Making Change a Sweet Transformation
Two years ago I signed up for weekly emails to train for a 5k. At the time I was walking 5 miles a day and had just started adding jogging. I thought it would be motivating, maybe even fun to collect 5k race t-shirts.
Of course, life had other plans and before I could even get a second 5k training email, I was at the doctor for neck pain. I thought it was just a pinched nerve, but it wasn’t. My doctor sent me for x-rays and physical therapy, but more symptoms arrived that landed me in a neurologist’s office.
Then came MRIs, a spinal tap and several other poking and prodding sorts of tests. Life became a series of NEW things, including conversations about possible diseases you never think could be in your future, but were now a MAYBE.
All I wanted was a stupid 5k race t-shirt.
Forget the shirt, I just wanted my OLD things back.
The thing is, I really can’t go back. I’ve gotten some answers. One of which is something called small fiber neuropathy, aka the foot and hand terrorist that turns my nerves into zombies (they’re dead, but they can still wreak havoc). Oh and it’s “idiopathic” which means of course, no one knows why I have it. Not even Google knows (and we are very close, I’m expecting my internet medical degree in the mail any day now).
All this time I’ve been waiting for answers, but it was just this last week that I realized I’d been under the assumption that once I had the answer I would also have the solution. But I don’t, not the kind that would make the nerve damage and whatever is causing it, to go away.
It was another reminder that we don’t always get the answers we want, or even answers at all in life. So yea, it’s my new thing. Maybe the old things were better. Maybe. But this is what I’m moving into my future with, so I have to deal.
And guess what? I don’t think that 5k t-shirt is so stupid. I still want it. Yes, there is an inclination to just forget about it, even forget about the exercise I am still attempting to do (no matter how lame the old me might think it to be).
Except I’m still here and to me that means no giving up allowed.
So how does one go about moving forward after suck-tastic change?
Well, I’m all about baby steps. You can still cover the distance that way.
And gratitude helps, but don’t beat yourself up by playing the Olympic pain games. You know, the ones that make you feel like you can’t be mad or sad because someone else’s life sucks more than yours.
Above all, try to be kind to yourself!
Which brings me to the greeting family and friends have been giving each other the last couple of days: ”Have a SWEET new year.” This week began the Jewish new year. Like the new year in January, it is a time to take stock of the previous year. It’s an opportunity for change, renewal and spiritual transformation.
The new year challah is round to symbolize the cycle of the year, the circle of life and the opportunity for spiritual transformation.
You see that honey in the background of the photo? Apples and challah bits got a good dunking in the sweet stuff. My daughter even doused her corn kugel (pudding) with honey.
A little sweet can go a long way. Even just the idea of it offers up HOPE.
Like imagining a future post with me in a 5k t-shirt. 
So be sweet to yourself.
Or focus on the new things that are awesome. For me that’s thinking about publishing my first book or seeing the Grand Canyon with my husband and kids in a couple of months.
With dangling carrots like those it’s easier to maintain some forward motion.
So, whatever changes you are in the middle of, I wish you a sweet transformation!
How do you deal with change? What are the dangling carrots that keep you going?
I love it when you comment!
**If you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe to my mailing list to receive my new posts straight to your inbox. Just add your email in the space at the top of the right sidebar under my photo.
Read MoreChasing Inspiration with Scissors
Or go after it with scissors, shredder and glue.
That was me yesterday when it came time to write what is my 100th post. I had ideas, a few pages of notes and pictures, but I think I psyched myself out over the idea that I needed some kind of sparkly masterpiece.
Worse I knew that without a solid plan, I would be spending hours working on a post that I wasn’t even sure would turn out the way I intended.
So I scrapped it all and decided to work on a craft project.
I have a few bulletin boards that I wanted to change in order to use them for inspirational story boards (as much as I LOVE Pinterest, I can’t be online while I’m writing).
So I started with this:
Then I picked out some paper.
I used leftover scrapbook paper, books with torn pages and a couple of greeting cards. I decided on a neutral color scheme and picked pages that were black, white or gray.
