How Not To Be A Lady

My beautiful Lolita sent me this link today: A Cup of Jo and I laughed and smiled and almost cried at some of these quotes!  Oh how beautiful we women are when we choose to be brave and authentic.  It is a breath of fresh air to be balls out and completely the woman you are meant to be!  My favorite quote from this article was this one:

Whatever you choose, however many roads you travel, I hope that you choose not to be a lady. I hope you will find some way to break the rules and make a little trouble out there. And I also hope that you will choose to make some of that trouble on behalf of women.

—Nora Ephron

I have a surge of joy in my heart and my chest when I read it and reread it.  A bubble of joy just immediately blows up inside of me and then bursts throughout all my insides and through my limbs!!!  Why??!!!   Because this is how I want to live my life...this is how I want all the women I love to live their lives!  To not be afraid of what others might think or say or smirk at...and just do that which makes you shine and rock on.  Why should we stand there and think that we are not good enough, beautiful enough, smart enough, special enough?  Who are these "meters" that we are comparing ourselves to, that we think we are below them?  Maybe celebrities, people who have money, younger women, more "accomplished" (again, what is the meter?), or any other person that we believe are in some way above us?  Oh how wrong must we be.  I look around at those I call my friends, my family, my coworkers, people on the street and I see women who are unique and special and wondrous and so then what I try to do is reflect that back on me and tell myself, that if I can see that in others...then why would I be so unique as to not have those same beautiful qualities?  The answer is that as different as I am to others, I am just the same and I, too, am special and wondrous.  I just love paradoxes!!  

A lady is proper, perfect, formal, polite, and I would say probably very uninteresting due to her lack of depth in her presentation.  This does not mean that the lady is uninteresting, it is to say the title and what it implies is.  So to not be a lady is to be deep, not afraid to be criticized, not afraid to stand out, interesting, speaks her mind, but I would also want to add that due to being deep, not being a lady means to empathize with imperfection, have compassion for others and be non judgmental.  This is what all those sparkly pieces of joy that burst inside of me look like.  Imperfect, shiny, interesting, tiny pieces of love flitter about my insides like confetti.  This is why I want to live my life like that. "I hope you choose not to be a lady." 

iPad Life Lesson

iPad Life Lesson

I lost all my journal entries on my noteshelf app this weekend. At first, I was pretty mad and disheartened by it…but then I started thinking about it and realized that for about 2 weeks, “letting go”, has really been emphasized to me. I read that we do not like to let go of things, even or maybe especially those things have taught us a lesson that we’ve already learned. We tend to keep them close to our heart and revisit the lesson over and over and not realizing that perhaps if we let go, the only thing that can happen is that we move on to the next lesson, experience, blessing, challenge…etc. So that’s what I am trying to accept at this moment. To let go of things that have already taught me what they were supposed to. To let go of memories that were beautiful at the time, but now only bring me sadness when I think of them. To let go of baggage that only weighs me down and be freer than I have been. Then I can move on to whatever it is that is coming up next for me, and during this time of “what’s next”, I want to be patient, grateful for what is and what’s now, and believe that I am exactly where I am meant to be and love as much as I can to those around me.

I know that it’s not as easy as it sounds, but it is simple. We can choose to let go…let go when we are ready, or maybe not as ready as we think we are but we do it anyway. Kind of like jumping off a ledge even though we’re scared out of our minds. Or chugging an oyster when you’re not sure if you like raw oysters. Or writing a blog post when you haven’t written in a long time so you’re pretty stale. Ha! But you do it anyway. So I will choose to let go. Even if that means choosing minute by minute…or second by second…I will let go. I will let go and look forward and not let shit weigh me down. Thank you iPad for always teaching me great things! I love you! #baggage #letgo #peace #mindfulness

Doo Bee Doo Bee Dooo!

Happy Easter!  The day our Lord rose from the dead and a day for all of us to be able to use this day as a resurrection of sorts to our lives.  Every day, we are given, is a chance for a whole new life, if for whatever reason, we are unhappy or dissatisfied with the one we're living.  I think that a whole lot of us view ourselves as "victims" of life and that we just sit back and let life happen to us.  Although, there is so much in life that we have no control over, and we should "roll with the punches", we have ALL the control over how we actually live.  We can choose our behavior.  We can choose our actions.  We can choose our thoughts.  We can choose to be better.  That is not to say that we shouldn't also be grateful and thank God for where we are and who we are exactly this moment (in other words, let's not be hard on ourselves), but we can also know there's always room for improvement.  I saw a documentary once called the "Quantum Physicist" and he was doing a lecture and he said something along the lines that we have to work, then rest in the work, work, then rest in the work...Do, Be, Do, Be, Do.. :)
But that's exactly what I'm trying to say.  Accept who we are (smile) and then decide what action, thought, feeling, can come next to take us one step further into becoming a better version of ourselves!  So today I will choose to be happy, to be grateful for so much beauty in my life, to appreciate everything that is mine, to polish all those beautiful things i've been given so that I'm taking care of them to the best of my ability and to thank my God for being ALIVE.  We serve an awesome God and in losing myself in Him, He gives me life back abundantly.  Thank you Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Just one second now

