Monthly Archives: December 2010

Top Five 2010 Moments

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Found this in my inbox yesterday from the fabulous Naomi Dunford of Itty Biz

I asked permission to share….

Why? Because this was just the prompt I needed ….

Typically I feel determined to reflect on the year past and eager to launch into what’s next….

and yet

this past year wasn’t like most.

I admit some overwhelmedness here…

not sure if it was too many hats, not enough, or if my emotions were at high play…

On Dec 30, 2010, at 1:01 PM, Naomi Dunford wrote:

Hello, my lovely,

A lot of people didn’t have a great year in 2010. You are not alone in this.

It doesn’t really matter why 2010 sucked. What matters is what you can take away from it.

Stop and think for a minute about your Top Five 2010 Moments. This doesn’t have to be hard; you don’t have to do any ranking or anything. This isn’t going on David Letterman. It’s just five moments that you would want to live again. Go ahead and write them down if it makes them easier to think about.

Consider them for a minute. Roll them around in your mind like you’d roll a particularly good piece of chocolate around on your tongue. Remember how happy they made you feel. Think about why they made you feel happy.

See if you can find a common thread (or two, or three). Then – and I can’t stress this enough - write that common thread (or two, or three) down. Don’t just think it, and don’t type it; handwrite it. And then put it somewhere where you’ll see it every day.

You want that piece of paper in plain sight because that common thread is what you’re going to work toward in 2011. Keep thinking about it, remembering it, and returning to it. When you have a choice to make, think about which outcome would be more consistent with that thread.

If you do that – if you keep that common thread in your mind – I guarantee you’ll have a better year in 2011 than you did in 2010, no matter what else happens.

But tonight, just think about your top five moments, your common thread(s), and what you’re going to do to be consistent with them in 2011.

Truth is …

I couldn’t immediately encapsulate 2010 into moments because the year seemed like such a blur.

I went back to my blog as if I was going to do a best of  or something and no wonder it seems like a blur…it totally was!!

I narrowed it down to these five themes rather than moments:

Freedom

Identity

Technology

Fame

Creativity

At this juncture of my life I am in a huge re-design. Midlife crisis? I’d say more like midlife opportunity! I have not only one door opening, but many!! I hadn’t put perspective on it but when I add the way these five things make me feel. Why do these things make me happy?? They as themes reinforce the “I can’s”!! It occurs to me how important to me it is to know who I am.  Knowing is one thing.  Doing “me” as in work, and life …is completely different. I need and thrive on being “me”

I am going to roll all of this on my tongue like a good piece of chocolate.

One thing I want to ponder is what does any of the above have to do with my work??

I have to say this …I am very grateful for blogging for many many reasons, but I am especially happy and i totally just realized this. Often I get about the doing….and while I have a semblance of a plan.  My blog shows me what I’ve actually done. This past year was impressive and it makes me very very proud.  There — the strongest feeling of ALL of this year?

Pride.

Way GOOD stuff madame Nadine!! Thank you!!!

image by karen hanrahan


With Good Health You Have It All.

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Ralph Waldo Emerson said ” The First Wealth Is Health “

Would you agree??

The commentary below is from an insert that I have often tucked into my christmas greetings. It is especially meaningful to me in that it reinforces the work I do.

written by Sarah Breathnach Ban from 1995′s Simple Abundance

“Money has to buy alot during this time of year, but can it buy gifts that count the most?  Can it buy love, a good marriage, vibrant independant children, creative expressiveness, inner peace and most of all can it buy health?”

Having brought back layers of my health these two years I really appreciate the strident, true and methodical steps one must take to find strength to get through yet another day

If I had to choose between the material things in life or the health achievements of recent years I’d choose my health in a heartbeat.

“We can’t buy good health, no matter how much money we have. We can buy profound medical treatments but actual good health is not for sale.  Your health is a priceless gift and it’s only when we become sick do we get reminded how priceless it really is”

“If you have your health you have more wealth than all the riches in the world. A healthy mind, heart, reserves of stamina and an abundance of vreative energy to draw on, will have the world literally lying at your feet – with good health you have it all.”

“What is health? Is it the absence of sickness? Good health is vitality, vigor, high energy, emotional equilibrium, mental clarity and physical endurance. This is the health to pray for”

She says, take your vitamins she furthers says,  ”that if there is only one lesson I can inscribe into your consciousness… ask for good health and get real specific “

Ask and get specific — LOVE that!

Ask yourself how committed are you to your health and well being?

How I can be of a support to you and an advocate for your well being.

Those who take supplements really do have better health!

energy meditation flickr credit

Dancing With My Moon

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Like many woman I use disposable products while menstruating.

As alternative and green minded as I many think I am, I had never heard of a moon cup until this past year.

My association with green moms carnival continues to enrich my life. Much of the green goals I’ve aspired to in 2010 came from something one of these great ladies has shared. This particular item I learned about from crunchy chicken

I have to say I didn’t really get how this apparatus was going to work. I mean I understand the concept. I just couldn’t imagine the reality.  What I read and watched on video didn’t really prepare me for my first dance with my menstrual cup.