Then it was time to cut the paper into strips. I have a Scrapbook paper-cutter, but suddenly I had a light bulb moment.
Well, a light bulb on its last filament moment, because I tried my office paper shredder, thinking I would have a pile of strips ready to lay on the cork board.
I forget about the whole cross shredder thing.
Can you find Waldo in there?
(And this is the same brain I was planning on using to write my 100th post masterpiece.)
Anyway, I cut the paper into strips and then glued them down.
Until I ended up with this, the finished project:
All ready for tacking on inspiring things–I started with a heart.
Do you like to play with scissors and glue? What are your creative outlets?
I love it when you comment!
Have a GREAT week.
**If you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe to my mailing list to receive my new posts straight to your inbox. Just add your email in the space at the top of the right sidebar under my photo.
Read MoreThere is No One Right Answer, but Decision Determines Everything
It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires a great deal of strength to decide what to do.
― Elbert Hubbard
It’s called BOGGLE for a reason.
Have you ever played the game WOULD YOU RATHER?
Would you rather drive a moped across a tight rope OR go over Niagara Falls in a barrel?
Would you rather drink black coffee OR eat dry cereal?
It’s almost always funny or absurd scenarios, for which there is no right answer.
Because it’s just a game. Real life however, requires decisions all the time. Some of course, require little effort.
Paper or plastic? Do you want butter on your popcorn? Would you like to try the smoothie of the week?
But some decisions feel HUGE and require research and thought.
Some of the mail my kids have been getting from colleges.
It’s easy to feel buried under the brochures of possibilities and decisions. I feel like that when it comes to my writing–the decisions that need to be made in editing and publishing.
Or what about the tricky decisions that impact family or friends? Or decisions about health?
Recently I’ve been grappling with the issue of a new medication. Do I want to deal with the crappy side effects or the crappy symptoms for which I’m on it in the first place?
It feels like someone is asking me if I want to eat squid or snails.
Honestly, I don’t want to eat either.
Decisions, decisions. Wear your shoes or plant something in them?
When it comes to decision-making, we hear go with your gut, but then are advised to be careful of emotion. Some say take your time and others say make the leap. We need to check our history, but stay in the present and oh wait, don’t forget the future!
What do you do?
If only it were this easy.
I guess it’s a little of everything–our gut, our emotion, revisiting the past, thinking it through (a pros and cons list can help here) and even taking the leap, because eventually we have to decide.
It doesn’t matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions.
~Jim Rohn
Progress is good (even baby steps).
But, okay, not ALL decision-making turns out stellar. Like the time my husband decided, yes, he DID want to try the smoothie of the week. The flavor? Peanut butter and jelly.
My hubby now has strong opinions about PB & J belonging between two slices of bread.
Progress, right?
How do you make decisions? Playing the game–if you had to choose, would you rather be PARANOID for the rest of your life or NAIVE?
I love it when you comment!
Have a GREAT week.
**If you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe to my mailing list to receive my new posts straight to your inbox. Just add your email in the space at the top of the right sidebar under my photo.
Read MoreThe Freedom to Express Our Frolicking Energy
I want freedom for the full expression of my personality.
― Mahatma Gandhi
The First Amendment Monument in Charlottesville, Virginia
What would you write on this monument?
Me? I got creative and wrote my name.
And then, “G + Ice Cream.”
No surprise that G wrote about troll faces.
And continuing the theme of relaying the obvious, I wrote:
Maybe it wasn’t as colorful (or cathartic) as the citizen who wrote RYAN IS A TOOL, but that’s okay. The 108 feet of slate writing space exists to express our views on well, whatever.
I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an ass of yourself.
― Oscar Wilde
Because freedom of expression is one of our rights in America.
This one makes me smile.
Whether we doodle on slate, express our political or religious views or write best-selling books, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall said that part of the significance of our freedom of expression is to “assure self-fulfillment for each individual.”