I haven't written in a while...that's what happens when life is good...you get caught up in things in your life! But I was reading my old blogs and realized I missed writing down my thoughts and seeing where I am along the way. So I think I'll try picking it up again. I was telling Vic about what Lisa said the other day to me and she said that she has wished to be me forr one second. She said that seeing from her eyes how great and blessed my life seems...grand babies, great job, great husband, great son and daughter in law...etc, that it would be nice to see how my life felt. But I was telling her that the more beautiful thing about what she said, was that she said, ONE SECOND. Because truth be told she'd go right back to her life within a second. No matter how hard has been or maybe is in the present ...most of us, if not all, would not trade our lives with anyone. Not even people we admire or seem to have it all, something down deep inside of us (I would say our spirit) knows that we're exactly where we belong at the moment in our bodies. I thought that was such a beautiful and amazing truth! I love that ifnwe take the time to just pause and meditate on things we say or things we think about they will always lead us to some answer to a question, or a resolution to a question. I know is because the Holy Spirit lives in us and if we can just be quiet enough to hear and listen we can hear what He has to tell us.

Christmas blog

Vic got me an iPad for Xmas so I wanted to see how easy it would be to type up a blog post....so far so good. I'm getting some errors but the iPad is automatically fixing them. Very fun! We had such a nice Christmas. Bth families came over and Lisa and brad came with their new baby. We had tons of food and I had my grandbabies here, really nothing better in the world than those babies. Of course, we also celebrated vic's birthday. My husband...we've had our rough times but man he really is such a great guy. I'm a lucky woman and I know it. I hope he knows how much I appreciate him and love him. I don't have any words of wisdom today just a grateful heart and a full stomach! Thank you to all my family and friends and to God for taking care of all of us and blessing us with so much more than we deserve. I hope everyone has a wonderful day and a very happy new year!

After Thanksgiving thank you

Wow...what a great holiday we had!!  Thanksgiving was wonderful as always, I was totally tired.  I woke up at 6:45 to start cooking and my turkey didn't even turn out that good...hmmmm...not sure why.  My mom's was great though, so it's always good to have two turkeys.  I woke up the next day and started cleaning up.  Something very strange happened while I was "mopping" the hardwood floors, I actually started crying.  I was crying because I love my house, because at that moment, I was sooooo happy with my life.  I was so filled with satisfaction at how my life was at that moment...cleaning up after thanksgiving with my family, being Victor's wife, being Daniel and Leanna's grandmother and tons of other stuff that I was thinking and it just flooded it out in tears of happiness.  Time and life have such a mysterious way of making everything better.  But also with time and life, we have to consciously make the decision to start making choices that are good for our health, our spirits, our minds.  We always sow what we reap and we have to plant good things and rip out the weeds.  I remembered how I felt the same time last year and how sad and lost I was...I just can't believe the miracle that my life is at the same time this year.  So I suppose and I have to believe that time and life is that way for everyone.  If you're feeling down, lost, dark...etc., start doing things today that will put your future in the best possible track now.  Start eating healthier, start being good to more people, stop bad habits whether it's overeating, being envious, being bitter, being lazy, being regretful...whatever it is.  Stop or start today.  I just can't wait to see how next year's Thanksgiving day after will look now that I've learned so many life lessons this past year!!  How exciting.  Thank you Lord.

Oh no...it's a POEM!

I wrote a few poems when I was young, but haven't written one in....oooooo....25 years...if not longer?  So I was inspired the other day to write this poem.  Maybe I'll write songs one of these days ;)

So here it is...if anyone reads this and likes it, I would REALLY want to hear about it.  Or if you read and you don't like it, Id like to know that too!

I awoke with a start,

Looking around to see

I had been living in a dream

Now I have reality.

At first, I felt fear and self-pity

Not understanding why it happened to me.

Reality seemed so grey and bland,

I felt I was in a not-so-funny comedy.

Sing song voices, dreams so deep

I kept feeling like I was waiting

For something to happen, to see a purpose

To my darkness and yet my ultimate protecting.

I now see light and love in this horizon

No more fleeting stars and things glittery.

What I have now is so much better,

After waiting and so much forgetting...I remembered me.

I hope everyone has a blessed and lovely day!