A Fresh Start & October's Virtue

It's the last day of September and believe it or not I am actually excited for October. By all rights I shouldn't be. Mercury is going to go retrograde, the days are going to shorten, and the rain is going to come, some of you might even see snow. Yikes. 

But it's fresh and shiny and new. Ahhhhhh. Just breathe into it. A new month. Can you smell the potential?

I feel something special each time I flip the calendar. It's like an automatic do-over, a clean slate, a new beginning. And it's even better than New Years Day because it comes with a whole lot less baggage and way less pressure. 

For whatever reason, this new month feels like a great time to release some stuff. Get rid of some of that emotional crap we've been dragging around, sort out a closet or drawer and remove some physical junk, tidy up the old diet and get clean down to a gut level, there are all sorts we can do to get a fresh start. AND it's on a Wednesday too, so none of that button-pushing Monday business.

Recently, I've been doing a lot of work on my state of mind as it affects my well being. Paying particular attention to my thoughts, my reactions to people and situations, and just my overall mental state. I am working on being even and steady and happy. Slowly I've been weaning out all of the things that are not feeding that and turning my attention to that which does. Hence bye bye to the old blog, hello to this new one. Sayonara to tasks and activities that were hanging over my head like an executioner's scythe. I figure that by saying no to the things I don't really want to do, I'll make room for the things that I do want to do. Out with the old, in with the new and all that.

The challenge now is to focus on what I'd like to cultivate in my everyday. Perhaps this is a task better suited for spring, but for some reason now just feels like the time. Have you done this? Have you asked yourself: "What do I want?" What was the answer? I'm not talking about things here. Yeah we might want that new sofa, or bigger house, or better body, but that isn't what I'm driving at here. I mean what do you really want? Do you want to be happier? Sure, I bet we all do. The fabulously talented and enormously funny Gretchen Rubin wrote a coupla books about it. You can check her out HERE.

But I'm talking about what you want on an even deeper level. Changing the atmosphere around yourself. The sorts of people you'd like to surround yourself with, your goals and achievements sure, but what about your ability to project joy into the world or your capacity to feel love? There have been so many things rising to the surface for me. For example working relationships. I'd love to continue to work with people who care about the creative aspects of the work, who want to develop stories that talk about something, that share ideas, or provoke emotion. I'd like to be gentler and kinder and sweeter and more thoughtful toward He Who Shall Not Be Named on a more consistent basis.

All of this got me thinking about the virtues. I believe that those of you reading this will have come over from Mastering The Method, so you know that I like to choose a specific virtue at the start of each month and try to practice it specifically with the intention of becoming the embodiment of that virtue; patience, kindness, serenity etc. In case you didn't know, well... now you do. I struggle with them. Every month. Yet I continue to work on it. Each month I do try to shift things up and switch them around so as to be more effective than the previous month for it seems that the things I choose often bring me the opposite - like if I chose to chill out, that month would be filled with all manner of chaos and maybe that's the point. But if I am working toward integrating these virtues into my being I cannot continue to do things the same old way or I'll never see better results. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result right? So...

By clearing out stuff that no longer serves us, like old stories of who we are (the starving artist is a great example, stop telling that story and perhaps I'll stop starving) and building in that which will serve the new vision of ourselves it stands the reason that our virtues might fall upon more fertile soil. 

It comes around full circle to "What do I want?"

This year, in terms of my career, so many things have happened. Both good and bad, but I'd like to share one particular story with you as it relates to October's virtue. (See, I do have a point, it just takes me a bit to get to it)  I finally got my first real opportunity for a break in Television. I was going to meet with a showrunner on a show that films here in Vancouver, it's a fantastic Canadian/American co-production that I actually watch! I knew the show and loved it! The trouble was, I couldn't meet with the showrunner when he asked as I was out of town on another job. He agreed to meet with me a week later and the meeting went well, we were even wearing matching chucks, and if you've seen my INSTAGRAM, then you know I love my Converse sneakers. We laughed at the same jokes, he agreed with my ideas for the main character, we knew several of the same people... and LIKED them! It was fabulous. I was imagining working with him on this show, how wonderful everything would be, so at the end of the meeting I asked him when he'd be staffing the writing room... it was already staffed. Last week. This was just a meet and greet. I'd missed the opportunity. Ugh. Heart break. Utter, total, epic fail and heartrending misery.

I bounced back but thought wow, what are the odds that my timing could be so close but so off?