Expression = Self-fulfillment
Maybe not right away, but having the ability to express yourself can help you find purpose, passion and meaning in your life. And there are so many ways to do it.
For example,I express myself in this blog, in my fiction writing and by wearing sparkly shoes.
Maybe I color my hair blue, paint, or do DIY projects. I have also been known to sew.
Even my lunch tells a story about me and what I want for myself.
This is a very delicious grilled tofu salad. Not that I’m trying to convince anyone (because of freedom and all that).
Plus I like to bake and experiment with recipes. I planned on showing you a picture of the gluten-free spice cupcakes I made for this weekend. But sadly, they are all gone.
But cupcake or no cupcake, every day is another opportunity to show the world an expression that is uniquely our own. Because each of us have a JOY looking for a voice.
You are joy, looking for a way to express.
It’s not just that your purpose is joy, it is that you are joy. You are love and joy and freedom and clarity expressing. Energy-frolicking and eager.
That’s who you are.
― Esther Hicks
So, here’s to FROLICKING ENERGY and the unfettered freedom to find meaning.
What would you write on the Freedom of Expression monument? How do you express yourself?
I love it when you comment
Have an awesome week!
**If you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe to my mailing list to receive an update straight to your inbox whenever I publish a new one. Just add your email in the space at the top of the right sidebar under my phot0.
Read MoreLeaps of Imagination and Olympic-sized Dreams
The Olympics–they bring to mind big dreams, athletes making history and well, spa treatments and fancy chocolates.
At least it did this weekend. My husband and I stayed at a hotel that offered that pretty chocolate platter and resort credit every time the U.S. won gold. I was already having fun watching gymnastics, swimming and track and field, but eight gold medals during our stay equaled not only patriotic excitement but free stuff, like a spa pedicure:
Thanks also to Missy Franklin and Katie Ladecky!
Spa services aside, I’ve always found the Olympics exciting, inspiring and highly motivating. When I was a teenager, I wrote in my diary that I was going to find a way to participate in the 24th Olympiad after watching the Los Angeles games.
Synchronized swimming was going to be my sport.
Now I got an A in swimming during my freshman year of high school, but I’d never, ever tried synchronized swimming, let alone played any sport in tandem (except maybe some Marco Polo bobbing). And while I loved gymnastics (and could rock the elementary round off dismount off the balance beam), I was not even remotely equipped for what was essentially a gymnastics floor program underwater.
I guess watching those Olympics, I found myself connected to that determination I saw in the athletes and I became motivated to do something. I wanted to experience that sense of accomplishment too.
But instead of funneling that motivation into one of my own dreams (I was very specific about my writing dreams according to my diary), I picked something random to shoot for.
It was a misguided attempt. One I’m not entirely sure about. I don’t think it was due to fear (that would come later). It was probably more about not knowing what to do about them (other than send out poetry to Seventeen magazine). Or maybe my dreams were so embedded, so much a part of me, that I almost forgot about them as a goal to practice and plan for.
I’m sick of following my dreams. I’m just going to ask them where they’re going and hook up with them later.
~ Mitch Hedberg
So my writing dreams mostly faded into the background of high school and college–and if you believe my diary, BOYS.
Although it’s interesting to note now that I continued to fill journals and write stories (filing them away in a big Rubbermaid container). I worked at libraries and I took writing classes in college, grad school and at night when my kids were younger.
Writing stayed close whether or not I acknowledged it.
Synchronized swimming on the other hand, became just an odd and out-of-place wish sitting in one of my diaries.
I did however win a gold (ish) medal in 2007. Not exactly the Olympics–for these purposes, let’s call it the Royal Caribbean games.
I placed first in a ship wide dart competition.
No cool team uniforms. I think it was against international maritime law or something.
For whatever reason, dreams fade or get pushed aside for other things. Sometimes we pick something else because it’s expected, or it’s easier or maybe more acceptable.
But it’s important to remember that life happens whether or not you plan.
Planning helps, because motivation can fade.
People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.
