| What happened? I seemed to have dropped the ball here. I had scheduled many of the posts for my 31 Days in Pictures project and thought everything was all wrapped up. Life has happened and I didn't check in as I should have. So what happened? The blogsphere gremlins, that's what happened. All but maybe one of my scheduled posts are MIA. Gone. Kapoot. So here I am humbly apologizing for my short comings. Should I go on with them or should I just call it over. That I haven't really decided. On one hand, I don't like leaving things unfinished. On the other, now it seems a little vain and self-absorbed to rattle on and on about me. I know this blog was started as my person documentation of my personal growth but now that some people actually READ it, I am humbled enough to know I am not that interesting. I'm pondering what to do but honestly I'm leaning more to the side of abandonment. Why you ask? Because there are so many other things I'd like to blog about and I'm sure you'd rather read more interesting content. While it is nice for me to see myself and my changing preferences over the past year, I have things I want to move on to. |
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| Mom & Me 1972 |
That being said, let's get on with the good stuff. Today is a momentous day for me. Today is my Fortieth Birthday! That's right. I'm declaring publicly out in the blogsphere. A little secret: I LOVE MY BIRTHDAY!!! Ok really that isn't that big of a secret. I have been counting down this day for the past month. I think everyone at work is ready to kill me but they love me so they won't. Many of my friends of the same era have been having mental breakdowns over this age. Why? I know some think that things will never be the same. (Thank God) or that they are now too old for fun. (Don't think so) or that they are one more year closer to the end. (Isn't that kind of what we were heading for from day one). I do not fret about my birthday. It's a gift to make it one more year. I've been graced with yet another year to enjoy my life, to forge a place for myself on this rock we call earth, to accomplish my goals, to fulfill whatever mission I have on this earth, and to enjoy life. Therefore, I love this day. Today, February 25th at 10:29 am I turn 40! Happy Birthday to me!
To go along with one of the hopefully many milestones of my life, this week I attended a workshop at work called Person Goal Setting: Reverse Engineering. Wow! I was so impressed. I've been to so many of these workshops (I work in higher education so we get "professional developed" on a regular basis) but this one actually laid it our in the most simplistic manor at least for me. Here's the short of it. First of all a goal is something obtainable and measurable. A Passion is something you like. I like to write. That's my passion not my goal. My goal is to write a book. That can be obtained and measured. Second of all, the presenter had us quickly list 3 goals. Then he had us close our eyes and imagine we had reached our first goal. With our eyes closed, he instructed us to tap into the rest of our senses (smell, touch, sound etc) then he said "What are the people around you saying?", "How do you feel?", "What are you doing?" etc. Then..."What was the last step you took before you got to your goal?".... Then he had us write it down. Then the step before that. Then the step before that and so on. Once we got to the very first step, he said "Now you know how to start to reach your goal". It was so simple. I don't know how many times I've thought "I want to write a book" then just thought about that. I couldn't move forward because I didn't know how to get started. Oh sure I've sat down and started banging away at the keyboard but the best I could get was a poem or a short story that died out after a few hundred words because that was as far as my simple brain could go...at least without a plan. Now I feel like I have the tools I need to get started. Not just on the writing process but on things that I face everyday...Like the remodeling of this house I live in. It's been a work in progress for 6 years but the last year I did nothing to contribute to it's TLC project (that not the television station either) except for changing the shower curtain. So plans I am a working on.
Not too much today though. Today is the day that my family celebrates me. The one day out of the year that this chic (who is the girl born for the last girl born in the last 40 years) gets to be a princess. So off I go to enjoy a long hot shower and a big cup of hot tea and a book. Maybe not as exciting as jetting across the country to some big party but it's just as amazing to me. I'll watch the sun come up over the tree tops shining down on my little piece of the ridge and enjoy the many gifts and blessings I have received over the last four decades. Life is truly good.
Have a great weekend and as always happy reading!
Cat