So I decided that I needed to get to work on improving my timing.

How the hell do you do that and does it really tie into this month's virtue for crying out loud?! Maybe you need to practice a little patience there my noble reader!

I don't have an instruction manual for this, I'm just following my gut, but the theory goes as follows: If you want something, begin to look for evidence of it and expect it to show up.

Sounds simple enough. But in my mind, I can't just expect meetings to line up, or maybe I could... but until I'm ready for that step, I've chosen to start with smaller things. To my mind, "easier" things. Like as I'm walking along the sidewalk and approaching an intersection where the light is currently red, I'm anticipating it to turn green as I get to the curb - good timing. If I'm pulling into a parking lot, I am expecting to find a parking space, approaching a closed elevator, expecting the doors to open as I hit the button. Do you see where I am going with this? Timing. I would like to have good timing. So I am going to begin consciously acting as if I have it.

Is timing a virtue? Good question. It is for an Emergency Medical Technician, a Fireman or a Surgeon, so why not a Writer? What if I had the good timing to write something that had a message in it that spoke to just one person and it convinced them to get out and try something new and that was the thing that changed their life? Or what if I wrote something that happened to be the exact thing that a TV executive or film producer was looking for... that would change my life.

So that's it, that's the Virtue for the month of October. Timing. Not just timing. But Good Timing! How's that?

For the curious, the previous months' virtues were as follows:
January - Fortitude (what was I thinking?!)
February - Silence
March - Steady
April - Determination
May - a double whammy of Mindfulness and grounded determination
June - Selflessness
July - Celebrate
August - Vitality
September - Serenity
And now October - Good Timing.

Not your typical virtues I'll grant you, but they were some of the answers to my question "What do I want?" What are your answers?

xo
Shan

Oh Cosmo!

Okay, whoa now! Whaaaat?!

So it was a long day. I'd been on my feet for nearly nine hours, I'd had it up to my eyebrows with the Vancouver public (I work part time in a book store), and I was standing in line at the grocery store picking up a few last minute things for dinner. My night to cook, joy of joys. It was not a love day, you feeling me?

I'm biding my time while the guy in front of me is taking ages to drag out his interac card or visa or what-have-you and just bloody pay already so that for the love of god I could get home and sit down -- when I saw an issue of Cosmopolitan on the stand. Now I've never been one to read Cosmo, even when I was in their age demographic, but their headlines have always made me giggle.

It just so happens that "He Who Shall Not Be Named" absolutely love love loves grilled cheese, so I snapped the above pic, texted him from the line-up and asked: 'Is it true?'. I got a prompt reply back saying: 'Yeah, duh.'

We had a little chuckle over it when I got home. I then pulled the pic up to delete it from my phone and I finally noticed the caption above the whole men and grilled cheese thing.

GET THE ASS YOU DESERVE.

Yikes. What does that mean? I felt vaguely threatened. Had Cosmo been spying on me? And for how long? How did they know I'd been scarfing down baking trays full of cookies? I was suddenly very self-conscious and rather defensive. I was like: Hey, I work out I'll have you know. I deserve this ass! Then I found myself spinning around in circles in front of the mirror trying to get a better look at my back end. Perhaps my ass wasn't as great as I'd been imagining it to be. Paranoia started to set in. What the hell, Cosmo? What are you saying about my butt? 

Here's something you should know. I'd been flipping through a new book called How to be Parisian Wherever You Are.

Inside it there was a little blurb about French women and plastic surgery. As I said I was only flipping through it. I'll have to go back and actually read the book to get all the details but it was something about the French and their aversion to plastic surgery because they believe that as you age... you ready?

As you age... you GET THE FACE THAT YOU DESERVE. Ha! So if you're smiling and happy most of the time you're going to have lovely crinkly little laugh lines around your eyes, but if you're a miserable old sour puss, well that's exactly what you're going to look like in your later years.

So now you can imagine the fear that Cosmo struck within my heart as I read that statement about my ass!

I'd opted out of year three of the Tracy Anderson Method, I eat copious amounts of cookies, I certainly never do dance cardio and I do sit around watching television. I have given up the cheese doodles thankfully but it got me thinking... what if there was a karmic butt bank somewhere out there and that all of my bad habits were going to catch up to me and show up on my rear?!? I'd be screwed.

But then another thought occurred to me, better to show up on my ass where I can sit on it and no one will see it, than on my face where there's nowhere to hid. That made me smile as I sat down to dinner with "He Who Shall Not Be Named."

