Confessions – Things you might need to know about me…

• In yoga class, where everyone’s practice is their own and where no one judges your ability – I always want to be the best, at least in my row.
• When driving through the mountains or long stretches of freeways that have “specified passing lanes”, I take it as a challenge and pass everyone, even if they weren’t slowing me up. If they’re in that right lane, I MUST pass them.
• I take my daughter’s cat, which we are cat-sitting, for walks on a leash. (I am now the cat lady in the neighborhood.)
• I still write hand-written thank-you notes.
• I believe doctors should treat you as a whole person, physically, emotionally, and mentally.
• I love spending time in book stores, touching the books, reading the insights and being surrounded by all those words.
• I could live in Staples, yep the office supply store, I’d be so organized.
• In my closet, I hang my clothes in color order within type… (It could be the designer in me or a bit ADD, but I think it’s just easier to find them.)
• I have two tattoos: One of two open hearts which represents a bond between my daughter and I and the other that says Gratitude in Chinese – which just happens to be located above the home of my long-gone tumor, coincidence… I think not.
  

  LOVE

• If I’m your friend, I will be a friend forever…
• I love the essence of Chicago, also the Blackhawks, the Bears, the (in my lifetime I’d like to see it happen) Cubs and the Bulls, if I liked basketball.
• I love to watch soccer, not because both my children played it since they were five and one received a college scholarship out of it…
• I am not perfect, I am not perfect, I am not perfect.
• I am an artist.
• I don’t attend a church, but do believe in God and Angels who hang out with me all the time.
• Sometimes when I meditate, I try but just can’t help thinking about what we should cook for dinner.
• I believe the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park ARE REAL.
• A few movies I love: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Transformers (which are also REAL),Under the Tuscan Sun, A Walk in the Clouds (love the cinematography), Remember the Titans, Eat Pray Love and Jurassic Park.
• Santa Claus IS real and if you don’t believe you don’t get gifts.
• The actions of paying it forward are better than talking about paying it forward.
• I believe thunderstorms are God’s way of saying I’m in charge (and I hope someday to live in an area where it actually rains).
• I’m sad I don’t have a bucket list… yet.
• I keep a martini glass in the freezer, just in case.
• I cry at most Budweiser commercials – who doesn’t?
• I never want to stop learning, which is apparent to me daily.
• I count my blessings throughout the day for family and friends and being…

Grateful for you…

Sheree

I need to Believe

I’ve got to believe that the person who cut me off on the freeway, again, is on their way to the hospital….

I need to believe that the rude person, who was hurtful to the lady working at the post office, just received bad news about a loved one…

I want to understand that the checkout clerks who are complaining about their jobs instead of doing their jobs, are dealing with other problems in their lives…

I’ve got to believe that the very intelligent person, who hacked into our ‘savings’ account, could not find a job in the computer industry and it was the only way they could feed their children….

I need to believe that learned behaviors, which have somehow become part of people’s DNA, can be changed.  That the taking of lives for land or money or power, will stop.

So, with gritted teeth I send loving thoughts to those who cut me off, are rude or uncaring, and who steal from others. I send prayers of change to the millions who have known nothing but war and sadness and feel there is no other way.  And to all the families who lose loved ones daily because of it, I send you peace.

I hope the sadness in those who cause such pain is lifted, and they will be able to see, one day, what sadness they’ve created in the lives of others.

Grateful for you,

Sheree

~~ In memory of the lives lost on Malaysia Airlines 17 ~~

A tree that could be found
in Sequoia National Forest

On one of my trips back to California from Phoenix, possibly after visiting my son or getting a haircut, (yes I drive 700 miles roundtrip to get my hair cut, but that’s another story) I read a flashing sign ** Interstate 10 shut down **.  When it’s 110⁰, this is not something you want to see in the middle of the desert.

