2024

Happy Thursday,

How is everyone doing at the beginning of this wonderful and hopeful new year? I hope you all had an amazing holiday season and more importantly, I pray you made some wonderful memories and were surrounded by friends and family. Time spent with family and friends are the type of moments we treasure most.

I’ve heard it said many times over, nobody says on their death bed, “I wish I would have worked more. I wish I would have bought the bigger house. I wish I, whatever.” What people say at the end of their lives is this, “I wish I would have spent more time with my kids, with my family. I wish I would have taken time to make that phone call, I wish I had more time to enjoy the simple things in life.”

Ernest Hemingway said, “try to learn to breathe deeply, really taste the food when you eat, and when you sleep, really sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive, with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell, and when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.”

One of my favorite movies is Eat, Pray, Love. One scene that really stands out is when Liz, played by Julia Roberts, says, “I used to have this insatiable appetite for my life.” The movie is based upon a true story and it’s one that I tend to watch over and over and over again. I think it’s become a reminder to me that happiness isn’t in the stuff I have, it’s in the experiences I embrace in life.

Lately, as I’ve slowly been boxing up all my Christmas decor, I’ve been binge watching/listening to Hoarders. I look around my home and think, what can I get rid of. I don’t need all this stuff, in fact, I think life would be easier without so much stuff. Then, I think about getting rid of a few of my Christmas trees and realize, they make me happy, even when they don’t have 100’s of ornaments on them. I love walking into any room in my home and seeing a Christmas tree during the holiday season, so, I will purge some of my ornaments and keep the trees. Next year, maybe I’ll purge a tree or two, but for now, scaling back but not completely getting rid of things, that makes me happy.

I’ll be honest, the tiny home movement is really something I find I’m rather curious about. I don’t think I’m quite ready to go tiny, but I’m ready to clear my mind and clear the clutter that races around in my brain. I feel so overwhelmed right now with stuff that I find that I shut down and can’t accomplish the things that make me happy, therefore, I’ve created a schedule for myself with knowing that not per say my home is cluttered, but my mind. Blogging is the highest priority, followed by podcasting and then crafting.

I heard it said, if you clear your mind, the Universe will have a doorway to enter and show you the way. I guess for me, what this means is, with all the praying and begging the Universe, or God, to show my the path I’m supposed to be on, I block those signs with clutter or racing thoughts. Not the healthiest way to be on God’s path. Maybe I’m finally realizing the entire, letting go, letting God concept.

It’s so much easier to allow spirit, God, the Universe into our life if our lives aren’t cluttered with stuff, thoughts and fear.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. I’ve owned my own home, and multiple homes ever since I was 17 years old. Bought a condo right after my 17th birthday, and now, since my divorce, I rent. I think renting gives me a false sense of fear. You see, I rent a condo and the owner is awesome, he’s only raised my rent once, and for that I’m grateful, however, he’s an older gentleman and there’s always the chance that he could decide to sell my home, a risk we renters take. The sense of security, while we are never 100% secure, even if we own a home, security is a little more tangible when we are homeowners verses renters. I love my home, my community and the relationships that I’ve built here and I know John feels the same, however, maybe God has another plan for us.

One of my prayers to God is, “use me to help others.” I want to be of service in my life. Serving makes me happy. I think that’s the one positive I can take from my childhood being raised in a cult. I was forced to serve, preach and be a slave to man, however, without realizing it, I found my gift. I never preached the doctrine of the church, instead, I formed relationships with people and I found that I absolutely loved hearing their stories. Oh sure, I’d leave them with a positive thought from the bible just like I was ordered to do, but, looking back it wasn’t a thought to try to entice them into my religion, it was a scripture such as, throw your burden upon him or God knows the number of hairs on your head, so he’s always there for you. Praying usually always makes us feel better, even if you don’t believe, talking out loud, many times we find the answers, after all, you are getting expert advice, advice from the one person that knows you best, yourself.

Home is where the heart is, so I know, no matter where John and I land in this life together, I’ll always be home with him.

As I sit here and write my first blog for 2024, I’m looking out my living room window, watching all the trees dance in the wind. They’re swaying ever so softly, almost like on a cool summer night. The sky is clear, the lake is crystal clear with a touch of sun beam overlaying it. The smell of winter, with a hint of spring, it’s beauty at its finest and as I embark on 2024, I will wake up each day with gratitude. I have so much to be grateful for.

What does it mean to have an insatiable appetite for life? Well, according to Collins dictionary, it means, you want as much of it as you can possibly get. An appetite for something means, a desire, a liking for something, fondness, or taste, an appetite for pleasure.

In a nut shell, we are at the beginning of a new adventure. We are in a brand new year. We’ve been given a clean slate. Every day in fact, we are given a clean palate. it.

With it being a brand new year, people tend to make those New Year’s resolutions, so maybe one resolution we can all make together could be, to gain an insatiable appetite for life. Let’s love the live we’ve been given, find the positive in each day and give gratitude to the Universe, God, or whatever entity you believe in.

I know someone personally that never has a happy thought. Whenever I speak with him, which is less and less as time goes by, he is always angry about something, hating on someone, disliking a situation, and blaming everyone, including the government for his misfortunes in life. Over the last six months he’s said some pretty nasty things to me and one that sticks out in my mind the most is, “you look at the world through those rich, rosy colored glasses.” This has always angered me and frustrated me, because I never thought of myself as rich, however, next time this person says this to me, I will tell him, “thank you, you are right, I am rich and I do look at the world with rosy colored glasses.”

No, I don’t look at the world as being perfect, but there is perfection in it. I’m no dummy, I know this world we live in is pretty messed up at times, but my rosy colored glasses choose to see the good in others, the kind acts of humanity with my fellow neighbors, I choose to focus on good, rather than the evil. I’m rich and at times, I feel like the richest person in the world. I don’t have a lot of money, I’ll most likely not ever work again, therefore, my income will always be limited, however, when I sit around a dinner table with my friends, laughing and enjoying a meal, or when John and I join his family for dinner at their favorite restaurant, that interchange of positivity and love, money can’t buy that. When my sons drop over unannounced to grab a water, take the golf cart for a spin, or just to say hi between jobs, money can’t buy that kind of happiness, so yeah, I will from now on agree with this person, the one family member in my life who chooses to put me down for being rich. I won’t get angry, frustrated or upset with him, instead, I’ll agree, because I am rich in love. I am rich in family. I am rich in friendships and I am rich in the beauty of gratitude.

Ahh, I do feel better with this one simple change in outlook when I’m put down by this person. I feel as though a burden has been lifted off my shoulders. I guess it’s true, letting go of the negative and finding the good, it really does make for a happier day, and a happier life.

So with that thought, welcome 2024!!! I am embracing our new year and our new adventures together. I am grateful you brought me along for another year of lessons, challenges and more importantly, of the many unknown accomplishments I’ve yet to see. 

I’m excited to grow this blog into an even bigger platform and I’m excited to invite you all over to my other two blog sites, once they’re up and running, and of course, I’ll be inviting you to my Podcast. I’ll be updating you on all of these fun new adventures I’m embarking on soon, so stay tuned and until next time, thank you for reading and don’t forget, Love Life++