Choices and Change

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"Choices and changes" - promised subject of the week.  What a whirlwind, exciting time of my life this is - five full and fast months have flown by in 2010, the second year of my retirement already!  Yet, I haven't not lived the months that have flown by, neither have I not savored them.  Some days just seem too good to be true!  Wow, you may be wondering what happened to me today, where did all of this energy come from, what's the celebration all about?  My simple answer would be "choices and changes."

You may have read my May 30 post with a quote from Eve Eschner Hogan, and I told you yesterday how my mind has been on full speed ahead mode in my reading and study of subjects I never dared to think I would enjoy.  Ancestry and family trees,  civil rights, personal freedoms, WWII, the South Pacific - global geography......oh yes, you can recognize the manic state right now, can't you?

Before you tune out or vote to have me committed, please consider some of the choices I've made this year and how those choices are changing my well-being status.  First, instead of New Year's resolutions, I named a word of the year - the word - SAVOR.  A simple word normally attached to one's taste buds or olfactory senses - but ever so useful in the enjoyment of myriad activities.

Activities such as throwing myself on to a surfboard for no reason other than fun - (I was in Maui at the time lest you think I have a large bathtub) I mean I even did it on a day when there was NO photographer to chance my victory of an upright pose; reading more books in 5 months than I'd have imagined reading in a year and not finishing books that I don't enjoy - now that's a choice I wouldn't have allowed myself at one point in time.  The same with movies - I love my Netflix - a great choice for me as I enjoy the privacy of the small computer screen and eating popcorn at $.50 a bag rather than $3.50 at the theater.  If I like the movie, I watch it - if I don't I push the delete button.  (My spouse hates movie theaters and my love of movie "control" works out just fine for both of us:)  I believe these books and movies - words and images that I take into my mind have power to change me and I believe they are - for the better.  When I sense a negative influence, I do my best to cease that input - the book, on the Kindle anyway, and the movies - as quick as the delete button and on to something of value for me and ultimately for this world in which I partake as a global citizen.

Stay with me now....the point is I've learned after all of these years to give myself permission to do as I wish without guilt!  I've learned from my Life Coach, whoops, did I mention I have a Life Coach right now - yep, decided I was stuck on a problem that God thought was pretty irrelevant in the universal order of things, and I think He just decided to turn me over to Tonya for a few months.  She's terrific, a great listener, a hard nosed inquirer with loaded questions for my reflection and action.  With my own decision/choice to seek some professional support, this young woman has shined a light on corners of myself that I had just been ignoring or rather fussing over that were not worth the light of day.  She's become a great friend and she too is thrilled to know that I've taken one activity out of my life and opened up a whole closet full of fun on which to concentrate instead.

With and without, before and after even Tonya's presence in my schedule, I've produced more art pieces than ever, having just had two pieces accepted in a juried show in Oregon, I've given up even thinking about what other folks are doing or not doing with their lives, their bodies, their health.....those issues are their business and God's business, NOT my business; I continue my yoga and stability ball classes, and ding, ding, new activity - I'm jogging again in hopes of a 5K race soon.  (My first race was rained out due to a muddy trail a few weeks ago:(  I say, jogging again, as I haven't really done any serious jogging outdoors for at least 20 years.  I hesitate to really call it running yet; more jog than walk each day - filling me with lots of energy and optimism.  The step up in exercise is also allowing me to take more guilt-free naps - I'm listening to my total body - not just the giddy side of my brain that can wear me out occasionally.

These are some of the choices/changes that I've put in the works this year - to some of you maybe just a pittance of what you're up to.  To others maybe a go-ahead for you to make some new choices/changes as well.  If you need a personal trainer, or a Life Coach, or a Spiritual Director, Talent Agent, or whatever it is that you think would help you move forward with becoming the person that you were created to be - give yourself permission to go for it!

And in the words of a friend that you might contact one day.....she asked that God let her know what words she could use most effectively in a talk she was to give and these were the words that came to her - "Tell them to slow down, relax and enjoy - it's ALL GOOD."  And I would agree that it is all good, and ya' know, even on the days when it's NOT all good, it still is!  

How about you?  Choices and changes for you already or coming up soon?  I've got more to say on the subject and I hope you'll contribute to the conversation.