Today My Name Is...Inspired

Quite often on Friday's you hear the overwhelming TGIF across the board no matter who you talk to. Well today I can say TGIF as I have earned a glass of wine after this week and having made accomplishments but it was an amazing day and way to finish the week and I credit that to my girlfriend for popping over for coffee. She is also the owner of Dew Drop Aroma therapy.

Miss Dew brought along with her the products I won. I am so excited to have the products and I just tried them and they are truly so light and wonderful, the smell is not overwhelming at all. I am super sensitive to smell so I can relate with others who have issues when it comes to powerful scents. The scents are very earthy and natural, very fresh. I have had issues in recent years with my skin being too dry and recently with breakouts and I have tried products but have never found something that has agreed with my skin and helped in either respect. These are natural products which I am even more stoked about as I try to transition my life and my children's away from chemicals and live healthier. I look forward to seeing how my skin feels as well. I am hopeful that I have found a product that can become part of my life.

It was such a wonderful visit. Why people wait to get together is beyond me. We really need to live more and get together. It had been far too long and so over due! I am envious honestly of the life she is living. She is living her passions, she is happy and healthy. A career made from following ones passions...unreal eh? These are things we all want so badly yet are scared as I admitted to her to take that one step in the direction we desire, or we try and and the smallest hint of failure we turtle back to find security. Her direction is benefiting many people but the key person is herself.

As we chatted and I explained my frustration with my nerve damage and arm and how it has become a road block in so many ways and taken from me passions I had, she opened the door to new possibilities and directions based on things I mentioned I enjoy. I had never thought of any of them.

It is so true that if you want something and work towards it, it is attainable. The key role is taking that initial step....and that's my issue, my fears and anxieties. I am a person who finds comfort zones and fears stepping outside of these zones for fear of what could be...when really that what could be could really be positive! We tend to see the negatives and perhaps I think that the what could be is a negative. If we teach our minds that each step moves towards a positive then we train ourselves to experience and possibility. I need to open doors, turn on the light and allow for creative possibilities and finding passion. If the world was this way and everyone was seeking their passions and in turn living through happiness I wouldn't be posting like my last post. Happiness is moving forward...I think the world much like myself has transcended into a place of pause...we do not know how to move forward.

What I am saying is....we need more like my dear friend in the world. We need to create for ourselves opportunity.

Our visit was such an uplifting and rewarding time shared. As my last post mentioned....people come and people go and everyone and everything happens for a reason, to teach, add, build, grow...I think we have reconnected for a reason, a very positive one at that. I look forward to getting together again soon for a date night as we talked about. Including our men and a branch of our happiness.

I needed this uplifting, motivating, inspirational visit. She reminded me very very much of the person I was prior to the accident. Since then I sort of packed life in and stopped living. The saddle may have been stiff but I have been actively trying this past few months and having this blog helps to look back and see that I am moving forward and upward into a better place.

It's time to train the mind that happiness is the only way to exist. Onward, upward...there is no pause, no waiting, delays or stops just forward and like she said, stepping into places we are not comfortable with is challenging and rewarding and it really helps us...time to continue challenging. Maybe I will attempt a yoga class by myself instead of relying on having my daughter to go with. Baby steps.

It's been a beautiful week, so much to be thankful for, grateful for and so much to look forward to. I have seen small but positive goals reached this week that shows me anything is attainable. Time and patience young grasshopper. I am rebuilding me, gaining back strength and working on confidence...dragging toes on occasion but I think the end result will be a positive person that I can look into the mirror at and say, "I am Happy." I may never be perfect but what really is the true meaning of perfect? If I can look at myself and say I am happy then I think that right there is the true meaning of perfection.

Today My Name is Inspired.

Today My Name is...Old School

Life is a lesson, a learning curve. Everything in our lives at any given point is there or happens for a reason, to teach us, or to assist us, or whatever the case may be it's there for a reason.

My journey has been full of ups and downs, highs and lows. I feel good right now, last night was the first night back at yoga, and I've lost a few pounds and remain on task and motivated. There are somethings in life I need to add, remove ect to assist me to reach a place I am happiest in. Some people are meant to be in our lives, others are not.

Each day I learn a little life lesson and for that I am grateful. It also helps to teach me about those I have in my life, and where on my shelf value they should be in perspective to my life. Be it family or friends each has their place and oddly enough sometimes it's friends that place higher than family. At least in our family that is the case, our friends are very dear to us.

