Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes....

I want to be a writer. I want to design jewelry and decorate homes. I decided this back in January of 2009 when my world as I knew it was suddenly compromised. I decided back then that I needed a way to showcase what I can do, what is in my heart. So I set out on a journey, a journey to change my life.

I didn't know what it would entail. And I was ok with that. I wanted to shake up my world and learn new things. And I did. I took classes, I started a blog, I joined a networking group of my peers and I sought out professionals to help me along the way...

Six months ago I had an idea for a new blog, and now, it's finally finished.

My first blog took me as far as it could, it gave me a place to start, it was an outlet for practice and it held me accountable. I'm hoping this new blog will take me to the next step--getting published, a new job, a patent on my designs perhaps. The blog design is beautiful, the navigation is pretty cool and I'm really excited about the possibilities. I loved my blog designer. She was a very helpful gal who really got the essence of who I am and what I wanted to portray. Check out her blog and see what she can do.

There are still a few things I would like to tweak of course. But I need to seek some tech help for that. So there will be future updates, additional programming, a Featured Content Gallery, email and followers options and more linking and navigation to come, but I figure for now I've got a pretty good start.

I'm really excited to launch and get things going.

Since I have many facets to my personality I think my blog should have just as many facets. And it does, it's all encompassing. I have to admit, it's probably more geared to gals then to guys for some things, but This is LIFE after all, we all have challenges and hopes and aspirations and I think each of you as individuals in this crazy human race will relate to it on one level or another.

Fate has a funny way of coming to fruition. Maybe I was always supposed to be a writer and a designer and I just took a detour for the first part of my career. Maybe I just needed to live life for a while and experience people, face struggles, and learn about design and marketing to get me to the next step...

This is a big step in my journey and I'm hoping you will visit often, leave comments and join me along the way.

Please visit me at www.ThisIsLifeBlog.com

THANK YOU FOR READING ME

Not a Care in the World

This morning I got out in the garden pretty early. The sun was finally shining and clearing my head as well as the sky. As I stood on the south hill, barely visible from the street, I heard a little girl singing.

She was singing the ABC song as loud as she possibly could. When I looked up to see her I saw a pink bike, fully equipped with handle bar tassels and training wheels. Her helmet matched her bike, and her blond curls escaped from underneath. Her Dad and other siblings accompanied her as they strolled slowly down the street.

I spoke out loud to myself with a smile, "remember when times were so simple...". I shook my head and then answered myself, "when you didn't care who heard you...pure and utter joy".

I barely remember ever feeling like that.

How come as children we are able to experience complete ignorance and bliss but we lose that capability as we age?

Does it count that I regularly talk to myself and to the critters in the garden?

Growing More Beautiful with Age

I spent last weekend with my Girlfriends.

We have these Girlfriend Gatherings on a somewhat regular basis. One of my friends has a lovely house that she graciously opens up to us a few times a year. She spoils us with her culinary delights. She gives us an escape to nature that most of our suburban lives don't offer.

I always look forward to these visits. I think I need the laughter we share more then anything. As I've written before, my world is fairly small. I work in a small office, I have the same routine day to day, week to week. So escaping once every few months gives me a chance to break free and let go.

It's hard for some of the girls to commit each time as they still have young kids at home. But I can tell that when they do get the chance to get away, how much this time is needed. On Sunday morning everyone looks so...released. Released from the stress, the chores, the computer, the errands. They've taken time to relax, to drink and eat, to connect and to laugh.

I've shared a lot of years with these women. Some good, some bad. Some distant, some close. I've seen them go through puberty and marriage. I've seen them go through death and birth.

And I've noticed lately that my friends are more beautiful to me as we have aged. Oh sure, we are starting to show some wrinkles around the edges... Most of us need cheaters to read these days, a few grey hairs are starting to show, some of us have a few more pounds then we once did.

But none of that matters.

What's beautiful is the concern that's expressed for each other; and the generosity of spirit and soul that shines through each of us in our own little way.

We all have crows feet when we laugh now, and knowing I was a part of some of those laugh lines makes them all the more appreciated.

"Rock on with your bad selves" girls.....

I Need to Spread My Wings

Today was another one of "those days". Not for any one particular reason mind you, it just was a day.

I so need a change.

I so need someone willing to give me a shot.

I keep looking at the job postings thinking I don't want to make a lateral move. Then at the same time if I don't make a move soon, I'm going to keep having more of these days. I'm just not feeling enough confidence in this economy to make a big change.
Last one hired, first one fired and all.

Is it possible after 20 years in one industry to do a complete 180 and do something utterly different?

I'm feeling like I'm running out of time.

I'm trying so hard to change my direction. To follow my heart, to live my passions. But I still have to pay the bills.

I wish my career would metamorphosis more quickly.

I need to spread my wings...

Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone

This year I decided to try some different things. Since now I'm officially middle age, and supposedly in the prime of my life, I figured it's now or never.

As 2009 was fraught with challenges, I am more determined then ever to make sure that 2010 is exciting and fun. Well ok, maybe exciting is too strong of a word, but at best I want 2010 to be interesting.

So far, it's looking pretty good.