The darn thing was tricky and messy.  Past that, and I do mean past that because I got better at it as I got through my period,  I think the thing is positively brilliant.

I have been cycling for 38 years. When I think of the money I would have saved, the reduction of exposure to toxins, and mostly adding way less to the landfills. I really wish I had known about the menstrual cup sooner!!

As I have shared my new found experience with other woman most are just not interested in the moon cup.

Why?

Conceptually you insert this cup, it forms a suction on your vaginal wall and blood drips into the cup.  Very different than soaking into a tampon or dripping onto a pad.

A moon cup involves insertion.  Like fingers touching your anatomy insertion.  The cup is medical grade silicone, a rather firm material, that has to be held folded and then positioned correctly vaginally or else it’s not going to be comfortable, or like what happened to me, it will put pressure on your bladder enough that I couldn’t pee!

This inserting detail to many seems to just gross them out.

When it’s removed to drain, you really do need to be near a sink. In a public restroom I am to assume this might be a challenge. I was at home for my first experience.  As I think about it and figure out how to better navigate that part of it.  I personally would remove it, drain and rinse while I was in the shower, past that I’d also drain it into the toilet bowl and reinsert, rather than messing with trying to rinse each and every time.  Because I at first didn’t have it positioned correctly I was taking it out and putting it in each and every time I urinated and I thought my goodness what a bother.  I later inserted it further back past the pubic bone and realized OH I didn’t have it in right! I bet that happens to a lot of woman. Especially if they are not intimately familiar with their intimates!

I am curious how woman who have a heavy flow enjoy this gadget, to me you’d have to remove and drain in a timely way. I personally never filled the cup. Had I gotten it in right, and wasn’t taking it out all the time.  I would have.  I will have to see what happens next menses. I found it fascinating actually, this vessel filling with blood and the color of it.  It was really a gorgeous color.  I just never noticed that before. Why would you with disposable products??

Maybe I am odd to find the beauty in it.   I just did.

My menstrual cup cost me $34. I saved for it and swore once I ran out of pads I’d get one. Not sure about you, but I seemed to have a perpetual supply of pads. What was that about?  Finally, I ran out – bought the cup and proceeded to have one of my 52 day menopausal cycles. I was beginning to think wouldn’t it be ironic if I stopped bleeding now just when I wanted to try this method. Needless to say, I am not done yet.

I completely recommend this product.

There are a zillion different brands. I started with this one as I could purchase it locally and I can say I am very happy with it.

images by karen hanrahan

It’s Snowing Outside And I Don’t Have A Thing To Wear

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I’ve never been able to look put together in the winter time.

I just don’t seem to ever have the right coat, boots, scarf, matching gloves all at the same time.

I might have a great scarf but the coat is all wrong. The best coat ever but not the “appropriate” boots.

Most often the hats I have look positively dweeby

Several years ago I bought a tailored red wool coat. It was lovely. It attracted the multi-color hair of the dog I had at the time. Like a magnet. Never thought about that when making that purchase decision. Its 80% wool made me itch positively everywhere. That coat just didn’t work. It had to go back.

I had also bought a zippy quilted black hooded jacket with nifty twisty clasps. I couldn’t get the clasps to twist. It too attracted hair of the dog faster than the speed of sound.

That coat also had to go back.

With no other choice, I went into the bowels of my closet and found a circa 90’s coat – it’s actually a lovely micro-fiber, with a plush pile inside. It zips from the bottom to the top and has no give when you sit in the car. Can you say R-I-P every time you sit down? The zipper was probably not going to last much longer. Since the two coats had to go back I am wearing this ridiculous thing in the meantime. What choice did I have?

The thing with that coat was I had to shimmy it up over my hips in order to sit down in the car — to prevent further zipper ripping. When I am driving I have this spare fat tire of coat sitting around my waist – It felt and looked positively ridiculous.  Even more ridiculous was to see me get out of the car and wiggle accordingly to get the integrity back to my winter fashion nightmare.

Boots. I don’t get how one can wear high fashion boots with chunky 2 –3 inch look good heels, wedges or even date night spikes AND keep one’s feet warm.  Let alone navigate the sidewalks many of which are not shoveled, and walk with any grace or style.

Me? I wear clogs.  See?  It says it over there in my sidebar. I am totally afraid that I am going to fall.  I must really be 80. While I like the idea of warmth and traction in a boot.   Practical boots don’t  “look” very good.

Most hats destroy my “do”.  If the hat makes any fashion statement at all it usually doesn’t cover my ears. Earmuffs might seem like a good idea, but those make most of us looking like a puppy dog.  Scarf wrapping is another approach, but then we get the static electricity thing going.

( sigh )

It’s snowing outside and I don’t have a thing to wear.


typical victorian wintergarb flickr image credit