We had grilled cheese by the way.

Have a great day gals and stay away from Cosmo, it'll only stress you out!
xo
Shan

Equinox

It just occurred to me that I am a day late with this. Whoops. I wanted to write about it anyway since Autumn is one of my absolute favorite seasons. The others of course are summer, spring and winter. Ha ha ha. I love a new season like I love a new pair of shoes or a new hat!

I looked it up on Wikipedia  - which as you know knows everything - and according to them "the oldest meaning of Equinox is the day when daytime and night are of approximately equal length." Perfect balance. Yin and Yang. Beautiful symmetry. How can that not inspire us? 

I recently read that when our bodies are in a state of well being, that there is a perfect balance within us between catabolism (breaking down) and anabolism (building up). And if these two forces get out of whack, disease can occur.

It got me thinking about the Equinox of our lives. From my limited understanding, I'd say that we definitely have seasons. This is kind of obvious. Childhood is our spring, late teens through late 30's would be our summer, glorious fall might be the next two decades depending on our health, with winter taking us into a ripe old age. 

But is there an Equinox within that? Part of me asks the question for our physical selves, while another part of me wonders about our spirit. Is there some moment in time when we stand in absolute perfect balance between growth and decay? And when would we say that was? Would we even recognize that time? And could the same even be said for the spirit if we really are vibrational eternal beings? Perhaps this physical experience is just a season in some much larger seasonal picture that we're unable to perceive from here.

When I think about fall and the days that lay beyond the autumn equinox, I can't help but lament the shortening daylight, but there is something to love in the growing darkness that leads us into winter. It draws us within. Don't you find on these crisper, shorter days that you're actually able to ask questions such as these? I'm not sure that decay is something to be feared. If you look around you, you'll see the brilliant and fiery hues of this magnificent season. We could not experience that color without decay. If we never stopped running, we'd never be going slow enough to witness the beauty in the everyday moment. Perhaps the equinox of our lives is our eventual passing out of this physical existence into the ocean that is spirit and in that exact moment of crossing over - there is that balance. Like being halfway into a tunnel, there is light at either end in equal measure.

I don't have the answers.

Today just felt like a day for asking questions. For cleaning the windows of our perception to be able to see beyond our physical world into something deeper and richer. No matter what season you find yourself in, I hope you'll take a moment today to stand in your space, to fill it with all that you are, and appreciate every beauty that your season has to offer.

Welcome to amazing Autumn, people.

xo
Shan

What I Learned From Walter Mitty...

The "Secret Life of Walter Mitty" is a film starring and directed by Ben Stiller. It's based on a short story by James Thurber from 1939. It's a tale that's got some staying power.

I'm not going to bury the lead here, I want to tell you about this film not because I want to do a movie review, but because it reminded me of something that we as women often forget or overlook... Experience counts. It's worth something. 

In our youth-driven, youth-adoring culture, it seems -- at least outwardly -- that many women (I am speaking mostly of those in the media, but I am sure there are many more) who would trade in their years for line-less faces and youthful figures. A lot of them try to do just that by having a variety of procedures. I'm not judging, I'm not at a stage where I'd consider botox or surgery, but who knows what the future holds? (I am secretly hoping that I never feel compelled to hide my true face)

However -- I am getting ahead of myself.

Let's get back to the picture show here shall we? I love that. Picture show. The only expression that cracks me up more is 'the talkies' - that's what movies were called in the era just after the silent film gave way to films with sound. Ah progress.

So, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is about "A day-dreamer who escapes his anonymous life by disappearing into a world of fantasies filled with heroism, romance and action. When his job along with that of his co-worker are threatened, he takes action in the real world embarking on a global journey that turns into an adventure more extraordinary than anything he could have ever imagined." That's from IMDB btw.

As I was watching the film I thought, the poor sod stuck in his little basement, slaving away for a corporation that's now going to essentially render him both replaceable and irrelevant. I thought, hey now, I work for a corporation that is undergoing some major changes. I certainly haven't devoted my life to them. It's a part-time job in a book store that I've only worked at for a year, but still. It happens all the time to all sorts of people all across the world. 

Walter compensates for this by envisioning himself a hero of epic proportions. We later learn that Walter always wanted to travel but was unable to do so in his youth. I won't spoil the film. Suffice it to say, as the IMDB blurb sums up, he embarks on a real world journey.