~Zig Ziglar
I love hearing stories about people realizing their dreams–or accomplishing another step toward them. It’s exciting and inspiring, and everywhere, not only at the Olympics. I’ve seen that excitement in my kids’ faces and heard it in my sister’s voice each time she moves closer to her nursing degree. Finding inspiration, whatever gets you fired up, is a significant part of going for your own dreams.
It’s a reminder that if you put in A LOT of hard work toward a goal, accomplishment is not only possible, but EXHILARATING.
Of course, baby steps are fine. Just be sure to name your goal and put on your work clothes.
“Motivation is when your dreams put on work clothes.”
~Benjamin Franklin
Then go after the dreams in your mind and your heart (fancy chocolates optional).
I’m going out there to try to accomplish the things that I have in my mind and in my heart.
~Michael Phelps
Do you have Olympic-sized dreams in your heart? What training are you doing to get closer to them?
Let me know in the comments, I love it when you share!
And if you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe to my mailing list to receive an update straight to your inbox whenever I publish a new one. Just add your email in the space at the top of the right sidebar under my phot0.
Have a great week.
Read More
Floating at the Lowest Place on Earth
Hi!
Well, I’m back. Mostly. Maybe not so much mentally (in fact I just asked my husband: What’s the word for when you are here physically but not ____?) Yea, my head still feels a bit stuffed with the cottony bits of jet lag.
6,000 miles + 25 hours of travel time + 7 hour time difference = very little sleep.
Our trip had high points and low points. It was both relaxing (no dinner making! the beach!) and exhausting (plane delays that added up to a 41 hour travel time to get to Israel, coupled with my insane flying jitters). But a bonus of coming back from vacation? (Other than my own, comfy bed.) I am ready to get back to work. I missed writing, reading blog posts and checking in on Twitter and Facebook.
And I hope to jump right back in as soon as possible. That is once I get myself out from under the mail pile (virtual and actual). It’s quite the shock going from thinking, Hmm, I wonder where we should go for dinner tonight? –to bill paying, grocery shopping, laundry and an upcoming wisdom tooth extraction (I’m playing the responsible adult to my son’s soon to be drugged state–here’s hoping I get a good night’s sleep–this is my child who once hallucinated after a dose of cough syrup).
Still I have some uplifting thoughts to pick from between the cottony spaces in my brain!
Because I saw some amazing, beautiful and historical sights from Masada, to the Dead Sea.
This is a view of the Dead Sea from atop Masada.
The Dead Sea is 1,388 feet below sea level and is the lowest place on Earth. It is super salty–over 30% salinity. While in the water, I touched my pinkie finger to my tongue–and it was so salty, it stung for a moment. Note: You do not shave before taking a dip in the Dead Sea!!
Pretty, right?
This is a little embarrassing to admit, but I kind of thought the Dead Sea would look more like a black lake, but as you can see, the color of the water looks more like a view of the Caribbean than some imagined Bubonic plague-like body of water.
Although we all looked scary after applying the Dead Sea mud.
It was messy and smelled a bit like sulfur, but applying the mud was a fun experience. And apparently healing, due to the mineral content.
But by far the coolest part of the Dead Sea experience?
The floating!! It is effortless. Due to the high salt content, you cannot fully submerge in this water. It is denser than my travel bogged mind.
And treading water is unnecessary–the water holds you upright, even when you wade deeper.
So you just kick back and relax, because even at the lowest point on Earth, YOU CANNOT SINK.
“You know when you’re floating on your back in the lake, the water rises and falls against your ears? So that for half a second you can hear everything around you and then for the other half a second everything’s muted? It almost feels like your suspended between two worlds.”
― Tricia Rayburn, Siren
And floating there, in the very warm waters of the Dead Sea, I realized the hopeful lesson in that experience (yes, I was blogging in my head–I couldn’t help it). I thought, how encouraging is to feel that even at the lowest depths, we simply cannot stay at the bottom?
