Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Happy New Year


 
Wishing you health, wealth and much happiness in
2015!  Thank you for hanging around and continuing to read my blog. I appreciate your loyalty and hope to offer you many reasons to stay reading in the future.  May the new year bring you all your heart's hopes and desires.  God Bless!

Wednesday, December 24, 2014



               May you have a blessed holiday and very Merry Christmas!  Peace, love, joy and safe holly, jolly festivities to all!


Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Discovery

As 2014 winds to a close and we embark on a new year, there is much to celebrate and remember in 2014 and prepare and look forward to in 2015.  Enjoy the holidays and time spent with friends and family in the upcoming weeks, get some rest and rejuvenate to hit the road running as January darkens your door. 

I read a quote by Alan Alda (any MASH fans out there?  I used to love watching that show:)) that really put into perspective the mindset I would like to foster moving into the new year...

"You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition.  What you'll discover will be wonderful.  What you'll discover is yourself."

Wow!  I think this is a beautiful thought for anyone, but I find myself really relating to it as a writer.  Leaving one's comfort zone and writing with intuitive abandon is so hard but, in doing so, one does travel down the road of personal discovery--a road from which so many can profit in reading the books and stories we create.

God Speed and be well.  May you discover all you desire in all areas of your lives.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Breathe

As I continue through this holiday season and my mission to balance all facets of life amidst the chaos (don't get me wrong...chaos implies something negative though my chaos centers on all good things, just lots of them), I thought this would be very appropriate to share with all of you as I'm sure you are in similar head swirling, holiday frenetic craziness...

"I will breathe,
I will think of solutions.
I will not let my worry control me.
I will not let my stress break me.
I. Will. Simply breathe.
And it will be okay...
Because I don't quit."  Shayne McClendon, The Good Girl

So, take a deep breath, center and forge ahead one thing at a time, moment by moment, and you shall prevail!

Friday, December 5, 2014

Balance

What, exactly, does the word "balance" mean?  Webster defines it as..."to bring into harmony or proportion."  Balance can be thought of in many different areas of life.  The one that is typically foremost in my mind is striving for balance, harmony per se, in my life as a whole.  The ability to balance family life, work life, church life and writing life.  I seem to be in constant upheaval in this quest and often read of others, many others, who have similar issues.

This morning, in my mission to balance my day, I rose early for an exercise class so I would have that part of my day finished and would be able to focus on the rest:  groceries (family life as I have kids complaining we have no food), Mass with my son (church life), paperwork for an upcoming meeting (work life) and blogging and working on my current WIP (writing life).

As I sat spinning my wheels (literally as I went to a cycling class), I was thinking of that ever elusive idea of balance and decided that would be the focus of my blogging this month as balance is hard to come by on good days and nearly impossible in the height of the holiday season.  My posts will be short and sweet in an ongoing effort to balance my time, but I hope you can gain some insight from the words and thoughts I post.

The first words of wisdom I found to bring about my sense of "harmony or proportion" in life are these...

"When you are in harmony with yourself everything unfolds with grace and ease."  Panach Desai

Very true, very true!  So, then, how does one get in harmony with oneself?  Therein lies the issue, does it not?  For me anyway.  It is often easy to "know" what one should do or what one needs to accomplish but how to do it? How to fit it all in in a given day? 

I had a major aha moment when I read the following words which I cannot attribute to anyone as there was no name associated. Drum roll please...

It's not about "having" time.  It's about MAKING time.

Well, yes, ma'am, it sure is.  No one has all the time he/she would like.  It is what one does with the time one carves out of the day that matters.  If writing is what will put your world in balance, then write.  If doing the dishes or laundry will calm the craziness, then so be it.  Or if, like me, you feel some good old fashion snuggle up time with the kids watching Christmas movies will bring some peace and harmony to your world, do it and don't feel guilty.  There will be another time to be more "productive."  Make the time to do what is needed for YOU and let the rest be for the time being.  You can tackle the dishes, laundry, writing, shopping, wrapping, etc., later.  It will still be there, and you will, most likely, be more efficient and less frazzled.

If you have wonderful ways to find and keep the balance in your life or strategies for making time when there doesn't seem to be any, I'd love to hear them.