Watching the film made me want to travel again. It made me mourn the passing of my perhaps somewhat misspent youth. I remembered one occasion in North Africa when my two friends and I had found ourselves at the entrance to a street market, the only women among a see of male faces. In the shock of our arrival, everyone fell silent, even the bloody livestock. It was one of the most terrifying silences I've ever heard. But, we were "Westerners" and what the merchants might be able to sell us won out over our chromosomes and all was soon well.

Or the time that "He Who shall Not Be Named" and myself climbed an active volcano in South America. We'd stopped briefly for some photos on a grassy knoll near a small stand of trees. As we later made our descent, we found that the trees had been cut and the hill leveled to start the makings of a road. We were the last two people to stand on that hill or feel the shade of those trees or walk that path in its present incarnation. It was a sad and powerful moment.

I became slightly misty. Oh the carefree days of youth and travel.

But then I realized how great it was that I even had the privilege of having these experiences. I had to live in order to collect them.

We may mourn the loss of great skin or small butts or boundless energy, but our accumulation of days, months, and years gives us knowledge, wisdom, patience, and experience -- as well as experiences. Some really cool ones.

We may find ourselves in places unexpected or even imagined by our twenty-year-old selves. Sometimes life can get the better of us and we get swallowed up by the day-to-day grind, sometimes even feeling like the best of life may have passed us by, but that simply isn't true.

Do I really want to suffer with food poisoning on a small island off the coast of Portugal from eating bad street vendor food? I like that I'm fussier about what goes into my body now I'm older. But I'm thrilled that I had the experience, it makes a great story.

If we can be present and seek gratitude - I mean be really grateful for our lives and everything in them, I believe that more will come for us to be grateful for. We can then turn in the direction of our dreams and before we know it, we'll look up and realize that perhaps the best is still ahead.

My parents worked incredibly hard while I was growing up. I didn't know it then, but later learned how seriously unhappy my dad was in his job. My parents owned their business and it did well, but if they didn't have to keep a roof over our heads and food on our table, perhaps my parents would have done other things. My mom is a brilliant decorator. She never went to school or did this for a living, but she is a born natural. She just has a knack for light, color, choosing the perfect furniture and art to compliment any room. My dad's a gifted artist.

Now, years after we've all grown and moved out, they are able to do some of the things that passed them by when they were my age. Dad had his first art show at the age of 70, my mom now the same age has just decorated (from scratch) a beautiful new townhouse and it's stunning.

We never know what life will hold or even how long we've got, but I'll tell you something... I'm eager about what's to come. Walter Mitty reminded me that everything is possible. And while I will likely never summit the real Mount Everest, I've still got a few climbs left in me.

xo
Shan

Whole Foods.

I consider myself incredibly lucky to have good health and don't for a moment take it for granted. I have seen too many loved ones suffer because of a variety of physical ailments. These issues run the gamut from migraines to high blood pressure to cancer to Parkinsons to Alzheimers to arthritis and the list seems to grow with each passing year.

When I hear of something that will fend off toxins or aid the immune system I am generally game to try it. I'm also guilty of trying to get the whole fam to come along too.

So when I found the first lump on my dog... we headed straight to the vet. I lost my favorite cat just over three years ago to pancreatitis, which was as an inflammation of his pancreas. 

There they are, I do have better photos of the two together, but this one's my absolute favorite.

The vet examined the lump on Rama (my dog), pulled and tested some fluid from it and determined that it was a non-threatening fat deposit. Nothing to worry about. 

But why was it there? The vet had no answer. How can we get rid of it? Surgery. 

I am the last person to be put under and go under the knife until I've examined every other possibility, so of course I asked: What happens if we elect not to do surgery? Nothing. It might get bigger, but it doesn't cause him pain, doesn't have an impact on his mobility, basically she said, your dog is fine.

Mmm. Okay. And he was for a while. And then he got another lump. Then we found a third. Yikes what's happening? It was time to take matters into my own hands and start doing some research.

First, you should know that I love my dog more than anything. It's almost pathological. But you should also know that he is the best dog ever in the world. So ages ago I had wanted to get him off kibble and put him on raw food. I don't eat boxed cereal every day for every meal, why would I feed this same kind of thing to my dog? Yikes, have you ever looked into the cost of raw food at the pet store. Astronomical. I'd have to sell a kidney to pay for it and well I've just told you how I feel about going under the knife. But I am not one to give up. I'm a screenwriter for crying out loud, the only people who have a harder time breaking into the business and making a living are professional surfers!!

