I want to share a quote with you.
There is not one big cosmic meaning for all, there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person.
Anais Nin
I love this idea and perspective. I am a fan of Anais Nin quotes and have several around my home. She was a writer. And I love how she integrates her love for writing into her philosophies for life.
It is a fresh perspective to view life this way. It can bring on a renewed and invaluable perception and possibly allow you to see a new meaning in it all. All of us are on a search for answers in our life. But it is hard for us to remember and even comprehend that those answers will be different for all of us.
What helps one person find their path may be the wrong or non-effective approach for another. What brings insight or reason into one mind might be found maddening by another. And one person’s treasured life principle might be another’s rule that once broken, led them to the life they now live.
In the quest for meaning there are the choices that quickly become your action’s definitions. We all go through our lives daily making decisions and choices but do we really stop to think what we are creating by them? They begin to write our own story in time and we then begin to realize we are the authors of our own plots. Not others in our lives. Not fate. But ourselves.
We all become writers because each of us has a story to tell. How will you choose to define your character? Will you be the hero of your life story or the martyr? Will you accomplish great things and overcome great odds or will you go through the motions and follow the norm? Will you evolve into a happy ending or a bitter sweet tragedy? As the author and the main character of the story you begin to see how it all relates and the power of how it can unfold.
My point is to hopefully have you see that we are all capable of achieving and writing a beautiful story of our life when we respect the importance of our active involvement in it.
I choose to embrace the philosophy of looking at life as a story. I enjoy the task that each of us has been given to define our own adjectives, nouns and verbs in our novel. So next time you make a choice, try to see the magic in that and begin to creatively use the ink of your threads of clarity to write your verses and paragraphs. And always remember to sit back, take great joy in reading your past chapters and look to the future with excited eyes to what you have yet to write.
Until next time.
Christy
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Sunday, October 7, 2007
A Race for the Cure
Today I walked in the Race for the Cure. It was amazing to see how many people can gather together for a common cause. There were over 60,000 today that helped make a difference in the fight against breast cancer. That is something pretty special.
I knew we had the largest attended race in the country but it didn’t sink in until I saw it first hand. The entire downtown taken over by a sea of pink. Survivors, women, men, families, friends, coworkers and thousands of volunteers giving to a cause that shows no favorites and that has taken far too many from us.
I lost count of how many times I got goose bumps seeing stories of hope and then teary eyed for those that lost the fight. Shirts with pictures of those lost to the battle and then listing who they were to that person…mother, wife, grandmother, aunt, sister and friend. One person, whose thread of life was woven into so many other lives that remain behind.
So many people are affected by this. And it breaks your heart each time you see groups walking in tribute to loved ones lost to the disease. We each walked for our own loved ones. I walked for my aunt Marilyn that died from it when I was in high school and for my aunt Garnet that is still fighting for her life right now.
We also walked for a good friend of mine’s cousin. Lori was 35 when see past away from cancer. Lori had a twin sister Kelly, who flew in from Kentucky to walk the race with us.
Lori’s story is a sad one as she couldn’t beat it. As Kelly said “When you are at the age of 30, you don’t think about cancer.” Lori and her family fought till the end and never gave up hope. And still to this day continue to support finding a cure.
It was an honor to meet Kelly. She is an amazing woman. Life changes you when something like that happens and I can’t begin to imagine what it would feel like to loss your twin. But Kelly and her family are finding the courage to go on living their lives and you can actually see her strength. It is very inspiring. I look forward to all she will accomplish in her life.
There is a scary chance that cancer may affect all of us in some way in our lives. But it is what we do after that that matters. It is how we go on. It is in the choices we make. And it is in the love we pass along.
Through it all, as you can see from the 60,000 plus people today, the one thing that remains is hope.
Until next time,
Christy
I knew we had the largest attended race in the country but it didn’t sink in until I saw it first hand. The entire downtown taken over by a sea of pink. Survivors, women, men, families, friends, coworkers and thousands of volunteers giving to a cause that shows no favorites and that has taken far too many from us.
I lost count of how many times I got goose bumps seeing stories of hope and then teary eyed for those that lost the fight. Shirts with pictures of those lost to the battle and then listing who they were to that person…mother, wife, grandmother, aunt, sister and friend. One person, whose thread of life was woven into so many other lives that remain behind.
So many people are affected by this. And it breaks your heart each time you see groups walking in tribute to loved ones lost to the disease. We each walked for our own loved ones. I walked for my aunt Marilyn that died from it when I was in high school and for my aunt Garnet that is still fighting for her life right now.
We also walked for a good friend of mine’s cousin. Lori was 35 when see past away from cancer. Lori had a twin sister Kelly, who flew in from Kentucky to walk the race with us.
Lori’s story is a sad one as she couldn’t beat it. As Kelly said “When you are at the age of 30, you don’t think about cancer.” Lori and her family fought till the end and never gave up hope. And still to this day continue to support finding a cure.
It was an honor to meet Kelly. She is an amazing woman. Life changes you when something like that happens and I can’t begin to imagine what it would feel like to loss your twin. But Kelly and her family are finding the courage to go on living their lives and you can actually see her strength. It is very inspiring. I look forward to all she will accomplish in her life.
There is a scary chance that cancer may affect all of us in some way in our lives. But it is what we do after that that matters. It is how we go on. It is in the choices we make. And it is in the love we pass along.
Through it all, as you can see from the 60,000 plus people today, the one thing that remains is hope.
Until next time,
Christy
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Worth the Read
I want to write about someone that I really respect and have gained invaluable insight from, the author Elizabeth Gilbert. She is amazing. There are certain people in life that even when you look at them you can see what they offer the world by just looking in their eyes. When you see a photo of her you will see what I mean.