“Still, what I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled—to cast aside the weight of facts and maybe even to float a little above this difficult world. ”
― Mary Oliver
Days, vacations, life, they do not always go as we planned. But even when we find ourselves sinking to the lowest points, there are moments of hope to be found.
“When the tides of time turn against you,
And the storms of life sink your boat,
Don’t cry and scream and holler,
Just turn on your back and float.”
~Ed Norton
Here’s to everyone getting some floating time this week!!
Any travel high points or low points you can share? Or jet lag fighting tips for me to file away?
I love it when you share I missed chatting with you while I was gone!
Read More
The Quest of Fatherhood: Fun and Avoiding Parasites
Children learn to smile from their parents.
~Shinichi Suzuki
See what I’m teaching my kids?
I’m simply passing on my version of the funny I learned growing up–thanks in big part to my dad. He is a master at telling a funny story, and watching him, I learned the value in being able to get people to smile, to laugh and to share joy.
And I learned other things.
Growing up, my dad was big on safety. He made us wear sunscreen (thank you Dad!), and after a sudden stop in the car, he always threw out an arm in front of whoever sat in the passenger seat–even after our car had seat belts. Plus, he did not allow us out of the house without shoes.
No skipping around barefoot for me.
Why?
Because of hookworms.
You see those little suckers could burrow into tender kid soles and make their way up and . . . well, I don’t remember the rest. He had me at hookworm. It was all I needed to know–and believe me when I tell you, I had the softest, callous-free feet in my neighborhood!
I have done zero research on hookworms, so I cannot tell you if this is true. The only thing I know for sure is that as a parent, protecting my kids is of utmost importance. I will never forget the first time my husband and I left our kids home alone. On one hand it was exciting that they were finally old enough, but as we moved to walk out the door, my husband turned around and said:
No eating!
Because apparently as I showed my oldest the list of phone numbers, my husband had worst case scenarios running through his mind. By decreeing no food, he felt he eliminated the choking scenario.
“There’s a lot of ugly things in this world, son. I wish I could keep ‘em all away from you. That’s never possible.”
~Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird
So maybe it’s not possible, but dads will try. Because like moms, dads like to dispense advice too:
“This is life. So go and have a ball. Because the world don’t move to the beat of just one drum. What might be right for you may not be right for some. You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have … my opening statement. Sit, Ubu, sit. Good dog.”
~Peter Griffin, Family Guy
You never want your kids to see you scared. You want to be that rock that they grab a hold of in a stormy sea. Actually, a rock would sink. So a floating rock.
~Phil Dunphy, Modern Family
Dad = floating rock. Oh, and let’s not forget dads can be FUN:
“This is no longer a vacation. It’s a quest. It’s a quest for fun.”
~Clark Griswold, National Lampoon’s Vacation
Me, my dad and one of my sisters. It’s possible she’s checking the ground for hookworms.
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!
These Jordan Almonds are for my dad, but I’m sure he will share.
Dads can be difficult to shop for (Jordan Almonds were my family’s version of the tie), so I’d love to know–what is your favorite Father’s day gift to give or get?
Read More
Looking for Signs of Life vs. Road Kill Theory
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
―Albert Einstein
Back in college I met a guy who I ended up talking to for hours on the subject of what happens after you die. I have no idea how we got on the subject. Sure I always enjoyed a good DMC (deep meaningful conversation), but I’m sure death and the afterlife were not typically on my rotating list of topics.
But he may have been cute, so there was that.
Anyway, his arguments got me curious. He insisted that the end of life was akin to a flame blowing out, that once we die we no longer exist in any form.
And he believed that there was no use assigning any true meaning to signs (miracles) because in the end we were all “road kill.”
Whack. Game over.
I’m thinking he probably did not go on to make a career writing greeting cards.
Me? I was adamant that there’s more to the afterlife then nothing. Where was the hope? It was just too depressing for me to think otherwise.
And roadkill? On some level, I think animals must possess a spark of soul. Have you ever looked into the eyes of a cat? It’s like thousands of years of wisdom wrapped into a fur covered hipster attitude.