I recently posted that changes are coming for me. I've decided that my blog is going to go into a new direction. It's going to encompass my passions, my endeavors, my ideas. I'm both excited and overwhelmed by this grand idea. In one respect it gives me freedom to explore and learn and meet new and interesting people. In another way it is a big, scary thing on the perpetual "To Do" list.

We're already almost 1/5th of the way into the new year and I feel like I've already shaken things up. I've broken my boring work/sleep/eat/errands cycle and added in interesting changes.

The fire within has been officially lit.

I've already taken several classes this spring. And I'm signed up for a few more. I've found a resource for knowledge at The Loft that inspires me to learn and grow as a writer. I've taken chances by asking professionals for help. I've met new people, I've exchanged ideas. I've re-connected with colleagues from the past. I've taken things off that perpetual "To Do" list and started doing them.

Maybe getting older spurs you into action because you feel your time is running out. Maybe it's self-awareness you didn't have in your younger years that pushes you to experience more in life. I know I don't want to be complacent. I know that if change is going to come to my world I am going to have to make it happen for myself. And I haven't felt so alive in years.

So I ask you readers, what have you done lately to step outside your comfort zone? To go beyond your normal everyday life and experience something different. What have you learned lately? What have you always wanted to do? My advise to you would be, go for it. Cross it off your bucket list, and engage in all that life has to offer.

Living for the Moment

The older I get, the more I understand life.

I remember in my 20's thinking I had it all figured out. Thinking I was so worldly and wise - I was a mover and shaker after all. I had an exciting career working with important people. I was fairly educated. I was constantly going places and doing things...

Then I fell in love. And everything I thought I knew about men and life changed. I was in love with a man, and for all intensive purposes, men were way different then women.

Not that this is a bad thing. Just that it's different. Men think differently, they react differently, they love differently then women.

Personally I think men have the ability to live more in the moment then women.

A simple example - One morning I suggest to my hubby that we BBQ together that night - he agrees. So I am at work all day, and on the way home I start thinking about dinner, I'm hungry. I start making plans in my head, did I remember to take anything out of the freezer, how long it's going to take to cook, do I have all the ingredients on hand, maybe I should stop at the store, what would hubby like...I get home. Hubby ate about and hour ago, he was hungry. Funny thing was, I didn't feel like cooking anyway.

He lives in the moment. If he's hungry he eats. He's tired, he sleeps. He doesn't really think too far ahead of that. Don't get me wrong, of course he thinks about his future. But as a sleep deprived over-worked guy he pretty much just focuses on the here and now. I, on the other hand, am perpetually in fast forward mode. I plan ahead for the next hour, the next day, the next weekend, the next year. Hubby has no specific plans for what tomorrow will bring, he goes with the flow. I have a constantly spinning "To Do" list in my head a mile long.

Oh, to only worry about the moment at hand. To never have to plan or prepare... to just "be". Maybe that's why men and women, though so different, work together. One needs to stay grounded in the moment, one needs to look ahead.

Then again, maybe it's just us.

The Health Revolution

I am loving this Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution! I think it's fantastic. This country has been so deluded into thinking our food supply is healthy, that it's scary. If you think anyone is making sure that what is on the shelves is healthy, think again. This guy is going to make an impact, I hope, on the world.

I embraced this way of eating years ago. At 35 years old I was having chronic headaches (6 times a week), heartburn, I couldn't sleep, I had neck pain, TMJ, knee pain and weight gain. I went to my Doc. She prescribed me pills.

Nothing says American Medical Care like a fist full of pills.

I was given prescriptions for huge amounts of Ibuprofen for the knee pain. Prilosec for heartburn, a migraine medication for the headaches. She offered me an anti-depressant, and some weight loss pill that had some very nasty side effects.

Something in me just snapped. "Enough is enough already, I want to be healed I don't want to be on hundreds of dollars of pills every month for the rest of my life!" I walked out.

I knew I wasn't going to find the answers there. I knew I had to embrace Alternative care. I began to read every health book I could get my hands on. And then one day heard about Kinesiology. I decided to go for it. And it changed my life.

Doc "Wonder" was amazing. He taught me so much about nutrition and natural medicine, about my body and it's chemistry. He fixed all my ails. All, but my weight issues. What we figured out is that I had sort of a "Perfect Storm" of metabolic chaos and I know exactly when it all went to hell. The day I got my first injection of Depo Provara. I have been in an uphill battle ever since. I have spent thousands of dollars trying to right this hormonal wrong.

I guess what I'm trying to get at here is that we are the only ones responsible for our health.
The Doctors in this country make money by pushing drugs.
The Drug companies make money by keeping us on prescriptions pills for our entire lives.
The Food companies make money buy filling their products with inferior fillers, preservatives, sugars, additives, and addictive ingredients because real food costs money to produce.
The Farmers pump the cattle and chickens and crops full of hormones and pesticides to fatten the animals and eliminate crop loss.
The Diet Pill companies make money by pushing pills to reverse the weight problems from the food our FDA has approved.
And the Politicians that are supposedly there to protect and work for us---don't even get me started.

The only one looking out for you, is you.

Think before you eat. If you can't pronounce it, don't ingest it. If it's created in a lab, do your research before you use it. And for God's sake, get your ass off the couch.