I called my son, since I was close to Phoenix, to see if he could research the road closure.  He found that it was indeed closed and all I could envision was a million cars stopped ahead waiting for whatever to be fixed.  I asked him to find me a detour and with his engineering expertise, I was off the freeway in 5 minutes.  His instructions were turn left, and then left again and then…. NO SERVICE.   Now was not a good time for my cell service to die, pictures of parched cattle skulls flashed through my head.  Siri, my new best friend since moving to California (yep Siri on my phone – don’t hate) was also out of commission.

Panic set in as I drove on to what I thought was my detour and didn’t see one car, not one.  Didn’t anyone want to avoid one million cars on a very hot freeway?  I kept driving, as my breathing increased, to find no mile markers or signs on how to get back to I-10 and no road to turn left.  I started to sweat even with the air on.  As I continued to drive deeper into the desert I noticed how the road wasn’t flat anymore, but undulating with small curves every so often and signs warning of ‘cattle crossings’ or ‘flash flooding’ started to appear.  I may be close to civilization…

As I started observing my surroundings and how unexpected the drive had turned out, my panic started to subside and I really wanted to see some of those cattle, free-ranging cross the road.  I drove into a very small town, wondering if my left turn would appear at some point, when I started to smile at the charm of the police station which was located in a former drive-up restaurant.  The main street was congregated with horses and cars, and there were quite a few people standing outside the quaint mud brick diner, which looked like it had been there for over 100 years.

My left turn appeared with an I-10 sign illuminating the way.  As I continued on, I didn’t want my adventure to end and was a bit embarrassed as I thought back on how fearful I was on the onset.  How could one little detour cause me such discomfort?  What had I learned?

When detours arise, it’s all in the perception of the situation.  I need to take a deep breath when those uncomfortable feelings arise; the ones of helplessness, being out-of-control or the unknown and let the situation unfold.  If not I may be missing out on things I have never witnessed before, like unique experiences that are waiting just for me or the sight of a couple free-ranging cattle crossing the road.

Grateful for you,

Sheree

It’s all in the perception…
In reality it’s a hedge found on our walk

So, about creating and getting help with this Blog…

There is SO MUCH information available in the www, http, .com world that it’s truly overwhelming.  I just wanted to find a place to share my insights and in doing so, down the rabbit hole I fell.  I was amazed how much information I pulled was SO outdated, (2008, 2009, 2011…), when all I wanted was the current year 2014.  Even giving parameters to the sweet little search engines meant nothing, they pretty much gave me what they wanted me to see, geez.

After reading 3 trillion sites on “what the heck I should do” I found one author who wrote about what she didn’t do correctly and how she found a site that gave step-by-step instructions to do it the right way.  I felt like I had just fallen into a fluffy pile of goodness!

As I continued to search how to link this, add on that and be noticed there, came the should be’s, ought to be’s, better be doing it this way articles and once again I wanted to head for a nap or a handful of potato chips to dull the overwhelming sense of ‘why the hell am I doing this?”

Eventually the articles I did find, that weren’t out-of-date, were incredibly helpful and user-friendly.  Everyone was willing to share ideas, their sources, their successes and failures and it wasn’t about fear of losing readers or who was more successful, it was about helping someone like me. The faceless, well-written, funny-looking gravatars** (a globally recognized avatar) eventually helped me create a blog, a place to unzip this crazy brain and share all my quips with you. Were these people going to be my new tribe?  I was sort of excited…

The lessons learned here are:

1. Don’t believe everything you hear or read; it really could be out-of-date or hurtful.
2. The feeling of being overwhelmed will pass; just try not to finish the bag of chips while it’s happening.
3. Help can come from anywhere as long as you’re willing to ask and accept it, even if it’s from a cartoon character that has excellent grammar.

If I don’t get linked correctly, or added on there, or noticed around here, I will still be grateful for the help of strangers and hopefully I can keep that movement going!

What have you done lately to help someone in search of assistance?  Send me some examples of your awesomeness!!

Grateful for you…

Sheree

My new Gravatar **