Social media has really become a negative force in life. I am blogging using online media, a diary of my life of sorts to read back on, to help others, to relate....but each day I also see how media affects us. Cyber bullying, losing touch of that personal connection between people. It's disappointing. I recently found out that my sister is expecting...how? Through Facebook status. Good thing I logged on. Sheesh. Nothing like sharing family news with family before the rest of the world but that's where clarity hit. I guess I am different. Perhaps what matters to me is different than it is to others. I value the importance of family and these wonderful life moments. My friends always call, text, or share news when we are together before it hits the almighty world of facebook. I think that's how it should be. The world is a very superficial place.

This past weekend I got a reminder in my phone, one I set while with my grandmother. It was to remember to send Christmas cards and school pictures. All she asked was that I took a moment to write a note and send it her way. This year it is too late to go back, and I missed an opportunity to take that moment. She is gone now and it really bothers me that so many have become consumed with online and forget life's most simple moments like addressing an envelope and writing in a card. I fell into that hole. I think many of us can relate.

As mentioned I am in a good place and I think I am really reconnecting with what matters in life, and what matters to me and these are feel good things that propel me to better my life and my families. I have read articles recently and seen video that have really touched me.  I am sharing them here because I want to hold them in a place that I can look back. Each is a valuable life lesson and something can be taken from each.

Coming Out of the Closet & not the Traditional Sense
Marriage Isn't For You

These two links and above pictures have connected deeply with me this past week and my life in general. I am grateful that they came into my life through social media. Positives like this should be what social media is meant for, to better and teach us all. Sadly for many it has the opposite effect.

In moving forward I think my life with find me spending less time online, less time viewing tv and more time spent with family and friends, reading, spending time outside, doing things = living, on the phone talking to those in my life VS texting, writing a letter or card VS emailing or posting. I am going to make more of an effort to be in the moment and show that I care to take a minute much like stopping to smell the roses. Life passes us all too quick and some things matter. I guess I am old school that way or just appreciate these things myself.

What's funny is that growing up I always thought of my parents and grandparents as old school and boring and that they should get with the times and now here I am looking back saying, "Those were the days!" They really were. More time spent outside carefree and living, talking and looking into peoples faces, learning about technology VS technology consuming us. It really is in many ways ruining society.

This past week in the news I was incredibly disappointed to see this article which just supports everything I feel in that society takes no responsibility and has no motivation being instilled...we are developing lazy enabled children and a sad society.

Calgary School removes Honor Roll

Last night at parent teacher interviews we spoke with our daughters teachers about how sad this is. Our daughters teachers said that they are against the end of the year awards that single out only the very high achieving students as it says the child who got 99.9% worked harder and deserves the award more so than the child who received 99.5%. I was pleased to hear the teachers feeling the same as us in that students who achieve honors should be recognized as it gives them something to strive for. This is no different then how I feel about ringette and the LTAD and how they talk about removing tiering and competition from U12 levels. When will our children learn to work for what they want if they are not challenged? As society we are rescuing and doing our next generations no favors in any way....the law is too soft, our competitive drive is turning into one of friendship, and school is all but shattering work ethic all together.

This post I guess is a bit of a rant, but we have all become part of the problem. Media says Divorce rate is 50% so instead of working at it and learning to work together it's okay because the divorce rate is 50%. I don't want to be a statistic, I didn't when I married at 18 or became a young mother. I don't now. I am not what media puts out there. I am not others, I do not need to follow fads, fashions and my girls thankfully are rowing the same boat. The media is not ingrained in them...we do not wear brand names or jump on fashion wagons, we choose our paths for what works for us.

I will continue with Yoga because I like how it feels when I do it. I gain so many pleasures from it and relaxation is one of the key pleasures. I will wear my hoodies, sweaters and don sweats because they are comfortable and suit my life. I may be a younger parent than my daughters friends parents but that does not make me any less of a person or a parent. I find the most judgemental people are some of our children's friends parents and it's such a joke....on them. We work just as hard, live in a home with the same square footage, our children play the same sports and we do camps ect...I guess in stating this I have pointed out competition? Or is this because of media portraying young parents in a certain way? Or is it all about financial?

I am probably more strict than my daughters friends parents...in fact sometimes I really feel like a Tiger Mom. You know what though? I think my girls benefit from our family morals and being pushed....

Today My Name is...Old School