Meet my feline nephew Charlie. He’s seen it all I’m sure.
But everything I knew at the point of that argument was from what I learned when I was a kid. Heaven was firmly centered in a cloud filled land of angels and quite possibly a Willy Wonka factory (um, it was called everlasting Gobstopper, right?).
Part of those images in my head were drawn from Sunday school, but some I think I got from the movie The Blue Bird, with Shirley Temple.
In this movie, there was a “Before Life” scene where children danced bare footed while waiting to be born.
For a kid, eating candy and not having to wear shoes were an easy sell, but even as a teenager I wanted to believe in something positive, something to look forward to. Road kill theory did not work for me.
Instead when I was lost in school, my relationships and life in general, I relied on hope, faith and occasionally the Magic 8 ball. And I believed in the power of signs.
Signs guide us, point us in the right direction.
And signs took on a whole new meaning a few years ago when my brother died. Mostly because I struggled with how he once fit in my life and how he still could.
And this is where faith and hope and signs came into play. I’ve heard many stories of how people see signs that remind them that their loved ones still play a role in their life–dimes, feathers, music, animals. But no matter what it is that gets us to remember, it’s the power behind it that puts hope back in our grasp.
Because sometimes in this shoe wearing place called Earth, we need a little something tangible.
For me that was the day of my brother’s funeral. A few hours before the service, I was in a hotel room, on the third floor, with no windows that could open–and there was a ladybug in the room with me.
One of my nephews with the ladybugs that like to follow us around.
I can’t remember if I thought too much about it at the time. Other than it was a little strange to see the ladybug there.
But since then, I’ve noticed more ladybugs. Sometimes I see them where they should be, and sometimes it feels far from coincidental. Like the time I went to visit one of my sisters and we were drinking coffee outside of a busy shopping center and a ladybug landed right between us, next to the brownie we were sharing.
Sure there may be other explanations for this. Maybe ladybugs love chocolate. Maybe I see them because in some way I am looking for them.
Or maybe it’s more. Like when the Elton John song Daniel comes on the radio, I feel like he is with me. Mostly it’s because that’s his name, but also because my sisters and I once joked with him that we were going to sing that song for him. It was a humorous threat—something he got very used to growing up with 3 sisters.
Annoying older sisters dressing their little brother like a doll.
So I like to hold onto the ladybug–and anything that reminds me of my brother–as a sign. Even though I carry my memories of him with me, it feels like a reminder that on some level he is still here, that there is more to our existence.
More than just Wile E. Coyote flattened on the ground after an incident with an Acme Anvil, right?
Because there will be days when we question our work, our relationships–the overall meaning of our lives. It might help to have a little sign.
“There are days when I think I don’t believe anymore. When I think I’ve grown too old for miracles. And that’s right when another seems to happen.”
~Dana Reinhardt, The Summer I Learned to Fly
And signs have the power to remind us to keep moving forward–and that we are not alone.
“Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: “I am with you kid. Let’s go.”
~Maya Angelou
I am with you. Let’s go.
Maybe instead of the flame blowing out, it lights your way.
What signs have offered you hope?
Read More
Leaning into the Leap
There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.
~Carl Sandburg
This weekend my husband and I went to an outdoor sports festival. There was music, food and a variety of outdoor sports demos including slacklining.
Yoga on paddle boards
River rafting
Even super chess
Super Chess: Are you ready??
All that adventure and yet I was beginning to feel the hint of a wallow coming on. Nothing unusual, just a little Monday slipping into my Sunday afternoon.
I ignored it, and we made our way to the Ultimate Air Dog event.
For this event, dogs ran across a ramp and jumped, flying over and into a pool (occasionally being prompted by their favorite chew toy or ball).
And every dog was different. Some were coaxed on by their owner and others had to be held by the collar because they couldn’t wait for it to be their turn. It was a Hippo vs. Eagle moment.
One little dog scampered down the ramp and then came to a complete stop at the edge.
And as the little dog hesitated, there was a collective “Aw.” Because we all know the feeling.