We managed to find a local butcher shop that would sell us frozen beef at a deep discount. But my dog didn't like it raw. Well I'm sorry I am not going to fry up the beef for you Rama, that's not healthy.

Eventually a compromise was found. He'd have kibble with a bit of super healthy canned food for breakfast and get a beefy bone for dinner. The trouble with that is ... canned?? That can't be the best. And the pet shop didn't always have bones with enough meat on them.

I digress. My dog was getting more lumps. I did some research and learned that fat deposits on pets are caused because the dog's organs are not able to handle the toxic over-load, so it would encapsulate the toxin in fat and pull it to the body's biggest defense organ, the skin. You can read all about it HERE. They are called Lipomas - essentially they are fatty tumors.

The toxins can come from a number of things. Dewormer medication, poor diet, environmental factors, aluminum bowls, dog toothpaste (yes I brush his teeth) - Shit. How do you know? What do you do?

I am a big fan of whole foods for myself and I've even been known to share my glowing green smoothie with Rama, so damn, if it's good enough for me, it's gotta be good enough for my boy. Knowing full well that he doesn't like raw food, I knew I had to track down a well balanced cooked food recipe for him. Lucky for me, the Ottawa Dog Whisperer had that too, you can see the full recipe HERE.

Most of the ingredients I needed I already had, things like parsley and turmeric, (I recently learned how great a healing agent turmeric is, but that's a post for another day) and I went shopping. It was easy. Except the buying of the meat part, because again, as a vegetarian, I find it hard to buy. Here's what our groceries looked like. See whole foods? Yum.

I set about washing, peeling, chopping and combining until I came up with what to me looked like a very delicious French stew. Rama was gonna love this!

It took some time to prep but I was happy to do it as I knew every ingredient that was going into that pot.  Finally came the blending part. Ewe. It was so gross. Trying to slop it from the pot into the blender. It would splash up and get everywhere. But in the end I got there.

Now it was looking a little more like dog food. But then it occurred to me. Omigod, I've just put my dog on the Tracy Anderson Baby food diet! Sweet potato? Check! Carrots? Check! Chicken? Check. Apples? Check. Basically every thing that I put into that pot was on the Tracy Anderson approved list. I laughed my ass off. Even considered sitting down to a bowl as you know after my holiday at the lake, I could stand to drop a pound or two. Lol.

I did get a little zealous with the turmeric, everything I spilled and dripped on has been stained yellow, so I was a little worried that Rama might not like it. How wrong I was. He licked the bowl clean and then some! Happy dog.

I have to still get a topical homeopathic treatment for his lumps but am hoping that together, these things will get him back to right. I'll keep you posted.

Honestly, I cannot believe that the first recipe I wrote about on the new blog was for dog food. Told you it was a new world. 

I sincerely hope that this finds you in good health. And if god forbid it doesn't? Don't simply put blind faith into your health care professional. Listen to your gut, your heart, and your instincts. We have those things for a reason.

Be well,
Shan

 

Hot Water to Lose Weight... Whaaaat??!

A little while ago I read "The Everygirl's Guide to Diet and Fitness" by Maria Menounos. If you don't know her, you should. She's an entertainment show host, former Dancing With the Stars champ and an all around cool chick. In her book she suggests that an excellent way to drop a few pounds is to drink hot water.

Mmm hmmm. Can you hear the skepticism in my voice, Maria? 

She claims that for her it was a game changer. She says that drinking it after a meal is especially helpful with digestion - "think of it as melting the food in your stomach." Um yes and Coke disintegrates rust. I think that'd do a pretty good job of digesting the food but I'm not gonna start drinking it.

She goes on to suggest that it's warm and comforting, like coffee, but cleaner. Yes but it's not coffee!

Maria, like the rest of us still gains a few pounds now and then -- you know holidays and celebrations and whatnot -- but when she switched to hot water she lost ten pounds. Just like that. It happened naturally. Really?

I'm not a fan of dieting, mostly because I wind up with a face-full of dirt from falling off the damned diet wagon, but also because I don't want to become prey to the yoyo syndrome. On a diet, off a diet, on again, off again. Boo. I want balance. I want easy. Lets be honest, diets are hard!

Since I've just been on a short holiday wherein all I did was swing in a hammock reading a fabulous book, roast marshmallows on the campfire, (located right next to said hammock of course) and eat cookies, let's just say that I could stand to melt some food.

