So, here's the thing...

(While this post may seemed geared only towards women, let me say that any male reader I may have... please consider yourself here as well. Men could use some validation too, and we as women love, or have loved, a man in our lives....and what goes for us goes for them as well). Do you realize just how beautiful you are? Does that question cause you to pause, feel a little embarrassed or self-conscious? Well....you are beautiful, I don't even know you, but I know you are beautiful. I had lunch today with a group of local business women, all of them making their own way. They looked coiffed, wore make-up, had fashionable purses, nice clothes, the whole nine yards....one gal had a rockin' pair of boots that I lusted after...but, I digress...what I'm saying is they all were "put together". After the initial ice breaking went on and we naturally fell into little groups, I started hearing their insecurities. I guess they felt "safe" to talk this way....

What scares you? Are there people, places, things that keep you from sleeping soundly? It's the things that can keep me awake. The intangibles. Can't quite name them, yet they're there. Much comes under the umbrella of fear, and in my opinion there are only two emotions that seem to govern everything in this life, LOVE and FEAR.....and I love meeting fear at the door. I don't even wait for it to ring my doorbell, I usually smell it before it sets foot on my porch! It's the unease that creeps into your mind and says, "Hello, I'm here to mess with you". My good friend understands this visitor, I do too....all too well, or else I couldn't write about it. She can expect a knock at her door just when everything seems to be going right in her life. When we get a chance to talk, we usually end up on this topic. I asked her what she thought was going to go wrong, to which she replied.... .everything! I asked her if she thought she didn...

Fall is my most favorite time of year, and here where I live this countryside just glows. I feel my thoughts turning towards family and homekeeping and all things domestic. It seems to me to be the perfect time for a wedding...think outdoors, golden, brilliant sunshine. Births have a fitting place this time of year too, because, well, a three-month old baby at Christmas time is simply heavenly. The funerals that happen especially in early November go symbolically with the changing of the season, and the dying of what has come to pass. It's the whole of life to me, somehow, if that makes sense, in the Fall. But a close second is Winter..... The stark, barren trees speak of Spring. The cold speaks of sunshine. The frozen ground speaks of new growth. These lessons are not lost on me. I also cherish the turning inward that naturally occurs....drawing curtains, lighting candles....a gathering time. My most important reflections come during the Winter when everything is stripped ...

I am a fan of Tasha Tudor, always have been. Her books illuminated my childhood with magic, and mine was a childhood that needed something to get me up and over the humps of growing up with an alcoholic father....but that's another story for another day. When I read Tasha's beautiful books I was transported to a place in time where gentleness reigned and life was sweet. "Take Joy" for instance, which is her luminous ode to the joy that could be found in the ordinary . It left me dumbstruck. The thought that you could choose to except joy into your life, no matter what is going on around you, seemed revolutionary to me. It has taken me thirty years to actually put this into practice though...maybe I was a slow learner.....but I finally got it! And when I get something I embrace it for all I'm worth. So let's make today about choosing to take Joy Life is easy when served up to you on a silver platter, but when it's served up on a garbage can lid you ...

"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." Mother Teresa This was my Facebook status today. We're all in this together. All of us. Our President's words two nights ago brought tears to my eyes, as it did for many. It set me to thinking how fractured we are as a whole, our very foundation is cracked and bleeding. What to do?....I am only one woman. You are only one human being....what to do, indeed. "Let there be peace on earth an let it begin with me"....that's a good place to begin, and it all begins with us, darlings. I don't get mad like I used to. I can get fired-up, to be sure, but I don't get mad anymore. Big victory. My "peace" depended on other people, what they did, (or usually didn't do ) governed my day. I wasted a lot of years being defined by outward things...people, places, events. I prided myself in thinking I was "different", that I stood apart, that no...

Take a deep breath. Now, take another. There, I'll bet you needed that. I did. I used to live my life so completely out of balance in the past that I didn't know how to breathe....I didn't know what a deep, full breath was. I thought in order to have more time to do....whatever...I needed to accomplish things faster. What a foolish notion, which leads me to this: I am in love with Winter, especially this Winter that I'm experiencing. We've had a lot of snow....a lot by our Southern standards, but it always reminds me to slow down. Snow days are good for this. Everything changes overnight: appointments, work, school, driving....everything. Time to STOP. I awake to absolute silence on days like these. The snow has transformed, once again, my surroundings to a soft, silent place. The normal jarring sounds of life are suddenly silenced. My street becomes a village, neighbors voices carry in a way that make them so close. The sound of shovels delights my ...

Yes, it is, but CNN wouldn't want you to know that. The media doesn't want you to hear the good stories that are out there (and they're happening every single day), no, TV wants you to believe that people everywhere are messed up, out of work, suicidal, angry, violent and generally having a very bad day. Statistics support this, people spend their lives calculating the numbers of just how many downtrodden, unhappy people live in this country. Well here's a thought: What you focus upon expands. The wisest people I know don't watch very much TV. They mostly use it to watch their choice of DVD's. Me, I fall somewhere in between. When I listen to bad news I try to listen with a dispassionate attitude, and this is not a cold, unfeeling thing to do. I won't allow myself to get sucked into the mire. Instead I imagine a very sage soul is sitting there with me.....this could be Jesus, Buddha, or any wise and centered being you can think of....and from this I ...

I tend to believe what we all want in life has nothing to do with money, but it has everything to do with finding your purpose for being here. In my humble opinion it's about service to others, it's very plain and simple to me. So what would service look like for you ? Do you have a clear vision of how you can reach out and serve? Here's a thought for starters, it's never been about us. Our purpose is to be in community with others, and when you hit your stride, reach your bliss, get on purpose , you will be provided for abundantly. That is how it works....promise. The drive to make money blocks it from flowing into our lives. It's about perception, focus, intent. Now I'm not saying if you're about to be thrown out of your home, and your kids are hungry, that you should just sit there. You will need to support yourself and working is the socially acceptable way to do that. But what about this economy and it's jobless rate? What about there b...

I started this blog as a way to process my divorce. Part a cathartic exercise and part an attempt to share what lessons I'd learned along the way. Well, no one really reads this blog, and I'm totally okay with that. I don't write for anyone's approval or comments. I write because I think. I write because I get into this stream of consciousness mode and just need to pound it out on these keys. So there you go. But that leads me to this: I am ready to move this blog into a different direction now. I'm completely past divorce mode and now into living my best life . It's still going to be a ride, what good things in life aren't? Maybe a wider audience will eventually pick up, maybe not, and that's okay by me. So, here goes nothing. I still think the title of this blog fits. Everyone is looking for a place to call home, and while I'm not saying this is your home, I am saying that the universal call to find out what your heart truly calls you ...