Or I should say a photo of her after she wrote Eat, Pray, Love. The book is about her journey and what she learned about life and herself during one year when she made a commitment to herself to change her life. She spent four months in each of these three countries, Italy, India and Indonesia.
Personally, I have never read a book that affected me so much. I also have many similarities to her life. We both decided to leave long-term unhappy relationships. We both realized we had to find happiness in ourselves to be happy in life. And we both did this kind of soul searching at the same time of our lives.
It is funny, but our birthdays are within the same week, so very similar indeed. So similar that I have send close friends paragraphs from the book and they had the same reaction that I did, they thought I had wrote it…exactly my reaction after reading them. It was like my thoughts had been captured in a book but oddly enough written by someone else.
So needless to say, I strongly recommend this book. I know it has nationally struck a cord with women and many of you have already read it. But it isn’t just for women. I think it is for anyone who is or can just appreciate a quest in life for your own answers.
I get asked a lot why did I end my ten year relationship and how did I know I should leave? For me, I realized that my life no longer resembled who I was anymore. Elizabeth Gilbert did as well and made a commitment to herself to find her life again. I as well have been on that kind of journey these past three years.
If you are at a time in your life when you also realize that change is needed to find yourself or happiness, you don’t need to embark on an international trip to find those answers. You simple need a shift in your life.
Once you set the wheels in motion for this shift and make a commitment to finish this journey for yourself, everyone that enters your life becomes a teacher to you. Things that happen happen for a reason and you must learn from them. And you begin to embrace change.
She suggests three simple things you can do daily to help you in your journey. I think these are wonderful advice that I would like to pass along to you. Each day ask yourself and then write down your answer in a journal, what do I really, really, really want? And it is important to say the “really” three times to let it sink in.
How many of you can answer that question? I can’t. I don’t know that yet. Many people will say happiness but the point she is trying to help you make is do you know how to achieve that? Those same people begin to then realize they might not know the answer to that question after all.
The next thing she suggests is to write down the happiest moment of each day. That is your assignment to yourself each day to find your happiest moment and then remember it and write it down. You then should regularly read them and hopefully learn from them. Maybe begin to see patterns.
Finally, her advice is refine your mantra. We all have one, the things we say to ourselves in our heads and choose to believe. The “I can’t do it” or “I am healthy” or “I am a moron” or “I am a rock star”. She adds humor that if those of your with the “I am a moron” mantras are working out for you then ok but if you are like many of us that begin to realize what we are telling ourselves, change it. Change your mantra and then say it to yourself all the time, every day until you begin to believe it.
I know I can’t say enough about this book. I want to give it as a gift to everyone I love and care for. It is especially good for anyone you know that is going through an emotional time in their life. It might help them find direction. Or it might help them just realize that others have been where they are and made it through.
So I will share my happiest moment of my day today with you. It is writing this. I love to write. It means so much to me and brings me happiness. So thank you for reading this.
Until next time.
Christy
Or I should say a photo of her after she wrote Eat, Pray, Love. The book is about her journey and what she learned about life and herself during one year when she made a commitment to herself to change her life. She spent four months in each of these three countries, Italy, India and Indonesia.
Personally, I have never read a book that affected me so much. I also have many similarities to her life. We both decided to leave long-term unhappy relationships. We both realized we had to find happiness in ourselves to be happy in life. And we both did this kind of soul searching at the same time of our lives.
It is funny, but our birthdays are within the same week, so very similar indeed. So similar that I have send close friends paragraphs from the book and they had the same reaction that I did, they thought I had wrote it…exactly my reaction after reading them. It was like my thoughts had been captured in a book but oddly enough written by someone else.
So needless to say, I strongly recommend this book. I know it has nationally struck a cord with women and many of you have already read it. But it isn’t just for women. I think it is for anyone who is or can just appreciate a quest in life for your own answers.
I get asked a lot why did I end my ten year relationship and how did I know I should leave? For me, I realized that my life no longer resembled who I was anymore. Elizabeth Gilbert did as well and made a commitment to herself to find her life again. I as well have been on that kind of journey these past three years.
If you are at a time in your life when you also realize that change is needed to find yourself or happiness, you don’t need to embark on an international trip to find those answers. You simple need a shift in your life.
Once you set the wheels in motion for this shift and make a commitment to finish this journey for yourself, everyone that enters your life becomes a teacher to you. Things that happen happen for a reason and you must learn from them. And you begin to embrace change.
She suggests three simple things you can do daily to help you in your journey. I think these are wonderful advice that I would like to pass along to you. Each day ask yourself and then write down your answer in a journal, what do I really, really, really want? And it is important to say the “really” three times to let it sink in.
How many of you can answer that question? I can’t. I don’t know that yet. Many people will say happiness but the point she is trying to help you make is do you know how to achieve that? Those same people begin to then realize they might not know the answer to that question after all.
The next thing she suggests is to write down the happiest moment of each day. That is your assignment to yourself each day to find your happiest moment and then remember it and write it down. You then should regularly read them and hopefully learn from them. Maybe begin to see patterns.
Finally, her advice is refine your mantra. We all have one, the things we say to ourselves in our heads and choose to believe. The “I can’t do it” or “I am healthy” or “I am a moron” or “I am a rock star”. She adds humor that if those of your with the “I am a moron” mantras are working out for you then ok but if you are like many of us that begin to realize what we are telling ourselves, change it. Change your mantra and then say it to yourself all the time, every day until you begin to believe it.
I know I can’t say enough about this book. I want to give it as a gift to everyone I love and care for. It is especially good for anyone you know that is going through an emotional time in their life. It might help them find direction. Or it might help them just realize that others have been where they are and made it through.
So I will share my happiest moment of my day today with you. It is writing this. I love to write. It means so much to me and brings me happiness. So thank you for reading this.
Until next time.
Christy
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