Finally home and getting back into my healthier eating regime, I'm finding it hard to give up my cookie habit cold turkey. I'm trying to cut back, I really am, but I wouldn't mind to get those pounds off without having to give the cookies up altogether.

Oh stop judging. I'll give 'em up eventually. Just not today. Or tomorrow. Or this week. Shut up!

So hot water, huh? Ten pounds, just naturally? Sure, okay I'm game. Hot water it is.

Yep, I'm drinkin' it as I type. How to best explain the experience to you. 

Have you ever smoked? It's like giving up smoking, then trying to curb your cravings by sucking on a straw. All you're getting is air. That's not very satisfying. I mean it is if you've been under water for any length of time but who can think of something like that in the middle of a nic-fit? Thank goodness I gave that up years ago. 

Drinking hot water is also akin to drinking a non-alcoholic wine. Why? Why would you do that? Gimme one good reason why you'd not just grab a fruit juice or a soda? I mean apart from the fact that soda is bad for us as we've just established above. 

You have been reading this right? Coke eats through rust. Or did you just pop out to put the kettle on to make yourself a cup of... hot water. Yeah, I thought so.

I don't know how long this new hot water habit will last. Maybe just today. However, if there's even a hint that it might be working...

I'll be gettin' me a straw for that beast!

xo
Shan

The girl's gotta write...

Deep breath. Feels strange that I should be so nervous. Likely no one but my mom and sister will read this and they love me almost entirely without judgement so... 

Nope. No good. Still nervous. There they are. The butterflies in my belly. At least they're flying in formation. 

It's the first post on the new blog. That's scary. While I have ridden the proverbial bike before, this time it's just me, front and center. Last time I found myself in a similar spot -- first post, new blog -- I was merely trying to be accountable to a new practice, and I could hide behind my fitness guru. Plus, quite honestly, after 30 days I thought I'd be done with it. Turns out I enjoyed it. Who knew? The thing that kept me coming back was both the writing and the growing community that sprung out of our collective improvement (read -- suffering, aches, pains, crazy ass moves, and weird food lol).

So what's brought this new space about, then? If I love writing so much why not simply carry on where I was? 

Because there is only so much one can say about a single topic. I'd very badly wanted to branch out but I held back because I felt it was somehow misleading to have a blog about one thing, only to have a new reader show up in search of that thing and discover a post about something entirely different. Whaaat?! So I found myself showing up less and less. I believe some months I only posted once or twice. That wasn't fair to anyone, myself included. It was time to draw the curtain closed.

I decided to turn the page. A new day, new blog, new topics.

Now, those that want the Method can seek out active sites that are eagerly exploring Tracy's work and those that came to hang out and read my raving mad run-on sentences can come here. Win win.

What can you expect of this space? Same same but different. It's homey and familiar yet different and new. Same voice, same spirit, but now we have more room to play!

What I'm hoping is that it'll be like having a regular standing coffee date. 

We'll be just like a coupl'a gal-pals hanging out on the porch or at the corner cafe, talking shit and giggling like school girls. 

I got the idea last week while savoring my matcha by the lake in the wee hours of the mourn on vaycay. That's where I took the above photo. And it's times like that that the best ideas come, don't you find?

I thought, why not try something new? September was just built for new adventures, wasn't it?

Maybe you woke up on a Tuesday only to realize that you're hell and gone from where you'd imagined yourself to be. Or you looked in the mirror on some random evening and the person starring back at you looked less like you and more like a stranger. Or maybe it struck you at lunch one day that your life has turned out so much better than you'd ever dreamed it could be. Maybe you woke up in the middle of a life you dreaded living and you got busy and did something about it.

What I'm truly hoping this space might give us is a venue to share how we can get to where we want to be, or to help us feel some relief when we're not our best selves, or to simply spark our curiosity or pique our imaginations in some way, or give us the courage and moxy to try new things; to believe that if we leap the net will indeed appear.

I hope to share more photos with you, exchange travel stories, maybe swap recipes, and tricks to improve the overall quality of our lives. We'll talk about the books we're reading and our favorite movies. We can bitch about aging, I for one can tell you that 40 is definitely not the new 20 and getting old ain't all she's cracked up to be. But I think we can both agree that it's better to get over the hill than find ourselves buried under it. Together we'll explore the "wonderful crisis of midlife."

You can even visit me while you're at work. I won't tell. It'll be our little secret. Hope to see you soon.

Love,
Shan