In fact it was exactly why I was beginning to feel like I wanted to wallow like the hippo (rather than soar like the eagle). I was thinking about writing a blog post and Tweeting and sharing on Facebook and pinning on Pinterest–and I felt a curious mix of fear and excitement at the thought of moving on from my cozy, family weekend to a week of social media. Again.
Because every week when I think about putting myself out there, I feel like I am dangling off the edge of that ramp, suspended over a dark pool of insecurity.
And it’s usually due to over thinking.
I’m too much of an introvert–this isn’t natural for me. I am far more suited to hours of solitary writing than social media and marketing. This blog topic sucks. Who is going to read this? It takes up too much time–instead I could, oh I don’t know, learn how to juggle or teach myself Swedish. Or I know! Finish knitting that lumpy scarf I started years ago or bedazzle . . . something.
Over thinking creates obstacles, diverts attention.
Better to be present. It’s easier to get to the other side, the place you want to be, when you focus.
Even if you’re not quite ready to jump, you can always lean into the leap.
Then catch some air.
And it’s a relief to be on the other side, to finish something that’s not easy, to take another step, reach another goal. There’s the sense of accomplishment, both in getting it done and pushing thru the hesitation.
It’s even kind of exhilarating.
Even when it doesn’t go so gracefully or my blog topic is well, a little meh. It’s okay.
Flops are a part of life’s menu and I’ve never been a girl to miss out on any of the courses.
- Rosalind Russell
And yes, the hesitation will be back, but:
The best way out is always through.
- Robert Frost
Because something happens every time you leap through to the other side:
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face.
- Eleanor Roosevelt
Are you soaring through this week, or is there something causing you to want to wallow?
Read More
Everyone has a Yay! Thing
“LIVING THE YAY! LIFE!”
Mondays can be rough. The early alarm, that not so easy transition from the weekend to the weekday and the fact that you just want a little more face time with your pillow.
Motivation can be slow to appear. Unless someone forgot to put the garbage cans on the curb. Then there’s the bounding out of bed at the noise from the sanitation truck rolling down the street.
But that’s a harsh start. Especially since I wake to the sounds of ocean waves (my alarm, not the beach, but maybe someday) and my husband’s alarm is a harp.
We make an attempt at the Zen thing.
*Yawn*
Well, this weekend I stumbled across a line of fun, colorful magnets from Rachelle Reichly’s company called Yay! Life!
The magnets cheer on an attitude of motivation and gratitude and it all started with a pie. I’m sure a lot of great ideas started with pie, right?
I mean whose to say Benjamin Franklin didn’t eat a slice of mincemeat pie before heading out to discover electricity?
Pie! Eureka!
Anyway Rachelle made a pie and when her husband saw it he said, “Yay. Pie.” Inspiration struck (like Franklin’s lightning) and the couple thought:
“This is what life is all about – gratitude and enjoying life. Everyone has a YAY! THING! that is as unique as they are.”
And so now they sell Yay! magnets for most anything, from Alaska to Zombies.
And books–double Yay!
Each day offers us the gift of being a special occasion.
~Sarah Ban Breathnach
For my Monday motivation, I’m starting with a Yay! Coffee!
Iced, because it’s getting warmer outside. Another Yay!
Add in a memory of a fun weekend:
Yay! Mother’s Day!
And the extra energy I have because someone else did the dishes for me:
Yay! Awesome Family!
And I’ve got my inspiration, my keyboard–Yay! Writing!
“Your idea of bliss is to wake up on a Monday morning knowing you haven’t a single engagement for the entire week. You are cradled in a white paper cocoon tied up with typewriter ribbon.”
~Edna Ferbe
Still tired?
Well, here’s a reason to get moving:
Look closer. Um, Yay! Boat?
Tell me, what is your Yay! thing for today?
Read More
Available now!
Available now at Amazon, Apple, Smashwords, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Sony, and more! Click the cover for links.
Follow Me:
my-books shelf:
Popular Posts
