps to take care of my body betterment too. For a week plus, I have been using my new Christmas Fitbit to track my movements and exercise. And yesterday I resigned up with Weight Watchers for three months. The difference in my attitude, I believe I can improve my body fitness. My husband and I both lost weight on their program a couple years ago. But between living and Christmas, I regained the...
read moreRemembering My Intention for Connection
As many of you know, I stumbled this year. I tripped over my expectations of what I should feel and should be doing. I fell on my face and got caught in a spiral of self-doubt. Luckily, I’ve had enough practice at self-care to jump in quickly and take care of me. This spell took me for a three-day grief ride so I decided to call on the big guns. I’ve been on anti-anxiety meds for over a month now and it has made an immense difference in the quality of life. I have never felt this OK. Even though I couldn’t hear the exact...
read moreStillness Thoughts in a New Year
The stillness of the house is like a pond in a winter’s morning. It beckons me to sit and just listen to the tick of the clock like a cricket in the weeds. Instead of leaping up and jumping in, I sat down and napped in the yawning silence. I haven’t had time to myself in a week and a half. I organized my linen closet yesterday because I asked for new towels for Christmas. I filled three trash bags full of stuff I don’t need anymore or maybe never needed. A white matelasse bedspread I’ll never use as well as old towels...
read moreThe Minutia of Christmas
( From December 2014 and last year, I adore this look back ) The sound was a thwap and a roll, hollow plastic bouncing and traveling across the floor. My new Christmas tree balls were this moment’s entertainment. The “ball balls” were being extracted from their big clear box and thrown while I hurried to put my laundry away. Although that’s exactly why I bought those, I underestimated the little monkey’s reasoning skills. Every day is jam-packed with holiday fun. Not unlike any other day in my life, I’ve been cramming...
read moreIt’s My Wonderful Life
I suffered a pretty major stumble recently. An anxiety episode had me spiral out in my head to a place of grief and shame. And I allowed the decision to ask for medicinal help from my doctor to become very public. I did this because I knew that if my transparency and vulnerability could help someone else, I’d be paying forward the same from those who had shown me the permission too. Paying it forward is a beautiful part of my wonderful life. The response from my online community was overwhelming. People showed up to offer their well...
read moreFits and Spurts of Holiday Happenings
Christmas gives me such clarity. Doing all the necessary Christmas tasks and I feel plugged in and purposed. It gives me a legitimate excuse to not dwell on all the career procrastination I’m doing. I just want to decorate and cook and entertain. I notice though, that even in my holiday frenzy and event planning, I hit walls. I lost energy and inspiration while decorating the house the other day. And I wanted to feel bummed until I remembered that this has happened before. We have only so much energy and inspiration to spend in one day....
read moreMy Christmas Tree Fell Down
I was so proud I got my Christmas decorations up in enough time to enjoy them for two weeks before Christmas proper. But I plum forgot that I had intended to redesign my Christmas tree. So that when the decorations came out of the boxes, I was less than thrilled. “Oh those”my inner child said. And so I dutifully dressed the Christmas tree in last year’s already tired frocks and said,”Good Enough.” I felt kinda growly about it but I know no one else will see what I see and isn’t most of this for everyone else anyway? So imagine how...
read moreEmbrace the Hedonistic Ways of Your 20’s
In my 20’s, there was a beauty supply outlet up the street from me. I bought my first bottle of henna there. And over the years, I collected, nay amassed, a pretty impressive array of lipsticks and nail polishes. I hoarded mud masks and liquid eyeliners and I was hedonistic heroine with a date to go somewhere every weekend. Flash forward to today and self-care looks like deodorant, a root touch-up, and my bi-monthly pedicure by someone who I pay to touch my grody feet. Gone are the days of beauty laden afternoons with a Walkman playing...
read moreWe Are All Event Planners for Christmas
If you were told you’d been volunteered as an event planner and decorator for a royal ball, you’d laugh your butt off right? But regular people across the globe will do their best to plan and execute a special event all on their own this month mostly without professional help. And I’m darn proud of all of them for their upcoming efforts. We pull it off, you and me, every year. That once a year special event for which we have to send out a hundred invitations, cater quantities of food, and decorate huge floral centerpieces...
read moreA Poem Prayer for Ease
I chatter at it and Batter at it and still it is not fixed. The ages old self-diatribe I am not enough, I am not enough I tell everyone, I’m OK, I’m fine But in my mind there’s a line And I’m on the wrong side. The impossibility of moving on Tethered to a ghost. I trust no one, even myself And so I remain lost I crave the ease The easy squeeze that will fill my future full Of gratitude and tenderness of purposed hours filled. I write at night with all my sight that I might win this fight. And If you enjoyed...
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