What sets your Soul on Fire?

 

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. It’s a blustery Wednesday and most of the state of Michigan has closed including the company I work for. So, I’ve been snuggled under my blanket in front of the fire working on my story. That’s when the inspiration hit for this blog post. So, here we go!

Photo credit: paul+photos=moody on Visual Hunt / CC BY-NC

Women through out history have been given conflicting messages from society when it comes to their role in life. Dealing with this is exasperating and draining, so here’s my take on that.

Women should decide for themselves what they want to do with their lives.

Don’t ask your partner because most likely he or she will pick what they want, and that may or may not be what’s best for you. Now, this may be uncomfortable for you because we were raised to be nice and think of other people’s feelings first, but it’s okay to be self-focused about this. You have just as much right to pursue happiness as everyone else on the face of the earth. It’s written in the constitution.

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To do this, you have to prioritize your goals. Choose the ones that are most important to you. It may be you want to stay at home and be there for your kids. It may be you want a career because accomplishments are important to you. Whatever the case may be, decide what aspirations are important to you and pursue those goals.  Don’t listen to anybody else.

To find the goals that resonate with you, you must know yourself, know what sets your soul on fire. It takes time to do this and sometimes it might be a little uncomfortable, but it’s worth the discomfort. Trust me. Once you know what’s important to you, the setting and following goals part becomes much easier.

 

Photo credit: David Reber’s Hammer Photography on Visualhunt/ CC BY-SA

As you go through this process, you’ll see not everyone has the same dream and not everyone will understand your journey, and that’s okay. We all have our own paths to take and once we accept that, we’ll be able to allow everyone in our lives to walk their own path. It doesn’t mean we won’t feel pain or discouragement, but  maybe we won’t spend so much time wallowing in those painful emotions. We’ll learn our lesson and move on.

Once we do this, things will start to flow. Decisions will be easier to make because we’ll ask ourselves, does this align with my dreams? If the answer is yes, we know what to do, and if the answer is no, we know what to do.

So, take a few minutes, or a few hours, or a few days, months, or years and think about what sets your soul on fire and then go for it!

Photo on VisualHunt.com

Thanks for taking time to read my post. I hope it resonates with you! What are your dreams and aspirations? What steps are you taking to go after them? Leave a comment! I love hearing from you!

Tropical Vacations on my Mind

 

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today after finishing a couple of scenes in my story. It’s coming together and I’m excited to see the final product. I hope you are, too.

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks. What with the Super Blood Wolf Moon and the bitter cold weather, I’ve been staying inside, working on my story and dreaming of warmer weather.

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I can’t wait for summer and my days and nights hanging out by the beach and reading! I have so many books I on my TBR pile, I can’t think straight, but enough about that.

Photo on VisualHunt.com

Today as I hibernate against the bitter cold outside. It’s nineteen degrees, by the way, too cold for me that’s for sure. I daydream about a nice warm vacation that I’d like to go on. My kids want to go to the Bahamas. Right now, that sounds pretty good, I want to go anywhere warm.

 

Photo credit: pontla on Visual Hunt / CC BY-NC-ND

I’ve googled a few places and found that it’s going to be expensive, so I’m going to start saving right now and maybe by this time next year, I’ll be sitting on the beach drinking a strawberry margarita.

A tropical vacation would be good for my soul. Can you imagine sleeping with the window open and listening to the waves lap the shore? I can. Did you know that walking barefoot on a beach or anywhere is good for you? It’s called Earthing or Grounding.

I could certainly do some earthing in the Bahamas. Just having direct contact with the earth helps stabilize daily cortisol rhythm and creates an internal bio-electrical environment. In other words, it’s good for your soul.

Photo credit: Kew on Flickr on VisualHunt / CC BY-NC-SA

There are also health benefits from being by the water. Did you know the salty air around the ocean helps support serotonin and melatonin production? Say good bye to the blues when you’re by the water.

Just researching these facts makes me think about returning to nature and simplifying my life so that I can do all the things I love to do. Maybe at retirement, I’ll live by the beach and read all the time, but for right now, I’ll just concentrate on a vacation.

How about you? When’s the last time you went on a vacation that was good for your soul? Leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you!

Let’s End the Mom Wars

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you! I’m back today with a post I wrote a few years back. It was a popular post and it still has relevance today so I thought I’d share it again. Thanks to all my followers for reading. I love you all!

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today and I’m talking about the Mom Wars. You know what they are, where Moms become competitive with each other over mothering. Whenever I see it I groan. It drives me absolutely nuts.

Photo credit: hans s via VisualHunt / CC BY-ND

I remember talking to one parent in particular. My kids weren’t friends with her kids, but we’d end up running into each other at the park and we’d compare notes. For example, what movie my kids liked and what one they didn’t. She’d tell me what play areas were good and which ones weren’t and so on. However, each time we parted, I felt frustrated and I wasn’t sure why. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. So the next time we talked, I paid attention to what was going on, and I noticed that every…

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Friday Inspiration

I thought this was a good one for today! Happy Friday everyone! Have a great weekend!

 

A Series of Unfortunate Assumptions

 

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. Christmas break is finally over, and the Christmas decorations are all put away. Sob. Christmas is my favorite holiday so I’m always a little sad when all the lights and other décor are taken down. Sigh.

Photo credit: wwarby on Visualhunt / CC BY

The night before the first day back to school, we received a weather alert informing us a storm was coming very early the next morning. Freezing rain. We didn’t think much of it because we get alerts like this quite often and the predictions usually don’t pan out or they’re not as bad as anticipated, so we went about our evening rituals, got the kids to bed and settled down to watch one of our favorite shows.

Photo credit: Shawn Harquail on VisualHunt.com / CC BY-NC

The next morning, we got up and had our breakfast before I took the boys to the bus stop. When we arrived, there were no other kids waiting for the bus. Now, our bus driver has a history of arriving early and leaving whether or not anyone’s waiting for her. Something numerous people have complained about. So, we NATURALLY assumed when we didn’t see the bus that she’d already left. So, I proceeded to drive to the next bus stop, I’ve had to do this numerous times in the past to make sure my boys get to school. (Not happy about that. Let me tell you!)

Photo credit: RubyT (I come here for cameraderie!) on VisualHunt / CC BY-NC-ND

No one was at that stop either. So NATURALLY, I assumed she was really early and we had missed the bus, so I proceeded to drive my boys to school.  When we arrived, there were no other cars in the parking lot except for the snow plow, plowing the lot. I thought this was odd, but my son informed me the school doesn’t open until seven. This is a new policy and I remember receiving an e-mail about it a couple of months ago. Since it was quarter to seven, I NATURALLY assumed the staff would be arriving any minute.

So, I pulled into the circle drive and proceeded to wait with my boys until the school opened. As it neared the witching hour, no lights flickered on and no cars arrived in the parking lot. I turned to the backseat and asked. “Why are there no other parents dropping off their kids this morning? What’s going on?”

Photo credit: real00 on Visual Hunt / CC BY-NC-SA

And only then did my oldest say, “I wonder if school is cancelled.”

“Check the website.” My tone was light but inside my breakfast started to curdle while my brain shouted. You mean to tell me, we didn’t have to get up at the butt crack of dawn to get the boys to the bus? We didn’t have to crawl out of a warm bed and go out into the cold morning air to drop the boys off at school? I shushed my inner demon and reasoned with him.  Relax. We usually get a recorded call at five in the morning when school is cancelled.

I sincerely believed school wasn’t cancelled, but there were no cars and no lights. I started to sweat a little. When my son checked the website on his phone, it was only then we learned we had a two-hour delay.

I’m sure the snowplow driver we encountered had a hearty chuckle out of the lone car parked in front of the school, waiting for the school to open, and I’m sure he had a full belly laugh when we finally realized it wasn’t opening for another two hours and drove away. Yeah. That’s how my week started. So, you know the rest of my week has got to be good after a start like that, right?

 

Photo credit: ramendan on VisualHunt.com / CC BY-ND

How about you? Did your week start as planned? Leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you!

Gratitude in the New Year

 

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Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. It’s the New Year and I’m excited for what 2019 has in store for me. I have some stories I need to finish and I’m hoping this year is the year for me to do that.

However, I don’t want to talk about that today. I thought today, I would talk about gratitude. There’s a meme floating around Facebook and it states, if you list three things you’re grateful for every day, you’ll become happy.  Let’s face it, we’re all looking for happiness and it’s so elusive. Hidden behind the mundane routine of our everyday lives. It’s hard to find in the morning traffic jam and the bills we have to pay to keep a roof over our heads, but it’s there.

 

If you’re smart. You’ll look for it in the simple things, like making your kids their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or getting up at the butt crack of dawn to make sure they make it to the bus stop on time. That’s truly where happiness lies.

I know you’re questioning my logic. After all, crawling out of a warm bed and throwing your coat on over your pajamas to go out in the freezing cold doesn’t sound like much fun. It isn’t, but the fact my kids rely on me to do this every morning makes me happy. We chat for a few minutes as we wait for the bus and they tell me things they don’t mention at the dinner table. I know it doesn’t sound magical, but it is. It is to me. They’re growing up so fast and these moments are becoming fewer and fewer as they develop friendships and become more independent.

Photo credit: RubyT (I come here for cameraderie!) on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

 

I’m grateful for those moments. I’m also grateful for the moments when we’re together and they give me grief. They enjoy picking on me. I tell them that’s their way of showing me they love me. They deny it, but I know it’s true.

I’m also grateful for those times when we’re up north and night falls. I stand on the dock, taking in the moon and stars, and my family wanders out to take in the night sky with me. I love those moments, especially because my youngest is interested in the stars and our solar system. We chat for a few minutes about them and take in the wonder of the heavens. We connect in a world where most connections are digital, and it’s such an awesome feeling to connect even if it’s only for a few minutes. Sometimes that’s all you need.

Photo on Foter.com

Wow. I’ve listed three things I’m grateful for and you know what? I do feel happier. That meme wasn’t lying.  I’m going to try this for twenty one days and see if it’s permanent. How about you? What are you grateful for? Leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you!

 

Happy New Year!!